This was the first time Gauss had seen a goblin tribe of such scale.

Of course, he needed to observe for a while longer and gather enough intelligence before formulating the next step of his plan.

He climbed up a large tree, using the thick trunk as cover like a wall, cautiously sticking out his head to observe the goblin village below from a distance.

After raising his perception to level 7, all his sensory organs, the so-called "hardware layer," seemed to have been upgraded.

Under normal circumstances, spotting targets tens or even hundreds of meters away was no longer difficult.

He gazed far into the distance.

The appearance of the goblin village finally unfolded before his eyes.

Although earlier when he saw the low walls below, he had roughly guessed that this group of goblins had already formed a rudimentary social structure.

But when he clearly saw the internal layout, he was still somewhat surprised.

What appeared before him resembled a primitive early human settlement, where goblins lived in an orderly manner.

In the center of the village clearing stood a large bonfire, beside which was a rack holding dissected meat pieces like small birds, wild chickens, and other animals, even a few limbs resembling human thighs.

Next to it, on a smaller bonfire, a big pot simmered a dark green "special thick soup" that looked like lunch.

A large group of goblins of varying sizes sat with extremely crude bowls waiting to be served food.

On a smooth stone nearby, a goblin roughly the same size as the others sat, eating roasted meat heartily. What drew attention was the reddish-brown small cap on its head, stained as if soaked in fresh blood.

This was the "leader" of the goblin village. The current scale of the tribe, despite the laziness and disorder of the goblins, might be owed to its existence.

For these not-so-intelligent goblins, spontaneously forming a long-term stable social relationship was very difficult. Usually, a strong and powerful leader was needed—one who possessed greater martial strength than the short-sighted kin to suppress and punish them.

This red-capped goblin was exactly such a figure.

During his two days of rest in town, Gauss had not been completely idle. He had gathered quite a bit of information about the Redcap Goblin from inquiries at the Adventurers Guild hall.

Redcap Goblins were special individuals among the goblin tribes.

Their size was not larger than others, nor did they possess magical powers like shamans, but their aggressive nature and bloodthirstiness were intense. Beneath their unremarkable appearance lay compact, muscular strength.

Besides, they relied on commanding their group or setting traps to hunt prey or humans, using the prey's blood to dye the cap on their head.

Because blood naturally dried in the air, their cap's color often faded after a while, so they had to maintain a frequency of hunting more prey to keep their cap color bright.

These habits also made the "brave and cunning" Redcaps some of the most dangerous non-elite goblin individuals.

Gauss observed the Redcap from afar.

Besides the cap on its head, it wore a mottled armor set, unclear whether leather or cloth. At its waist hung a short dagger, and beside it lay a longbow and a quiver of arrows.

So it was capable of both close combat and ranged attacks?

Gauss pondered in his heart.

As the saying goes, a lion fighting a rabbit uses all its strength.

The first sword of his profession—slay goblins first. Facing many old foes, Gauss did not want to slip up in the shadows.

Although the mission description did not upgrade this Redcap Goblin to elite status, Gauss did not underestimate it.

In his months of adventure, aside from the mantis man, the Redcap was probably the strongest individual in sight.

The ghoul did not count since it never really fought.

Other than the Redcap Goblin, the ordinary goblins were also not to be taken lightly.

Beside the Redcap, sitting on stones enjoying their "feast," were four other goblins with quite "burly" builds, about 1.6 meters tall.

For ordinary goblins, this was an unusually large size.

This was probably because the Redcap, leveraging the tribe's numbers, often hunted large prey, allowing the food to support a few well-built "generals."

With this in mind, Gauss gained a deeper understanding of the Redcap's influence on the tribe.

Firstly, its strength was far greater than that of other goblins;

otherwise, it could not suppress over fifty adult goblins and the four big guys.

Secondly, its intelligence was not low. Assigning tasks, directing other goblins to hunt, and managing food distribution were not jobs for simple-minded ordinary goblins.

This meant that once he launched a direct invasion on this village,

this Redcap could fully leverage the tribe's hunting experience against him.

Before killing the Redcap, he would have to face the assault of dozens of goblins.

Although charging in recklessly to slaughter might not necessarily lead to defeat, Gauss still decided to be cautious.

He continued to carefully observe the village.

Besides the central "open square," the entire goblin village surrounded by low walls smeared with what appeared to be excrement was roughly divided into a residential area, leader's tent, storage area, and other facilities.

In the storage area was a natural pond, seemingly the only water source in the village.

At least during his observation, a goblin that had just eaten wobbled over to the pond and crouched down to drink.

Obtaining this crucial clue, Gauss felt more confident.

