The Great Cave belonging to the Holy Lord was the largest cavern in the kobold-controlled region. Holy Lords of every age had been welcomed inside by the kobolds. Within lay a natural cave; anywhere connected to the Holy Lord was a sacred place in the kobolds’ hearts, and also a forbidden zone.
Big Dumb Hum stood at the cave mouth, staring blankly at the young kobold woman before him.
This was unusual. Normally he stood here alone, staring into space while standing, sometimes even sleeping on his feet. He was used to it and never felt lonely. On the contrary, not having to run around like before, not having to do complicated things he couldn’t understand, made him very glad, and he no longer had to go hungry.
Ever since he stood here, the clansmen would bring him generous portions of tasty food whenever his stomach growled twice.
Still, in his memory, nothing seemed inedible.
He looked beside the kobold maiden, then behind her, then at her hands, but saw no food.
This puzzled him.
He scratched his other forearm with his broad palm. The wound there was healing at speed, barely bleeding. Ever since he ate the sour fruit given by the Holy Lord, his injuries healed quickly.
Only now did he realize that the kobold maiden before him had just cut him with a knife made of beast bone.
In his eyes, she was a fine-looking kobold—especially those few tufts of fur sticking up, and her broad shoulders. She was probably the sturdiest female kobold in the clan.
“Big Hum Hum, give me some of your blood. I can catch you a few grubs to eat. Just a little bit is enough. You have plenty of blood.”
Aisjin looked at Big Dumb Hum, anxious.
If it had been the Big Dumb Hum of before, she could have handled him, but now, though still dazed, he was simply too tall.
This time she had not gone on the clan hunt led by the Black Claw Master; she had come here for some of Big Dumb Hum’s blood. She had once unintentionally witnessed a dying grub meant as food drink Big Dumb Hum’s blood, and saw its broken legs grow back.
Her attempt just now had partly confirmed this guess.
She wanted to use Big Dumb Hum’s blood to save a kobold—an old kobold she had always deliberately kept from Luge, never mentioning him.
In fact, she was not the only kobold in the clan who could communicate; the old kobold called Old Goldtooth was another. She had never dared to speak of it. She feared she would no longer be special, and feared Luge would be snatched away by Old Goldtooth.
Boom! A black shadow raced along the floor and walls, bursting from the tall passage opened up for the Great Cave of the holy site, like a swift black gust of wind.
Aisjin was sent flying in an instant, slamming hard into the distant cave wall.
The shadow’s momentum did not slacken; it directly tackled Big Dumb Hum, its ragged black claws pinning him down, its exaggeratedly huge mouth biting onto Big Dumb Hum’s shoulder, clamping nearly half his body in its jaws, followed by slurping sounds.
...
Luge carried a staff, walking and stopping along the route he remembered.
Around his waist was no longer a loose grass skirt, but a pair of shorts pieced together from insect shells and beast hide. What he had long prepared and imagined countless times was simple to put on and went smoothly. The softest side of the beast hide faced inward; holes were drilled in the insect-shell corners with beast teeth, then tied with rope and fastened as reinforced corners on the outside of the hide, effectively preventing chafing during movement.
Lately he seemed to have put on a bit of weight, he thought.
He had come this way only a few times, when he first joined the clan hunts.
He had been near the Holy Lord’s Great Cave only once.
To gauge the strength of his spell, the strongest Big Dumb Hum was a good choice; maybe he could also prank Aisjin.
If the Fetid Skin spell worked and he could truly maintain it, he might consider reinforcing his armor with materials from the insect nest, turning shorts into half-body armor.
The Great Cave prepared by the clan for their master was by nature like a sacred site or forbidden zone, where no kobold would wander nearby, yet this Black Claw Master had still chosen a guard and bestowed a miraculous fruit to make the guard stronger—clearly disliking disturbance, and perhaps someone who liked to sleep.
Luge really wanted to see what the miraculous fruit had turned Big Dumb Hum into.
If the Black Claw Master wasn’t there, he didn’t mind using a spell to gently knock down Big Dumb Hum, then enter the cave to look around and see if the Black Claw Holy Lord had any supplies left.
Ideally, this Black Claw Holy Lord would go hunting and leave Big Dumb Hum alone there.
One intersection after another.
His pace varied, fast and slow. After walking for a long time, he began to doubt himself.
The farther he went, the more he felt he might be lost.
An apprentice wizard who got lost—truly embarrassing.
He suddenly thought of the familiar of an apprentice wizard.
