Amazingly, it would allow me to cast the Jump spell at will. However, I also knew it required attunement. Was being able to cast the spell on myself even worth it when I could fly? Probably not. Reluctantly, I finally said, “I want to extract the magic from the Ring of Jumping.” Almost immediately, those terrible annoying ants returned and crawled all over my skin, stinging me for a few minutes while the magic was extracted. After that, I set the item down and picked up the last item, a magic book.

Sighing, I cast the Identify ritual one last time. After the ritual was completed, I realized how lucky I had gotten. It was called the Aegis Libram. It was a rare magical spellbook that contained several powerful spells. It also allowed any magic user to cast a few rituals that were restricted to certain classes.

For example, several of the spells were cleric spells. Others were druid or wizard spells. Either way, the owner of the book would be able to cast the rituals as long as they were holding the book and had the ability to cast spells of that level. It was an amazing discovery, far too good to extract the magic from.

The only drawback was that each of the spells took an extended period of time to cast, making them unusable in combat situations. Then again, the spells themselves were not meant for combat. They were meant for defending a location. Considering that another kobold tribe and human adventurers were encroaching on my tribe’s territory, the spells would probably be useful. Of course, that was only if I could cast the spells.

While I was able to decipher most of the spells in the spellbook after looking at it briefly, some of the pages twisted and became unreadable for some reason. Despite this, I was able to figure out that all of the spells were beyond my ability to cast. One of the rituals that was quite interesting was a Planar Mansion. It was a spell that created a dimensional, much like the Rope Trick spell.

However, instead of creating a simple space that you could retreat to for a few hours, the Planar Mansion was much larger and contained unseen servants, food, furniture, and so much more. The only drawback was that it took an extremely long time to cast the ritual, and the Planar Mansion required a constant supply of spell points to maintain. I would definitely have to think about it later though, but for now, it was useless to me. In fact, it would be beyond my abilities for a long time considering it was a high-level spell.

Since I had already dealt with all the magical items, I decided to look at the non-magical items that might be useful. Of course, a belt and dagger were good, even if they were too big for me. After looping it around my body three times, I was able to get it to fit. I didn’t even bother to look at the coins since I doubted, I would be able to use them.

In addition to that, I was able to hang a few pouches on the belt as well. I figured they would be good for food. Speaking of food, I was getting a little hungry again. Deciding to ignore the hunger for now though, I finished what I was doing.

I lit a candle and opened the cleric’s book to see what it was about. The cleric had been carrying it in her backpack. After studying it for a few minutes, I realized how they had been able to see in the dark. She was a cleric of night. She didn’t worship a particular god, but instead gained power through attuning herself to the darkness of night. Because of this, she was able to give herself and her companions the power to see in magical and non-magical darkness.

Realizing this, I decided to put clerics back on the list of possible classes. Before, I hadn’t wanted to worship a god. Realizing I didn’t really have to choose a god to worship, it didn’t actually sound that bad after all. I was already naturally attuned to twilight, so perhaps I could be a twilight cleric. That would qualify as a dark cleric, right?

Still, was that the best class I should learn? Which one would I need if the other tribe of kobolds invaded? Which class would be best if more adventurers arrived. In fact, it was a little coincidental that the adventurers had arrived at the same time as the ambassador from another kobold tribe. Was the other kobold tribe using adventurers to soften his tribe up before invading?

As for which class would be the most useful, the class needed to be a class that learned magic spells. Otherwise, the Aegis Libram would be useless. Arcanist, which had morphed into Banshee, was a good choice since it dealt with dangerous magics. Cleric was obviously back on the table because of the healing and spells. Sorcerer, shaman, and wizard were also excellent options as well.

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However, there was no way I was going to be a ritualist. Just casting the rituals from earlier had burned me out on any chance of choosing that class. Only creatures like gnomes could enjoy such a mind-numbing class. This was because they didn’t have much of a mind in the first place. Brain eaters would die of starvation if they were surrounded only by gnomes.

