Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

How many parts make up a staff?

The answer is three parts: the shaft, the head, and the connecting part.

The staff is usually made of precious wood or bone, and some people prefer to use metal. This is mainly because some magicians like to take unconventional approaches, so that if the enemy really gets close, they will have a handy "weapon" at hand.

The connecting parts are almost entirely made of mithril, a metal that can adapt well to magical fields and is the best material for conducting magic.

As for the staff head, there are many options, such as wood with a certain magical power, crystallized bone, etc., but the best choice is magic crystal.

Magic crystals can amplify the effects of spells and also store some magical energy. If a magician wields a staff inlaid with a magic crystal, it's like putting a motor and battery on a shared bicycle. That's why no one dislikes magic crystals.

These things are divided into several grades based on their appearance and size: low, ordinary, superior, and high-grade. Among them, the price of high-grade magic crystals is extremely high. Ordinary mages may not be able to afford them; only high-level archmages possess them.

One high-grade magic crystal can hire a high-grade knight order for a whole year, and the slots are fiercely contested by several companies.

Magic crystals can also be used in various magical items, and can even be used as materials for arcane rune arrays and four divine rune arrays. Therefore, as long as you have magic crystals on hand, you can definitely sell them on the market, even if they are of low quality.

Charles knew that the price of this stuff could sometimes be outrageous, so he hadn't asked Uncle Musa to buy it before. In contrast, the price of mithril was acceptable, and if they got it from the Third Prince, they could get high-quality mithril materials. But if they were to exchange it for magic crystals, it would probably be difficult to negotiate a lower price.

He had just obtained a lot of magical beast bones from the goblin of Quetzalcoatl. The old man Marshall had mentioned that some of these beast bones contained a little magical energy and could be used as materials for bone staffs. However, they could not replace magic crystals, and once they were used up, they were just ordinary bones and could only be used as "consumables".

Now, the magic crystal in the severed hand made his eyes light up. "This seems to be the right thing to do."

There are still two areas on his territory map that have not been fully explored, which makes Sharl very excited.

All the previous experiences have more or less improved the strength of the race. Whether it is slimes or frogmen, after learning that adventurers will re-enter the forest after spring, Sharl decided to complete the exploration of these two areas as soon as possible.

On the one hand, it could enhance the strength of the clan; on the other hand, he wanted to see if he could improve his own personal abilities.

[Monument Material: Charles Mello]

Race: Goblin (Human)

[Danger Level: 1, Low-level]

[Subordinates: 4810/4822]

【personality:???】

【个人能力：群体降智诅咒（当日剩余可用次数5\/5），群体语言诅咒（当日剩余可用次数5\/5），真实魔能爆（当日剩余可用次数3\/3）】

[My own status: Advanced Transformation Curse (Negative), Heart of a Warrior (Positive, Recovering), Blessing of the Mother Tree (Positive), Blessing of the God of Earth and Life (Positive), Blessing of the God of Battle and Glory (Positive), Newborn Queen Ant (Positive, Growing), Soul Contract with the Demon Lord (Negative, Ten Years), Mysterious Contract between Vampire and Werewolf (Positive)]

Title: Chief of the Forest Tribe

Charles is not entirely satisfied with his current stats, especially the subordinates section. He is still 200 subordinates short of unlocking the [Personal Magic Book], which is very important to him.

The main reason is that his current magic all comes from the contract with him. If the contract is suddenly broken, it is very likely that all three of his magic spells will disappear.

Now, Sharl is completely dependent on the [Mind-Loss Curse] and the [Language Curse]. He has also deeply felt the benefits of these two spells. To be honest, with his 1.3-meter height and bald goblin appearance, no one should be willing to believe what he says, but in the end, he has gained the trust of others time and time again.

Even more outrageous is that the leader of the Crusades readily believed him.

Moreover, he has now acquired a seemingly powerful spell – [True Magic Burst].

Ciel doesn't want all of this to disappear now.

If all these spells are copied into the [Personal Spellbook], does that mean I can get spells from the demon lord without any problems in the future?

So, once things were settled, he immediately set off to explore this place.

"This is a normal quality magic crystal," Diana said with a hint of surprise.

Although not as expensive as high-grade magic crystals, even ordinary quality ones are worth a considerable amount of money.

Those mage apprentices couldn't produce a single ordinary-quality magic crystal. The mage adventurers that Sharl killed were carrying staffs inlaid with inferior magic crystals.

