Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"Judging by the magnificence of their armor, Valentine must have come in person," Charles said, watching the three people running out of the stone chamber through his binoculars. "Looks like those spiders and giant bees were quite formidable."

"Chief, there have been casualties among the humans inside." The lame man crouched behind a tree and reported in a low voice. He had seen the fierce battle inside the stone chamber through his arcane servant.

"Alright, keep watching." Charles patted his subordinate, continuing to watch Earl Valentine run away. "Looks like he's going to escape."

He snapped the binoculars shut and leaned against the tree trunk, contemplating what would happen next.

"That old guy will probably mobilize the army after he goes back," Charles said in a low voice, stroking his chin.

The enemies this time are too powerful. The Earl's Mansion behind the Storm Brotherhood and the Giant Spider and Giant Bee clans could easily wipe out his clan. It is basically impossible for him to resist both sides.

Moreover, Philip was already heading towards the fortress, and the giant spiders and bees were about to expand into their territory, so they had no choice but to use this method.

"To survive and preserve the current fortress, there is no other choice." He glanced at the worker ants resting quietly under the tree not far away. "Moreover, the future development of the colony also requires the help of worker and soldier ants, so protecting the ant colony is also necessary."

There are three reasons why Charles is so certain that Earl Valentine will send his troops to exterminate these giant creatures.

First is the issue of face. As a former member of the nobility, Charles knows all too well that these noblemen are arrogant and greedy, and each of them cherishes their own face.

When he was working as an administrative assistant in Plantagenet, he often heard that some nobles would rather cut back on their own and their families' food in order to dress up and attend salon balls. Now that Philip has died in Nightmare Forest, and Earl Valentine has made it known to the whole city so hastily, he must not be able to accept the ridicule from everyone.

"I estimate that other nobles will send letters soon, ostensibly as words of comfort, but actually to amuse themselves."

Therefore, in order to save face, Valentine will definitely send troops.

Secondly, there's the matter of prestige. According to the intelligence provided by Yunsia, Valentine is currently intensifying his efforts to align himself with the Third Prince's political group. However, if news of the failed campaign gets out, it will inevitably be detrimental to Valentine's position within the Third Prince's group.

However, if the giant spiders and bees are successfully eradicated and the matter is reported to Golden Flower City, it will be an achievement, and the world may praise it.

Not to mention that Valentine had just levied a defense tax before winter, causing widespread resentment among the people. Charles knew that the money was probably intended to get into the Third Prince's carriage and expand the territory's army, but now relying on the army to wipe out the giant spiders and bees would just shut everyone up.

"But, won't this affect my people?" Sharl looked in the direction Valentine had disappeared. "It shouldn't."

He touched his pocket, where he found the route map he had obtained from Philip.

"It's highly likely that Valentine didn't have the map to the fortress, otherwise the Knights would have split into two groups, one to find Philip's body and the other to seek revenge on me."

"Moreover, according to Yunsia, Philip is furious about the adventurers' disrespect for the Earl's mansion. Valentine may see this as a conspiracy by the Storm Brotherhood, and that stone chamber is like a relic."

"Or perhaps he'll use these giant spiders and bees as part of a dark sorcerer's biological modification experiments?"

Charles frowned, thinking of the only problem at the moment. "The only trouble is that Brotherhood member who escaped from the dungeon. Yunsia said that Philip received news of the escape before he even left Black Lion City, which means that this person is quite capable. As long as he is not caught, everything is still safe."

"I wonder if Little John will be able to find that person."

…………

"Morning Star, did you like the four-line poem I just wrote for you?" The buck-toothed man patted the tree-man in front of him, baring his teeth.

The tree-man had a small wooden tag hanging from one of its branches, which read "213 Morning Star". The first 213 was the tree-man's number, and the second 213 was the name that Bucktooth had given him.

These 500-plus tree-people didn't have their own names, and the mother tree never named her children either. So, when Bucktooth arrived, he took it upon himself to name these tree-people, and they were all words copied from those few poetry collections, such as "Morning Star," "Moonlight," "Rose," "Light Veil," and so on.

"They're clearing the vines from you, don't rush. If you're bored, how about I write you a poem?" Bucktooth said with a smile, stroking the bark of the "Morning Star" tree.

The treant opened its eyes, glared at the goblin in front of it, then stood up from the ground, took two steps back, and sat down again.

"Captain, this tree is cleared." A goblin slid off the treeman and placed the vine basket on his back on the ground, which contained the fruits of seven or eight treemen.

