As I returned to my hideout I indeed met a few Kobolds on my way there all of them were going around in groups of at least three, but thankfully my level of *Stealth* was already quite high so I was able to go hide before they noticed me. In the end, after many turns and twists, I returned back to the hideout safely and thankfully nobody was there.
“The Kobolds were a bigger problem than I thought…” I said to myself as I went into the hideout after opening the gate.
“But I can’t do much against them for now. I will make some traps but I am not sure if that will be enough…” I murmured to myself as I was walking to the cold room, there I picked all the fresh meat I had and started to cook it on the campfire.
Some of it already went bad so I just chose to cook it and use it as bait, “This should draw some better monsters to the traps hopefully they won’t be too big…” I said as I remember that big deer that showed me his sharp teeth, “Surely it was carnivores.” I thought to myself before finishing the cooking.
Then I went outside and rearmed the traps, “Again… All the traps missing the bait but not even one of them is triggered, what's going on?” I felt that I was missing something but I wasn’t sure what.
I could only shake my head and went to the biggest trap I had for the meat bait I prepared early, “The trap isn’t bigger by much but it should suffice, I think...” I said as I placed the meat not seeing two blue small eyes looking at me from one of the trees.
I returned to the hideout and started to prepare the traps against the Kobolds, “I guess I start with a pitfall trap.” I dug down in front of the gate, leaving a meter of space in front of the gate so I will be able to jump over the trap and just open the gate even if I would be chased.
The hardest part was to remove all the stones from the hole, more than anything else. I dug with the wolf's body while tossing all the stones out of the hole with mine. It was a little bit hard at first but after a while, I got used to it, as it was the same as moving your hands in a different direction. At first, you get confused but when you get the hang of it, it becomes simple as breathing.
“Hya! This should be the last one.” I said as I launched the last rock and slowly started to climb from the hole using my roots as assistance.
“I should add some short spears down there.” I thought when suddenly I remembered that the Kobolds had prepared short spears with bone-like ends. I didn’t want to pick them up as they were a little bit too short to use and I was afraid that they would get stuck in the flowers when I would run through them, but now it was different.
“If I remember correctly there were at least ten Kobolds that haven’t returned to the main group, if I use tracking surely I would be able to find them.” I said as I already was on my way to the field of flowers this time I brought my spear too just in case as I learned from my past mistakes.
I went through the area where I got ambushed to see if the hero Kobold carcass that leveled me was still there, but the other Kobolds most likely picked him up or at least took his stuff as I saw nothing there, so I continued on my way.
I came to the field without an issue and started to use the *Tracking* skill, many glowing dog-like paw footprints started to appear around the field.
“There are so many, I guess I should just choose one and follow it.” I entered the field and started to walk after the footprints, as always the ground here was filled with bones of many small animals and sometimes even bigger.
“Ah, here is one.” I found the body of a Kobold and “borrowed” his spear that I found near him at the same time he had a small pouch on his body so I picked it too. I inspected its contents and found some kind of powder inside it.
*”Inspect” leveled up to Lv6*
***
*Sanale Grass Dust* - Dried Sanale grass that was dried and ground to dust, can be used as disinfected when applied on wounds.
Rank: F
Quality: Worst
Status: Mild Healing
***
“Oh, I can see the quality now, which is most likely a lie!” I screamed at the *Inspect* skill as I stopped trusting this thing a long time ago.
I continued to walk forward into the field finding more bodies here and there, some of them had pretty stones and small skulls, some of them had more dust but all of them had short spears except one who had a rock hammer which I nicked too.
I started to feel the body of the wolf get tingly and weak so I knew that the paralyzing effect of the flowers started to affect me.
“I should start going back soon, but I found only seven of the Kobolds here. There should be at least three more but there could be even more…” I said as I wasn’t sure if I should continue my search or turn around, but in the end, the greed in my body won and I started to move forward and almost immediately found another track of footprints.
“Score!” I shouted as I started to happily jump forward after the footprints, only stopping in confusion at an empty spot where the tracks suddenly disappeared.
“Weird, where is the body? Where is my free loot?” I asked in confusion but didn't place it too much on my mind as I continued my search once more and just like this I found another track and followed it too, only to find the same result.
