Dogs and Uninvited Guests

The great cave belonging to the Lord was the largest cave in the area occupied by the Kobolds. Every Lord throughout the generations had been welcomed inside by the Kobolds. It was a natural karst cavern, and anything related to the Lord was a holy place in the Kobolds' hearts—as well as forbidden ground.

Big Silly Hum stood at the cave entrance, staring blankly at the young Kobold girl before him.

This was a rare sight. Usually, he stood here all alone. He stood while daydreaming, and sometimes even slept standing up. He had grown used to it and never felt lonely. On the contrary, he was happy that he no longer had to run around everywhere or do complicated things he did not understand. His stomach no longer hurt from hunger, either.

Ever since he began standing here, his clansmen had brought him hearty, delicious food every time his stomach growled twice.

Though as far as he could remember, there had never been anything that was not delicious.

He looked beside the young Kobold girl, then behind her, then at her hands. There was no food.

That puzzled him.

He scratched his other forearm with his broad palm. The wound there was healing rapidly, with barely any blood having flowed out. Ever since he ate the sour fruit given by the Lord, all his injuries had healed quickly.

Only then did he realize that the young Kobold girl in front of him had just cut him with a knife made from beast bone.

In his eyes, she was a very pretty Kobold, especially with those tufts of fluffed-up fur and her broad, sturdy shoulders. She was probably the strongest female Kobold in the tribe.

"Big Hum Hum, give me some of your blood. I can catch you a few bugs to eat. Just a little is enough. You have lots of blood."

Aisijin looked at Big Silly Hum anxiously.

If it had been the old Big Silly Hum, she could have handled him. But although the current Big Silly Hum was still dim-witted, he was simply too huge.

She had skipped the tribal hunt led by the Black Claw Lord this time specifically to come here and ask for some of Big Silly Hum's blood. Once, she had accidentally witnessed a dying meat grub meant for food drink Big Silly Hum's blood, and she had seen with her own eyes how its severed legs quickly grew back.

And her attempt just now had partly confirmed that guess.

She wanted to use Big Silly Hum's blood to save a Kobold—an old Kobold she had deliberately kept hidden from Ruger and never mentioned.

In truth, she was not the only Kobold in the tribe capable of communicating. The old Kobold named Old Gold Tooth was another. She had always been too afraid to say it. She feared she would no longer be special, and she feared Old Gold Tooth would take Ruger away from her.

Rumble!

A black shadow raced over the ground and cave walls, shooting out from the tall, broad passage specially opened for the sacred cave like a swift black gale.

Aisijin was sent flying in an instant and slammed viciously into a distant cave wall.

The black shadow did not slow down. It pounced directly on Big Silly Hum, pinning him down with broken black claws. Its absurdly huge mouth bit into Big Silly Hum's shoulder, nearly clamping half his body between its jaws. Then came wet, gurgling sounds of sucking.

Ruger carried a stick as he walked and stopped according to the route he remembered.

The loose grass skirt around his waist had been replaced by a pair of shorts pieced together from insect shells and beast hide. He had prepared them long ago and imagined making them countless times, so putting them together had naturally been easy and smooth. The softest side of the hide faced inward, while the edges of the insect shells had been drilled through with beast teeth and tied down over the outside of the hide, effectively preventing them from chafing his flesh while running.

I really do seem to have gotten a little fatter lately, he thought.

He had only come in this direction a few times when he first participated in tribal hunts.

He had only visited the area near the Lord's great cave once.

If he wanted to test the strength of his spell, the strongest Big Silly Hum was a good target. Maybe he could also tease Aisijin a little.

If the Stinking Skin Spell worked properly and he could truly maintain it indefinitely, then he could consider reinforcing his armor with materials from the insect nest and turning those shorts into half-armor.

The great cave prepared for the Lord by the tribe was already much like a sacred or forbidden place. No Kobold would wander around nearby, yet this Black Claw Lord had still chosen a guard and bestowed a magical fruit to make that guard stronger. Clearly, the Lord did not like being disturbed. Perhaps he was even someone who liked sleeping.

Ruger really wanted to see what that magical fruit had turned Big Silly Hum into.

If the Black Claw Lord was absent, he would not mind gently knocking Big Silly Hum down with a spell, then taking a stroll through the cave to see whether the Blackclaw Lord still had any fruit in stock.

The best-case scenario would be for this Blackclaw Lord to go out hunting and leave Big Silly Hum there alone.

One fork after another.

His pace alternated between fast and slow. After walking for a long time, he began to doubt himself.

The farther he went, the more he felt that he might already be lost.

A Wizard Apprentice who got lost was truly rather embarrassing.

He suddenly thought of Wizard Apprentices' familiars.

It was said that familiars all had the ability to remember routes. In the past, people who became Wizard Apprentices would immediately choose a bonded familiar, but as times changed, few Wizards other than Beast King Wizards still contracted familiars.

