Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

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"Is that fireplace finished?" Agatha asked Charles beside her without looking up, as she leaned over the workbench, fiddling with a few pieces of "white holy stone".

"Well, I guess so. It's their first time building this, so One-Eyed and the others are still a bit clumsy. It doesn't look very nice either. The bricks aren't even aligned properly. If the humans from the Kingdom of Fran saw this project, they probably wouldn't even want to pay for it." Charles shrugged and continued fiddling with the rune mortar standing on the ground.

"That's enough. After all, this is the first time a fireplace has appeared in Nightmare Forest. If it weren't for you, I estimate it wouldn't appear for hundreds of years." Agatha put down the white holy stone in her hand, looked up, and said, "Okore probably saw what his new home looks like now."

"Yes, he was very happy, especially seeing his wife lying on the deerskin spread out in front of the fireplace. It was so warm. It was the first time I had ever seen that expression on the face of a centaur warrior," Charles said, pointing to his cheek with one finger. "He was delighted, but there were many people around watching him, and he didn't want to make too much of an expression. After all, he was the first warrior of his tribe, so he looked rather strangely ferocious."

"He is actually a very good person. On the way to the Frogman tribe's cave, he managed the whole team responsibly."

Charles nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, you've finally sorted out that runeword, haven't you?"

"Yes, it's all done," Agatha sighed. "Speaking of which, that pool was really cold. Luckily, I brought some magic scrolls to help me get up, otherwise I really wouldn't have been able to."

"Those frogmen were fun too; they let me experience big bubble diving twice." She held up two fingers, a slight smile appearing on her face.

"So, what is the purpose of this new runeword?" Charles stopped what he was doing, got up and went to the workbench. On the table were several rune patterns drawn by Agatha. These patterns were clearly drawn in great detail, compared to his previous ones which could only be described as "scribbles".

"This runeword is about temperature, I think you should know that." Agatha gently patted the paper. "After studying the stone with the storage room work regulations engraved on it, I have a basic understanding of how this runeword works."

"This thing can keep the space surrounded by four runes at a constant temperature. As long as the runes are not broken, it will maintain a constant temperature. And that," she turned to look at the "offering altar" next to her, which had been cleaned by the lame man but still had some black marks, "that controller can set the temperature, from low to high. However, I found that the temperature on the controller cannot be set very low or very high. Perhaps it can only be used to keep food at a low temperature or to dispel cold at a high temperature."

"Is that so?" Charles's gaze lingered on the blueprints on the workbench. "So, this thing can only maintain temperature, but it can't actually heat things up?"

"No," Agatha shook her head, "it cannot replace the function of fire."

"I originally thought that if this stuff worked, it might be able to be used directly to build blast furnaces for ironmaking, but now it seems that's not possible."

"However, it can at least be used to preserve food, as meat spoils easily in the summer," Agatha cautioned. "And now that it's winter, setting a suitable temperature can effectively mitigate the cold."

“You’re right,” Charles said with a smirk. “I was just wondering how to deal with the elephant herd. These big guys seem reluctant to leave the fortress now because of the low temperature, which is not good for the centaur’s village building speed. Moreover, the baby elephants have started to wander around the fortress. Last time, Nine Fingers said that a baby elephant almost ran into the mimicry monster’s breeding area.”

"Are you planning to provide the elephant with a warm place to live?"

"Well, it's kind of like an elephant shed. I promised the elephant lord that I'd like to build a set of runewords for them in the space where the elephants live. Since we can set the temperature, we'll only turn on the warm mode for them after dusk." Charles shrugged, indicating that he really didn't know what to do with these elephants, and there would be many more things in the future that would require the help of the elephant herd. It would be very difficult for goblins to build a city of all races on their own.

"I would say these runewords could also be used on centaurs, since they are safer than fireplaces."

"No, Miss Sebastian," Ciel shook his finger, "you know, we don't have enough white holy stones. If we build insulated houses for all the centaurs, we'll probably use up at least half of them."

He gestured around the surrounding inventory of White Sacred Stones. "We don't know where else we have White Sacred Stones, so I abandoned this idea immediately."

Charles shrugged. "And another thing, fireplaces are more cost-effective."

After a few seconds of silence, Charles let out a soft breath and said, "However, what you said is also very good, it's just that we can't do it now, but maybe we can gradually achieve it in the future. As for the White Sacred Stone, I do know where to find it."

"You found out?"

"Hmm." Charles nodded, then asked mysteriously, "Did you know that the White Sacred Stone is also known as the Stone of Despair?"

"The Stone of Despair?" Agatha repeated the word, even emphasizing the word "despair." "Isn't this thing a sacred object? That's what Mr. Elton and the others say."

Instead of refuting his old classmate, Charles asked a seemingly unrelated question: "Have you heard of the Yongming Dimension?"

"Of course I've heard of it. Every magician knows it," Agatha smiled. "There are three planes in this world. The main material plane we live in now is also a plane blessed by the gods. There are also two other planes: the Eternal Light Plane and the Eternal Dark Plane. However, I only know that the demons live in the Eternal Dark Plane. I don't know much about the Eternal Light Plane."

"You know?" Charles raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised that Agatha knew these things.

“Of course, all mages know a little bit about it,” Agatha walked to the bookshelf next to the worktable, took out a book and placed it in front of Charles. “I haven’t read many of these books. This one is about the introduction to planes. Some high-level mages know how to pass through the boundary walls, thus traveling between these planes.”

"Is that so? I'm sorry, I didn't know that." Charles scratched his temple.

