The Forest Feeds No Idle Goblins

"Are you all going back?" Shire asked, looking at the little goblin’s Clan Leader in his palm.

"Yes," the other replied with a smile, his hands behind his back. "Everything here has been taken care of, and the injured goblins have all been treated."

Shire thought for a moment, his eyes glancing at Shan Xi Ao, who was flitting about nearby, looking like he wanted to fly over and say something.

’Old fox,’ Shire grumbled to himself.

"Stay here. This Fortress is large enough for all of us to live together," Shire said sincerely.

"No, our little goblin Race needs to go to the forest to find nectar, and that takes a lot of time," Shan Xi Ao’s father said, shaking his head.

"Father, the goblins can provide us with honeyed nectar! Then we wouldn’t have to fly to the forest. Have you forgotten about my sister...?" Shan Xi Ao finally couldn’t hold back and flew over.

"Silence," the little goblin’s Clan Leader snapped at his son.

"Would you mind telling me about it?" Shire asked.

"Sigh..." Shan Xi Ao’s father let out a long sigh and slowly recounted what had happened before.

Shire listened in silence. After he finished, he thought for a few seconds, noticing that the other was in no hurry and was simply watching him quietly.

"Alright. I now formally invite you, as the leader of the goblin Race, to move in and live here. I will be responsible for providing you with honeyed nectar and other corresponding supplies, and I will do everything in my power to ensure your safety. As long as you remain loyal to me, I promise that I will never harm a single kind, loyal little goblin," Shire said solemnly. "All you need to do is tend to the Red Bull Mushrooms or Blue Fluorescent Mushrooms planted in the Fortress each day and take on the corresponding healing duties during wartime."

The little goblin’s Clan Leader flapped his wings and flew in front of Shire. He smiled and held out his hand.

Seeing this, Shire also held out his palm and high-fived him.

"If I get the chance in the future, I will find a way to locate and rescue Shan Xi Ao’s sister," Shire said seriously, his gaze fixed on the clan leader. "This is a personal promise to your family."

Shan Xi Ao’s father’s smile vanished. He nodded grimly, and Shire could feel him trembling slightly.

"Alright, we should be heading back," Shan Xi Ao’s father said with a smile, having quickly composed himself.

"Father, why are we still going back?" Shan Xi Ao flew over and asked, puzzled.

"You idiot, don’t you need to go back and pack?" His father glanced at his foolish son. "Your mother can only just get out of bed and walk around. Are you planning to abandon her?"

Shire watched this rare, tender moment between father and son, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. But then he thought of his own situation and sighed softly.

"Chief, the count is in," Buck Teeth said, running to his side.

"How is it?" Shire asked, collecting himself.

"We lost 10 goblins, and many were injured. But with plenty of potions and the little goblins’ healing, they’re all fine. No one suffered any lost limbs." Buck Teeth glanced at the list in his hand and continued, "The Slimes were all killed. We have 5 Brain-Eating Monsters left. We only have one small stone house’s worth of Bang-Bang Fruit remaining. All the Adventurers are dead; the body count is 39."

Shire nodded. At least this time Buck Teeth didn’t recite one of his awful poems.

Given that the goblins only knew their ancestral method of finger-counting, Shire had bestowed the [Basic Computational Ability] he’d acquired from the tax officer upon Buck Teeth. After a period of training, he had finally broken free from the "shackles" of not having enough fingers to count.

"Collect everything they had on them. Have One-Eyed take some men and bury the bodies," Shire instructed, glancing at Buck Teeth’s list.

The battle had been brutal. Although they had won the siege by relying on the terrain and various supplies, their reserves were now nearly depleted. They needed to repair the damaged parts of the Fortress and stockpile resources as quickly as possible to face future dangers.

"By the way, have you seen Red Eyes?" Shire asked Buck Teeth, scanning the area. He found it strange. That hothead Red Eyes should have been standing in the middle of a crowd of goblins, shouting "We won! We won!" by now.

"I saw him. He’s outside the Fortress digging a pit," Buck Teeth said with a smile, glancing toward the main gate.

"Digging a pit?"

"Yep. He’s crying while digging a pit for the Brain-Eating Monsters. He wants to bury them with his own hands."

"Er..." Shire was speechless. He didn’t know what to say. ’That brute really did love petting those Brain-Eating Monsters.’

"Alright, go get busy," Shire said, waving his subordinate away. He then walked toward Agatha and Nine-finger, who were talking in the distance.

"I just saw the birds flying in the forest, and I thought it would be great if I could make fire look like that," Nine-finger said, scratching his head shyly.

Shire walked over and patted the floating Fulu, letting himself into the "Mental Chat Room."

"That’s very impressive," Agatha said, stroking the back of Rubus, who was beside her. "Shire, you have a genius Mage on your hands."

"A genius?" Shire asked with a smile.

