Unexpected Incidents

After severing the mental link, Jose lay on the ground and reflected on the battle. Actual combat had exposed many of the kobolds' shortcomings.

First, the kobold chieftain's mindset was still stuck in the days of the small tribe. When faced with a powerful enemy, he thought only of retreating rather than fighting bravely.

Second, the kobold warriors lacked ranged options. Against the goblins' stone-throwing attacks, they could only take a beating.

Finally, what disappointed him somewhat was the kobolds' poor innate talent. Even an Initial Stage Warrior strengthened by Dragon Vein could only fight an ordinary ogre to a standstill.

"Emmm... it looks like my followers need special training too."

Jose rubbed his chin, considering how to train his followers, improve their combat strength, and instill in them the ideological awareness to devote themselves to the cause of great dragon supremacy.

"Perhaps I can use the same methods used to train soldiers on my followers. Yes! That's what I'll do!"

As for the kobolds' lack of ranged attack methods, that was somewhat difficult to solve.

Kobolds had sharp claws, and their fingers were covered in fine scales. Those smooth scales could not grip a bowstring, making them unsuitable for archery.

After thinking for a moment, he came up with an idea.

Since the kobolds' usual weapon was the spear, he could equip them with javelins. The spearheads could be used to make javelins as well; they would only need to cut down the wooden shafts.

As for the kobolds' physical limitations, Jose could do nothing about that. He could only wait until he became stronger, controlled a larger territory, and gathered more powerful followers.

As he thought this, Black Bull's figure surfaced in his mind.

Minotaurs were a good choice, but unfortunately, their numbers were too small, and their fertility was poor. Giving birth to two calves in one litter already made a mother a hero.

Not long afterward, Clark's communication request came through his mind, and Jose connected to it.

"Reporting to Master, we have won. We killed one ogre and one hundred and five goblins. We lost three men, with four seriously wounded and twelve lightly wounded."

In truth, Jose did not need Clark's report. He had already watched the entire battle through his memories.

There was no need to say much about the battle between the kobold warriors and the goblins. It had been nearly one-sided slaughter.

After the goblins scattered, the ogre was besieged. While turning to flee, Karak found an opening and severed his hamstrings. The ogre lost his balance and fell, then was finally skewered into a porcupine by the kobold army.

"Bring the wounded back and let them recover properly."

"As you command!"

After ending the connection, Jose felt somewhat gratified. He could clearly sense the change in his followers' mentality after they killed the ogre.

If Clark encountered an ogre again, he would not think of running away from the start.

Sure enough, an army still needed to see blood!

Jose felt more and more that his other decision had been wise: the arrangement for the official warriors.

Unlike ordinary soldiers, who returned to their original tribes after training, the kobold warriors who successfully advanced were retained and formed into a spearhead squad composed entirely of official warriors, directly commanded by Jose.

Not long ago, he had felt it was a waste to keep those elites in the underground den, so he simply sent them to Hasa Bloodclaw and had that battle-crazed fellow lead the elite unit on hunts.

Over the past few days, the hunts had yielded a bountiful harvest. At the same time, the warriors had been tempered through battle.

Just as Jose was about to lie down and rest, another communication request came from a follower. This time, it was Hasa Bloodclaw.

"My warrior, what is it?"

"Honored Master, we have encountered a Petrification Lizard."

Hasa Bloodclaw sounded very calm, as if he was not asking for reinforcements. Jose felt somewhat puzzled and connected to their shared vision.

"Ha! Isn't that a good thing?"

It turned out Hasa Bloodclaw was sitting beside the Petrification Lizard's corpse while speaking with the Red Dragon. Nearby, the official kobold warriors were resting, and none appeared injured.

Jose roughly checked through his follower's memories. Indeed, no one had been injured.

The unfortunate Petrification Lizard had encountered a hunting party made up of one Dragonkin kobold and thirty-seven official warriors, and it had died under their siege.

What was unusual was that Hasa Bloodclaw's mood was somewhat grave.

"Is there a problem?"