"Alright, load the fruit into the cargo box," said Bucktooth. The goblins began to load the fruit onto the backs of the worker ants next to them. There, an inverted trapezoidal cargo box was fixed, and it was now full of Treant fruit. This time, the amount loaded was several times more than the amount that this goblin squad could carry.

"Morning Star, I'm leaving now. I'll come find you again in a while." Bucktooth walked to the treant's side, stretched out his palm, and then a green starlight swirled around the treant's body like a gentle breeze. The treant comfortably shook the leaves on his head, and then he looked at the goblin walking away and sighed again, "It would be better if that goblin was mute."

Before long, Bucktooth and his group returned to the entrance of the underground stone chamber. They had driven a total of 4 worker ants, two of which carried fruit and two carried people. At the same time, not far away, several worker ants also walked towards them. That was the herb-gathering team led by Nine Fingers.

In the nine-fingered goblin team, there were only two worker ants; the rest of the goblins walked. This was mainly to prepare for sudden clashes with adventurers, and because they no longer had to carry large backpacks full of herbs, they could move more freely.

"Any discoveries?" Bucktooth jumped off the worker ant and walked towards Nine Fingers.

"No, we didn't encounter any adventurers today." Nine Fingers shook his head, then had the goblin "drive" the worker ant back into the stone chamber. "However, we went to the wrong place a little earlier, and since the lame one isn't here, we got a bit lost."

"We just need to wait for the leader to draw a map of this place." Bucktooth took a few steps forward to make way for the worker ants. "The leader said that this door will be sealed off in the future, and One-Eyed and the others will open another exit."

"Hmm." Nine Fingers watched the two worker ants leave.

Meanwhile, inside the western stone chamber, One-Eye was directing the goblins to transfer the soil dug out by the worker ants to the cargo box on the back of another worker ant.

"Be careful not to disturb the worker ants," he shouted to the goblins.

If you were to ask who in the colony likes worker ants the most, One-Eye would definitely say it's himself. Now that worker ants are helping with the digging, the speed is much faster than before when we relied on a few goblins. Looking at the soil that was being carried out, he muttered to himself, "This should be enough for us to dig for a day."

Now worker ants help with digging and can also help them transport the sand outside to dump it.

More importantly, these worker ants spray formic acid while digging, which makes the soil solidify. This is much more convenient than before, when they had to prop up several pieces of wood every time they dug a certain distance.

"Manager, shall we continue digging ahead?" The goblin wearing a runic belt asked, approaching One-Eyed.

"Let me see," One-Eye said, taking out a piece of paper from behind him. It was a simple sketch drawn by the leader. He told One-Eye to dig according to this. "We need to dig an underground space in front. The leader said that we need a few pillars in the middle for support. You have the worker ants dig out an area first, and I will have the other worker ants carry wood there."

The two quickly finished their discussion and the excavation work continued.

"The chief said this area is very important for the future of the tribe, and it must be developed well." One-Eyed looked down at the sketch with the help of a torch. There were very few blue glowing mushrooms here, while the little fairies outside were constantly "rapidly ripening" the mushrooms under the leadership of Sansio.

"This place will be the tribe's fields in the future. As long as these tree-people exist, the tribe will never lack food." He recalled the chief's words and felt as if he was doing something very powerful.

"Speaking of food, it seems like we'll be having something new for lunch." One-Eyed chuckled. "But why did Nine-Fingers look a little strange when he heard the news this morning?"

"Manager, the leader is looking for you." A goblin ran over.

"Okay, you guys get started." He immediately jogged towards the portal, only to find Charles waiting for him there.

"Chief, what brings you here?" One-Eyed immediately went over and said respectfully.

"Let me check on the progress here." Charles waved to him. In order to deal with his speculation about the attack by Valentine's army, it was necessary to carry out some modifications to the fortress as soon as possible. Charles was considering that if there were no problems with the excavation here, he would send One-Eye to modify the fortress first, since that place was more important.

"The progress here is fine, Chief." One-Eyed smiled brightly, feeling that he was doing a great job.

"Here's the thing, the fortress also needs to be started at the same time. I plan to dismantle the main gate and hide it, then we'll dig a concealed exit." Charles gestured to One-Eyed, "I wonder if we can manage that?"

One-Eyed thought for a moment and said, "Okay, but the fortress will be slower. Now that we have worker ants, the digging work will be easier."

"Alright, organize the manpower and get started as soon as possible. I'll draw up the sketch for you in a bit." Charles nodded and patted the "sole manager" on the shoulder. He was going to go to the territory to survey it again and try to find a more secluded area as the exit of the fortress.

"This time, if we erase all traces of the fortress from this forest, it will be very difficult for Valentine to find me."