Dragon and Kobold

Light Threads spiraled upward. Though they grew slowly, they truly swayed and flourished across Old Gold Tooth's body. From a distance, the old Kobold lying on the ground looked like a huge patch of wildly sprouting bean sprouts.

Ruger watched Old Gold Tooth, staring at those glowing threads.

It's a shame I'm not a powerful wizard yet. If I were a Formal Wizard—no... maybe even a high-level Wizard Apprentice who had researched this sort of thing could deal with these Light Threads, he thought.

Aisijin looked deeply anxious, but her seemingly tear-filled eyes were full of desolation. Even now, the Kobold girl hadn't noticed that Ruger had somehow become strong enough to hold her back, nor had she processed the fact that he could carry the two burly Kobolds around by himself. In the past, she would've been questioning him endlessly out of curiosity.

Seeing Aisijin's anxious glances in his direction, he turned to look at Big Silly Hum.

The Kobold girl wouldn't have asked him to carry over this smelly, heavy lump for no reason.

Big Silly Hum had already been placed on the ground.

When he noticed Ruger's gaze, the fellow actually began to tremble. If the blood on his body hadn't clumped his fur together, and the fur along his back hadn't nearly been worn away, he surely would've puffed up in fright.

Before Aisijin could speak, Big Silly Hum trembled as he stretched out a hand, though he still didn't dare lift his head to look at the smallest figure standing nearby.

Aisijin pulled out a crude beast-fang dagger and, under Ruger's curious gaze, began bleeding Big Silly Hum's finger.

Three times in a row, the wounds healed before much blood could flow out.

"I'll do it."

Ruger was slightly excited, as though he'd discovered a novel book waiting to be read.

"Big guy, bear with it..." He took the beast-fang dagger.

With the lingering effects of Strength of the Savage Bull, he could easily cut a large wound.

At his words, Big Silly Hum's shoulders jolted. With his head lowered, his expression couldn't be seen.

Was this extraordinary healing ability also the effect of that miraculous fruit? His interest in the black fruit whose true appearance he'd never seen grew even stronger.

"Do we feed this blood to Old Gold Tooth?" he asked.

Aisijin nodded hard.

He went closer and took out his long stick, pressing one end against Old Gold Tooth's mouth. He drew over Big Silly Hum's slashed palm, and blood continuously dripped along the slanted stick into the old Kobold's mouth. Though a Wizard Apprentice was unlikely to be infected by something ordinary Kobolds needed prolonged contact to catch, he still didn't want to get too close.

The old Kobold merely grinned, as if he found all of this amusing.

Among the indifferent Kobold race, neither human nor as sincere in emotion as beasts, Old Gold Tooth was surprised and happy that three younger members of his kind were still by his side before his death.

As the blood dripped down,

the old Kobold's complexion visibly improved.

Ruger was happy to see this as well. On one hand, he could test the blood's effects; on the other, he desperately wanted to have a talk with Old Gold Tooth.

He had actually heard the word "sun" from this old Kobold earlier. That was incredibly strange. And while the old Kobold's clear, orderly speech was irritatingly rambling, it wasn't something a Kobold who had always been holed up here could possess.

Thinking back on it now, some things Aisijin had mentioned, such as the Insectfolk that rarely appeared in this area, had probably come from Old Gold Tooth.

Ruger also noticed that there really was a gold tooth in the old Kobold's grinning mouth. That, too, shouldn't have existed.

Most of Old Gold Tooth's improvement came from his injuries healing, but the Light Threads on his body showed no signs of weakening at all.

"Oh-ho, good. This is already good enough. This way, I can live a little longer." Old Gold Tooth grinned and casually tore off the Light Threads on his chin, tossing them into his mouth as though he were playing with a blade of grass.

The Light Threads remained unchanged for a long time, while Big Silly Hum's wounds had already begun to heal.

Ruger didn't cut him open again like a demon.

It was enough already.

He removed the long stick, faced Old Gold Tooth, and sat down on the ground.

"A Kobold that grows Light Threads shouldn't live until the next time he gets hungry, should he?" His eyes gleamed as he looked at the old Kobold.

"Hehe! A rare Kobold sage. So you're Aisijin's friend. Then tell me, how long do you think I've lived? Look at my beard, look at my ears, look at my toes. Your clever little head has never seen anything like them. If you've never seen it, then being clever is useless. I'm not like those Kobolds who die so quickly. I once served a dragon and was steeped in a dragon's aura..."

Old Gold Tooth moved the Light Thread grass stalk in his mouth, seemingly falling into distant memories in an instant.

"Ahem, but I failed in the end. I didn't become a Dragonborn Kobold, and I'm still this small. But my brain got smarter. I was the smartest in the clan—no, the smartest in the tribe. They sent me to deal with those long-eared Dark Elves. A powerful tribe won't be enslaved by those elves. The ore we dug out had to be traded for good things. Dealing with those black sharp-eared ones taught me many things."

Old Gold Tooth looked exceedingly proud, the grass stalk tracing circles before his mouth.

"Things none of you have ever seen. Though I'm not a true Dragonborn Kobold, it'll still take this glowing stuff some time to bring me down..."

The words Old Gold Tooth spoke made Ruger's heart skip from time to time. Aisijin also sat nearby and listened, while only Big Silly Hum, weakened further after losing blood, silently leaned against the cave wall with his eyes closed to rest.

The old Kobold looked into Ruger's eyes, as though trying to see something within them.

"Do you know? Even the weakest Dragonborn Kobolds can live for a very, very long time. Long enough to grow hungry countless times, long enough to become no weaker than those dark sharp-eared ones."

The old Kobold moved his lips and pointed with the grass stalk at Big Silly Hum, who was curled up nearby resting.

"This big fellow has the scent of a Dragonborn Kobold, but it's very weak, very weak. Extremely weak... I could only sense it after drinking his blood in big gulps. But Dragonborn Kobold blood doesn't have this healing ability. He must've eaten something tainted by a dragon's aura. Unfortunately, there was far too little of it. He's already missed this chance. Like me, he failed. If I'd been that strong when I was young, I definitely would've succeeded."

Seeing the longing in Ruger's eyes, Old Gold Tooth said, "You won't work either. Absolutely not. You're too skinny. A skinny Kobold means the dragon blood hidden inside is too thin. Even if you were stuffed behind a dragon's ass and buried in dragon dung, you still wouldn't succeed."

Ruger opened his mouth but sensibly didn't argue.

"Why don't you eat insect meat?"

He asked the question he'd wanted to ask all along. Refusing to eat easily obtained insect meat was an act that greatly violated a Kobold's instincts.

Even starving himself in the end—this wasn't something simple taste preferences could explain, even if Old Gold Tooth was a special Kobold closer to humans than beasts.