"A big one. Not long before encountering the Petrification Lizard, we had just dealt with a Rockhide Boar. Yesterday, we also killed a Windripper Wolf."

The Rockhide Boar and Windripper Wolf were both Initial Stage Extraordinary Beasts. Jose understood at once, his brow furrowing slightly.

In the Moduo Peak Forest region, Extraordinary Beasts generally had fixed territories. Yet three Extraordinary Beasts had appeared in kobold territory at once, and they were of different species and from different groups. That was highly abnormal.

Hasa Bloodclaw continued, "When we encountered the Rockhide Boar, I thought it was a coincidence. But now, I suspect something drove them here."

Jose recalled the wandering ogre and also sensed something was wrong. "Did you find anything on the beasts?"

"No. Their fur was intact, and there were no wounds on their bodies."

"Very well. Act according to the situation."

After ending the call, Jose sank into thought within the dragon lair.

Could it be magic?

He glanced at the vine hut in the corner of the dragon lair. Druids had the ability to control animals, and Tilly had an Advanced Stage Druid teacher.

But what about the ogre?

Elves loathed ogres. Rather than drive them around, they would much rather take their lives.

Could the ogre and the Extraordinary Beasts not be part of the same group?

After thinking for a while, Jose dismissed the idea that the druid was the mastermind.

Putting himself in the other's shoes, if he were that Advanced Stage Druid and wanted to investigate the apprentice's whereabouts, he would use inconspicuous birds to gather intelligence everywhere rather than send vicious Extraordinary Beasts to alert the enemy.

Besides, given a druid's life-loving nature, they would not do something that sent beasts to their deaths.

Could it really have been nothing more than a coincidence?!

With too little information, Jose could not make an accurate judgment. If some hidden enemy truly was plotting against him, all he could do for now was remain unchanged in the face of every change and wait for them to expose themselves.

After ordering everyone to remain vigilant, Jose fell asleep once more.

Elsewhere, the Green Dragon Olivia discovered through remote magic that her arrangements had not achieved much. Instead, she had sent the enemy quite a bit of bloody food, leaving her astonished.

"Little brat, you've got some skill!"

Aside from her gnoll followers and a few hidden cards, the Petrification Lizard was already the strongest fighting force she could deploy.

After some thought, Olivia gave up on continuing her mischief to avoid alerting the enemy.

"I'll wait for you to come to me instead. I'm looking forward to meeting you~."

The days passed one by one. In the blink of an eye, only three days remained until winter, and no unexpected incidents occurred during that time.

Jose's doubts over the frequent incidents from several days ago largely faded. He only regarded them as coincidences and continued his quiet period of development: eating, sleeping, digesting Dragon Heritage, training his followers, enjoying the Elven Maiden's service, and entertaining himself in moderation.

"Pair of queens!" Jose, who had shrunk himself with a shrinking spell, tossed two cards from his hand. Tilly and Ergou sat beside him, the three forming a circle around a pile of cards on a wooden stump.

That's right! The three of them were playing Blue Star's most popular card game, Landlord!

The days of lying low and developing were truly boring. Jose had accidentally discovered that boarman merchants could get a kind of stiff paper, so he made a deck of cards and pulled the Elven Maiden and his follower into playing Landlord.

"Beat that!" Tilly, the landlord, threw down a pair of twos.

"Pass."

"Can't beat it."

"Airplane! Hahaha! I only have one card left!"

"Wait! Something's come up!"

Just as they were getting into the game, Jose suddenly received a communication request from a follower.

"Ah! I finally managed to win a round as landlord!" Tilly looked aggrieved.

"It really is something important."

Jose checked the communication request and found that it was actually from his harpy follower, Luna Bloodfeather.

"What is it?"

"Master! We're in trouble." Luna Bloodfeather's tone was grave. "The Graytail Centaur Chieftain, Mudakhan Graytail, has commissioned me to scout the situation of the Bloodtooth Kobold Tribe!"

Thanks to River Styx Beyond for the 500-coin reward, and Yayla for the 500-coin reward.