"So we're just letting them go?"
In the clearing, Tang Qi watched the robed kobold "Kuru" direct the others in carrying out all kinds of miscellaneous items from the recess, including the hatchlings' eggs.
Now that they were leaving toward the depths of the cavern as if relocating, Tang Qi hesitated.
"A full suit of plate armor isn't something you see often.
In Dragon Gold City, even if it were sold at half price, it could still fetch at least a hundred gold coins.
This trip has already paid for itself.
Kobold scales are much harder than human skin. Wearing down my Snake Kiss with their lives wouldn't be worth it."
Jackal was a mercenary, so losing him didn't count as much of a loss.
Watching over the orchard was an easy retirement job. People would keep coming forward to swear loyalty to Lord Mel.
Black Snake kicked open another wooden crate. After confirming that there were twenty standard-sized crates and that the Star Plums inside were undamaged, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"The most important thing is that the Star Plums have been recovered."
"All of them?"
"One crate isn't full. They probably ate some of them. Using a poor harvest as an excuse should be enough to muddle through."
Tang Qi frowned. The robed kobold's shouts nearby were growing more and more frantic, sounding as if it were urging them to hurry.
His doubts multiplied, and he couldn't help stepping forward to inspect them.
He only saw twenty open crates of Star Plums, glimmering faintly in the gloomy cavern.
The fragrance of fruit filled the air and seeped into his nose. It smelled much like the plum wine he had drunk the previous night.
They were indeed undamaged Star Plums.
Recalling Tang Qi's remarkably keen insight throughout the entire incident, he asked uneasily, "Is there anything wrong with these Star Plums?"
"No, there's not the slightest problem with them."
"That's good."
"But Star Plums only have a shelf life of three days."
More precisely, they would definitely rot after three days.
Tang Qi hesitantly plunged both hands into the plum pile.
What reached his fingertips first was the smoothness of the cold fruit skins, chilled from being stored in a cellar.
As his hands sank deeper, his palms gradually began to feel sticky.
When he reached the very bottom, he felt the hard roughness of stone.
The instant he realized that the Star Plums were rotten inside, a faint sour stench of decay invaded Tang Qi's nostrils.
He immediately pulled away the outermost layer of plums—
He discovered that the fruit pulp, which had seemed to fill the entire crate, had only been spread across a shallow surface layer.
The Star Plums in the middle had begun to decompose. The sugar frost on their skins had turned dirty yellow, and mold had begun to grow.
The bottom layer had even been filled with stones to make up the weight!
"How could this happen?"
Gravel was horrified. For a moment, he still couldn't wrap his head around it.
"They smelled fine just now! How do they smell like boots someone threw up into after getting drunk and then didn't wash for a month!?"
"Magic. There's a Spellcaster among these kobolds—"
The moment Tang Qi reached his conclusion, Black Snake's saber was already out of its sheath.
The robed kobold on the other side had clearly been watching their situation the whole time. Seeing that its trick had been exposed, it let out a strange cry.
"Rua!"
A string of strangely lilting words immediately burst from its throat.
Tang Qi realized what was happening. "It's casting a spell!"
As the kobold chanted, a blue-white halo flickered at the tip of the staff in its hand.
At the same time, several kobolds hurriedly drew their crude shortbows to full tension.
The bone arrows were rough and couldn't reflect the firelight on the stone walls, leaving only faint trails as they pierced the dim cavern—
Their whooshes were weak and their force wasn't great, but they happened to block Black Snake halfway there!
Black Snake saw their trajectory, bent his back to reduce resistance, shifted his feet, and dodged the arrows sideways.
His figure was ghostlike, almost vanishing into the darkness.
"Rua!"
The arrows bought Kuru a moment to complete its chant.
Its throat rumbled harshly. As it shrieked, a snow-white icicle shot from the tip of its staff—
Trailing a streak of deep-blue chill, it flew straight toward Black Snake's forehead!
Black Snake had no intention of dodging. His pitch-black saber seemed invisible in the gloom. Its edge tore through the air, ripping out a shrill whistle.
Only when it neared that streak of light did its outline become faintly visible.
"Clang!"
The ice crystal was cleanly severed, and the ray split in two before the kobold's eyes.
"Kuru!"
The kobold was terrified and hurriedly rolled over, trying to escape.
