Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

boast?

Xia Er stroked his chin, somewhat doubtful of Shui Yumo's answer. Could it be that as long as one praised the evil book, it could break through the limitations of living beings and even change from poisonous to non-poisonous?

Does that mean that if you just praise it, the sheep will grow as big as an elephant?

"Let's give it a try." Charles pulled the evil book back in front of him. The pages of the evil book, which had just indicated that it had no other options, looked a little yellowed, which made Charles think that it might be a little uneasy now.

"Little book." Charles cleared his throat and gave a charming smile, though he didn't understand why a goblin would smile at a book.

"I have always felt that I underestimated your role, and even underestimated your loyalty."

"But now I realize that you are the one who works diligently and always provides me with excellent solutions."

As Ciel spoke, the pages of the evil book clearly turned from yellow to white.

"I really need these mushrooms; they're very important to my tribe. But if you really can't do it, then forget it. I know everyone has their limits."

As soon as these words were spoken, a line of small print appeared on the page of the evil book: "If you want to know a solution..."

Seeing that no more words appeared after the small print, Charles pursed his lips, realizing that the praise wasn't enough.

"Actually, I've always felt that you're very useful and capable of doing so much more."

"Don't underestimate yourself just because you're just a spirit. You should know that there are different levels among spirits, and a spirit can become an important factor in influencing the world's situation."

"When that time comes, history will remember your significant contributions."

"Little Book, do you want to become a spirit known to the world? No, if that were the case, it might not be called a spirit anymore; people would probably call it a 'sacred object'."

After Charles finished speaking, he stared intently at the evil book spread out in front of him. There was still no movement behind the small print on the page, but the page of the evil book was gradually turning red, as if it had become somewhat excited.

"I have no intention of becoming a holy relic," finally, the words reappeared on the pages of the evil book, "I only wish to stay by the side of the True God, and if I can be of even the slightest help to the Lord, I will be content."

"Little book," Charles raised an eyebrow after reading the words on the evil book, "you have indeed helped me. I will treasure the potion recipe you gave me."

Seeing that the pages of the evil book had all turned red, but no new text appeared, Xia Er frowned slightly. Could it be that Shui Yumo's answer was wrong?

Or perhaps I haven't praised it enough?

He thought for a moment, considering whether he should try a different way to praise her.

Finally, as Charles pondered, the pages of the evil book began to shake. After a few seconds, the shaking subsided, and then new text appeared on the now reddened pages: "True God, you may cut a small piece of that mushroom and place it in the middle of my page."

"Put the mushrooms on the pages?" Charles frowned. Was this a method given by the evil book?

Without thinking twice, he got up and ran out quickly.

Not long after, Charles returned to his desk with a mushroom the size of a thumb.

He placed the mushroom pieces in the middle of the book's pages, then smiled and said, "This is the mushroom. Do you want to see it in person?"

No, that's not it.

After the brief writing ended, dozens of black tentacles suddenly sprouted from the pages of the evil book. These tentacles, like nematodes, tightly wrapped around the mushroom fragments, turning the originally white mushroom fragments into black cubes wriggling with tentacles.

Then, to Charles's astonishment, the mushroom fragment was slowly pulled into the pages of the evil book.

"This is... eaten?" Charles stared at the pages of the evil book, the originally red pages now slowly fading.

Then, he saw that the edges of the pages of the evil book began to slowly turn black and curl up. The blackness then began to spread from the periphery into the page seams, and even the pages below began to turn black and curl up.

Soon, dozens of pages turned black and shrank, eventually becoming the size of black fungus. Then, in Charles's gaze, they slowly collapsed into a small handful of black ash.

"What's wrong with you?" Charles asked, wiping the black ash from the remaining pages of the evil book.

"It's nothing," words began to appear on the pages of the evil book, though the handwriting looked rather messy, and the remaining pages had little luster, only revealing a pale white color. "I just ate that mushroom. As a spirit, I cannot eat physical food; at most, I can only feed on souls. If I were to forcibly eat physical food, my own spirit would suffer great damage."

"Then why did you do it?" Charles looked at the black ashes beside him. With those pages gone, the evil book had become at least a third thinner.

"I will do my best to fulfill the request of the True God. Only in this way can I better experience the actual situation of the mushroom."

"Then," Ciel hesitated for a moment, "do you feel anything?"

"There is some, but it will take some time. I am a bit weak right now and need to analyze it slowly before I can give specific improvement methods."

After examining the writing in the evil book, Charles slowly exhaled, as if things had taken a turn for the better. However, judging from the appearance of the evil book, it was best not to try to improve it any further, otherwise it wouldn't last more than two rounds.

"Alright, you should get some rest first. I'll ask you about the improvements in a few days."

After saying that, Charles copied down the recipe for the new potion from the evil book and went directly to Agatha.

The potion was completed in no time.

Charles frowned as he looked at the blue potion, trying to recall the details of the previous potion.

"I remember the color of the previous Soul Potion seemed to change, eventually turning deep red. Why doesn't this one change at all?"

After speaking, Charles looked up at Agatha beside him, who was tidying up the experimental table.

"How would I know?" Agatha complained as she worked, "It's all prepared according to the ingredients in the recipe."

"Is there anything wrong with this potion?" Charles asked tentatively.

"According to the ingredient list, there shouldn't be any problems. They're all normal ingredients, and there are no poisons or hallucinogenic substances in them. It's just that there are a few more ingredients than the previous potion." Agatha quickly finished tidying up the equipment, then returned to her desk and opened her notebook.

"That should be fine." After saying that, Charles opened the cap of the potion bottle, smelled it, and then frowned as he drank it all in one gulp.

