Our pace was not fast but surely we were getting deeper and deeper into the forest, trees were much taller and thicker than before, some of their roots even bulged out of ground and obstructed our way

These guys brought some leftover meat and small gourd of water, so I could just latch off them on the way, I should start taking care of things like that too, I can't always eat what they hunt

 But again, goblins have upside down sense of taste, everything, even tree barks taste ok, we can literally eat anything and live, however undoubtedly meat is our delicacy

 - Is your hunt always so fruitless? We walked for a long time now, did not we? We have not met any monsters on the way

I asked curiously

 - Happens, let's be patient

He said, soon goblin scout returned with interesting piece of information

 - I see kobolds ahead, there are at least 10 of them, they were fighting something, but from this far I could not see what, neither could I appraise them from this distance

 - Then let's get closer

Leader commanded and I followed his lead, he was trying to be sneaky and so were we, as for how good we were at that, I honestly have no idea

I had a bad feeling instead of anticipation, not because I have good foresight or perception, but because their numbers were worryingly high, in that case, someone strong should be leading them, but again, I do not know much about kobold's, their society and how their system works to deduct anything accurately. For goblins, mostly if you see many of them, then someone who is capable of paying a lot should be leading them

 - Hey, it's dangerous, if their numbers are so high, I'm afraid someone capable should be leading them. Let's go back

I urged him in low voice

 - That's why we are sneaking up to them, if their leader is level 5 we'll flee immediately, but if it's level 4, I think we can handle them

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 - How can you be so sure?

I was seriously confused, how could they overpower 10 or more kobolds and be so bold to say that they can even kill level 4 kobold, that's just a pipe dream

The leader did not answer and pointed at archer goblins with his green fingers

 - We stumbled upon a slime goo some time ago, their arrows are poisoned

Holy shit, seriously? Oh, I see, that's good piece of news, but I don't know how good their poison is against kobolds, I did not expect to hear of slimes so early though, sovereign mentioned their numbers being high but I have yet to see one personally, they should be rather scarce in numbers in this region

Back to the point, I need to confirm their poison's effects

 - Is that poison strong? Will it deal with level 4 enemy?

 - No, this won't be able to kill them, but after poison takes effect they should be paralyzed, we will have about two minutes until poison loses its effects, we tried it out on level 4 wolf once, we were led by level 4 goblin back then, but he was no match for a lone wolf since he was already injured, out of 8 of us only 3 remained and the only reason we survived was because poison took effect much later, wolf's limbs slowed down as it was chasing us, it's reaction speed was greatly reduced and soon it fell, then we killed it, now I have a nice fur sofa in my hut, kukuku

As, so their mortality rate is truly high, level 4 goblin dying this miserably, what a waste

 - Archers will do their job but what do we have to to meanwhile?

I was interested in my role, because out of every 2 kills one was mine, I did not want to go back empty handed, I was not ashamed to depend on goblin to strategize either, his intelligence was high, not to mention his hunting experience. While I had no experience in group hunting whatsoever. I preferred hunting alone but again, when enemy is 2 or more levels higher I have no chance to live at all, that's why I need team for now, I'm glad I joined this team, he's clever and not as shallow minded as others

 - Since they are already fighting something they will be confused if we also attack, archers will paralyze their leaders, we will wait until poison takes effect, hide until that happens and once their leaders are immobile we use their confusion and kill off others, you should kill as many level 2 goblins as possible, leave level 3 ones to me, I am somewhat confident in close quarter combat

I nodded and everyone got in their positions, we were about to strike enemy while they were down, to win one must use such means, power does not always mean everything, not unless you are powerful yourself

 - Aim carefully, you can't miss it, they will be alarmed otherwise

Archers were hiding high up in the trees while we were hiding behind the trunk

My heart was thumping loudly with excitement

 - They are in my appraisal range, I see there is only single level 4 kobold, 3 level 3 ones and 8 level 2 kobolds, there is no level 1 enemy... I can also see what they are fighting, it's a female human, she seems to be with no reinforcements and she's wounded

Oh no, not this again~