"It's nothing, you're not a magician," Agatha waved her hand. "Besides, these magicians only need to travel between dimensions to collect high-level materials to make those magical items."

"Then..." Charles hesitated for a moment, "Could these mages...?"

Agatha looked at Charles and immediately understood what he meant. "I'm sorry, they can't cross the astral plane yet."

She gestured as she explained to Charles, "The Astral Plane is like a wall that holds these three planes together. Mages can only travel between the planes, but they have no way to enter the Astral Plane."

"But your ancestors did it, that Twelve Bloodlines, the Fat Lady."

"It was the 'Flying Fat Lady,' which was a thousand years ago, and it was the only successful one in the entire history. It's just that our ancestors never revealed the method they used." Agatha shrugged, somewhat helplessly.

"Alright, let's get back to the Everlasting Plane." Charles pushed the books on the table aside. He wasn't particularly interested in these mages' travelogues, or rather, he didn't have much time to read them these days. "I just learned that orcs live in the Everlasting Plane, and that the White Sacred Stone is called the Stone of Despair among them."

"Orcs? Orcs that disappeared thousands of years ago?" Agatha was taken aback, then immediately grabbed the book on the table and quickly flipped to the page about the Eternal Brightness Plane according to the table of contents. Soon she found the part she wanted to read. "Sure enough, the book records things about the Eternal Brightness Plane. Those orcs did indeed live there."

"By the way, this Yongming dimension, could it be that...?"

"Yes," Agatha nodded, "it's exactly what you think, literally, there's always sunshine throughout the day, no night, and as soon as the sun sets in the east, it immediately rises again in the east."

"So, does the Eternal Darkness Plane mean there will never be a sun again?" Charles asked, stroking his chin in surprise.

"That's how it is, literally."

"Without the alternation of day and night, what about the orcs living there? How will the plants survive? And what about the animals?" Sharl asked, frowning.

"Sorry, I might need to finish reading this book before I can answer those questions," Agatha said, closing the book on her workbench. "Honestly, I haven't even finished the second part of 'The Aristocrats of Plantagenet' yet."

"Never mind, I'm not in a hurry. Let's get back to the point. You know about the White Sacred Stones," Sharl pointed to the white stones on the table, "the orcs call them the Stones of Despair, and I've heard that there are many of these stones over there."

"A lot?" Agatha's eyes lit up. "How much is 'a lot'?"

"A mountain, entirely composed of white holy stone." Shar paused for a moment, then said, "The orcs call that white mountain the Peak of Despair."

“This name…” Agatha frowned; she instinctively disliked the name. “But before, Mr. Elton,” she hurried to her desk and flipped through her notes, “he said that the White Sacred Stone was mined from the Golden Peak. What about this Peak of Despair?”

"I don't know about that," Charles shrugged. "Perhaps there were many mountains made of white holy stone in ancient times, and if there weren't many, the mountains would definitely disappear if they were mined like this."

"You have a point. By the way," Agatha realized, turning to look at the goblin in front of her, "how do you know about orcs?"

"You have a point. By the way," Agatha realized, turning to look at the goblin in front of her, "how do you know about orcs?"

"Yes, little John, he met an orc." Charles smiled. According to little John, the orc was quite interesting.

"An orc was brought to the material plane by a mage? This must have been done by those high-ranking archmages." Agatha knew the reason immediately. "These archmages are very powerful, and some of them are even wicked."

"Is your heart dark?"

"That's not quite right," Agatha sighed. "You know, many mages come to Nightmare Forest to use magic circles to transform animals into magical beasts. Just like the Devilclaw Bear before, these people mainly need magical beasts to provide them with materials to make magical artifacts."

"A beast core?"

"No, it's not just the beast cores. After those animals are infected and mutated, their bodies also undergo various changes, large and small, and parts of their bodies are then used by mages."

"They're for making magical items, aren't they?" Charles replied. "I did acquire two items before, and I'm thinking of making them into items with some magical functions. I'm waiting for Uncle Musa and Little John to reply."

"That kind of thing is not easy to make, and it's even more difficult to make it so that ordinary people can use it." Agatha flipped her table and then took out a gold bracelet and placed it in front of Ciel.

"This looks familiar. It seems like the one you wore when the Brotherhood of Storms attacked." Charles looked the bracelet in front of him up and down. The gold bracelet didn't look like it was made of metal, and it was engraved with a lot of decorative patterns.

"This is made from the bones of a magical beast. It's just a very simple magical item. Its purpose is simply to create a defensive barrier for me, protecting me from low-level magic and ordinary arrow attacks."

"So, can I understand it this way?" Charles asked tentatively, gesturing with his chin, "If I find a craftsman who can make magical items, and then give them the corpse of a magical beast and pay them a sum of money, I can obtain the finished magical item?"

"That's one way to put it, but not entirely. In order to make magical items, in addition to these tough materials, you also need magic crystals, which are more important."

"Those are the crystal mines, right? I know them. I saw people selling them in Torch City before, and they were very expensive." Sharl had heard of magic crystals before, and the red gemstone necklace that Uncle Musa was wearing was actually just a common magic crystal that wasn't very rare.

"I know what you're thinking," Agatha smiled. "Collecting magical beasts in the forest and then having someone turn them into magical items, whether to arm ourselves or to sell them, is indeed a good option, but we still lack magic crystals."

"Yes, yes," Charles nodded, but his answer was somewhat perfunctory. At this moment, he turned his back and brought up the domain map. To the northeast of the Frogman Cave, he saw a strange symbol.

"This sign looks like a mine."