Chapter 13: Dragon and Dog

The light silk spiraled upward; though slow, it was indeed thriving on Old Gold Tooth — from afar, the old kobold lying on the ground looked like a large patch of abnormally sprouting bean sprouts.

Luge watched Old Gold Tooth, staring at those glowing threads.

Pity he wasn't yet a powerful Wizard; if he were an Official Wizard — no, perhaps even a high-ranking Wizard Apprentice, or an Apprentice who had researched this area, could deal with these light silk threads, he thought.

Aijin's face was anxious, but those eyes, seemingly holding tears, were full of desolation, as if she had already accepted the outcome; the kobold girl hadn't even noticed until now that Luge's strength had inexplicably grown great enough to hold her, and hadn't reacted to the fact that he could actually carry their two burly kobolds back and forth — if it were the past, she would surely have been asking curiously nonstop.

Watching Aijin's anxious glances cast his way from time to time, he also turned his head to look at Dasha.

The kobold girl wouldn't have asked him to carry this smelly, heavy big guy over for no reason.

Dasha had already been put on the ground, sitting slumped in weakness.

Feeling his gaze, this guy Dasha actually started trembling; if the blood staining his body hadn't already matted his fur into a clump, and the fur on his back hadn't been nearly worn away, this guy would definitely have puffed up in fright.

Before Aijin could speak, Dasha was already trembling as he stretched out his hand, but still didn't dare raise his head to look at that shortest figure beside him.

Aijin fished out a crude beast tooth dagger.

Under Luge's curious gaze, she began letting blood from Dasha's fingers.

Pity — three times in a row, not much blood flowed before the wound healed.

"Let me."

Luge was slightly excited, as if discovering a novel book waiting to be flipped through.

"Big guy, bear with it..." He took the beast tooth dagger.

With the Bull Strength spell effect still not faded on him, he could definitely easily cut a large gash.

Hearing this, Dasha's shoulders shook once, he buried his head hard, expression unseen.

Is this abnormal healing ability also the effect of that miraculous fruit? He began to feel an even stronger interest in that black fruit he had never seen the true face of.

"Feed this blood to Old Gold Tooth?" he said.

Aijin nodded hard.

He walked closer, took out the long stick, propped one end against Old Gold Tooth's mouth, pulled over Dasha's cut palm — fresh blood dripped continuously along the tilted long stick into the old kobold's mouth. Although a Wizard Apprentice most likely wouldn't be infected by this thing that even ordinary kobolds need prolonged contact to catch, he still didn't want to get too close.

The old kobold just grinned, as if finding all this quite interesting.

In this kobold tribe — indifferent, inhuman yet lacking the sincere emotions of beasts — to actually have three junior kin keeping him company before death, Old Gold Tooth was both surprised and happy.

As the fresh blood dripped.

The old kobold's complexion visibly improved.

This was also something Luge was glad to see — on one hand, testing the blood's effect; on the other, he very much wanted to chat with Old Gold Tooth.

Just now he had actually heard the word "sun" from this old kobold's mouth — that was extremely inconceivable; and the old kobold's clear, articulate speech, though annoying in its verbosity, was absolutely not something a kobold who had always just nested here could possess.

Thinking back now, some things Aijin had said — for example, the Chong Ren who rarely appeared in this area — should all have come from this Old Gold Tooth's mouth.

Luge also noticed that the old kobold's grinning mouth really did have a gold tooth — that was also something that shouldn't appear.

The main reason for Old Gold Tooth's improvement was the healing of his injuries; the light silk on his body showed not the slightest sign of weakening.

"Oh my, good, very good, this way I can live a while longer." Old Gold Tooth grinned, casually pulling the light silk from his chin and tossing it into his mouth, like holding a grass stem to play with.

The light silk showed no change for a long time; Dasha's wound had already begun to heal.

Luge didn't cut him open again like a demon.

It was enough already.

He put away the long stick, faced Old Gold Tooth, and sat down on the ground.

"A kobold that grows light silk — they probably won't live until the next time their belly is hungry, right?" He looked intently at the old kobold.

"Heh heh! A rare kobold sage — you're Aijin's friend, so you come see how long I've lived? Look at my whiskers, look at my ears, look at my toes — your clever little head hasn't seen it either; haven't seen it, no matter how clever it's useless. I'm not the same as those kobolds who die quickly — I once served a Dragon, was bathed in a Dragon's breath..."

Old Gold Tooth moved the light silk grass stem in his mouth, seeming to fall into distant memory for an instant.

"Mhm, but in the end I failed — I didn't transform into a Dragonborn Kobold, my stature is still this small, but my brain got smarter. I'm the smartest in the clan — no, should be the smartest in the tribe. They had me deal with those long-eared Dark Elves; a strong tribe wouldn't be enslaved by those elves. The ore we mined all had to be traded — had to exchange for good things. Dealing with those black pointy-ears taught me many things."

Old Gold Tooth's expression was quite proud; the grass stem traced circles by his mouth.

"Those are all things you haven't seen — although I'm not a true Dragonborn Kobold, this glowing toy still needs a period of time to defeat me..."

The words Old Gold Tooth spoke made Luge's heart jump from time to time; Aijin also sat to the side listening; only Dasha, after giving blood, was even weaker, silently leaning against the cave wall with eyes closed resting.

The old kobold looked into Luge's eyes, as if wanting to read something from them.

"Do you know? Even the weakest Dragonborn Kobold can live a very, very long time — live until they've gone hungry countless times, live until they're not even weaker than those dark pointy-ears."

The old kobold moved his lips, using the grass stem to point at Dasha curled up resting to the side.

"This big guy has the scent of a Dragonborn Kobold, but very weak, very weak, extremely weak... I'd have to drink large mouthfuls of his blood to sense it. He should have eaten something contaminated with a Dragon's breath, but Dragonborn Kobold blood doesn't have this kind of miraculous healing ability... Pity the amount was too little; he's already missed this chance, failed just like me. If I'd been that strong in my youth I definitely would have succeeded."

Seeing Luge's eager eyes, Old Gold Tooth said: "You can't either, you absolutely can't — you're too scrawny. A scrawny kobold means too little latent Dragon Blood; even if you were stuffed behind a Dragon's butt, buried in Dragon Feces, you wouldn't succeed."

Luge opened his mouth, but rationally didn't retort.

"Why don't you eat worm meat?"

He asked the question he'd always wanted to ask — not eating the easily obtained worm meat, this was an act that severely violated kobold instinct.

Even starving himself in the end — this could no longer be explained by simple taste preference, even if Old Gold Tooth was a special kobold closer to humans than to beasts.

(Chapter End)