As expected, minutes later, the last prisoner fell. Also, as expected, their corpses then began to stand up less than a minute later. I grimaced when I saw how many of the fallen prisoners were animated. The spell itself was a third level spell, which meant the caster had to be a magus, which was a fifth level wizard. Actually, I corrected myself, similar level priests could also cast the spell.

Either there were at least a dozen spellcasters who knew the spell or there was a magic item being used. Considering the difficulty of even getting a few wizards or clerics of that level was difficult, I suspected someone was using a magic item instead. It was also possible that there was a mixture of the two, perhaps a few spellcasters with at least one or two items that animated the dead. In fact, I thought that was the most likely explanation. I doubted the soldiers would come without at least a handful of mid-level spellcasters.

It didn’t really matter too much. Whatever the source of the magic, the newly raised zombies would be much harder to deal with. They would be at least five to six times harder to kill. Now I was wishing I had considered choosing the shaman or cleric class. Both of them had class features that dealt with the undead or with spirits. Unfortunately, neither class was generally found on the front lines.

In fact, none of the spellcasting classes were usually found on the front lines when it came to battles. Some of this was because these classes were rare. Another reason why was because each of these classes was treated differently by the kobolds. Sorcerers were synonymous with dragon bloodlines, and as such, were too sacred to risk losing.

As for clerics, every kobold worshiped their dragon as a living god. In my tribe's case, they worshiped Einvaldskonungr the Red Dragon. A cleric's job was to connect the kobolds to their god. They spread the word of his greatness and how each kobold needed to do his or her very best to gather offerings to appease their god.

Every morning, these clerics would lead services for the kobolds. After which, the kobolds would meditate on how lucky and privileged they were to be born a kobold. They then merrily went about their day, working hard to please their god. Should any accidents happen, the clerics would once again step in and heal the workers who were injured. Injuries and death from cave-ins were common among kobolds, especially with earthquakes being so common.

While it was theoretically possible for kobolds to live a long life, this generally didn’t happen. At six years old, kobolds were considered mature adults and had been working for at least a year or two. Generally this was in the mines or on the front lines fighting invaders or fighting for food. Because of these things, kobolds generally didn’t live long lives.

Perhaps because they understood that life was short, they didn’t form great attachment to others, even to their spouses. Promiscuity was rampant. They lived each day to the fullest. However, what reassured kobolds the most was the fact they believed in reincarnation.

I would have scoffed at this before, but now I wasn’t sure. Every kobold tribe shared the belief that when they died, they would be reborn into the body of a newly hatched kobold wyrmling. There was no rest or afterlife for the kobolds. Kobolds were meant to work, at least after they turned six years old. Therefore, kobolds didn’t mourn the loss of their fallen, but viewed it more as, “What a lucky dog. Hellir just reincarnated. Now he doesn’t have to work for another five years.”

The only thing stopping kobolds from taking mass “work breaks” was the fact that their god would be annoyed by their unnecessary deaths. After all, kobolds were meant to work. If their dragon god had to wait five years for them to start working again, he would not be happy.

However, as for legitimate deaths, such as defending their tribe members, well, that was enough to earn them a five year vacation after they reincarnated. Needless to say, kobolds were fearless of death as long as they believed their death wasn’t wasted. That was another reason that kobolds preferred pack tactics. Each kobold’s death was one less worker, which meant less production of gold and gems that could be mined for their dragon god.

Sighing, I watched as the zombies bull-dozed through the traps. Each zombie eventually fell, but it took a lot more effort than it did to take down the prisoners. Despite this, as I had noticed on the first day of my new life, kobolds loved traps. Even though the zombies ended up clearing most of the entrance tunnel, they weren’t able to clear them all. That meant that the soldiers would have to risk their lives next.

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Apparently, some of the soldiers were hesitant to move forward after the last zombie fell. I actually expected that one of the wizards would summon a beast, a monster, or an elemental to send down the entrance tunnel. However, nothing like that happened. Instead, there was only arguing. Finally, several heavily armored knights, with a shield on their back and a shield in each hand, cautiously moved forward.

