Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"I just spoke with them, and that history is indeed true." Agatha sat opposite Charles, not even drinking the tea on the table, but waving her notebook excitedly.

"That's why I said those twelve people are a great treasure." Charles nodded, holding his teacup in both hands, leaning back in his chair, and smiling as he looked at Agatha across from him.

Yesterday, he finally persuaded the skeleton warriors and led all twelve of them away from the underground tomb. Xia Er promised to bury the place and bring people to restore the surface plants to their original state, so that no one would discover this place and disturb the peaceful sleep of the soldiers of the Seventh Forest Field Regiment.

As for the Black Dragon Banner, Sharl decided to use it as his future military flag. "It's an epic item after all, I can't waste it."

"It's a pity they were all soldiers in life. If only some of them were scholars or polymaths." Agatha flipped through the notebook in her hand and sighed softly. "Fortunately, we can still get a lot of useful information from their daily lives."

"What did you find out?" Charles took a sip of tea and looked with interest at the notebook in the other person's hand, which was filled with many pages of dense writing.

When he brought these skeleton warriors back to the fortress, it caused a huge commotion. Not only did the centaurs and goblins stay far away, but even the goblins refused to come near.

However, there are two exceptions: one is Sansio, and the other is—the Unicorn.

The white, glowing unicorn actually approached the skeleton warriors, completely disregarding their fearsome reputation as evil undead creatures.

This surprised Charles. Shansio approached him because of his chuunibyou personality and his somewhat foolish and daring nature. But why did the unicorn approach him? Was it because it sensed something special?

The skeleton warriors also really liked the unicorns. Elton even told Sharl that they used to bring some fruit when they patrolled the forest to feed these guys. These white unicorns preferred fruit to grass on the ground, but they just couldn't climb trees.

"Back then, there weren't many runewords. They only told me a few interesting ones, including the runeword 'Gate'," Agatha said, looking at the notebook in her hand. "And the runeword 'Mind' that we have now, they've never seen it. According to them, no one in the Holy Kingdom tamed wild beasts like that back then."

"In other words," Shardon paused, then gently shook the cup in his hand, "the runic language of the Holy Kingdom was also developing, and the war of the monster tide they experienced may have happened quite early."

“That’s possible,” Agatha nodded. “They also mentioned a few runic words, one of which was a way to communicate remotely with others, which surprised me.”

"Remote communication?" Charles was taken aback. Was this a cordless phone? Or an instant telegram?

"Hmm," Agatha flipped through the papers, looking at the notes, "They say it's for two-way communication, requiring a stone engraved with runes, but it's all used by their legion generals to contact others."

"Interesting." After listening to this strange description, Charles had a better understanding of this runeword. "No need to rush. The forest is vast, and we're sure to find more runewords."

"They also said that the Holy Kingdom has several large cities," Agatha picked up the tea on the table, tested the temperature, and then took a big gulp. "One of these cities really impressed me."

"What city? The one floating in the sky?"

"No, none of them have been there," Agatha glanced at the notebook in her hand, "that city of pure white, the city they're talking about is called the City of Races."

"A city of many races?"

"Yes, this city is in the forest, it's a forest city, inhabited by many races, including gnolls, lizardmen, dwarves, and so on. There was also a skeleton warrior who said his neighbor was a kobold who liked to dig holes, and he was punished by the city hall for digging several basements without permission." Agatha chuckled, but soon frowned. "They say that almost every intelligent race lives in that city, but there are no goblins."

"Yeah, when we first met them, they didn't recognize us either," Charles shrugged. "Maybe goblins are an alien race, like Lupus."

"That's strange, Ciel," Agatha closed her notebook, "and do you know what they told me? That they weren't human before they died?"

"Not human?"

"Yes, they are elves."

"Elves?" Sharl leaned back, somewhat taken aback. He had assumed they were all human. "Are they those pointy-eared, green-haired creatures you often see in the city these days?"

"As far as I know, there are two kinds of elves now. One is the tree elves you mentioned, who also call themselves forest elves. They all have long, pointed ears, green hair, and sometimes dark markings on their faces." Agatha said, holding up two fingers. "The other kind is the drow elves, also called dark elves. These guys live in the Eternal Dark Plane. The books say they are all vassals of the demon lords."

“But, Shire,” Agatha held up a third, pale but slender finger, “they say they are not either of those elves; they call themselves High Elves.”

"High Elves?" Sharl frowned and thought carefully for a few seconds. After a few seconds, he said with some doubt, "I have never heard of this race."

“Me too,” Agatha withdrew her finger and stared at the goblin opposite her. “This race is not recorded in any history books or natural history books. According to them, this race, like other elves, has a long lifespan and long, pointed ears. However, they all have golden or silver hair, their skin is whiter than that of the tree elves, and their pupils are all black. The noblest elves among them also have black hair.”

"But now this race," Charles stretched out his hand, his clenched fingers quickly opening, "has simply vanished."

"I was shocked when I heard their story. I was shocked that the High Elves had simply vanished, and I was also shocked that they could live peacefully with other races." Agatha took a sip of tea to moisten her throat. "You know, those Dryads are very arrogant. They look down on other races and are always getting into conflicts with the Dwarves."

"Yes, I know them. You often see elves on ships coming from the archipelago. What are they always saying?" Charles looked at the ceiling, trying to remember, and then he said in a high-pitched, eunuch-like voice, "I want to go back to the 'Great Dome'."

"Yes." Agatha was amused. The hook-nosed, straw-haired, wrinkled hunchbacked old hag laughed heartily.

"Alright," Charles laughed with her for a while, then waved his hand, calming himself down. "No matter what race they were before, they're all just skeletons now."

"So how do you plan to arrange things for them, or rather, what do you plan to have them do?" Agatha asked, tidying her hair slightly.

"I'm still thinking, the initial plan is to let them recover their magic first, and then have Little Paws help them brew potions," Charles put down his cup, then picked up the little tin soldier from the table and started playing with it. "Once everyone gets used to them, I plan to have them train my subordinates on the side."

"You know, my goblin minions only know some basic slashing. Although I trained them in battle formations a little before, they might show their true colors once they encounter a real army. I hope these battle-hardened veterans can help me train my men."

"That's a good idea," Agatha nodded.

"And they seem to be quite good at swordsmanship as well. Last time, even Little John and Red Eyes couldn't defeat them easily," Charles said after thinking for a moment. "This is also a good way to train my men."

"Most importantly," Charles looked up at the old hag across the table, "when we go exploring in the future, I can take a few of them with me. This will not only increase our combat strength, but also allow me to ask them if they are familiar with the things in those ruins."

"If they see something familiar in the ruins, they can quickly find its use or repair it," Agatha immediately answered, her purple eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Yes." Ciel nodded vigorously.

"Just how many ancient ruins are hidden in this forest?" Agatha sighed. Her encounter with these skeleton warriors only fueled her longing to explore the Nightmare Forest.

“Lots,” Charles said with a smirk. “Once Broken Tooth gets back to me, I’ll take you to the Runeword Material Storage. It should be safe there now. I found a lot of white stones there, as well as a huge relief.”

"Really?" Agatha jumped off the high-backed chair, eager to go right now.

"Let's wait for news. It's not very safe there yet, after all, it's close to the goblin's camp and there's also an ogre camp nearby," Charles said with a smile. "Although they don't patrol that area much anymore, safety is more important."

"What does that relief look like?" Agatha pressed.

"It looks like reliefs of several cities, and they're huge. I think some of them might be the cities the skeleton warriors were talking about, like the cities of the various races or something," Charles thought for a moment and nodded.

"Okay, let's go take a look in a bit," Agatha said happily.