The saber had already scraped across its throat!
"The gap in strength is way too great..."
Tang Qi blinked, then walked over slowly with Gravel, who seemed to have seen the result from the very beginning.
To him, all of this had taken no more than a few breaths.
Yet Black Snake had already crossed more than a hundred feet and was about to cut off the kobold's head.
Only after coming closer did Tang Qi see that a web-like layer of frost covered the black saber, extending all the way to the hilt and freezing Black Snake's fingertips purple.
Frozen Ray
Like Tang Qi's Art of Making Friends, it was a 0th-circle cantrip that did not occupy a ring slot. After striking its target, the chill would numb its limbs and slow its movements.
But no matter how slow it became, Black Snake's speed was still more than the kobold could handle.
He and Jackal were clearly on entirely different levels.
Why had adventurers of their strength holed up in a backwater like Star Plum Town?
Suppressing his doubts, Tang Qi heard Black Snake demand coldly, "Where are the remaining Star Plums?"
The kobold wailed. This time, it not only fell to its knees but also repeatedly knocked its head against the ground more than ten times.
"Fruit, rotten, only, eat!
Afraid, killed, only, deceive!
Surrender, spare life!"
Black Snake finally realized that nothing could be salvaged.
Irritated, he spat coldly. His hand rose and fell, and he was about to slit the kobold's throat—
"Wait!"
Tang Qi hurriedly grabbed his wrist. The chill made him shudder.
"If you kill it, we'll have no way to explain this to the lord."
"How else can we explain it? Tomorrow is the Harvest Festival, and the caravan will definitely arrive in town. If the amount we hand over is insufficient, can keeping it somehow make up the shortfall for you?"
"Of course it can."
Tang Qi wanted to record everything he had witnessed today in his journal.
If the kobold died, he would lose the chance to learn the whole story.
Besides, he had accepted a military order—
If he failed to recover all the Star Plums, he would be taken away to confess his crimes.
No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't let the kobold die here.
"It's a Spellcaster, isn't it? Since it can fool our eyes, why can't we use its magic to fool the caravan?"
Black Snake sneered.
"Mel—that fat pig, the employer—will arrange for professionals to arrive in town with the caravan. They'll inspect the quality of the Star Plums one by one.
Its trick couldn't even fool you. Do you think you're more professional than they are?"
"Of course not. The reason I discovered the problem with this batch of Star Plums is that some of them have already rotted. Once the illusion is seen through, there's no way to conceal that smell.
"But I can pass off inferior goods as superior ones, can't I?"
Tang Qi hurriedly explained.
"When you hand over the Star Plums, you should sign documents proving that the goods are undamaged, right?"
"Of course. To prevent trouble during transport, if any Star Plums go missing, the caravan can push the blame onto us."
"Ordinary Star Plums only differ from Shining Star in taste and color.
"If we place them at the bottom and use magic to conceal their actual color, it'll be difficult to see through the illusion unless they already know from the start that they're inferior goods.
"As long as we fool them and sign the documents, even if they discover in Dragon Gold City that the goods aren't what they should be, they'll have no choice but to bear the losses themselves."
"But they'll still know that something went wrong on my side."
"You make it sound as if they won't know something went wrong if we don't deceive them.
"The problem has already occurred. What matters is how to shift the blame.
"Pushing some of the risk onto them—even if the caravan complains about you—is still better than shouldering all the responsibility yourself."
The kobold squeezed its eyes shut, ready to stretch out its neck and await execution.
It never expected the situation to take such a turn, with a human pleading on its behalf.
It grasped Tang Qi's plan in its crude way and nodded repeatedly. Kneeling on the ground, it gestured constantly.
"Kuru, use, Silent Illusion!"
Silent Illusion
A First Ring spell. Within a circular area no larger than fifteen feet across, it created a movable image that could not be perceived by hearing, smell, or any other sense.
Any physical interaction with the image would expose its illusory nature.
Tang Qi guessed that Kuru had used Silent Illusion to conceal the stolen Star Plums.
Then, relying on Magic Trick, it had transformed the smell of decay into the fragrance of fruit, thereby deceiving their eyes.
They could naturally repeat the same trick and deceive the caravan arriving tomorrow.
After hearing Tang Qi's plan, Black Snake fell silent as he pondered.
He was weighing the pros and cons.
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