Earth Core

Bambu was now like Sion in League of Legends after his passive ability activated: he dealt massive damage, but as long as you kept out of his reach, he was completely useless.

The two hours hadn't been especially difficult for Lin Lei. He'd had to dodge the Red Dragon's attacks constantly, but with Red Hare's nimble movements, it had all been child's play.

After the Red Dragon Bambu unwillingly turned to ash, Lin Lei returned to the Kobold tribe.

Allen, Furell, and the others had complete faith in Lin Lei. When he lured the Red Dragon away, they hadn't joined the battle. Instead, they'd focused on their own duties and calmly looted the Kobolds' spoils.

"Baron, here's the report on this battle. Please take a look."

Seeing Lin Lei return unharmed, Allen immediately handed him the report he'd prepared.

"We killed 200 Bronze-rank Kobold Warriors, 30 Silver-rank Kobold Warriors, and 100 unrated Kobold Warriors.

"We captured 50 Bronze-rank Kobold Warriors, two Silver-rank Kobold Warriors, and 400 unrated Kobold Warriors.

"We seized over 1,000 animal hides, two tons of refined iron ore, five Jade Spirit Flowers, three Heartbreak Grass plants, and various other odds and ends.

"We lost 23 Bronze-rank human warriors and 29 Bronze-rank Goblin warriors. We had no casualties among the Silver-rank troops or higher."

"Not bad. That's a good haul."

Lin Lei laughed when he saw the impressive battle report.

"Hmm... two tons of refined iron ore is no small amount. If we smelted it all into weapons, it would be enough for over two thousand of them. This doesn't look like a few scattered pieces of ore. It looks more like there's a whole vein of refined iron nearby."

Lin Lei had suddenly noticed this peculiar detail in the report. In this day and age, having mines meant having weapons and armor, and having the strength to develop.

"Yes, Baron. According to our interrogation of the Kobold prisoners, there really is a medium-sized refined iron vein not far from their tribe. They say it's been there for over three hundred years, and there's probably enough ore left to amount to a small mine.

"Also, the prisoners said the Granite Golem we encountered this morning appeared in that mine over a hundred years ago. I've already sent people to investigate, but there's a very good chance the two are connected to the same monster."

"Then it seems we weren't wrong to blame them. They were behind this morning's attack."

Hearing that he'd been attacked that morning made Lin Lei angry all over again.

"Bring the Kobold leaders here. I'll question them myself."

"Baron, there are no Kobold leaders left. Their elders and chief all died in the battle. The few remaining Silver-rank Kobold Warriors we'd just captured also killed themselves. All that's left are a few Bronze-rank Kobold Warriors. Do you still want me to bring them over?"

"Forget it."

After hearing Allen's words, Lin Lei's anger suddenly vanished.

The Kobold leaders were all dead, having fallen while defending their tribe. In the history of the Kobolds, hadn't they been heroes who guarded their homeland and died for it?

Though their heads were utterly unlike those of humans and their faces looked rather fierce, they were still living beings, intelligent creatures with their own joys and sorrows.

"Baron."

Allen's deep voice brought Lin Lei back to his senses.

"What should we do with the remaining Kobold prisoners? Keep them as mine slaves, or sell them? In my personal opinion, we should wipe them out completely and eliminate the potential danger before it can take root."

Allen wasn't wrong. Thrall, the chief of the Orc Frostwolf Clan, had been enslaved as a child. He'd later escaped from a human gladiatorial arena and gone to Kalimdor, where he'd formed the Horde and fought against the human Alliance.

"Take them to Flower Territory next week and sell them."

Lin Lei had decided to give the remaining Kobolds a chance to live. Even if their hope seemed slim, it was better than condemning them to death outright.

Heaven favored life, and every living thing had a reason to keep living. He'd destroyed their tribe because might made right; they couldn't blame him for that.

As for leaving behind future enemies, Lin Lei wasn't afraid of the descendants coming after him. His true enemies were the Scourge Legion and the Burning Legion. If he died before facing them, he wouldn't have the ability to take on those two great foes anyway.

"Let's go. It's time to return to the territory."

Looking at the devastation left by the battle, Lin Lei began organizing the troops for their return.

After the last soldier left, the Kobolds' houses caught fire and burned to ash within a day. Thus ended the Kobold tribe's three-hundred-year history.

"Rumble!"

As Lin Lei led the troops into town, the weather suddenly changed. Several bolts of lightning streaked across the once-blue sky, and before long, raindrops began to patter down.

