The Core of the Earth

At this moment, Bambu was just like Sion from League of Legends; once his passive skill was triggered, his damage output was immense, but as long as he couldn't land a hit, he was completely useless.

These two hours did not seem too difficult in the eyes of Lin Lei. Although he had to dodge the red dragon's attacks at every moment, thanks to the agile movements of Red Hare, the entire ordeal felt like child's play.

After the red dragon Bambu unwillingly turned into ashes, Lin Lei returned to the Kobold tribe.

Allen and Furell had full confidence in Lin Lei. While he lured the red dragon away, they chose not to participate in the battle between Lin Lei and the red dragon, instead focusing on their duties and calmly looting the Kobold spoils.

"Lord Baron, this is the battle inventory. Please take a look."

Seeing Lin Lei return unscathed, Allen immediately handed over the prepared report.

"We have wiped out 200 Bronze-rank Kobold warriors, 30 Silver-rank Kobold warriors, and 100 unranked Kobold warriors.

We have captured 50 Bronze-rank Kobold warriors, 2 Silver-rank Kobold warriors, and 400 unranked Kobold warriors.

We have seized over 1,000 animal skins, two tons of refined iron ore, five Jade Spirit Flowers, three stalks of Heartbreak Grass, and various other sundries.

Our losses include 23 Bronze-rank human warriors and 29 Bronze-rank Goblin warriors. There were no casualties above the Silver rank."

"Not bad, a good harvest indeed."

Lin Lei laughed out loud upon seeing the impressive battle report.

"Wait... two tons of refined iron ore? That is no small number. If it were all melted down to forge weapons, that would be over two thousand pieces. This doesn't look like ore picked up in scraps; it looks more like there is an entire refined iron ore vein."

Lin Lei suddenly discovered this peculiar detail in the report. In this era, having ore meant having weapons and armor, which in turn meant the strength to develop.

"Yes, Lord Baron. According to our interrogation of the Kobold captives, there is indeed a medium-sized refined iron ore vein not far from their tribe. According to the captives, this vein has a history of over three hundred years. After intermittent mining, it is estimated that there is still the capacity of a small refined iron ore vein remaining.

Also, regarding the Granite Golem we encountered this morning, the captives said it appeared in that refined iron ore vein over a hundred years ago. I have already sent men to investigate, but it is highly likely that the two are the same monster."

"It seems we didn't wrong them after all; the attack this morning was their doing."

Hearing the news about the morning's ambush, Lin Lei suddenly became furious again.

"Bring the Kobold leadership here; I want to interrogate them personally."

"Lord Baron, there is no Kobold leadership left. Their elders and chieftain died in this battle. The few remaining Silver-rank Kobold warriors we just captured committed suicide. Now, all that remains are a few Bronze-rank Kobold warriors. Do you still want them brought over?"

"Forget it."

Hearing Allen's words, Lin Lei's anger vanished without a trace.

The Kobold leadership was wiped out, dying while defending their own tribe. In the history of the Kobolds, were they not heroes who "guarded the gates as sons of heaven and died for the state as monarchs"?

Even though they had heads completely different from humans and faces that looked rather fierce, they were living, sentient beings with their own joys, sorrows, and emotions.

"Lord Baron."

Allen's booming voice startled Lin Lei back to reality.

"How should we handle the remaining Kobold captives? Should we keep them as mining slaves, or sell them off? My personal opinion is that we should cut the weeds and pull up the roots, eliminating potential dangers in the bud."

Allen's words were not without merit. Thrall, the chieftain of the Orc Frostwolf Clan, had become a slave in his youth, only to later escape the human gladiatorial arena and go to Kalimdor to form a tribe and resist the human alliance.

"Take them to Flower Territory next week and sell them," Lin Lei said. He decided to leave a path of survival for the remaining Kobolds. Even if this path seemed to have slim hope, it was still far better than directly sentencing them to death.

Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life; all lives have a reason to exist. Wiping out their tribe earlier was a matter of "the winner takes all," and they had no one to blame.

As for leaving behind future trouble, Lin Lei was not afraid of his enemies' descendants coming for him. His true enemies were the Scourge Legion and the Burning Legion. If he were to die before facing them, then Lin Lei would have no ability to confront these two formidable foes anyway.

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

Lin Lei looked at the traces of war-torn destruction around him and began organizing the army to return to the territory.

As the last soldier departed, the original Kobold dwellings caught fire, turning to ashes within a day. Thus, the Kobold tribe that had existed for over three hundred years came to an end.

"Rumble!"

As Lin Lei led the army into the town, the wind and clouds suddenly shifted in the sky. Several bolts of lightning streaked across the originally blue sky, and before long, raindrops began to fall.

Soon, the bean-sized raindrops turned into a torrential downpour, as if someone were pouring water from a basin, soaking the surviving soldiers to the bone, washing away the blood and filth of battle, and cleansing the dust from their souls.

