He had to wrangle the kobold out and away from the lamia. The little lizard clung to him like an infant to his mother.
“King, you saved me.” The kobold looked with big and teary eyes.
“What happened?” He asked the friendly lamia.
“I found this sss-snack on my way home.”
“Weren’t you supposed to report about the mountain back to me first?”
“Without, sss, dinner?”
Well, maybe it wasn’t urgent.
“I told her about you. That King of Spiders is my friend. She didn’t believe it!” The kobold pointed his clawed finger at the lamia accusingly.
“See! He still spouts-sss lies-sss.” She hissed. “Let’s eat him, sss, I am hungry.”
“But Kobolds are my allies.” He put the kobold on the ground.
“They are?” Lamia made a face of disbelief.
“Yes, they are. I haven’t told you before because I knew that lamia-kobold relationship isn’t good.”
“But why do you ally with a kobold?” She frowned finding the idea distasteful. “They’re useless-sss. and no better than a cave rat.”
“See! Lamia are bullies.” The kobold leader hid behind like a shy toddler would.
“They work for me and are mining ores in exchange for food. They’re excellent miners, they’re not useless.”
“Cave rats-sss can tunnel too… But if they work for you I understand. They're your vassals-sss, right?”
No, they were allies and trading partners. To be a vassal implied a completely different relationship.
“Yes, that’s right.” He made a white lie hoping that lamia will drop the issue.
“Then, I won’t eat this-sss one.”
“Or any other kobold, please.”
“How would I know some sss-stray morsel was your vassal or not?” Lamia asked with her arms crossed defensively.
“They are all my frie… vassals.” He caught himself in time.
“All of them?!” She replied in shock. “But then you did defeat The Worm of Oberon, it makes sss-sense.”
How the two correlated he had no clue, but as long as Lamia stopped eating kobolds he was fine with her conclusions.
The kobold leader gasped. “The King of Spiders killed The Worm?”
“He did, sss!” Lamia said proudly with her chin high.
“Then that makes sense… The mushroom plague!” The kobold began waving in panic.
“The mushroom plague?” He had to ask.
“The mushroom plague!” Lamia spat. “I went back to our old village, sss,” she hissed for suspense. “It was infested with myconid sss-spawn. We won’t be able to reclaim our home any time sss-soon. The reason for the infestation is sss-still unclear.”
It was nice of her to finally remember to give him the report.
“The Worm! The Worm.” The kobold was waving the entire time. “It eats the mushrooms. No worm…”
He finally realised, “Without the natural predator their population had exploded!”
“And they need mana to keep growing. SSS. The caves have only sss-so much, that’s why they attacked your farms-sss.”
The puzzle pieces fell in place.
“King you have to help!” The kobold made his plea. “Our food was eaten by mushrooms. That’s why I sought you out, but got taken by this ugly snake!” He pointed accusingly.
“You would never have made past the entrance of the cave, sss, we all know that. And who do you call ugly!”
She slithered to catch the kobold but he ducked under the King's legs escaping her grasp.
“Hey, no fighting allowed. We have to do something about the mushroom infestation.” He stated a fact.
“To save Kobold Camp!”
“To reclaim Lamia village, sss!”
The two glared at each other.
“We can do both, no? And help each other in doing so.”
“The Queen will never agree to this.” She frowned deeply. “To work with Kobolds.” Lamia had her arms back in a crossed position.
“I might just have a trick for that.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
…
All it took was a bottle of slug jelly and he had the Queen in his paws, paws because he felt dirty for using such cheap tricks; sweets addiction was a scary thing. The Queen had promised undying support, lasting peace with Kobolds and many other things he didn’t need or want. She lent him Lamia warriors and friendly Lamia will be leading the group. He also took his newly-kitted spider warriors and began the long march to the mountain caves.
The march was not that long, there was a road already. It was only packed dirt but without the need to chop the pesky vines and bushes the trek was much smoother. Of course, he was not walking, he was riding the big spider, still the largest of them all, the one who didn’t evolve for some reason. The spider was a cool dude actually, it went and asked crafters to craft a better saddle so that the King could feel comfortable on its back. It was very considerate of the spider and he appreciated the comfy ride.
But in his head, he already had a perfect mount, a forbidden ride he couldn’t forget. He would ask the friendly lamia, but she wasn’t that big and probably unwilling to take a paltry role of a mere horse. He reassured himself with the thought that some dreams aren’t meant to be, they should stay locked in his head or else there might be some terrible misunderstanding again.
So they rode at great speed, the mountain cave entrance was just in view and by the looks of it they were here just in time. Myconids spilt like a flood from the entrance in great numbers. The tinny beady eyes betrayed mad hunger.
“Attack!” He commanded like a King should from atop his noble stead, blasting Encouraging Aura at full power.
The goal was to push the infestation back into the cave before it could spill and reach his farms again. The spiders surrounded the entrance in an arch and began chopping the mushrooms without mercy or remorse. In retrospect, it would have been better if he had equipped them with hammers, but the axes worked well enough. The myconids ran out of the entrance in endless numbers seemingly uncaring about the certain death. There were so many that the ground was now covered in a thick layer of mushroom soup.
“Sss-something is not right.” Lamia hissed in concern.