“There is no body here either, but… The tracks disappeared, did the Kobolds fly away?” I asked and even looked into the sky as a jock but it started to get unsettling, as I was almost halfway to the tree with the fruit and now even my own body started to get numb.
I saw another track to my left as I was about to go back and followed it too, to only stop in front of signs of blood on the floor exactly where the Kobold corpse should have been.
“I think… That I am not alone here…” I mumbled as I looked around, only the sounds of flowers rustling in the wind could be heard giving me an eerie feeling that screamed into my mind to run!
I immediately booked it even using *Adrenaline Rush* of the wolf, but like last time I left the field without any issues. No monsters were chasing me and everything was calm, only the quiet sounds of many flowers rustling around the field.
“Fuck this place, it gives me the creeps.” I took some more flowers with me to the base and left back to the hideout. I didn’t forget to pick some more Mungo fruits on my way back.
After coming to the hideout most of the paralyzing effect has already left the wolf body, “The *Paralyze Resistance* skill is really cool, but it can’t even compare to my awesome body that is almost completely immune to this kind of poisons.” I proudly said as I came back to my hideout almost falling into my own trap that I dug up not so long ago.
“Shit!” I held the walls with my roots looking down in horror, not because this trap could kill me but because I imagined what would have happened if I finished it and then fell into it. The wolf would surely go kaput as the trap was at least two meters deep and would have been filled with spears.
“I think I overdid it with this one.” I mumbled as I dropped the spears into the trap, while gently lowering some of my roots into it too as I just needed to plant the spears into the floor like flowers, I joked about it myself.
“Grow my beautiful garden, grow as many Kobold corpses as you can.” I smiled as all the six spears were planted into a meter square hole.
“Well this is done and it's already getting late, I better go and call it a night. Hopefully, the Kobolds won’t come today as I already used most of my mana on this trap.” I said as I jumped over it and opened the gate as I walked into my hideout.
“Home sweet home. Now what should I do? I guess I will add some paralyzing poison to this spear, eat and then go to sleep.” I smiled to myself as I jumped over to the crafting table grinding the flower head into a good paste before applying it to the spare and tying it down with a leaf.
“I need to create a lot more spears.” I said as I looked at some of the branches that I cut from the small trees.
“Not perfect but some of them will work.” I made three more spears from them and added the paralyzing poison to them too.
“I guess it's time to eat and call it a day.” I mumbled as I walked to the meat that I cooked today, it was less tasty than before as it got kinda stale but it was still quite good.
“I need to find a better way to preserve my food…” I said as I filled my belly and then added some healing paste to my wounds, not forgetting to use the dust that I found on the Kobolds' corpses.
“We shouldn’t waste this as it will be disrespectful to their previous owners.” I said as I completely ignored the point that I kinda was responsible for their deaths.
“Interesting I didn’t get experience from killing them, how much do I need to be involved in someone's death to get their experience? Can I get experience by poisoning someone, or do I need to make them bleed?” I asked a few questions but like always had nobody to answer them.
“I should write it down somewhere so I will be able to ask them later.” I found some rock and just for jocks started to write with it on the walls of the cave in front of the entrance.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Hmm this is weird this isn’t the *Lingua* language that I learned from this world, is this a language that I used before reincarnating?” I asked with enthusiasm but what I found even more strange is that I couldn’t read it back.
“I can write it but can’t read? What kind of stupid shit is this?” I asked confused as I continued writing, but another word appeared on the wall this time the letters once more changed.
“Another unknown language, looks like I was kinda smart.” I smiled at myself inside my head as I continued to write something that I didn’t even know the meaning of, but as I continued to write I started to feel weird and weirder, “Why do I feel like every few words the language changes…”
I looked at the sentences that I wrote on the wall, surely every sentence looked different. Some letters were sharp, other letters were soft, some letters were circular, some letters were square, other letters were just dots, and sometimes even only lines.
I shook my head from side to side as I understood that I most likely just imagined this nonsense of sentences from my head, and that was it.
“I guess I have a pretty good imagination, maybe I should write a language of my own.” I smiled lightly as I was proud of myself as I walked to my sleeping spot to call it a day, while the ominous sentences in unknown languages overlooked the entrance to the hideout.
*****
“This is a weird cave.” Said a small girl.
