Initially, he had considered making gunpowder weapons, but there was no way to get large amounts of saltpeter in the forest. The formula required saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, but the most he could do was burn some low-quality charcoal.

But now, seeing the explosive effect of the Bang-Bang Fruit, Shire’s eyes lit up. He had to get his hands on them. The fruits were too powerful! If each of his men had a few, he could organize them into a grenadier squad.

"Red Eyes, how are you?" Shire shouted.

"What did you say?" Red Eyes yelled, holding up his Shield.

Seeing that the explosion had left his subordinate’s ears ringing, Shire could only resort to hand signals, motioning for him to charge forward.

He had given Red Eyes Coulson’s Shield for this very reason: so he could close the distance quickly.

Seeing his opponent make a move, Red Face immediately pulled another Bang-Bang Fruit from the pouch on his back. He’d brought eight of them this time, more than enough to blast his enemy to bits.

’No honor! I’ve led my men to victory in five challenges.’ He was livid. This time, he prepared to throw two at once and blow his opponent off his feet.

’I’ve driven off leopards and killed wild boars!’

’And you dare attack my people with a measly eight goblins?’ Red Face strained, raising both arms over his head and taking aim at the bald little guy in the back.

’You’re asking to die!’

’I’ll definitely...’

"Argh—!" Red Face cried out, stumbling. Just as he was absorbed in finishing his pre-battle tirade, a figure slipped out from his own shadow and drove two daggers straight into his kidneys.

From the very beginning, Shire had told Broken Tooth to find a way to get close to the enemy leader. He had finally succeeded, slipping into Red Face’s shadow while the goblin was busy trash-talking.

With the ambush successful, Shire immediately raised his Hand Crossbow and aimed at the struggling Red Face.

*CLICK.* He pulled the trigger. The Arrow flew, and as Red Face watched with shocked, wide eyes, it struck the Bang-Bang Fruit beside him.

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*

A series of explosions erupted. When the smoke cleared, Red Face was lying motionless on the ground.

Shire cautiously approached the body. After confirming there were no unexploded Bang-Bang Fruits nearby, he pulled Broken Tooth, whose ears were now ringing, out from the shadows.

Both of his top warriors had been injured in the battle, but the results were gratifying.

’Five challenges, was it? Killed wild boars, you say? A measly eight goblins, right?’ Shire kicked Red Face’s corpse a few times. "Weakling."

’And you thought you were worthy of fighting me.’

With that, Shire walked over to the ongoing melee and loudly announced that the battle was over.

"I am your new leader."

Uncharacteristically, Red Eyes and Broken Tooth didn’t cheer in support. They were both frantically digging at their ears; they could see their leader speaking, but couldn’t make out a single word.

The brawling goblins slowly lowered their wooden clubs. Buck Teeth led the other goblins to stand behind Shire.

The eight goblins stared menacingly at the twenty-odd remnants of the Seven Cave Race before them.

Soon, one of them came before Shire, lowered his head, knelt down, and touched his ankle.

He then rose, moved to stand behind Shire, and joined in glaring menacingly at his former comrades.

Then a second, and a third...

Watching as the goblins one by one went over to Shire’s side, Nine-finger could only let out a long sigh. He climbed to his feet, walked before Shire, and touched his ankle.

"Oh?" Shire raised an eyebrow as he looked at Nine-finger kneeling before him.

[Name: Nine-finger]

[Race: goblin]

[Danger Level: 0.8, a capable waste]

[personality: Loyal]

He smiled faintly, keeping his expression neutral.

After all the goblins had completed the ankle-touching ritual, Shire immediately called up his own status panel:

[Tombstone Artifacts: Shire Merlot]

[Race: goblin (Human)]

[Danger Level: 0.5, Waste]

[Subordinates: 32]

[personality: ???] 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

[Own State: Advanced Transformation Curse (Negative)]

[Title: Leader of the Vigorous Forest Group]

[Available Ability: Blessing of the Evil God, Lustful]

’Lustful?’ Shire was stunned for a moment.

[Lustful: A single-target status effect. Causes the individual to become obsessed with the opposite sex and more eager to engage in certain... activities. Excessive participation is detrimental to one’s health.]

’So that guy couldn’t give me a real Ability and just gave me a personality trait instead,’ Shire fumed.

’Seriously, who could I even use this on? If I used it on one of my men, wouldn’t that just be encouraging insubordination?’

’I’ll just hang onto it for now.’

Next, he let his consciousness sink, arriving in the mental space before the Black Obelisk.

In addition to the two alien glyphs that were already glowing, a third had now lit up.

Domain Awareness: You can view the status of the Domain you control.

A thought crossed Shire’s mind. *WHOOSH.* A yellowed parchment map, covered in black ink markings, slowly unfurled before his eyes.