Ten kilometers northwest of Crouching Dragon Ravine, at the edge of the Gloomy Forest, a group of monsters with doglike heads and human bodies bustled in and out of a valley five times the size of a football field.
These monsters were Kobolds, a common sight across the continent. Their small stature often made them synonymous with weakness.
But it would be a grave mistake to underestimate them for that. The bloodlines of these weak Kobolds also contained the genes of dragons. They were extremely rare, but they did exist.
On top of that, Kobolds had a reproductive capacity that rivaled that of their close relatives. With such a vast population, quite a few were bound to awaken their dragon blood.
Kobolds who awakened their dragon blood could become all sorts of professionals, depending on their abilities: mages, Warriors, and even Warlocks. With the bloodline of the mightiest creatures, they were stronger than other races.
That was why the Kobolds had endured on the continent for so long.
Now, however, this Kobold tribe of more than five thousand was facing a major crisis. Its people were being moved around at a frantic pace, and even the elders—who normally ignored tribal affairs and devoted themselves to drawing out the power of their bloodlines—had come out.
"What happened? Did the Goblins attack?"
Bill asked in confusion. He was a mage who had just been interrupted in the middle of his training and had only just entered the tribal hall. He had no idea what had been going on.
"No, it's worse than that."
The Kobold Bambu said gravely. He had led the tribe for eleven years and was a bloodline awakener. Unlike the other elders, he had inherited the even rarer physical traits of a Red Dragon, which earned him the trust of the Kobolds, who revered strength.
"Four months ago, a group of humans arrived in our southern territory. They built houses and began making a home for themselves. According to the Kobolds we sent out, there was a human among them as strong as I am, along with quite a few soldiers.
"They're no pushovers. To avoid clashing with them, our hunting parties deliberately stayed away from their territory and avoided any conflict."
"What does this have to do with our tribe's situation?"
Kobold Bill didn't understand why the chieftain was telling them this.
Bambu ignored the interruption and continued.
"Yesterday, our hunters saw a great many magical beasts hurrying south from our hunting grounds, deeper into the Gloomy Forest.
"When our people went to investigate, they found a large force of humans to the east and a vast number of Goblins to the west. Both groups were clearing out the magical beasts and heading our way. At their current pace, they'll reach us by this afternoon at the latest."
"Ah, this... Have those green skins joined forces with the humans? We can't hold them off."
"Exactly. We were evenly matched when it was just the Goblins. Now that there's a group of humans too, it'll be hard to stand against them."
The chieftain's words stirred an uproar among the elders. The tribe's mid-ranking members, however, weren't surprised. As the tribe's fighters, they knew all about the situation. Even so, they bowed their heads and considered their options.
"Quiet, quiet! Does anyone have a good idea? Speak up now, in front of everyone."
"We should strike first."
An old Kobold leaning on a staff stepped forward. His name was Farley, the tribe's sage, as shrewd as a jackal among wolves. He was widely regarded as the wisest member of the tribe, and even the powerful chieftain deferred to him.
"Our Greenvine Tribe has lived here for nearly three hundred years. We have our own hunting grounds and our own water source.
"We live at the edge of the Gloomy Forest. If we move because of the human threat, where can we go? Deeper into the Gloomy Forest, or across the Endless Sea?
"Three hundred years ago, we moved our tribe here because of humans. That reduced us from a great tribe of ten thousand to a small one of two or three hundred. Now, after all this time, we've finally recovered half of our former glory. Are we really going to run again?
"The deeper parts of the Gloomy Forest are home to magical beasts more terrifying than humans. Moving there won't end any better than it did last time. And the Endless Sea is full of the unknown. No one knows what lies out there.
"So we have no choice but to stay here and fight to the death against those invaders. We have to win the right to survive."
The Kobold chieftain Bambu and the tribe's senior and mid-ranking members listened intently. As Farley laid out his reasoning, they realized that their only option was to stand their ground against the human-Goblin alliance. Only by driving them off could they win a chance to catch their breath.
They were fighting for their own survival.
"The strength of those filthy Goblins and cunning humans far surpasses ours. If we face them head-on, our chances of winning are practically zero. So we need to try a different approach."
