I walked/limped towards the mountains as the night went on. Missing an arm and a leg, not to mention dehydrated and tired was easily unbearable for most to travel with but when it comes to the monsters in the forest at night you are forced to make an exception. That howling i heard earlier was most likely a rank 3 werewolf or a pack of rank 2 Hunter Demon Wolf with the latter being the one i am most worried about. Hunter Demon Wolves are smaller than a normal wolf, but faster and smarter. Alone they are considered a rank 2 but a pack can be considered a rank 3 threat.
Thier discerning characteristic is a green gem in the middle of their forehead, but the real problem is what that gem does. It allows the wolf weak psychic powers similar to my own except it’s limited only to seeing out the eyes of another and communication with each other. Now think of a wolf pack of 7 wolfs. Usually a few soldiers could handle them, but with their communication they can coordinate with each other, surround an enemy and tear them apart. You can’t hide from them since they can see where you're going and you can’t beat them because they can outfight you. When one is scene in the area all guards are put on high alert and a request is sent to the Adventurers guild for subjugation.
One wolf is easy to beat, two are a problem, three is a threat, four and upwards need a team of Rank B adventurers to separate them and kill them. I should probably explain adventurer ranks. Ranks go from F to SSS, with beginner adventurers starting at the bottom and working their way up through the ranks. To be promoted from F to D is easy, just earn enough GP or guild points by completing various tasks such as killing goblins, slimes, rank 0 demonic animals or dangerous wild animals. If you don’t have combat ability like a healer you can either make a party and work with them or run errands or do miscellaneous tasks around the guilds town and the surrounding villages.
But after rank D is when it gets hard, sort of the divider between real adventurers and pseudo adventurers. Not only do you have to gain enough GP for a rank up, but you also have to take a combat test. Combat personnel are very important to the guild. They are the ones that go on hard subjugation quests, mentor the lower rank adventurers, and are on the forefront of emergency quests. During a combat test, you are faced with a demonic animal of at least rank 3, the results of your test dictate whether or not you can be allowed to take on more dangerous quests such as a subjugation of Rank 2 Hunter Demon Wolves.
I treaded carefully on the dry earth as i made my way towards the the edge of the canyon, if i’m lucky i might find a cave of a big tree i can sleep in. As i limbed towards the forest i started thinking about how i was going to explain tattered clothes and missing an arm and a leg to the parentals. Mom, who is overly protective of her cute little girl, will most likely buy an excuse about kidnappers rapists lolicons, in other words, i was kidnapped by a group of bandits lead by my dear uncle jack. Dad is a bit more practical, since jack probably hasn’t left the cottage he will most likely see right through it. I can’t keep up these mana construct limbs for much longer, maybe 2 more hours before i am completely empty on mana. Which begs the question, what am i going to do.
As i was pondering what excuse i was going to give i heard a rustle in the bushes behind me. I activated fireball and turned around firing it into the bushes. No matter how you slice it there is nothing good in the woods at night. When the bush burst into flames from the fireball something jumped out of the bush with a growl. It was a kobold, about 1.5 meters tall, with the face of a dog and the body of a man. He was armed with a short iron sword, a wooden shield and wore leather armor and clothing. Kobolds technically not demonic animals or wild beasts, but to official organizations like the guild and the kingdom they are ranked as rank 1 threats.
“Damn” i swore under my breath.
Kobolds travel in tribes, meaning there is bound to be 2 or three more with this guy. He was probably out hunting when tossed a spell his way thus signaling his friends that he has company.
He Growled at me, howled, and came at me swinging his sword in a sweeping horizontal slash. I dodged and fired another fireball his way which hit him in the right shoulder. He dropped his iron sword and was knocked back by the explosion. I quickly walked over to him and finished him off with a quick stomp to the throat crushing his windpipe when three more kobolds came out of the shrubbery on my left. They were armed with similar weapons to him except one had a spear and shield instead of a sword and shield like the other two.
Seeing a little girl crushing their friends windpipe with my foot, they quickly laughed and all charged me.
“Did you just laugh at me, be a good dog and DIE!” i screamed.
They want to start laughing huh, let's see how much their laughing when i’m covered in the blood of their fucking friends. I grab the fallen kobolds sword and swing it vertically at the lead kobold. Even in my injured state i am still strong enough to take on rank 3 demonic animal. Since these guys are technically not demonic animals there's no ranking for them, but for clarity the guild ranks common kobold soldiers like these as rank 1 threats. The kobold in front of me in bisected and the second one comes at me. I kick him in the stomach and use the momentum to jump backwards unfortunately since i have to concentrate on moving my mana leg and fighting the leg and my arm freeze up and dissipates leaving my with one arm and one leg. The kobold spearman howls and attacks me with his rough iron spear. I quickly fire another fireball and hit him in the head spraying grey matter and blood everywhere.
I am covered in blood and without an arm and leg when i heard another howl.
“Shit! They called for reinforcements”
I hurriedly reassemble my leg and arm when more kobolds come running out of the bushes. There is six of them, three armed with iron swords and wooden shield, two with spears and one has a short bow. I can’t keep doing this, i can’t concentrate on moving my mana limbs and fighting at the same time. I check my mana reserves and find them at 877/1305. I activate Hind Bear Bristling Fur Armor LV9(Equipped) and sent a curtain of fire breath in their direction.Under the assault of the fire breath which could easily 2,000°F the enemy kobolds swordsmen were turned to charcoal with the right side of the spearman's body being badly, either way he won’t be fighting anytime soon.
Since i lost my mobility for the most part the kobold archer was able to hit me with a couple arrows, but even in a weakened state the Hind Bear Armor is still superior to any weapon that they could possibly get their hands on. Since the archer was out of my breaths range i simply picked up a stone the size of a watermelon and threw it with all my strength at the kobold archer. The Stone hit him in the chest and he burst into bits of flesh and splattered blood all over the place.
