S20, Hunting Kobolds

“Be careful!” Stroud shouted. “There are two hiding in that hole to the left.”

His group was busy fighting a pair of kobolds. The monsters looked like a twisted mix of a child and rat covered from head to toe in dark brown fur. They walked on two feet and had skinny, human-like, arms and a long rat tail that always dangled close to the ground.

On our side, one of the monsters lay dead on the ground and two others were injured. In other circumstances, they would have fled by now, but we had ambushed the scouting party in a narrow cave using a pincer attack from two directions.

These kobold patrols weren’t especially hard to deal with. We had already gotten rid of three others before and most of the time the kobolds had stayed on the defensive. Only after being pushed to their limits would they attack without regard for their own life.

Our opponents were slowly stepping back, closing the gap with Stroud’s group. Soon they would have nowhere to retreat, but before that happened we wanted to weaken them as much as possible.

The kobold in front of me was bleeding profusely from a stab wound on his leg. My spear gave me an overwhelming range advantage, the kobolds were only armed with simple bone weapons. Like pointy needles and crude maces with stone heads that were haphazardly tied using stripes of monster hide.

I feinted a few times with my spear to keep the monster occupied while waiting for an opening. It would be best to finish it up in one strike. After a missed thrust the kobold charged at me with unsteady steps, needle on hand. I lowered my stance and bashed it with my shield, it was tricky to deal with an opponent less than half my height. The impact made the kobold drop its needle and Falnid took the chance to stab it in the neck.

“Gwaah.” With a whimper, the kobold fell to the ground while grabbing its neck, and writhed in pain for a bit before dying.

Seeing his fallen comrade the other monster turned around and tried to run away, only to be met with a thrust on the back.

“Done,” Terence said pulling up his spear. “Only two more left.”

With Bolton in the lead, we advanced towards a shallow hole in the cave’s wall. But suddenly, a stone came flying at us from the shadows.

‘No, at me.’

The unexpected projectile took me by surprise and by the time I reacted Bolton had already stopped it with his shield.

“Whoa! I wasn’t expecting that. It almost got you, Simon,” Falnid said from behind.

“Yeah, close,” I replied with my heart pounding.

I didn’t want more surprises. We rushed to the hole with our shields held up. It was a small opening no more than six feet deep. Now that our lanterns illuminated the shadows we could see the pair of kobolds inside the cavity. One was unarmed and cowering against the wall while the other was trying to pull a loose rock from it with both hands. At its feet lay a crude sling. I stared at it, he was the culprit behind that underhanded attack.

Without losing a moment I pierced the belly of the second kobold. The monster groaned in pain and fell to its knees. For a split second, its pose resembled that of a human. I hesitated for an instant before remembering I was dealing with a monster. With another strike, I silenced it forever.

Meanwhile, Falnid had taken care of the cowering kobold. With that, our part was done.

“Hey! Don’t give it space to run, it’s going to escape!” Stroud warned us.

We were so focused on the hole that we had forgotten about the other kobolds for a moment. We promptly moved back to block the cave and cut any possible escape route.

Stroud’s group had almost finished off the last opponent. The exhausted monster was facing both Stroud and Rupert, their group’s vanguard. The kobold was bleeding from several cuts. Breathing heavily and with no room to step back it stumbled and was pierced by Stroud’s and Rupert’s spears. Just like that the fight had ended and everyone’s tension loosened.

“Phew, that was a close one,” Bolton said, looking at his shield with a worried expression. One of the planks had been broken from the stone’s impact.

“Thank you, Bolton, you saved me back there,” I told him, patting his shoulder.

“Oh, it was nothing.” He replied humbly as he rubbed the back of his head. “I heard the swish of the sling, so I was prepared.”

I nodded and focused on the dead kobolds. They had no useful parts, so the guild simply offered compensation for each right ear we brought back. It was the same as the rat extermination tasks. I hurried to finish the job, most of the kobolds wore ragged and half-rotten monster pelts and I didn’t want to smell their stench for too long.

“Hmm, this is better than hunting rats, but it’s getting a bit boring with all that wait,” Falnid commented.

