Arrival

After ending the telepathic conversation, Jose felt rather displeased. This was the first time a familiar had tried to play tricks.

After thinking for a moment, he let it go.

It was only natural for merchants to seek profit. Besides, the Boarman merchant was neither a Lower Dragonkin that worshipped dragons nor a Harpy that needed something from him. He had become a familiar more out of necessity.

Still, this incident reminded him that the Familiar Contract was not mind control. To a great extent, it could ensure that familiars would not betray him, but it could not guarantee they would serve him wholeheartedly.

To prevent familiars from idling away their days, he would need to combine rewards and punishments, balancing firmness with leniency, creating an atmosphere of striving within the familiar ranks and maximizing each familiar's individual value.

Jose gradually formed an idea.

Three days later.

Escorted by the Harpies' aerial reconnaissance, the Boarman merchant safely led his reorganized caravan across the Triangle Plains and into Moduo Peak Forest. One sturdy Boarman after another pushed wooden wheelbarrows, forming a long line through the woods as the heavy wheels pressed tracks into the soft forest floor.

At the very front of the group, the Boarman merchant—Hulk—looked back at the convoy of wheelbarrows loaded with grain, then at the seven Minotaur blacksmiths, each twice the size of a Boarman. Feeling pleased with himself, he turned to the Kobold beside him, who had been ordered to guide them.

"Mr. Ergou, these wheelbarrows are loaded with high-quality barley that I specifically purchased as a gift for the mas... my lord," the Boarman hastily corrected himself, remembering Jose's instruction not to expose his existence.

"This grain is enough for a hundred Kobolds to safely survive the winter. Can it make up for your tribe's food shortage?"

"Heh heh," Ergou continued walking without even turning his head.

In the past, so much food would have been enough to make him ecstatic and deeply grateful to the Boarman merchant. But now... it was only a modest amount.

At that thought, Ergou felt boundless reverence and gratitude for Jose, for all of these changes had been brought about by the Red Dragon.

"Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Hulk, but the Bloodtooth Tribe does not lack food."

After a pause, he remembered that the Boarman merchant meant well. "Still, barley is something we do not have here. The master will surely like it."

The Boarman was deeply skeptical of the Kobold's words.

The Great Prairie might have been primitive, but it at least had commerce. The prairie natives traded specialties such as animal pelts for human grain. Though they went hungry in winter, deaths by starvation were rare.

Gloomy Forest, however, was a truly primitive land. Dangerous Extraordinary Beasts, savage native tribes, and its complex natural environment made the vast majority of merchants shy away from the forest.

Every winter, quite a few monsters froze or starved to death in the forest. In severe years, wars even broke out. Regardless of victory or defeat, both sides always had something simmering in their pots afterward.

Could this Kobold be bragging?

Hulk secretly glanced at him. Seeing the Kobold's calm expression, which did not seem like a bluff, he could not help frowning.

He had a bad feeling. The gifts he had brought did not seem as valuable as he had imagined.

He had gone to such lengths to prepare these gifts because he knew he had made his master rather unhappy last time. He felt anxious about this meeting, afraid of being punished, and had therefore racked his brains to curry favor with Jose.

He looked back toward the middle of the procession. There was a wheelbarrow unlike the others there. The difference was not in the wheelbarrow itself, but in its cargo. Unlike the sacks of grain on the other carts, this one carried a large crate.

Seeing the wooden crate, Hulk felt much more confident.

"No Red Dragon could possibly dislike this specialty from the depths of Gloomy Forest."

Led by Ergou, the Boarman group arrived at the Bloodtooth Mines and stopped before the expanded cave entrance.

Since the Boarmen could not see in the dark, Ergou had people place a brazier along the walls at intervals. In the flickering firelight, the Boarman caravan pushed their wheelbarrows into the Bloodtooth Mines.

Catching a peculiar fragrance, Hulk sniffed. "It smells so good! What kind of oil is in these braziers? Why have I never smelled it before?"

"As expected of a well-traveled merchant. It is pine oil. We only started using it not long ago."

"Pine oil?" The Boarman merchant was puzzled. He had never heard the term before. "What is pine oil? Some new crop?"

"Um... it is hard for me to answer that. I can only tell you that these changes were brought about by that existence."

"I see."

Once all the strange things were connected to the Red Dragon, they became easy to accept.

They traveled all the way to Living Area Number One, where the goods were left behind. The accompanying Boarman caravan members accepted the Kobolds' hospitality, while the Boarman merchant and the Minotaur blacksmiths followed Ergou deeper into the mines.

After passing through deep, dark tunnels, the group arrived at Living Area Number Four.

Crossing an imperceptible magical barrier, Hulk heard the battle cries of warriors training. In the vast cavern, hundreds of Kobold warriors wielded cloth-wrapped weapons and fought in pairs.

This was not practice! It was real combat!

Seeing one Kobold struck in the mouth by his opponent's whistling wooden club, spitting out broken, bloody teeth, the newly arrived guests' brows twitched.

"Bleed now! Better than losing your lives on the battlefield!"

"..."

"You! Didn't eat? Hit harder!"

Smack!

An unbelievably muscular Kobold prowled around the training ground. Whenever he spotted someone slacking off, he lashed them with a whip.

Seeing his brother leading guests past, the two brothers nodded slightly in greeting.

After passing the ordinary warriors' training grounds, the guests saw another group that was clearly stronger than ordinary Kobold soldiers. The piercing whistles of their weapons tearing through the air made their scalps tingle.

"They are all formal warriors!"

"Th-there must be nearly twenty of them!"

"I never imagined this Kobold tribe was so powerful! No wonder they hired us!"

The Minotaur blacksmiths whispered among themselves.

Hulk was even more shocked. His assessment of the Bloodtooth Kobolds' strength immediately rose by a great deal.

As a merchant who had traveled far and wide, Hulk was well informed. He understood the prerequisites for warriors to emerge in large numbers: sufficient food to let them eat their fill, preferably meat.

In this era, when a considerable portion of commoners could not even fill their stomachs, only the ruling powers of a region could usually meet such conditions. Yet the Kobolds lived by gathering and hunting—where had they gotten so much food?!

After walking for quite some time, the group reached Living Area Number Eight. There, they saw Kobold servants feeding bright red meat to young Petrification Lizards within fenced enclosures, leaving them even more dumbfounded.

After all, an adult Petrification Lizard was comparable to a mid-tier combat professional, and it possessed the overpowered innate spell of petrifying rays. If the Bloodtooth Kobolds could tame them, then in a few years the Bloodtooth Tribe would have no rivals left on the Triangle Plains.

As they entered the tunnel leading to Living Area Number Nine, everyone smelled a scorching sulfurous scent. For some reason, the brawny and imposing Minotaur blacksmith apprentice—Bill—felt deeply uneasy, his heart quickening as though a mouse had caught the scent of a cat.

"Master Black Bull, I have a bad feeling about this."

PS:

1. Welcome, new and old friends!

2. It is the beginning of the month, so please vote, like the characters, check in for experience—anything is fine. Thank you (ω`).

Thanks to waryer for the 500-coin reward.