“I know, there’s just too many.”
“No-sss.” She shook her head. “They’re running to their deaths-sss uncaring. Unnatural it is-sss.”
He had to agree, all living things had some instinct of natural preservation. This slaughter was just madness. But he couldn’t stop what he had started, the farms were at risk. He kept killing and killing each mushroom giving him meagre Fighting +1exp. The counter kept ticking and the sum reached +1000, and that was just his kills. A thick soup of mushrooms coated his spear and clothes alike, he was drenched in it and it felt beyond unpleasant.
There was an end to it at last, the mushrooms pilled high and wide forming a massive cork of brown sludgy mush and were clogging up the entrance.
“We’ll have to clear it if we want to get through.” He sighted thinking about all the work. “Unless…”
He reasoned that whatever he was looking at was no longer just a dead mushroom but an object in itself.
“Harvest Material.” He tried using the perk on the mushroom cork.
Purple particles rained on engulfing the abominable pile of coagulated mushrooms entirely, and then it disappeared leaving only the motes of light.
“Amazing.” Friendly lamia clapped at the trick.
Others soon followed and he bowed as an expert performer would. In doing so he noticed something left behind in place of the massive ‘cork’. It was small like a marble and perfectly round.
[Myconid Matriarch Spore], it was a curious material he had obtained. He didn’t know the immediate use for it so he pocketed the small marble.
“Well then, shall we proceed?”
“Yes-sss, it should be safe.”
“To *munch* Kobold *munch* Camp!” The Kobold Leader announced while eating the decapitated mushroom.
Lamia snatched the snack from the kobold and swallowed it whole.
“See! Bully.” The kobold accused.
He just sighted at the troublesome two, a friendly lamia was probably still angry that their first destination was Kobold Camp and not Lamia village.
They reached the camp with no problem and it didn’t look too different, aside from rows and rows of stakes surrounding the camp. On each stake, there was a myconid skewered and left to dry. It didn’t look like kobolds were in trouble at all.
“So you have dealt with the infestation yourselves?” He observed.
“Kobolds are sturdy, we adapt.” The leader said proudly.
“And it doesn’t look like you will be starving any time soon. Why am I here for?”
The kobold waved it dismissively. “They ate all of our fruits!”
In other words, they had the same problem as him, mushroom raids were eating their fruits, the fruits kobolds so desired.
“I guess, towards Lamia village we go…” There was nothing to do here.
“I told you, it was a waste, sss.”
“Bye, bye.” The kobold leader waved them happily, he was already behind the camp fence.
“Are you not coming?” He thought the kobolds would join him.
“No!” the kobold looked at him as if he was crazy and then added, “Thanks for the ride.” The cheery smile and a long wave were back in action.
“I told you sss-…”
“Yeah, yeah. Let's go.”
He wasn’t bitter or anything, no, actually he was happy the kobolds were doing okay, less work for him; apparently, not everyone needed saving. The Lamia, however, definitely needed his help; their old village was now a myconid nest.
The cave tunnels leading to the village were overgrown with mushrooms. The deeper they went the worse it had gotten: the fungal growths blocked their path, the floor was slick, slippy and covered in odd goo and the air became filled with red mist which likely were the mushroom spores. He worried about his, lamias’, and spiders' health, but if there were a negative debuff he would have received a message.
Speaking of the devil: [De-buff active: Myconid Spores]
“I guess we have to turn back.” He had no way to deal with it.
“No need. SSS. It’s only mild.” Lamia pushed forward in unbroken resolve.
“Yeah? What is the effect.”
“A chance of to be afflicted-sss by Hallucination, Torpor, Sleep, Paralysis, Berserk, Fright, Charm and other-sss negative-sss sss-status-sss effects-sss. SSS.” She had gotten an awfully more hissy all of a sudden.
“It doesn’t sound mild at all!” He looked in worry at his spiders.
“It-sss only-sss a very-sss. SSS. Small chance-sss. SSS”
It was hard to understand her at this point.
“I think we should…”
“No-sss! Come-sss, Come-sss.”
A friendly lamia kept pushing ahead, her warriors followed with the same resolve.
He stopped his spiders. “Hey come back!” Lamia didn’t even turn around. He put the Commanding Aura and repeated. “Turn around now!” And even then it didn’t work.
The Lamia was going further and further away from him, deeper into the spore-infected tunnels and towards their old village and then they disappeared under the cover of red mist.
“How do you feel about this?” He asked the big spider, the warrior leader and his mount, the one who barely fit in the tunnel.
“No. Debuff. For. Spiders. We. Go. Save. Lamia.”
That was lucky, the spider biology must have played a part. Meaning, he could stay here and wait this one out, but what kind of king would he be if he was afraid of a small status debuff – He was the brave King of Spiders and not the cautions King of Cowards.
“Lamia, wait. I’m coming.”
He charged boldly into the mist only to step on a mushroom and slip, the floor was gooey and a slip turned into a slide down the slippy surface. He slid towards a tiny hole in the wall which was sneakily hidden by a dozen or so mushrooms. He knocked the mushrooms like bowling pins, STRIKE, into the hole he went. It sloped down sharply taking him deeper into the mountain.
“EEE!” He shouted sliding down the pitch-black ride to who knows where.