Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Ciel watched the modified goblin not far in front of him, remaining on high alert.

"Follow me..." came the muffled voices of the goblins who were crawling on all fours.

"Huh?" Charles was completely confused. He heard the other person say, "Come with me, and I will make you the chosen ones."

The voices were mechanical, and the mutated goblins looked lifeless. Sharl felt that they were being controlled by something and were trying to lure his group of goblins over.

He thought for a moment and said, "Come with me, and I'll feed you all."

The mutated goblins collectively shuddered, then took two steps forward before stopping. Their movements seemed to be halted by something, causing them to sway in place for a few moments. Then they said, "Come with me, and I will grant you abilities."

Charles smiled slightly: "Come with me, and I'll make sure you have two meals a day."

The mutated goblin shuddered again, took a few steps, then swayed, "Come with me, and I will grant you eternal life."

"Come with me, and I'll make sure you have a good meal both times," Charles said with a smile.

Finally, the mutated goblin standing at the front suddenly yelled in exasperation, "What are you eating for? All you know is eating!" and then charged at Sharl with bared teeth and claws.

"Get them!" Charles ordered immediately.

The surrounding goblins rushed forward with wooden clubs and quickly killed the mutated goblin.

The remaining mutated goblins trembled violently, then turned around and ran away, but strangely, their heads turned towards Sharl, as if saying, "Come with me, I'll make you the chosen ones..."

Ciel was both amused and exasperated. As expected of a goblin, even after being mutated and controlled, it still retained its greedy and cowardly nature. Regardless of the outcome, just tell me whether I did it or not.

He was preparing to lead his men forward when he discovered that a large purple tadpole, about the length of a hand and with four short tentacles around its mouth, had emerged from the mouth of the dead mutated goblin.

"What's this again?" He looked down at the tadpole wriggling its body, constantly moving closer to a goblin.

The goblin smashed the tadpole with a "smack".

"They've been parasitized," Charles concluded. "There's probably a very dangerous monster inside."

What could it be—a grinning demon, a raging behemoth, or a fire-breathing venomous dragon? He was very curious.

At the same time, he was also conflicted. This underground stone chamber was very large. If there were even larger stone chambers ahead, it would be a huge windfall for him. However, the gains came with risks, and these risks were uncontrollable.

Just then, another mutated goblin came running from a distance.

It came to a spot ten meters away from Shire, slowly knelt on the ground, lowered its upper body, and displayed a humble demeanor.

"Red Eyes," Charles called out.

"Leader." Red Eyes held the Brain Eater in one arm and grabbed his longsword in the other, ready to rush over and finish it off.

"Stop, stop, you should pet the cat instead." Charles immediately stopped his reckless subordinate. "Bucktooth, you take 10 goblins and get ready to use 'Bang Bang Fruit'."

Bucktooth accepted the order and gathered several strong goblins, holding the clattering berries and waiting for orders.

As he approached, Charles heard the mutated goblin lying prone mechanically repeating, "Please follow me, please follow me..."

"Why did you invite them up?" He chuckled lightly; the other party didn't seem very strong.

At the same time, he gestured with his eyes for Bucktooth to follow closely, ready to throw the fruit at any moment. Bucktooth nodded to indicate that he understood.

"Pat-pat-pat," the footsteps of numerous goblins echoed in the empty stone chamber. Sharl led his men to the end of the chamber, following the mutated goblins. There was a 3-meter-wide wooden door, which was already open. Behind it was a right-angled passage as wide as the tunnel.

He turned around and looked around, his gaze sweeping over his many subordinates, and suddenly realized that there were no brain-eating monsters following behind him.

Even though the main door was open, not a single brain-eating monster ran in. It was as if these brain-eating monsters were being controlled by someone in the previous square stone chamber.

"What could be controlling these creatures?"

Charles stroked his chin, still clueless, but decided to go and see for himself.

He then ordered his men to form three long lines to deal with any potential dangers.

After turning the corner, the passage extended downwards. The distance wasn't far, and soon they arrived at a rectangular stone chamber that was 5 meters high.

This stone chamber is almost twice as long as the previous one, with two rows of twelve stone pillars in the middle and many two-story stone houses built on both sides.

The mutated goblin in front of him kept gesturing for them to move forward, but Sharl kept stopping and starting, using the glowing mushrooms to examine the stone house.

The room was empty, with nothing inside. There were steps leading up to the second floor. "If this were a fortress, it would be more like an underground barracks."

