The Bare Hunt: A LitRPG/GameLit Novel (The Good Guys Book 7)

by Eric Ugland

  “Flattered as I am, you have little to worry about my feelings.”

  “Yeah, well, I do. So if you really think we need to do something about the kobolds, make something temporary—”

  “Commit or not. You cannot do things by half and make it work.”

  “So we do it.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, let’s do it.”

  The start of the swearing ceremony was a shit-show. It was like herding cats to get all the kobolds in place. That, more than anything else, made me second-guess my decision. What was cool, though, was watching how the explanation to all of the kobolds happened. Baltu explained it to two kobolds, who then explained it to two kobolds while Baltu explained to two more kobolds. In ten minutes, the entire group of 1,785 kobolds understood what was going on. They finally got into one big group in front of me, ready for the ceremony.

  “I am ready to hear your oath,” I bellowed.

  Some of the kobolds jumped, startled. But after a momentary pause, the kobolds spoke nearly as one, in kobold, their oath. Which was basically the same as the one the Ursus had said. It felt to me like the world was taking over and telling them what to say.

  There was a complete lack of cheering or celebration. Mostly, the kobolds milled around. On the other hand, I got a nice notice about the holding.

  Congratulations! Your holding now has enough followers that they measure more than 25% of the total population of Coggeshall. Your holding is now eligible to gain levels. Caution: if this is not brought above 50% in six years, your holding will lose a level and shrink.

  “Well,” I said, letting a small smile dance across my face, “at least I’ve got that going for me.”

  I didn’t wait around to see what was going to happen next. It was important to keep moving, to get out of Coggeshall before I got pulled back into some other scandal. So as the ceremony (which was a pretty generous description for what had just transpired) wrapped up, I was already walking towards the smithy. I sent Skeld to gather the questers and meet me at the door to the worm tunnel, so we could go back to the kobold caves the short way.

  The blacksmith, Zoey, met me at the door. She presented a set of armor, a mixture of leather and steel plates that gave protection while also keeping me somewhat in the realm of mobile.

  The Coggeshall Cuirass

  Item Type: Rare

  Item Class: Light

  Material: Wyrm Leather

  Armor: +51

  Durability: Good

  Weight: 13 pounds

  Requirements: n/a

  Description: Made from tough, flexible leather, the scales on the outside of the armor are particularly hard, but move naturally with the leather. The scales offer a bonus against piercing damage. The armor also provides a natural resistance to any topical poisons or venoms. The Coggeshall Cuirass offers no penalties to stealth.

  “Get back in one piece,” the smith said.

  “This is awesome. Thanks for the armor,” I replied.

  I pulled the armor on, excited that it fit so comfortably. I jogged in place, and it barely made any noise. Sneaky armor. Not exactly my brand, but there was no reason I couldn’t try to be a stealthy tank.

  As I walked back across the grounds, I was heartened to watch members of my holding getting to know each other. At least, that is to say the battenti and the kobolds seemed to be having a two-species party.

  The ursus were standing off to the side, watching the events unfold, but they weren’t mingling. The dwarves were somewhat similar, some watching, but most just went back to work, grumbling.

  The more I looked, the more I realized that the community was schisming along racial lines. I shuddered at what that might lead to if nothing was fixed. And I had to wonder if I was screwing things over, trying to help so many people at once. And, maybe in an attempt to mitigate some of the damage I’d caused, and because the whole problem of Wulf was weighing on me, I walked over to Borin.

  He nodded as I got closer to him, but largely kept his eyes on the kobolds and battenti.

  “Things okay?” I asked.

  “I have concerns. But otherwise, yes.”

  “About the kobolds? Have you had interactions with them,?”

  “Of course. We are both creatures of the mountains.”

  “Many interactions?”

  “No.”

  “Bad?”

  “Yes. But also some good. I know they have the capacity for good, but from what I have seen, much of their, what, personality? It is dependent on their leadership.”

  “Ah. Okay.”

  “I do not see Wulf with you.”

  “He ran out on us.”

  “Ran out?”

  “It’s not, I mean, I don’t want to make it seem like he’s a coward, but when we got attacked by some big ball of muscle and fur—”

  “Likely an abominaball.”

  “Yeah, that’s what the death notification said. But abominaball?”

  “That is what they are called.”

  “Kind of on the nose.”

  “I doubt they had much say in their naming.”

  “I mean, it’s definitely descriptive. But when the abominaball attacked, Wulf bailed. We haven’t seen him since.”

  Borin growled. “Wulf was not my first choice to send with you, but we are not spoiled for choice. Wulf is one of the only ones among us who has traveled among the various tribes. He does have the knowledge that can help you — it just seems he is just not,” he paused, and thought for a moment, “the most courageous or loyal.”

