Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"How come there are giant cave bees here?" Charles stared at the nearly charred corpse in front of him. "These things have a very wide hunting range."

He remembered that in his previous life, a hornet's nest appeared next to his company, and hornets could be seen foraging for food within a radius of several hundred meters.

"It's a good thing we brought Furu this time. If we had been attacked from the air by the cave bees, who knows what the consequences would have been." Charles loudly reminded his subordinates around him, "Everyone be careful, always watch out for what's above us."

They continued onward, but found nothing along the way. Just as Charles was wondering what was going on, Broken Tooth came running back from ahead. "Chief, ants."

"Is it up ahead?" Charles immediately went to meet it.

"I saw it through the binoculars, ants are coming over," Broken Tooth said breathlessly.

To deal with the danger, Ciel sent Broken Tooth ahead first, then used a telescope to observe the surroundings. After confirming that everything was in order, he would carve large marks on the surrounding trees. The team only needed to follow the marks. If anything strange happened, Broken Tooth would immediately run to the team to report.

Before he could finish speaking, a rustling sound came from ahead. Charles and his men stared intently at the gaps between the trees. Gradually, the sound faded away. Just when Charles thought the ants might have left, "whoosh!" A giant black and white ant, carrying a thick twig in its mouth, rushed out from the side.

"Be on guard!" Charles shouted, unsure whether the giant ants would attack them.

Immediately afterwards, the forest continued to echo with screeching sounds, like fingernails scraping leather. As the sounds grew louder, Charles was astonished to see two enormous black spiders rushing towards them.

This spider was entirely black except for its red head. It appeared to be chasing the giant ant, but soon, one of the spiders noticed the Shire gang of goblins standing by the tree.

The spider squeaked and turned to charge, and Charles could even see its huge black pincers raised.

"That's fierce!" Charles' pupils contracted, and he shouted, "Fire Glue Throw!"

Several scorching glue pellets were thrown out, hitting the spider with a "smack, smack, smack" sound, igniting a violent flame that turned the spider into a moving "grill".

This time, Xia Er made corresponding preparations, and everyone brought several Blazing Glue to deal with this huge creature.

"Squeak, squeak!" the spider shrieked, its steps never faltering as it charged toward the goblin.

"Damn it!" Xia Er shouted, and the troll grabbed a thick tree trunk and charged back at the spider.

"Pfft!" The sharpened tree trunk pierced the spider's body from below, but it was still waving its front claws, trying to get closer to the grass.

"This guy is too ferocious." Charles looked at the giant spider in front of him, which was screaming and struggling, and ordered his men to move closer and keep stabbing its abdomen with spears.

Gradually, the giant spider's eight black legs retracted, and the smell of roasting meat in the air grew stronger. Charles knew the giant spider was dead. "Everyone, follow me."

He led his men and chased after the ants in the direction they had fled.

Not long after they started walking, Charles saw a huge spider perched on the ant in a forest clearing, its black pincers already piercing the ant's abdomen.

"Ready," he commanded. The giant spider had already spotted the goblins and raised its forelegs, seemingly in a threatening gesture.

"These giant spiders are ferocious, unlike the cave bees. Even when they are on fire, they still want to attack their target." Charles stared at the giant spider, gaining a clearer understanding of them.

"Squeak, squeak!" The giant spider began to squeak as it saw the goblin still approaching, and then rushed straight at it.

Using his previous combat experience, Charles commanded his men to quickly deal with the giant spider. Then he saw the ant with its abdomen pierced and white fluid flowing out crawl up from the ground, carrying a leafy branch next to it, and slowly walk eastward.

"Is it heading back to its nest?" Watching the giant ant pass by, completely ignoring the goblin party, Sharl felt a pang of curiosity. "With such severe injuries, it's going to die, isn't it?"

He turned to look at Furu beside him, who said, "It doesn't give me any evil feeling."

"Follow it." Charles ordered the group to follow the ants and see if they could encounter more.

