Clever Kuru

As Black Snake assessed the feasibility of the plan, Gravel nudged his thigh:

"If the lord finds out we're incompetent, he'll probably recruit a new batch of mercenaries and station them in this town, right?

Then, even if we stay in this town, it won't be as easy as it is now.

Hey, I don't want a bunch of newcomers bossing me around!"

Black Snake narrowed his eyes, stroking the stubble on his chin:

"You want to help him?"

"I want to help you! Have you forgotten the purpose of our staying here?"

Gravel casually punched him lightly, "Of course, if you're tired of being here, then forget I said anything.

You saved my life, so I followed you to repay the favor—

It's not like I can't drink star plum wine elsewhere. I can go to the city and drink good tequila."

Black Snake chuckled, making up his mind as he weighed the options.

Although there were many random elements in the process, making a perfect plan impossible.

Having two spellcasters present did lend it a certain degree of feasibility...

He looked at Tang Qi:

"Alright, bard, you've convinced me again—you didn't use any tricks this time, did you?"

He was referring to the incident at the execution platform.

"Casting spells requires conditions, like this kobold's incantation, or like my singing."

Tang Qi shook his head, "If you'd still like to listen, I don't mind singing a couple of tunes?"

"No need, I'm afraid I might lose control and beat you up."

Black Snake waved his hand, then turned to the kobold kneeling on the ground, "Listen, if you do this job for me tomorrow, I'll spare your life."

The kobold, having narrowly escaped death, kowtowed repeatedly:

"Kuru, I will!"

"Bard—never mind, what's your name?"

"Tang Qi."

"I'm entrusting this entire matter to you.

I don't care about the process, only the result.

If you mess it up, I won't let you off."

Tang Qi felt annoyed by Black Snake's desire to be a hands-off manager, but he couldn't argue.

Lest that scimitar, capable of traversing over a hundred feet in two breaths, be pressed against his throat.

Jackal was a rookie, but these two mercenaries were not.

However, for now, they should transport the remaining star plums and spoils back to town—

The robed kobold, likely holding a chieftain position, directed his tribesmen to gather the unrotten star plums.

Finally, they were divided into seven crates and loaded onto the cart that was blocking the cave entrance.

Four kobolds shouldered the handles of the cart, while two pushed from behind, barely moving the freight wagon that should have been pulled by oxen or horses...

Perhaps they were indeed oxen and horses?

Along the way, Tang Qi was very curious about this human-like kobold. To fill his log, he asked many questions:

"Do you have a name?"

"Kuru!"

"You know magic, right? Were those strange footprints in the orchard your doing?

But if you used magic to clean the footprints in the orchard, why didn't you clean them up completely, and instead deliberately left a trail pointing to the town?"

This was the part that Tang Qi found strangest.

If it weren't for this clue, Tang Qi wouldn't have noticed anything amiss, nor would he have investigated in the opposite direction.

Kuru understood his meaning but couldn't describe everything that had happened with the words it knew.

Fortunately, Tang Qi was eager to learn, and after a while, he finally pieced together the whole story:

Kuru had intended to steal the star plums from the beginning—

It wanted to find some offerings to present.

For this reason, it led its kin out of the cave and spent some time secretly observing the watering routine of the orchard outside Star Plum Town.

As it was near the Twilight Forest, the orchard soil was consistently damp, making it easy to leave footprints.

Therefore, three days ago, after deciding to steal the star plums, Kuru first ordered its kin to steal several pairs of boots.

Being short in stature, they could only steal a few pairs of standard small boots.

Due to the insufficient number of boots and their individual small strength, they could only transport them in batches.

At the same time, in order to frame the residents of the town, they began picking from the east side of the orchard, which was closer to the town.

By committing the crime while walking backward, they wouldn't leave complex footprints, thus misdirecting the investigation.

However, just yesterday, Kuru had learned a trick called [Earth Shaping].

Also a 0-ring spell, it could flatten soil traces within a certain area.

With this, they wouldn't even need footprints to escape detection.

It's just that the range of Earth Shaping was only five feet, so erasing all previous traces would take a lot of time.

Considering that walking backward still had flaws.

Kuru had no choice but to let its kin take the star plums and leave first, while it stayed in the orchard to cast the spell.

During this time, the orchard keeper happened to wake up and noticed its presence.

Kuru could only abandon its plan and flee in a hurry, failing to completely erase the footprints in the orchard--

This led to the orchard keeper reporting to Black Snake, pointing the finger at Anbi.

Tang Qi understood and then asked:

"Since that's the case, why didn't you master [Earth Shaping] before attempting the theft?"

"Kuru, don't know, it, shape earth."

"You only knew its effect after mastering it?"

"Rua!"

Tang Qi was surprised and said:

"So no one taught you spells at all?

Then [Earth Shaping], [Frozen Ray], [Silent Illusion]... how did you get these spells?"

Kuru was very smart.

Compared to secrets, its life was obviously more important.

After hesitating for a moment, it took out a delicate spellbook that was tucked close to its robe--

A heavy spellbook, 15 inches in size, bound in handmade cowhide, with a hexagram carved in black thread on the leather.

It pointed to its robe and then to the plate armor on the cart:

"Forest, hunt, three, humans, dying, Kuru, eat, have book, read book, learned."

The scattered words allowed Tang Qi to piece together the general idea of what happened--

A group of adventurers must have encountered danger in the Twilight Forest and were found by these kobolds when they were on the verge of death.

Kuru inherited the legacy of one of the mages--these people were constantly researching spells, and their packs contained more books than food.

This allowed Kuru to learn his spells by studying the symbols.

Tang Qi was a little surprised: "When did this happen?"

"Recently!"

Kobolds who had lived in caves for years found it difficult to understand the meaning of months, making it impossible for Tang Qi to determine the exact time.

But the information that "recently" could represent was already astonishing.

He took the kobold's spellbook and opened it, only to find it filled with obscure and difficult-to-understand words and symbols.

Unlike sorcerers, whose power is innate.

For mages, magic is an endeavor of discovery, research, and summarization.

In comparison, it's like mathematics.

The ubiquitous elements and magic net in this world are equivalent to "numbers," objective existences.

Arranging or combining them in a specific way to form a "formula" creates a spell.

However, the differences between people are sometimes greater than those between humans and animals.

Due to differences in comprehension ability and methods, mages sometimes use symbols that only they can understand to explain so-called "formulas" and record them in their spellbooks.

This makes their spellbooks quite personal items.

Therefore, when obtaining someone else's spellbook, it is generally difficult to immediately understand the meaning it represents.

It requires a certain amount of time for research and analysis to truly grasp the logic within.

For Homo sapiens, due to the commonality of language, copying a spell usually takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

But Kuru was a kobold.

Before this, it likely didn't even know "Common Tongue" existed.

Purely through intelligence, it learned writing, mage symbols, and mastered their mysteries through analysis in a short period...

It was like a husky at home suddenly calculating advanced mathematics one day.

Thinking this, Tang Qi took a deep breath:

"I never imagined a day would come when my intelligence would be surpassed by a kobold."