Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"I knew this would happen." Charles pursed his lips. When he first planned to ask the evil book, he had already considered the possible answers it might give.

There's no way around it; this guy is currently maintaining an almost obsequious level of respect, making it incredibly difficult to get any truly accurate answers out of him.

They've gone so far as to praise a goblin for becoming more handsome; if other humans heard this, they'd probably laugh their heads off.

"Be normal." Charles reached out and tapped the pages of the evil book. He didn't scold the little book. Seeing the missing pages in the book's pages, Charles knew that this guy had been risking losses to help him find ways to improve those poisonous mushrooms.

So a word of warning is enough.

"What exactly would you like to ask?" New text appeared on the page, this time looking much more normal.

"I want to know if my own divinity has increased," Charles tried to voice his question.

"Uh," several ellipses appeared on the page, as if it were thinking or scrutinizing, and then the words appeared quickly: "I apologize, My Lord God, in my opinion, please forgive me for presumptuously glancing at Your divinity."

"Forgive, forgive." Charles waved his hand dismissively.

"Your divinity remains as profound as ever, as deep as the ocean, and I cannot discern whether it has increased." The words of the evil book appeared slowly, seemingly very cautiously.

"I can't tell." Charles stroked his chin, pondering the answer given by the evil book. "That archbishop also said that there is a strong divinity in my consciousness space."

"But now we don't know if it has achieved the effect that Shui Yumo described."

"If all else fails, we'll bring more people with us this time when we go to Elephant Tomb. We can take Cao Cao and Diana with us, and maybe then we'll be able to deal with that giant bone claw."

Thinking of the giant claw that belonged to some unknown creature, Sharl felt a bit troubled. That should be the transformer of the elephant king, the lich's protective mechanism. If he could defeat the bone claw, perhaps he could awaken it.

Ciel's purpose was to awaken, not to startle.

If the other party is grumpy when they wake up, then the bones in the elephant graveyard will become their means of retaliation.

"We still need to be careful not to hit that bone claw too hard. It would be best if we could pin it to the ground and make it unable to move."

This is the solution Charles is currently considering. He had previously asked Diana if there was any way to deal with the gigantic crawling claws, but her only answer was, "Just cut them to pieces."

"Diana will stay outside the elephant graveyard. If things really get too bad, we'll call her in." Charles nodded, thinking his idea was feasible.

"What else would you like to ask?" Seeing that Charles ignored him, the evil book took the initiative to reveal new characters, but this time the characters looked a little smaller, as if they were even more careful than before.

"Oh, it's nothing." Charles shook his head.

"This humble one, this humble one, has limited abilities and has been unable to assist the true god." The evil book remained as respectful as ever, making Charles feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"Uh," he thought for a few seconds, then took out a green orb of light from his desk drawer—a fragment of Cardinal Willid's soul. "I remember you said before that we could replenish ourselves by consuming souls, is that right?"

"Yes, yes," the evil book quickly replied, but immediately the writing was erased by itself. "Please do not doubt me. I am not an evil being like a demon that thirsts for souls."

"Mmm." Charles nodded perfunctorily. He really wanted to say, "You're already a 'wicked book' registered by several major churches and adventurers' associations. You don't need to be so reserved."

However, he didn't say anything, but instead placed the ball of light in the middle of the page, "I don't know, can you eat this?"

"Is this for me, for the little man?" The evil book appeared with a large line of text at the right moment, and then, without waiting for Charles to say anything, it directly extended those black, ink-like tentacles from the page.

Immediately afterwards, these tentacles tightly wrapped around the green orb, entangling it in several layers.

However, the evil book merely entangled the soul fragments; it did not directly pull them into its body, but rather seemed to be waiting for something.

It's like a child clutching a snack bought by an adult, looking at the adult expectantly, waiting for the adult to nod before tearing open the packaging.

"Alright, eat up." Charles smiled.

Then the [soul fragment] visibly sank slowly into the cracks of the book until it disappeared.

"That's it?" Charles raised an eyebrow, looking at the quiet evil book in front of him. He hadn't expected that the spirit creature would "eat" the soul fragments so quietly.

But as if to put on a show for him, the evil book began to tremble violently. Then it even stood upright, using its cover and back cover to prop itself up on the table, with all the pages propped up, looking like a dandelion from the side.

The missing pages began to bulge outwards very quickly, making a "pop" sound, and it looked like many new pages were popping out from between the pages.

In just over a minute, the evil book fell back onto the table. It was now thicker than before, and because of the new pages, the spine was almost too short, making it difficult to close.

"You've gained weight?" Charles frowned, surprised that the fragments of the Cardinal had such a good effect.

"Hiccup—" Words began to appear on the pages of the evil book, "Great God, you are too kind to me, to give me such a delicious soul. Although it is only a fragment, I can taste that this soul must be very powerful. It has successfully revived me."

"Then," Charles smiled, "what else did you taste?"

"Resentment, regret," the evil book slowly revealed its words, as if savoring the taste of the past, "and fear, a deep, lingering fear."

"Are you afraid?" Charles stroked his chin, recalling the words the cardinal had said earlier. He could tell that the other party was indeed quite afraid.

"Where did you obtain such a delicious soul?" the evil book probed, and a line of small words slowly appeared on the paper.

After reading the little book's question, Charles narrowed his eyes slightly, then said in a relaxed tone, "Oh, it's nothing, just the soul of a cardinal."

