.

- Okay, the halt is over, let's move on, only now you need to look back and listen, if you hear anything, even if you think that it seemed to you, tell me right away. It is better to make a mistake 7 times than to miss it once, - gave further instructions to his friend Elim, after which they moved on.

Jan, who received a new assignment, listened to every sound and as soon as he heard something, in his opinion, unusual, he called his comrade and together they went back to check if there was anything or someone. At first, he was a little embarrassed to call Elim, but seeing how he calmly, without any reproaches, returned to check, he felt better.

After some time, they stumbled upon a branch, in which Elim found someone's tracks. Only by looking closely, Ian could distinguish some small scratches from the claws on the floor of the tunnel, if Elim had not told him, he would not have noticed them. After that, the guys moved forward in their usual formation.

Jan did not know if they would find someone in the tunnel or it would be empty, so he was very worried: if there were any goblins in this tunnel, this would be his first battle. He, of course, understood that when he met some monsters, he would have to fight with them and kill them. The thought made his mood worse. He himself was a kind man by nature and the thought of murder was unpleasant to him, but from what Elim told him, it became clear that very soon those who had the power, that is, the "Reborn", would become the main ones again, and since his friend gave him a chance to become one of them, he must use it.

While Ian was mentally preparing for the first battle, Elim looked very carefully at the tunnel along which he was moving. Even at the entrance, he noticed footprints, and after some thought and rummaging in his memory, he concluded that the footprints belonged to kobolds.

Kobolds were rather nasty creatures: small humanoids, usually no more than a meter in height, with a rat tail and a muzzle: either a rat or a dog, covered with pale pink hair. As a rule, they wore rags made of the skin of the creatures they had killed, covering the most important, and used rather primitive stone tools as weapons, metal weapons could only be in the most "noble" kobolds. Compared to goblins, their craft skills were inferior, but on the other hand, almost all kobolds had an innate relationship with earth magic, due to which many of them often used elemental spells in battle or to make new tunnels.

These creatures also loved to set traps in their tunnels, they weren't super complicated, but nevertheless they remained effective, so Elim had to check the tunnel for traps. After some time, walking through the tunnel, Elim heard a noise, as he moved, the noise became stronger, so before the next turn, he signaled to Jan to stop, and he crept up to the place where the tunnel was expanding.

The extended tunnel was a small space where kobolds were swarming, there were seven of them: two, using magic, crushed part of the wall into stones, which the other kobolds pulled aside to free up space. After exploring the place and observing the kobolds for some time, Elim made sure that reinforcements could not arrive and went back to his comrade.

After Ian learned that there were enemies ahead and they would attack, his heart pounded wildly - he was very worried and probably even a little afraid. Seeing the increased excitement of his friend, Elim hastened to calm him down:

- Don't worry, there are 7 of them, but 5 of them do not possess magic and do not pose a serious threat, with your [Petrification] they need to pile up all together in order to at least break through it. With your size, you just sweep them away. There will be two problems with magic, but I will deal with them.

- One? Maybe it's better for me, using [Petrification] I can withstand their attacks while you deal with the others. "Ian believed that since he had the defensive skill that Elim gave him, he should act as the vanguard.

- No need, I can handle it myself, those two are at the very wall, so at first there will be those that are weaker in front of us. First, we attack them and you will remain to finish off, and I will take on those two, the main thing here is not to withstand the attacks, but to eliminate them as quickly as possible - in this regard, I will be better. Okay?

Ian nodded and together they crept to the enemy, in the place where the tunnel widened, they pressed against the wall, preparing to attack. When most of the kobolds turned their backs on them, Elim darted in their direction, and a second later Yang followed him, discovering that his friend was moving at an unrealistic speed.

The kobolds were alarmed when they saw two people approaching rapidly. Elim, on the other hand, rushed towards the two kobold magicians who had just noticed him. The rest did not even have time to get their weapons when a giant, by their standards, Yang flew into them, from one of his blows the kobold flew off a couple of meters. Seeing how easily he was able to knock out the enemy, covered with stone armor Yang was delighted and the last bit of fear disappeared from his head, after which he rushed to the others with a warlike cry.

Meanwhile, Elim almost reached the kobold magicians, who had already begun to use their skills: all the small stones began to rise and move at high speed towards the person attacking them. Squinting and covering his face with his hand, he did not react in any way to the barrage of stones, but moved at full speed towards one of the magicians. He apparently expected that his spell would have a greater effect, so he did not have time to react and Elim, crashing into him at full speed, slammed him into the wall and a moment later his sword pierced his neck.

Seeing the fate of his comrade, the second kobold mage roared and instead of a large number of small stones, only 3 rushed to Elim, but if he had received a blow to the head from at least one of these, he would not have been able to get up. Therefore, this time he had to dodge attacks, meanwhile his opponent moved further and made another volley from which Elim had to dodge. This went on for a while: the kobold mage attacked Elim, preventing him from coming closer, but none of his attacks were able to reach Elim. But after several such "volleys" the kobold mage began to get tired and the interval between them became larger, which was used by the guy who used mana to get the mage with one jerk.

Realizing that the approaching man would definitely kill him, the kobold summoned all the remaining forces and 6 large stones rushed towards Elim, who had already brushed aside the possibility of avoiding full damage from a desperate attack, therefore, having managed to dodge 4 of them, he received 2 strongest blows: one to ribs on the left side, and the second in the left hand. The blow turned him around, but he was able to stay on his feet and a second later moved again in the direction of the kobold, who, exhausted from his last attack, was practically unable to move and even more so could not defend himself from Elim.

Glancing at Ian, he smiled - compared to the kobolds, his friend was a real giant, because of [Petrification] they could not harm him, so Ian, having overcome his mental barriers, easily killed them and now only two survived ...

"Well, Jan is fine, so let's return to our rams" - thought Elim, looking at the exhausted kobold magician, he decided not to kill him right away, but to try to extract his soul. After Ian finished off the latter, Elim crushed the kobold mage with his knee and grabbed by the throat, tried to get the soul out of the enemy. Yan, who came up, wanted to call out to his friend, he now had a lot of different emotions and he was impatient to talk to Elim, but he only told him to wait without explaining anything.

Now Elim was in no hurry and recalled how he was first able to extract the soul from the enemy: it was in one of the dungeons of Naargard, a world captured by demons after the Earth fell. Elim focused on these memories and sensations, trying to repeat what he had done long ago. After a couple of minutes, the kobold beneath him began to break free and scream, but as in the past, Elim held his victim tightly. After a few minutes, which seemed like an eternity for the kobold, Elim managed to extract the soul from the body of the enemy and enclose it in his own, at that moment Yan saw how a light turquoise clot of energy from the body of the cobald entered his friend's hand, and then rose and disappeared under his clothes.

Jan did not see, but the clot stopped near Elim's heart. In the past, when Elim grabbed the enemy's soul, she almost took control of his body, but now, although he again became a weak "Reborn", his soul did not change in any way and was as strong as before, feeling it, the soul of the kobold was so scared that she did not dare to squeak.

"Well, wait, my dears, the Soul Collector is back," thought Elim, feeling how the soul of the kobold in his body was afraid. As soon as his soul left his body, it perished and a message visible to him only appeared before Elim:

[Received level 2]