Gold and Light

The vast, silent surroundings, coupled with a kobold's somewhat limited vision in the darkness, made him feel tense without realizing it.

Especially now, as he felt the sticky sludge beneath his feet. He carefully moved his legs, but after only five or six steps, the stray fur on the tops of his feet had already clumped into strands, while a foul, fishy stench lingered beneath his nose. The only reason he had not turned around and run was that he had caught Aisijin's scent within that stench. Yet when he tried to distinguish it more carefully, every trace of a different smell had been overwhelmed by the reek.

Faced with such an enormous pool of blood, Gray Longneck Saint Lord and Blackclaw Lord were the first things that came to mind. Only creatures that huge could spill so much blood, and since no corpse had been left behind, whether it had escaped on its own or been carried away by an enemy, it had to involve another giant creature.

In this place, strength was often tied to size. Extraordinary beings who defied common sense, such as wizards, did not belong here.

He blinked in disbelief, then quickened his steps, splashing through the blood with wet slaps as if stomping through puddles.

An enormous black claw lay alone in the middle of the pool of blood.

He crouched down and carefully poked the large black claw with a stick. Its severed surface was extremely clean, as though it had been sliced off diagonally in a single blow by an exceptionally sharp weapon, without any signs of repeated chopping.

Seeing this, he began to reconsider his previous judgment. This did not seem like something an underground beast could have done.

He suddenly rose to his feet. He lifted a leg, then paused, cut off the spell sustaining Foul-Smelling Skin, and started running again, even faster than when he had seen the black claw.

Following the scent he had caught in that instant, he arrived near the cave wall. The strong kobold girl Aisijin lay there, breathing evenly as though asleep. The foul-smelling blood, now cut off from its source, had not yet spread near her and seemed powerless to do so.

A huge figure lay beside her. Looking closely, he recognized Big Silly Hum, whom he had not seen in days. Unlike Aisijin, Big Silly Hum was nearly soaked through with blood. Some of it clearly came from the foul blood on the ground, while another portion carried a faintly sweet fragrance.

"Aisijin."

He gently patted Aisijin's shoulder.

When that had no effect, he used his long stick to help hoist Aisijin onto his shoulder. This was not a place to linger. After taking two steps to test the weight, he chose to trigger the spell model and reluctantly use the zero-ring spell Strength of the Savage Bull. The difference was that this time, it was normal spellcasting after consuming mental energy and waiting for empowerment; he had not used a temporary spell slot.

After thinking it over, he casually grabbed Big Silly Hum by the ankle as he passed.

Once they found somewhere suitable along the way, he would toss him aside.

He had not gone far before stopping again.

"It would be a shame to leave this big claw here..."

Like a greedy hamster, he relied on Strength of the Savage Bull, carrying one on his shoulder and dragging the other with his hand as he ran back to the black claw and stored it in his storage bag.

After several rounds of fussing about, he finally left without hesitation. If Aisijin had not been there, he might have hesitated. And if he had not seen the clean severed surface of that huge claw, then after hesitating, he might even have risked wandering into that Saint Lord's massive cave.

Big Silly Hum bumped into things left and right as he was dragged along, but even after the fur on his back had been rubbed off, he still did not wake up.

After running a little farther, he raised his hand, then froze.

"You were awake all along, weren't you?"

He looked at Big Silly Hum, whose eyes were squeezed tightly shut. They looked unnaturally closed from how hard he was forcing them shut, and perhaps because of the pain, the wrinkles around them had been squeezed out as well.

Just as he was about to sigh over what an idiot this fellow was—

"S-Sorry." Aisijin suddenly spoke.

He tightened his grip and threw both kobolds, who were stronger than him, onto the ground.

"Is this Blackclaw Lord's?" He took the claw he had picked up from his storage bag and waved it before the two kobolds. "What did Blackclaw Lord's enemy look like? Don't rush. Say it in your own words."

He had already imagined how difficult it would be to get any useful information.

But when he saw Aisijin's bewildered face and Big Silly Hum's terrified expression, his heart still sank to the bottom.

If Aisijin had not seen the battle, then relying on Big Silly Hum alone would be a complete waste of breath.

The three kobolds stared at one another, gaining a brief moment of peace.

Aisijin cried out and sprang up from the ground, grabbing Big Silly Hum and trying to leave. Yet Big Silly Hum's seemingly sturdy body could not stand up for a while. Even when she dragged him up with effort, his feet were unsteady.

"Brother Ruger..." Aisijin looked as though she were about to cry.

It was the first time Ruger had seen her like this. Whenever other kobolds stole prey from her before, she would raise her fists or grab a stick and beat them back fiercely.

He walked over, hoisted Big Silly Hum onto his shoulder, asked no questions, and followed behind Aisijin.

The three kobolds soon arrived at a noisy place.

It was a kobold settlement. Most of the kobolds in the group lived here; kobolds occupied large caves, small caves, and passageways alike. All kinds of stinks mixed together, and Ruger felt they might not be any less potent than his Foul-Smelling Skin.

Led by the kobold girl, the three quickly reached a corner.

An old kobold lay there weakly.

Ruger grabbed Aisijin and tightly gripped her shoulder, stopping her from getting any closer.

"Old Gold Tooth refuses to eat bugs. He's too old and injured, so he can't go out hunting either. For a long time, when I gave him... gave him meat, he wouldn't take it..." Aisijin said softly.

A conspicuous faint glow shone from the old kobold lying there. That was why no kobolds nearby dared approach him.

This light was no miraculous spell. In this dark-toned world, glowing grass, insects, mushrooms, and the like could not be touched. If they ate them and failed to cleanse them properly, they would become prey in the darkness. But that was not the worst part.

More deadly still, creatures that consumed too many glowing things would accumulate it in their bodies until, for no apparent reason, they grew Light Threads. Once it became irreversible, the Light Threads would coil upward and grow longer and longer, reaching into the air.

Kobolds who grew Light Threads would not last long before withering like plants and eventually dying. Moreover, prolonged contact with creatures that had grown Light Threads could spread the condition as well.

Ruger frowned slightly. He knew that many old or injured kobolds had secretly eaten those glowing mushrooms when starvation drove them desperate. Only those things were easy to obtain, edible, filling, and uncontested.

"Oh, little Aisijin! Is this the clever friend you mentioned? He's really tall."

The old kobold spoke even more fluently than Aisijin, instantly widening Ruger's kobold eyes in shock.

"In all my life, I've never seen a kobold this tall. Not even the powerful tribes that serve dragons have one. I'm about to die. Look, I'm glowing. I just wonder whether it's as bright as the sun from the legends..." The old kobold spoke sentence after sentence, like a chatterbox whose lid had been opened.

Ruger stared unblinkingly at Old Gold Tooth. The old kobold's clear and orderly speech completely shattered his understanding of the kobold race.

He felt that this old kobold was very abnormal.

Old Gold Tooth continued speaking, as though he wanted to talk to his heart's content before dying. Perhaps, like Aisijin, he had spent his whole life in this place rarely encountering a kobold he could talk to.

The short Light Threads on the old kobold's body brightened and dimmed with his excited words, seeming to breathe with every flicker.