  “Great. Well—”

  “Find him if you can.”

  “I have the other members of the team looking for Wulf right now.”

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  I stood there for a moment longer before I realized we were done talking.

  “Okay,” I said. “Maybe help out with the kobolds if you can.”

  He nodded, and I walked off.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I had a quest to complete, so I tried to put any thoughts of impending Coggeshall race riots out of my mind. Naturally, that’s when Lee came up to me.

  “Mind if I walk with you for a minute?” he asked.

  “I’m heading down to the kobold tunnel,” I replied. “So if you’d like to walk that way, go right ahead.”

  “Seems amenable.”

  We moved through the halls, walking calmly, but Lee didn’t bother talking to me until we’d gone some distance, where we were, in essence alone.

  “I applaud what you’re doing,” he said. “But I wonder if you have thought this through.”

  “Probably not,” I said. “Seems to be my usual problem.”

  “I’d agree on that one.”

  “Great. You think I’m stupid too.”

  “No, I think you tend to react before you think. And then you often double-down, instead of changing your course of action. And you like violence as a solution.”

  “It is often the solution here.”

  “But not the only one.”

  “Well, right now for example, I’m about to go out and kill a whole bunch of sentient beings, just because a god told me to. That’s beyond fucked up.”

  “In the old world, very much so. But this world is different. You can show others this god. Others have spoken to it.”

  “Her.”

  “Faith is a different concept here. But that is not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Is something wrong with the kobolds and you?”

  “It’s not necessarily them, though I do worry about how the locals might perceive you and the kobolds.”

  “So?”

  “This is not Earth.”

  “Yeah, get that.”

  “But in some ways, I fear you still think of this world in Earth terms.”

  “Because I’m from Earth.”

  “Sure. I’m certainly guilty of it as well, but I fear I’ve got quite a lower threshold of responsibility. Your decisions have echoes well
throughout this world.”

  “Okay, you’re trying to tell me something about the kobolds — what is it?”

  “It’s not directly about the kobolds. I know you are thinking of them as people, but our definition of people might not be the right tag to apply to them.”

  “Because—”

  “Allow me to finish, eh, Montana of Detroit?”

  “It’s more outside of Detroit?”

  “I don’t know if it’s true of kobolds specifically. But I believe there are races here, in Vuldranni, who do not possess the ability to integrate into a diverse society. And that might pose a problem. Perhaps there is inborn morality you cannot erase. And there may be individuals who buck that trend—”

  “But if there are individuals, isn’t that a sign there’s a possibility for wider change?”

  “Maybe. But are you willing to pay that price? Are you willing to ask your people, those who have chosen to follow you, to pay that price? It certainly seems that some of the races in this land are ancient enemies. The goblins seem more than willing to exist in violence and murder.”

  “So we don’t let goblins in.”

  “And what do you know about kobolds?”

  “Not that much.”

  “You know nothing of their social or moral structure?”

  “No.”

  “What if their solution for any problem is killing?”

  “Then we stop them.”

  “And yet we won’t know if that’s going to be a problem until after someone is killed.”

  “I don’t think that’s the case.”

  “And yet you don’t know.”

  “It could be the case for dwarves.”

  “Is it?”

  “No, but it could be.”

  “But it isn’t. You know it isn’t. There’s historical precedent here. But with kobolds—”

  “No one knows anything about kobolds, Lee. No one has bothered to get to know them.”

  “Might there be a reason for that beyond prejudice?”

  “I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like it.”

  “But that’s the problem, Montana. You don’t know. You’re making decisions that impact countless souls based on no real knowledge, just your own feelings on things.”

  “So what should I be doing?”

  “Are you seriously asking me that? What have we been talking about this whole time?”

  “Uh—”

  “Do your research.”

  “There’s no way of doing research — no one knows a damn thing about kobolds. I can’t, like, go to their Wikipedia page.”

  “Find something out about them on your own then.”

  “How—”

  “I’m asking you to think about it. And think about what you aim to do with this group. With these people. Don’t come back with goblins.”

  “I’m not coming back with goblins.”

  “And yet, in the past, you’ve—”

  “Hey, that was just something I was saying.”

  “Think. And do your research.”

  I stopped walking, and just shook my head.

  “Can you do some research for me?” I asked.

  “Probably,” Lee said. “About kobolds?”

  “If you can.”

  “And then what? Isn’t it a bit too late?”

  “I mean, if we find out they have a cultural predisposition towards killing, maybe that’s something we can change.”

  “I will let you know. And Nikolai asked me to give something to you.”

  “I knew Nikolai had to be a part of this somehow.”

  “He’s a part of everything.” Lee passed over a small leather-bound book to me.

  “What’s this?”

  “Partner Journal. He writes in his book, it shows up in here. And same for you.”

