Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Kapibala, the bathing enthusiast, presents "The Forest Doesn't Keep Idle Goblins," an exclusive first release!

It was ten days later when Charles saw Broken Tooth again. He looked at his subordinate and couldn't understand his expression, which was both angry and helpless.

"So these past few days, you've been spending most of your time chasing after those goblins?" After hearing Broken Tooth's brief report, Sharl immediately understood his subordinate's state of mind.

"Yeah, they're so stupid." Broken Tooth rarely complained. He was still as cowardly as ever, and he usually didn't express his opinions on other goblins. But this time, he was probably "outmaneuvered" by those surrender envoys, and he became a little angry.

Charles chuckled a few times. "Alright, not everyone is like you, able to wander around in the forest."

He offered a few words of comfort to his men, then stood up and walked to the wooden map. "Did you see that goblin group?"

"Yes, a lot of people." Broken Tooth nodded.

"Around that location?" Charles patted the map, gesturing to Broken Tooth, to see if he could mark the other side's location.

Broken Tooth walked up to the map, tilted his head, and examined it closely. He even took out the compass that Ciel had given him from his pocket, muttering to himself. Then he stretched out his finger and began to draw on the map, pausing for a few seconds after each draw, as if recalling the route he had taken. Occasionally, he would mutter a few curses under his breath.

Charles stood to the side, watching his subordinates' actions. He couldn't guarantee that Broken Tooth would be able to accurately pinpoint the location of the goblins in the Feathered Serpent Kingdom. He simply wanted to use this interaction to try and train his men. The territory he controlled was ostensibly large, but most of it was forest terrain with no special landmarks. Every time the teams set out, they would carve many marks on the trees to ensure they wouldn't get lost while traveling too far.

Charles had been aware of this situation, but he didn't have any special solutions yet. He had thought about taking the time to walk through all the areas he controlled and build some special landmarks, such as choosing some special trees or stacking up a striking building, but this could only be done after everything was mostly settled.

This time, having Broken Tooth try to recall his previous experiences was to train him in advance. Charles knew that some rangers who had lived in the forest for a long time would memorize a map of the entire forest. Such maps were unique to each individual because they would create maps based on their own observations and habits.

In the future, if the tribe wants to avoid getting lost in the forest, it will need a detailed map like this. Right now, only Broken Tooth can "go in and out of the forest seven times".

"Are you sure they're in this area?" Charles watched as his subordinate finally drew a circle with his finger to the northwest of the fortress. The circle was quite large, several times larger than the clearing the centaurs had made to raise giant deer.

Duan Ya stared at the wooden map, remained silent for almost half a minute, and then nodded again to indicate that he was sure.

"This location isn't too far from us," Charles stared at the map. The straight-line distance from the area circled by his men to the fortress was probably only a day's journey. But when he thought about the winding route Broken Tooth had drawn on the map, he knew he couldn't judge these goblins by common sense. Not to mention, Broken Tooth had cursed several times while drawing the route because those surrender envoys were too stupid. They kept straying from the marks they had made on the tree trunks when they came, and by the time they realized it, they had to turn back until they found the marks. Moreover, they didn't dare to go too far out to search for food, for fear of getting lost in the forest. This also meant that the surrender envoys had been eating bitter leaves as their main food for the past few days. A few times they found mouse holes, and they would shout with joy. Broken Tooth, hiding in the shadows, even wanted to pretend to be an "old man" and throw them a few pieces of jerky.

However, because they were composed of several goblins, they eventually found the main force without any major incidents.

"Putting aside the fact that this area is very large, just considering how fast those goblins are looking for food, it probably won't be that quick." Charles shook his head with a smile. He could imagine the chaotic scene that would unfold as those goblins tried to find enough food in the forest.

"Alright, I understand. You should go and rest too," Charles patted his subordinate's shoulder. "When you come back this time, you can go to the bathroom to experience it first. The hot water there will be very relaxing. Tomorrow, go to that area again and try to confirm their preparations."

When Broken Tooth left, the underground fortress was still building a bathroom. Several stone chambers were selected in the area near the underground river. Sharl had One-Eye lead the goblins to renovate the stone chambers with black clay and bricks. At the same time, he inscribed a new runeword, Temperature, to control the water temperature. Thanks to the previous idea, the water that filled the area of ​​the runeword could indeed control the temperature, which gave the goblins a good place to take a bath in winter.

The bathroom was specially separated for men and women by Sharl. Although the goblins used to not care about anything when it was hot and would just take off their tattered clothes and jump into the river, Sharl was now preparing to teach his tribe some things that needed to be paid attention to.

Those bathrooms were large enough to accommodate many goblins taking a bath at once, which made them the goblin tribe's favorite place to go after a day's work.

The little fairies, whose wings couldn't get too wet, could only sigh in vain as they could only use some hot water to wipe their bodies to achieve the purpose of cleaning.

After seeing his men off, Charles stroked his chin, examining the wooden map before him. "Around when will those goblins arrive?"

The thought of the enemy having flying units filled Xia Er with envy. Being able to quickly spot distant situations in the forest was a huge advantage, while his own tribe didn't have any flying units. The snake molts they had captured in the last battle had rotted away for some unknown reason and were completely unusable.

"That feathered serpent god is quite stingy; once it betrays us, we can't use its things anymore." Charles pouted, quite dissatisfied with the evil god's character.

"Who's stingy?" A voice came from outside the stone house, followed by the sound of light tapping on the stone bricks. Soon, a huge fish head poked its head in, looking around.

"You've arrived?" Charles chuckled upon seeing the newcomer. "Why didn't you let me know?"

