image [https://i.imgur.com/5XxVRNB.jpeg]
Kobold Caves
Beneath the Western Mountains lies a vast cave system, leading down deeper than anyone has ever managed to reach. Closest to the surface, the caves serve as the home to endless tribes of kobolds.
Space rank: 2
Rank 1 enemies may now appear
Rank 0 elites may now appear.
Enemies will now appear in larger groups.
Cluster rank: 2
Variant enemies may now appear.
Chance of variants increased.
After waking up in his very pleasant burrow at Kili’s inn, Will summoned his new Lesser Mana Beast for the first time. Like the flavor text on the skill claimed, the Mana Beast was a mandrill monkey. It was blue and slightly translucent, but it was still very much identifiable by the striped face, even if the distinctive red coloring was absent.
With the mana monkey summoned, Will had a nice breakfast, giving him enough time for the mana used in the summoning to replenish. Which was only possible thanks to the Mana aspect attached to his Resource Pool skill. Without the boost, it would have taken more than an hour to replenish the cost.
The dank and stinky caves Will found himself after rolling his dice were a stark contrast to the cozy burrow and tasty breakfast he’d enjoyed just half an hour earlier.
The smell hit him first. Rotten meet and vegetables, smoke from fires that burned on fuel that was better left unknown, and the rancidness of far too many living beings filled the air.
The cave Will was in was low. If Will had still been human, he would have had to crawl on hands and knees to fit. There was, however, plenty of room for a wombat. There was also, somewhat surprisingly, light. Cracks in the ceiling and sides of the cave let in enough sunlight that Will could see almost perfectly. He had a feeling he might regret that, once he’d gotten close enough to see the source of the stench.
Main quest
Find a way to the Kobold village
Reward:
Space rank-up
100 XP
1 mastery shard
Mastery shard, huh? That’s a new one. And a new type of quest to go with it. Well. Let’s see how this goes.
Accompanied by a blue, translucent monkey, Will moved into the caves. The Lesser Mana Beast seemed to respond to Will’s thoughts in a way that made it almost effortless to control. Far easier than Will’s old pickle minion.
Before he’d even managed to walk for five minutes, Will had already started to dislike Kobolds.
It wasn’t because of the smell, though that was certainly enough of a reason.
No. It was because, apparently, Will had jinxed himself.
“I don’t think I’ve run into anything that would qualify as a trap here” Will grumbled as he’d climbed out of yet another hidden pit trap. I had to go and say that out loud.
Kobolds loved traps. In half an hour of walking, Will had fallen into three pits, got hit by one spear trap and managed to dodge another, and had a bucket of water pour all over him.
Dirty water. Will made worked very hard on not thinking about that.
So when Will finally managed to find some actual Kobolds, he was more than ready to go medieval on them. Or maybe go marsupial on them. Which Will imagined was very similar to going medieval, but with pockets.
He wasn’t thinking very rationally just then.
Kobolds, it turns out, were small bipedal reptiles. About a meter tall, and a lot scrawnier than the Lizardkin Will had fought on the Volcano Slopes Space. They were wearing ragged furs, which Will suspected were made out of rat pelts, and carried crude stone and bone weapons.
Individually, Will thought, the kobolds looked like the weakest monsters he’d seen on the Board. Unfortunately, they more than made up for it by running around in groups.
Large groups.
The first Kobolds Will found were in a larger part of the cave. The room was about five meters by six meters, with a two-meter-high ceiling, which made it twice as high as the tunnel Will was lurking in. The monsters were sitting around a large fire, roasting skinned rats skewered on long sticks.
There were ten of the small monsters. But before Will had a chance to observe them, the Kobolds closest to his tunnel started sniffing the air, and yapping at the rest of the group.
And not even ten seconds later, all ten kobolds had thrown away their skewered rats and were running in Will’s direction.
As soon as he saw the monsters charging, Will fired a Thunder Ball into the group, hitting three of the Kobolds. The skill was strong enough to kill all three enemies, proving that Will’s assessment of them was correct.
The battle, however, was far from over, and six of the remaining seven Kobolds were quickly approaching Will’s position, while the seventh, which Will could now see was wearing an elaborate headband and holding a staff topped with a rat’s skull, stayed back and screeched loudly, waving his staff around.
When the first Kobolds were close enough, Will exploded in a Thunder Burst. The skill knocked the monsters back and into their allies, but a flashing shield blocked it from actually harming them. The shield, however, didn’t seem to do anything to prevent the Mana Mandrill from biting one of the Kobolds and pulling it to the ground.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Will had just enough time to notice that two of the Kobolds, which both had a slightly bluish tint to their scales, were taking deep breaths before two cones of freezing energy blasted at him. When the frost breaths hit him, Will could feel himself slowing down from some magical effect.
He was also chilled to the bone, and his teeth were chattering. And the Kobolds were back to charging at him.
Another Thunder Burst served to give Will some space, though the monsters were still shielded.
Got to take out that Shaman. Can’t get close to him though, and he’d be shielded from Thunder Ball.
The ice Kobolds were preparing to breath frost again, but Will was prepared, and had his Darkness Shield activated. The breath attacks drained away some of his mana, but none of the frost managed to reach Will’s body to actually deal any damage. Which had the added benefit of blocking the slow effect from activating again.
The Mana Mandrill had finished off its first target, and Will sent him to attack one of the variants. It meant that the summoned beast would be exposed to attack by the regular Kobolds, but taking out one of the frost breathers was more important than the summon’s health.
Can’t sustain that for too long though. Wait. Magic damage is blocked, but I actually do have a non-magical ranged attack!
