Chapter 12: Gold and Light

The spacious, silent environment, combined with the kobold's somewhat insufficient vision in the darkness, unconsciously made him a little nervous.

Especially right now, as he felt the stickiness under his feet, moving his legs carefully, he had only taken five or six steps when the miscellaneous hair on the backs of his feet had already tangled into strands, and a foul, fishy stench constantly lingered at the tip of his nose. The reason he could still stay here and not turn around and run immediately was that he had smelled Aijin's scent within that fishy stench, but when he tried to distinguish it carefully, those faintly different scents had already been completely covered by the fishy stench.

Faced with this exaggeratedly large pool of blood, the first ones he thought of were the Gray Long Neck Saint Lord and the Black Claw Saint Lord; only big guys like that could shed this much blood, and they hadn't even left the corpses behind. Whether they ran away themselves or were carried off by enemies, it inevitably involved another big guy.

In this place, power is often linked to size; supernatural individuals like Wizards who defy common sense do not belong here.

He blinked in disbelief, his footsteps quickening, splashing the blood on the ground in all directions with a *paji paji* sound, as if stepping in puddles.

A super-sized black claw lay alone in the middle of the blood pool.

He crouched down, using his stick to carefully prod the large black claw; the claw's cross-section was extremely neat, as if severed by a single slanting strike from an exceptionally sharp weapon, without any traces of repeated hacking.

Seeing this, he had the thought of retracting his previous judgment. This didn't seem like something an Underground Beast could cause.

He suddenly stood up, lifted his leg but paused again, broke the Foul Skin spell maintenance, and then ran again, his steps even faster than when he saw the black claw.

Following a momentary capture by his sense of smell, he arrived at a spot near the cave wall. The strong kobold girl Aijin lay there, breathing evenly as if asleep; the source-less fishy blood had not yet spread to her vicinity before losing its momentum.

Beside her was another huge figure; looking closely, he could tell it was Dasha, whom he hadn't seen for many days. Unlike Aijin, Dasha was almost soaked in fresh blood; a part obviously came from the fishy blood on the ground, and another part of the bloodstains carried a faint, sweet fragrance.

"Aijin."

He lightly patted Aijin's shoulder.

Seeing no effect, he directly used his long stick to assist in hoisting Aijin onto his shoulder. This place was not suitable for staying long. He walked two steps, sensed a bit, and still chose to trigger the spell model, reluctantly using the Zero-Circle Spell Bull Strength. The difference was that this time it was a normal cast consuming spiritual power and waiting for empowerment, without mobilizing a Temporary Spell Slot.

He thought for a moment, and while passing by, conveniently grabbed Dasha's ankle in his hand.

He'd wait until he saw a pleasing spot on the road, then casually throw him away.

He hadn't walked far before he stopped again.

"It's a bit of a pity to just throw this big claw here..."

Like a greedy hamster, relying on the Bull Strength on him, in a state of carrying one on his shoulder and dragging one by hand, he ran back to the large black claw and used his Storage Bag to put it away.

After several rounds of fuss, he finally left without hesitation. If Aijin hadn't been here, he might have hesitated; if he hadn't seen that cross-section of the large claw, he might have risked going for a stroll in the Saint Lord's big cave after hesitating.

Dasha bumped left and right as he dragged him, but until the hair on his back was worn bare, he still never woke up.

He ran another stretch, just raised his hand, and stopped there.

"You've been awake for a while now, right?"

He looked at Dasha, whose eyes were squeezed shut with desperate force. Those eyes looked extremely unnatural from the excessive force, the surrounding folds all squeezed out; one wondered if it was from pain.

He was about to sigh at this idiot.

"S... sorry." Aijin suddenly spoke.

He exerted force with his hands, throwing both kobolds, who were stronger than him, onto the ground.

He took the claw he had picked up from his Storage Bag and waved it before the two kobolds' eyes. "Is this the Black Claw Saint Lord's claw? What does the Black Claw Saint Lord's enemy look like? Don't rush. Speak in your own words from your hearts."

He had already anticipated the difficulty of obtaining information.

But when he saw Aijin's blank face, still wanting to lean closer to identify it, while Dasha immediately showed terror, his heart still sank to the bottom.

If Aijin hadn't seen that battle scene, relying solely on Dasha to speak would be equivalent to a one hundred percent waste of breath.

The three kobolds stared at each other, gaining a moment of peace.

Aijin cried out in alarm, sprang up from the ground, grabbed Dasha, and tried to leave. But Dasha's seemingly strong body couldn't stand up at that moment; even barely rising under the pulling, his feet floated weakly, making it hard to walk.

"Brother Luge..." Aijin looked like she was about to cry.

This was the first time Luge had seen her like this. In the past, when their allocated prey was snatched by other kobolds, she would swing her fists, pick up a stick, and beat them back fiercely.

He walked over directly, hoisted Dasha up, asked no more questions, and silently followed behind the anxious Aijin all the way.

The three kobolds quickly arrived at an exceptionally noisy place.

This kobold gathering place housed most of the clan's kobolds; big caves, small caves, and passages were all inhabited by kobolds. All kinds of stench mixed together, and Luge felt it might not be inferior to his Foul Skin, even reaching the level of the First Circle.

Led by the kobold girl, the three kobolds quickly arrived at a slightly quiet corner.

An old kobold lay there weakly.

Luge grabbed Aijin with one hand, pinching her shoulder tightly, stopping her from approaching further.

"Old Gold Tooth won't eat worms. I persuaded him, but he's too old and injured, can't go out hunting. For a long time... I gave him... gave him meat, and he wouldn't take it either..." Aijin said in a low voice.

The old kobold lying there was emitting a conspicuous faint glow; this was also the reason no kobolds nearby dared approach.

This bit of light wasn't some miraculous spell. In this world dominated by black tones, those glowing little grasses, worms, mushrooms, and such cannot be touched. Eating them, if not cleaned thoroughly, makes one a target for hunting in the darkness, but that's not even the most serious point.

More fatally, consuming too many glowing things, accumulating to a certain degree in a living being, causes a kind of Light Silk to inexplicably grow. When it becomes irreversible, the Light Silk spirals upward, growing longer and longer until it reaches mid-air.

A kobold that grows Light Silk won't last long before withering like a plant and eventually dying. Moreover, prolonged contact with a being that has grown Light Silk can cause infection.

Luge frowned slightly. He knew that in the past, many injured or old kobolds, when starving, would secretly go eat those glowing mushrooms, because only those things were easy to obtain, edible, and no one fought over them, allowing them to endure hunger and survive.

"Aiyo, it's little Aijin! Is this the smart friend you mentioned? He really is tall."

The old kobold spoke even more fluently than Aijin, instantly widening Luge's dog eyes in shock.

"In my whole life, I've never seen such a tall kobold. Not even those powerful tribes serving Dragons have them. I'm about to die. Look, I'm glowing. Just don't know if it's as bright as the legendary Sun..." The old kobold spoke sentence by sentence, like a chatterbox opening its box.

Luge stared at Old Gold Tooth without blinking. This old kobold's coherent, logical manner of speaking completely shattered his understanding of the kobold race.

He felt this old kobold was very abnormal.

Old Gold Tooth kept talking, seemingly wanting to speak his fill before death. Perhaps he, like Aijin, found it hard to encounter a kobold he could actually talk to in this place in a lifetime.

The short Light Silk on the old kobold flickered bright and dim with his high-spirited words, as if breathing in the alternating light and dark.

(Chapter End)