Soon, the raindrops, each as big as a bean, turned into a torrential downpour, as if someone were throwing buckets of water over them. It drenched the surviving soldiers to the skin, washing away the blood from the battle and the dust from their hearts.

That night, Lin Lei sat alone in his room, sorting through his gains.

First were his lottery draws. Lin Lei had earned one draw from the number of monsters he'd killed, then another for defeating the Granite Golem across a rank gap. That meant he'd earned two lottery draws this time.

As for the Red Dragon that the Kobold Bambu had transformed into, although its rank was far higher than Lin Lei's, the system had determined that Lin Lei hadn't killed it, so he didn't receive an additional draw.

Of course, aside from the lottery draws, Lin Lei had also gained some unexpected rewards, such as a purple Granite Golem core and several valuable cultivation herbs.

"Huh..."

Lin Lei suddenly noticed an unusual notification.

"Congratulations! You have obtained an Earth Core, a rare item. You can use it to upgrade the quality of an item, regardless of its current quality."

"Wow, is this like a piece of equipment-enhancing stone? I can use it to upgrade a Bronze-rank item to Silver, or a Silver-rank item to Gold. That's incredibly powerful."

Lin Lei exclaimed, but then wondered about the odds of a successful upgrade. Looking closely, he finally spotted a line of tiny text.

"In theory, it can upgrade an item regardless of its quality, but the success rate decreases exponentially as the item's quality increases."

After reading the explanation, Lin Lei felt reassured.

Lin Lei tried placing his Green Dragon Crescent Blade into the upgrade slot. A ten percent success rate appeared.

"So it displays the success rate, too."

Lin Lei was surprised.

Putting the free appraisal function to use, he tried it on everything in his bag. The ice-blue armor had the lowest success rate, at only five percent, while items without a rank, like bread, had the highest, at nearly one hundred percent.

When Lin Lei was about to place an item called the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife (does anyone remember where it's from?) into the slot, its success rate suddenly dropped from fifty percent to 0.1 percent.

"Am I seeing things?"

Lin Lei rubbed his eyes and looked again. The success rate had changed to three percent.

Lin Lei was now certain that the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife was no ordinary item. He checked its quality, but all it showed were the two words "Unknown."

"Fate decides life and death; fortune lies in heaven."

Lin Lei suddenly abandoned his earlier plan to upgrade his ice-blue armor. He wanted to see what the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife would become.

Following the system's instructions, Lin Lei placed the Earth Core and the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife on the table. When he pressed the upgrade button in his mind, a white beam shot from his body and fell upon the purple Earth Core.

As the beam grew brighter and brighter, the solid Earth Core slowly softened, changing from a hard sphere into a purple liquid.

Under the pull of the system's power, the purple liquid was purified, leaving its impurities behind before flowing into the knife resting on the table.

The Chicken-Slaughtering Knife began to change in wondrous ways. Runes hidden within the blade gradually appeared, and it radiated a mysterious aura, looking completely different from before.

As the last of the light withdrew, the entire Earth Core had merged into the knife, and the upgrade process came to an end.

"Congratulations, host. Your Chicken-Slaughtering Knife has been unsealed and can now be used normally."

Lin Lei opened the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife's item details.

Chicken-Slaughtering Knife (Unsealed): +2 to all attributes. Skill: God of Slaughter. This was once the personal weapon of a supreme god. After the god died, it was lost among the people. Because it made killing people as easy as slaughtering chickens, it was called the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife.

God of Slaughter: Each time you kill a living being, you can randomly absorb one point from the target's strength, agility, or intelligence, increasing your own strength, agility, or intelligence. You also recover a small amount of stamina when you kill an enemy and enter a killing frenzy, increasing your movement and attack speed by five percent. This can stack up to one hundred percent and lasts for one minute.

"Good grief, is this a divine weapon?"

That was Lin Lei's first reaction when he saw the knife's stats. The boost to all attributes was nothing special, but the God of Slaughter skill was like a kill-count book that could stack forever. As long as you killed someone, you could grow stronger. The only difference was that the amount you grew depended on the rank of the person you killed.

"What kind of crazy luck is this?"

That was Lin Lei's second thought. For such a powerful weapon, the Earth Core's upgrade success rate should have been one in ten million. Yet it had actually succeeded—almost unbelievably.

Lin Lei felt he'd traded away all the luck he'd had in his life to get this. But that didn't mean he'd be cautious while drinking or eating afterward—far from it. Even with the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife, Lin Lei went about his work as usual. The only real change was that he spent much more time hunting outdoors.

Lin Lei packed away his knife. Its skill would still work even while it was stored in his inventory.