The only exception was the magician who died by his bedside that night. He was holding an ordinary magic crystal staff, but even now, Charles doesn't know his identity or why this guy came to assassinate him. He originally thought he was an assassin sent by Count Valentine, but now he has given up on that idea.

Nobles sometimes spend a lot of money to hire assassins, but no matter the outcome, they always get results. But that mage died so mysteriously, and nothing happened afterward. This is not in line with the way nobles do things.

"What's going on next?" Charles took the magic crystal from Broken Tooth's hand and examined it closely. Diana, who was beside him, also leaned over and whispered, "This one piece is enough to live comfortably in Golden Flower City for many years."

"Yes, that's right." Charles nodded, then casually stuffed the fist-sized magic crystal into the leather pouch at his lower back, amidst Diana's envious gaze.

"There's more below," Broken Tooth said, pointing to the leader's bag.

"A lot?" Charles raised an eyebrow. He'd really come to the right place; he hadn't expected to find such a large quantity of magic crystals stored here—a windfall. "Can you bring them all up?"

"Yes, something is guarding it." Broken Tooth shook his head.

"Guards? What do they look like? Humans?" Charles glanced at the dark entrance to the cave and frowned as he asked.

"They...they look..." Broken Tooth thought for a moment, then began to describe the appearance of those guys haltingly.

According to his description, there were quite a few of these creatures, but they were not very tall, only about one meter tall. Their limbs and backs were covered with small scales, and there were some finger-length bristles in the gaps between the scales on their backs.

Moreover, they have red eyes and two small, milky-white horns on their heads.

"Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember it." Diana, standing beside her, crossed her arms and thought for a few seconds before saying, "It might be a kobold."

"Kobolds?" Charles opened his mouth, "What race is that?"

"I should have thought of them when I first got the magic crystals." Diana nodded. "This race is afraid of light and prefers to live underground or deep in the forest, but they have a very strong sense of smell. Unlike the sense of smell of ordinary dogs, the kobolds' sense of smell is specifically for magic, especially magic crystal mines."

Upon hearing this, Charles raised an eyebrow. He had previously read about this in Agatha Christie's books, but he never expected to encounter it today.

"These guys eat a variety of things, but they don't like to eat intelligent beings. The book says they seem to be following some kind of agreement. Also, their colors are mainly brown and black, they can speak dragon language, and they call themselves the lowest-ranking dragon companions," Diana continued to explain, but her brows gradually furrowed.

"What's wrong?" Charles looked at the other person's expression and gradually had a bad feeling.

"They like to live in various mines and love to dig for minerals, especially magic crystals. However, they are very stubborn and do not easily trust other races. Because they have been digging underground for many years, they will use various traps, poisonous insects and slings to attack their enemies."

"This..." Charles pursed his lips. He had just tried to use his magic to see if he could persuade the kobolds underground to cooperate with him and sell him the magic crystals. He believed that these guys had lived in the underground mines for many years, and the entrances to the mines on the surface looked "purely natural" and had not been maintained for many years. He thought that he could probably take the magic crystals back with very little effort.

He even thought that by showing off his domineering presence in front of the kobolds, these guys would immediately bow down and become his subordinates, thus unlocking his [Personal Magic Book].

"How about we make contact?" Charles asked after a few seconds of contemplation.

"We can give it a try." Diana thought for a moment and nodded. "But we need to have a backup plan. If things go wrong, we need to leave immediately."

After some discussion, Sharl led his goblin minions into the cave one after another.

…………

The entrance to the cave was very low, only slightly higher than the top of Ciel's head, which forced Diana and several goblins, who were about 1.5 meters tall, to hunch their shoulders and lower their heads as they moved forward.

Fortunately, as they went deeper, the cave gradually became more spacious, and the original appearance of the mine was gradually revealed. Wooden supports and beams could be seen on the cave walls.

"This mine looks very old." Charles stared at the supporting wooden beams, the signs of age on them making him feel somewhat sentimental.

"I'm more concerned about who built this mine than the time," Diana said, looking around. "Digging a mine like this isn't something that can be done overnight, but neither humans nor dwarves can stay in the forest for more than three days."

Charles knew that Diana meant that digging such a mine would require a lot of manpower and resources, which was beyond the reach of ordinary noble lords. But now that the mine was actually right in front of him, it gave him a bold idea.

Could this mine have existed for five thousand years?

But he quickly dismissed the idea. How could a mine have existed for so long? After 5000 years of mining, all kinds of minerals would have been exhausted by now.

