The open, quiet setting, combined with a kobold's somewhat poor vision in the dark, made him inexplicably nervous.
All the more so now that he felt the stickiness underfoot, he moved his legs with care. After just five or six steps, the hair on his instep had already matted into strands, and a foul stench clung to the tip of his nose. The only reason he had not turned and run was that he had caught Aisjin's scent within the stench, but by the time he tried to sort it out, those subtle differences had been completely drowned out.
This huge pool of blood—he first thought of the Gray Longneck Holy Lord and the Black Claw Holy Lord. Only creatures that huge could shed this much blood, and no corpse remained. Whether it had escaped on its own or been dragged away by an enemy, another huge creature had to be involved.
In this place, strength was often tied to size; wizards, these extraordinary individuals who defied common sense, did not belong here.
He blinked in disbelief, quickened his steps, and sent the blood spraying everywhere with wet slaps, like stepping in puddles.
A super-sized black claw lay alone in the middle of the blood puddle.
He squatted down and carefully prodded the big black claw with a stick. The cut surface was extremely neat, as if severed diagonally in one strike by an exceptionally sharp instrument, without signs of repeated chopping.
Seeing this, he considered retracting his earlier judgment. This did not seem to be the work of an underground beast.
He suddenly stood up, lifted his leg but hesitated, then broke the Fetid Skin spell's maintenance before running again—faster than when he had seen the black claw.
Following that instant when his sense of smell had caught something, he came to a spot near the cave wall. The strong kobold maiden Aisjin lay there, breathing evenly as if asleep, while the foul blood that had lost its source had already lost its strength before reaching her.
Beside her was a huge figure; upon closer look, it was Big Dumb Hum, whom he had not seen for days. Unlike Aisjin, Big Dumb Hum was almost soaked in blood—part of it clearly from the foul blood on the ground, and part of it carrying a faint sweet fragrance.
"Aisjin."
He gently patted Aisjin's shoulder.
Seeing no response, he used the long staff to help hoist Aisjin onto his shoulder. This was no place to linger. He took two steps to test his footing, then activated the spell model and reluctantly cast the zero-ring spell Bull's Strength. The difference was that this was normal spellcasting—consuming mental power and waiting for empowerment—without drawing on a temporary spell slot.
He thought it over, and as he passed by, casually grabbed Big Dumb Hum's ankle too.
When he found a spot that looked suitable along the way, he casually tossed him aside.
After walking not far, he stopped again.
"Leaving this big claw here would be a shame..."
Like a greedy hamster, and relying on Bull's Strength, he ran back to the big black claw, carrying it on his shoulder and dragging it with his hand, and stored it in his storage pouch.
After all that trouble, he finally left without hesitation. Without Aisjin here, he might have hesitated; and had he not seen the cut surface of that claw, he might well have ventured, after hesitating, into that Holy Lord's Great Cave to look around.
As he was dragged, Big Dumb Hum bumped left and right, but even by the time the fur on his back was rubbed smooth, he still did not wake.
After running another stretch, he raised his hand and stopped there.
"You've been awake for a while, haven't you?"
He looked at Big Dumb Hum, whose eyes were desperately squeezed shut; those eyes, closed unnaturally from excessive force, with wrinkles pushed out around them—he did not know if it was from pain.
He was just about to sigh at this fool.
"I'm... sorry." Aisjin suddenly spoke up.
He gripped with all his strength and threw both kobolds—stronger than he was—onto the ground.
"Is this Black Claw Holy Lord's claw?" He took out the claw he had picked up from his storage pouch and waved it before the two kobolds. "What does Black Claw Holy Lord's enemy look like? Don't rush; say it in your own words."
He had already anticipated the difficulty of obtaining information.
But when he saw Aisjin with a blank expression, still wanting to come closer to identify it, while Big Dumb Hum immediately showed terror, his heart still sank.
If Aisjin had not seen the fight scene, relying solely on Big Dumb Hum to speak would be a complete waste of breath.
The three kobolds looked at each other, gaining a moment of peace.
Aisjin cried out, jumped up from the ground, and grabbed Big Dumb Hum to leave. But Big Dumb Hum's seemingly strong body could not stand up at once; under the pulling, he barely managed to rise, but his steps were unsteady and he could hardly move.
"Brother Luge..." Aisjin looked like she was about to cry.
Luge had never seen this before; previously, when her hunted prey was snatched by other kobolds, she would swing her fists, pick up a stick, and beat them back fiercely.
He walked over directly, hoisted Big Dumb Hum, asked no questions, and silently followed behind the anxious Aisjin all the way.
The three kobolds quickly came to a particularly noisy place.
This was a kobold gathering place where most of the tribe lived—kobolds in big caves, small caves, and passages. All manner of stench mingled there, and Luge felt it might rival his Fetid Skin, even reaching the level of a first-ring spell.
Under the kobold maiden's guidance, the three kobolds quickly came to a relatively quiet corner.
An old kobold lay there weakly.
Luge grabbed Aisjin, pinching her shoulder tightly to stop her from getting closer.
"Old Golden Tooth won't eat bugs; I've urged him, but he's too old and injured, and can't go out hunting. For a long time, I gave him... gave him meat, but he wouldn't take it..." Aisjin said softly.
The old kobold lying there was emitting a conspicuous glow, which was also why no kobolds approached nearby.
This glow was no magical spell; in this world dominated by darkness, glowing grasses, insects, mushrooms, and such could not be touched. If eaten and not cleaned properly, they would make one a target for hunters in the dark—but that was not the most serious point.
Even more deadly was that consuming too many glowing things would cause a creature's body, once accumulated to a certain degree, to inexplicably grow a kind of light strand. When it became irreparable, the light strand would spiral upward, growing longer and longer until reaching mid-air.
A kobold that grew light strands would wither like a plant before long and eventually die; moreover, prolonged contact with a creature that had grown light strands could transmit it.
Luge frowned slightly. He knew that in the past, many injured or old kobolds would secretly eat those glowing mushrooms when starving, because only those things were easy to get, edible, uncontested, and could keep them alive against hunger.
"Oh, it's little Aisjin! Is this the clever friend you mentioned? He's really tall."
The old kobold spoke even more fluently than Aisjin, instantly widening Luge's eyes in surprise.
"I've lived this long and never seen such a tall kobold, not even among the powerful tribes serving giant dragons. I'm about to die; look, I'm glowing. I just don't know if it's as bright as the legendary sun..."
The old kobold spoke sentence by sentence, like a chatterbox finally let loose.
Luge's eyes stared unblinkingly at Old Golden Tooth. The way this old kobold spoke clearly and coherently completely overturned his understanding of the kobold race.
He felt this old kobold was very abnormal.
Old Golden Tooth was still speaking, as if wanting to say everything before he died. Perhaps, like Aisjin, in this place he could spend a lifetime and rarely meet a kobold he could talk to.
The short light strands on the old kobold's body brightened and dimmed with his excited words, as if breathing between light and dark.
Chapter 12