One after the other torches lit up while I looked in horror.
“Shit shit shit! Call the fire brigade!” I started to shout as I ran into the hideout, I looked around searching for something to extinguish the fire, until my eyes fell on the small pond.
“Water!” I ran to the pond but didn’t have buckets or urns to get the water with, so I used the *Grow* skill to grow a crude bucket. As I was trying to fill the water with my own body, it all started to spill out.
“Ah, shit!” I shouted and added more branches and roots to the bucket until most of the leaks stopped. I ran back to the gate while hugging the bucket, doing my best to not spill it on the way. Barely squeezing it through the tunnels, I came to the gate to see it smoking.
“No, my gate!” I shouted as I ran to it and shoved a root to its other side. Those bastards threw at least twenty torches and all the sticks and branches they could find from outside and made a big bonfire that was leaning on the gate.
I immediately shoved the bucket into one of the holes in the walls that were made for me to raise the get and let all the water flow through it.
*Pshh* With sounds of water hitting something hot resonated in the tunnel while smoke and steam rose up to its ceiling, but at the same time, the bonfire continued to burn as if I didn’t do a thing.
“Fuck there is just not enough water…” I looked at the small bucket in my hands, it really wasn’t nearly enough.
“Even if I make a few rounds the gate still will most likely burn, I need something else but what…?” I asked myself when an idea popped into my head as I looked at the ceiling.
“What if I just collapse the tunnel?” The idea was horrible and cool at the same time, for me to dig the tunnel would take just a day, and it's not like it will collapse completely.
“I think it should be fine…” I thought to myself as I took my roots and showed them into the ceiling while using the *Grow* and *Dig* skills at the same time, I moved the roots above the fire then above the trap hole, and then continued above the Kobolds.
At first, I just moved the roots forward more and more. Some dust and small pebbles started to fall down, only a few of the Kobolds noticed it, as they had keen senses while the others continued to bark at the fire as if cheering it on.
And only when my roots couldn’t go any further and when most of the ceiling above them was cracked and broken to pieces, I shouted at them with the *Soul Link* skill, “Die you ugly dogs!!!” And at the same time, I released my *Killing Intent* skills.
The leader of the Kobolds was among the first that sensed that something was wrong, he immediately turned around and bolted it, even pushing some Kobolds to the ground as he did so. While the other Kobolds looked at him in confusion, the ceiling started to collapse.
To my surprise, I couldn’t collapse the ceiling immediately, at first small rocks started to fall but slowly bigger rocks joined the party as I dug with my roots to the sides with full force. Only then did rocks the size of a human head started to rain at the Kobolds from above.
As the Kobolds understood what was going on and started to push each other to escape from the tunnel it was already too late, as the ceiling collapsed completely. Crushing most of them in the process, while at the same time falling on the bonfire and extinguishing most of its flames.
The tunnel was completely filled with dust and smoke as many screams and yelps of pain came through it. Because I only collapsed a small part of the tunnel and not all of it I only got around six to nine of the Kobolds, I wanted to get more but I was almost out of mana and it was just impossible for me to continue digging.
*Experience reached the desired quantity “Young Wild Wolf” leveled up to Lv12*
“*Phew* Good I guess a few of them died.” I could only sigh with relief as I looked at the cloud of dust, as I heard the message that the wolf leveled up.
As the dust settled and only cries of pain continued to be heard in the tunnel, as some of the brave Kobolds came into the tunnel once more, to rescue their friends. They dug through the rocks and rubble and picked up those that were still moving and even those that didn’t before escaping and not looking back.
In the end, only the leader came back, he looked at the wooden gate that still stood strong and growled with anger before leaving once more.
“*Sigh* Thank god, I don’t think that I could have done much more, my mana is almost depleted, same with my stamina as I used the *Grow* skill too much. If those Kobolds would have continued to attack our battle would surely have become really ugly.” I murmured to myself as I sighed in relief as I fell to the floor exhausted mentally more than physically.
