Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"Did she really say that?" Charles was taken aback, then turned to look at John standing next to him.

"Yes." John nodded calmly. "That's exactly what Sophia said."

"It seems that the living conditions of the common people at the bottom of Torch City are also very bad." Charles sighed, then looked at Agatha with a few goblins adjusting the new rune mortar not far away. "When my father was still alive, he did say something similar. He said that if the Merlo family wanted to rise, it would be useless to rely on those noble churches or merchants. Only by relying on farmers, laborers, craftsmen and soldiers could they truly achieve their goal."

In his memory, Baron Mello did say that. Charles had once admired the baron's foresight, but the result was a pity. "So my father strictly forbade officials from oppressing commoners and issued laws to restrict those merchants. Things gradually improved after he did this. When I traveled in Torch City, I could see the sincere smiles on the faces of commoners. But unfortunately, everything seemed to be on our side, except for time."

He looked up at the sky. As the goblins shouted, several small birds were startled and flew away. "If we can let the family run the business for a few more years, then probably no one will dare to plot against us."

After saying that, Charles shook his head again. He knew that such a thing was wishful thinking. Every loser would say, "Why isn't time on my side? If I had just a little more time, I could have done this or that." In the end, it all came down to his own lack of strength.

After calming himself down, he rummaged through the bag at his back and pulled out a jingling pouch. He then counted out ten gold coins and handed them to Little John. "Here you go."

"The leader?" Little John was taken aback. "We still have enough money. That magic craftsman Martial promised to pay after it's finished."

"Take it, it's not for you," Charles said calmly, looking at the other person. "I have a big appetite too."

Upon hearing the chief's reply, Little John smiled, then reached out and took the gold coins, placing them into his purse. "I didn't tell Sophia your identity, but now, perhaps..."

"No, let's not talk about it yet," Charles waved his hand. "My family really didn't manage Torch City well, and I'm a little ashamed to face Sophia."

Hearing John's description of the druid girl's lioness-like gaze, Charles knew that she must harbor resentment over the Merlo family's framing. Revealing his identity now might backfire, as Charles preferred to play it safe.

"But, little John," Charles said slowly, his hands behind his back, looking up at the sky, "one day in the future, I will definitely return to Torch City. No matter what it's called then, no matter who controls it, I will walk in through the main gate, upright and honorable, and take it back openly and honestly."

"Boss, I firmly believe that day will come." Little John stood next to Charles, nodded, and then the two looked at each other for a few seconds before laughing.

"Boom!" An explosion came from afar, followed by the goblins starting to chatter again. After glancing at them, Sharl said, "Looks like the mortar attack was successful. Let's go check it out."

After saying that, the two walked over quickly. Just as they were about to get close, a shell was fired with a "whoosh".

Soon, the sound of an explosion came, and it was very obvious that the sound was louder and the location of the explosion was closer.

"It seems the experiment was a success," Charles said, walking up to Agatha and smiling as he examined the now-assembled rune mortar. The new mortar was longer than the original prototype, the rune firing mechanism at the bottom was more securely secured, and the sights looked even more "brainless." "They seem very excited."

"It's being used as a large toy," Agatha said, shaking her head and spreading her hands. "With this design, it can't achieve precision strikes; it can only create an area attack effect. Moreover, it has limited lethality against heavily armored targets, but it should be quite effective against ordinary soldiers or unarmored targets."

"Yes, I know," Charles nodded. Agatha had said this several times before, but for the goblins now, this weapon was sufficient.

For those charging enemies, you can use the Rune Mortar to attack first. Although it is not as effective as the Explosive Fireball spell cast by the archmages, it is cheaper and can be mass-produced, making it a powerful weapon in the forest.

“There are three ranges in total,” Agatha pointed to the mortar surrounded by goblins. “You can let them practice for a while longer. Once they’re familiar with it, they should be able to get the hang of it quickly.”

"Thank you." Charles smiled sincerely and thanked her. He had only thought of how to use the weapon before, but Agatha had taken over almost everything afterward, so it was only natural to express his gratitude.

"Never mind, it's nothing," Agatha waved her hand somewhat apologetically, then turned and left, leaving behind the words, "I'm going to study new runewords now, so don't bother me these next few days."

Watching the other person's departing figure, Charles breathed a sigh of relief. He was now surrounded by quite a few people, who were all his support in continuing on his journey. If he relied solely on himself, he probably wouldn't be able to achieve his goal of "returning to Torch City."

"Boom!" Another explosion came from afar, and the goblins all cried out. Red-Eyed shouted "Wah-la-wah-lah!" as he picked up another cannonball from the side, "Now it's my turn."

They all wanted to experience what it was like to play with cannons, and they had already lined up automatically. Of the cannonballs they had made earlier, there were only two left.

"That's enough for this one," Charles said, walking over. "The remaining two need molds for mass production. Nine Fingers, how many of our Clang Fruits do we have left?"

Upon hearing the chief's question, Nine Fingers immediately came over. He tried hard to recall, then counted on his fingers a few more times. "Chief, there's still enough for two and a half stone chambers."

"Two and a half rooms?" Charles knew that only he and Bucktooth in the tribe had the ability to count, and Nine Fingers was already considered to have some brains to report this answer. "The quantity is a bit small, so we need to use it sparingly in the future."

We don't know when the Boom Boom Tree will start bearing fruit next year. The current stock will be used until we can harvest the Boom Boom Fruit, which is not good news for the Sharl tribe. "It seems that the production of Grenade Fruit needs to be stopped for now, and we should switch to making Cannonball Fruit. After all, for the tribe, we can use goblins to shoot crossbows at close range, centaurs to shoot arrows at medium range, and rune mortars at long range."

