Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Charles was well aware of the value of the Eye of the Sky; as an extremely rare gem, it was something only the most powerful nobles possessed.

This directly led to the disappearance of cave goblins.

But now, Charles is surrounded by dozens of cave goblins. If an adventurer were standing here, their eyes would be shining and their hands would be unconsciously reaching for their sword hilts.

After all, every cave goblin is a walking pile of gold coins.

Xia Er surveyed the timid, gray-skinned goblins around him. These goblins, perhaps due to a lack of sunlight, no longer had gray-white skin, but their height and appearance were indeed the same as those of forest goblins. They must be a branch of goblins. There used to be a theory that cave goblins were actually the product of crossbreeding kobolds and goblins, but now it seemed that theory was nothing but conjecture and nonsense.

The cave goblins were all hiding and avoiding eye contact with Sharl. It was clear they were cowardly, perhaps because they knew they were "valuable." Of course, Diana, standing behind Sharl, also put a lot of pressure on them.

"How long have you lived here?" Charles broke the silence and asked.

None of the goblins answered voluntarily; instead, they became even more flustered, seemingly intensified by the fact that Sharl had spoken in Common.

Charles was puzzled. He didn't know how things had turned out this way. Logically speaking, the other party was also a goblin, so they should be able to communicate to some extent.

"I mean no harm." Charles spread his hands, indicating that he was safe, while glancing at the female dog-headed woman Linghua not far away, his eyes revealing a questioning look.

Linghua sighed softly, then walked to the middle of the cave goblins. After a few words of conversation, she brought over a female goblin. "You can ask my teacher."

"What's your name?" Ciel asked with a smile, trying to appear friendly.

"Blue Lori," the Mother Cave Goblin replied curtly, startling Sharl.

Moreover, this name is not typical of goblins. They usually name themselves based on their physical characteristics, and most of the time, goblins don't choose their own names; instead, other goblins gradually come up with them by calling them names.

Just like Ciel, who kept emphasizing that he was handsome, but the goblins preferred the name "Green Egg".

However, the name of the cave goblin in front of him sounded like a human name, which aroused Sharl's curiosity.

Before this, Linghua had mentioned that these cave goblins generally spoke the Common Tongue, seemed to be able to count, and even used some crude tricks, which made Sharl more interested in the cave goblins than in the magic crystals in the mine.

"May I ask how long you've been living here?"

"It's been a long time." Lan Luoli glanced at Xia Er and gave a brief answer, then added, "It's been four years."

"You know how to keep time," Charles raised an eyebrow, perhaps these cave goblins even knew addition and subtraction.

"We understand."

Seeing Lan Luoli nod slightly, Charles suddenly smiled and asked, "What's 124 plus 213?"

The sudden question startled the Mother Cave Goblin. She looked at Charles with suspicion and a questioning look in her eyes, but Charles still looked expectant.

"337".

"You can count, and you can even do calculations?" Charles pursed his lips, looking at the mother goblin opposite him with shining eyes.

But his appearance clearly frightened Lan Luoli, causing her to slowly take a step back, her hands unconsciously clenching into fists as if to protect herself.

"Don't be nervous," Charles immediately pressed his hands down. "I mean no harm, I just wanted to ask how you all know the Common Language and can do calculations?"

"I've been learning it since elementary school," Lan Luoli managed to say.

"So, you cave goblins all learned this from a young age?" Charles's gaze had become unusually eager, and even Diana beside him frowned as she looked at him, not quite understanding why this tribal chief was acting like a lecherous old nobleman seeing a beautiful woman.

"Yes, yes."

Do you have human teachers?

"No, we learned it from books." Lan Luoli looked at Xia Er taking a step forward, and unconsciously took a step back.

"You have books?" Charles's eyes widened. This was simply unbelievable. It wouldn't be news if a group of goblins said they had dead rats, a few bird eggs, or even a rabbit that had run into a hole and died. But for cave goblins to say they had books was like a beggar saying his begging bowl was made of Yuan blue and white porcelain.

