Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

The wildly popular online novel, "Forests Don't Keep Idle Goblins," is a heartfelt work by Kapibala, the author of "Taking a Bath."

More than a thousand goblins lined up and performed the ankle-touching ceremony in front of the Sharl, all under the guidance of the high priest.

The difference this time was that the newly joined goblins didn't know about the ankle-touching ritual. They just stood blankly in the center of the square, waiting for the high priest to make the first move.

As the high priest prepared to bow and kowtow like a human, the red-eyed man beside him rushed over and kicked him, saying, "You, how dare you!"

Red Eyes moved so fast that Charles didn't even have time to react. By the time he did, the High Priest was already lying on the ground groaning "ouch, ouch."

After reprimanding Red Eyes, Charles had his men help the High Priest up. After talking with him, he realized that there was no custom of touching the ankle among the goblins of the Feathered Serpent Kingdom.

"Could it be a surrender ceremony that spontaneously formed in the forest?" Charles couldn't help but laugh. The goblins who were driven out of the kingdom fought and merged with each other in the forest, and gradually formed a strange set of customs unique to goblins.

However, the high priest quickly accepted this "custom." He was the first to step forward, kneel down, and touch the ankle. At first, Sharl wanted to stop him. When they first met, this elderly goblin wanted to perform a kneeling ceremony like a human.

However, the high priest waved his hand to dissuade Sharl and insisted on completing the ankle-touching ceremony. Perhaps it was because of the men standing behind Sharl, who were looking at the high priest with fierce eyes. These guys had all performed the ankle-touching ceremony before following their leader. If other goblins did not do so, it might cause a division within the tribe.

Afterwards, the surrendered goblins lined up one after another to pay their respects. Charles stood still, calmly accepting the ceremony. In the morning sunlight, he stood with his hands behind his back, trying to straighten his back. He felt quite good about this surrender. Although the goblins didn't shout "Handsome is the leader," they also didn't shout "Green Egg is the leader." Charles thought this was a great step forward.

After all the goblins had finished touching his ankle, the high priest, leaning on his bone staff, stood beside Sharl. "Chief, Quetzalcoatl has now fled, and this kingdom is now entirely yours."

"It's a bit early to call it a kingdom," Charles shook his head slightly. "There are less than 5000 goblins in total; that's far too few to establish a nation."

"This size is quite large for a forest," the high priest continued to persuade.

"No, compared to a human kingdom, this population is only equivalent to a slightly larger town." Charles waved his hand and looked at the goblins standing in front of him. "To establish a goblin kingdom, we must continue to expand our population and increase our numbers further."

"So, what do you mean?"

"We can call ourselves a tribe," Sharl suggested after a moment's thought. His current subordinates could no longer be referred to as a clan, since they were a combination of many races, and calling them just a goblin clan was not quite appropriate. However, calling them the "Forest Tribe" would be fine, since they all lived in the Nightmare Forest.

"Tribe?" The high priest repeated the word several times. "Like those humans, I know some people in remote areas who also call themselves tribes."

"Yes, that's definitely the case," Charles said. Just like the islanders living in the Saros Islands, they generally refer to themselves by their tribe.

"Then, you are the leader of our tribe." The high priest touched his chest again and bowed his head respectfully.

His words were overheard by the goblins around him. Red-Eye, who was standing to the side, suddenly raised his longsword and yelled loudly.

Then, right before Sharl's wide eyes, disregarding the leader's waving gestures and changing expression, Red Eyes shouted out those words:

"The green egg is the leader!"

As Red Eyes shouted, the goblins around him began to loudly echo his cry.

Then, more and more goblins joined in, and even the high priest, who had initially been all smiles, started shouting a couple of times.

"The green egg is the leader!"

"The green egg is the leader!"

"The green egg is the leader!"

"Yes, yes." Charles sighed with a wry smile, ultimately unable to escape.

…………

"Mr. Elton, I'm sorry, this is all we found." Charles had his men place many old, broken bones on the ground. The skeleton warrior Elton in front of him was now only the part above his lumbar spine.

