The Forest Feeds No Idle Goblins

The stone chamber was less than three meters high. The giant worm struggled to lift its head, its four white tentacles HISSING.

By the light of a torch dropped by a goblin, Shire could see multiple ruptures on the giant worm’s body, leaking a white fluid.

At that moment, the dozens of Brain-Eating Monsters loitering in the chamber sprang into action as if a switch had been flipped, all of them charging the giant worm.

Several Brain-Eating Monsters leaped onto the giant worm’s body, using their claws to grip its stiff bristles as they violently jabbed their needle-like mouthparts into its flesh.

Shire saw the red bodies of those Brain-Eating Monsters continuously expand and contract as if they were sucking the white fluid from within the giant worm.

Soon, more Brain-Eating Monsters jumped onto the giant worm. They pierced its body with their mouthparts, the pain causing it to thrash about wildly within the stone chamber.

"Everyone, get out for now." Shire immediately ordered his subordinates to withdraw from the chamber.

The giant worm shrieked in agony, slamming its body against the stone walls with dull THUDS. With every roll and slam, a few Brain-Eating Monsters were crushed into a red-and-white paste, but many more held on for dear life, greedily sucking away.

The giant worm’s body was covered in Brain-Eating Monsters, making it look as though it had sprouted dozens of red, fleshy tumors. Even when flung off, these "tumors" would immediately scurry back toward the worm.

’This thing is a real beast,’ Shire mused, watching the thrashing worm. ’If it had attacked our squad, we would’ve suffered heavy casualties.’

Gradually, the giant worm’s struggles grew weaker, and its four tentacles twitched feebly. It seemed it could no longer withstand the siege of so many Brain-Eating Monsters.

"Red Eyes, come here." Shire summoned his subordinate and pointed at the giant worm’s four tentacles. "Find a way to cut them off."

Shire had observed that the giant worm had no eyes and likely relied on its tentacles to find prey. Now that it was too weak to pose a threat, it was the perfect time to perform a little "surgery."

Red Eyes drew his Longsword and charged forward without a second word. With a few SWISHES, he swept his blade across and severed the tentacles. The giant worm reeled in pain, its four hook-like mouthparts flailing wildly, but they only managed to kill a few Brain-Eating Monsters and were utterly useless against Red Eyes, who had already rolled clear.

A moment later, the giant worm’s head crashed powerlessly to the ground with a THUD. By the light of the fire, Shire could see that apart from its muscles, which were still twitching, it showed no other reaction.

’It’s almost dead.’ Shire slipped into the stone chamber, hugging the wall as he slowly approached.

[Name: Heart-devouring Giant Worm (Juvenile)]

[Race: Monster]

[Danger Level: 11, Slightly Dangerous]

[Personality: Vicious]

Shire called up the giant worm’s panel to inspect it.

"It’s just a juvenile," he said with a frown.

’A juvenile is already the size of a giant python. I can’t even imagine what an adult would be like,’ Shire thought.

Before long, the panel slowly faded away. The giant worm was completely dead.

The Brain-Eating Monsters remained on the corpse, greedily sucking, unwilling to let even the last drop of fluid go to waste.

With the crisis averted, Shire ordered his subordinates back into the Fortress. This time, he decided to make some arrangements. "Buck Teeth, you and 30 goblins will stay here. The rest of you, follow me inside."

Buck Teeth picked out some of the scrawnier goblins to stand guard in the stone chamber.

The rest followed Shire into the next stone chamber. On their way, each goblin dutifully picked up a Brain-Eating Monster, holding it like a red cat.

However, none of the goblins noticed a grayish-black human hand Bone silently tailing the group, slipping into the Fortress behind them.

***

Shire split the goblins into two groups and walked between them, making sure the Brain-Eating Monsters didn’t get too close to him.

At the same time, he had his subordinates drop a good number of Bang-Bang Fruits along the way. If they encountered another Heart-devouring Giant Worm, they’d use the same old tactic. He just hoped the Brain-Eating Monsters wouldn’t eat until they burst.

The group arrived once again at the entrance to the second-floor stone house, where he was surprised to see that the mutated goblin who had fled was already waiting for them.

The creature was bowing and scraping eagerly, seeming even more respectful toward him than before.

’This mutated goblin has the makings of a great "Waiter,"’ Shire thought. ’Enthusiastic and attentive service, the escape speed of a cunning ghost... all it’s missing is a white rag tucked into its waist and a skullcap.’

Continuing on, they reached the wooden door the giant worm had smashed through. Shire peered inside.

Inside was another stone chamber, smaller than the previous ones. He estimated it to be just over 300 square meters. The room was a mess, and the walls were covered in shocking scratch marks left by giant claws.

’Is this the giant worm’s nest?’ he wondered as he cautiously stepped inside.

The "Waiter" kept bowing and waving its hands, trying to stop Shire from entering, but to no avail.

’This room could house a lot of goblins once it’s cleaned up.’ Shire was really starting to like this Fortress more and more. It was spacious, offered shelter from the sun and rain, and most importantly, it was cool and not at all damp.

SQUEAK SQUEAK. A black rat scurried along the base of the wall.

Shire ignored the rat. Using the blue fluorescent light from the Mushrooms, he walked to the far end of the chamber and found some strange objects on the floor.

There were several grayish-white, disk-shaped objects with a round hole in the center. They felt like Bone to the touch. Around the disks were dried-up puddles of some liquid.

’Are these leftover bones?’ He picked one up to examine it. ’It looks like an oversized Conical Hat.’

"Come here. Over here." A voice echoed in his mind. Shire flinched, almost flinging the Conical Hat-like object away.

’Who are you?’ he asked in his mind.

Immediately after, several voices spoke in his mind: "Come to the corner."

’More than one person?’ Shire’s eyes darted around, trying to find the source of the voices.

"Hurry, come over here. We can save you," the voices continued. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

’Save me?’ Shire thought, confused.

"The Heart-devouring Giant Worm is very dangerous! If you don’t come over now, you’ll be eaten!" the voices in his head urged frantically.

"Oh, that little worm? I’ve already taken care of it," Shire said with a smile.

Silence. A silence that lasted for more than ten seconds.

"Are you guys still there?" Shire ventured.

"Hero, please save us! Get us out of here!" The voices returned, sounding much more humble.

Shire chuckled and walked over to a corner of the chamber, where he saw a collapsed pile of rocks.

He ordered his subordinates to dig away the rubble, revealing a fissure less than two meters wide.

"You can come out now," Shire said.

Then, he saw a large, disc-shaped creature cautiously emerge from the fissure.

The creature looked like a jellyfish. It had a yellow, disk-like body with two wobbly eyestalks on top. Beneath it were a dozen or so light-pink tentacles, which puffed out air with a FWOOSH FWOOSH sound, allowing it to float.

"Thank you for saving us, Hero... huh?" The creature saw the goblin in front of it and visibly froze. It hadn’t expected to be saved by such a small thing. Then, it swiveled its eyestalks and saw many more goblins behind him, each cradling a Brain-Eating Monster.

"Holy shit, you’re no saint either!" the large disk puffed, its light-pink tentacles instantly turning deep red. It frantically tried to squeeze back into the fissure, crashing into its own kind who were trying to get out.

A corner of Shire’s mouth twitched as he called up their panel.