Kobolds

"Could it be a Goblin cave?"

Tang Qi asked instinctively.

Generally speaking, the most common and weakest monster tribes in the wild were the yellow-green-skinned Goblins, also known as "goblins."

In some works, they were often depicted as a wretched species that abducted women of other races everywhere to reproduce.

But in truth, they had distinct males and females.

The more intelligent Goblin descendants even had their own tribal rules, ecology, and unique faiths.

If they ran into an organized Goblin tribe, even a professional adventuring party could easily meet its downfall.

"Goblin caves are rarely dug this spaciously."

Gravel shook his head, stood on tiptoe, and raised a hand to indicate his own height as he judged from experience.

"Honestly, this looks a bit like the work of us Dwarves—

When we mine, we usually don't make the entrance very tall, but we do make it very wide."

"Why?"

"Because it's one of the rare chances we get to make those tall folk bow to us!"

Gravel laughed smugly, then turned to Black Snake.

"Going in?"

"You take the lead. Jackal, guard Poet's sides with me."

Black Snake gave the order without hesitation.

Nor did he intend to call for reinforcements.

They did not yet know the situation inside the cave. Too many people would easily alert the enemy.

Besides, given Star Plum Town's pitiful military strength, the only purpose of bringing them into the cave would be to make their force look more intimidating.

Gravel handed the torch to Tang Qi so that its light could illuminate the area around the party.

But as they went deeper, they quickly discovered that this seemed woefully inadequate.

The cave entrance led straight into the mountain. The farther they advanced, the wider the passage became.

By the end, Tang Qi had to stand on tiptoe and hold the torch higher to illuminate more of the area—

"Wait. Put out the fire."

Even with one eye lost, Dwarf blood carried the ability to see in darkness.

He could see far more than the torchlight reached.

Alarm bells rang in Tang Qi's heart. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and his tension intensified.

They silently extinguished the torch, and darkness instantly swallowed everything before them.

But they did not need to worry about being unable to see.

Before their eyes could even adjust to the darkness, they had already spotted a flicker of fire in the distance.

"Someone's there. Keep it down."

Gravel reminded them softly, though his plate armor inevitably scraped as he moved.

Yet the distant area seemed even noisier, and no one noticed their approach.

As they drew closer, Tang Qi's field of vision widened.

Then he discovered an open space ahead.

It resembled a naturally formed stone cavern, with an enormous stone pillar serving as support.

Not far from the pillar, a bonfire cast bright light, but its glow did not reach the ceiling.

They could only vaguely make out several hanging stalactites, their pointed ends like awls, formed by minerals accumulating over countless years.

The cave was so damp that droplets from the stalactites kept falling into puddles below, often splashing up echoing "drip-drop" sounds...

And around the fire gathered the masters of this open space—

Several short, upright monsters with reddish-brown scales covering their skin, lizard-like heads, and long rat-like tails.

They sat on bone chairs pieced together from the bones of some unknown small creature.

They stared eagerly at the meat skewers in their hands, several tiny roasted bugs impaled on polished bone sticks, then began waving their arms about.

"Rua!"

"What are those?"

Compared to the two former adventurers, Black Snake and Gravel, Jackal was practically a raw recruit.

Tang Qi then realized that he might not be cut from the same cloth as the other two mercenaries.

"Kobolds."

A communal humanoid species that lived in caves and underground.

Though individually weak, they were naturally cunning.

They never fought unprepared battles, habitually bullied the few with the many, and were almost never seen acting alone.

Tang Qi searched through his memories of Kobolds and concluded.

"When you want to condemn this world as one obsessed with bloodlines, you'd better think of them. After all, dragon blood truly runs through their veins."

"Really?"

Black Snake and Gravel turned to look at him at the same time, their faces full of suspicion.

Tang Qi blinked.

Through the memories of his predecessor, he knew that this world's history had faded away, and even records of these creatures had become Shattered.

But he had not expected things to have reached the point where people knew what was so without knowing why.

Still, he could hardly say that, as a tabletop RPG fanatic, he had a fantasy database in his head.

He could not even be sure whether that database applied to this world.

So he answered vaguely.

"Bard textbooks always record some strange bits of knowledge."

"Looks like going to school isn't completely useless."

Gravel merely took it as some unique bard saying, then looked toward Black Snake.

"Attack?"

Black Snake's command was simple and clear.

"Ambush them."

They were dead.

Tang Qi could not tell what rank of adventurers Black Snake and Gravel had once been.

But alcohol had not made them forget their former skills.

Even though the Kobolds spotted the intruders immediately, rang an alarm bell, and prepared their defenses in time.

Their crude bone hammers and wooden shields could not stop Black Snake's blade.

Tang Qi saw only the black scimitar seeming to lurk within the shadows. Within a few breaths, flesh and blood fell neatly to the ground—

Like the work of a master chef chopping ingredients, the cuts were almost perfectly smooth.

Not a speck stained the blade.

Gravel, meanwhile, lived up to his name.

But when scarlet flesh and gray-white brains burst in the firelight like crushed tofu, Tang Qi felt that perhaps he ought to call him Skullcrusher instead.

As for Jackal... he was like a person.

It was truly a pity the Kobolds had not knocked him out with a club.

Tang Qi, who bore him ill will, did not care to offer much comment.

Jackal felt much the same way. Staring at Tang Qi, the only person on the field who had done absolutely nothing, he could not resist mocking him.

"What, were you trembling behind that pillar?

What use are you, anyway?"

This was why bards could not fit into an adventuring party and could only sing for coin in taverns—

Was it because they could cower in a corner and sing battle hymns during a fight?

Or because someone could sing dirges and collect their corpses after they died?

Tang Qi refused to show weakness verbally, but just as he was about to speak, he heard the Dwarf roar, his voice echoing through the entire cave.

"There's more!"

Tang Qi, farthest from the bonfire, noticed that Gravel's gaze had fallen on the air above.

He hurriedly hurled the torch upward with all his strength. Only then did the others catch sight, in the firelight, of a reddish-brown figure running uphill on the right—

The stone cavern was too spacious, and darkness concealed the high slopes along the walls.

After hearing the alarm, a Kobold that had been lurking in a shadowy corner had already reached the top of the slope with a slender knife in hand, ready to cut the tightly bound rope above—

At its other end hung a massive boulder suspended from the ceiling, likewise concealed in shadow!

No one knew how the boulder, which covered an area thirty feet across, had been hoisted up there.

They only knew that its landing point was right where the mercenaries stood by the bonfire!

Black Snake and Gravel reacted swiftly, almost simultaneously throwing their weapons to stop the Kobold.

The scimitar swept across the lowly creature's neck, while the hammer shattered its ribs.

They succeeded.

But a boulder could not be suspended by only one rope!

"There's one on the left too!"

Jackal reacted the slowest. When he saw a Kobold on the high slope to the left about to make the same move, he nearly screamed.

"Fuck!"

His legs went weak, and he was about to flee desperately beyond the trap's range.

But they no longer had the strength to escape!

"Pfft—"

The Kobold's short knife veered off course when it was only inches from the rope.

Along with its owner, it tumbled down from the high slope and landed below, barely clinging to life.

Their expressions varied as they gathered around, only to see a crossbow bolt embedded directly in the Kobold's head.

They could not help turning to look at Tang Qi, who was reloading his crossbow.

Seeing Jackal's legs trembling uncontrollably, Tang Qi could not help mocking him.

"What, were you trembling where you stood?"