"You’re a strange one, little goblin." The smoke face drifted about, its voice tinged with surprise.

"Who are you?" Shire asked warily.

"You even know Common Speech. How interesting. If you jump into the pit right now, of your own accord, I’ll spare your life."

"And become food for the Fearsome Claw Bear?" Shire scoffed.

Another visible ripple of air rapidly expanded outward. The goblins lying on the ground twitched in pain.

The burning sensation on his thumb told Shire that the Mind Shock couldn’t harm him.

He shouted, "Is that all you’ve got?"

The smoke face blurred for a moment, and then the female voice, slightly annoyed, said, "Don’t think a little Magic Trinket will make any difference."

"Is that so?" Shire’s lips curled into a smirk as he tossed the fruit in his hand into the pit.

BOOM. An explosion rang out, followed by another miserable howl from the Fearsome Claw Bear.

"How dare you..." the smoke face snarled.

"Bomb your pet? I did. And what are you going to do about it?" Shire watched the smoke face with a relaxed air.

The female voice was seething. "I’ll slaughter all of your subordinates."

"Be my guest. Our goblin lives are cheap, after all. If they all die, more will just take their place. But I guarantee you," Shire roared, grinding his teeth, "I will skin that Fearsome Claw Bear and strip it to the bone! I’ll hack off its damn head and mount it at the entrance to my warren for every single goblin to see and remember!"

"You... you’re nothing but an ant..." the female voice raged.

"That’s right. Trading us ants for an Intermediate Magical Beast like the Fearsome Claw Bear? Totally worth it."

The smoke face swirled and swelled, growing several times larger as it roared, "Do you have any idea what price you’ll pay for provoking me? A mere goblin dares to shout at me? I’ve killed countless little green-skins. You deserve nothing more than to be crushed under my finger! Crushed!"

"How dare you harm my pet. I’ll..."

BOOM. Shire ignored the smoke face and tossed another Hand Grenade Fruit into the pit. The aftershock of the explosion even reached the white smoke, causing the face to ripple.

AARGH... The Fearsome Claw Bear let out a weak groan. It was on the verge of death.

"Stop! I poured my heart and soul into that!" the smoke face shrieked, utterly frantic.

"Your heart and soul, my ass," Shire cursed. "Your ’pride and joy’ has been roaming the forest, and who knows how many goblins or Adventurers it’s eaten."

"They are all ants, fit only to be rations for my pet." The smoke face drifted back and forth, as if scoffing at Shire’s words.

Shire grabbed another fruit, preparing to throw it into the pit.

"Stop, goblin! Tell me, what do you want?" The smoke face’s tone softened slightly. "I can give you many things. Money, Magic Items, anything."

"I want it dead," Shire shouted, pointing at the pit. "And you’d better get down here. I hate looking up at people."

"Goblin, do you have any idea who you’re talking to?" the smoke face fumed.

"Didn’t your family give you a name?" Shire taunted loudly. "Or do you not even know who you are yourself?"

"Shut up! Shut up!" The smoke face began to twist and roil as if something had struck a nerve. Its voice became hysterical. Shire had a feeling that somewhere, a woman must be smashing things. BANG! BANG!

"Goblin, you asked for this! I will find you, and I will chop you into pieces and feed you to the stray dogs!"

"Didn’t your dad ever tell you that just yapping is useless in a fight?" Shire threw another Hand Grenade Fruit. BOOM. He could barely hear the Fearsome Claw Bear’s cries anymore.

"I’m going to kill you! Just you wait!" The smoke face rose up and dissipated, its voice growing fainter and fainter.

"Feel free to drop by anytime," Shire said with a wave and a bow, making a theatrical curtain call. "The forest is a grand stage; if you’ve got a show, come on and play."

Seeing the white smoke had completely vanished, he glanced down at the ring on his thumb. The ring, which had been faintly glowing green, was now back to normal. Then, he cautiously stood on his tiptoes and peered into the deep pit.

The pit was silent. The Fearsome Claw Bear had been corroded into a gory, muddy pulp. All that was left of the three Slimes were their cores.

His goal achieved, Shire immediately found his pack, took out all the Healing Potions, and went to his collapsed subordinates, pouring a few mouthfuls down each of their throats.

After he had given some to everyone, a short while later, they began to groan and climb up from the ground.

"Chief, we’s... alive?" Red Eyes looked around at everyone, his tone filled with disbelief.

"Yes, you’re alive. The enemy has been driven off. We won," Shire said calmly.

"Won?" Red Eyes paused for two seconds, then shouted with joy, "We’s won!"

Following his shout, more and more goblins began to cheer. Successfully hunting such a forest overlord greatly boosted the goblins’ confidence. Shire even felt that if he were to lead these dozens of goblins to attack Plantagenet City right now, they would willingly follow.

"Alright, save the cheering for later." Shire kicked Red Eyes but nearly lost his own footing. The confrontation with the smoke face had truly left him on edge.

"Find a rope. Lower me into the pit," he ordered his men.

The band of goblins immediately sprang into action. They soon fashioned a harness and lowered Shire into the deep pit.

He looked around the pit. There were signs of corrosion everywhere. One side of the pit wall had been eaten away, forming a crater more than half a meter deep. If he hadn’t poured in the third Slime in time, the wall would likely have collapsed, and the consequences would have been unthinkable.

Shire let out a long breath. The smell in the pit was hard to describe. He picked up a shovel and began to poke through the Fearsome Claw Bear’s corpse.

Almost nothing was left of the fleshy pulp; even the fur had been completely corroded away. He searched carefully and soon uncovered a red crystal the size of an adult’s fist.

"An Intermediate Beast Core." A wide smile spread across Shire’s face. "And it’s a little bigger than the ones I’ve seen before in Plantagenet City."

He scooped up the Beast Core with the shovel and held it up to his eyes. The surface of the red crystal was reflective, and something seemed to be flowing within it.

’This’ll do.’ Shire tossed the Beast Core into a small bag and continued to search.

A thick stench of blood and burning filled the air, making Shire furrow his brow. He searched meticulously, and in the end, he only found ten long claws, each over thirty centimeters long and still attached to their finger bones.

These ten claws were from the Fearsome Claw Bear’s forelimbs. They were jet-black and shiny. Although they were covered in bits of flesh and dirt, the fact that they had survived the Slime’s acid "baptism" unscathed proved they were high-quality materials.

’I can make a few daggers out of these.’ Shire grabbed a finger bone and wiped the claw on the dirt a few times to clean off the grime and blood.

Seeing nothing else of use, he grabbed the somewhat damaged bear head and was pulled up.

"Let’s head back for now. We’ll come back tomorrow to clean up," Shire ordered his subordinates. ’This flesh and blood shouldn’t go to waste. We can use it to feed the Slimes.’

The troop of goblins hoisted the bear head and bounced home, elated.

Just after the goblins had gone, a few old, discolored bones in the pit began to roll on their own. They gathered together, then twitched and shifted, constantly changing position.

Soon, the pieces formed a broken human hand bone. Then, its five fingers began to twitch erratically. A few seconds later, the finger bones pushed up, and the entire hand stood upright.

Then, using its five fingers as limbs, it quickly scrambled up the side of the large pit.

Reaching the lip of the pit, the hand bone swiveled back and forth as if searching for something. A moment later, it scurried off in the direction the goblins had gone.

PS: The initial setup is finally done. From here on, it’ll mostly be the forest plotline, and Green Egg will start leading his subordinates to expand. Also, I’ve made some revisions to Agatha’s story arc in the past few Chapters, so you might want to go back and check them out.