“Yeah, the entrances looked like a temple made with a high level of earth control skill, while here it's full of wood and plants growing everywhere most likely grown with wood element skill.” Said the old man that looked like he would hit the bucket any moment, the young girl with him nodded.
It wasn't the first temple they explored, and for them, this temple was really weird as it looked new and old at the same time.
“Is that a status of a wolf, and what is on his back?” She asked, confused.
“Looks like a blood-sucking plant or something of that kind of sort, rarely found in the Forest Of Dusk, usually found only in the desert where it rains blood from the battles between the wyverns, but here? Never that I know of, and it's on a living wolf?” Shook the old man his head.
“At best those plants are found only on corpses. How strange, and is the bush holding an axe?” As the old man was examining the statue he slowly was getting more and more confused.
The old man pulled out a staff and waved it in the direction of the axe as a small magical circle appeared on its tip. At the same time, the axe slowly floated into the air and to his hands.
“Can you inspect it?” The girl asked with a smile.
“You know how dangerous it is to connect to Gaia one wrong scan and my soul would perish.” The old man shook his head gently.
“Oh come on we both know that for something like this, it would be easy for you.” She smiled.
“Of course, it would now observe, skill *The Eyes Of Truth*!” The old man's eyes glowed in yellow color as a yellow status screen appeared in front of him.
***
*Excalibur Axe*
-Durability: 9/33
-Damage: 6
-Defense: 8
-Rank: E
Creator: Nameless Bush
***
“Eh… this is weird…” Murmured the old man.
“What is it?” Asked the girl.
“In the creator section, it says Nameless Bush.” Said the old man.
“Oh so the creator's first name is Nameless and last name Bush what's wrong with that?” The girl innocently asked.
“No it was written Creator, not Creator's Name, that means the creator had no name so his general features were implemented instead. I saw this happen with nameless orcs as they created weapons…” As the old man was talking his speech became slower as he understood what it meant.
“Then that means that this axe was made by a Bush?” She looked at a weird statue of a weird bush-like thing riding a wolf, only one thing crossed her mind. “Did Grandpa mix some weird mushrooms in today's breakfast by accident again?”
The old man shook his head and said, “Don’t be surprised my dear, the world is a vast place where everything can happen, sometimes you see dragons in human form and sometimes you see… Hmm.. Bushes creating weapons and riding wolves…” His voice became less and less confident as he said that at the same time, his head hurt from confusion.
He lived so many years but he never heard this kind of bullshit, imagining himself telling about this finding to one of his friends, they would die from laughing thinking that he was joking or going senile.
“Enough dear we should continue and explore this place fully.” He said as he was about to go deeper into the hideout but heard the girl suddenly ask from behind, “What language is that?”
The old man turned around and saw a rock wall filled with many weird sentences which made him look at it in confusion.
“I am not sure.” He came closer to look it over.
“Oh I know this, this is an ancient lost language from the demon race.” Happily said the girl.
“Indeed it is, shame that isn’t my specialty…”
“But what about the other sentences? What language are they in?” The girl asked.
“I don’t know, I see them for the first time.” The old man said as he fixed his glasses.
“Why don’t you look at them through Gaia?” She said with a smile.
“Eh I don’t know, rule number one of using the *Eyes Of Truth* is not to use it on the complete unknown as it is the easiest way to burn down your soul.” The old man shook his head gently.
“Don’t be like that, these are just a few sentences from lost languages, if one of us had the translation skill we would be able to easily read them.” The old man scratched his head as the girl gave a sound argument.
“Well… I guess I could give it a try.” The old man came closer to the stone and touched it with his hand, his eyes started to shine once more.
Suddenly his head flung back and he looked at the ceiling as he started to scream from the top of his lungs. “I TOLD YOU THAT I WILL COME BACK!”
He grabbed his head in pain as the girl looked in horror as the old man slowly started to float in the air. “I TOLD YOU THAT I WON’T FORGET THIS!”
He shouted stronger and stronger, his voice slowly sounding demonic. “I TOLD YOU THAT I WILL RETURN TO DESTROY YOU!”
Blood started to drip from his eyes as the wall started to crack. “I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WON’T ESCAPE FROM MY WRATH!”