"Only the three of us are left?" Elton leaned against a broken wall, his eyes, glowing with green ghost fire, scanned his surroundings. Only two broken skeletons responded to him; the other dozen or so skeleton warriors had turned into a pile of broken bones.

As Mr. Elton had previously stated, as long as the skeleton warriors' skeletons were not pulverized, they could still "reassemble" themselves. Unfortunately, the skeletons of Sharl and the Seventh Field Army underestimated the power of the Feathered Serpent God. Its lightning shattered the skeletons of many skeleton warriors, causing their souls to return to the Underworld.

"They can still..." Charles hesitated, not finishing his sentence.

He wanted to ask if these skeleton warriors could be "resurrected," but that would be a bit abrupt, since they were already dead. The souls of the dead should go to the underworld, not become moving skeletons. But it would also be very impolite to say that, since these broken bones were originally Mr. Elton's comrades.

"These bones can be used as anchors to summon them again, but only high-level necromancers can do that." Mr. Elton stared at the broken bones in front of him with his two ghostly eyes. "Well, maybe this is our fate. The 'Seventh Field Regiment' died fighting the evil god in the forest. It can be considered a worthy death."

"What happened back then?" Charles looked back at the tower in the distance. With the help of the morning sunlight, he could see that half of the tallest and largest stone pyramid in the Feathered Serpent Kingdom had completely collapsed. The huge cave where the Feathered Serpent God had been hiding was now buried under rubble. On the top of the stone tower, only the black dragon battle banner with a red background was stuck crookedly in the crack of the stone, still standing.

"We tentatively explored the cave, but as we went deeper, the sense of danger grew stronger," Mr. Elton recalled for a few seconds, then said in a serious tone, "The depths of the cave were very dark. I had never felt such a strong sense of danger in the Nightmare Forest. Just as we decided to stop going in and retreat to guard the entrance, we heard a 'whooshing' sound from the depths of the cave."

After saying that, Mr. Elton looked at the distant sky, and after a few seconds he continued, "Now I realize that was the sound of snake scales scraping the ground."

"You mean, Quetzalcoatl charged straight out of the cave?"

"Yes, its speed caught us off guard. We could only use our weapons to secure ourselves to the snake, and this is what happened." Mr. Elton sighed, feeling a sense of loss at the "death" of his comrades.

They finally returned to the "City of All Races." Although it was so dilapidated that it was on the verge of disappearing from the world, hope remained. The goblins promised to rebuild the city, but in the end, their comrades turned into a pile of broken bones, leaving the three remaining members of the "Seventh Field Army" deeply saddened.

"I understand," Sharl reached out and patted the skeleton warrior's shoulder blade. "I will carefully collect these bone fragments and preserve them. Perhaps we can try again when we meet a high-ranking necromancer in the future."

As he spoke, he turned and beckoned to his subordinates not far away, who were collecting the goblin's remains. The two avatars of Quetzalcoatl had been rampaging across the ground. Even though they didn't have the ability to breathe lightning, their massive bodies could still crush goblins if they crashed into them. "Of course, we'll have to ask your comrades what they think. If they want to see the 'City of All Races' rise again, I'll do everything I can to ask the necromancer for help."

"Them," Mr. Elton's jaw opened and closed a few times, accompanied by a magical "crawling" laugh, "probably just wants to lie in a coffin and be paraded through the streets."

"That Ed still hasn't paid me back for the drinks," muttered a skeleton warrior nearby. Only his sternum and above were intact; one of his arms was completely missing.

"I'll have my men put you back in your 'beds'," Charles said with a smile. These skeleton warriors' beds were those glass coffins, though they didn't like calling them coffins. "Don't worry, the magic potions won't run out."

After saying that, he called over a few goblins to properly deal with Elton and his two companions, as well as the broken bones on the ground.

The annihilation of the Skeleton Warriors this time has dealt a heavy blow to Sharl. For the foreseeable future, he will have to rely on Little Claw to brew potions again. Moreover, Mr. Elton and the others usually take on the task of training goblins, so now they can only let those guys do some routine exercises on their own.

