Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

"There are 60 outfits in total, all newly made." Charles tilted his head slightly, looking at the somewhat astonished Diana.

"I'm starting to suspect that you were prepared all along." Diana pouted, her face turning somewhat bitter.

A few days ago, she agreed to the bet with the goblin. She originally thought that the other party would not be able to collect 50 sets of the same clothes in 5 days, but unexpectedly, when the time came, there were 10 more sets.

She had paid special attention to the style of these clothes; they weren't prepared by humans for their own children, but rather specially designed for goblins living in the forest.

"I never imagined that goblins had mastered sewing skills and could even make clothes. I was so ignorant." Diana sighed softly. She really hadn't expected goblins to "evolve" to this extent. In the eyes of the Crusaders, or rather, in the eyes of humans, a goblin wearing a tattered rag must have been robbed from a human village.

"It wasn't actually us who made them," Charles chuckled, spreading his hands to explain. "In fact, I funded the construction of a clothing workshop in Gieshorn, and then had Mary recruit many women from the surrounding villages to make clothes according to the designs. You know, the villages around Gieshorn are quite large, and if there aren't enough people, they won't be able to defend against the goblins that come out of the forest, so I can employ many people."

Seeing that the other party was stunned, Charles continued, "Of course, this is the first time they have seen this style, and they are still a little unfamiliar with the techniques. I think that after they get used to it, they should be able to speed up production."

"You," Diana bit her lower lip, "how many rural women have you employed?"

"Uh, more than 200 people?" Charles thought for a moment. "I don't know the exact number. Mary is in charge of everything. Of course, the number is still increasing. Earl Valentine has raised taxes again, which makes life even more difficult for the common people. Having an extra job is still good for commoner families."

"I'd rather believe the goblins learned to sew on their own," Diana retorted irritably. "Do you know how much more absurd that is? Monsters that humans are so wary of are actually hiring humans to do their jobs and paying them to help them out, while the nobles who are supposed to be the protectors of these commoners are still greedily exploiting their people."

"Oh," she said, covering her face with her hands, "I must be going crazy. Is this still the world I live in?"

"Of course, Miss President." Charles waved his hand with a smile, quite pleased with her performance.

"You don't need to call me President anymore. I think I've already been removed from the list," Diana shook her head and smiled nonchalantly. "Just call me Diana from now on."

"So, Miss Diana, would you be willing to become the leader of the goblins?" Charles smiled as he looked at the former president of the Crusader Army, his eyes full of sincerity.

"I'm willing to accept the consequences of my bet." Diana took a deep breath, as if trying to convince herself.

Charles nodded. "It's alright. I know that as a member of the Holy Order, you must have sworn a blood oath to the statue of the God of Battle and Glory when you joined. You can rest assured that I will not break your oath."

"Honor above all, cherish faith, protect the weak, and crush evil." Diana repeated softly, looking down at her palms, her thoughts seemingly returning to the scene many years ago when she stood before the idol, holding a crystal goblet filled with blood.

"Protect the weak, defeat evil." Charles smiled as he walked to her side, then took out a mask from behind his back.

"What is this?"

"Oh, just a little gadget, I prepared it for you." Charles said casually, "I thought you might not be able to accept it right away, but I didn't expect you to change your mindset so quickly."

No wonder he's a president whose hands are faster than his brain.

"A white cat-face mask?" Diana snatched the mask before Charles could retract his hand and examined it closely. "Only the upper half of the face?"

Charles was surprised by how quickly the other party acted and said somewhat sullenly, "Of course, after all, I still need to command the troops, it wouldn't be good to talk if everything was covered up."

"Thank you, I quite like it." Diana put it on directly, wrapped the ropes on both sides of the mask around the back of her head and tied them under her high ponytail.

"I originally thought you would decline at least a little."

"Why?" Diana asked, adjusting her mask.

Ciel shrugged. "We're goblins, you know."

"But you haven't done anything evil. I've been walking around these past few days, and if it weren't for your green skin, I would have thought you were a group of farmers clearing land."

"Isn't this a bit mind-blowing?"

"There are some, but frankly, sometimes evil and weakness cannot be generalized by race."

Hearing this, Ciel raised an eyebrow. "Is there anything more evil than goblins?"