"These ants show absolutely no wariness towards us, as if they're used to it," Charles pondered as he walked. "Is it because they're worker ants and don't attack first, or is there some other reason?"

After walking for a short while, the rustling sounds around them increased. After turning a small slope, Charles opened his mouth in surprise as a dozen or so ants were carrying leafy branches in their mouths as they passed by.

The giant ant, which had been walking, became increasingly unsteady, as if it were nearing the end of its life. Soon, after taking two steps, it collapsed forward with a loud thud.

A worker ant crawled over from the ant column and came to this one. After their antennae touched each other a few times, the worker ant picked up the twig on the ground, turned around, and rejoined the column.

Charles watched the two ants hand over the task calmly. There was no hesitation or hesitation between them, as if they were simply handing over an ordinary job.

He walked over to the fallen giant ant. The ant's antennae could still twitch slightly, proving that it was still alive, but the huge wound on its abdomen and the white fluid constantly flowing out of it foreshadowed its impending doom.

He knew that the spider must have injected the ant with digestive fluids. The ant had already fulfilled its mission by coming here and handing over the collected twigs to its fellow ant, and it would die soon afterward.

"Follow them," he ordered his men. A group of goblins continued to explore along the forest path worn by ants, and along the way, Charles saw several ant corpses.

"Chief, there are some large ants ahead," Broken Tooth said, putting down his binoculars.

"Big ants?" Charles took his binoculars. "Those ants have even bigger heads and two large mandibles; they should be soldier ants."

He ordered his men to be on guard. The worker ants might not see these goblins as a danger, but the soldier ants might, and two soldier ants were already close by.

Clutching the fiery glue tightly in his hand, Xia Er made up his mind to throw it immediately whenever the soldier ants charged towards his side, while simultaneously keeping a close watch on the surrounding ant formations.

However, the two soldier ants leisurely passed by the goblin without any intention of fighting. One of them even nudged Sharl a few times with its antennae. During this time, Furu did not give any warning, which made Sharl even more puzzled.

"Is this an expression of friendliness?" Charles watched the two soldier ants crawl away, a little confused. Logically, the soldier ants were there to protect the worker ants, and they should attack any creature that approached the ant colony. But his goblin horde was already walking next to the worker ants, and he even wanted Cao Cao to throw the lame ant onto the worker ant's back.

"These ants are strange." He decided to continue following them to see what he could discover.

…………

After walking for a while, Charles noticed that there were more and more ants around him, and other ants kept joining in, forming a long line.

The goblin had to stay close to the side of the group to avoid being trampled by the ants.

Charles noticed that the ants had automatically formed two opposing paths on this sunken road, which were orderly and did not conflict with each other at all. He couldn't help but think of when he was a child, he would squat next to a line of ants and cut off their path with his finger.

"There's no way to stop their march now," he said with a smile, gazing into the distance at the ant colony.

He also noticed that the surrounding trees had bare branches on one side, leaving only the other side exposed, creating a strange one-sided growth pattern. "This must be the result of ants collecting leaves; each large tree only collects branches from one side."

"What an interesting species." Charles walked along, observing the giant ants. Each one carried a large clump of leafy branches, crawling rapidly. Charles deduced that only a blade of grass could swing the branches, and even then, he couldn't carry them that far. "If we replaced the branches with seven or eight vine baskets filled with herbs or fruits, and placed the baskets on the ants' backs, they could transport them over long distances."

The strength and endurance of these ants made his eyes light up. Looking at the road that had been worn out by the ants over the years, Charles really wanted to jump onto the back of a giant ant and shout, "Come home with me!"

Standing by the roadside, Xia Er's eyes were also filled with envy for those big-headed soldier ants. Their round, white heads and powerful-looking mandibles, along with their longer bodies compared to worker ants, made him imagine what it would be like to ride an ant to save a dragon, as depicted in fairy tales.

