Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

After sending the white-haired man away, Charles suddenly felt that he, as the leader, had a heavy responsibility to bear.

To be honest, deep down he still sees himself as human, and treats his subordinates more like the little figures from his old games.

But now they are told that they are about to enter a "crisis period" and that if they do not handle it well, they will lose a lot of human resources.

He also knew that winter was the peak season for adventurers to hunt goblins. He remembered hearing that there were places that held ear competitions, where people would judge goblin ears based on their size, appearance, amount of ear hair, and color and pattern, and the winner would receive a high reward.

I used to just listen to it for fun, but now I find it really enjoyable.

"We need to stockpile food." Charles sat on the ground, picked up a twig, and began to calculate on the ground.

"To avoid encountering adventurers, we can only minimize going out to forage in winter. In addition, the cold weather increases energy consumption," he wrote and drew, finally circling a number on the ground, "I estimate we need to prepare 300 kilograms of rice."

"If we're going to make dried meat, we can increase our hunting efforts. We can make it ourselves, and the caves are a sheltered environment. The challenge is preventing our men from stealing it."

"Stealing food is a problem," Charles said, glancing at his men lying in a pile. "But it's a survival tactic developed from long-term hunger. As long as they can eat their fill continuously, and with the help of punishment, it can be effectively curbed."

"Also, salt, sugar, and some dried fruit should be prepared," Charles continued, even subconsciously planning the supplies using human thinking.

"We still need a lot of furs. Although this place is in the south, it still snows for a few days in winter."

"We need to increase our cooperation with John Jr., and I suggest he at least rent a mule."

"So now the biggest problem is how to get these men to hunt enough prey."

"First, we need weapons." Charles kicked a wooden stick at his feet; it seemed unlikely he could kill a wild boar with that.

"Furthermore, when encountering adventurers, it is best to use several spears to fight them, along with a short sword, so that you can protect yourself."

He got up, dusted off his tattered trousers, picked up a burning branch from the ground to use as a torch, and headed towards the burrow.

"Hopefully we can find something good inside. The goblin is so powerful, it must have killed a lot of adventurers. It should be able to arm most of our men."

"Armor is difficult, but equipping everyone with a weapon shouldn't be a problem."

Upon arriving at the entrance, a foul, rancid stench assaulted his nostrils, but it could not dampen Sharl's enthusiasm for treasure hunting. Full of hope, he stepped into the goblin's cave.

Compared to the compact burrow where the Shire lived, the goblin's burrow was much larger.

The Shire gang lived in a space of less than 8 square meters, with four goblins crammed together. At night, they would either burp with red eyes or fart with broken teeth while sleeping.

The bear goblin's burrow has a symmetrical layout of two rooms and one living room. Upon entering, there is a large hall of about 8 square meters, with two burrows on each side.

The cave on the left is a storage room, filled with various weapons, armor, and thick wooden clubs and bones. The one on the right is the "bedroom" exclusively for the bear goblin, while the rest of the goblins are all huddled in the hall.

The advantage of this layout is that in the event of an external attack, the subordinates can be used as cannon fodder first, allowing the bear goblins to adapt to changing circumstances.

Xia Er couldn't help but admire the goblin's strategic planning; it was truly ingenious.

The hall was littered with bones and other waste, with nothing of any use. He arrived at the entrance to the storage room with great anticipation.

The sheer size of the cave gave Sharm a great deal of confidence. It's not easy to occupy such a large dwelling in the forest. With the strength of a bear goblin, he must have defeated many enemies, and there must be a lot of good stuff in the storage room.

"This is such a hassle for you, goblin. I'll just have to accept all the wealth you've worked so hard to accumulate." With that, he walked into the storage room full of anticipation.

Sure enough, there was a lot of adventurers' equipment here, piled up haphazardly everywhere.

Charles hummed a little tune and began to look around, feeling like he was raiding an NPC's house in an RPG game.

This knife is nice and very sharp, but it got bent from being smashed.

Wow, what a nice piece of leather armor, how come the seams are coming undone like this?

This staff, this staff is broken in two.

The breastplate, an iron breastplate, is dented from being hammered, but it's still usable. No, wait, goblins can't fit into it.