"Ahead, the underground hall," Broken Tooth, who was walking in front, said in a low voice, turning his head.

Then Charles waved his hand, signaling all the goblins to be quiet and slow down. There were usually guards or traps in such a hall. He had done the same when he dealt with the Storm Brotherhood and Philip. Putting himself in their shoes, Charles felt there was a certain risk involved.

As they went deeper, the group soon arrived at the hall that Broken Tooth had mentioned. It was indeed an underground space, but not very large. Based on Diana's light spell, Sharl estimated that it was only a little over a hundred square meters.

Opposite the hall, there are five exits, suggesting that this is a junction of the mine shafts.

"Nobody here?" Charles looked around, puzzled. Could it be that these kobolds had become complacent and less vigilant after a long period of peace?

"How far are those kobolds from here?" Charles pulled Broken Tooth over and asked in a low voice.

But the answer he received was "It's right in front of you."

This made Charles a little wary, and just as he was about to send Broken Tooth to check again, a series of "whooshing" sounds came from the mine ahead.

"It doesn't sound like the wind, it sounds more like..." Charles narrowed his eyes, it sounded like the sound of a pack of African hyenas he had heard in his previous life.

With the sound, the mine entrance was immediately crowded with strange creatures that were only one meter tall. They were shirtless, holding a leather-woven sling in one hand and a somewhat dim, transparent crystal in the other.

Those are low-quality magic crystals.

"These kobolds are using magic crystals as projectiles?" Shar frowned, suddenly finding the kobolds opposite him quite extravagant.

"Be careful, the magic crystal can also explode slightly if it is subjected to a certain impact." Diana gripped the hilt of her sword and moved closer.

"These guys are so extravagant, they actually want to use magic crystals to blow us up." Xia Er muttered irritably. He didn't care about being blown up, but he was worried about the magic crystals. Even if they were of low quality, they would still be worth some money.

The mines opposite were soon filled with kobolds, who kept yelling "woof woof woof," and some of them were swinging their slings in circles.

While instructing everyone to form a battle formation, Sharl observed the opposing force. These kobolds did not seem particularly hostile, as they had not yet launched an attack.

Just as Charles was about to ask a question, a figure stepped out from the group of kobolds and shouted, "Ulasida!"

"What is this language?" Ciel turned to look at Diana beside him, somewhat bewildered. This was the first time he had heard a language he didn't understand in another world.

"It must be Dragon Language," Diana said softly, gripping the hilt of her sword.

"Do you speak Dragon Language?"

"How could I? I'm not a dragon knight."

"You, the commander-in-chief of the Crusades, don't even know Dragon Language?"

"As the president, all I need to do is kill people well, why do I need to know the Dragon Language?"

Charles was speechless. Upon reflection, he realized that Diana was right; the Crusaders did not determine their ranks based on their scores in ancient language exams.

"Then what should we do?" he continued to ask.

"Try asking if they speak Common, or if that doesn't work, try Goblin."

Charles couldn't help but smile wryly. Is this the benefit of learning another language? He had brought Furu with him this time, but the entrance to the cave was too small, and Furu, that big round cake, couldn't squeeze in and had to stay outside.

"We mean no harm, we just came here to take a look." He cleared his throat and then spoke loudly in Common Tongue.

After repeating it twice, the other side was still yelling "woo woo woo".

"Damn it, it seems no one knows Common Tongue. If they don't know Goblin either, we're in trouble." Charles had no choice but to switch to Goblin to ask.

"Are you the reinforcements those guys called?" A Common tongue voice suddenly rang out from among the kobolds.

"Me? Reinforcements?" Charles's lips twitched. What was going on here? How did we get so close to the "monkey reinforcements" part?

"We're not reinforcements, we're just here to explore," he said, spreading his arms to indicate that he meant no harm. "We just wanted to talk to you."

After saying that, he secretly cast the [Mass Intelligence Reduction Curse] and the [Mass Language Curse] on himself.

A low voice came from among the kobolds, but because they were speaking in dragon language and the other kobolds were making a lot of noise, Sharl couldn't hear them at all.

"We have nothing to talk about, get out of here," the kobold shouted again.

"No, we mean no harm," Charles continued. He wanted to try and buy some magic crystals from the kobolds; he couldn't let Broken Tooth stay here all day until he stole all the magic crystals. "I wanted to ask, can your magic crystals be traded?"

