Chapter : 597

The sound of Iffrit’s work was the thunderous crackle of a forest fire, a deep, resonant roar as ancient, iron-hard wood was subjected to the annihilating heat of a demonic forge. The massive roots of the old oak, each one thicker than a man’s body, began to glow a sullen, angry red from within. Smoke, thick and black and acrid, poured from the fissures in the bark, filling the clearing with a choking haze.

From within the hidden goblin nest, panicked squeals and guttural shouts began to echo. The creatures knew something was terribly wrong. Their world was being cooked from the outside in. The ground beneath their feet was growing hot, and the very air in their tunnels was becoming a toxic, unbreathable fume.

A few desperate goblin warriors tried to make a break for it, scrambling out of the fissure at the base of the tree. They were met by a silent, waiting death. Fang Fairy moved like a phantom in the smoke, a blur of silver and blue. A single, precise Lightning Dart for each one. They fell without ever seeing their killer, their desperate flight cut short before it had truly begun.

Lloyd watched the chaos unfold from his vantage point, his face an impassive mask. This was not a battle; it was a siege. A calculated, systematic demolition. He felt a cold, professional satisfaction in the plan’s flawless execution. He had identified a structural weakness and was exploiting it with overwhelming, targeted force.

For a full ten minutes, the assault continued. Iffrit, a tireless engine of destruction, moved from root to root, his flaming zanbatō turning the ancient tree’s foundation into a network of smoldering charcoal. The rumbling from within the hill grew louder, the panicked screams of the trapped goblins fading as they were overcome by the heat and smoke.

Then came the first sign of the end. A deep, groaning sound, like the cry of a dying giant, echoed from the heart of the great oak. The ground beneath Lloyd’s feet trembled violently. A long, dark crack appeared on the face of the hillock, dirt and stones trickling from it.

"It's coming down," Lloyd projected, a final warning to his spirits.

Iffrit took a single, powerful leap backward, landing a safe distance from the collapsing structure. Fang Fairy ascended, a silent observer floating high above the coming cataclysm.

The groaning intensified, becoming a deafening roar of tortured earth and splintering wood. The massive oak tree, its foundations burned away, began to tilt, its immense weight pulling the entire hillside down with it. With a final, cataclysmic crash that shook the entire forest, the hill collapsed inward. Tons of earth, rock, and smoldering wood fell into the space where the goblin warren had been, burying it completely.

A vast cloud of dust and smoke billowed into the sky, blotting out what little light penetrated the canopy. When it finally began to settle, all that was left was a massive, raw scar on the landscape—a crater filled with smoking, churned-up earth and the splintered remains of the great oak.

The nest was gone. Its forty inhabitants were entombed beneath it.

A profound, echoing silence descended upon the forest, the aftermath of a localized apocalypse.

It was in this silence that the System delivered its verdict. Two separate notifications chimed in Lloyd’s soul, one right after the other.

The nest was gone. Its forty inhabitants were entombed beneath it.

A profound, echoing silence descended upon the forest, the aftermath of a localized apocalypse.

It was in this silence that the System delivered its verdict. As the number of goblin casualties from the single, cataclysmic event surpassed twenty, a clear and resonant chime echoed in his soul.

[QUEST COMPLETE: GOBLIN SLAYER]

[PROGRESS: 20/20]

[REWARD: 150 FARMING COINS (FC) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR BALANCE.]

[A NEW 'GOBLIN SLAYER' QUEST IS NOW AVAILABLE.]

His balance updated instantly: 350 had now become 500 FC. It was a significant haul, a testament to the efficiency of his brutal, large-scale solution. The System, in its cold logic, did not grant credit for the overkill; the quest was complete, the reward was paid, and the ledger was closed. The next reward would require a new hunt.

But it was the next notification that truly held his attention.

[HIDDEN PROGRESSION THRESHOLD MET: ABSOLUTE BIOME DOMINANCE ACHIEVED]

The air in the clearing began to hum, a low, resonant frequency that vibrated deep within Lloyd's bones. He had felt this before, but this time the sensation was a hundred times more powerful, a hundred times more profound. It was the sound of a lock turning, of a great door swinging open.

