Chapter 14: Taking advantage of infighting

Deryn was less than 30 metres from the camp, hidden this time behind a few trees. He used the forest to his advantage this time as he observed the scene before him.

There were two groups of kobolds, clearly in opposition to one another. On one side stood 13 kobolds, some with injuries whilst on the other side opposing them stood 17 kobolds, panting slightly but otherwise unharmed.

The group of 13 looked like they were waiting for something as they kept looking around. Deryn realised the 4 melee kobolds, he killed on his way here, were part of this camp.

This meant they had the numerical disadvantage and were clearly struggling without the other 4 that he killed.

Smiling to himself he waited as the battle broke out one more. The mage kobolds were shielding the archers whilst the melee kobolds were duking it out with arrows raining around them.

Deryn shook his head "aiy, being a melee kobold sure is tough" he sighed.

The mage of the larger group barked something at the smaller groups mage; who snarled back viciously before throwing a fireball spell at the enemy mage.

It did little to nothing besides a few scorch marks on the archers, which the other kobold mage clearly sneered at, before throwing a fireball at the enemy melee kobolds, blasting 3 into pieces.

The lesser groups mage looked shocked. Well, as shocked as the dog-like creature can show. It seemed that the mage broke some sacred battle rule or something, but Deryn couldn't really tell.

He was planning how best to take advantage of this situation when an opportunity presented itself. The mages shields had both disappeared with a slight popping sound as the lesser groups mage got on the ground seemingly submitting to the other mage.

Deryn was confused how it could submit so easily without a fight but upon noticing its pack mates covered in injuries and panting heavily he started to sympathise.

This didn't stop his plan however and he began casting a fireball spell before launching himself in the air.

Too focused upon growling at its now expanded pack the standing mage didn't see the fireball which hit right into its group of 5 ranged kobolds.

* BOOM *

The fireball hit the mage in the chest and blasted it to literal pieces, with the four archer kobolds surrounding it suffering a similar fate. Limbs flew through the air as Deryn threw wind blades at the other kobolds in his sight before heavily landing on the still lying down mage kobold.

With a whimper, the mage kobold passed out. Spear already in hand Deryn batted an archer kobold with the shaft of his spear in the temple directly knocking it out cold like the mage.

Jumping back in the air another fireball left his hand which blew up a group of 4 melee kobolds as he rushed forward stabbing another archer kobold in the eye.

This took him no more than 5 seconds to complete which whilst may seem a fair amount of time to react the kobolds surrounding him still hadn't woken up from the initial fireball claiming the lives of the 5 ranged kobolds.

He tossed his spear forwards impaling another archer kobold whilst slicing the last one's head off its shoulders with a wind blade. Rushing forward he picked up his spear before facing the remaining kobolds.

15 Kobolds left Deryn thought to himself; 2 of which were already knocked out.

At this point, the kobolds reacted.

*snort* "Too little too late" Deryn snorted to himself as he threw two more wind blades which maimed three more kobolds.

He took to the air once more before thrusting his spear downwards piercing the top of a head of a melee kobold. The fireball he was summoning was thrown downwards as he flew higher to escape the blast radius.

The kobolds which had grouped stupidly around him looked into the sky at him as the fireball exploded in their midst.

*howl*

*whimper*

*squelch*

Deryn walked through the flaming corpses as he finished off the last two kobolds that lived after he threw the fireball. It was an easy battle for him beside the drain on his stamina both physical and mental. Throwing that many spells whilst moving wasn't the easiest.

Deryn harvested the corpses and finally, the familiar ding popped in his head.

————————————————————————————————————————————

< DING >

< KOBOLD SLAVE CONTRACT HAS INCREASED IN LEVEL >

————————————————————————————————————————————

< KOBOLD SLAVE CONTRACT LEVEL 2 (UPGRADABLE) >

DESCRIPTION: Use this on a defeated kobold to make it your slave. Slave kobolds will listen to the orders of whoever owns this scroll. This scroll is upgradable and to upgrade the scroll the user has to kill kobolds to gather their souls.

Kobold souls gathered for upgrade: 46/200

Kobold slaves: 1/3

RARITY: Uncommon (Green)

NOTE: Can now own 3 kobolds.

————————————————————————————————————————————

Deryn wasn't too impressed. He could only get 2 more kobolds after upgrading the level of the slave contract. It didn't give him any information on whether he could own archer or mage kobolds either.

Luckily he expected something like this. So as a backup plan he knocked out the two other professions of kobolds earlier during the fight.

He excitedly ran to the mage kobold before trying the contract on it.

————————————————————————————————————————————

< KOBOLD SLAVE CONTRACT IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH LEVEL TO ENSLAVE UNCOMMON CLASS MAGE KOBOLDS >

————————————————————————————————————————————

...

"Fu..."

Deryn wasn't happy. He muttered to himself whilst walking over the archer kobold before using the contract.

Upon using it a transparent chain shock once more out of the contract before wrapping around the little soul state kobold. Upon being chained the glow disappeared from the book and the little kobold soul flew back into the body of the archer kobold.

Deryn was a little surprised. Not because it worked but because of how easily he managed to capture this one compared to Kev. Then again, the archer kobold was unconscious and was only now coming too, whilst Kev was conscious and had to be slapped before the contract could take effect properly.