It was said that familiars could remember paths. Originally, once people became apprentice wizards, they would immediately choose a companion familiar, but with changing times, few wizards outside the Beast King Wizard path contracted familiars anymore.
The cause was the rise of the Beast King Wizard path. Early on, someone developed a targeted spell: as long as you caught the other’s familiar, you could harm its master from afar, even directly killing the wizard on the other side of the contract.
Beast King Wizards naturally found ways to counter and resolve such spells, but wizards on other paths would not go to such trouble, nor waste a spell slot, nor leave themselves a fatal weakness. Over time, ordinary wizards stopped touching companion familiars.
He thought he could contract a familiar that others couldn’t see or could not easily catch.
Suddenly he smelled a strange odor.
Seemed to be kobolds. And more than one, who had passed not long ago.
He felt reassured at once.
After passing several forks, still figuring out the direction, he saw several kobolds taller than him running out in the distance. He was delighted and strode forward to meet them; they saw him too and called out as they ran over.
Noisy sounds came from deeper in the passage.
As the distance closed, he noticed their crude clothing and the shoddy, ugly iron weapons in their hands.
His heart stirred, and he immediately understood.
These were kobolds, but certainly not the kind that should appear here. These fellows were nothing like the poor lot of their own clan.
At the same time, his Light of Spirituality sensed the strong malice these kobolds bore toward him.
Another source of the mixed odor appeared: a group of lizardfolk wielding short spears suddenly burst out from the side.
The two sides seemed to have been fighting already.
The lizardfolk had overwhelming numbers. Though the kobolds were strong and had handy iron weapons, half were killed or wounded in the blink of an eye.
He judged this band of lizardfolk to be the old neighbors who kept encroaching recently.
The kobolds came from far away and were a powerful tribe, at least they had mines to dig.
Two groups of uninvited guests had actually started fighting inside his home.
That was no good omen.
Already lost, he was momentarily annoyed.
But soon he laughed.
The Fetid Skin spell seemed to swell with his mood, spreading invisible black-gray ripples around him.
His feet did not stop, but for the first time he ceased maintaining the Fetid Skin.
Following the guidance of spirituality, he foresaw that if he did not do this, he would lose the chance to test Bull’s Strength.
A thought moved.
For the first time in his life, he touched the spell on his temporary spell slot. When the spellcasting succeeded, the stored spell vanished—the sensation was like a reserved spell being devoured by the demonic mark.
The Bull’s Strength spell effect was bestowed.
He felt inexhaustible strength surging through his whole body.
His steps grew faster and faster; one stride covered the distance of three or five former steps.
These fellows, whether lizardfolk or kobolds, were villains full of malice, bringing disaster here.
He swung his arms round and brought the long staff down hard.
First two kobolds, then a pair of kobold and lizardfolk grappling head-on—they flew sideways like one ragdoll after another, with no ability to resist.
He couldn’t help laughing heartily. Wherever he passed, lizardfolk flew and kobolds leapt.
In an instant, both sides were thrown into utter confusion by him.
These odd-looking intelligent races, under normal circumstances, would never lightly encroach unless they were stuffed full or out of their minds.
Perhaps a bit of necessary deterrence was needed.
He decided to let none of them go, piling their corpses at the largest, widest intersection here. Since they liked to come, he’d make it a landmark so he wouldn’t wander and get lost coming and going.
After flinging two more lizardfolk, he suddenly found it boring, stopped, and his skin—only just returned to its natural color—turned black-purple again.
The expected screams did not sound.
The few surviving kobolds and lizardfolk who hadn’t escaped in time fell one after another without a sound. Terrifying black mist crawled over their cheeks, eyes wide, lying on the ground twitching nonstop.
He really wanted to ask them if they stank, but obviously it was no longer necessary.
He began wandering around, observing the lizardfolk on the ground, and from time to time stopping the spell to observe their changes.
Finally, out of mercy, he did not let them twitch for long. He picked up a sharp short spear and ended it all.
The only regret was that they stood too close and fell too fast, so he did not measure the spell’s range of effect.
“So many corpses. I wonder if they’ll attract anything?”
He thought idly, piled dozens of corpses together, turned, and left.
Although he was lost, with an apprentice wizard’s mind he could still retrace his steps and choose a new route at the starting point. He judged that he would need at most three more tries to surely see that great cave.
He was still thinking in his heart about entering the Holy Lord’s Great Cave to pick fruit.
Even if he didn’t eat the fruit himself, he could give it to Aisjin, making this strong kobold maiden safer.
From now on, this place might get lively.
Chapter 10