"As I mentioned before, I spend some time each year away from the Crusader's base, traveling around the continent." Diana slightly raised her head, her gaze drifting to the distance, where a group of goblins were surrounding an elephant herd, leveling the ground. Further away, several large trees had been felled, and some goblins had surrounded them, beginning to cut the timber. "Of course, finding Uncle Four is one thing, but I have something even more important to do."

Seeing the other person's serious expression, Ciel also stopped smiling and quietly waited for the answer.

Have you ever experienced despair?

"despair?"

"Yes, a pitch-black door opens wide before you, and countless fierce-looking and bloodthirsty creatures rush towards you. They have sharp claws, protruding bone spikes and long horns on their backs, and each one has sharp and messy teeth. The human army has already begun to retreat in fear before even engaging in battle. With just one encounter, those self-proclaimed well-trained soldiers will flee in disarray."

"You mean...?"

"The Whip of Creation, I don't know if you've heard of it."

"I think I've heard of it," Charles frowned. "It happened thousands of years ago. Back then, the Dark Duke opened the dimensional gate and unleashed an army of demons. The Church of the Four Gods also joined the war."

Diana was taken aback, clearly surprised that Ciel, this goblin, would know.

"You surprised me. I didn't expect a goblin to know these things," she said, looking at Charles again. Her eyes no longer held the arrogance typical of humans, but instead held a look of inquiry. "That great battle was very fierce. Both the human army and the church forces suffered heavy losses, and it even led to a reshuffling of the human kingdoms. People call it a slap in the face from the Creator God, a warning to the world. There is still a huge mural in the main hall of the Crusader's camp, which commemorates that battle."

"So you're looking for a 'dimensional portal'?"

"Yes," Diana nodded emphatically, "The demons of the Eternal Darkness Plane will accumulate their power and every now and then try to break the barriers between planes and send their demon armies to this world."

She continued to gaze at the busy goblins, but her tone gradually turned cold. "These demon gates come in different sizes. The small ones probably only allow a few dozen demons or their minions to pass through, while the large ones require an entire army."

"But for thousands of years, the Whip of Creation has not occurred again."

"Do you know how the Demon Gate works?" Diana glanced at the goblin beside her and asked with a smile.

"Tearing through space directly, and then like passing through a rift?" Charles raised an eyebrow.

"No, this requires the demon lord to first bewitch one or more humans, so that they can start accumulating power or magic. Only when they have enough power can they use the magic circle given by the demon lord to open the dimensional gate."

This answer surprised Charles somewhat. He stroked his chin, "So it's this complicated."

"Yes," Diana sighed, "Just because of some selfishness and greed, these people were noticed and seduced by the demons, step by step walking into the abyss, until finally causing an irreversible result. It is said that the Dark Duke only wanted to win a card game with the nobles at the beginning. I don't know why these demon lords send large armies to our world. Every time we drive them back, they come back after hundreds of years, as if there is something here that they must get."

She complained irritably, clearly very dissatisfied with the demon's behavior.

However, Charles remained silent. He could understand why the demon lord would do such a thing. The fortress contained the Angry Horn, and in the distance, the elephant king was trampling the earth, with the Sloth's finger bone stuck in its back.

"Maybe, maybe they feel incomplete and want to find something in this world." Charles smiled wryly, inwardly cursing what kind of demonic instrumentation plan this was.

"So I need to travel all over the continent to see if anything special is happening, to sense any strange magical fluctuations, and if so, to determine if it's some villains plotting something." Diana adjusted her mask and turned her gaze back to the goblins chatting and laughing in the distance, a scene reminiscent of a pastoral forest idyll.

"Is this why you deliberately chased after Little John and his group in Torch City?"

"Yes," Diana nodded, "daring to bomb the church of the God of Life, aren't they just a bunch of madmen?"

"Yes, pretty arrogant." Charles's lips twitched a few times, feeling speechless at his sister's junior brother. If these things hadn't happened back then, he probably wouldn't have summoned this Holy Army commander.

But then again, it's impossible to recruit such a commander.

More importantly, his previous attempts to persuade Diana with his abilities directly triggered the effect of [God of War's Blessing], and he discovered that he had mastered a new spell.

[True Arcane Burst: You can fire an energy beam to attack enemies. Upon hitting the nearest enemy, the beam explodes around them, dealing magic damage and inflicting fear on nearby enemies. This spell can be elementally empowered, and elemental effects can be stacked after the explosion. This spell can be enhanced.]

