Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"I think," Sansio stammered, facing a goblin he was meeting for the first time, and one that the elders of his tribe called an evil race. He stuttered several times before finally saying, "that glass of water just now..."

The goblin in front of them immediately smiled and said, "It's delicious, isn't it? It's made with honey, and we love it too. It's a pity there aren't many left."

"Isn't that enough?" Sansio asked in surprise, repeating the question unconsciously.

"Yes, autumn is almost over, and this stuff is hard to come by. We usually use it to entertain friends." The goblin smiled sincerely.

Upon hearing this, Sansio fell silent. What the other person said was true; winter was approaching, and goblins did not seem to be a race that could easily obtain resources.

"What's wrong? If you like, I'll make you another cup of honey water." The goblin waved, signaling the little fairy to follow. "We still have enough to entertain our guests."

"No, it's like this, I was wondering if I could borrow some of this nectar." Sansio finally voiced his thoughts, and he emphasized, "It's a loan, I can return other things to you."

"Is that so?" The goblin stood still, tilting its head to think for a moment. "To be honest, we don't really need to borrow it, since there aren't many left."

Then, the goblin smiled at Sansio and said, "If you're going to return it, what can you give me, a piece of meat?"

"Uh, I probably can't pay that back." Shan Xiao scratched his cheek. His little fairies didn't eat much meat, so he couldn't use meat to pay off the debt.

"That piece of root, please. Sorry, I forgot you little goblins don't eat meat." The goblin waved his hand, looking a little apologetic.

"Roots, this..." Shan Xiao thought for a moment. He felt that roots would work, but it would require a lot of effort to dig them up. His race had hardly ever done digging work, but he had heard the elders of his tribe talk about it before. Moreover, it seemed more appropriate to spend some time digging up a root than to provide a piece of meat.

"Okay, I'll go find the rootstock as soon as I get back," he said with a serious expression, as if he were signing a contract.

"No need for that. You can come find me anytime you find it," the goblin said casually.

Sansio followed him through a passage, and then he was shocked to see a skeletal hand frantically stirring a large pot.

"Um, what was that just now?" he asked, trying to sound calm, but his evasive tone betrayed him.

"That Claw of the Crawler? He's here, settling his debt." The goblin didn't even turn his head, his tone still as casual as ever. "He got separated from his master and asked us to help him find him. You know there are many goblins in the forest, and we're widely distributed, so I agreed to help him. He feels he has no way to repay us, so he's working hard to brew a potion, hoping to repay us in this way."

The goblin stopped and turned his head, saying, "At first, I also said it wasn't necessary, but he said that trust is mutual, and since we were willing to help him, he did his best to help us."

"I see, what he said makes a lot of sense," Sansio murmured to himself. Then he whispered to himself, "Sansio, you are here to save your mother and your people. If even a worm-claw can do this, so can you."

He made up his mind to go back and dig up the tubers, and send over a lot of them.

"We're almost there." The goblin pointed ahead, then said, "If you're tired of flying, why don't you come down and sit on my shoulder?"

He patted his shoulder to indicate, "It's okay, you just fell into the water, you should rest more."

"Ah, thank you, but no need." Sansio shook his head and declined; he wasn't used to being so close to a goblin.

"Alright then, we'll be there after we turn this corner." The goblin shrugged and continued leading the way.

Not long after they started walking, a goblin with slightly protruding teeth ran up to them and said urgently, "Chief, come quick! Those mushrooms that look like forks in the sky and stars in the sky are about to die!"

Sansio flew behind, and heard the goblin who had led the way earlier exclaim in alarm, "What? The mushrooms are going to die? What will we eat in the winter?"

"So they run into trouble in winter too," Sansio muttered to himself, unaware that the goblin leading the way was frantically winking at the buck-toothed goblin to continue.

"You, you must come and take a look." The buck-toothed goblin dragged the leader directly to a stone chamber.

"Let's go and see." Sansio immediately flapped his wings faster and followed.

Before he even flew into the stone chamber, he heard the goblin leader wail loudly, "My mushroom! How did it turn out like this?"

Sansio flew closer, and with the help of the light from the blue glowing mushrooms, he saw that on the logs on the ground, several thin mycelia were almost withered, and there were only a few very small yellow mushrooms on the mycelia, about the size of his head.

