Xavier encountered a second group of War Kobolds as he reached a hillside right next to Logwood. Fortunately, their Foundation was even lower than the earlier group. Xavier disposed of them quickly, using his enhanced Agility and understanding of the War Kobolds’ tactics.
He gained a few Common Card Shards and 8 Soul Essences, which were immediately used to enhance his Vitality.
Integrate 8 Soul Essences into the Star of Vitality
52/100 → 60/100
Xavier’s energy and stamina reserves were running low. Thus, he increased the Star of Vitality which accelerated his natural regeneration by a small margin.
Adding the Minor Regeneration Card and his active use of Meditation, Xavier managed to replenish his energy and stamina reserves quickly.
It was good that his shoes had a nice grip because he found himself surrounded by a slippery hillside. To reach Logwood he would have to climb down the slippery slope as the small village was settled at the base of the hill. Xavier bent down to tie his shoelaces firmly and began treading through the slope. There were broken tree branches scattered all around, along with human stuff such as cans and tires. All of it was buried in the mud and he could see red in a few spots but tried to not focus his attention on it. He had to return home before sundown and lingering would only slow him down. Thankfully, he did not slip as he carefully made his way down while holding onto the tree trunks and branches for support.
As he climbed down, the view of the small city, or what was left of it, became clearer. The forest seemed to have overtaken the city as large vines and bushes had sprouted all around the abandoned homes and other structures. He looked far and wide but could not spot a single human.
I have to get a closer look.
He was not overly hopeful but he also did not want to believe that nobody survived. From this distance, he could only get an aerial view of the village which looked a lot different than it used to before the apocalypse hit.
Now that the world changed, Logwood changed as well.
He kept treading through the wet mud as his eyes fell on the center of the village that had been razed to the ground and replaced with a settlement. Xavier peered intently to spot Goblins because he assumed Logwood was infested with them, just like Alsburg had. But he quickly dismissed the idea. The settlement was too big and the structures built too tall to be inhabited by Goblins.
His eyes even caught drifts of smoke rising from one of the chimneys of the new houses and his heart dipped. Whatever monster herd had claimed Logwood as their new home had settled in quite well. He heard a faint rustling and immediately hid behind a tree trunk. Slowly he peered from behind the trunk when his eyes fell on the shadow of something huge roaming around. He guessed that it was three-story tall, maybe even taller.
Logwood looks pretty dead to me. Is it possible to survive over there?
Xavier’s Nightvision Card granted his eyesight a minor boost as well. He could pinpoint some shadows lurking in the alleys and quickly determined that they were Kobolds. He clicked his tongue reproachfully and shook his head.
Is it that easy to kill 5,000 people? Nobody survived?
Xavier doubted that. He couldn’t be certain but it was too hard to believe that everyone in Logwood had been killed.
It was time to explore Logwood and its surroundings and check for survivors.
Xavier kept Judgement and Eye of Evolution activated most of the time as it allowed him to see the colored hues around enemies. These hues helped him accurately locate not just monsters but also any being that could turn into a potential threat to him. It came in handy because he could determine which human could quickly turn into a threat without bothering to observe their body language.
In most cases, Monsters would be shrouded with both a danger hue and evolution potential, whereas Judgement awarded most humans with a danger hue.
Xavier only skirted around the borders of the city instead of venturing inside right away. He was not sure how many of the tall Kobolds were inside so for now, he used Camouflage to observe the enemy up close. Careful not to make any sound, he circled the settlement to determine the danger level posed by the Kobold encampment and if possible, find survivors.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The sunlight was still shining bright which meant that he could see the enemy but also had to be careful to not let the effect wear off. Hence, it took him around 2-3 hours to stalk around the village even with his Agility. He couldn't run around like crazy since there were simply too many Kobolds and other monsters. He'd seen at least 100 Kobolds and 30 other monsters so far and the numbers were enough to make him not take any unnecessary risks. Another worrisome aspect was that he could not ascertain the Foundation of either of those monsters. That meant their Foundation was close to 500 Units or above.
Xavier was relieved it was only Goblins and not these monsters that had raided their village. Defeating these Kobolds would be a lot harder since some of them were quite tall and burly.
