Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

If you could only read one fantasy novel in your lifetime, it would probably be "The Forest Doesn't Keep Idle Goblins".

"I never knew you could use magic."

Diana walked beside Ciel, glancing at the goblin beside her.

The spell that just now was very powerful. Although it couldn't compare to the great fireballs and fireballs of those great mages, it was much more powerful than the half-baked magic of the mage apprentices, not to mention that the minotaurs immediately knelt down.

"It's nothing, just a little trick." Charles chuckled a few times, trying to bluff his way out. If Diana realized that this was a high-level spell used by a demon lord, the president of the Holy Crusade might just kidnap him and take him back to the Cathedral of the Church of War to present it as a treasure.

"A little trick?" Diana muttered softly. She didn't say anything more, but the goblin beside her seemed even more mysterious to her, which made her start to re-evaluate goblins.

He starts from the bottom and gradually builds his own city, ruling over many races, maintaining various connections with human society, and also using magic.

None of these steps alone could be accomplished by a goblin.

As it turned out, the goblin next to him who was trying to talk to the female kobold in front of him actually succeeded.

Diana narrowed her eyes, somewhat confused by Charles. However, after thinking for a few seconds, she breathed a sigh of relief. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, I am the commander of the Goblin Kingdom. I have plenty of time to see you clearly. Whether you are a goblin blessed by the gods or a demon in green skin, you will naturally reveal your true colors in time."

Thinking of this, Diana quickened her pace and caught up with Charles.

They had previously brought the tauren leader Bain to meet these kobolds, explained to them that they would be taking the tauren away soon, and promised that the tauren would not return.

However, the kobolds were somewhat skeptical, and Bain himself looked down on them, showing that the minotaurs and kobolds were indeed at odds.

But no matter what the process was like, the ending was still good. After all, the crisis in the mine was successfully resolved, and Sharl felt that he should be able to talk to the kobolds about trading magic crystals.

"I suppose this is a satisfactory result?" Sharl caught up with the female kobold and asked. He had previously discovered that not all kobolds could speak Common Tongue; they seemed to prefer Dragon Tongue.

As a "goblin" accustomed to speaking the Common Tongue, Sharl preferred to communicate with these young kobolds.

Unfortunately, the female kobold ignored Sharl's question, lowered her head slightly, and kept walking forward. Even though the other kobolds around her were chattering, she did not join in.

This puzzled Charles. He wondered what the female kobold was thinking. She was the one who initially wanted to resolve the minotaur crisis, and now that the crisis was over, she was the one who remained silent.

Are all kobolds this stubborn?

"Your deal is unlikely to succeed." Just as Sharl was pondering what to do next, the female kobold suddenly said something out of the blue.

These words immediately put Charles on alert. "Why?"

"The clan council meeting will probably take a long time to discuss," the female dog said, not even turning her head, continuing to walk on her own. "Their meetings are all about arguing and undermining each other. It will be a month before they reach a conclusion."

"So much time has passed, hasn't the crisis already been resolved?"

Charles was somewhat taken aback, but the female kobold's words drove him a little crazy.

"They won't make a decision directly, and when you come back a month later, someone will definitely change their mind again, and then the discussion will continue."

"Then I wasted my time dealing with the minotaurs?" Charles frowned. He felt like he had been tricked by the kobolds. This troublesome and stubborn race was really hard to deal with.

"It's not like there's no way," the female kobold said, glancing at Sharl out of the corner of her eye. "Later at the clan liaison meeting, don't say you have a lot of dragon bones, at most..."

After thinking for a moment, she held up two fingers, "There can only be two dragon bones at most."

"Why? My tribe has a lot of dragon bones." Shar said in a low voice. There were indeed a lot of materials piled up in the runeword material warehouse, including dragon bones that had turned gray. If Agatha hadn't said that they might be dragon bones, Shar would have thought they were the bones of some unknown forest beast.

