Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"Two meals a day?"

Nine Fingers' eyes widened. "Wasn't that a victory celebration dinner?"

"We eat twice a day," Akame said proudly.

"I can't even dream of having enough to eat, yet you guys get to eat two meals a day," Nine Fingers sighed. "If I had to eat this every day from now on, my life would belong to the leader."

He spoke through gritted teeth, and the ferocious expression on his face made Chi Mu pause.

"It's not always like this, but it's pretty much the same," Charles said casually from the front.

These past few days, the white-haired girl has been leading the mother goblin in making more and more jerky, and she is no longer looking worried.

Charles also began to address the issue of his men's meals. First, the chaotic scrambling for food was changed to queuing for food. Then, since they were eating with their hands, Charles had his men make more wooden bowls and spoons. He felt that eating with hands was no different from monkeys, just like in a certain "Great Eastern Country," and this habit needed to be changed.

Now, White Hair has been promoted to head chef of the tribe, leading all the female goblins in charge of food management and preparation. After merging the two tribes, he also confiscated their large pots.

Upon hearing the chief say that they would eat two meals a day from now on, Nine Fingers gazed eagerly at Charles's retreating figure. He didn't know what he needed to do to gain the new chief's trust, but for the first time, he genuinely wanted to fight for the chief in the next tribal war.

"You said earlier that Redface used to go out alone, and then she would come back with Bang Bang fruit, is that right?" Charles asked.

"Yes, leader," Nine Fingers replied immediately.

Xiaer closed his eyes and opened his domain in his consciousness to search carefully. Finally, he found a melon fruit marker on the north side of the Seven Caves tribe's cave.

"Do you never go hunting in the north?" Charles asked.

"Yes, Master, Red Face won't let us go." Nine Fingers was taken aback; he didn't know how Charles knew.

Charles smiled and led his men toward the place where the clattering fruit was.

After walking for quite some time, we finally arrived at the edge of a tall forest.

"Boom!" An explosion came from the woods, and Ciel confirmed that this was the place.

He looked up and noticed that the tree was unusually tall, almost twice the size of other trees. "It must be about 30 meters tall."

The entire area was covered with these trees, and apart from low weeds, there were no taller shrubs on the ground.

"Bang!" A fruit fell to the ground not far away and exploded.

"It seems to be the way this tree survives." Charles nodded. He judged that the fruit of this tree would fall naturally after it ripened, and would explode when it hit the ground. The explosion would affect the surrounding plants and scare away the animals. Moreover, the canopy was as high as 30 meters, directly blocking the sunlight, and over time other plants would find it difficult to survive.

However, this was a good thing for Charles. This grove of trees covered a large area, and it was the season for the fruit to ripen. If he picked them as soon as possible, he could certainly enrich his arsenal.

He led his men like thieves sneaking into a house, stealthily making their way through the woods along the tree roots, trying to avoid going under the canopy.

Seeing a few unexploded fruit in the grass, Xia Er was about to go and get them when Nine Fingers ran over, picked them up, and ran back.

Charles smiled as he looked at his loyal subordinate and accepted the clattering fruit.

The fruit has a hard outer skin with longitudinal stripes like a pumpkin, and it makes a very slight sound when shaken.

Charles handed the fruit to Red Eyes: "Throw it over there, and wait..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chi Mu threw the fruit away with a whoosh.

"Boom".

The breeze from the explosion brushed past Charles's bald head. "...Let's throw it after we hide behind the tree."

After saying that, he sighed. It was fortunate that his reckless subordinate threw the object far away. If it had hit a tree trunk and bounced back, Emperor Renzong would have become Emperor Ai.

Then, Charles glanced at the treetops and quickly ran to the blast site.

"There's a burnt smell and a bit of smoke." Charles examined it closely. "The surrounding area is woody bark. The bark of this tree is very hard, yet it seems to be mostly unharmed."

"It seems to have exploded due to an external impact; ordinary bumps wouldn't have caused it to shatter." Charles looked around and finally spotted another fruit that hadn't exploded in the distance.

He ran over cautiously, picked it up, and said, "The peel feels very dry; it must have fallen off a long time ago."

This time, Ciel chose to throw it himself. "Boom!" The fruit hit the tree trunk and exploded.

"Great, it can be stored without affecting the explosion effect."

"Let's see if Red Eyes can climb up."

The red-eyed creature huffed and puffed for a long time, but it was still less than a meter off the ground.

"Such a thick, straight trunk, it's difficult to climb. We'll have to make tools." Charles looked up at the tall canopy. "Next, we need to make tools and climb up to the canopy as soon as possible to pick the 'Guangguang' fruit."

He stopped the red-eyed creature, which was pupa-like on the tree trunk like a giant caterpillar, and ordered everyone to scatter and carefully collect the unexploded clams on the ground.

Because of the explosions caused by falling fruit, this area is basically devoid of animals; the only concern is preventing the danger of falling fruit.

A moment later, Charles called out loudly, summoning his men back. Together, they collected 16 unexploded fruits.

"That's fine, it'll be enough for now." Xia Er had Red Eyes and Nine Fingers carry two bundles full of fruit on their backs. "It's getting late, let's go back first, we have to move tomorrow."

The second afternoon.

Shire led 27 goblins to a clearing in the forest.

Early in the morning, he led all his men to move to the cave where the original Qidong tribe lived.

These are seven caves close together. Ciel thought to himself that Redface really knows how to name things; they're simple and descriptive.

The seven caves varied in size. In Shire's words, "The men have finally moved into a large, single-level house." He allocated them one by one, choosing one for himself, leaving the largest cave for his men, and giving each female goblin a separate cave. This was mainly to prepare for the birth of baby goblins. There were also three caves for storing tools, planting, and drying red cattle.

After two days of observation, Bucktooth found that the mycelium of Red Bull only spread on cedar trees, and other tree species did not suit its taste. Xia Er ordered his men to collect some cedar trees and lay them in the planting room, where Bucktooth would continue to take care of them.

Now that we have more subordinates, we don't have enough Red Bull Mushrooms. Today, when we finished hunting after moving, White Hair and his four female goblins only managed to gather enough for just two days, and they even picked a few wrong ones.

"We still have to grow our own Red Bull; we don't know when we'll be able to produce a stable supply."

After lunch, Charles led his men to the location of the twin swords indicated on the map, eager to see what they were.

"Look around, everyone, see if there's anything strange in the trees, under the trees, or in the bushes," he instructed.

Then, about 20 goblins scattered across the open space and searched carefully.

Soon a goblin reported that a stone looked very smooth.

Charles ran over and saw that several clumps of grass had been pulled up and cleared away, revealing a smooth stone surface covered with moss underneath.

"Dig it up," he ordered.

A moment later, a stone-paved ground about two meters long and one meter wide was revealed.

Charles stepped forward and tapped and stomped on the stone, but found that it did not budge.

"Give me the 'Guangguang Fruit'," he ordered.

Then Nine Fingers handed over two fruits.

Charles led everyone back, then threw the fruit with force. With a "thud," stones rained down.

A staircase leading underground was revealed.