Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"Come here, come here, this way." The one-eyed man waved, gesturing for the elephant herd to move in his direction.

The other goblins had already donned runeword headbands and were controlling each elephant, while the elephant master walked at the very front, its massive body ensuring that every step it took solidified the soil.

The Shire has begun leveling the southern area of ​​the City of All Races, a task entrusted to One-Eyed, who is leading the goblins in the construction.

The current task is simply to level the land and fill in some burrows, which is relatively easy for goblins. After all, the southern region is quite far from the square stone pyramid where the feathered serpent god used to live, and the goblins are unwilling to live here, so there are only some large trees and shrubs, as well as a few scattered burrows.

The other three areas do have many buildings, but they are now mostly ruins and holes. You can see an entrance every ten meters or so. If you were to fill them all in, the workload would be quite large. Moreover, Shire has not yet planned out the specific roads, so for now, we can only complete the construction of the southern area first and let the "construction team" accumulate more experience.

As the leader of the "construction team," One-Eye was very excited. He had been told by Charles that he would be the most important person in the tribe, not Red-Eye or Broken Tooth. Now he understood his importance. After seeing the city plan that Charles had drawn for him, One-Eye felt that the leader was talking about an illusion.

"A huge forest city." These were the words the leader said when he opened the blueprints. When One-Eyed truly understood the full picture of the city that Charles had described, he was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth.

"Me, I'll take charge?" He couldn't believe his ears. The thought of leading his goblin tribe to build such a massive city filled him with dread. "All I know is carving wood and digging tunnels on ants."

"It's all up to us," Charles said, patting his subordinate on the shoulder. "No other race will help us. Humans won't, dwarves won't, and elves certainly won't. If we want a better place to live, if we want to live in our own city, we can only rely on ourselves."

"And don't be afraid. Although it is somewhat difficult, no one is born knowing everything. We can learn slowly and summarize gradually."

Finally, Charles smiled and said to his subordinates, "Don't worry, I'll be there to help you. If you have any questions, you can ask me."

He still had high hopes for One-Eye. This guy was now addicted to carving things. His bed was full of interesting wood carvings. Although the technique was still very rough, some of them were already recognizable as carvings. Moreover, One-Eye had asked Mary to help him buy a few books on human drawing. He also started learning Common Tongue from Bucktooth and even began learning to count.

"If he keeps at it, he might become the first 'artist' in the goblin tribe," Charles thought.

"We need to do this a few more times." One-Eye held the rolled-up city's southern district planning map in his hand, then stomped hard on the ground that the elephants had just trampled. He felt that it wasn't hard enough. According to the leader's plan, this vertical line was to be used to build a road, which had to be sturdy enough, otherwise it would become muddy and uneven after rain. One-Eye didn't quite understand why it had to be so hard. The goblins were already used to uneven roads in the forest, so what did it matter if it was flat or not?

Charles simply showed One-Eye a drawing of a human carriage and explained the effects of rugged terrain. Only then did One-Eye gain a better understanding of what a city looked like.

Although ants can also transport goods, the number of worker ants is limited. Shire cannot "plunder" the ant colony indiscriminately. After all, the ant colony needs worker ants to maintain its daily operation, and worker ants are mainly used for forest transportation. Horses cannot travel through the forest, so they can only rely on worker ants with six "wheels".

Therefore, in the future, urban transportation, such as transporting goods from the docks to the eastern residential areas, will require the involvement of horse-drawn carriages.

However, while planning the surface roads, Shire did not forget the habits of goblins. He also planned several underground passages as direct routes, similar to "subways". Worker ants, driven by ants and carrying ten seats on their backs, acted as "underground trains", which allowed goblins to quickly travel between the two areas.

"Two more times, everyone pay attention!" One-Eye shouted to the working goblins. Everyone cooperated well. One-Eye knew that everyone wanted to get that round thing that shone in the sunlight, called a silver coin.

The leader had instructed all the goblins involved in the work that after the work was completed, each diligent goblin would be given a few silver coins, which could be used to buy the goods listed on the bulletin board.

This was also Sharl's idea. He had asked the high priest and learned that there was actually a very primitive barter system among the goblins, and the main items they exchanged were various kinds of food. Although they mostly accumulated wealth by looting, exchanging items was not out of the question if the enemy and their side were evenly matched.

This was also Sharl's idea. He had asked the high priest and learned that there was actually a very primitive barter system among the goblins, and the main items they exchanged were various kinds of food. Although they mostly accumulated wealth by looting, exchanging items was not out of the question if the enemy and their side were evenly matched.

Of course, such exchanges often fail and may even escalate into brawls, since, for a goblin, all I want is to trade a small blueberry for a grouse.

What? You disagree? You want to trade this handful of grass for the three mice next to me?

You idiot, do you know how delicious blueberries are, or how hard it is to catch mice?

And so, the battle began.

It's unclear who started the swinging of the stick; perhaps it was a group of goblins that swung it together during the trade. But that's normal, a trading method with "goblin characteristics."

Hearing the high priest's words, Sharl smiled. It was good that the goblins knew about the act of trading. He was afraid that all the goblins would just think "Oh my, oh my, ha, it's oh my," which would be troublesome.

So he began his "lavish spending" behavior, on the one hand cultivating the tribe's awareness of trade and commerce, and on the other hand, starting to differentiate all goblins in preparation for the future division of labor among the tribe.

At the same time, Ciel also had the One-Eyed make a special notice board, which was placed in front of the collapsed Feathered Serpent Tower.

The notice board was large, with only a few lines of text written on it in the Common Language, but he still had the buck-toothed and lame men explain it to everyone.

The shop sells food bought from Giethoorn, mainly handmade snacks like roasted chestnuts. The top item, which many goblins want to try again, is pale beer.