After the portal to Torch City was built, Uncle Musa immediately sent over the weapons he had obtained from Golden Flower City. These included swords, a large number of short crossbows and bolts, and with the bribe of two primary beast cores, all the weapons were brand new. Many of the longswords even had an oil film on them, making them extremely sharp.

When he received the weapon, Charles warned Uncle Musa, "That old bastard Valentine will definitely hate you, so be very careful."

Uncle Musa laughed heartily, looking like he had everything under control.

Being able to intercept the weapon Valentine wanted was very gratifying for both of them. It wasn't so much a feeling of revenge as it was more like "I enjoy seeing you angry but unable to kill me."

"We still need to contact Mary to contact those craftsmen and make the projectile according to the drawings. We also need to make the wind cap, the metal body and the tail fin separately. Then we can have Nine Fingers and his men assemble it." Charles watched as Red Eyes put the shell into the mortar. He didn't adjust the sights much, but instead reached out and picked up the mortar.

"Huh?" Charles was taken aback, then saw Red Eyes lower the cannon, and a goblin immediately inserted a rune component from behind. With a "whoosh," the cannonball was launched horizontally.

"This brute, is he playing like this?" Before Xia Er could finish speaking, a loud "boom" rang out, and a large tree not far away was directly hit by the cannonball. Splinters of wood fell continuously, and broken branches and leaves were scattered all around. The goblins, seeing Red Eye's actions, shouted even louder.

They were shouting "Wah wah wah," seemingly wanting to experience the feeling of the rune mortar firing horizontally.

"Stop, stop," Charles quickly stopped his men, then went over and kicked Red Eye. "Luckily, this rune cannon works differently from the mortars of my previous life, otherwise you could have wiped us all out in one go. You have regeneration abilities, so don't worry about that."

Remembering that it was Red Eye who had operated the mortar last time, Xia Er kicked Red Eye again in anger. "Stop messing around, take them to training. This thing can't be damaged, we still need to make templates."

After dismissing his men, Charles and John carried the mortar back to the fortress. They needed to contact Mary later, and John also needed to return to Torch City through the portal.

"Get to know that magic craftsman better," Charles instructed Little John. "I've heard of Martial before, back when he was in Plantagenet. His craftsmanship was indeed very famous. I just don't know how he ended up in this state. But I think he was framed by those nobles."

He had heard of such things before in Golden Flower City. The nobles would buy high-grade magical beast materials to make magical items, partly for self-defense and partly for showing off. However, the adventurers who sold magical beast materials would sometimes inquire with several nobles and then bid against each other to maximize their profits. As a result, some nobles would deal with these adventurers through underhanded means, and some of the craftsmen who made the magical items would also suffer the consequences.

"Is the boss planning to recruit him?" John asked with a smile.

"I've heard about his skills; they should be good enough, but he's a bit obsessive," Charles said, circling his hand around his temple. "We have easy access to magical beast materials right now, so we definitely need a craftsman to help us make them. If possible, Martial would be a good candidate."

"Okay, I'll keep a close eye on things for you," John nodded in agreement.

"However, quality is the most important thing. Once those items are made, you can take a look at them for me. Remember to bring Sophia along; she should have seen quite a few magical items before," Charles said after thinking for a moment.

"Hmm." Little John indicated that he understood. "By the way, boss, Martial suggested adding some magic crystals to the armor and cloak, and also engraving some arcane runes. I thought about it and agreed."

"Magic crystals?" Charles raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "I know a bit about the price of these things. If they are ordinary ones or crystal fragments, they are very cheap, but the effect is just so-so. If you need to achieve a good effect, you need high-quality magic crystals. This old man is suggesting that he plans to embed very good crystals in them, right?"

John shrugged. "He initially said he didn't have much good crystal in stock, it was just a suggestion. You know his situation, I don't think he has much good crystal either. But I thought about it, this armor is for Caocao, so it should use some high-quality crystal. So I've ordered crystal from the two magic tool shops in Torch City, and I'm reporting to you now."

"You did the right thing," Charles patted Little John's arm. Cao Cao often sparred with Little John, and every time Little John would be sent flying by Cao Cao's monstrous strength. But this also honed Little John's swordsmanship and improved his ability to adapt to changing situations. Although the two, one human and one troll, couldn't communicate, they had become good friends with Furu's help. "If you don't have enough gold coins, I'll get you some. There's only one requirement: quality is guaranteed."

"I understand, boss." Little John nodded heavily in agreement. He didn't want anything to go wrong because of the armor production issue, so this was his way of keeping an eye on things for his friend.

"As for magic crystals..." Charles stroked his chin. He had noticed the mine icon on the map earlier. Unlike the herb markers on the map, only that one mine icon appeared. However, Charles still had some questions about the place. "I wonder what's inside. Is it a haunted gold mine inhabited by strange creatures, or an abandoned mine that's been abandoned for thousands of years? And I wonder what kind of mineral it is—coal or iron?"

He knew that there were several iron mines in Count Valentine's territory. He had brought Obodo here to buy iron ore, intending to smelt it and forge weapons and armor to strengthen the family's power. However, the result was unexpected.

Now that Sharl has discovered a mine in the forest, his first thought is that it is an abandoned iron ore mining site. If it is iron ore, it will be a problem for the goblin tribe, since no one in the tribe knows how to smelt iron. In that case, they will have to transport it to Goat Horn Town.

However, it would be somewhat incongruous if Mary started selling the iron ore, as this might attract the attention of those with ulterior motives.

"We'll have to see how things go first."