Bzzzt... Bzzzt...
However... when Ethan placed the crystal ball in front of Charlie, the radio only emitted a string of electromagnetic static, as though it couldn't receive a signal. Ethan called out in confusion, "Charlie?"
Bzzz... Bzzzt...
Unfortunately, there was no response.
Only then did Ethan suddenly realize that the crystal ball might be interfering with the radio's magnetic field.
It had even made Charlie unable to speak.
He quickly moved the crystal ball away.
Sure enough!
"Phew! I almost thought I was going to suffocate just now," Charlie's voice finally came from the radio again, "That feeling of being unable to speak, like someone was choking me, was unbearable. And those harsh 'bzzz' sounds almost drove me crazy."
"Wake up. You don't have a throat."
Ethan rolled his eyes at Charlie.
But he was speechless too.
Originally, he had thought that after turning Charlie into a radio, he would only be able to make predictions and wouldn't be able to cause trouble.
In the end, Charlie really had become nothing more than a talking radio, and now he couldn't even make predictions. What a disappointment.
"Lord, what do we do now?"
Charlie had also realized that he had really become useless.
Ethan looked at Charlie and said, "What else can we do? Deal with whatever comes."
"Forget it. Let's go!"
Ethan directly put the radio away. He decided to first take a look at the Goblin King's treasury.
Maybe the Goblin King had hidden some treasure that could solve his current problem.
There were two tunnel entrances.
Ethan didn't even need to choose. He just had to keep following the red line pointed out by the Prophetic Statue.
———
Along the way, Ethan encountered another large group of Level 5 Form Spores.
Without a word, he sent a gigantic Great Fireball rolling through them, flattening everything in its path.
Until... they reached the end of the maze.
Only then did they finally understand why they hadn't seen many goblin corpses along the way.
Because... the entire underground goblin world had almost been overrun by spores.
At the end of the maze was actually a cliff. Beside the cliff were several lifts. They seemed to use spirit stones as their power source, so they probably shouldn't be called elevators.
'Spirit lifts, perhaps?'
Though that sounded a little strange too.
Looking down from the cliff, you could see an entire goblin kingdom.
It covered about as much land as a city.
From a cliff nearly a thousand meters high, you couldn't see the end of it at a glance.
Not far below where he stood was the Goblin Palace.
At this moment, the palace and a large area of buildings around it had long since been smashed into ruins, collapsed beyond recognition.
And on top of the ruins, there was even a thick layer of red spore slime.
'It looks as though it has gone through some kind of landslide or mudslide...'
'But how could there be a landslide in an underground world?'
'Unless the entire ground collapsed, it shouldn't look like this.'
'But if the ground has collapsed...'
'Then where are the rocks?'
'Or rather, where are all the things that should have fallen down, like huge boulders or dirt?'
Ethan couldn't see a single one.
'Could it be...'
Ethan's gaze fell on those Level 5 spores, and he suddenly thought of a possibility.
Level 4 spores looked like giant water balls.
'Could it be...'
'The goblin palace and the surrounding buildings had been crushed flat by those giant water balls?'
'Then after those water balls evolved, they turned into the slime-like Level 5 form and flowed everywhere, making it easier to transform the environment and grow new Boom Boom Mushrooms?'
Ethan was stunned.
'These spores... are way too incredible.'
He really hadn't expected the underground Goblin Kingdom to be so absurdly huge.
Back when his soul had wandered with that Divine Tree, he had only quickly glanced over the goblin streets and the Goblin Palace.
In the end, a single glance from the Goblin King had forced him back.
But who could have imagined... he had encountered the Goblin King and hadn't even had time to fight, before the goblins... Died?
Although the Goblin King was dead, the palace had collapsed, and throughout the entire goblin world, the goblins had either become nutrients for the spores or fled from this place, perhaps deeper into the underground world, or perhaps to the surface.
No matter what, though, it had spared Ethan from having to face an army of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of goblins.
But now there was a new problem, the ground below was covered in spore slime.
'How are we supposed to get down?'
"Lord, why don't you give the Prophetic Statue to the three of us sisters? We'll go down and look for it on your behalf," Bird One said.
Bird Two and Bird Three immediately agreed.
"That's right! Lord, you're the most important person in our entire territory. We can't let you take this kind of risk!"
"It is a resident's duty and responsibility to protect the Lord! Please leave this task to the three of us sisters!"
The three of them tried to persuade Ethan together.
But Ethan only smiled as he looked at the Level 5 spores below and said, "There's no need to make it so troublesome. Since there's no road, then we'll burn ourselves one."