The archer awoke and saw Deryn peering over it. It instantly got onto its knees before kowtowing to Deryn. Mentally prodding it, the kobold got up before merely bowing and walked off to one side.

This made Deryn a bit happier. He now had two kobolds and with one more camp left he could fill up the final slot left with another kobold.

Chin in hand he looked at the mage kobold before his eyes lit up. Walking to the semi-destroyed encampment he cut some canvas off of the tents before binding up the mage kobold.

A few minutes later and a mummy was presented before him.

"There is no way this guy can escape now" Deryn proudly exclaimed.

*woof*

Looking at the archer kobold Deryn was deciding on a name before giving up. There was no way he would name every single thing that came under him so he decided to be lazy about it.

"Your name is Archer 1," Deryn said aloud to which another *woof* with a nod was replied back to him.

He decided that kobolds he enslaves *cough* adopts... from now on besides Kev will follow the same format, named after their profession along with a number following it. So if Deryn got another archer, he would call it archer 2 and so forth.

"I'm a genius" he sighed.

< SYSTEM NOTE LOGGED: HOST LIES TO HIMSELF >

"..."

"... SYSTEM"

*sigh*

Deryn gave up. He hadn't got one up on the system before and wasn't so bold to assume he could get one now.

He ordered the archer kobold to guard the now mummified unconscious mage before Deryn ran back to Kev and the buggy.

Upon arriving Kev was awake this time with something at its feet. Upon closer inspection it was a rabbit to which Kev puffed out his chest proudly, feeling it had accomplished something great and was bound for praise.

Deryn knocked its head before putting the rabbit in its lap.

"haha, good job Kev, you can eat it! " Deryn praised.

Kev's tail started wagging in pride.

Deryn, not minding jumped in the buggy with Kev who had the rabbit in his mouth.

A few minutes later and Deryn was once again at the scene of the battle. There were still embers from the thrown fireballs that were spitting but he paid no mind to that.

Kev followed him off the buggy before walking over the archer kobold who froze upon seeing Kev with the rabbit still in its mouth.

Kev's eyes lit up and he began glowing with pride. Dropping the rabbit on the floor he began communicating with the other kobold.

The rabbit hit the floor before springing to life and darting off into the nearby forest.

"woof?"

*whine?*

"....."

Deryn burst out in laughter at the confused look on Kev's face. He caught the rabbit but didn't kill it and then it escaped.

Even the archer kobold looked at Kev like he was looking at a retard as it started sniggering.

Kev looked down at the floor and then the direction the rabbit went before falling backwards in a daze softly whining to itself.

Deryn shook his head and just ordered the two to guard the mage kobold before he ransacked the rest of the place whilst gathering up the kobold chest.

Putting everything into his inventory he hoisted the mage kobold into the backseat of the buggy before telling Kev and Archer 1 to share the front seat. He was going to the other encampment to dismantle and claim his rewards before anyone else potentially did.

A few minutes later and he arrived at an empty camp.

"They really did send out everyone," he thought to himself as he gathered up all of the loot he could get his hands on.

Walking back to the buggy Deryn placed the items in its inventory before seeing what his gains were in these two camps.

Wooden chest x12

Iron chest x8

Kobold's chest x4

This brought his total chests gained today at:

Wooden chest x20

Iron chest x10

Kobold chest x6

Deryn was giddy with excitement.

If he could just once again get the extremely small chance of getting a unique gold item his power would once more potentially shoot through the roof.

Even still, if he didn't get the small chance, rare times alone were already extremely good to the current Deryn. It's just a shame his mind has been slightly clouded due to the extremely powerful ring and generator he managed to get.

Deryn was a bit lost in thought. He once more began to ponder about tutorial test 1 that was commencing tomorrow. It was nerve-wracking that there was still no new information on what the test was going to be about or if his preparation so far were even all that useful.

Shaking his head, Deryn got himself out of those depressing thoughts. Even if it weren't useful today it may be useful for tomorrow, he thought whilst grinning to himself. What was to come will come and there was nothing he could do in his power to change it.

Deciding to think about it all later he questioned the system.

"System what time is it".

He wanted to start moving along with the final encampment.

< 1:36 PM >

He decided it was time for a quick break before freezing. Checking his mana pool he realised that he wouldn't be able to fight the final encampment today.

With all the spells he cast along with using the slave contract on Archer 1 Deryn only had a pitiful 3/79 mana remaining. It would take him around 4 minutes to regen 1 point of mana, which would mean just over 5 hours to refill his mana to full.

Whilst that was frustrating, Deryn had no choice but to wait until his mana was full before even thinking about taking on the last encampment he could see on the map. The battles so far had only been that easy for him as he had the < RING OF FOUR ELEMENTS > as his main source of damage in battles.

"System is there any way I can improve my mana recovery without increasing my intelligence?" he questioned.

< THERE ARE MULTIPLE WAYS FOR THIS HOST. YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION AT THIS STAGE HOWEVER FOR THE SYSTEM TO DISCLOSE THESE WAYS >

*Sigh*

"Information again..." he sighed.

A few moments later he came back to himself and stood up.

Not one to mope around Deryn decided he would have a short break before gathering basic resources with Kev and Archer 1. He had food and water with him and with the storage of the buggy there wasn't a need to go home as he could store resources found directly in there.

With the plan decided Deryn took out some raw meat for the three kobolds and after telling Kev and Archer to feed the now conscious mummy-like mage he began to dig in for himself.