Everyone’s initial enthusiasm had decayed quite a bit after all our failed attempts and the long time we had invested waiting for kobolds to hunt. Unlike other monsters, they didn’t fall for our baits and ran away at the first sign of danger. That had forced us to change tactics, using the caves’ layout to trap them. Terence’s map had proved very useful to find good spots for our ambushes, yet more than half of the kobold patrols had been able to escape from our grasp.

“I’m more concerned about our profits,” Terence spoke looking at the floor rat with narrowed eyes. “Yesterday we caught thirteen. That was two tiny silvers and sixty coppers, to share between us nine.”

“It wasn’t half bad,” Stroud replied with a more optimistic tone. “Some days we end up losing money in the dungeon. I can’t count the times we have wasted baits and repellent for nothing.”

“That’s about as much as we do in a good day in the forest,” Bert, their light bearer, added.

“The problem is that soon we are going to have problems finding more of them,” Terence explained. “Everyone is hunting kobolds now. As time passes their numbers will decrease and we will need to search in more remote places. In the end, it will be difficult to spot them, just like the rats in the corridors.”

“I don’t think we need to worry about that yet,” I argued, eager to keep hunting. “They are pretty difficult to catch, the other trainees might have problems with them.”

“Hmm, you have a point, but still, kobolds are rather smart and we are only targeting their scouts,” Terence said, rubbing his chin. “Now that they know we are hunting them they may hole up in their lairs and only send out stronger patrols, those that the instructors told us not to fight.”

During the lecture organized by the guild, the instructors had warned us about several things. Stuff like not to go into their lairs and how to avoid the patrols with kobold hunters or tamed monsters.

“I don’t think we can handle them either,” Stroud added.

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The reason we were together with Stroud’s bunch was that the instructors had also recommended we cooperate with other groups. They said it would be easier and safer the more people we had. Of course, not everyone received the advice with enthusiasm. On the first day, many groups had left alone for the dungeon. I imagined those trainees that were unwilling to share their profits ended up chasing kobolds to no avail because today everyone was looking for people to team up with.

“That makes sense,” I admitted, recalling what I knew about kobolds, which wasn’t too much. “We might have problems handling a troop with kobold hunters.”

Kobolds only lived inside the dungeon, so my knowledge about them came mostly from what Instructor Remme had told us and a few stories I had heard from Father and Uncle. I made a mental note to ask Remme more things about them later.

“Um, if you don’t want to hunt kobolds anymore we could try hunting some shrill reptids,” I told everyone, remembering my last talk with Alchemist Luelle. “Their mana organs can be sold for fifty coppers.”

I had been wanting to hunt them for some time, none of the beast outside had mana organs. It was a new and exciting challenge. One that could only be found inside the dungeon.

“Oh! I remember now, the alchemist told you she would buy them,” Stroud exclaimed, palming his fist.

“Yes, and we know where to find them,” I said, pointing at the map in Terence’s hands. “Now that everyone is here together it’s the perfect time to try.”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Terence hesitated. “We shouldn’t venture too deep into the dungeon. The instructors were very insistent on that point.”

“It’s not too deep, it’s shown on the map,” I insisted, trying to convince Terence.

“Yes, Simon is right. We should go!” Falnid agreed with an enthusiastic expression.

“I’m with Simon. We will have to deal with uncommon monsters sooner or later and these look easier to handle than most,” Stroud also agreed.

“Yup, that sounds interesting. What are we waiting for?” Rupert asked as he struck the ground with the blunt end of his spear.

“Are you sure? Did you see how many teeth they have?” Bert teased him with his mischievous grin, prompting a stern look from Rupert.

It seemed most people from Stroud’s group wanted to go. I looked at Bolton. The big guy hadn’t voiced his opinion, but he had a concerned expression on his face.

I was about to reassure him that everything would be alright when Terence talked. “Alright, let’s go,” he reluctantly agreed and handed me the map. “You guide us, Simon. The faster we go the faster we will be back.”

I consulted the map and picked the easiest route towards our destination. The place where shrill reptids appeared was far to the northeast so we had to quicken our pace if we wanted to be back before nighttime. I positioned myself at the front of the group, with Bolton at my side, and told everyone to follow me.

