Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"Master, those humans are attacking the ruins. That goblin is hiding inside. I heard an explosion," Scarface said, drifting forward a little.

"Do you think I didn't see anything?" Alma sneered, looking down at the ghosts on the ground.

"That goblin was very cunning. He was..." Scarface gestured with his hands, floated in front of Alma, and when he was close enough, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes. He pounced on her, intending to possess the human sorceress in front of him.

Unfortunately, when his fingertips were only millimeters away from Alma's face, he found himself unable to take another step forward. His entire body froze in mid-air, like a sculpture floating in the air.

Alma slowly raised her right hand, and a cross-shaped mark on the web of her hand emitted a red light. "I knew you had something going on, but I didn't expect you to have soul enslavement magic."

She had always used the Soul Burning technique on her left hand to punish Scarface, but this was the first time she used Soul Slavery to prevent him from harming her.

"It seems that summoning you back then was a mistake. Goblins are indeed all greedy and stupid trash," Alma said, pulling out the blackened bone from her pocket. It was this bone that she used to set up the summoning array, and the magic scroll for the summoning spell had cost her a lot of gold coins.

"Master, no, I will obey..." Scarface realized what the other party wanted to do, and he immediately begged for mercy, not because he knew he was wrong, but because he could no longer be the leader.

"Hmph, hmph, hmph," Alma pinched the bone and squeezed it tightly. As she increased her strength, the bone, which had been corrupted by dark magic, snapped with a "crack" and was then crushed into several pieces.

"Ah—" Scarface howled in pain. He had no idea that directly destroying the summoning object would cause the ghost such pain. This pain was several times worse than the burning of the soul, like several large saws pulling back and forth inside his body.

Then his form became fainter and fainter, and the white smoke gradually dissipated, but his pain became even more severe.

"I... I'm not reconciled!" Scarface shouted, his voice sounding like metal scraping against glass, so piercing that it made you want to run away immediately. "You... you won't get away with this. I'll be waiting for you in the Underworld."

As the white smoke dissipated, the scarred face completely disappeared, leaving only a small patch of white powder on the ground—the dust of the soul.

Alma looked down at the remnants on the ground, a smirk playing on her lips. Then she walked over, opened the window, and casually tossed out several pieces of broken bone. "Bang!" The bones flew through the air and exploded into fragments before even hitting the ground.

"Now we have to rely on ourselves." She sighed, closed the window, and said, "It's okay if we can't find the goblin, but we definitely need to find what the person in the mirror wants as soon as possible."

Her power was bestowed upon her by the other party. She is now a famous genius bloodline mage in Golden Flower City and a specially appointed tester of the Adventurers' Guild. If she fails to meet the other party's requirements, she will not only lose her magical abilities, but she may even lose her life.

"No, I don't want to lose all of this. I've worked so hard to get it all, I've sacrificed so much," Alma clenched her fists. "Why should she be born with all this?"

She looked out the window; it was still very noisy outside, which annoyed her.

The crowd was still gathered around the giant spider corpses, and the sounds of discussion and screams filled the town of Giethoorn. She also heard that many of the giant spider corpses had been transported to other towns.

"Wait, why would Earl Valentine go and hunt down these monsters?" Alma walked to the window, looking at the people on the street. "Don't these nobles just not care about the lives of commoners?"

She had lived in Plantagenet for a long time and had dealt with many nobles, so she knew their true colors. "I think I heard some discussions before, something about some kind of ruins."

"Could what I'm looking for be in the ruins?"

"Hehe, just ask someone and you'll find out." Alma squinted and chuckled, then waved her hand, and a long black cloak floated over automatically.

Not long after, in a small alley, an adventurer was painfully clutching the astral serpent that was coiled around him, saying, "That's it, I told you."

"So Philip was murdered in the ruins?" Alma looked at the adventurer in front of her, who was being strangled to death, and asked in a relaxed tone, "What's in the ruins that could kill them?"

"I don't know. Some say it's a mind flayer, others say it's a bunch of crazy goblins, but now you see, aren't you? Those giant spiders." The adventurer gripped the python tightly, his voice broken and filled with pain.

"You just said that someone from the Storm Brotherhood escaped from the dungeons of Black Lion City?" Alma pressed, somewhat skeptical of Count Valentine's claims. The whole thing felt very similar to her own experience, as if a vengeful goblin was lurking behind it all.

"Yes, that's what everyone's saying. The wanted poster has already been sent here." The adventurer rolled his eyes in pain; he was about to collapse.

