Chapter 13: Fighting Kobolds once more

"System, what time is it?"

< IT IS NOW 10 AM HOST >

Deryn nodded his head, he had finished building the remaining pitfall spike traps in front of the valley wall. He had woken up at 8 am and after a quick wash and breakfast went straight to work.

"Come on Kev let's wash up then we need to head out" Deryn shouted to Kev, who was cutting down a tree in the distance. Kev dropped what he was doing and ran over to Deryn tail wagging in excitement.

*Sigh*

Deryn sighed before chucking a piece of raw meat to the glutton kobold.

After cleaning up Deryn sat in the buggy with Kev next to him. Taking the map out of his inventory he saw that there was still only three kobold encampments left; left in the maps range anyway.

Opening up the garage door he drove out.

"Kev grab the gate will ya?" Deryn asked his companion.

"Woof"

Kev jumped out of the buggy before grabbing the lever pulling it with relish, all whilst making eye contact with Deryn. As the gate opened Deryn drove out and Kev got back in the car.

Deryn got the system to link the gate to the main power supply of the base which would mean he could activate the lever via the command necklace he wore.

"Sorry Kev, I forgot about doing that" Deryn apologised throwing a piece of meat to the clueless Kobold.

Shaking his head Deryn drove towards the nearest Kobold camp which was around 4km away.

Picking up speed Deryn drove the buggy through the hilly terrain at a breakneck pace whilst Kev had his head hanging out the side with its tongue stuck out, eyes squinting from happiness or just the wind, Deryn couldn't tell.

Focusing his thoughts, he realised there was only less than 24hrs before the first test started. He wanted to destroy the other encampments now for two reasons. The first is the rewards he can get and the second is the souls from killing kobolds which could potentially mean he can enslave more kobolds.

Whilst he didn't treat Kev that bad, the menial tasks of gathering basic resources were left to him and if Deryn could get more kobolds, this meant an increase in resources gathered which in turn would give him more options in the upcoming test.

The impending battles would also be a good test for the new ring Deryn had and the spells it contained.

He drove the buggy at an average pace of 40km/h and he wasn't too far away from encampment now after a mere 5 or so minutes of driving. Parking the buggy Deryn ordered Kev to stay with it and bark if anything tried to come close so Deryn could hear and come back.

The encampment was only around 100 or so metres away and like the last one, a hill was situated blocking it. This made for a good vantage point, except there was no cover this time. Not even the smallest of bushes down from the hill in the direction of the encampment.

Situated on the hill Deryn confirmed there were still only six tents. This meant a minimum of 6 enemies, but if he learnt anything from the last time it seemed that there were two kobolds to a tent.

He had to come up with a new strategy for this encampment as it was double the size of the last one. A few ideas came to mind such as blasting it with a fireball from range. But from the testing he did yesterday whilst working around the shelter, the maximum range of the fireball spell and wind blade were only 15m and 25m respectively.

He was clearly too far away at this moment to make use of them. A riskier idea he thought of was to use the wind walking ability brought by his boots. He could then walk on the air and run directly overhead the kobold camp before raining down with fireballs and wind blades.

This plan interested him and the only real demerits were the archers who could still shoot him as he would have to be within 15m range of the camp but also the 30-second duration the ability had.

Deryn decided to try and sneak closer. If he could get closer then more options on what to do will be available to him. It went well until he reached around 30m from the camp. One of the tents opened and two spear-wielding kobolds walked out. But by sheer luck, one kobold who was stretching saw Deryn in the distance.

It began growling and barking madly, making the other tent flaps fly open. Deryn turned and retreated to the top of the hill as 11 kobolds started crazily chasing him.

He had counted 11 kobolds. 8 of which were wielding melee weapons, 2 held bows whilst there was a single kobold that was holding what looked to be a large stick. This new kobold was unexpected for Deryn but he didn't panic and instead upon reaching the top of the hill activated plan B.

A wall rose beneath him lifting him into the air. The kobolds were left behind due to his agility but were steadily gaining on him now because he had stopped. As the kobolds reached 30 metres away the stick holding and archer kobolds stopped before aiming their weapons at Deryn.

He jumped into the air and activated the wind walking boots whilst his hand was already forming a fireball spell. A single strong push of his right leg and Deryn was hurtled through the air before landing steadily 15 metres away from his opponents. The fireball which was now fully formed was launched towards the archer and stick holder in one smooth motion.

Not even waiting for the fireball to his Deryn began summoning a wind blade. As the blade was fully formed, the fastest cast time out of the 4 spells, the fireball hit the area the archers and stick holder was with a bang.

Whilst waiting for the dust to settle and see the situation Deryn launched two wind blades, the second forming a moment after the first left his hand. Instantly the melee kobolds lost 3 of their packmates whilst a fourth lost an arm.

"Don't stand close together" Deryn muttered as he shot another wind blade taking the life of another melee kobold.

Whilst this felt like a while not even 7-8 seconds had passed since Deryn began his assault. Instantly lessening his enemies from 11 to 6 whilst only having to spend 25 mana and 1/3rd duration on his Windwalker ability.

The dust had settled right when a new fireball had been summoned in Deryn hand. The two ranged kobolds besides being slightly singed were otherwise fine, whilst the stick welding kobold didn't have a single mark of ash on him like the others. A giant bubble-like shield seemed to be protecting them.

Deryn realised this was a mage kobold and a slight sweat appeared on his back. He didn't know what abilities the mage kobold had but had a feeling it would be dangerous. He launched another fireball at the shield causing dust and dirt to fill the ranged trio's vision as Deryn dropped into the middle of the melee kobolds.