Chapter : 598

Before him, in the center of the devastation he had wrought, the very fabric of reality began to shimmer and distort. It was not the light of a spirit's manifestation, nor the dark energy of a curse. This was something else entirely. It was a pure, opaline light, the color of a sunrise on a sea of clouds, bleeding into his world from a place beyond.

The light swirled and coalesced, twisting like liquid starlight being poured into an invisible mold. With a silent, graceful power, it formed the unmistakable shape of a grand archway, ten feet tall and framed in shimmering, pearlescent energy. The space within the arch was not a view of the forest beyond, but a slow, hypnotic vortex of light and color, a silent invitation to a new and unknown world.

The Administrator’s calm, synthetic voice echoed in his consciousness, its dispassionate tone a stark contrast to the magnificent spectacle before him.

[Congratulations, User. You have demonstrated absolute dominance over the Tier-2 farming biome, the 'Shadowfen Forest'. Your progress has met the hidden criteria for unlocking the next stage of the Soul Farm.]

[Dimensional Gateway to the 'Savage Brushland (Tier-3)' is now stable and active.]

A new, vast expanse on his mental map, once a featureless gray void, now bloomed into sharp, vivid detail. It was labeled with glowing, faintly menacing letters: The Savage Brushland.

He stared at the gate, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face. The grind had been hard. The hunt had been bloody. But the reward was more than just coins. It was a new frontier. A new challenge. A new empire to conquer.

He knew that whatever waited on the other side of that portal would make the goblins of the forest look like playful children. But the risk, he knew, would be matched by the reward. The economics of the hunt were about to be rewritten once more.

He dismissed his spirits, their work here done. He walked toward the glowing, swirling portal, his heart pounding not with fear, but with the thrilling, electric anticipation of a conqueror stepping into a new, unclaimed land. He placed his hand on its surface. It was cool to the touch, humming with a raw, primal energy that promised heat, dust, and untamed, savage violence.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he stepped through.

Passing through the dimensional gateway was like being plunged into a crucible. The cool, damp, and musty air of the Shadowfen Forest was instantly and violently ripped away, replaced by a blast of scorching, arid heat that felt like opening an oven door. The perpetual twilight of the deep woods was annihilated, supplanted by a light so fierce and unforgiving it was a physical blow, forcing his eyes to squeeze shut in protest. The soft, loamy earth under his boots gave way to something solid, cracked, and radiating a stored, baking heat.

He stumbled forward, his senses reeling from the abrupt and total environmental shift. He emerged from the light of the portal into a new, harsh reality. He threw up a forearm to shield his eyes, blinking furiously against the painful glare. Slowly, agonizingly, the world swam into focus, a panorama of sun-bleached, unforgiving color.

He found himself standing on a vast, open savanna that stretched out in every direction, meeting a hazy, heat-distorted horizon. Above him, a pale, mercilessly blue sky was dominated by a single, white-hot sun that beat down with a relentless fury. The ground beneath his feet was a parched, ochre-colored clay, fractured into a mosaic of deep cracks. A sea of tall, golden grass, so dry it rustled with a sound like ancient paper, rippled in the hot, gusting wind. The only breaks in the monotonous landscape were the skeletal forms of thorny acacia trees, their branches offering no real shade, and large, weathered outcroppings of reddish sandstone that looked as if they had been baked for centuries.

The air was thick, heavy, and tasted of dust and baked earth. And beneath it all was a powerful, musky scent—the primal, territorial odor of wild, powerful beasts. This was a land stripped bare of all subtlety, a place where the rules were simple and brutal: hunt or be hunted, kill or be killed.

He glanced behind him. The opaline, shimmering gate that had been his entryway pulsed with a soft light one last time, a silent, final farewell, and then dissolved into thin air, leaving no trace of its passage. The path of retreat was gone. The only way was forward.