"It is indeed too small," he muttered to himself.

"It's not your fault. We goblins aren't good at breeding, but this winter has been tough," the goblin leader said with a sigh, looking up at the ceiling of the stone chamber.

Sansio looked at the small mushroom, thought for a moment, and said, "Could this be my own unique trial?"

He flew onto the goblin's shoulder, coughed lightly, and seeing that the goblin's attention was drawn to him, deliberately said in a low voice, "I think I can help you."

"Is that so? That's wonderful." The goblin's face beamed with a smile.

"Hmm? He really is full of good intentions and is genuinely grateful that I can help him." Shan Xiao was stunned for a moment, his ability telling him that the other party had no evil intentions.

"I can try to urge them on."

Upon hearing this, the goblin immediately reached out his hand, asking Sansio for help.

Sansio flapped his wings and flew to the mushroom, ritualistically straightened his clothes, then waved his hands, circled the little red bull mushroom once, and said, "Nature's wind."

A burst of green starlight flickered, like several fireflies. After the starlight disappeared, the red bull mushroom trembled slightly, then began to grow taller, doubling in length.

"Great, my friend," the leader goblin said with a smile.

Sansio was also very happy; he felt that his spell was quite effective in making the mushrooms grow.

"You, go and get me a piece of honey." The goblin leader immediately ordered Bucktooth to fetch it.

Before long, a small piece of candy was brought out. The goblin handed it to Sansio and said, "This is the honey you borrowed. Now you've paid back your debt."

"That's great," Sansio said.

…………

"Chief, will he come again?" Bucktooth asked.

Standing at the edge of the platform, Charles waved to the departing sprite, saying, "Yes, I bet he'll come back."

"Really?"

"Don't worry, aside from being a bit of a goofball, he's not bad." Charles waved his hand and said loudly, "Welcome back again."

He only turned and left the platform after the little fairy had completely disappeared from sight.

"We need to go back immediately to check the sugar reserves. We need to buy a large amount of sugar blocks. It seems that with the arrival of winter, the goblin race is also facing some food problems." Xia Er analyzed Shan Xiao's performance just now, and at the same time instructed the buck-toothed one behind him, "Take a few goblins and go to the forest to cut down cedar trees right now. Cut down ten trees first. Be careful and have Cao Cao follow you."

"Yes, Chief, I..." Bucktooth was about to continue reciting a poem, but seeing Charles's gaze, he obediently shut his mouth.

After chasing away the buck-toothed boy, Charles arrived at the stone chamber where the red bull mushrooms were being cultivated. The red bull mushrooms that had just grown were now perfectly normal, with their sturdy stems standing upright like small trees.

"Why are the little fairies in this underground cave? Aren't they a race that lives among trees?" Charles stood up and slowly paced along the cedar wood substrate laid out on the ground. "Are they hiding from some danger?"

There seems to be only one answer to the possibility that the little fairy could be in danger—an adventurer.

Charles once saw nobles in the City of Golden Flower keeping goblins as pets. Because they were so rare, they were highly sought after. At the time, the price offered by the nobles on the black market was enough to tempt any adventurer. However, this matter was eventually dropped due to the protest of the Church of Earth and Life.

But there are probably still people secretly smuggling and selling little fairies.

"This is an opportunity. We can provide them with safe food and lodging in exchange for the breeding of Red Bull." Charles smiled. "We can't rush it. We have to be sincere. Nobody's a fool. If you treat others like fools, you're the biggest fool."

With the initial plan in place, Charles needed to immediately write down tomorrow's purchase order.

Now, he uses the alchemy hut in the forest as a trading hub. He brings people there to store the potions made by Littleclaw, and hangs a purchase order on the wall. Little John leads the mule to the hut, puts down the supplies, loads the potions, and transports them back to the Undying Alchemy Workshop. Mary is there to receive adventurers and gather information.

Previously, when Agatha was teaching Mary how to receive clients and the prices and effects of various potions, Mary was slightly frightened. She was shocked by the other party's appearance, but she quickly calmed down. After all, if a goblin could become a boss, it was not hard to understand why a witch could become a master. On the contrary, she liked Ms. Virtini very much because the other party's elegant temperament and manners, as well as her patient and persuasive explanations, all benefited her greatly.