Charles continued searching, his initial excitement gradually fading, but he persisted, still hoping to find something.

[Item: Iron Longsword (Damaged)]

[Quality: Rough]

[Purpose: To poke]

Rubbish.

【Item: Cedar Longbow (Broken String)】

[Quality: Average]

[Purpose: Shooting]

Rubbish.

[Item: Leather weapon belt (broken)]

[Quality: Rough]

[Purpose: To be worn at the waist]

Rubbish.

……

"You idiot, goblin, what kind of nonsense have you collected?"

Charles slammed the broken equipment in his hand, and after searching the entire storage room, he only found six pieces that the goblins could use.

2把短剑、1根长矛、1大捆绳子、1只手弩和十几只弩箭，还有1个停走的怀表。

Charles fiddled with the pocket watch, wound it up, and the hands started moving again.

"Not bad, they even have high-tech gadgets." Then, Charles added, "What use is a pocket watch to a goblin like me?"

"Forget it, let John handle those junk. We'll just have to make money to buy weapons."

Besides equipment, Shar also gained something else – gold coins.

There were a total of 152 gold coins and a number of silver and copper coins. These were the belongings of the deceased adventurers. Adventurers didn't keep their money in banks; they carried it with them. They only trusted themselves.

He was very happy when he first found a dozen or so gold coins.

This deep-seated thirst for wealth made Charles, engrossed in "scratching lottery tickets," unaware that he was already drooling.

Given that an ordinary laborer could only earn 6 silver coins a day, this was a considerable fortune.

He deliberately piled these coins together, and each time he found a new one, he would categorize and stack it neatly.

As the number of gold coins increased, Charles gradually stopped smiling.

He realized that the money was nothing more than a work of art to him.

If he were human, this would be a huge sum of money, enough to make him the subject of shouts at bars, "Young Master Xia is paying for everything tonight."

But he's a goblin now, and these round little cuties are useless to him. If he dares to make a move rashly, he'll probably be shouted at the ear-eating competition venue as "Tonight's focus is on Young Master Xia."

When he reached the last page, Charles was numb. He looked at the pile of golden objects in front of him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"I never imagined I'd end up counting money until my hands cramped," he joked.

If he wants, he can spread out the coins and experience the feeling of rolling around in them.

"It's funny to think about it. Little John was so desperately pursuing things that I have a ton of."

If the other party knew there were 152 gold coins here, they would probably immediately say, "How can a great man remain subservient to others for long?"

We should wait until both parties have established sufficient trust before using this money.

Flipping a gold coin in his hand, Sharl arrived at the entrance to the goblin's "bedroom," having already given up hope.

Before even entering, the smell made him take several steps back. Charles even thought that if he risked going in, the torch might ignite the gas inside.

However, he still chose to go in and take a look, doing his best and leaving the rest to fate.

Unsurprisingly, the room was filled with unknown hair and debris, withered weeds were scattered in a pile, and there was a human leg bone in the corner.

Moreover, this goblin even pooped in his "bedroom"!

Xia Er wished he could poke a few more transparent holes in the bear goblin.

As he quickly scanned the entire cave, Xia Er was in a terrible mood. He finally understood why the goblin's men were carrying wooden sticks. He had thought it was to prevent them from using them in case of a rebellion, but now he realized that they simply didn't have any usable ones.

Come to think of it, with Xiong Di's immense strength, if you were to fight him, your weapons would either be bent or broken; how could they possibly remain intact?

"What terrible luck!" Charles grumbled as he prepared to leave.

As he reached the entrance to the cave, he suddenly had a feeling, as if something was calling to him.

Charles returned to a patch of withered grass, pushed aside the grass clippings, and a gray object was revealed.

It was a gray hemispherical object, made of metal, with irregular geometric patterns engraved on it, half-buried in the soil.

Charles picked it up and weighed it in his hand, feeling a strange sense of familiarity, as if this thing had been his for thousands of years.

He brought up the item panel to check:

[Item: Tower of Babel Key (Fragment)]

[Quality: God-tier]

[Purpose: To unlock the underground vault of the Tower of Babel]

[Note: Hide it well, so that the gods may not discover that we have found a way to surpass them.]

Huh? What's this thing?