Farley was old and frail, but his presence was no less imposing than anyone else's. His powerful magic also lent his words even more weight.
"Chieftain, don't we have a powerful neighbor? We could try to lure it toward the humans' sweep and hit them hard."
"A neighbor?"
Bambu thought it over, then suddenly remembered something terrible. Fear spread across his face.
"You mean the Granite Golem near the mine? The monster with platinum-tier strength?"
Granite Golems evolved from earth golems. Over the course of many years, earth golems gradually developed rocky shells by devouring ore and absorbing the power of the earth, becoming stone golems. After another long period of sleeping and feeding, stone golems became Granite Golems.
At first, earth golems were small, most no bigger than an ordinary human man. They had a spell that slowed people down. When they became stone golems, their muddy black-yellow bodies turned white, and they grew into hulking monsters four or five meters tall.
At that stage, their slowing spell became a boulder throw. They used their magic to form a massive rock, dealing damage and inflicting a forced stun. Their rocky bodies also made them immune to magic attacks.
Once they evolved into Granite Golems, their white stone turned a deep purple, and they grew into hulking monsters over ten meters tall. They retained the stone golem's boulder throw and magic immunity, but also learned Thunder Clap. By slamming their heavy bodies into the ground, they could slow and damage nearby enemies.
The Kobolds had known about the Granite Golem for a long time. A hundred years ago, when they discovered the mine, they mistook it for ordinary granite and began mining it. After a tremendous roar, the once-safe mining tunnel was smashed to pieces. All two hundred Kobold miners trapped in the mine perished.
After investigating, the Kobolds finally discovered the enormous monster. Once they assessed its strength, they abandoned that part of the mine and moved to another area. The Granite Golem remained there ever since.
In the history of the Kobold tribe, the Granite Golem had awakened and attacked three more times. The chieftain's fear came from the fact that he had experienced one of those incidents firsthand. The monster's tremendous power had left young Bambu with a deep psychological scar.
"That's right."
Farley's words brought Bambu back before the towering monster. Its deep purple rocks filled him with fear.
"The Granite Golem is platinum-tier, but our records say it's not very fast. Because of its cumbersome body, it's even slower than an ordinary gold-tier fighter. If you're willing to risk your life, Chieftain, our tribe may survive this."
Farley spoke plainly. Of the entire tribe, only the chieftain, with his gold-tier strength, could lure the Granite Golem. The Kobold mages and soldiers couldn't outrun it.
Bambu was torn. The Granite Golem wasn't just a platinum-tier powerhouse, a whole rank above him; it was also the nightmare that haunted him.
Asking him to lure the Granite Golem was like asking someone who'd been bitten by a snake as a child to become a snake handler as an adult, or asking someone terrified of the sea to dive in and save a drowning person.
It was very, very difficult.
But if Bambu didn't go, the tribe would most likely be destroyed. At most, a small number of elders and the chieftain might survive on the strength of their abilities. Most ordinary Kobolds would either die or become human slaves, sold into some pitch-black mine to toil until death.
"I'll go."
The Kobold chieftain Bambu made his decision. With time running out, he couldn't afford to think it over any longer.
He didn't have to go, but he went.
If your heart is unburdened, how could you dare wager your life on tomorrow?
Though Kobolds looked different from humans, they had flesh and blood just the same. They had their own emotions, courage, and sense of responsibility.
Under the gaze of the other Kobolds, Bambu brought only a small escort to the mine. They didn't know what their chieftain intended to do, but they knew they had to prepare for battle.
As the humans and Goblins worked to sweep the forest and claim room for their races to grow, a band of Kobold miners marched toward the mountain, ready to face death.
"Nice. This thing tastes good."
Lin Lei was sitting on his horse, eating fruit from a nearby tree he didn't recognize. After observing it, he'd decided the fruit wasn't poisonous and tried one.
He hadn't expected it to taste so good. It was so delicious he could eat his own tongue.
He polished off all fifty or sixty fruits from the entire tree. Not only that, he ordered the soldiers nearby to mark the tree so they could transplant it to his castle once the sweep was over.
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