Seeing Lan Luoli nod somewhat awkwardly, Xia Er immediately put on a smile, "Could you take me to see it?"

He took another step closer, even wanting to drag the cave goblin directly to see their "library".

However, Lan Luoli did not refuse. Anyway, the kobolds had seen those books, so it wouldn't matter if she refused.

Charles left his men behind and, along with Diana and Linghua, followed the cave goblins into their mine. The mine was slightly lower than the minotaur area, but noticeably more spacious than the kobold area.

He was taken to an underground space, about ten square meters in size, where nearly twenty books were stacked on several large rocks.

The books were not arranged neatly, indicating that they had been frequently read. The pages of some books had become rough, and the covers showed obvious wear and tear.

"Are these the books you're reading?" Charles walked over, picked up a book at random, and flipped through it. "The Poems Under the Moonlight?"

"Yes." Lan Luoli nodded behind him.

Charles did not ask any further questions, but began to examine the books. Judging from the titles, most of them were introductory reading materials, some contained basic mathematical and scientific knowledge, some contained natural history content, and there were also a few collections of poems and novels.

"May I ask where you obtained these books?" Charles asked with a broad smile, waving the book "Elementary Arithmetic and Notation" in his hand.

"I don't know, the earliest clan chief brought these books with him."

"Where are the others?"

"She's already dead." There was little sadness in Lan Luoli's voice.

"My teacher, the chief of their tribe also passed away a few days ago," Linghua said from the side. In their view, the death of one or two tribe members in the forest should be a very common thing.

This news saddened Sharl. Compared to the high priest in his tribe who always described Sharl as a "gift from the gods," he wanted to meet the chieftain of the cave goblins who had preserved these books.

Goblins, a race that can't even guarantee a full stomach, actually make a fuss about preserving books. You have to know that when this race is hungry, they would probably eat all the papers.

"He must have been a goblin raised by humans and taught knowledge." This was Sharl's deduction, and it seemed to be the only explanation. After thinking for a few seconds, he looked at the books and asked again, "So you've been protecting these books all this time?"

"Yes," Lan Luoli nodded, then glanced at Diana beside her and said, "The chieftain said that only by possessing knowledge can we be safer and stay away from the slaughter of humans."

"Hoo—" Charles let out a long breath, then put down the book in his hand, turned around and stared intently at the cave goblin opposite him. He softened his tone and tried to make his voice gentle, "Come to my tribe, become one of my people, and I will protect your safety."

"You?" Lan Luoli was taken aback. She hadn't expected the other party to come up with such an idea. Linghua had only said that these goblins were here to resolve the conflict between kobolds and minotaurs. Why were they now recruiting cave goblins?

"Yes, my tribe is very large," Charles said with a confident smile, patting his leather coat. He said in a friendly tone, "You see, we are not just ordinary goblins who laze around doing nothing. We eat and dress very well, and I also have trading channels to obtain a lot of resources."

Seeing that the cave goblin still looked suspicious, Sharl thought for a moment and continued, "Moreover, we are very powerful. Many races have already submitted to us, and our numbers now exceed 5000. And look, we also have considerable martial prowess and magical artifacts."

As he spoke, he grasped the small magic crystal on his collar with both hands, and with a "whoosh," Charles became invisible in front of the group.

Lan Luoli and Linghua were immediately stunned and took a few steps back in a panic, while Diana stood still, but her brows were furrowed, seemingly very surprised that Charles had such a powerful magical item.

With a "whoosh," Charles lowered his hands and reappeared in the same spot. He was very satisfied with the effect just now. "How about that? I didn't lie to you, did I?"

"Why do you want to recruit us?" Lan Luoli asked cautiously. As a walking "gold coin pile," she was wary of other races.

"I value your knowledge." Sharl nodded with a smile. "Few in my tribe understand these things. Some can only talk about them but can't write them, and many more can't even count to numbers above 20. I want to hire you and pass on the knowledge you possess to other goblins."