Moreover, unlike horses, rugged terrain or dense forests do not hinder ants' progress; they are practically all-terrain, multi-functional vehicles.

After a while, Charles finally saw a ridge in front of him, which was the entrance to an underground cave. Ants were constantly going in and out, and there were several soldier ants crawling around at the entrance, as if they were on guard.

"This is the entrance to their kingdom." He approached the cave entrance, pondering whether to enter and whether there would be any danger.

Soon a worker ant crawled out of the hole and came directly to the goblin group. It touched the face of Shire, who was standing at the front, with its antennae, then turned and crawled back to the hole. After crawling a few steps, it turned its head to look at the goblins.

"Is this telling us to follow it?" Charles raised an eyebrow, quite curious. "Should we follow?"

"Is there any danger inside the cave?" He turned to look at Furu beside him, whose tentacles had turned green, a color that represented curiosity.

"Everyone, light torches and follow." In the end, Charles decided to go down and take a look.

Upon entering the cave, Xia Er was immediately struck by its beauty. Unlike the underground fortress, there were no signs of human excavation; the cave had been dug out by ants. Moreover, to facilitate crawling, the cave was 3 meters high, allowing even trolls to pass through without any problem.

The path sloped gently downwards without sharp angles, allowing the goblins to walk with ease. Ants constantly passed by them, even crawling over their heads.

Some of the ants were carrying twigs, while others were carrying ant eggs. The ant eggs were mostly pale yellow and about the size of a long, thin watermelon.

With his feet firmly planted on the slightly hard soil, Charles reached out and parted the tree roots that were sticking out of the cave walls. They passed one fork in the road after another. Charles knew that those forks would lead to fixed underground rooms. The ants made use of every room. He had just turned a corner and seen a "nursery" full of ant eggs.

The worker ant that had led the way kept turning back to touch Ciel with its antennae, signaling him not to wander off and to follow, but Ciel still watched with great interest.

The deeper you go, the more ants there are. These ants look like little puppies, and they seem to be babies that have been hatched for a while. They often come up to touch the goblin, as if they are curiously watching the "foreigner".

Xia Er glanced at Red Eyes behind him. He had just warned Red Eyes not to pick up a young ant and pet it directly, as it might cause a swarm to riot. Now Red Eyes was constantly looking at the young ants around him, as if he was comparing them to the Mind Eater.

As time passed, the goblins went deeper and deeper into the earth. Sharl didn't know where the worker ants ahead of him were taking him. During this time, Furu didn't report any danger, which put him at ease a little.

Continuing onward, they came to a long passage. Charles and his men leaned against the edge of the cave, as several worker ants crawled past them carrying ant eggs in their mouths.

Here, you can no longer see worker ants carrying twigs. Instead, several worker ants carry white objects that look like dough and crawl into the tunnel.

"I wonder what lies ahead," Charles said, continuing onward with his torch in hand. "It looks like we might be led to the Queen Ant."

Soon, just as he expected, after stepping out of the passage, Charles stared wide-eyed at the enormous underground space before him. It was as large as the stone chamber he had prepared to use to breed Red Bull, and even taller.

A queen ant was lying not far away. This queen ant was much larger than the ordinary worker ants, and even a little larger than the soldier ants. Her huge abdomen was so swollen that it almost filled the entire space.

Many worker ants were running back and forth around the queen, carrying various things.

Charles watched as the worker ant crawled up to the queen, touched its antennae a few times, then returned to his side and gestured for him to come over again.

He glanced back at Furu, and after confirming that it was safe around him, Charles walked over.

From the moment he first encountered the ant colony, through entering the underground cave, to the tiny ants scurrying around him, and finally arriving at the queen's chamber, he felt as if the ant colony was waiting for his arrival. The entire colony seemed completely unfazed by the goblins, and Charles thought that perhaps he could find the answer from the queen.

The queen ant's antennae touched Charles's face, and then a voice echoed in Charles's mind.

"Goblins, long time no see. Do you still need to trade for White Softie this time?"