A few days ago, he was surprised to find that he had mastered this spell, and judging from the name, it seemed to be different from the [Magic Blast] recorded in the magic book when he signed the contract, and also different from the one used by the earth goblin Evilthroat that he had encountered before.

At that time, Evilthroat's spells only exploded at a fixed point, and the damage range was limited. The effect was more like throwing a supercharged grenade that exploded with green light.

The effect of this [True Magic Burst] is even more powerful, directly shooting out a beam of energy. After the explosion, it will also bring fear. It is unknown how effective it is. More importantly, this spell can also be empowered and enhanced. If lightning is used to empower it, will a turbulent flow of lightning appear and directly paralyze the seriously injured enemy?

The only problem is that this spell can only be used three times a day, which annoys Sharl, as it's even less than the [Group Intelligence Reduction Curse].

But when he thought that this was a trump card spell, and not a watered-down version of [Magic Blast] used to fool those "guinea pigs", Sharl felt that it was not unacceptable.

"I wonder if my personal spellbook will include these spells when I have more than 5000 subordinates in the future, and what changes will occur then."

But now, the three uses per day are just enough, and Sharl is very satisfied that he can once again draw new spells from the Demon Lord's magic treasury.

"Have you been busy lately?" Ciel glanced at Diana and changed the subject.

"No." Diana shrugged, with an expression that said, "Where else can I go?"

"Then come with us. I'm going to lead my men to search for some underground ruins soon," Charles invited warmly. "Anyway, you've never seen our fighting style before. If anything unexpected happens, you can familiarize yourself with it first."

"Is there danger?" Diana pursed her lips, her chest wound not yet fully healed, and she was a little worried.

"There won't be much danger." Xia Er waved his hand. On the domain map, the symbol wasn't the twin swords representing battle, but a question mark, indicating that the opponent wasn't a vicious criminal and that the matter could perhaps be resolved through communication.

However, there are differences. For example, in the previous experience of the frogman, he fought with the benthic magic fish, so Sharl cannot make any guarantees.

"Hmm," Diana pondered for a few seconds before finally nodding, "Alright, since I've agreed to be your commander, I still have to do things. This is a good opportunity to familiarize myself with the goblin's fighting style."

Looking at the corner of the other person's mouth, Charles knew that he was teasing the phenomenon of goblins fleeing en masse when they encounter enemies.

But those weren't his subordinates. I believe that when a real battle breaks out, they'll give this Holy Crusade commander a big surprise.

"By the way, how about the house Mary found for you in Gieshorn?" Charles suddenly remembered that he hadn't asked Diana about these things yet. She moved to Gieshorn after resting in the forest for a few days, since humans can't stay in the forest for long.

"It's alright, a two-story building."

"Mary's been too busy lately. If you're not satisfied, we'll find you a replacement once she's less busy," Charles said, spreading his hands.

"No need, it's fine. I used to travel on the mainland, and sometimes I had to sleep in trees." Diana waved her hand dismissively. "Speaking of which, I do have something to ask you."

"?"

"What is my salary?"

"Uh, how about the same as Mary, two gold coins a month?"

"Two, two gold coins?" Diana's eyes widened, and she took a half step back, her mouth agape enough to fit an egg.

"I am your commander-in-chief, the President of the Crusade," she pointed to her face and snapped, "do you think you can just give me two gold coins?"

"Look, we didn't say that before, we goblins aren't rich either." Sharl looked troubled.

"Don't you own a garment factory with hundreds of employees? You even claim you're going to build a forest city, how could you be short of money?"

"Being thrifty and managing the household well is important."

"I really am..." Diana shook her head, regretting that she had agreed in a moment of impulsiveness.

"How about this, I'll erect a statue of you in the training grounds later, and then once the Forest City is established, I'll include you in the history of the goblins, so you can be remembered in history?"

"Does your tribe have many literate people?" Diana asked.

"For now, you can count them on one hand."

"I'm an idiot, I'm a complete idiot!" Diana huffed and walked away, completely ignoring Charles.

"Where are you going?"

"At the training ground, I'm going to beat up a few goblins. First, I'll cut off Red Eyes' hand."

To immerse yourself in reading Chapter 358, "The Whip of Creation," please click here.