Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"Who?" Charles asked.

"Damn, I need trolls to help me move these stones or bones," Agatha said with a laugh. "And I'll also need to send a Furu."

"Sure, no problem, I'll arrange it. Cao Cao is easy to get along with," Charles nodded and said, "as long as you give him some jerky."

"But in that case, the pharmacy will have to close for now." Agatha thought for a moment, somewhat regretfully.

"It's alright, Little Claw is brewing medicine, working non-stop 24 hours a day, much more efficient than you," Charles chuckled.

Char was very happy when he persuaded the Claw of the Creep. It was a natural-born worker, a fighting horse among oxen and horses. He even wanted to give the little claw a title - Chief Engineer of the Pharmaceutical Department, Chief Claw Engineer, which sounded very impressive.

"My dear chairman, have you forgotten something?" Agatha asked with a smile, but seeing the other party's puzzled look, she had no choice but to continue, "Glass bottles, glass bottles for holding medicine. You're brewing so many medicines, you need a lot of bottles. You can't expect all the customers to bring buckets to the store's big water tank to scoop them up, can you?"

"That was something I didn't consider," Charles clapped his hands; he really hadn't thought of that.

"I still have some, but I need to order as soon as possible," Agatha said.

"Wow!" A cheer came from afar. Ciel and Agatha turned their heads and saw that it was the voice from One-Eye's side.

"I'll go take a look," Charles said, and hurried over.

"Chief, you've arrived," the one-eyed man said respectfully.

Charles glanced into the cave a few times and asked, "What's wrong?"

"You've dug it through! You're absolutely brilliant! There really is a stone chamber here." The one-eyed man said, bowing and scraping.

Watching his subordinates' actions, Charles sighed slightly. They had been enslaved by the trolls for too long, and they couldn't change their obsequious attitude for the time being.

He patted the one-eyed man on the shoulder and said, "Well done."

Then he tried to walk into the passage, which was not long. He had previously judged from the shape of the walls that there might be a passage in the mound of earth, and sure enough, it was.

The air in the new stone chamber was foul, and no glowing mushrooms were growing. Charles quickly scanned the area and found only one word on the wall at the entrance—"doorway."

"The doorway?" Charles leaned closer to take a look and saw that there were still engravings on it, but it was already damaged.

"Don't go in yet, I'll get someone to check it out." He walked out of the passage and instructed his men, preparing to immediately call Fulu over to confirm the situation inside.

After a while, a furoo floated out and said, "It's fine inside, it's safe."

Upon hearing this, Charles made everyone wait a while before leading his men inside with torches to investigate.

The stone chamber was not large, only about 300 square meters. The floor was covered with a layer of dust two fingers thick. In one corner, there were many stones that looked the same as the materials with ancient patterns that Agatha Christie had studied.

He held up the torch and looked around at the walls when suddenly he tripped over something and stumbled a couple of steps.

Charles bent down and pushed away the dust with his hands. With the help of the torchlight, he saw that the ground was not flat and that the stone materials were arranged into two circles with a diameter of two meters.

"Clean this place up a bit, but be very careful not to change the layout," Charles instructed his men, while also telling Furu to call Agatha.

When Agatha entered the stone chamber, she was also astonished by the two rings on the ground.

Ignoring the dust on the ground, she started wiping it with her hands, quickly revealing the full appearance of one of the stone rings.

"So that's how it is." She said thoughtfully, then got up to wipe another ring.

At the same time, Agatha said to Ciel, "Have the goblin check the surrounding walls first, and don't touch these two rings yet."

Charles nodded and, following Agatha's advice, ordered his men to scatter.

A few minutes later, Agatha got up and came to Charles's side. She brushed the dust off her hands and said with a smile, "I think I know how to use these things."

"How do I use it?" Ciel stared intently at the wall, without turning around.

"These patterns have their own way of combining. They are different from the runes that are widely used now, such as the arcane runes or holy runes I just mentioned, which are based on words. These ancient runes are more like a game of permutation and combination. Combining certain patterns in a fixed order can produce certain effects."

"What kind of effect will it have?" Charles continued to ask.

"I don't know," Agatha shook her head. "It requires experimentation and trial and error, and I don't have the instructions."

"I think this might help you." Charles, holding a torch, walked to the wall.

The goblins had already given the wall a quick wipe, and in the firelight, several rows of engraved words were visible on the wall, with the top line written in Common: "Instructions for Using and Maintaining the Portal".

Agatha immediately went over and used her Light spell to examine the contents word by word. "Excellent, this information is very helpful."

"I think these ancient runes are starting to shed their mysterious veil," she said with a smile.

"I'm more concerned about the words 'portal' than the veil," Ciel said excitedly. "If these two rings are portals, whether they can be repaired and how to use them is very important to us. If we can successfully activate them, many problems will be solved."

If the replica is successfully replicated, the transportation of goods will no longer be a problem, which will greatly alleviate the supply shortage in the fortress.

"No, Charles, it's not that easy." Agatha poured cold water on her old classmate's enthusiasm. "You know, teleportation portals are extremely precious and rare these days. Making one requires a large amount of expensive magical materials. I've heard that only one or two exist in the magic towers of some high-ranking archmages, and even the nobles of Plantagenet City can't afford them. Moreover, we don't yet understand the operating logic of these two rings. This portal cannot be opened rashly. If some evil thing were to pass through it, the consequences would be unimaginable."

"Alright, you can study it first." Charles nodded, feeling that Agatha's explanation was more accurate.

"Chief, there's something on this wall!" One-Eyed shouted from the side.

Charles and Agatha hurried over and approached the wall.

On the wall is a relief sculpture. Unlike the previous two paintings, this one is more like a map. The relief, which is two meters long and one and a half meters wide, is covered with various small squares. Among them, a cross star is marked in one of the small squares near the bottom edge.

"Southern fortress defense map?" Charles held up his torch and read out the words at the top of the relief.

"It seems this is indeed a fortress, or rather, the underground defensive section of a fortress." Agatha touched the cross-shaped star. "This star indicates our current location."

"This..." Charles silently took a few steps back, then looked at the entire defense map. "This is too big. The area we are in now only occupies one-fifth of it."

Agatha stamped her foot and gritted her teeth, saying, "Fine, I'll take care of the 'indestructible' thing for now, and we'll forget about the transformation potion for the time being. 'Witch' it is."

She grasped Charles's hand and said affectionately, "Old classmate, Chairman, King of the Forest, you must tell me as soon as you conquer a new territory."

Then, with a broad smile, she returned to the circle to continue her research, the stone chamber filled with her clattering laughter.

Charles looked down at his dusty hand, which Agatha had just grasped, and a few seconds later instructed One-Eyed, "Go and dig up that other buried mound of earth and see what's inside."

"Next, it's time to have a good talk with the hero."