Chapter 10: Dog and Uninvited Guest

The great cave belonging to the Saint Lord is the largest cave in the kobold-occupied area; generations of Saint Lords have been welcomed inside by the kobolds. Within is a natural cavern, and places involving the Saint Lord are the holy ground in the kobolds' hearts, as well as a forbidden area.

Dasha stood at the cave entrance, blankly staring at the kobold maiden before him.

This was rare in normal times; he had always stood alone here, standing while in a daze, sometimes even sleeping while standing. He had grown used to it and never felt lonely. Instead, he no longer had to run around like before, nor do complex things he couldn't understand, which made him very happy, and he no longer had to suffer hunger pains.

Ever since he stood here, whenever his stomach growled twice, the tribesmen would present him with generous portions of delicious food.

However, in his memory, it seemed there was nothing that wasn't tasty.

He looked beside the kobold maiden, then behind her, then at her hand, but saw no food.

This left him puzzled.

He scratched his other forearm with his broad palm; the wound above was healing at high speed, almost without bleeding. Ever since he ate the sour fruit given by the Saint Lord, the wounds on his body would quickly heal.

Only now did he realize that the kobold maiden before him had just cut him with a knife made of beast bone.

In his eyes, the other party was a fine-looking kobold, especially those few tufts of exploded fur and her broad shoulders; she was probably the most sturdy female kobold in the tribe.

"Da Hen Hen, give me some of your blood. I can catch a few worms for you to eat. Just a little bit is enough; you have a lot of blood."

Aijin looked anxiously at Dasha.

If it were the Dasha of before, she could still handle him, but the current Dasha, though still blank, was simply too tall.

This time she had not gone to participate in the tribe hunt led by Heizhao Zhuren; she came here specifically to get some of Dasha's blood. She had once unintentionally witnessed a dying meat worm, as food, sucking Dasha's blood, and saw with her own eyes that its broken worm feet quickly grew back.

And her attempt just now had partially confirmed this guess.

She wanted to use Dasha's blood to save a kobold—a kobold she had always deliberately hidden from Luge and never mentioned.

Actually, in the tribe she was not the only kobold who could communicate; the old kobold called Old Gold Tooth was another. She had never dared to say; she feared she would no longer be special, she feared Luge would be snatched away by Old Gold Tooth.

Boom boom boom!

A black shadow galloped, trampling the ground and cave wall, leaping out from the tall passage opened specially for the holy great cave, like a swift black strange wind sweeping by.

Aijin was instantly thrown flying and slammed hard against the distant cave wall.

The black shadow's forward momentum did not decrease; it directly pounced on Dasha, its ragged black claws pressing him down, its exaggeratedly huge mouth biting onto Dasha's shoulder, almost clamping half his body into its mouth, followed immediately by slurping sucking sounds.

……

Luge walked with a stick in hand, stopping and going along the route in his memory.

Around his waist was no longer a loose grass skirt, but a pair of shorts pieced together from worm shells and beast hide. What he had long prepared and imagined countless times was naturally simple to put on and went very smoothly; the softest side of the beast hide on the shorts faced inward, the corners of the worm shells were drilled with beast teeth, threaded with rope to fix and press the corners onto the outside of the beast hide, effectively preventing chafing of the flesh while running.

He seemed to have really gotten a little fatter lately, he thought.

He had only come this way a few times when he first participated in the tribe hunt.

He had only gone near the Saint Lord's great cave once.

To feel the intensity of spells, the strongest Dasha was a good choice; maybe he could also tease Aijin a bit.

If the Stinking Skin Spell had no problem and he could truly maintain the spell, then he could consider using materials from the worm nest to reinforce his armor, turning shorts into half-body armor.

The great cave prepared by the tribe for the master was originally like a holy ground or forbidden area, and no kobolds would run around nearby, but this Black Claw Master still selected a guard and even bestowed miraculous fruit to make the guard stronger, clearly disliking being disturbed, perhaps a fellow who liked to sleep.

Luge really wanted to see what the miraculous fruit turned Dasha into.

If the Black Claw Master was not around, he didn't mind using a spell to gently knock down Dasha, then go into the cave to look around and see if Black Claw Saint Lord still had stock.

Actually, the best scenario was for this Black Claw Saint Lord to go hunting and leave Dasha alone there.

One intersection after another.

His pace alternated fast and slow; he walked for a long time and began to doubt himself a little.

The further he went, the more he felt he might have gotten lost.

A wizard apprentice who gets lost is truly rather embarrassing.

He suddenly thought of the wizard apprentice's familiars.

It was said familiars all had the ability to remember paths; originally, people becoming wizard apprentices would choose a companion familiar at the first opportunity, but with the changing times, very few wizards other than Beast King Wizards contracted familiars anymore.

