I had plans for world conquest since I first came to this new world, ready to take the lands before me as mine and everything in it. But well… there’s been a delay… three month’s delay in fact...

Being a kobold is such a difficult life. Ever since the first day I came here all I’ve done was mine and inspect all the supplies we had. It was honestly exhausting both physically and mentally... and to make matters worse...

“Oh, look who it is it’s the great Vladimir~”

“Hey, plan to grace us with another one of your ‘epic’ poses? ~”

“Why not make us bow before you with your intimidating laugh? ~”

A few of my fellow kobolds, all of whom of the brown scale, began to mock me. Since that first day when I let out such an exciting laugh. Well, I didn’t exactly help my case. Even when they started to openly mock me, I didn’t stop letting my intent known. After all I wasn’t going to hold back any more in this new life.

With a dramatic motion of my claw, I pointed down at the group of kobolds that were mocking me “Listen here plebians, one day you’ll regret mocking me! And once you do, you’ll beg to be mine! Veehahahahaha!!” With my declaration I ended it with the sound of my laughter I was becoming more known for.

There was a moment pause of silence that lasted for a few seconds. It was soon followed by a burst of laughter, the volume together almost comparable to my own. The mocking group couldn’t contain their laughter. It was as I expected, like all the other times they found my mannerisms and declarations amusing.

“Yeah, good luck with that! Hahahaha”

“Pfft yeah, you’ll sure make us regret it.”

The mocking kobolds left leaving me to my own accord, these days the others learned to take a certain distance from me. This worked out well enough for me. It makes it easier for me to experiment.

After all, it’s not like I was doing nothing at all these last three months! Whenever I had the time to myself, I did everything I could to improve my abilities and learn what I can do with them. First off, my [Mining Mastery] was steadily growing with the daily mining activity. I also found that the ability would grow through proper inspection of the minerals I harvested. It may not seem like an impressive ability but in my experience with these kinds of stories the most underrated skills can prove to be the most powerful.

[Game Screen] and [Dimensional Box] I was surprised to learn had progression scaling as well. It’s possible with [Dimensional Box] the growth would mean a larger storage space. Oddly enough, the ability seems to categorize each space through different types of items rather than how many. Right now, I have a large number of [Rock] stored, taking only one storage space. Definitely good to know, I’ll have to try improving this ability as soon as I can. As for [Game Screen] I am curious how this would grow if it’s even possible.

Overall, my abilities’ growth since these last three months are as follows.

[Game Screen] (Rank G)

(Progression: 55.54%)

[Dimensional Box] (Rank F)

(Storage Size: 2/5) (Progression: 22%)

[Kobold Adaptability] (Rank E)

(Progression: 40.21%)

[Mining Mastery] (Rank E)

(Progression: 99.50%)

I sighed to myself; the [Kobold Adaptability] really did slow my progress down. I have nothing to base this on, but it really felt like I was taking too long to grow these abilities. Even my most grown ability [Mining Mastery] hasn’t ranked up yet.

So today I’m aiming to rank up that ability and hopefully to test out if [Kobold Adaptability] will work as I expected. With that in mind I began my usual routine of mining. Being as close to rank up as I could be I put my all on it. Over and over, I’ll keep at it till it happens until my exhaustion kicks in.

And that’s what happened after a long time, my body caved, aching all over as I lay on the ground when a screen popped up.

[Mining Mastery] has Ranked up to Rank D

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I was exhausted but happy, after all these months I finally ranked up an ability! And now for the moment of truth. Seeing as I was too tired to move my arms at the moment, I mentally interacted with the screen. I smiled as what I was hoping for had come to fruition.

With improve skills in [Mining Mastery] you have unlocked a new skill or ability.

With [Kobold Adaptability] you are able to select from a list of available options.

As soon as I saw that I was quick to look through the list, though to my disappointment they all seem rather lackluster. I mean it mostly involved an upgraded version of [Mining Mastery] or simply better pickaxe skills or less stamina usage. I was on the cusp of giving up and just selecting a random skill when I noticed something else at the bottom of the screen.