Spear summoned the moment he hit the ground Deryn instantly pierced a melee kobolds throat before ripping the face of another. "I really have a habit of doing that," he thought whilst stabbing the final standing melee kobold in the face, pulling the spear back with a squelch as the body hit the floor from losing its support.

Another fireball had been forming above his hand and had just finished before being launched once again at the ranged trio. Blocking their vision, preventing them from doing anything, especially the mage who had to focus on defence to protect itself and its two companions.

At this point, the 2 disabled kobolds on the floor were slaughtered and Deryn once more jumped back into the air. He only had around 4-5 seconds left on his ability now and wanted to make the most of it. Summoning a wind blade, he launched it directly at the mage's shield and was shocked as the wind blade directly popped the shield before burying itself into and through the body of the unlucky archer.

Dropping from the sky, Deryn landed on the mage. Spear first. The spear went directly through the mages body, head first before getting stuck on the floor. Deryn let go of the spear before summoning another wind blade.

Before he could turn around an arrow had buried itself in his shoulder. The right one. It would have hit him in the head had he not been turning around to finish the last archer off. This remaining archer had abandoned its bow and instead gripped an arrow directly ready to finish Deryn off.

*GASP*

Deryn didn't scream this time. The arrow didn't pierce very deep as it wasn't shot via a bow instead thrust through his leather armour. Ripping the arrow directly out of his shoulder Deryn grabbed it before jabbing it directly through the side of the kobolds head.

The kobold looked at Deryn with fear and venomous hatred. He didn't care though. His opponent had lost its opportunity and instead only dealt a minor wound to him when it had the chance to do him serious harm.

Deryn began harvesting the corpses whilst thinking to himself. "They really aren't all that smart. They could have separated in the beginning and the archers could have left the bubbles protective circle to shoot at me".

He was slightly annoyed that he had gotten hurt from the kobold right at the end, reminding him once more of his painful experience the last time he let his guard down. He nitpicked all the things the kobolds could have done differently in his head as he walked back to the buggy, still very much salty from forgetting the lesson which almost cost him his life last time.

Upon seeing the buggy, Deryn was shocked out of his self-anger state of mind. Kev was lying over the top of the roll cage roof sleeping with a snot bubble the size of a babies fist coming out of its nose.

Deryn didn't know if he was angry or amused as he watched this sight.

"KEV"

The kobold shot awake and fell to the floor. He snarled jumping up before seeing who startled it awake. Upon seeing that it was Deryn who had a weird smile on his face the kobolds ears drooped and its tail went between its legs. Whining it tried to walk towards Deryn who stopped it with a look.

"No Kev. Don't try and act cute now. What if someone sneaked up and stole the buggy? What if they attacked you?" Deryn slightly snarled at the kobold.

The kobold thumped its chest once before facing off against an invisible enemy snarling and jumping at it. Instead, just hit the floor as no one was there...

Torn between laughing and crying Deryn just sighed.

"This can't happen again Kev or I will take away your food as punishment".

The kobold got excited at the word food before its tail dropped realising Deryns intent. Kev stood up from the ground before nodding at Deryn seriously. It then grabbed its eyes and held them wide open as it looked around for potential enemies.

Deryn once more stifled a laugh. Feeling that the kobold had learnt at least something from this Deryn opened up the inventory of the buggy before transferring the loot from the battle.

His spoils went as follows:

5x Wooden Chests

2x Iron Chests

126x Raw meat (100g)

48x Hide

2x Bow / 26x arrows

1x Magic staff

44x Kobold souls

4x Regular stone spear

4x Regular Stone small hatchet

The chest drop rates had decreased once again, the boars last time and now the kobolds. Deryn realised as he got stronger, the drop rates of enemies he had battled before, decreased.

The mage kobold gave Deryn 10 souls which when doubled by the 2x reward system along with the souls from the other kobolds gave him a monstrous 44x Kobold souls. This brought his total of souls to 62 now and he was only 38 souls away from levelling up the kobold slave contract.

He jumped in the buggy along with Kev before driving towards the encampment. Parking around 20m away Deryn sternly told Kev to guard the buggy before he ran towards the tents with his guard up. As he passed by the first tent a blue box popped up in his vision asking if he wanted to dismantle the tent.

This meant that he had fully cleared the encampment and the items/buildings left here were in an ownerless state. Like the last time, he dismantled all the tents before searching the ground for the kobold chests. A few minutes later and he had found it, the kobold chest disappeared into his inventory, and there sat two silver chests, waiting to be opened.

"I love the 2x system reward" he muttered.

Making sure nothing of note was left behind he walked back to the buggy before depositing his items inside of its inventory.

Deryn got back into the buggy before driving towards the next location, ready to wipe out the second 6 tent encampment shown on his map. It would take him around 10 minutes to get there and after doing some calculations in his head his mana would be sitting around 43/79.

The drive to the encampment wasn't anything special. This was until he got around .5km away from the camp. There he encountered 4 melee kobolds which looked shocked at the buggy speeding towards them.

Jumping out a few metres away Deryn threw a fireball at the group and directly blasted the 4 melee kobolds into the air.

Scorching heat was felt from the aftershock of the explosion as Deryn could smell the burnt flesh of his prey. The sound of screams and whimpers filled the air as Deryn ran to each downed kobold before finishing them off with a simple spear thrust to the head.

Waiting for the flames to die down Deryn looked around the area. The once green land was scorched black a few metres in diameter and bloodied, limbless kobolds were dead on the ground. As the flames died out Deryn strode through the burning embers harvesting each kobold.

Placing the spoils in the buggy's inventory Deryn decided to drive to the encampment to finish the remaining kobolds right away before they knew of the 4 missing members of their pack.

As Deryn was 100 metres away he once more jumped out of the buggy telling Kev to guard it. As he was walking closer to the encampment a slightly creepy smile formed on his face.