The cause was the rise of the Beast King Wizard path; early on, someone developed a targeted spell—if you captured the other party's familiar, you could harm the familiar's master from a great distance, even directly kill the wizard on the other side of the contract.

Beast King Wizards naturally found ways to counter and resolve such spells, but wizards on other paths wouldn't go to such trouble over it, nor waste a spell slot, and didn't want a fatal weakness for themselves; over time, ordinary wizards stopped touching companion familiars.

He felt he could contract a companion familiar that others couldn't see or were hard to catch.

Suddenly, he smelled a strange odor.

It seemed to be a kobold.

And not just one; they had passed through here not long ago.

He suddenly felt reassured.

He walked past several forks in the road, still discerning direction, when he saw several kobolds taller than him running out from the distance. He was instantly delighted and strode forward to meet them; the other party also saw him and called out as they ran over.

More noisy sounds came from within the passage.

As the distance closed, he noticed their crude clothing and the inferior, ugly iron tools in their hands.

His heart stirred, and he immediately realized.

These were kobolds, but absolutely not kobolds that should appear here; these fellows were fundamentally not the poor wretches from their tribe.

At the same time, Spiritual Light sensed the intense malice these kobolds held toward him.

Another source of the mixed odor appeared; suddenly, a group of spear-wielding lizardmen burst out from the side.

It seemed the two sides had already been fighting before this.

The lizardmen held an absolute numerical advantage; although the kobolds were all strong and had handy iron tools, half were killed or wounded in the blink of an eye.

He judged this group of lizardmen were the old neighbors who kept crossing the border recently.

And the kobolds came from a faraway place and were a powerful tribe; at least they had mines to dig.

Two groups of uninvited guests actually started fighting in his home.

This was certainly not a good omen.

He, who was already lost, felt a bit annoyed for a moment.

But soon he laughed.

The Stinking Skin Spell seemed to surge with his mood, spreading invisible black-gray ripples around him.

His feet did not stop, yet he stopped maintaining the Stinking Skin Spell for the first time.

Following the guidance of Spirituality, he sensed that if he did not do so, he would lose the chance to experiment with Bull Strength.

A thought stirred.

For the first time in his life, he touched the spell on a Temporary Spell Slot; when casting succeeded, the stored spell vanished, feeling just like a reserved spell had been swallowed by the Magic Mark.

The Bull Strength spell effect was added.

He felt an endless surge of strength throughout his body.

His steps grew faster and faster, one stride covering the distance of three or five steps.

These bastards, whether Lizardmen or Kobolds, were villains full of malice bringing disaster to Here.

He swung his arm round and lashed out fiercely with the Long Stick in his hand.

First two Kobolds, then facing him a pair of entangled Kobold and Lizardman, they were like one ragdoll after another, flying sideways without any ability to resist.

For a time he could not stop laughing heartily, and wherever he passed, lizards flew and dogs leaped.

Both sides were instantly thrown into chaos by him.

These bizarre intelligent races, under normal circumstances, unless they were stuffed full or their brains were broken, would absolutely never easily commit transgressions.

Perhaps, a little necessary intimidation was needed.

He decided to let none go, to pile their corpses at the largest and most spacious intersection in Here; since they liked to come, let it serve as a landmark, saving them from wandering back and forth and always getting lost.

After flinging two more Lizardmen away, he suddenly felt somewhat bored, then stopped moving; his skin, which had only just returned to its natural color not long ago, turned black-purple once more.

The expected miserable cries did not sound.

The few Kobolds still alive and the Lizardmen who had not had time to flee fell one after another without a sound; terrifying black qi crawled over their cheeks, their eyes wide open, lying on the ground twitching incessantly.

He really wanted to ask them whether they stank or not, but obviously it was no longer necessary.

He began wandering around, observing the Lizardmen on the ground, and from time to time would stop the spell to observe their changes.

Finally, mercifully, he did not let them twitch for long; he picked up a handful of sharp Short Spears and ended everything.

The only regret was that they stood too close and fell too fast, so he had not measured the range of the spell's Influence.

"So many corpses, I don't know if they'll attract anything?"

He thought randomly, piled dozens of corpses together, turned around and left.

Although he was already lost, with a Wizard Apprentice's brain he could still return along the original Road, and then reselect the Xianlu at the starting point; he judged that at most he could walk three more times and would surely see that Big Cave.

He was still thinking in his heart about going into the Saint Lord's Big Cave to pick Fruit.

Even if he did not eat that Fruit himself, he could give it to Aijin, letting this strong Kobold girl be safer. Next, this Di Fang might be very lively.

(Chapter End)