Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"Isn't this distance a bit too far?" Evita arrived at the spot where the bang bang fruit exploded. This location was still some distance from her arrows. Moreover, after Red Eyes launched one bang bang fruit, Charles had his subordinates launch several more in succession. After the subsequent operations became more proficient, Evita watched in astonishment as the goblins lined up to launch bang bang fruits.

"Fortunately, the main advantage at this distance is that the 'Bang Bang Fruit' is relatively light." Sharl stood beside the centaur girl, scanning the surroundings. The trees in this area were blasted, with branches broken and leaves falling, due to the continuous hurling of more than a dozen 'Bang Bang Fruits'. "However, the shape of the 'Bang Bang Fruit' is not conducive to flight."

"Moreover, the destructive power of a single 'Kuang Kuang Fruit' is still quite limited." Xia Er bent down and picked up a small, broken branch from the ground. The branch was very thin and could be broken by hand. If you wanted to deal with those crazy goblins that were wearing iron armor or seemed to have drunk "Anger Potion," you would have to put an iron shell on them.

"You mean, if we put an iron shell over these fruits, they could fly this far?" Evita asked, glancing back at the direction of her arrows.

"Hmm, it should be fine. At most, we'll lose a little range, but compared to increasing our lethality, it's still acceptable." Charles nodded, tossing down the broken branch in his hand. "We can make the outer shell streamlined and add a tail fin at the back, just like the arrows you shot."

Evita blinked. As a centaur who had spent a long time with bows and arrows, she knew the role of arrow fletching in the flight of arrows. The thought of those goblins lining up and continuously putting flying "grenade fruits" into that iron tube sent chills down her spine. "A series of explosions could easily throw the enemy into chaos if they weren't prepared."

“Yes, and we can make more of those iron pipes,” Charles said, hands behind his back, preparing to return to the “Rune Mortar” position. “If all twenty cannons fire at the same time, and continuously without interruption, I think only a team using a large-area magical shield could withstand such an attack.”

"And large magical protective shields are not something that just anyone can use." He looked up at the sky. In his previous memories, even ordinary kingdom armies did not use this ability. It was more often used by high-ranking knights and some nobles' personal guards.

It has to be said that cannon fodder exists in every world. After thinking to himself, Charles slowly walked back with his hands behind his back, while Evita remained standing in the same spot, looking around at the situation.

"Just as he said, this thing is really powerful." Evita scratched at the fruit fragments on the ground with her front hooves. She knew what a terrible state it would be if it were encased in an iron shell. When Charles came over with her earlier, he mentioned that the "iron pipe" was made from the stones that used to weigh down the corners of the thatched huts in his village, and the source of this power was also recorded on a white stone.

"So, back then..." She lowered her head, paused for a few seconds, "I was sleeping on such a powerful object, and I was still humiliated like that by the Evil Throat Army."

"No," Evita smiled wryly, "If Charles hadn't wanted to find these white stones, we might never have met. It's just that there are all sorts of interesting items in the forest, and if you don't know how to use them, you'll always be oblivious to them."

She sighed, took the bow and arrows from her body again, nocked the arrow, and shot it diagonally into the sky. "With his leadership, the tribe should not experience the same things as before."

Seeing that Charles had gradually walked away, Evita picked up her longbow and ran after him. After a series of "thump-thump" sounds, she caught up with the goblin in front of her.

"What are you thinking about?" Ciel asked without turning his head when he heard the sound of running.

"Thinking about the future," Evita said as she approached Sharl, walking slowly with a "tap tap tap" sound. "As long as we follow you, our people can continue to be safe."

"Don't be so reckless," Charles said with a smile. "If just one weapon makes you so confident, then you'd better not."

"Why?" Evita asked.

"The forest is vast, and there are still many things we don't know," Sharl said, brushing aside the bushes as he walked. "Besides, this 'rune cannon' isn't finished yet; we still need to do a lot of experiments. The angle and precision aren't good enough."

"I just looked at that area. Maybe it's because they launched elliptical projectiles, but the whole area was a mess. They didn't hit any spot precisely at all." He plucked a few leaves from beside him and tossed them to the ground. The leaves were scattered everywhere by the wind. "Like this, if it can't accurately hit an area, then its function is not enough."

"You mean, a volley of arrows from a bow?" Evita looked at the leaves on the ground and understood what the other person meant. Indeed, if the tribe's arrows were not fired in the same area, it would be better to conserve arrows.

"So we still need to debug and improve it," Charles nodded, "but now there's an even bigger problem ahead."

Evita glanced down at the goblin, who had been calm and even smiling until now, but was frowning. She thought for a moment and asked, "What's the problem?"

"Manpower." Charles looked into the distance, where the goblins were squealing and yelling around the "rune mortar." If he hadn't told them not to use it casually, they might already be lining up to launch bang-bang berries for fun. Surprisingly, the one who was most interested wasn't the lame one, but the red-eyed one.

"Don't you have quite a few men under your command?" Evita chuckled and said.

"They're all a bunch of idiots," Charles smirked. He knew that artillery was a technical branch of the military, not something just anyone could handle. If he were to send his men to be artillerymen now, the first one they might blow up would be their leader, "Green Egg."

There's no way around it; these goblins don't know anything about parabolas, elevation angles, or ranges. They might not even know which way to point the cannon, and they might even do something like firing a mortar horizontally.

"We also need to train a group of people to use this thing proficiently." Charles sighed. As his tribe grew stronger, he began to yearn for a group of smarter subordinates, or to establish an educational system suitable for goblins.

But it's too hard.