When Shire set up the notice board, he brought several large wooden barrels from Gieshorn, filled with light beer, and had all the goblins in his tribe try the drink.

The goblins in the tribe are now familiar with the taste of honey water, and some have even tried chrysanthemum tea and coffee, but pale beer is a first for all of them.

That strange feeling, a mixture of pleasure and bitterness, shocked many goblins.

As a race that had never drunk alcohol before, they quickly became addicted to it.

Many members of the tribe now want to try that magical drink again, but the only way to get it is to buy it with silver coins.

As a result, all the goblins started working with incredible enthusiasm.

Charles also had Mary and the Ear Cleaner's Tavern in Gieshorn order many large wooden barrels filled with beer, which should temporarily meet the needs of the tribe.

What's even more interesting is that the owner of the Ear Cleaner's Tavern actually asked what he wanted to do with so much pale beer. Was he planning to fill potion bottles with beer and sell them to adventurers? Or would mixing beer into healing potions make them more effective?

Mary simply smiled and did not answer the tavern owner's question.

"Put those logs to the side, pile them up, and be careful not to fall on yourselves." One-Eyed waved his hand loudly, instructing the team transporting the logs to first pile up the materials, and then start building the fence after the land was leveled.

Although the forest has no beer, it has no shortage of wood. Moreover, to build the city of all races, many trees need to be cut down, and these felled trees will be used to build the city.

One-Eyed diligently directed the entire construction site, but he felt somewhat overwhelmed. The area was too large, and there were too many goblins involved. He often missed things, and by the time he realized it, many mistakes had already been made.

He could only repeatedly review the plans and correct the mistakes made by the goblins, such as not placing the wood randomly, but piling it in fixed locations.

This situation has been occurring since day one. He had encountered it before when he led his tribe members to dig holes, but back then there were fewer members, so he could quickly discover it and correct it immediately.

However, with over a thousand goblins now involved in the collaboration, One-Eye is finding it difficult to keep up.

"Chief, this is too difficult." As soon as the first day of the project ended, One-Eye went to Charles and began to complain, "I can't keep up with everything. If I'm not paying attention for even a moment, they will make a mistake."

"I know it's normal to make mistakes." Charles put down "Where Are the Mythical Creatures?" and began to reassure his subordinates. "None of the goblins are participating in such a project for the first time. None of them have any experience with this, not even the High Priest."

However, even though they kept making mistakes, Charles was still happy. Making mistakes meant that his men had done their jobs, instead of just abandoning them and hiding in some hole to groom themselves. As long as they were willing to do something, making mistakes was acceptable.

"But nothing was accomplished today," One-Eye said, spreading his hands with a bitter expression on his face. "I wasn't paying attention and many members made mistakes. When I went to correct them, the other goblins just stood there watching me correct others. Only after I corrected everyone did these members start working again, but soon, more goblins made mistakes."

Charles explained to One-Eyed how to break down a large project and how to direct the other goblins to do their jobs.

One-Eye just nodded somewhat bewildered. He felt that this was very similar to when he used to lead other goblins to dig holes. Back then, he also had the ants master the worker ants, while the others cooperated in transporting materials, and some people cleaned up the soil.

Now, would it be better to let the other goblins play their old roles, but with the difference that they are just doing the same thing?

One-Eyed frowned, bit his finger, and walked out of the Shire's stone house with his head down. He almost bumped into other goblins, but it didn't distract him.

Broken Tooth, who had entered the stone house, looked at One-Eyed, who was leaving, with some surprise.

"Leader," Broken Tooth finally ignored One-Eye and reported directly what he had discovered, "They've all run away."

"Are they those cave dwellings?" Charles asked with a smile. "They must have run quite far by now."

Broken Tooth nodded. "It's very far, we keep running."

He meant that those cave dwellers were keeping their heads down and running around, as if they were very scared and wanted to get away from the area.

Charles knew that these goblins might be afraid of him, after all, the high priest had told them that he was the one who drove away Quetzalcoatl, and that the goblins were afraid of being caught and eaten by him.

"There's no chance either," Broken Tooth continued.

"Nothing's escaped?" Charles raised an eyebrow. "They're hiding in the surrounding forest?"

Broken Tooth nodded. "He's a military leader."

"The military leader?" Charles immediately remembered who it was. "That bald guy, right? He didn't run away, did he?"

Seeing his subordinate's certainty, Charles became intrigued. "This guy is smart. He knows it's hard to survive in the forest on his own, so he's hiding on the edge of the tribe. He's trying to take advantage of us."

His tribe is currently engaged in "large-scale construction," which has scared away the surrounding wild beasts. Baldy is certainly safe hiding nearby, and all he needs to do now is fill his own stomach. If something happens to his tribe, or if Quetzalcoatl returns again, he can still find a way to return to the Goblin Kingdom.

"Such a clever goblin is truly rare." Charles shook his head, then said to Broken Tooth, "You know where he is, right? Go beat him up, then chase him eastward. Be careful not to overdo it, just make sure he's still alive."

He planned to wait and see if the clever goblin Baldy could make any other discoveries in the forest. After all, Sharl had never been to the eastern part of the forest, and there must be other goblin tribes there.

As the "transportation captain," Baldy certainly wouldn't want to "be second best," and he might even resort to borrowing troops.

"Don't disappoint me." Ciel smiled and let Broken Tooth leave.

After meeting the leader, One-Eye began to gradually use the methods the leader had taught him. He assigned his former subordinates, who were already familiar with some basic operations, such as controlling worker ants or leveling the land.

Even so, mistakes still kept popping up on the construction site, but now that One-Eyed was correcting the mistakes, the other goblins were no longer watching.

I don't know if it's because I've seen it too much, or because I've gotten used to it.