Right now the forest is on fire, i am covered in kobold blood and grey matter, and it sounds like there are more kobolds coming. I believe the textbook definition of this is disaster. Suddenly out of the bushes came multiple kobold spearman, swords, bowmen and even a kobold captain. Kobold captains are discernable by their iron armor instead of the standard leather that everyone else has. They number more than 30 with more than half being swordsmen and spearmen and the rest being archers.
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“Shit, i didn’t come upon a hunting party did i, i came across the kobolds compound didn’t i” i said quietly to myself.
Kobolds usually live in great caves where they mine iron for armor and weapons, they have a keen ability to pinpoint ore deposits and skill in building mines. If i stumbled upon their camp i can probably expect a few kobold mages as well. Kobold mages are a 1 in 100 odd of occurring, with the kobolds usually focusing on mining kobold mages focus on basic earth magic. As if answering me a kobold mage steps out of the bushes in front of me accompanied by two large kobolds with swords. The mage starts chanting magic and i resume using my mana limbs and doge right, and just as i did a large earth spike comes stabbing up from the ground where i was just standing.
I’m in way over my head. My wounds have no doubtedly reopened and i am down to a little less than half my mana, i am about to activate water lock and lightning bolt to shock the entire area to death when i feel a heavy fluctuation in mana in the air. Only a being of exceptional magic power should be able to give off a feeling like this the kobold mage in front of me is paltry compared to this power.
It appears to be trying to suppress me, BUT, unfortunately for it i am also not lacking when it comes to magic. I quickly use my power and send out a small counter field around me. The magic power in the air can be compared to a ripple in a completely still pond so i can counter with ripples of my own. As soon i do this the magic in the air around me calms a bit and i can concentrate on the battle.
The kobold mage is already chanting another spell when i activate both mine and cover the entire area in water and jump into the air while activating lighting bolt. The bolt comes down and all the kobolds in contact with the water were rendered unconscious by the shock. As a small bonus i completely put out the forest fire. I deactivate the Hind Bear Bristling fur armor and revert back to the regular armor.
Suddenly when i reverted back the mana fluctuations stopped, the entire forest is silent when the kobolds start looking at each other. Suddenly the kobold mage steps forward and starts talking in the kobold tongue. The kobold tongue is derived from dragon speech with yips, barks and howls mixed in. There are precious few humanoids outside of the kobolds that know the language so naturally i would understand what the fuck this guy is yapping about, literally.
The kobold seeing that none of his words are being understood changes to sign language. He seems to be making the notion to follow him but who in their right mind would follow a kobold. I point to him and his men and make a slashing motion across my neck and point to me as if to say “uhh no, you guys want to kill me”. He puts his staff down on the ground and barks to his subordinates to do the same, and so everyone else after a few questioning looks, barking and yapping at him they put down their weapons to.
I am a bit confused by this, why would a monster like a kobold put down their weapons and ask me to come with them. The usual response to someone invading their territory is to kill them and use their bones as decoration, but here they are just inviting me into their compound. Maybe it had something to do with the mysterious fluctuations of mana earlier so for now i will follow them, but if they turn on me i have a preloaded magic fireball on hand.
I follow the kobold and after a quick five minute walk we arrive at the mouth of a cave where we are greeted by guards and i get quite a few questioning looks. The mage seems to converse with the guards and i get a few stares but eventually they let me go inside. Inside i am greeted by multiple entrances to what appear to be homes carved out of the walls. We follow a path lit with some sort of ore that glows green deeper into the earth until we come to the entrance of a large underground cavern.
Inside taking up the majority of space are multiple buildings made of smooth stone and some sort of primitive concrete. It appears similar to the type of concrete that i am used to but is rougher, has more stones in it and is darker than normal. The buildings themselves are not too impressive, just 2 stories tall at the most with everything being lit up by multiple lanterns that i decided to call Glow orbs. The cavern itself is around the size of three football fields and appears to be about 5 stories tall with stalactites and is dotted with Glow orbs giving the entire area a eerie feel. What really made the entire thing eerie was that other than me and the guards there was no one here. It appeared the cavern was deserted but i had a feeling i was being watched.
After a few minutes i spotted a pair of canine eyes that disappeared into the shadows where the glow from the orbs didn’t reach. While the mages and the guards backs were turned i sent out a my pixie scout to take a look around and find out where is everyone. At that moment we arrived at the a large city square or common area with a strange door that seemed to be out of place amongst this village in a cave. It was a dark stained wooden door, gilded in gold and had jade hinges, knocker and handle. It was just standing in the middle of the area with no buildings in sight. The kobold mage made a signal for me to wait here and i was left with the guards while he entered the door. To my great/not so great surprise he did not walk out the other side.
If there was a door just standing in the middle of nowhere and a person enters it and doesn’t come out the other side it's safe to assume that some sort of spatial magic was being used, but no one in the last twenty thousand years has been capable of spatial magic. It is currently considered an ancient magic and was lost to the ages, but recently though adventurers had discovered in the ruins of an ancient city in the north a magic item that allowed you to transfer from one position to another.
According to the magicians studying the device it was theoretically possible to replicate this and reproduce the item. This prompted many countries to try and acquire the means, resources and the magic item itself to research teleportation. If they managed to reverse engineer the magic item then they could create mass teleportation devices to teleport their armies across the mountain boarded to invade the unsuspecting demon continent, but whoever got the actual items working and invaded first would get the spoils. The country that succeeds first will be able to get the drop on the demons and claim as much territory and resources as they want, after all who would want to share the juicy unclaimed land of the demons with other nations who could even get to it.
This prompts my question, who built this door here?