Before he could finish speaking, the kobold on the other side shouted, "You said you weren't here to help, but you really are after the magic crystals!"

Then all the kobolds started making a loud "woof woof woof" noise, and each of them swung their slings.

"Something's not right." Diana gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.

Charles frowned. Things had taken an unexpected turn. He hadn't expected that mentioning the magic crystal would provoke hostility from the other side. It was too late to retreat now. The narrow entrance to the cave restricted the team's movement, but he felt unwilling to fight the other side.

"Listen to me, I am not your enemy, and we came from the ground. You can see that there are not many of us, so we can't possibly be any kind of reinforcements." He spread his arms and raised his voice, trying to continue to persuade the other party.

The entrance to the cave was clearly untouched for many years, so the kobolds' enemies must be somewhere inside the cave.

This remark indeed sparked a discussion on the other side, and after thinking for a moment, Charles continued loudly, "I mean no harm, we can talk."

As he spoke, he spread his hands and took two steps forward.

Diana frowned slightly and slowly drew her longsword with both hands.

Charles's actions clearly provoked the kobolds on the other side, who growled louder and spun their slings faster.

Then the voice rang out again, "Come here alone."

This pleased Charles, who turned to the people behind him and said, "I'll go take a look. Don't make any rash moves."

"Be careful. Although kobolds aren't a crazy race, they are cowardly and cunning. Don't let your guard down," Diana whispered.

"Don't worry, I know." Charles nodded, then slowly walked towards the kobold.

…………

"What race are you?"

Soon, Charles met the kobolds who spoke Common. To his surprise, the kobolds seemed to be quite young, and there were several other kobolds with him who also seemed to speak Common.

As for the kobolds around him, they looked at Charles warily, a hint of hostility in their eyes, suggesting they might not know the Common Language.

This puzzled Sharl. Could it be that among the kobolds, there were also creatures who were captured and raised by humans, taught the Common Language, and then released back into the wild?

"I am a goblin." Sharl generously spread his hands, indicating that he posed no threat.

"Goblin?" The kobold sized up Sharl. "Do you think we're 'Lach'? Goblins are supposed to be gray-skinned, why are you green-skinned?"

Ciel didn't know what "Lach" meant, but it didn't sound like a good word. However, the other party seemed to have never seen goblins in the forest and actually said that goblins weren't green-skinned.

"I am indeed a goblin." Sharl shrugged, reiterating his identity.

The kobolds opposite exchanged another hushed conversation, then one of them spoke up, "You said you wanted to talk, what about?"

This kobold looks softer-looking, and its chest is somewhat... The sound was also quite clear and crisp; could it be a female dog-headed human?

Xia Er knew that the book recorded that these kobolds were basically matrilineal clans, with female kobolds having greater say, and that a kobold clan consisted of multiple clans, each of which consisted of ten families.

"I'd like to discuss a trade involving magic crystals with you," Sharl said, pointing to a magic crystal in the hand of a kobold beside him. "My people need magic crystals, and I'm willing to trade some items for them."

"We don't sell our magic crystals." The female kobold refused outright, and as she spoke, the surrounding kobolds lowered their growling sounds.

"Not for sale?" Charles pursed his lips. Almost all creatures in the forest experience shortages of supplies. Just like the frogmen lack enough food and beer, and the centaurs lack equipment and building materials, he didn't believe that these kobolds wouldn't lack supplies.

"I can offer you what you lack in exchange for something," Charles continued calmly. "Food, drink, or various materials, even iron tools."

He looked around at the kobolds' hands; none of them were carrying pickaxes or shovels, whereas logically some members should be carrying such tools.

"We...we don't need it," the female dog-headed woman continued to refuse, but her words faltered slightly, as if she had hesitated for a moment.

"I..." Charles tried hard to recall what he had read in the book, and suddenly the words of the skeleton warrior Mr. Elton flashed through his mind. On the night he fought against Quetzalcoatl, he seemed to have mentioned something about kobolds.

"I can also use some dragon bones for trading." He finally remembered that these kobolds liked to display a dragon bone in their homes for worship, and there were quite a few dragon bone materials stored in the runeword material warehouse.

The news of the dragon bones sparked a debate among the kobolds on the other side, though they were speaking in dragon language, much like Diana had described: cunning.

Soon, the female dog-headed woman shook her head again, rejecting Sharl's offer.

However, a kobold next to him muttered something under his breath.

"Taking down those guys isn't out of the question."