"Two als a day?"
Nine-finger’s eyes went wide. "Wasn’t that a victory feast?"
"We eat twice every day," Red Eyes said proudly.
"I never even dared to dream of eating my fill, and you guys get two als a day." Nine-finger was overco with emotion. "If we eat like this every day from now on, my life is the chief’s."
He spoke through gritted teeth, the fierce expression on his face giving Red Eyes pause.
"Well, it’s not *exactly* like this every ti, but it’s pretty close," Shire said casually from the front.
These past few days, Bai Mao had been leading the female goblins in making more and more jerky, so she was no longer wearing a frown.
Shire had also begun to tackle the problem of how his subordinates ate. First, he changed the chaotic scramble for food into an orderly queue. Next, he addressed them eating with their hands. Shire had his goblins make more wooden bowls and spoons; he always felt that eating with one’s hands was no different from a monkey. Just like a certain "Eastern Great Country," this was a habit that needed to change.
Bai Mao had now been promoted to the tribe’s Head Chef, leading all the female goblins in managing and preparing food. After annexing the two tribes, they had also confiscated their large cooking pots.
Hearing the chief say they would eat two als a day from now on, Nine-finger gazed fervently at Shire’s back. He didn’t know what he needed to do to earn the new chief’s trust, but for the first ti, he genuinely wanted to fight for the chief in the next tribal battle.
"You said before that Red Face always used to go out alone and would bring back Bang-Bang Fruits when he returned, right?" Shire asked.
"Yes, Chief," Nine-finger answered imdiately.
Shire closed his eyes and opened his Domain in his consciousness, searching carefully. He finally found a lon-like fruit icon north of the Seven Cave Race’s burrows.
"You’ve never hunted to the north, have you?" Shire asked.
"No, Chie— Red Face wouldn’t let us go." Nine-finger was taken aback. He didn’t know how Shire knew that.
Shire just smiled and led his n toward the location of the Bang-Bang Fruits.
After walking for a good while, they finally reached the edge of a forest of tall trees.
BOOM. An explosion sounded from within the forest. Shire confird this was the place.
He looked up and saw that these trees were exceptionally tall, almost twice the height of other trees. ’These must be 30 ters high.’
The entire area was filled with these trees. On the ground, besides low-lying weeds, there were no taller shrubs.
BOOM. Not far away, a fruit fell to the ground and exploded on impact.
’This seems to be the tree’s thod of survival.’ Shire nodded. He deduced that when the fruit of this tree ripened, it would fall naturally. Hitting the ground would cause it to detonate. The explosion would affect the surrounding plants while also scaring away animals. Moreover, with canopies reaching 30 ters high, they blocked out the sunlight, making it difficult for other plants to survive over ti.
However, this was good news for Shire. This Bang Bang Forest covered a large area, and it was currently the fruit’s ripening season. If he could harvest them quickly, he would surely be able to bolster his arsenal.
He led his subordinates forward into the woods, sticking close to the tree trunks like thieves sneaking into a house, trying his best to avoid walking directly under the canopies.
Spotting a few unexploded Bang-Bang Fruits in the grass, Shire was just about to go get them when Nine-finger dashed over, picked them up, and ran back.
Shire smiled at his loyal subordinate as he took the Bang-Bang Fruits.
The fruit had a very hard rind with vertical stripes like a pumpkin. A faint sound could be heard when it was shaken.
Shire handed a fruit to Red Eyes. "Throw it over there, and wait—"
Before he could finish, Red Eyes had already hurled the fruit with a WHOOSH.
BOOM.
The gentle breeze from the explosion blew across Shire’s bald head. "...wait until we’re behind a tree to throw it."
He sighed. ’This reckless subordinate... a good thing he threw it so far. If it had hit a tree trunk and bounced back, Brother Renzong would have beco Emperor Ge’ai.’
Then, Shire glanced up at the canopy and quickly ran to the point of detonation.
’There’s a burnt sll, and so smoke.’ Shire inspected the area closely. ’The surroundings are littered with woody pieces of the rind. The bark of this tree is very hard; it’s barely damaged.’
’So it seems the explosion is caused by a powerful impact. A simple bump won’t make it detonate.’ Shire searched around and finally spotted another unexploded fruit in the distance.
He ran over cautiously and picked it up. ’The rind feels very dry. It must have fallen a long ti ago.’
This ti, Shire chose to throw it himself. BOOM. The fruit hit a tree trunk and exploded.
’Excellent. They can be stored without affecting their explosive properties.’
"Red Eyes, try climbing it."
Red Eyes grunted and strained for a long ti, but he was still less than a ter off the ground.
’The trunk is so thick and straight. It’s too hard to climb. We’ll have to make tools.’ Shire looked up at the towering canopy. ’Next step is to make tools, get up to the canopy as quickly as possible, and harvest the Bang-Bang Fruits.’
He called a halt to Red Eyes, who was wriggling on the tree trunk like an oversized grub, and ordered everyone to spread out and carefully collect the unexploded Bang-Bang Fruits on the ground.
Because of the falling and exploding Bang-Bang Fruits, almost no animals ca to this area. They just had to watch out for the danger of falling fruit.
After a while, Shire called out, gathering his subordinates. In total, they had collected 16 unexploded fruits.
"Not bad. This will be enough for now." Shire had Red Eyes and Nine-finger carry two packs filled with the fruits. "It’s getting late. Let’s head back. We still have to move tomorrow."
「The next afternoon.」
Shire led 27 goblins to a clearing in the forest.
Early that morning, he had moved all his subordinates into the burrows where the Seven Cave Race used to live.
There were seven burrows clustered together. Shire thought that Red Face really had a knack for naming things—simple and descriptive.
The 7 burrows varied in size. In Shire’s words, ’The boys have finally moved into a luxury flat.’ He assigned them one by one, picking a separate one for himself, leaving the largest cavern for his subordinates, and giving the female goblins their own burrow. This was mainly to prepare for the birth of new goblin children. The remaining three caverns were designated for storing tools, cultivating mushrooms, and air-drying Red Bull Mushrooms.
After two days of observation, Buck Teeth discovered that the Red Bull mycelium would only spread on fir wood; other types of wood were not to its liking. Shire had his subordinates collect so fir wood to lay out in the cultivation room, leaving Buck Teeth to continue looking after it.
Now that he had more subordinates, they didn’t have enough Red Bull Mushrooms. After finishing the move and going on a hunt today, Bai Mao and four female goblins had only managed to gather enough for two days, and they had even picked a few of the wrong kind.
’We’ll have to rely on cultivating our own Red Bull Mushrooms. I wonder when we’ll get a stable harvest.’
After lunch, Shire led his n to the location marked with two swords on his map. He couldn’t wait to see what it was.
"Everyone, look around. Check the trees, the ground, and the grass for anything unusual," he ordered.
Following his command, the twenty-odd goblins spread out across the clearing and began their search.
Soon, a goblin reported that a patch of stone looked very smooth.
Shire ran over and saw that several clumps of grass had been pulled up and pushed aside, revealing a flat, moss-covered stone surface beneath.
"Dig," he commanded.
A mont later, a stone-paved area about two ters long and one ter wide was uncovered.
Shire went forward, knocking and stomping on it, but found the stone didn’t budge.
"Give the Bang-Bang Fruits," he ordered.
Nine-finger handed him two of the fruits.
Shire led everyone back, then forcefully threw the fruits. With a BOOM, the stone blocks imdiately began to fall away with a great CLATTER.
A stone passageway with stairs leading down was revealed.
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