"Cardinals?" The evil book immediately displayed a huge title. "Which church's cardinals? The highest-ranking officials in each church, the ones who supposedly possess power not belonging to the king?" (Chapter update reminder: Chapter 383 Is the Cardinal Delicious?, reading address.)

"Ah, yes." Charles nodded.

"I knew this was the most delicious soul I've ever tasted since I was born. I never imagined it was the soul of a cardinal." Crooked words began to appear on the pages of the evil book, as if expressing their feelings. "I knew that following the true god would bring good results. Even though it's just a fragment of a soul, it's still a rare delicacy."

"This was just a lucky chance, and I doubt we'll ever get another one like it." Charles waved his hand. This experience was a special case, and he probably wouldn't see it again. He didn't want to spoil the evil book's palate, or he would lose face.

"That's enough, that's enough, I'm satisfied."

Looking at the handwriting in the evil book, Charles smiled. "Will this addition speed up your improvements to the mushrooms?"

The reason he fed the Cardinal's Soul Fragment to the evil book was to see if it could speed up the improvement of the mushroom. After all, soul fragments can be used to make magical items, but Sharl felt that it was more important to use it to accelerate the improvement of his tribe's strength.

A tribe that no longer worries about food, and a magical item whose effects are unknown—Charles felt that a powerful tribe was more important.

"Yes, My Lord God, I have completed the analysis and am currently making improvements. It would normally take a long time, but now that you have provided me with such delicious food, it will definitely speed things up."

"Alright," Charles nodded, satisfied with the evil book's answer. "Then I'll wait for your good news."

After saying that, he closed the evil book and put it back in the corner of the room.

This time, however, the evil book couldn't be closed no matter what it did; the cover could only stick out in the air, like a fat man wearing an inappropriate vest, which resulted in his belly being exposed.

…………

Why did you ask me to come along?

Diana sat on the soldier ant's saddle, her eyes fixed on the elephant king walking ahead. "You know, I still have to train those tauren and your goblin army; they're completely unable to cooperate right now."

"I know," Charles said, lying in the cargo box on the back of the worker ant, looking up at the sky. "We can hold off for a bit and let them rest. Let's go explore the forest first."

"What kind of forest adventure game are we playing with now?" Diana frowned.

"Exploring the forest is quite interesting. Look, didn't we just find the Bloodhoof Clan's tauren?" Charles said, picking up a honey candy from the side and tossing it towards Diana.

"Snap!" Diana grabbed the candy and popped it into her mouth. "Is it red ant belly berry flavored?"

"Yes," Charles smiled. These candies were the latest flavored candies made by White Hair, a blend of various forest produce flavors, including Red Bull and mint flavors.

As for the red ant belly berry, it is a berry unique to the Nightmare Forest. It grows in bushes and bears red fruits the size of a fingernail. It is called red ant belly because small ants especially like to suck the juice of this berry. As soon as they suck it, their abdomens will become swollen with red liquid.

Of course, these berries are too small for giant ants to eat.

People still have to work hard every day to make a living, and they still have to train, gather, hunt and build cities.

This is no different from the people in those cities.

The only problem might be the language, but Charles is already working hard to change that.

Moreover, the forest contains all sorts of things that are not found outside, such as various foods fried in the fat of the mimics. Diana discovered that she actually liked eating the fried tuber strips made by the mimics, which Shire called "forest fries".

Freshly fried "forest fries," dipped in a bit of Naga-style fish sauce, have a rich and savory flavor, and Diana always eats a lot of them.

"This time I'm just going to the Elephant Graveyard. I want to meet the master of the Elephant Lord." Charles also picked up a piece of candy and put it in his mouth.

"Zunesha's master?" Diana frowned. If Zunesha already possessed the power of an evil god, wouldn't its master be even stronger?

"It's alright. According to Elephant Lord, its owner isn't an evil person." Hearing Diana's unfriendly tone, Charles sat up abruptly from the cargo box. "There shouldn't be any problems."

"In my opinion, we shouldn't go. After all, the other party is too dangerous." Diana frowned as she looked at Charles, a powerful mage, or even a great mage who had lived for a very long time. His strength was unimaginable.

"I know what I'm doing," Charles smiled, and seeing that the other person was still frowning, he suddenly said, "How about we make a bet?"

"Another bet?" Diana exclaimed, looking at Charles suspiciously. "What's the bet this time?"

"I'm betting that I can successfully persuade the elephant's owner to agree to let the elephant work for my tribe."

"And the price?" Diana asked.

"I don't know, but I don't think there will be too much of a price to pay." Charles shrugged. Helping the other person find things in the forest shouldn't be much of a price to pay, since he himself was going to explore the entire forest anyway.

"The other party made you transform into an evil god to do things for them, and they don't even ask for any price?" Diana looked at the smiling goblin, a little confused about where the other party's confidence came from.

"Yes," Charles nodded, "Want to bet?"

"I hope I don't have to spar with Zunesha again." Diana bit her lower lip. "If this keeps up, my angel wings will go bald, and it will take time to recover."

"Uh," Charles paused for a moment. He had indeed intended to say that before, but upon further reflection, Diana's words made sense.

"Then," he paused for a few seconds, thought for a moment, and then said, "you shall instruct Red Eyes and Little John in swordsmanship, and have them become your swordsmanship students."

"Take on an apprentice?" Diana was taken aback; she hadn't expected this bet. "Fine, if I win, I'll keep my previous request."

"Can I tell you something?" Charles remembered Diana's bet, then nodded. "Sure, I'll answer anything you ask, as long as it's something I know."

"Okay, it's a deal." Diana smiled, a victorious curve appearing on her lips.