"As far as I know, the Molding School is divided into Elemental Molding Power and Evil Power Molding. Of the two, only Evil Power Molding doesn’t require chanting Spells. While Elemental Molding Power is very formidable, its practitioners need to train their Elemental Coordination, communicate with Elemental Spirits through chanting, and nearly all Molding Mages practice the same kind of Molding Model," Agatha said slowly, looking at Shire.

"Your subordinate doesn’t need to chant, and he can even develop his own unique Model. That’s a sign of true genius."

Shire looked at the somewhat bewildered Nine-finger next to him. On the single finger raised from his only arm, three small birds of flame were circling up and down.

"Maybe he was just born to be a Mage," Shire said with a shrug.

Agatha fell silent. After half a minute, she nodded and said, "You’re right. I only knew that some Great Mages search for ’seeds’ with Magic Talent among humans. But perhaps such ’seeds’ exist among goblins, too, and no one has ever bothered to look."

"Alright, that’s enough praise. Let him figure things out on his own. Maybe he’ll surprise you even more," Shire said, looking at his subordinate with satisfaction.

"Now, about you. You’ve taken out the Storm Brotherhood this time. What are your plans for the future?" Agatha asked.

Shire waved Nine-finger off to do his own thing, then walked over to Rubus and joined in petting his fur. "First, we need to recover as quickly as possible, replenish all our reserves, and prevent any more Adventurers from coming to cause trouble. After that, I plan to continue exploring the forest."

"Continue exploring?"

"Yes, we can’t afford to stagnate. I still need more manpower, and don’t you need me to discover more Ancient Magic Ruins?" Shire scratched Rubus’s chin. "What’s that saying again? The forest is so big, I want to go see it."

"Alright then. I’ll continue studying this Teleportation Gate and see if I can build one myself. If you find any new Relics, notify me immediately," Agatha said, staring at Shire with hopeful eyes.

"Deal. I won’t forget," Shire agreed with a nod.

He ruffled the Star Realm Dog Rubus’s fur, recalling the previous battle. The big dog had teleported into the midst of the Adventurers and bit down on a Mage in one go. Then, completely ignoring the Magic and weapons aimed at it, it continuously used Star Realm Jump, flashing back and forth among the Adventurers. It injured one person with every appearance. With Rubus, Agatha, and Nine-finger, they had actually managed to suppress the group of enemy Adventurer Mages.

"Let Rubus stay with me for a while," Shire said after a moment of thought.

"What are you planning?" Agatha was instantly on guard.

"I’m not planning anything. I’m just grateful to him and want to play with him for a bit."

Shire truly adored Rubus. If Rubus could use Mind Communication, he’d be sorely tempted to trick him into joining his side. He’d provide the best dog food and dog house, find Rubus a few mates to produce litter after litter, and form a goblin "Jumpin’ Woof Woof Patrol" to patrol the forest. If they encountered any unlucky fools, he’d just yell, "Get ’em!"

Unfortunately, Shire had already tried using Fulu but was completely unable to pull the Star Realm Dog into the "Mental Chat Room."

Agatha stared into Shire’s eyes. His gaze towards Rubus was full of adoration. "Fine. I’m studying Runes here anyway. I’ll call him out to keep you company later."

"Let’s get this straight. You are not to feed him anything weird, nor are you to use him for any bizarre experiments," Agatha said, her purple eyes fixed on Shire.

"Of course not! How could a caring person like me do such a thing to the cute and beautiful Rubus? Just look at how well I’m raising the Brain-Eating Monsters."

Hearing this, Agatha’s eyes narrowed into a glare. Shire immediately put on an apologetic smile and beat a hasty retreat.

Over on the side, Buck Teeth was taking inventory of the pile of items from the Adventurers. Shire walked over to see if there was any good loot.

’These weapons are pretty good. We can pick out the suitable ones, repair them, and equip our fighters. The armor is more troublesome, though, especially the Chest Armor. It’s just a solid plate of iron; the goblins can’t wear it at all. We’ll have to give it to Mary to deal with.’

’Some Healing Potions, and a lot of Awakening Potions. What a waste of money. They bought so many Awakening Potions and didn’t even drink one. A lot of them are broken, too.’ Shire picked up a few potions from the ground and examined them. ’We’ll tally them up, send them to Mary, and sell them off.’

"What’s this?" He crouched down and picked up a Scroll from the ground. ’"Demon-Banning Barrier Scroll. When torn, temporarily shields the area around the user from the Magic Field, creating an effect that nullifies Magic."’

’Good stuff. And there are quite a few left. The Storm Brotherhood really wasn’t afraid to spend money.’

"Hm, what’s this?" Shire picked up a wax-yellow parchment from the ground and unrolled it. ’I knew it looked familiar. So they really were tricked by the Heart Stealer. They were even pretty diligent, writing a lot of notes on it.’

’"Ancient Magic Ruins," my ass. They were really desperate for money,’ he thought, angrily throwing the parchment to the ground.

A few seconds later, Shire picked the parchment up again. He stared at the left side of the parchment, near the border, where a small circle had been drawn in ink.

Below the circle was a line of small text:

"Suspected Relic."