These walking tanks took the traps head on with a few priests saying healing words whenever they activated a trap. I almost felt like I was in an mmorpg. This strategy actually turned out to be fairly feasible. While the clerics did run through their spell points very quickly, the soldiers were able to advance without casualties.

Of course, this offended the kobold’s sense of righteousness. Enemies weren’t allowed to walk through their traps and not die. How dare they? Because of this, the kobolds grew angrier and angrier. The only insult worse than ignoring a kobold’s traps was comparing them to a gnome.

Many of the kobolds put away their bows and grabbed long spears or polearms with hooks. They then jabbed the spears through the arrow slits. Sometimes they tried to hit ankles and trip the armored tanks. Other times they used the hooks on the polearms to move the shields enough for the other kobolds to attack. Unfortunately, neither the traps nor their attacks worked.

Needless to say, the kobolds were not going to let such an insult go. Enraged, they decided to pull out all the stops and started using precious alchemical firebombs. By this time, many of the soldiers had already traveled deep down the entrance tunnel. Once all the bombs had been passed out, the kobolds released the oil traps and bombarded the shield man with alchemical fire.

I could feel the heat even though I was in the side tunnel. That was despite the fact that I was wearing the Boots of the Firelands. As could be expected, a lot of soldiers were slain or injured. Because of all the deaths and injuries, the soldiers quickly pulled back and left the tunnel.

I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t. I had been so worried for the kobolds, thinking they would be steamrolled by the soldiers. Instead, not a single kobold lost their life. While there were a few accidents, the kobolds emerged almost unscathed. I was amazed. It was also at this point that I realized I had been too busy watching the fight instead of participating in the fight.

Feeling that I really hadn’t contributed anything this time, I was a little embarrassed. The least I could have done was use my twilight breath attack. I could easily have used it against the zombies or shieldmen and saved some traps or alchemical fire. “Oh my goodness, I totally forgot about the experience points,” I moaned. I could have earned experience points if I had helped them. Now my experience points were running away.

Since I couldn’t allow the soldiers to get away after attacking my tribe, I resolutely decided to chase down some of those experience points before they got too far away. I was pretty sure I could follow them, and then when it was nighttime, I could ambush those soldiers who were injured with my twilight breath and with the Zone of Death spell. I also made a mental note to memorize that spell once I leveled up so that I didn’t have to keep wasting my Shape Magic to learn it.

Getting the attention of one of the kobolds, I asked, “Where is the fastest way to get to the surface without alerting the invaders?” Luckily, he knew the answer and quickly led me to the surface. While there were only a few “real” entrances, there were also a few “escape” and “ambush” routes.

The escape routes were almost uniformly narrow passages that led deeper underground or upwards toward the top of the mountain. The mountain escape routes often led to sheer cliffs which were well hidden behind camouflage. Rope ladders could be found near the exits which would only be used in the most dire of circumstances.

I was led to one of the ambush routes. The ambush exit I was taken to was more of a small window ledge situated above the entrance to the tunnels leading to the kobold village. It too was inaccessible from the outside and was hidden from view. A human child or a small woman might be able to squeeze through the ambush window, but a normal sized adult would be too big to fit through the opening.

As I crawled into the light for the first time since I hatched, I was almost blinded by the light. I guess I had long since gotten used to the darkness. While there were a few torches, lanterns, or bioluminescent plants, there was actually very little light in the underground city. Only a few areas were well lit. Most of the tunnels were not. Now that I was in the light, I actually felt a little sensitive to the sunlight.

What was worse was that it was obviously not even noon yet. The soldiers had attacked at first light. Realizing this, I frowned since I would have to wait a long time if I still wanted to ambush them at night. I also couldn’t fly around or they would see me. While I suppose that I could turn invisible and fly around, I worried they might hear me or even have some type of spell active that would alert them of my presence. Unsure what to do, I sat down to think about it.