The front paws of a wombat are meant to dig. And maybe to help defend against predators. They are not, however, meant for holding, and shooting, a pistol.
Which made using the Re-vole-ver pistol an awkward process, wherein Will had to brace the weapon against the ground with one paw, while using the other to pull the trigger. He still managed, somehow, but his first shot wasn’t even close to hitting anything.
The second was a little bit better, but still flew high and to the left of the Kobold Shaman. And by that point, Will had to Thunder Burst the horde away, and then shield against a frost breath again. But the third bullet actually hit the Shaman, and made it stop its chanting.
Will wasn’t about to miss that opportunity, and used a Thunder Bolt to try and finish the caster off before it could raise the shield again. The skill hit, but none of the status effects procced, and the Shaman went back to chanting his shield skill.
Will’s next to bullets missed the shaman, but the final shot was luckier, and the Kobold Shaman finally dropped.
In the time it took Will to finish off the Shaman, the Mana Mandrill managed to kill one of the Ice Kobolds, but was torn to shreds by the rest of the horde.
Which left Will alone against another Ice Kobold and five regular ones.
It was a slaughter. Without the Shaman, there was nothing to protect the Kobolds from Will’s spells, and the fragile monsters couldn’t survive even one hit from the skill. The battle took mere seconds to finish after that, leaving Will slightly chilled and entirely out of mana.
7 Kobolds slain!
2 Ice Kobolds slain!
1 Kobold Shaman slain!
Gained 55 XP
Gained 480 copper bits
Gained 1 Mysterious Piece of Leather
The mysterious piece of leather was about as large as Will’s paw. There were markings drawn on it using a heated brand, but they just looked like random wiggly lines that randomly crossed each other. Will couldn’t even begin to understand what it was he was looking at.
It took Will nearly an hour and a half to regain his mana. And then twenty-five more minutes to regain the mana used to summon his Mana Mandrill back. Or was it a new one? Either way, Will was really happy he had the Mana aspect. Otherwise, refilling his mana would have taken a whopping five hours.
The next group of Kobolds was almost the same as the first, but it had three variant monsters instead of just two. On the other hand, it was fire variants this time, and Will’s Passive Defense was enough to reduce their fire breath attack to nearly nothing. He also knew enough to target the Shaman with his first Thunder Ball. And with a lucky stun proc, he’d managed to finish the caster off before it could shield its allies.
That entire fight was a lot easier for Will than the first one had been, and even the Mandrill managed to get out of it alive. Or, at least, as alive as a summoned mana construct was to begin with.
What annoyed Will about the fight, however, was the fact that once again, the Kobolds smelled him as soon as he’d gotten within sight of them, and the entire group charged at him before he could even take a good look at them.
Still, the fight wasn’t difficult, and Will picked up another mysterious piece of leather in the process. He’d even lucked into killing another Crankscout which was hidden among the Kobolds.
The fight was also, finally, enough to get Will up to a hundred XP, which meant that it was finally time to use Mana Stream and merge his mage skills up to expert.
Skill shard: Thunder/Darkness Mage
Tier: Expert
Type: Mage
Cost: Variable
Level 2
XP 0/800
Fires 2 bolts of pure mana for up to fifty meters distance, each bolt dealing lesser magic damage (10 mana)
Or
Releases a burst of mana in a half meter radius around you, dealing slight magic damage to everything caught in the blast. (10 mana)
Or
Fires a ball of pure mana for up to fifty meters distance. When the bolt hits something or reaches the maximum distance, it explodes into a ball with a radius of half a meter, dealing slight magic damage to anything caught in the blast, and knocking them away from the caster (10 mana)
Or
Fires a stream of pure mana up for up to twenty meters distance, dealing slight magic damage. Stream can be sustained for up to 1 second per level, costing half the base cost and dealing slight damage per second. (20 mana)
Or
Fires a cone of pure mana for up to twenty meters distance, and with a 1-meter radius base, dealing slight magic damage. Cone can be sustained for up to 1 second per level, costing half the base cost and dealing slight damage per second. (20 mana)
Or
Fires a volley of 2 bolts or pure mana per level for up to twenty meters distance, each bolt dealing slight magic damage. (20 mana)
Or
When activated, reduce up to 1 damage category per level. Cost to activate is an amount of mana equal to the damage prevented.
Level 2: Increase number of bolts by 1. Increase damage of ball by 1 category. Add knockback to burst. Increase damage of stream by 1 category. Increase radius of cone base by 1 meter
Pew! Pew! Pew! BOOM!
Aspect: Thunder
Tier: Advanced
Level 3
XP 0/300
Changes skill to Thunder Mage
Offensive:
All offensive options deal Thunder (Lightning/Sonic) magical damage.
All damage is raised by one category
Level 2: Skill has a 20% chance to stun target for 1 second
Skill has a 20% chance to disorient target for 5 seconds
Level 3: Skill will arc and hit up to 1 more target per level, dealing one damage category less per jump. Enemies must be within five meters of each other.
Skill has a 10% chance to inflict Shatter, reducing target’s armor by one level.
Defensive:
Has a 10% chance per level to stun for 1 second anyone attacking with natural or metal melee weapons
Has a 10% chance per level of disorienting for 5 seconds anyone attacking with melee weapons.
Aspect: Darkness
Tier: Basic
Level 2
XP 0/100
Changes skill to Darkness Mage
Offensive:
All offensive options deal Darkness magical damage.
All damage is raised by one category
Defensive:
Gives a chance of 5% per level to absorb magical attacks, causing the skill to restore mana instead of spend it.
Well. That’s gotten to be a mouthful…