Blood even started to spill out of his mouth as every word he said was filled with mysterious powers. “I TOLD YOU THAT I WILL BURN EVERYONE YOU HOLD DEAR!”
“I TOLD YOU THAT I WILL CONSUME YOU ALL!!!!!” The wall cracked completely as the old man screamed the last sentence, the crack went and broke the writings in half, going up to the top of the ceiling as small pebbles started to fall from above.
He fell to the floor unmoving, his fate unknown, the girl ran to him in shock while tears streamed down her face.
“Grandpa! Grandpa!” She screamed but no matter how much she screamed her grandpa didn’t move.
“Please! No! Grandpa! I am sorry! Please wake up!” As she was screaming she didn’t notice the small animal that was hiding behind one of the rocks, he jumped forward towards the girl and stopped a short distance away.
*Squick* The fat squirrel made a sound and the crying girl looked in horror at the monster in front of her.
“Swarm squirrel!” She heard about these cute little beasts that have teeth that can cut through rocks but the scariest thing about them is they always moved in swarms of hundreds.
She looked around frantically looking for the other but no matter how much she looked she could only see one of them. She pulled out a dagger and pointed it at the squirrel, if her grandpa was awake even if a whole swarm would have jumped on them they would have been safe but now she is nothing but a small girl against a monster that can kill her with one bite.
The squirrel looked at the small dagger and started to audibly laugh.
*Squick squick squick!* *Squick squick squick!* While holding its belly.
The girl looked at him in confusion even more, asking herself what kind of cursed temple they had entered. But then she noticed something weird, a small red bush was poking from the squirrel's back.
“It looks the same but smaller…” She looked at the statue and murmured.
The squirrel stopped laughing and looked where the girl was looking and made a gesture of honor as he placed a hand at his heart and then looked at the girl and pulled a fruit from its mouth.
It was red, orange, and blue at the same time and some pure white aura surrounded it. It looked strange and weird as if it was pulsating and not at the same time. The girl looked at the fruit and took a breath of cold air as she mumbled, “Elixir of life…”
That was the name of a fruit that could bring out those that are dying from the grave, as it heals the body, the mind, and the soul. It was something from legend as it was impossible to mix all these energies together as each energy destroyed the other.
Only a legendary plant or an alchemist master could combine these energies and create something like this, rumors that even the Tree of Life only gave out a few of these fruits each year.
“Please give it to me so I can save my grandpa!” She begged the squirrel on her knees knowing very well that it was impossible as monsters had a perfect instinct to kill and toy with humans.
The squirrel didn’t answer, it just threw the fruit in front of the girl as if it was just another candy. The girl picked the fruit and looked at him in shock, “Thank you! Thank you!” She lowered her head again and again.
The squirrel shook his head and pointed with its pawn to the statue of the amazing bush that was riding a wolf. The girl looked over at the statue in confusion until the squirrel bowed to it, so she started to do the same every time she thanked the statue. “Thank you! Thank you!...”
The squirrel looked pleased and left, as soon as the girl saw this she took the fruit and fed it to her grandpa. Just as the fruit touched his tongue it turned into liquid and entered his throat as if it was alive, a minute didn’t pass before he opened his eyes in shock looking around frantically. “*Cough* *Cough* What?! Where?!”
“Grandpa! You're alright!” Scream the girl as she hugged him.
“But how I taught that… I burned my soul with Gaia…” He murmured, still confused.
“It's the squirrel!” The girl shouted and pointed at an empty spot where a fat squirrel was before. “It gave me an Elixir of life… And asked me to bow to the statue…” She spoke slower and slower as felt what she was saying was complete nonsense.
If normally his granddaughter would have told him something like this he would think that she had gone insane, but after entering this weird cave he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
So he shook his head from side to side and immediately stood up, “I don’t know if it's the gods or the devil playing with us but we better not find out…” Spoke the grandpa fast as he dragged the girl to the exit.
“But Grandpa, don't you want to study the temple…?” Asked the girl looking around the hideout full of rare plants and fruits and weird statues, of different people.
“No, let's not anger our benefactor and just leave, some secrets aren’t worth dying for…” He mumbled as dragged the girl out of the cave.
The girl gave it another glance and saw a fat squirrel with a red bush sticking out of its back waving goodbye to the girl. The girl smiled gently as she waved it goodbye too.