"This trade route can only go on like this for now." Charles rubbed his temples, somewhat dissatisfied. "The flow of goods is not fast enough, the variety of goods is still too limited, the response to crises is not timely enough, and the manpower needs to be optimized."

Although Agatha cast concealment spells around the alchemy cabin, any powerful sorcerer passing by would surely notice.

What displeased Charles the most was that Little John was not freed up at all, but instead made him even busier. "The hero has no time to train and improve, and my hero's heart can't be upgraded."

"We can only wait for Agatha to produce results." He sighed slightly. Recently, Agatha has been spending all her time in the doorway, constantly talking about words like "starry sky," "flowing water," and "the material world," and seems to have become obsessed.

Instead of disturbing Agatha, Charles returned to the platform by the underground river, where Red Eyes was dealing with the giant snake's corpse.

"What will I gain this time?" he muttered to himself.

…………

"Mother, please drink it quickly." Shan Xiao excitedly urged his sick mother. After returning to the thatched hut, he immediately made himself a cup of honey water. After confirming that everything was alright, he immediately made a large cup for his mother.

"Sansio, where did you get this from?" The mother held the cup, smiling at her son, but a hint of worry still lingered in her eyes.

Sansio hesitated for a moment.

He initially wanted to say that I, alone, tore open a spatial rift and encountered a group of suffering people in dire need of rescue. So I chanted the ultimate magic and finally succeeded in helping them break the bloodline seal. These candies were just something the suffering people offered voluntarily after seeing that I had exhausted my power.

However, his mother's gaze made him abandon the idea, and he honestly replied, "Yes, a friend of mine gave it to me."

"Which friend gave it to you?" A slightly hoarse voice sounded from behind. Shan Xiao turned around and realized that his father had been standing there silently without him noticing.

"Yes, new friend." Sansio stammered a little, unsure of what to say.

"Talk to your son properly," the mother said to the father with a slightly reproachful tone after a few light coughs.

"So you risked everything to fly out of the tree hole, find new friends in the forest, and get these candies?" Although his tone wasn't as stern, his face was still stern. "You're really lucky to have escaped death twice."

"No, Father, that giant frog is dead," Sansio cried.

"Dead?" the father asked, frowning. "What happened?"

"At that time..." Sansio excitedly wanted to tell his father how he nimbly dodged the giant frog's attack, and how he lured it into the river, ultimately causing its death. However, when he looked up and met his father's eyes, he immediately changed his story: "I saw 'Death' being eaten by a giant snake."

"Hmm?" The father continued to stare at Sansio, waiting for him to say what he would say next.

Sansio began to stammer as he recounted his experiences, from being attacked by a giant frog to a giant snake coming ashore, from witnessing a troll killing a snake to being bitten by a celestial hound, from being offered a cup of honey water to saving a mushroom. At the end, he gestured wildly, saying, "That goblin was very grateful to me, so it gave me this piece of honey."

During this time, the little fairy chieftain tried several times to find a suitable "weapon", but was stopped by the look in the eyes of his wife who was lying in bed behind Shan Xiao.

Finally, he sighed and said, "No matter what, your intentions are good, but you still need to be careful. If you don't sense any ill will from the other person, then you can continue to communicate with them."

"Uh, Father, you..." Shan Xiao was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected his father to say that.

"You're wondering why I agreed, aren't you? Although the other side is a group of goblin trolls and witches, it doesn't necessarily mean they are evil. Similarly, human adventurers don't necessarily mean they are good. We can't define their character by their race," the father said seriously.

"So I can go there again to exchange for candy?" Sansio was overjoyed.

"Be careful, don't let excitement cloud your judgment," the father reminded him again.

"Yes, I know. I can use magic to buy honey for my mother," Sansio said with a smile. "It's just that my abilities aren't as good as my sister's; her magic is much stronger."

"Where's my vine?" The father turned to search the wall for the "weapon."

The mother then called out to Sansio to run faster.

This was the first time in a long time that she had heard someone talk about her daughter without feeling sad.

P.S.: Happy Qixi Festival to everyone! May everyone find their own "Little John" and "Mary", or perhaps you have already found them.

Also, kids, today is the day you create miracles! Homework is no problem at all. Keep it up!