"Kill him." Alma didn't even glance at the adventurer. This was where dreams began, and where dreams came true. She simply turned and slowly walked towards the alley entrance. "Looks like I need to go to Black Lion City."

"This time we should have some success." She stroked the Astral Serpent's head and said with a smile, "You're quite good at finding people."

She watched with a smile as the giant python slithered back into the astral rift, then pulled down her hood and walked into the crowd on the street. No one noticed the adventurer's corpse in the alley, which looked like a wrung-out towel.

…………

"Hmm, this tastes really not good." Charles frowned and tasted a few mouthfuls of the mushy soup in the pot.

This was made by the white-haired man using the fruit of the tree people. He tried different methods several times, but the results were never quite right.

These fruits contain a lot of starch, so they taste rather bland when eaten raw. They are a bit dry and sour. If you cook them directly, they will turn into a mushy paste, which is barely edible, but the taste is really not good.

Even though Bai Mao added a lot of salt and seasonings, it still didn't work.

"What should we do?" The white-haired girl pouted as she looked at Xia Er. Faced with this food that the chief had gone through so much trouble to obtain, she was at a loss. The chief had told her that this thing would be one of the tribe's main foods in the future. As long as the tree people were alive, they could harvest a large amount of this fruit every year. If stored properly, it could effectively alleviate the tribe's food problem.

But now, after trying many times and even consulting Mary, she still hasn't found a good way to deal with the fruit. She feels useless and unable to help the leader.

Charles smiled as he looked at the "head chef" in front of him. He knew the reason for the other's impatience. Ever since he had assigned the white-haired man to handle the meals for the entire tribe, he had always treated this matter as his top priority and had done a very good job.

"If it's all starch, it's not difficult to process." Charles stroked his chin, recalling the cooking methods of various foods in later generations. "It looks a bit like a potato that's several times larger, but the texture is slightly different. It seems like we can learn from it."

"You can cut them into small pieces or strips, and then heat the oil." He thought for a moment, preparing to try the "French fries" method. If it worked, then he could use a similar method.

"There's not much oil," the white-haired woman said, pointing to a glass tank next to her that was only half full of oil.

Ciel turned his head and saw that it was still the glass jar they used to catch slimes. "Is this all our grease?"

White Hair nodded.

"This is indeed a bit too little." Charles walked over and examined the glass jar in front of him. He had previously thought that what they ate now could not compare with what they would eat in later generations, so he had not paid much attention to the diet of his tribe. But now it seemed that the tribe was not getting enough fat.

"That's true. The animals in the forest are mostly fat, and the fish in the underground river don't have any oil. We've managed to get this much thanks to the hard work of the white-haired and the other female goblins."

Shire knew that if a person consumed too little fat, it would lead to malnutrition and a weakened immune system, and they would eat more to compensate for the hunger caused by labor. In addition, it would be detrimental to the survival of the tribe in the cold winter.

"I'll figure out a solution." He nodded calmly to the white-haired man. "Don't worry, the grease will be available soon."

Looking at the white-haired girl's delighted expression, Xia Er knew that she unconditionally believed what he said, but he really didn't have a better solution at the moment. Tree people's fruits needed oil for cooking, as did their daily diet, and they needed oil even more to maintain their weapons. For the time being, he could only obtain some through trading channels, but this was not a long-term solution.

He told the white-haired man to try other methods, and then went to the portal room to have Mary buy some oil.

However, he received the intelligence report and several large boxes of items sent by Mary first.

"Valentine has started exhibiting giant spider corpses throughout the territory?" Charles frowned as he looked at the information. "Mary is actually worried about our safety; this employee is certainly a good person."

"Hmm? Preparing to raise taxes with various chambers of commerce, this old guy really has a good plan. First, he stirs up public panic, then highlights his own achievements, thus minimizing the resistance to tax collection." He looked up at the wooden box in front of him. "Then he'll definitely exhibit the giant bee's corpse again, and that completes his marketing scheme."

"We're checking the warehouses to see if they're hiding any of the Earl's equipment. It's a bit tricky. We can't sell the equipment belonging to the Storm Brotherhood and Philip's group for the time being. We can't even move it out of the territory."

"I'll just have to wait and see." He sighed. He had planned to see if the island merchant who sold honey would be willing to buy it, but now it seemed there was no way to do so.

"Chief, the white horse."

"A white horse?" Charles narrowed his eyes. Had someone come looking for him?