After considering my options, I clicked on each choice to see if I could get more information. However, nothing showed up, which made me want to offer some more magic items to get more information. With this in mind, I wondered if I would be able to turn stopping the adventurers into a reward with a few magic items that no kobold wanted. Then I could get more information before making my choice.

I nodded to myself, “Yep, that is what I will do. It’s not like I am going to lose the experience. I’ll just wait until I have more information. However, I do need to test out my new abilities. My ether breath for one.” I was really curious to see what it would do.

I spotted a few lizards and decided to eat them instead of the spiders. I breathed on them from a few feet away and they all immediately fell asleep. Smiling, I popped each one of them into my mouth. It helped that I had already eaten one. Another reason I didn’t choose a bug was that I just didn’t want to eat one, at least not yet. Then again, I was pretty hungry. Trying not to think about it too much, I decided to test how far I could breathe the ether gas. Curious, I started by breathing ether on a nearby lizard from six feet away.

Then I strode over and picked up the lizard. This time, I didn’t eat it immediately. Instead, I held it and waited until it started to show signs of waking up. “So the ether breath kept him under for around a minute,” I muttered as it started to squirm. “Let’s increase the distance,” I muttered to myself as I tossed the lizard into my mouth and swallowed.

After spotting another lizard, I made sure to stand about twelve feet away this time and tried breathing ether on it. Surprisingly, it worked, and not only the lizard but several nearby bugs and spiders also stopped moving. I raised a non-existent eyebrow. I actually hadn’t expected the breath to work at that distance. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I would be able to breathe out the ether again.

I wondered how many times I would be able to do so before I ran out of gas. It seemed improbable that the gas would not dissipate after a foot or two, much less twelve feet. Also, I hadn’t even exerted myself to breathe deeply. If I didn’t have an ancestral memory that dragons could breathe fire even in an antimagic field, I would have said the only way the ether could reach the lizard was through magic.

Also, it was quite unrealistic that I could breathe so much ether. Perhaps dragons had magical organs inside them that created the gasses. Quite possibly, when a dragon was in an antimagic field, the stored gasses in their body could still be used, but new gasses could not be created. Thus, the dragon would be able to breathe fire at least once or twice even in a magic field. That made sense to me.

While considering those thoughts, I quickly picked up the lizard and swallowed it too. Then I looked hungrily at the knocked-out spiders and bugs that were nearby. Rolling my eyes, I decided to go ahead and eat them too. “It’s a good thing that I am not an old woman,” I said to myself. “Actually, she swallowed a fly, so I would be fine.

I looked around for another cluster of creatures. After a moment, I noticed a big group of bugs. I moved to stand around eighteen feet away this time and breathed out again. I continued doing so for several seconds until I couldn’t breathe ether out any longer.

However, nothing happened to the bugs that were the farthest away. After seeing the closest ones fall asleep, I hurried over and ate all of them as well. “I wonder how long I will have to wait until I can breathe ether again,” I said to myself. Absently, I noted that my ether breath seemed to have a limit of around fifteen feet and dispersed in a conical shape.

While I was busy munching, a weird thought surfaced in my mind. Curious, I decided to try it out. In my previous life, I had sometimes crop-dusted people when I was walking through a store. It wasn’t as if it was my fault, though. Everyone would have to pass gas occasionally. “I wonder, can I knock people out with my farts the same way I can knock them out with my ether breath?”

Thinking about this, I crouched down above a bug and let loose. I had been eating so much that I needed to release some pressure anyway. Curious about the results, I looked down and saw the bug scurrying away. Apparently, ether farts weren’t a real thing. “Oh well,” I muttered, slightly disappointed.

Unfortunately, I must have failed a perception roll while I was busy tooting on the bug. I didn’t even know someone was there until I was smacked in the back of my head again. I toppled over, not having expected the blow. In fact, I was starting to panic. I thought I was being attacked.