This reason silenced Lan Luoli and Linghua, while Diana's brows furrowed even more.

"Furthermore, I am building our tribe's own city in the forest, which will be the place where our tribe will live in the future. You are also goblins, so you should know that only by uniting everyone can we become stronger."

Lan Luoli watched as Xia Er slowly closed his outstretched fingers and finally clenched his fist, and she frowned as well.

To be honest, what the goblin leader said made a lot of sense. As a cave goblin who had read all the books here, Lan Luoli could completely understand. However, the tragic experiences of the cave goblins kept challenging her rationality.

It's important to know that adventurers weren't the only ones who slaughtered cave goblins before; other races did it too.

Moreover, to obtain the best "Eye of the Sky" material, one must extract the eyeball while the person is alive.

"I..." Lan Luoli hesitated. Her distrust of the outside world made her want to refuse Xia Er's invitation.

"Or," Charles interrupted Lan Luoli, "you can come with me to see my tribe. We'll be back in a few days to take those minotaurs away anyway."

"Take the minotaur away?" Lan Luoli was taken aback. "You're going to dig open the entrance?"

"No, that's not it." Charles shrugged. "We'll take the minotaurs away in a way you'd never expect."

These words made Lan Luoli frown; she couldn't think of any other unexpected method.

"Uh," seeing that the other party was still hesitant to make a decision, Charles glanced at the books on the ground and continued, "I have some other books here, which you probably haven't read before, as well as some interesting novels and poetry collections. I think you might like them."

"Books?" Lan Luoli unconsciously clasped her hands together. "Are there many?"

"Many, I've seen them." Diana answered directly from the side. She had seen Charles's stone chamber, and there were indeed some books inside, but not many. Now she looked at Charles in front of her with great interest, a meaningful smile appearing on her lips.

"I," Lan Luoli glanced at Diana, and finally, as if she had made a great decision, nodded heavily, "I can go with you to take a look."

"That's great!" Charles clapped his hands vigorously a few times. He hadn't expected that it would be books that finally convinced the other party. It seemed that he needed to get Mary to bring him a lot of books right away.

…………

In the forest, Shire leaned against the wall of the worker ant's cargo compartment, turned to the cave goblin who was looking around, and asked, "What do you eat in the mine?"

"Mushroom." Lan Luoli lay on the side of the cargo box, looking around curiously. Her gaze was fixed on the soldier ants next to her and Diana sitting on the back of the soldier ants.

"Mushrooms? Picked in the forest?"

"No, it's something left over from before, probably mushrooms from the mushroom man," Lan Luoli said without turning her head.

"Fungi people?" Charles raised an eyebrow. He had read about this race in natural history books. They were giant mushroom-like creatures, peaceful by nature, and fed on mushrooms and fungi. However, they mainly lived in underground ruins or swamps and were unwilling to leave the mushroom forests where they lived.

"Yes, it's something left over from before. Of course, we also eat the kobolds' bugs."

"What do those mushrooms taste like?" Charles asked curiously.

"It doesn't taste good, it's a bit bitter, and eating too much of it can cause poisoning, and you'll see a lot of strange things." Lan Luoli recalled her previous experience and stuck out her tongue.

"I see." Ciel leaned against the wall of the room, abandoning his idea of ​​trying the mushroom man.

But then he suddenly remembered something, sat up, and looked at the cave goblin. "Can I ask you something?"

Lan Luoli turned to look at Xia Er and blinked her blue eyes.

It must be said, those large, sky-blue eyes were truly dazzling. Charles smiled. "What does 'Lach' mean in the kobolds' mouths?"

"Latch?" Lan Luoli smiled. "That's in Dragon language, meaning a rotten egg, a slang term for an idiot."

"Idiot?" Charles chuckled awkwardly. "Then do you know any way to trade magic crystals with kobolds?"

"I know, it's very simple." Lan Luoli nodded with a smile.