“God dammit this was only one of their groups, how many died this time? Four to the trap and around three or four to the collapsing ceiling? Only then did they retreat, I guess now they won’t attack my tunnel for fear of it collapsing once more.” I thought to myself, going all over what happened and thinking what will be their next move.
“I guess they will regroup and try to hunt me outside, I need to be more careful from this day on while I am walking outside or a disaster could happen to me.” I murmured as I started to walk inside the hideout.
I was one hundred percent sure that the Kobolds wouldn’t return today as it was just an hour from dusk and the collapsed ceiling would make their advance towards the door almost impossible.
Even though I was tired I still took this chance and went over my inventory.
“Let's see I still have three more sticks for spears, I should craft them immediately. I still have some more poisonous flowers for the coating of the spears.” I walked through my weapons first, then I walked towards general stuff.
“Around ten good Gravis stones, lots of branches and leaves that still have a few days to dry before being useful as campfire fuel. A few big leaves and long grass that I still can make rope with, though I need to get more.” And only then did I walk towards my food supplies.
“Some mushrooms and fruits still didn’t go bad, but almost all the meat started to stink. The first one to go bad was the raw meat, then the cooked meat, and then the failed jerky.” I went and picked up a few pieces of the last failed jerkies I had as I started to munch on them.
“Even though I failed with them they still worked wonders and held on the longest, but I can’t make more as the furnace is still broken, and I need to get some clay from the river to make it even better.” I wanted to leave the hideout and get more resources but before that, I needed to add more traps and remove all the rubble that appeared in the tunnel because of my antics.
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“*Sigh* So much to do with so little time, well I guess I will go to sleep early today so I would be able to get up early tomorrow and start with removing the rocks and stones from the tunnel.” I slowly left the cold room that was still missing a door, as I could only shake my head as something always popped out and always interfered with my great plan of upgrading my hideout.
I looked around and grabbed the Excalibur, my trusty axe from the floor before shouting into the void, “Soon I will get healthier and all of you will see my might as I create the best base ever!” As I gave out a howl from the wolf's throat.
*Aaaaawwwwoooooo!* While giving a heroic pose on its back until I felt awkward as I slowly got down and lay on the floor.
“*Cough* I am sure that this looked better from the side.” I tried to convince myself as I closed my eyes and went to sleep.
***
I woke up early in the morning and started to dig through the rubble that was in front of my gate while mumbling to myself. “Thank god that my gate opens inside otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to open it.”
I removed a few stones and almost jumped in fear as the first thing that met me was the open maw of the dead Kobold that the leader killed.
“Oh right, I forgot that you guys were here too.” I mumbled to myself as I used the *Grow* skill to grow out my roots and wrap them around the corpse as I started to drag it out of the tunnel
*”Grow” leveled up to Lv4*
“Damn, you took long enough.” I said as the number of times I grew up my roots or branches were in the hundreds already.
“Right, some skills are harder to level up, I guess this is one of them…” I murmured to myself as I easily jumped over my pitfall but the corpse almost dragged me down into it.
“Crap!!!” I shouted in my head as I scraped the rocks and stones that filled the tunnel with the wolf's claws, sending a few of them tumbling into the hole. I did my best not to be dragged down and fall into the pit, only after growing more branches and holding the walls with them did I was able to get out of this predicament.
“Phef…” I took a sigh of relief once more before cursing, “Goddammit this hole will be the death of me, do I need to create a bridge or something to cross it?” I asked myself as I always forgot about this stupid trap.
In the end, I let the future me deal with it as I had a lot of work to do. I moved the corpse out of the tunnel and just dropped it in the forest, of course after digging my way out of it which was quite easy with the wolf body.
I didn’t forget to take the goodies that the Kobold had to myself. It had a small bag with healing grass dust and a torch that was coated with something black most likely some kind of soot and another bone hammer to my collection.
“Well, now I need to remove the fallen stones.” I jumped back over the pit and looked at all the stones and rocks that filled the tunnel when suddenly an idea popped into my head.
“I remember in my dream the father wolf was able to reshape the earth with the *Earth Control* skill, I barely can move some stones but can’t I just reshape it?” I asked myself as I picked a few stones from the ground and with my roots brought them up to the ceiling.