The reason was the rise of the Beast King Wizard path. Early on, someone had developed a targeted spell that, as long as one captured an opponent's familiar, could harm the familiar's owner across vast distances or even directly kill the Wizard on the other end of the contract.

Beast King Wizards had naturally found ways to counter and dispel such spells, but Wizards on other paths would not go to such lengths or even waste a spell slot on it. They also did not want to leave themselves with a fatal weakness. Over time, ordinary Wizards stopped touching bonded familiars.

He felt that he could contract a bonded familiar that others could not see or would find difficult to catch.

Suddenly, he caught a strange smell.

It seemed to be Kobolds.

And more than one. They had passed through here not long ago.

Confidence immediately rose within him.

He passed several forks and was still trying to determine the direction when several Kobolds taller than him ran out from afar. Delighted, he strode toward them. They spotted him at the same time and also cried out as they ran over.

More noisy sounds came from the passageway.

As the distance rapidly closed, he noticed their crude clothing and the cheap, ugly iron weapons in their hands.

His heart stirred, and he immediately understood.

They were Kobolds, but they were definitely not Kobolds who should have been here. These fellows were not the shabby paupers from his own tribe.

At the same time, the light of spirituality sensed the intense hostility those Kobolds held toward him.

The other source of the mixed smell appeared as well. A group of Lizardfolk wielding short spears suddenly charged out from the side.

It seemed the two sides had already been fighting.

The Lizardfolk held an overwhelming numerical advantage. Though the Kobolds were all strong and possessed handy iron weapons, half of them were killed or wounded in the blink of an eye.

He judged that these Lizardfolk were the old neighbors who had been crossing the border frequently lately.

The Kobolds, meanwhile, came from far away and belonged to a powerful tribe. At the very least, they had mines to dig.

These two groups of uninvited guests had actually started fighting in his home.

That was not a good sign.

Already lost, he felt irritated for a moment.

But he soon began to laugh.

The Stinking Skin Spell seemed to surge with his mood, sending blackish-gray ripples invisible to the naked eye spreading around him.

His feet did not stop moving, but for the first time ever, he stopped maintaining Foul-Smelling Skin.

Following the guidance of his spirituality, he sensed that if he did not do this, he would lose the chance to test Strength of the Savage Bull.

With a thought.

For the first time in his life, he activated the spell in a temporary spell slot. When the casting succeeded, the stored spell vanished, as though the spell he had reserved had been devoured by his magic mark.

The effects of Strength of the Savage Bull empowered him.

He felt inexhaustible strength surging through his entire body.

His steps grew faster and faster. Each stride covered the distance of three to five of his former steps.

These people, whether Lizardfolk or Kobolds, were villains filled with malice who had brought disaster here.

He swung his arm in a full arc and savagely swept out the long stick in his hand.

First came two Kobolds. Then there was a Kobold and a Lizardfolk Entangled together head-on. Like pairs of rag dolls, they were sent flying sideways without the slightest ability to resist.

He could not stop himself from laughing loudly as Lizardfolk scattered and Kobolds fled everywhere in his wake.

In an instant, he threw both sides into chaos.

Under normal circumstances, these strange intelligent races would never easily cross borders unless they were utterly bored or had something wrong with their brains.

Perhaps they needed a little necessary intimidation.

He decided not to spare a single one. He would pile their corpses at the largest, widest intersection here. Since they liked coming here so much, they could serve as signposts and save him from getting lost every time he walked around.

After sending two more Lizardfolk flying, he suddenly found it rather boring. He stopped moving, and the skin that had only recently returned to normal turned blackish-purple once more.

The expected screams did not ring out.

The remaining Kobolds and the Lizardfolk who had not escaped in time silently collapsed one after another. Terrifying black vapor crawled across their cheeks. Their eyes bulged wide as they lay on the ground, twitching without stop.

He really wanted to ask whether it smelled bad, but clearly, there was no need anymore.

He began pacing around, observing the Lizardfolk on the ground. From time to time, he even stopped the spell to watch their changes.

In the end, mercifully, he did not let them twitch for long. He picked up a sharp short spear and put an end to everything.

The only regret was that they had been standing too close together and fallen too quickly, so he had not measured the spell's effective range.

"So many corpses. I wonder whether they'll attract something?"

Thinking randomly, he piled dozens of corpses together and turned to leave.

Though he was already lost, a Wizard Apprentice's mind was still enough to retrace his route. Then he could choose a new path from the starting point. He judged that after at most three more attempts, he would definitely find that great cave.

He was still thinking about going into the Lord's great cave to pick up fruit.

Even if he did not eat the fruit himself, he could give it to Aisijin and make the strong Kobold girl safer. This place might become very lively next.