"A high-ranking necromancer," Charles stroked his chin as he slowly walked towards the collapsed stone tower. "I remember Little Paw's owner was a necromancer, but I don't know where he's buried."

Thinking of his promise to help find Little Paw's owner, Charles felt a little embarrassed. He had almost covered the entire southern region of Nightmare Forest, but still hadn't found any clues.

"Let's think of other ways. If all else fails, let Uncle Musa ask Vivian if those mages might have some kind of connection in private." Thinking of what Uncle Musa had relayed about the entanglement between Vivian's two teachers, perhaps they could contact a high-level necromancer.

After walking for a while, he finally arrived at the collapsed stone tower. Now only half of the tower remained standing, and a strange smell emanated from the cracks in the collapsed stone.

"The smell of this feathered serpent's lair is truly indescribable," Charles said, fanning the air in front of his nose a few times until the smell lessened. "I wonder what good things might be inside its lair."

"The smell of this feathered serpent's lair is truly indescribable," Charles said, fanning the air in front of his nose a few times until the smell lessened. "I wonder what good things might be inside its lair."

The thought of those snake skins that allowed goblins to fly and dive filled Sharl with envy, but once the goblins left the feathered serpent's mental "sphere," these snake skins lost their effect.

"Those snake molts are, after all, the possessions of the evil god. If we give them to the magic craftsman Marshall, I wonder if he can make something interesting out of them." He reached out and held onto a few pieces of rubble, then leaned his upper body into the crack in the rock. Unfortunately, the rubble completely buried the area, making it impossible to get in even a little bit.

"Hmm, if we want to get inside and check, we'll have to move all this rubble." Charles patted the rubble, frowned, and said, "It's a bit tricky; there are too many stones."

Immediately afterwards, a strange feeling arose in his heart, as if something was calling to him.

The call was so faint that Charles wouldn't have felt it if he hadn't stuck his upper body into the crevice. But now he was certain that there was something deep inside the crevice.

"This feeling is somewhat familiar, as if I've had it before." He frowned, staring at the crack in the rock in front of him, trying hard to recall everything that had happened since he came to this world.

Finally, Sharl's eyes lit up. "It feels like I had the same feeling in the goblin's burrow."

While in the goblin's burrow, he unexpectedly discovered the gray hemisphere. The information on the panel told him that it was a fragment of the [Tower of Babel Key].

Unexpectedly, I have the same feeling again. "So that means there is also a fragment of the Tower of Babel key here."

Thinking back to what Agatha had said before, that the Tower of Babel was where all the magical books were kept, there might be a way to break the transformation curse there.

"However, I remember there was another sentence on the fragment of the [Tower of Babel Key]," Charles thought, feeling a bit troubled as he considered the "divine item" he had carefully wrapped in several layers of animal hide and stored at the bottom of the fortress chest. "I can't let the gods discover that I've surpassed their path?"

"This is what's written on a piece of key. If another piece is found, will it attract the attention of the gods?"

A single evil god nearly wiped out his entire race, and he only managed to drive away the feathered serpent with the help of others. Now, if he attracts the attention of the four gods, who are even more powerful than the demon lord, his race will probably be reduced to dust in the blink of an eye.

"Should we dig it out?" Charles gently patted the rubble, pondering what to do. "Even if we don't dig it out, it seems unlikely that goblins will survive. With a demon lord and a forest god involved, it seems quite troublesome."

"If we dig it out, we can get closer to the Tower of Babel. If we hide it well, we might not be discovered."

"No, I've already added two layers of [Blessing of the Gods] to my people," Charles thought, slapping his cheek. "The Church of the Four Gods will definitely discover this in the future."

"However, these guys are about to get caught up in a war of gods, and they might not have time to deal with Nightmare Forest."

Thinking of this, Charles's eyes lit up.

"Wow, they're fighting tooth and nail outside, this is a perfect opportunity for them to grow bigger and stronger."

Meanwhile, in the "Undying Alchemy" workshop in Giesecke & Sorrow, a paladin dressed in the armor of the Church of War's Crusader walked in.

"Excuse me, is there a buy-ten-get-one-free offer on healing potions here?"