At night, Lin Lei stayed in his room alone, beginning to organize his gains.

First were the lottery chances. The number of magical beasts Lin Lei had killed earned him one lottery chance, and subsequently, killing the Granite Golem across ranks earned him another. He had obtained two lottery opportunities at once.

As for the red dragon that the Kobold Bambu had transformed into, although it had a rank far exceeding Lin Lei's, according to the system's judgment, it did not count as a kill by Lin Lei, so there was no lottery chance for that.

Of course, besides the lottery opportunities, Lin Lei also had other unexpected gains, such as a purple Granite Golem core, or several precious medicinal herbs that assisted in cultivation.

"Huh..."

Lin Lei suddenly noticed a unique notification sound.

"Congratulations on obtaining an Earth Core wonder. You can use it to upgrade the quality of an item, regardless of what its current quality is."

"Wow, is this equivalent to an enhancement stone for upgrading equipment? Just by using it, I can turn a Bronze-rank item into a Silver-rank one, and a Silver-rank item into a Gold-rank one. This is too powerful."

Lin Lei sighed in admiration, but he immediately turned his attention to the issue of the success rate of the upgrade. Upon closer inspection, he discovered a line of small text.

"Theoretically, quality can be upgraded regardless of rank, but the success rate of the upgrade will decrease exponentially based on the quality of the item."

Seeing this explanation, Lin Lei finally set his mind at ease.

Lin Lei attempted to place his Green Dragon Crescent Blade into the enhancement slot, and a ten percent success rate appeared above it.

"So it even displays the success rate for enhancements."

Lin Lei exclaimed in surprise.

Adhering to the philosophy of using the appraisal machine for free, he tested every item in his backpack. Among them, the ice-blue armor had the lowest success rate at only five percent, while items without a rank, such as bread, had the highest success rate at nearly one hundred percent.

When Lin Lei prepared to place a Chicken-Slaughtering Knife (does anyone remember its origin?) into the slot, its enhancement rate suddenly shifted from the original fifty percent to zero point one percent.

"Am I seeing things?"

Lin Lei rubbed his eyes and looked again, only to find the enhancement rate had changed to three percent.

Now Lin Lei could be certain that this Chicken-Slaughtering Knife was not simple; he checked its quality and saw only the two large characters: Unknown.

"Life and death are determined by fate; wealth and honor are decreed by Heaven."

Lin Lei suddenly abandoned his previous idea of enhancing his ice-blue armor; he wanted to see what kind of item this Chicken-Slaughtering Knife could be forged into.

Following the system prompts, Lin Lei placed the Earth Core and the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife on the table. As he clicked the enhancement button in his mind, a beam of white light shot out from his body and shone onto the purple Earth Core.

As the white light grew more intense, the originally hard Earth Core began to soften slowly, transforming from a solid sphere into a purple liquid.

Under the guidance of a systemic force, the purple Earth Core liquid had its impurities removed, and the pure liquid merged into the knife that had been lying on the table.

The Chicken-Slaughtering Knife also began to undergo miraculous changes. The runes originally hidden within the blade gradually revealed themselves, and the entire object began to emit a mysterious aura, looking vastly different from its previous appearance.

As the final ray of light retracted, the entire Earth Core had been integrated into the body of the knife, and the entire enhancement process came to an end.

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

Lin Lei opened the information for the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife.

Chicken-Slaughtering Knife (Unsealed): All attributes +2, Skill (God of Slaughter). This was originally the personal weapon of a certain supreme god, left behind in the mortal world after their death. Because using it to kill people is as simple as slaughtering a chicken, it is known as the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife.

God of Slaughter: Every time you kill a living creature, you can randomly absorb one point from the target's strength, agility, or intelligence to increase your own. At the same time, killing an enemy restores a small amount of your stamina and plunges you into a bloodthirsty frenzy, increasing movement speed and attack speed by five percent, stacking up to a maximum of one hundred percent, lasting for one minute.

"Holy crap, this is a divine artifact, right?"

This was Lin Lei's first reaction upon seeing the knife's panel. The all-attribute increase the knife provided to the host was not worth mentioning, but the God of Slaughter skill was like a book of murder that could stack infinitely. As long as you killed someone, you could grow stronger, though the magnitude of the growth would vary depending on the rank of the person killed.

"What kind of dog-shit luck did I stumble into?"

This was Lin Lei's second thought. For such a powerful weapon, logically, the enhancement success rate of the Earth Core should have been one in ten million, yet the final result was a success—an incredibly unbelievable success.

Lin Lei felt as if he had traded his life's worth of luck for this, to the point where he was even cautious while drinking water and eating—as if! After obtaining the Chicken-Slaughtering Knife, Lin Lei continued his work as usual, at most increasing the time he spent out on Gari.

Lin Lei packed up his knife and placed it into his inventory; this skill took effect even while stored in the inventory.