He touched this and looked at that, liking it more and more as he looked at it. "This one space alone can house more than 300 goblins."

"No matter what the other side is, we must take this underground fortress."

The wandering Charles completely ignored the mutated goblin's lead and even ran up the stairs to the second floor to see the structure inside.

"This doesn't seem to be the dwelling place of these mutated goblins," he concluded after inspecting several rooms.

There was absolutely no sign of habitation in any of the stone houses. These mutated goblins still possessed some intelligence and wouldn't be unaware that they could live here.

Is there a better place to live later? Or is there some danger here that makes it uninhabitable?

He ran down from the second floor and began to observe his surroundings more carefully.

The mutated goblin leading the way made even more frequent hand gestures, urging Sharl to move forward, like an electrified lucky cat, its hands almost creating afterimages as it waved.

Charles's suspicions grew stronger, and he gripped the crossbow behind him with one hand.

As he continued walking until he reached the middle of the stone chamber, he saw a tightly closed wooden door on his left.

The wooden door looked very heavy, with a horizontal bar about the thickness of an adult's fist and more than two meters long placed on it as a latch.

Seeing that Sharl was intentionally approaching the wooden door, the mutated goblin immediately ran in front of him, excitedly waving its forelimbs, and even tried to pull Sharl away.

Charles tried to get around it, but the creature wouldn't let up, and the three whiskers on its mouth started to tremble, indicating that it was very panicked.

There's something behind the door; either it's dangerous, or the other person doesn't want me to see it.

Just as he was about to heed the mutated goblin's advice and leave, "Bang!" The heavy wooden door made a dull thud, as if a huge creature had struck it.

The noise startled Charles, who cautiously stepped back, but then the wooden door slammed shut again.

"Everyone back off, prepare to leave this room," Charles immediately ordered. He saw the impact sending dust flying around the wooden door, and the latch making a few soft "clicks." After a few more impacts, the thing behind the door would probably break through.

"Bang!" Another sound rang out, this time a clear cracking sound could be heard. The mutated goblin that had led the way had long since disappeared.

Charles led his men toward the entrance. Fortunately, he had arranged his men into a long line beforehand, so the escape wouldn't be too chaotic.

With a loud "bang," the wooden door was smashed open, the latch flew off in a spinning motion, and then a giant red worm darted out.

This giant worm was covered in bristles, and its huge, hook-shaped mouthparts were spread out, revealing a dense array of teeth. Four barbed white tentacles also protruded from its mouth.

The giant worm shook its head, its tentacles hissing as if searching for something. After a moment, the giant worm turned to the goblin and slowly swam over.

Hearing the "swish" sound of bristles rubbing against the stone floor, Charles gestured for his men to prepare.

"Throw!" he commanded, and the goblins collectively threw out dozens of bouncy fruits, but unfortunately the giant insect was still a bit far away, and only a few were just close enough to reach it.

"Run!" Without waiting to check the results, he immediately led his men away.

"Boom boom," several explosions rang out in succession, followed by a hissing sound and a teeth-grinding friction sound behind Xia Er. The giant insect had caught up.

The goblins quickly ran out of the passage, and as they ran, Sharl unexpectedly noticed several red fleshy balls rolling past his feet.

It was a brain-eating monster. These little monsters that his subordinates had been playing with had somehow broken free and were now rushing toward the giant worm behind them with a "crackling" sound. Moreover, Xia Er noticed that they had extended their needle-like mouthparts.

Before I could investigate further, a loud "boom" echoed behind me. The giant insect slammed into the wall and hissed. Then it spun around, adjusted its angle, and charged straight into the passage.

At this moment, Charles had already run into the previous rectangular stone chamber, his mind racing as he considered a solution.

From the moment he left the room of the Brain Eater, he noticed that these little red monsters would not leave the stone chamber on their own. After Chi Mu and the others carried them out, the Brain Eater even struggled a bit.

For some unknown reason, the brain-eating monster attacked the giant insect. Although the chances of survival are slim, Xia Er felt that it might be worth taking advantage of.

"Everyone, run to the Brain Eater's room!" he shouted, while simultaneously ordering his men to put down the sacks of bouncy fruit they were carrying.

As it fled, explosions echoed behind it, and the giant worm's hiss never ceased, though the banging fruit slowed it down somewhat.

After the group of Xia Er ran into the brain-devouring stone chamber and stood close to the wall, a giant red worm, ten meters long and as thick as a water bucket, crashed in.

"Garra garra," all the brain-eating monsters stood up and extended their mouthparts.