"My name is Buck Teeth, my name is Buck Teeth."

Shire dug up tubers, a wry smile on his face as he watched Buck Teeth beside him.

Buck Teeth was learning Common Speech. Though it was just a simple sentence structure, he was happy as a clam, practicing while he dug for tubers.

Just yesterday, Shire had noticed Buck Teeth muttering "Goods? Goods?" while tending to the Red Bulls. After asking, he learned that Buck Teeth had overheard it during their last trade with Little John.

The guy was a serious student, not caring whether it was useful or not, and had memorized a few syllables on the spot.

Acting on the principle that you can never have too many skills, Shire decided to take some time over the next few days to teach Buck Teeth some Common Speech.

"Hey, this one’s huge." Shire pulled out a tuber and tossed it aside.

Although hunting was no longer a problem, the goblins still needed to eat starchy foods every day.

He sat on the ground, watching Broken Tooth weave in and out of the shadows in the trees. With a SWOOSH, he even leaped from a branch into a shadow on the ground below, just like a high diver.

"Broken Tooth, stay on high alert," Shire called out loudly.

Then he saw Broken Tooth quickly scramble back up the tree and disappear completely into a shadow, leaving only a fist sticking out. The fist bobbed twice, as if nodding.

Ever since Broken Tooth learned the Shadow Concealment Technique yesterday, he was like a kid with a new toy, zipping all over the place and having the time of his life.

’I guess I did a good deed,’ Shire thought.

Speaking of which, he’d enabled his subordinates to eat two meals a day, freed them from eating strange foods, and even helped them grow in Ability. If there were ever a Goblin Dynasty, he felt he’d at least qualify as a "Brother Renzong."

"What’s a Renzong? I should at least be called Brother Gaozu," Shire said with a laugh.

"Buh-Gah-Zoo, Buh-Gah-Zoo," Buck Teeth mumbled indistinctly from the side, repeating the syllables.

"Get outta here. Go back to practicing ’My name is Buck Teeth’," Shire said, annoyed, shooing his subordinate away.

After a short break, he used a wooden stick to dig for a "potato." ’Next shopping list needs to include some tools. These wooden sticks are useless.’

"Leader!" The call rang out, and Shire immediately stood up.

A female goblin came to his side. "We’ve run into another tribe. Bai Mao sent me to get you."

"Another tribe? How many of them are there?" Shire asked.

"Seven goblins, all carrying wooden clubs."

"Let’s go." Shire ordered everyone to stop digging and hurry over with him.

That morning, he had sent Bai Mao with three other female goblins to find wild Red Bulls to transplant into the caves. He never expected they’d run into another tribe.

They hadn’t gone far when Shire saw a group of goblins in the distance surrounding his three and shoving them around.

"If you won’t join us, we’ll kill you," a leading goblin said, shoving Bai Mao to the ground.

Bai Mao fell but kept a tight grip on a piece of wood with Mushrooms growing on it.

"Red Eyes, go get them," Shire commanded, his eyes glinting coldly.

"You’re all gonna die!" Red Eyes took the Longsword from his back and charged, howling, at an astonishing speed.

The others heard him and raised their clubs, but it was too late. Red Eyes plowed into the crowd and unleashed a Horizontal Sweep.

Screams erupted one after another as he cut down three goblins in a single blow.

Shire’s other subordinates charged with their own clubs. After a chaotic flurry of blows, only two of the enemy goblins were left alive.

And that was only because Shire had specifically ordered it.

"Talk. What’s going on?" he said, looking down at the two goblins kneeling before him.

"Who are you?" one of them asked.

"Bastard! He’s the Green Egg Leader!" Red Eyes yelled.

"Shut up. Call me Handsome Guy." Shire kicked Red Eyes.

The two outsider goblins looked at each other, but neither spoke.

"Not very cooperative, are we." Shire smiled faintly, called Buck Teeth over to give him some quiet instructions, and then said, "Take this one over there and beat him to death."

One goblin was dragged away by Buck Teeth and a few others. Then, screams echoed from the distance, each one striking at the remaining goblin’s psychological defenses.

"Your turn. Talk." Shire sat down commandingly on a tree stump. "Where are you from? Who gave you the guts to touch my people?"

"We’re from the Seven Cave Race. Our leader sent us to scout this Hunting Ground. If it wasn’t claimed, it would belong to our tribe."

"Can’t you see this is my territory?" Shire pulled the dagger from his waist and stabbed it into the ground.

"You didn’t plant a skull-pole. It’s not yours. It belongs to whoever plants one first."

"Still acting tough, huh? Then we’ll settle it the old-fashioned way." Shire’s face showed Anger, but inwardly, he was ecstatic.

’Just when I was thinking we were short on manpower, someone delivers free labor.’

According to the jungle laws of goblins, if two tribes coveted the same Hunting Ground, they would agree on a time to fight. The winner would take the Hunting Ground.

However, this rule was often hard to enforce. For one, goblins were never punctual. For another, even if they lost, they’d still come back to poach.

"How many of you are there? Who’s your leader?" Shire asked.

"There are twelve of us. Our leader is a shorty."

’They dare to challenge me with so few people?’ Shire was skeptical. He sent a subordinate to get Buck Teeth.

Buck Teeth soon returned with a message: excluding the ones that had just died, the enemy had more goblins than he had fingers and toes.

"You’re not being honest, are you." Shire jutted his chin, and Red Eyes went over and gave the goblin a vicious beating.

After a while, the beating stopped, and Buck Teeth delivered another message: the enemy leader was supposedly quite formidable and had won several arranged battles with his followers.

"If you don’t start talking, I’ll have to kill you," Shire said, a look of regret on his face.

"Our leader is very strong! He has Bang-Bang Fruits! They can scare off other tribes, and we just have to chase them down to win," the goblin confessed honestly.

"What’s a Bang-Bang Fruit?"

"It’s a fruit that makes a loud noise when you throw it."

’A fruit that makes noise?’ Shire frowned, thinking. He knew of the sandbox tree, whose fruit exploded when ripe. ’Could a plant like that exist in this world too? I wonder how powerful it is.’

He had Red Eyes beat the goblin again, then called Buck Teeth over and told him about the Bang-Bang Fruit. After a moment, Buck Teeth came back and confirmed it: they existed, and getting too close could get you blown to bits.

"So they can actually kill someone." Shire stared at the goblin before him. "Where do you get these Bang-Bang Fruits?"

"I don’t know. The leader sometimes leaves the tribe by himself and comes back with them," the goblin told him everything.

"All right, drag him back," Shire ordered.

A few seconds later, the goblin that had been taken away was dragged back like a dead dog.

The two bruised and swollen goblins looked at each other, both surprised the other was still alive. Each had thought the other was beaten to death, which is why they confessed out of fear. They had no idea Shire had separated them to get corroborating stories.

"Go back and tell your leader: after lunch today, we fight here," Shire said, then sent the two goblins running.

"Let’s go. Back for lunch," Shire ordered his subordinates to follow, already planning his strategy. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Buck Teeth, have you guys fought them before?" Shire asked.

"We scheduled a fight once, but the Bear Goblin leaders were all sleeping, so we didn’t go," Buck Teeth replied.

"That sounds just like Bear Goblins." Shire smiled faintly.

’They have almost three times our numbers, they have exploding fruit, and it’s a head-on battle.’ Shire sorted through his thoughts.

’I’ve got an idea. Let’s head back and prepare.’