"I saw Bucktooth on the road, and he told me you should be in the stone house, so I came straight here." Prince Pazani of Naga lowered his head, turned into the stone house, and came to the desk.

"Why are you here again?" Charles looked at the other person with great interest, thinking about how to ask him about the runeword Winter.

“My adulthood trial,” Pazzani sighed, “After dealing with those frogmen last time, I immediately went back to see the elders. After discussing it, they agreed to your proposal to let those frogmen live by Lake Darren and also hire them to do some fish farming.”

"It's a pity that my coming-of-age trial is not yet complete. After meeting the elders, the inscription on it changed to 'Wait fifteen days to assist the goblin tribe again,'" he said, spreading his webbed hands with some discouragement. "So I came early this time to see what you're planning to do this time."

"Fifteen days?" Charles raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure Shui Yumo gave a fifteen-day timeframe?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" Pazzani nodded a few times. "I took a few days off these past few days and made up for the overtime I worked before. Now you can ask me to do anything, it'll all count as a shift change."

"Fifteen days," Charles ignored what Prince Naga said next. He pondered, calculating the time limit given by Water Ink. "Based on past experience, the ink will only give the user the next steps directly, without considering whether the user has other matters to deal with. So that means," he counted on his fingers for a few seconds, "that the goblins of the Feathered Serpent Kingdom will arrive in two days."

Unexpectedly, this "office prince" brought good news as soon as he arrived. Charles looked at Pazzani, who seemed a little confused, and said, "Alright, welcome."

"Uh, what big event is going to happen this time?" Pazzani scratched the scales on his head and looked around the stone house before asking.

"It's nothing serious. The evil god's goblins have attacked again, and this time they've brought even more people," Charles said casually, sounding as if he didn't care at all.

"Again? And even more?" Pazzani's dorsal fin suddenly stood up. "I knew it, Shui Yumo wouldn't let me off so easily."

Charles chuckled a few times, then comforted her, "Alright, it's your coming-of-age trial anyway, what else can we do? But speaking of which, did you bring Shui Yumo's materials list?"

Pazzani first glanced impatiently at his backpack, which probably contained the animal hides marked with his coming-of-age trial. Then, after hearing Charles's words, he said somewhat awkwardly, "You know, the elders didn't tell me about this. And when I brought it up twice, they changed the subject."

"Is that so?" Charles's lips curled up. Things were getting interesting. It seemed that the Naga elders were assessing the possibility of cooperating with him. They had previously provided a list of potion ingredients, but because they had only recently contacted Uncle Musa, the potion ingredients had not been gathered immediately. This might have diminished the strength of his race in the eyes of the other party.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. The Naga are different from the frogmen in the caves. They have a history of thousands of years of fleeing, constantly being hunted by humans, elves, dwarves, and sometimes even demons get involved. They have developed a deep-seated distrust.

Furthermore, when this kind of group cooperates with others, they look more at strength than at the frogmen, who struggle to survive. Even when Sharl was about to leave, the frogman chieftain reminded him to abide by the agreement.

Just like when he cooperated with the centaurs before, if he hadn't led his men through the forest and rescued them right under the noses of the Evil Throat Army, they wouldn't have so easily accepted their orders from the goblins.

"In the Nightmare Forest, strength truly reigns supreme." Charles chuckled softly. "I understand."

"Actually, I did mention it to the elders..." Pazzani waved his hand, trying to emphasize that he had made efforts before, but Charles smiled and waved his hand to stop him.

"I understand," Charles nodded and said. "For a people who have been in exile for thousands of years, the most important thing is to live peacefully."

Everything is based on survival. Xia Er had studied history and knew that some races had been wiped out in the long river of history, such as the lizard people. These intelligent beings were never mentioned again in later history, and no one had ever seen them.

However, some groups, after finding a safe place to live, turn around and oppress other groups. For example, the tree spirits, who always talk about the "Great Dome," were originally wanderers in history. But after finding a place to live in the "Great Dome," many tree spirits became adventurers and began to harm goblins.

"Of course there are other races too," Sharl muttered, pursing his lips.

"Take a good rest these next couple of days," he waved his hand, stopping Pazzani from continuing to argue. "I recently built a bathroom for the tribe; the water is nice and warm. You can go and try it out."

Charles sized up the Naga prince before him. Strictly speaking, this fish-headed, human-bodied race should be cold-blooded like lizards or snakes, or at most warm-blooded. They disliked moving around even more in winter. Furthermore, Pazzani had mentioned that the Naga race was oviparous, so hot baths would likely enhance their physical functions and would be somewhat welcomed by them.

"A bathroom? What's that?" Pazzani frowned. As an intelligent being who had spent a lot of time in the water, he was very puzzled by what Charles was saying.

"Uh, I don't know how to describe it to you right now, but you'll definitely like it once you see the bathroom."

"Oh," Pazzani didn't dwell on the question, instead pressing further, "The runeword 'Winter' you mentioned earlier, is it for dealing with this evil god goblin? Should I go back and have the elders make it now?"

"No, I don't think we need to this time," Charles shook his head slightly and smiled confidently. "I think we can handle those goblins on our own."

"Really?" Pazzani wanted to remind Charles, "Those petrified lizards are very powerful."

Before Xia Er could speak, the voice of the troll Cao Cao came from outside the stone house. It must be that Agatha wanted to see him. However, Cao Cao was too tall to enter the stone house, so he looked towards the door. Pazzani followed the goblin's gaze to the door, and then his eyes widened.

A huge figure wearing grayish-white bone armor, with only the waist visible, stood outside the door.

The author, Kapibala, who enjoys taking baths, is waiting for you with "The Forest Doesn't Keep Idle Goblins".