The wolf's eyes glowed with a gentle yellow light as the stone got stuck to the ceiling. “This is amazing!” I exclaimed with a happy smile on my imaginary face as the wolf’s tail started to move from happiness.
“Doesn’t it mean I can just, create structures from rocks now?!” I asked myself excitedly as I started to pick up rocks and fix them to the ceiling. In the end, all the big rocks and stones in the tunnel were back on the ceiling, of course, now they were holding a lot weaker than before but they were holding non the less.
And it wasn’t that bad as it meant that the next time when I will need to use the falling ceiling trap it would be easy as just flipping a finger, as all I will need to do is touch the rocks from above with my roots and use the *Dig* skill just a smidge.
“This is good, this is great!” I shouted happily as I stopped in front of the pit looking down there at the bloody stones.
“Oh right, I need to get them out too…” I murmured to myself as I let down my roots and grabbed the bloody rocks from what was left of the Kobolds down there.
“Ew…” I said as I picked up the bloody stones which were still with some flesh on them and most likely brain matter. I just chose to throw them out of the tunnel instead of returning them to the ceiling, as I didn’t want this place to stink as there were already a few rocks with blood up there.
I started to bring out the Kobolds that were in the pit, their bodies were quite damaged and in bits, not something I would have wanted to do on a full stomach. I dropped their bodies with the other Kobold and added their spears to the pitfall trap, as I moved the spears back into vertical positions as many of them got dislodged or even broken.
Fixing them with some rope wasn’t a problem or just replacing the short sticks with others so that is exactly what I did.
“Well, now that I finished with that, I need to grab some food. Before that, I should craft some more spears and coat them with poison.” I went back to the hideout and created three more spears, took the poison flowers and made a paste out of them, and afterwards tied the paste with the big leaves to the spears.
“Good now I can leave, as I need to find more food.” I said to myself as I grabbed the two spears that were coated with poison all night and left the hideout.
I slowly walked through the forest carefully using *Detection* and *Stealth* skills as I knew that the Kobolds most likely will stay away from the tunnel from this day on, but on the other hand, I was expecting an ambush coming my way sooner or later.
I picked up some mushrooms and healing grasses that I found on my way until I came to the Mungo tree.
“I guess I better pick up as many fruits as I can so I can dry them out and preserve them for emergencies.” I thought to myself as I had an idea to just hole myself in my hideout until I and the wolf would get completely healed as I believed that afterward, I would be able to deal with a group of twenty Kobolds with hit-and-run tactics.
After a few minutes of me picking up fruits, I heard a weird sound coming from one of the bushes, my head immediately turned and I used the detection skill on the bush, but to my surprise, nothing came out of it.
“Am I too much on the edge?” I asked myself confused as I slowly walked to the bush, very carefully expecting as I had already had a weird experience with unexpected stuff in the forest.
Just as I was ready to take another step forward, I heard a message and with it, a presence inside the bush appeared out of nowhere.
*”Detection” leveled up to Lv4*
Suddenly a gray-green shadow jumped out of the bush and sent a spear in my direction. I jumped back in fright but easily dodged it as I was on alert all this time. I looked in confusion at the gray Kobold that was wearing a grass-like suit that was running away at high speed from me, I immediately inspected him out of habit.
***
-Gray Forest Kobold Lv5-
Health: 19/19
Mana: 10/10
Stamina: 17/20
*Gray Forest Kobold* - Evolution of the Forest Kobold, they are great at ambush and stealth but on the other hand, they are very weak in head-to-head combat but still stronger than the other normal Kobolds. Careful as what these Kobolds lack in strength they do not lack in intelligence and cunning.
***
“Well, shit did I get all of their camp attention on me…?” I asked a little bit worried and thought to myself should I chase this Kobold or should I leave it be, in the end, I shook my head and chose to continue with the objective on hand as I had too many items on me.
“Better start preparing for the future than chasing one small Kobold.” I said to myself not knowing that that choice would cost me something very precious.