Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Chapter 86 Conspiracy [Seeking First Subscription]

"I told them I jumped up, swung my axe down with both hands, and the goblin fell in two with a thud," the burly man Jacques boasted, gesturing wildly as he recounted his exploits in the red-light district.

"Didn't you tell them that you stepped on a goblin's corpse and fell hard?" Martel handed him a glass of ale.

"Of course I can't say that," Jacques said, taking the glass and laughing as he clinked glasses with Martel.

After chuckling a few times, Martel turned to Ricardo, who was sitting on the windowsill, and asked, "Ricardo, any news from the association?"

Ricardo shook his head: "We've been keeping watch all day, and nobody's mentioned any relics."

Something in the pouch on his chest scurried a few times, and then a red squirrel emerged. Ricardo immediately took out a peanut and put it in his hand. The squirrel darted out and jumped onto his palm.

"No?" Martel took a sip of his ale. "Chigo, the situation is pretty much as you predicted."

"It seems this map is much more authentic now." The mage Qigo held up his wine glass and swirled the red wine inside.

"Why is it more likely to be true if there's no news?" the bald, burly man Jacques asked casually, taking a big gulp of ale.

"Once a hint of news about the ruins is revealed, adventurers will swarm there like sharks smelling blood. Ricardo has been guarding it for days without a single discussion, which only proves that it hasn't been discovered yet." Qigo took a small sip of red wine, closed his eyes, and slowly savored it.

"Could it be that this fortress doesn't even exist?" Jacques leaned closer and asked with a chuckle.

But he immediately saw Qige open his eyes and look at him with an expression as if he were an idiot. Embarrassed, he pulled his high-backed chair away a little, "I was just saying."

"The vanished veteran adventurer party, the vanished Deinonychus, plus this fortress map," Chigo swirled the red wine in his glass, "I'm now almost certain there's a ruin there."

Martel, holding his wine glass, said to Qige, "So this time the opponent will be very strong?"

"They're not strong. If they were, they would have already broken out of the forest and wreaked havoc in Giraffe Town. They seem very restrained to me. They only kill enemies when they come to the door. There's only one kind of monster in the forest that behaves like that—goblins."

"Goblins can kill monsters?" Jacques' tone clearly showed disbelief.

"Ordinary goblins won't do, but what if we add this?" Qigo picked up the yellowish-brown map on the table and pointed to his own annotation next to it: "Ancient Magical Relics."

"A magical ruin? Just like that underground tomb full of skeletons last time, there must be a lot of good stuff in there." Jacques' eyes immediately lit up. Their Brotherhood had started to prosper thanks to that ruin.

"There'll probably be some gold inside, and maybe a few special materials, but I can't guarantee that." Qige put down the map and leaned back in his chair. "But there will definitely be some beast cores."

"If we have a few beast cores, we can go to Golden Flower City and make contact with the nobles there." Martel slammed his wine glass heavily on the table.

"That stingy young master Philip tried to use a beast core to get the Third Prince's door, but he couldn't get one," Ricardo, who was engrossed in playing with the squirrel, suddenly interjected.

"What interests me are magical items or equipment; these things are more useful and can enhance our combat power," Qige said with a smile. "That's why I acquired quite a few anti-magic barrier scrolls in Black Lion City."

"Furthermore, I think we shouldn't send too many people to the ruins this time, otherwise the loot will be difficult to distribute," he advised Martel. "I've also ordered 200 bottles of energizing potions; four and a half days should be enough for us to explore the ruins."

"You're right. If we recruit too many people but don't give them much after clearing the ruins, things will go wrong." Martel nodded in agreement.

"That's great! Once we're done here, we'll rush over and take everything!" Jacques exclaimed excitedly. "No matter what kind of beast cores, equipment, or gold coins we have, we won't let anything slip by."

"What if they resist?" Martel asked with a smile.

"A goblin can be taken care of with one axe, or two with a bit of magical equipment," Jacques laughed.

Qigo didn't join them. He simply picked up a book from the table, opened it to a blank page, and said, "I'm quite interested in this tribe and their leader. He clearly possesses a certain level of wisdom. I'll dedicate a whole page to recording your story."

With a "snap," he closed the book and placed it on the table. The book, with a black cover and less than two fingers thick, was titled "The Strange Races of the Nightmare Forest and How to Deal with Them."

Ricardo, on the other hand, spent the entire time playing with his red squirrel.

"Alright," Martel waved his hand, stopping Jacques' laughter, "this time we'll expand to 40 people."

"Remember the news we heard last time? Something big is going to happen in the capital in the coming year. This is our only chance." Martel looked at his teammates seriously. "So this time, no matter what's in the fortress, we have to wipe it all out and make sure we take all the loot."

"Don't worry, Chairman," Jacques shouted, "They'll all be ours."

"If that's the case, soon you'll be bragging to those beauties in the red-light district of Plantagenet," Martel laughed.

"That's my dream," Jacques laughed.

"These bastards, all they do is laugh, they're so noisy."

Upstairs in the Storm Brotherhood's quarters at the Moonlit Inn, a young female mage with black hair and purple eyes was somewhat annoyed.

"Knock knock knock," a knock sounded at the door. The female monk opened the door and saw that it was a hotel staff member.

"Miss Agatha Sebastian, here are your candles." The other person bowed respectfully and offered several white candles.

"Okay." Agatha took the candle, then frowned and asked, "Could you please change my room?"

"Okay, I'll arrange it for you right away," the other person said, bowing slightly.

Soon, Agatha moved into her new room at the hotel, "and now it's finally quiet."

"Salemanturu." She summoned softly, and with a whoosh, a black rift appeared, from which a giant astral serpent slowly swam out.

"Keep an eye on things for me," Agatha casually instructed, before setting up candles, bones, and several cups of blood on the floor of the room.

"This is the only way." After arranging the props in a specific position, she placed a large bone in the middle, with obvious burn marks on it.

"Soul once devoured by the Devilclaw Bear, I summon you as its master, to escape the endless darkness of the Nether Sea—" Agatha chanted the spell, tearing open a magic scroll as she did so. Then, she cut her finger with a knife, dripping a few drops of blood onto the bone.

"Show yourself!" she shouted at the end.

A plume of white smoke rose, and a figure slowly materialized within it. The figure appeared to be short, with what seemed to be a scar on its forehead.