Before coming, he had already formulated several tactical options in his mind: fire attack, feinting to lure some goblins away, decapitation strike, poisoning...

After screening, he concluded that poisoning was the best way to completely wipe out this goblin tribe.

Other methods were either too difficult to execute or risked causing the goblins to collapse prematurely and scatter like birds and beasts, which would make his job harder.

Poisoning sounded less honorable, but as an adventurer, Gauss did not fuss over such principles—whatever worked best was the way to go.

With that thought, he climbed down the tree trunk.

"Clap, clap!"

He rubbed his hands and returned to his stash spot.

Opening his backpack revealed a dazzling array of various items and small weapons.

The poison he bought was a special toxin pouch. After releasing it into the water source, combined with a scent cover agent, the goblins’ dull sense of taste would hardly detect any change.

Once ingested, symptoms like diarrhea and dehydration would manifest in about 1 to 3 hours.

Considering goblins might have stronger toxin resistance, Gauss prepared several times the normal dose.

As for why he did not buy stronger poisons, like neurotoxins capable of killing in seconds, there were reasons.

On one hand, small places like Grayrock Town might not stock them, or he simply hadn’t found any.

On the other, poisons that strong were not necessarily advantageous.

If goblins died soon after drinking, even once or twice, regardless of the Redcap Goblin’s possibly unusual intelligence, ordinary goblins would notice something was wrong.

Therefore, a longer-lasting laxative was a better choice;

he only needed to strip the goblins of most of their combat strength.

Low-intelligence goblins might not even realize the lurking danger behind their diarrhea.

Once affected, even if goblins scattered and fled, their speed would be slower than usual.

Gauss carefully put the toxin pouch into his bag and patiently waited for the goblins to finish eating.

He knew that in such hot weather, goblins would not stay in the open clearing for long.

Sure enough, after lunch, the goblins returned one after another to the residential area, crawling into crude huts made from twigs and leaves.

Soon, they began their afternoon rest.

However, at the edge of the low wall, the Redcap waved over some goblin sentries, barking orders to guard the wall, presumably to prevent sudden enemy invasions.

After arranging the guards, the Redcap returned to its leader’s tent.

Shortly after it left, the sentry goblins who had been alert became slumped and listless, leaning against the wall with heads bobbing like chicks pecking grain.

Occasionally, they glanced into the village.

Gauss noticed this scene and breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he planned to poison them, if there were always vigilant eyes watching the village’s every movement, it would be inconvenient to carry out his plan.

Fortunately, goblins had some self-awareness, but not much.

He applied odor remover on himself, bent down, lowered his steps, and slowly moved toward the goblin village.

The open space from the forest to the goblin village was the easiest place to be spotted.

Luckily, he chose the right timing and didn’t alert any sentries on the way, quietly sneaking to the edge of the low wall.

Getting closer, the strange stench emitted from the sun-baked stone wall made Gauss’s expression change.

It was indeed covered with excrement, some of it very fresh, with visible traces of not fully dried waste.

With perception at level 7, the stench of feces and urine was magnified as if surging fiercely into his nostrils.

So foul!

Hold it in!

Gauss calmed himself.

He finally understood how the rogue apprentice Meva felt after activating her skill.

After steadying himself, he began crawling forward under the cover of the stone wall.

He needed to reach the spot closest to the pond.

After advancing to Magician level, the cantrip Mage Hand he controlled had little improvement in strength and speed, but its movement range expanded from 10 meters to 20 meters.

Even so, the current distance was still not close enough.

Enduring the foul stench, he carefully crawled until reaching the wall closest to the pond.

He glanced around and noticed the nearby sentry goblin was almost asleep, its head bobbing like a small chicken pecking grain.

Seeing this, Gauss quietly activated Mage Hand.

An invisible arm slowly materialized in the air before him.

He placed the toxin pouch in the palm of Mage Hand.

He began controlling Mage Hand to move.

Although invisible, the poison pouch it carried was still visible.

So Gauss chose to let Mage Hand move close to the ground.

After it had moved several meters, suddenly the drowsy goblin twitched its nose, as if sensing something, opening its sleepy eyes to look around.

After scanning for a few seconds, a confused expression appeared on its face.

Confirming no change, it succumbed to sleepiness again and closed its eyes.

“Good thing I was cautious enough.”

At the goblin’s momentary alertness, Gauss immediately stopped Mage Hand’s movement. The toxin pouch was just an inconspicuous piece of trash on the ground and did not attract the goblin’s attention.

It seemed one should never underestimate any creature that could survive in this primitive jungle.

Even if they were just green-skinned little devils, sometimes they possessed surprisingly keen instincts.