"There are 21 kobold clans here, but that dragon bone belonged to only one clan." The female kobold looked up at the cave ceiling, her tone tinged with contempt. "That clan only brought out the dragon bone during the joint meeting vote, as a sacred witness, but many clans are already eyeing that dragon bone."

"Since you're so greedy, why not give one to each clan?"

The female dog-headed woman glanced at Xia Er with a strange look in her eyes. "Only by making these clans fight over each other will they be willing to trade their clan's magic crystals with you. If you give each clan one, they might start arguing and sabotaging you again after a few transactions. At that point, you can forget about continuing to trade magic crystals."

The female kobold's words enlightened Xia Er. He hadn't expected that the kobolds' magic crystals were held separately by each clan. But then he thought that these guys, who argued and fought like the Legislative Council of Taiwan, probably wouldn't let the magic crystals become shared by all clans.

"I understand, thank you." He nodded, expressing his gratitude for the female dog-headed woman's suggestion.

But the female dog-headed woman shook her head slightly. "No, I should be thanking you."

"Thank me? Because of the Tauren?"

"Well, you could say that. For us kobolds, mining is a daily routine. We hate sunlight, so we prefer to live underground. Mining allows us to obtain resources and also provides food from insects that like to swarm around the ore deposits." The female kobold paused for a few seconds, lowering her head as if suppressing something. "Injuries while mining are very common. Losing limbs is also a frequent occurrence. Losing hands and feet from fighting those minotaurs is the same."

"Yes, your family..." Charles glanced at the female dog-headed woman. Her limbs were intact, so it must be someone she knew who had been in trouble.

"He's my brother, missing both legs, and now he can only lie on the ground." The female dog-headed woman's tone revealed a hint of sadness.

She didn't specify, but Charles knew it must have been an amputation caused by severe injuries sustained in the fight with the minotaurs. However, after confirming the minotaurs' account, Charles was at a loss for words.

Does that mean that minotaurs, unable to get enough to eat, have no choice but to steal food and deserve to starve?

Or perhaps the minotaurs need to enslave the kobolds, driving these sun-hating races to pave a path to the surface for them? (Chapter update reminder: Chapter 365 Do the kobolds have teachers?, reading address.)

Given that one side is all brawn and no brains and the other side has a leadership that only argues and is generally stubborn, the only outcome that Xia Er could think of was to fight a few rounds first.

Ultimately, it's all the fault of anger. Why did they abandon the Bloodhoof tribe here and completely ignore them?

Ciel knew what Angry wanted to do, but he said nothing and just acted recklessly. This was indeed Angry's style of doing things.

It was the minotaurs, who were treated as vassals, who suffered greatly and were thus exiled.

This led to the Bloodhoof tribe completely losing trust in their former lord. The Tauren, who were originally a very loyal race, now harbored resentment towards their leader.

But then I thought about it again. Baine had said that the tauren who were vassals of Wrath had many tribes, and Bloodhoof was just the weakest of them. I guess the demon lord Wrath wouldn't take these loyal subordinates seriously.

"Hmm, are there many disabled kobolds among them?" Sharl said, looking around at the kobolds. These guys were all following the female kobold to guide the goblins, but among them, Sharl saw one who was missing an arm and another who walked with a limp.

"Quite a few people, what's wrong?" The female dog-headed woman glanced at Xia Er again, this time not so perfunctory, but turned her head to look at him for two seconds.

"I have some connections in other areas, and maybe I can find a way to get some prosthetics," Charles gestured to his own arm. "Those prosthetics are magic-powered. I don't know if they can help you, but you have magic crystals, so it should be easier for you."

Among human magicians, there is a type of magic called "prosthetic limbs," which uses the design concept of magical dolls but is made to resemble body limbs. It can compensate for one's own physical defects, but Sharl does not know whether kobolds can use such parts.

