Chapter 73: The Treasure of the Gloomy Forest

  The Adventurer's Guild bustled with noise as piles of various tools were quickly snatched up.

  The sales staff couldn't stop smiling; the more they sold, the higher their bonuses would be.

  Many adventurers, their eyes gleaming with the promise of gold, left the guild after acquiring instrus and purchasing various tools for around five gold s, rushing headlong into the Gloomy Forest.

  Steward Ralph watched the adventurers’ slightly crazed behavior and shook his head helplessly:

  “Do they really think capturing trolls is that easy?”

  With a nont grunt, Old Vilge Chief Field looked at a few grouped adventurer parties, shrugged, and said:

  “There are always fools who like to act recklessly. Stopping them is pointless; after all, Lord Matthew’s goal is just to attract more adventurers here…”

  Ralph and Field both khat driven by greed fold.

  Many crazed adventurers would iably fall in the dangerous Gloomy Forest, dying at the hands of the powerful trolls.

  Not every adveeam had a clear uanding of their own strength.

  Even stopping them would ofteile.

  In the lord’s manor, Matthew ied the three newly captured trolls and said to Old John, who was standing guard outside:

  “Feed these trolls well first, then we’ll deal with them in a few days…”

  Ignorant of their fate, the trolls struggled wildly.

  They tried to twist and break free of their restraints.

  But Old John pushed them into the pitch-bck dungeon, grumbling as he did:

  “Seven trolls… Is that not enough yet?”

  “ Lord Matthew really handle all this on his own?”

  The trolls couldn’t uand John’s mutterings, but after sniffing the familiar st of their kin, they struggled even harder.

  However, their pitiful howls received no response.

  The four trolls already locked in the dungeon merely gnced up briefly before returning to their silent state.

  The newly arrived trolls were puzzled by their silence, but before they could react, their limbs were bound by thick iron s while the ropes binding them were released.

  After some thought, Old John called over Silverfang, who was engrossed in studying a spell scroll, and said:

  “Mark down three more trolls. Be sure to prepare plenty of food for them; in three days, they’ll be put to use.”

  Nodding obediently, Silverfaly picked up a quill and he number of trolls. Then he barked a few orders to a group of sturdy kobolds, who rushed off to the ste area to prepare.

  k, k!

  The bound trolls tile.

  Their strength, however, couldn’t budge the thick s ed around their wrists. Their sharp, toothy maws s the air, futilely trying to bite through their ed limbs.

  Cck, cck, cck!

  Their teeth bit into nothing but air. The trolls finally realized that their heads and necks were firmly fined within a restricted range.

  They could ohe food delivered to their mouths and couldn’t even move normally.

  Naturally, the trolls felt furious, but after struggling for a long time, they couldn’t break the thick, sturdy s.

  After some time had passed, they stopped their resistance, resigo their fate, and began looking around at the other silent trolls.

  To the surprise of the newers, the trolls that had been imprisoned earlier hadn’t been subjected to any overt cruelty.

  Their bodies were quite strong, indig they had been well-fed for some time, but their eyes held a certain mencholy.

  Eventually, one of the curious trolls asked:

  “Where are we? What will happen to us?”

  “Why are you four so quiet? Did you lose your tongues permaly?”

  “Why aren’t you speaking?”

  “Tell us, why haven’t the humans killed us?”

  “…”

  They rattled off questions oer another, but the “veteran” trolls gave no response, silently staring at the books before them.

  Books?

  Wait!!

  “Since when do trolls read?”

  “Have they gone mad? Or have we?”

  The newly arrived trolls were utterly fused, but just then, more than a dozen kobolds scurried out.

  Each held a bucket, and the sharp-eyed trolls noticed that the buckets were filled with wriggling fish, deepening their fusion.

  Then, the trolls’ cages were slowly raised, and the kobolds poured the mass of live fish into a funnel in front of the cage.

  To the three trolls’ astonishment, the wriggling fish slid down a chute, nding directly in front of their mouths.

  “These fish… are for us to eat?”

  “The food’s being delivered directly to our mouths?”

  “Is this a good thing?”

  “Or is it some kind of torture?”

  “…”

  At first, the trolls hesitated, but their intense hunger, bined with the fresh, fishy smell of the live fish, was irresistible.

  What’s there to fear?

  If they were going to die anyway, they might as well have a good meal first!

  After a brief moment of hesitation, the three trolls opeheir mouths, waiting for the wriggling fish to slide in as they eagerly devoured the meal.

  In just a short time, they began to feel quite satisfied.

  Having foht directly to them made the three trolls feel incredibly fortunate.

  Not even as infants had they received such treatment; back then, they had to fight with other troll pups just to avoid starvation.

  After all, their powerful regeive abilities came at the cost of being insatiable gluttons.

  Seeing hoily” the newers ate, the silent trolls exged gnces, each reizing a hint of pity iher’s eyes.

  The group of trolls in the cages began to verse fluently in their oddly-ated on tongue.

  “These puys probably think this pce is heaven.”

  “In a few days, they’ll realize the price of being well-fed is steep indeed…”

  “Fet about them, let’s get back to reading!”

  “By the way, how do you read this word?”

  “Just jot it down for now, we’ll ask ter…”

  “Alright…”

  “…”

  The trolls exged grumbles.

  Meanwhile, Silverfang watched silently, a hint of surprise in his eyes as he recorded their reas.

  What intrigued Silverfang was that Lord Matthew had tasked him with teag the trolls on nguage and literacy.

  He had initially thought this would be a difficult task, perhaps a test from Lord Matthew.

  To his surprise, the first four trolls had shown a great deal of enthusiasm and i in learning the on tongue and reading.

  Silverfang didn’t overthink it, nor did he try to guess Lord Matthew’s motives. He simply found it fasating to witness such a ge irolls, which reminded him of the kobolds…

  Lord Matthew, who had just received the test update, reparing new educational materials to teach the children with the potential to bee spellcasters.

  He wasn’t surprised by the trolls’ progress; after all, Bay Vilge was well-prepared for anything. All that was needed now was time for everything to settle.

  As for teag the trolls the on to was just one of Matthew’s bold and intriguing experiments.

  In the past, some pyers had mao tame and reform certain species, eveing a famous gnoll army.

  That pyer’s bold as led to him being hunted down and obliterated by the major powers.

  Matthew wao try his hand at something simir. The risk was small, and if it worked, the rewards would be immense.

  After all, Matthew was curious to see if trolls, with their det intelligence, could be “tamed”!

  If he was lucky enough, he might evehe day when trolls brewed healing potions on their own…

  FAL