"How was it?" A few seconds after finishing his drink, he spread his hands, stood in front of Agatha, and looked at her hopefully. "Have I changed at all?"

"Changes?" Agatha looked Charles up and down.

Then, her eyes widened, "You, you seem to..."

As she spoke, Agatha extended a finger, pointing tremblingly at Ciel, "It seems, it seems..."

"What's wrong with me?" Ciel raised his eyebrows and asked expectantly.

"You seem," Agatha said, her tone suddenly changing after tapping her fingers a few times with trembling fingers, "you seem like a goblin."

"You..." Charles let out a long breath, realizing he'd been tricked by his old classmate. "I asked you, did you sense any divinity in me?"

"Divinity?" Agatha's lips curled into a smirk. "It seems that becoming a goblin has finally affected your mind."

"No, I mean, have I acquired a bit of divinity?" Charles emphasized again.

"Looks like I need to get myself some soul-strengthening potions," Agatha said, rubbing her forehead. "Wait, it seems like what you just drank was a soul-strengthening potion."

"So, you're saying I don't have any of that damn divinity at all, right?" Charles lowered his hands and said with a wry smile.

"Yes," Agatha smiled, "you've at least become a bit crazy."

"Alright, I won't bother you anymore." Xia Er shook his head, feeling as if he had been deceived. He couldn't tell whether he had been deceived by Shui Yumo or by the evil book.

However, he still became somewhat interested in the notes on Agatha's desk, so he went over to take a look. "Is this a research paper?"

"Yes," Agatha nodded, "it's the information I compiled about ancient cities."

"The City of Forests?" Charles raised an eyebrow and looked at Agatha.

"Yes, based on what I learned from Mr. Elton and the others, the results of my investigation in the ruins of Forest City, and the rubble and debris I unearthed," Agatha glanced at her notebook, sighed softly, "this first draft is now complete."

"Should we send it to the Historical Society Quarterly?" Charles asked with a smile.

"Let's leave it for now," Agatha bit her lower lip and shook her head. "Your city is still under construction, so we can't release this information to the public yet. Besides, I haven't collected much information yet. Thousands of years of time and destruction by primitive goblins have left no particularly obvious traces. We can't fully prove that this ancient city ever existed just by recording and speculating."

After listening to Agatha's words, Charles nodded. He knew that the Forest City's predecessor, the "City of All Races," had indeed existed, but it had been completely destroyed. It was difficult to prove its existence based on what we had now.

However, as a historian, Agatha Christie was unable to prove anything to the world, even though the relics were right in front of her and the long-sealed history was slowly being unveiled. This must have been somewhat discouraging.

"It's alright," Charles smiled. "If the City of All Races can't prove it, we still have other opportunities."

As he spoke, he pointed to the distance, where a huge relief was carved on the wall of the runeword material warehouse, depicting several ancient cities.

"There are several cities like the City of Myriad Races; we'll surely encounter them again in the future."

"Perhaps." Agatha nodded, closing the notebook on the table. "Perhaps we'll encounter the city depicted in the relief later."

"Compared to the City of Myriad Races, I'd rather see that city floating in the air," Xia Er said, gazing at the distant wall with a sense of longing. "A floating city, a pure white city at that, it's beautiful no matter how you look at it."

“Compared to that, the other cities seem more realistic,” Agatha retorted untimely. “There are no sightings of the floating city now, not in the last few thousand years. Perhaps it has already crashed.”

"If that's really the case, it would be such a disappointment." Charles sighed. He knew his old classmate was right; such a large city couldn't just vanish into thin air.

"Alright, I have to go back and take care of things. I won't bother you any longer." With that, he smiled, perked up, and waved goodbye to Agatha.

As they entered the teleportation stone ring, Charles chuckled and said, "You can revise your thesis some more. Perhaps one day in the future, when you discover other cities depicted in the reliefs, it might indirectly prove that the City of Ten Thousand Races did indeed exist."

"I hope so," Agatha nodded.

…………

Back in his stone house, Charles spread out the papers again.

He decided to ask Shui Yumo again whether the medicine was effective.

To be honest, he didn't feel anything special. If he had to say what was special about the potion, he thought it was because it tasted a little sweet, but that was because the evil book had thoughtfully added a little bit of honey to the ingredients.

However, compared to the answer Shui Yumo gave before, drinking a bottle of potion seems much more reliable.

Even setting aside the fact that Charles couldn't reach the Cathedral of Stars, his family's past membership in the Church of the Night wouldn't guarantee his safety.

Moreover, he didn't know any Arodia King at all; he had no memory of that person's name.

Even while he was waiting for Agatha to prepare the potion, he specifically asked, "Do you know who Aroddia King is?"

Agatha thought for a dozen seconds and then shook her head. As a top student in history, a student representative who could ask academic questions that caused the dean of the college to have a heart attack, she said she had no recollection of it. Then she really had no recollection.

"Was there such a person in history?" Charles frowned, then picked up his quill and dipped it in water and ink.

"I have already drunk the potion with the formula provided by the evil book and confirmed that the potion was made correctly, but now I can't feel any increase in my divinity. I asked other people, and they didn't see any changes in my appearance either. Have I really gained divinity?"

After finishing writing, Xia Er stared intently at the paper, taking in every single change in Shui Yumo's writing.

Soon, the ink on the paper began to "swim" like tiny black tadpoles, and after a few seconds, a single character finally appeared.

"wait."

"Wait?" Charles was taken aback. "Wait for what? For the potion to take effect? ​​Or for something else?"

"Brother Mo, could you finish what you were saying? If you keep going like this, you'll easily end up with no friends."

After saying that, he quickly pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down his question again.

This time, Shuiyumo finally gave a few more words.

"Wait for the moment when Sofia cries for help."