Moreover, those magical "prosthetics" were exquisitely crafted, mainly to match the magician's personal style, ornate and delicate, but clearly unsuitable for kobolds who swung pickaxes all day.

"Really?" The female kobold stopped in her tracks and even used her dragon language to scold the kobolds around her, telling them to shut up for the time being. Her eyes were fixed on Sharl, as if she wanted to see from the goblin's face whether he was lying to her.

"This method has been used among humans for a long time. You can ask her if you don't believe me," Charles pointed to Diana standing to the side and behind him. Seeing her nod without making a sound, he continued, "However, this magical prosthetic limb also needs to be remade, and we also need to see if the kobolds can control it. It's not that easy and will take time to test."

"It's worth a try, it's good that you can try." The female dog-headed woman gritted her teeth and muttered a few words. Then she raised her head, looked at the goblin who was not much taller than her, and pointed to her chest. "My name is Linghua, and I'm from the Stonetooth Clan."

This is the first time the kobolds have introduced themselves. They had always been wary of goblins, but now that they are taking the initiative to introduce themselves, it seems that the situation has changed.

But Sharl was very interested in the female dog-headed woman's name; he never expected that such a race would have such a beautiful name.

Those defensive lines were clearly designed, taking into account not only the height of the cave ceiling but also the earthen walls piled up in front for easy concealment. This should be quite effective against the minotaurs who like to charge and swing their axes.

This is probably one of the reasons why the Tauren have been unable to break through the Kobold mines for the time being.

"Your name is beautiful," Charles smiled, "and your Common Tongue is perfect too."

"Thank you." Linghua nodded, but did not smile at the goblin's praise.

"I've noticed that not everyone here speaks Common Tongue." Charles glanced at the kobolds around him, wondering if it was some kobold clan that had mastered Common Tongue, like the clan with the dragon bones.

"Not really," Linghua shook her head slightly. "There are very few kobolds in the mine who can speak Common Tongue, only 45. We all learned it from our teacher."

"A teacher?" Charles asked, surprised that kobolds had teachers.

"Yes, they gave me my name. Of course, my original name was..." Linghua hesitated. It was clear that her previous name was probably quite ordinary, something like "Gray Hair" or "Sharp Teeth."

But she didn't dwell on the name. Instead, she looked Charles up and down. "They taught us the Common Language, but I find it a little strange."

"strangeness?"

"Yes, they say they're goblins, but they're different from you," Linghua pointed to her skin. "You all have green skin. Shouldn't goblins have gray skin?"

"Gray-skinned goblins?" Charles raised an eyebrow; this was the first time he had ever heard of goblins in the forest that weren't green-skinned.

But then he suddenly remembered something, "Where are these goblins you mentioned?"

"Right inside the mine."

"Can you take me to see them now?" Charles stepped forward, his eyes shining as he looked at Linghua. He already knew what those goblins would be like.

"Uh, sure." Linghua hesitated for two seconds. "You're goblins too, and you look similar to them, so it shouldn't be a problem."

After saying that, she led Sharl and his group of goblins toward a side path.

After walking for more than ten minutes, the top of the mine above us became spacious again, and the blue glowing mushrooms around us gradually increased in number.

Finally, after rounding a corner, Charles heard a "gibberish" sound coming from ahead—the familiar goblin language.

"Look who's here, Linghua. What's wrong? Is there something you don't understand that you want to ask?" A gray-skinned goblin, about 1.5 meters tall, walked over. Then he saw the group of green-skinned goblins standing behind Linghua, which made him freeze on the spot.

"Forest goblin?" The gray-skinned goblin blinked its blue eyes, somewhat unable to believe what it was seeing.

Those blue eyes were beautiful; the entire eye was sky blue, with an even deeper blue in the pupils, and several tiny white dots in the pupils, like stars in the night sky.

Of course, Charles knew that these eyes would be even more valuable if they were specially treated, and they also had a resounding name—the Eyes of the Sky.

"Weren't cave goblins extinct on the continent?"