It was already rather late when he found trails...of boots that led into the woods. At first, his heart soared that he had finally found some survivors but then he quickly realized that it could either be a trap made by human survivors to lure intelligent monsters or that someone was too stupid to leave such deep imprints in the mud. He inched closer to the footprints and a frown appeared on his face when he noticed Kobold footprints following the deep human footprints after a few feet.
Following the footprints was quite simple. He didn’t have to be a Scout or Hunter to do so since neither the Kobolds nor the human survivors – or whom he presumed to be human survivors – made any attempts at hiding their footprints.
I understand that the Kobolds don’t bother about hiding their traces, but is it fine for the–...Well. it doesn’t matter. The footprints should be fresh. It rained not too long ago.
Xavier shook his head and followed the trail through the muddy ground.
The footprints led him away from the settlement and into the forest. He did not even hesitate and quickly followed the path the footsteps led to. It was quite a walk and took him almost fifteen minutes before he finally reached a small camp. Tents were set up in a clearing deep inside the forest. His gaze soon fell on the streaks of blood splattered on the tents and his eyes slowly traveled to the ground to see corpses littered around the tents.
Those were most definitely human corpses and it looked like they had not died long ago. Xavier tightened the grip on his blade as he craned his neck further, ensuring Camouflage was still working. A few feet ahead, he saw a group of human survivors battling Kobolds.
A War Kobold pierced his Onyx Spear through a helpless woman’s stomach. She screamed at the top of her lungs and raised her hands which seemed to expand. Her hands were as large as the War Kobold’s head as they engulfed it. The War Kobold twisted the spear blade inside the woman’s stomach and pulled it out, but it was already too late for the monster. The woman used her extraordinarily high Star of Strength to squash the War Kobold’s head into a pulp.
Brain mass and skull fragments splattered in all directions. The woman coughed up blood and turned deadly pale in the next instance. She couldn’t even celebrate as a fountain of blood gushed out of her. Another young woman appeared next to the older woman, crying and pressing her hands against the wound desperately. A healing light manifested around her hands and a dome filled with warmth and healing energy poured out of her.
The young woman seemed to be around Xavier’s age, whereas the older woman with overproportional large hands was in her mid-30s. The color on her face returned, taking Xavier by surprise.
The younger woman’s Healing Card was much stronger than he expected.
High Level and at least Uncommon grade. Probably Rare though.
Xavier was not sure why, but the older woman smiled like a crazy maniac after her wound was healed. She got up, grasped the Onyx Spear, and turned to face the remaining monsters.
Xavier used Judgement on everyone around him, but the pieces of information he received weren’t too helpful.
16x War Kobolds – 354 to 371 – Strength
3x Kobold Giants – 391 to 399 – Vitality
13 Great Kobold Archers – 313 to 371 – Dexterity
There were far more Kobolds than Xavier had anticipated, and it looked like the human survivors thought the same.
Only now did he notice the traps laid all around the clearing when he almost stepped onto one while trying to get a good look at the two women. Not that they were very well hidden to begin with. He noticed a patch covered with leaves and could almost immediately tell that it was a pitfall. His gaze followed a very thin wire hovering almost a foot above the ground, tied to two ends of tents on either end of the settlement. He looked up and sure enough, there was a rope trap dangling from one of the branches, hidden behind a cover of dense leaves. However, his sharp eyesight allowed him to detect it easily. Sadly, the traps were not enough to trap the bulky Kobolds. It would take a lot more than a few ropes and a pitfall to kill them.
Yet, he noted that two monster corpses lay among the pile of human dead bodies telling him that not all traps had been useless. It was just that it did not do much to help the humans.
The traps would have been good enough to work against the Kobolds if there weren’t more than 30 of them. Unfortunately, that was the case. There were too many to deal with for the six human survivors, which was all that was left from the dozen survivors they’d been a few minutes ago.
The corpses littered all around the small camp – if one could call it such – were still fresh and blood was still pooling beneath most of them.
It was not a great sight, and Xavier was certainly not ready to lose more survivors now that he found some.
He was ready to jump into the battle.