Alternatively with use of [Kobold Adaptability] and [Game Screen] you are able to forge an entirely new skill or ability based off [Mining Mastery]

And there it is! When I read about this I immediately got started! The chance to create a new skill was too good an opportunity to pass up. And damn do I desperately need some kind of advantage to conquer in this world.

As I started on creating a new skill, I pondered on what I could make from [Mining Mastery]. I had thought maybe, since mining is all about manipulating the land, I could create a skill that lets me freely control the lands before me but when I thought that I ended up getting an ERROR message. Tch, guess that was asking for too much. I would have to scale it back, so I tried to consider the core aspect of mining.

When I consider it, mining is essentially about breaking down the raw materials to be used to recreate into something new. It seems [Game Screen] picked up on that as a new message appeared.

New Skill creation option identified.

[Material Forge] (Rank G)

Cost

Extremely Low Mana

Freely reshape nonliving materials as desired within range of user. (Range: 10 Meters)

Would you like to create new Skill?

Yes

No

Hmm interesting, based on the description it feels more like a tamed version of the skill I previously wanted. Still, with this I could possibly create objects with the materials I have on hand. I could make some weapons on the fly or with more practice even make something more complex. Though the limited range means I won’t be popping out large scale buildings anytime soon.

With that in mind, this will definitely be a good start for me, and I had many ideas I could use this for my quest for conquest.

Veehahahahaha~

So, without further ado I clicked yes to the prompt. The screen disappeared and I could feel a new power envelope within me. Afterwards, I could tell that it had worked and that I gained a new skill. I was so excited! It was my first skill, and I didn’t waste time trying it out! I dipped into my [Dimensional Box] and took out a big hunk of the large quantity of [Rock] I had stored over the last few months. I then put my focus on activating the skill.

Material Forge!!

When I had that thought the rock in my hand had suddenly broken into a pile of dust! It took me a bit of a surprise at first with the instant change, but I calmed down as I put my next thought, thinking of having the crushed rock to reshape into a ball.

The dust had responded in kind as it started to move on its own, even the ones that had fallen off into the floor near my feet. It barely took a second before it had changed into the shape of a ball just as I had thought! I tested out the texture of the rock ball and while I can still feel the same hardness of the material it was surprisingly as smooth as I had envisioned it to be.

It seems [Material Forge] perfectly captures what I picture in my head. Then it will be good for me to practice imaging in my head with as much detail as possible. I still had free time to myself so I continued to practice and study what I could do with [Material Forge].

After some time, I decided to take a break, I was feeling exhausted and could feel my mana supply running on low. After catching my breath, I decided to review what I learned about the skill.

First, I had a limited range, like the description said it was 10 meters away from any part of my body. Though interestingly enough it only applies to objects as a whole, which means that if I were to say have a long rod then my skill can reshape the entire rod so long as it stays within range at the edge.

Second, I am able to make as many objects as possible and as quickly as possible, it all seems determined from how much focus and mana I put into the skill. I put a mental note for myself to try to improve either my mana recovery rate or maximum capacity, I’m still struggling figuring out how these stats work.

Lastly, I had some understanding of what the description meant by nonliving materials. So, my guess would be that I wouldn’t be able to use my skill on living creatures, I found not even plants would work after I had tried it on some cave mushrooms.

Though, I tried testing out a theory by using some [Giant Rat Fur] I had stored and found that I was able to use my skill on it, despite coming out of a living creature. My hunch was right, it seems that the skill would count anything that isn’t attached to a living being, plant or creature, as nonliving which opens a lot more possibilities for me to utilize.

With all that in mind I decided on my next course of action. With my new power to bend the land before me to my will, there was a lot of preparation work in store for me~

“Veehahahaha!” I couldn’t contain my own joy as the empty cavern echoed my unfiltered laughter.

Meanwhile, from across a tunnel nearby the echoes of my laughter can be heard by my kobold brethren. Some reacted with their own laughter, some shaking their head in annoyance, and others felt a bit of cringe over another of his antics.