After so many expeditions, the caves in this part of the dungeon were beginning to feel as monotonous as the corridors. Only the bright green and brown plants inside the pools of water and the occasional black root poking out of the walls brought some color to the dull whitish rock and dark green moss. From time to time some small monsters appeared in our path, but they always stayed away from the zone brightened by our lamps.

“So, how is your new instructor,” I heard Terence ask Stroud.

“Not bad. He is very good at tracking monsters, but it would be better if he didn’t focus on it so much,” Stroud replied with an irked tone.

“Yeah, Marcus was more focused on the action part. When we found some monster tracks he didn’t lose time. Barrick always has to explain every little detail,” Bert chimed in. “Look at this footprint here, this rat has an injured leg. You see that mark on the wall? That lizard is missing some scales on its tail.” He said imitating the voice of the instructor. “I swear the man can count the scales on the damn lizard’s tail before seeing it,”

Bert was complaining about the habits of their new instructor, but to me, it all sounded really interesting. I had talked with Instructor Barrick on a few occasions, Remme always referred me to him when he was unable to answer some of my questions about monster trails.

“Well, thanks to him we were finally able to set foot in the caves. Otherwise, we would still be stuck in the hallways chasing rats,” Stroud said.

“Yes. Someone bless that man! If I had to fight another pack of rats I would have died of boredom,” Rupert added while mocking a prayer with his hands.

We continued advancing inside the dark caves at a rapid pace and when we were close to our destination Terence proposed to make a stop to rest and refill our lanterns.

“Phew. This place is quite far away,” Falnid commented whipping his forehead. “Simon, is there a long way to go?”

“No, we should be seeing shrill reptids any time now,” I replied to him.

After making sure there weren’t monsters nearby everyone hurried to sit down. We had been walking for quite some time, and the route inside the caves was as rough and tiresome as a mountain path. I drank some water and then asked Terence for the oilskin to refill my lantern. While doing so I noticed Bolton was fiddling with his shield and Linwood, the quiet boy from Stroud’s group, looking at the walls with interest.

“Hey, Simon. Where are we exactly?” Terence asked me.

I showed him the map and pointed to our position. “We are here, if we take this route we should reach this cavern from the south.”

“Uh, I see, still a while to go.” He lamented.

“What? Didn’t you say we were almost there?” Falnid exclaimed from behind Terence, shaking him after grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Yes, just a bit more,” I reassured Falnid.

“Let me see the m–.”

“Hey guys, I found palemoss!” Linwood’s suddenly shouted, taking everyone by surprise. There were a few seconds of silence before Bert reacted.

“What?! For real?!”

“Yes, it was on the wall!” Linwood exclaimed with an excited look. Holding a whitish plant in his hand.

“Let me see,” Stroud asked and Litton handed him the plant. “Wow! It’s my first time seeing one. Are there more?”

“I don’t know, maybe,” Litton replied, glancing at the wall with an uncertain expression.

“Alright, everyone, spread and search for more,” Stroud commanded his companion with a big grin on his face. “You too guys! We will share the profits.”

With that everyone got busy searching the walls. I scoured the rock but only saw patches of dark green moss, a few tubeplums tucked away in their holes, and some light gray crunchbugs feeding on the moss. These little critters were everywhere. Instructor Remme had told us they were edible, and that eating them helped adventures to stay healthy, but not long ago I had tried opening a bigger one I had found inside a pool of water and I wasn’t so sure. Their innards were very strange and had a strong odor. Despite that, Bolton had claimed they were a lot like the crayfish in the lower stretch of the Luzupe and he and Terence had taken half a dozen to eat later. All of that while Falnid complained they wouldn’t let him bring a rat. At that point, I had honestly begun to question my companions’ eating habits and had vehemently refused to taste the boiled critters that turned red inside the pot.

As I was recalling that disgusting dinner, I saw one of the crunchbugs was about to reach for a small piece of white moss with its claws. I slapped the creature and used my knife to scrap the plant out of the wall. I had found one!

After looking for quite a long time we found six more pieces of the priced moss.

“Nice! That’s seven tiny silvers there,” Stroud exclaimed.

The small amount of palemoss seemed to shine in Linwood’s hands. The boy packed it away with extreme care.

“Now we should get going if we want to catch those shrill reptids before night,” Terence told us.