  “Texting.”

  “Vuldranni equivalent. Just remember the limitations of texting when you’re using this thing.”

  “Limit the sarcasm?”

  “How about eliminate the sarcasm?”

  “Keep an eye on Nikolai, will you? I don’t think he’s doing well.”

  “Will do,” Lee replied with a nod. “And good luck out there. With, you know, all the killing and stuff.”

  “Thanks.”

  He clapped me on the shoulder, then turned back to the holding. I watched him go. The man had some persuasive points, things I should have thought of. I probably needed to listen to him more.

  But for now, it was time to get bloody. Well, time to get cold, and then do a lot of hiking and looking around, and then it was time to get bloody.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Leaving was blissfully quick as compared to how things had gone in the holding itself. Now that we had an additional thousand plus souls, maybe we could call ourselves a town. Bonus.

  Skeld seemed happy to be leaving, fairly skipping down the worm tunnel. Meikeljan was the opposite, moping down the tunnel. Vreggork was somewhere in the middle, stoic. And a bit resigned, it would seem. I took up the rear, just in case some goblins came along, but I had my doubts any of them would rear their heads.

  We’d been walking quite a while, at least an hour, before anyone talked. Vreggork spoke up first.

  “Is worm tunnel, yes?” he asked.

  “It is,” Skeld replied.

  “Type?”

  “Banded,” Skeld said.

  “Ah.”

  “Something you’ve seen before?” I asked.

  “Kobold live underground. Worm live underground. Kobold and worm destined to meet. But Vreggork is glad to not meet one who made this.”

  “He was one big asshole,” I said.

  “You kill?”

  Skeld piped up before I could respond. “Yep, Duke Coggeshall killed the banded worm.”

  “Wow.”

  Then we went back to silence. It wasn’t an uncomfortable thing — I kind of felt it was just a part of walking through a place that wasn’t exactly safe. You didn’t want to be chattering away when some monster might leap out and help your insides meet your outsides. But at the same time, this tunnel was probably the safest stroll we’d have in this upcoming quest.

  Finally, we got back to the kobold warren, where it was strangely quiet. Whatever kobolds remained were deep in hiding. Silence reigned. We crept through the warren, I guess because it felt wrong to disturb the quiet, moving slowly and carefully.

  When we got through to the throne room, we discovered that nearly all the meat had been stripped from the corpses. I hoped it wasn’t an indication of kobold proclivity towards cannibalism. Although, in thinking about that, it wouldn’t exactly be a problem for Coggeshall. If the kobolds just started eating themselves, it might simplify issues for everyone. Still, probably messy.

  By the time we finally got back to our camp, it was dark, and there was little indication anyone else had spent time there.

  We settled around the remains of the fire, and Skeld got some stew going. Our semi-traditional hiking-in-the-wilderness stew, which was mostly mystery ingredients.

  I sat down and leaned against the wall. My shirt felt tight, and I was pretty sure I had a rock in my boot. The joys of questing. Outside the cave, the weather was trending towards shitty, with gusts into craptastic. Snow wasn’t coming down yet, but it seemed imminent.

  The day must have been at least somewhat warm because the snow on the ground had melted into giant, mountain-side sized puddles. Which would of course freeze during the night, making the entire thing a disaster in-waiting. Nothing like ice-skating up a fucking mountain. I imagined Mister Paul would probably love this.

  At some point after we ate, I looked around at the group and thought about how weird all of this was. Not in a bad way. There was a furry mini-dragon, a warrior otter, and a thing that looked like a white miniature version of the otter, all of whom were also able to talk. And the mini otter talked to a goddess. Who also spoke to me. On the spectrum of weird, to me at least, we were on the higher end.


  “You ever wonder how we got here?” I asked.

  “Through cave, and worm tunnel,” Vreggork replied. “You forget already?”

  “I was asking in a more rhetoric sense.”

  “Ah,” he said, in the exact way where I could tell he had no idea what rhetoric meant, but really wasn’t concerned.

  “It’s been a journey,” Skeld said.

  “Yeah. I mean, it’s only a few months back, and you were just kicking it in Saumiers.”

  “I wouldn’t say kicking it,” Skeld replied.

  “What was life like there?”

  “Bizarre and awful. Most of my family was still under the sway of the agachnern. Many of those I had not even met. Our days were spent hunting, gathering, delivering food to those who were trapped within the caves.”

  “You could interact with them? Through like a tunnel or something?”

  “Not exactly. There was a small pass-through of sorts. We could send food through there, and, I suppose exchange notes. It was underwater, so talking was out of the question. At certain times of day, you could get enough light to see through, which is how we, the tribe I mean, found out what was happening with our relatives. The agachnern ordered us to feed him. And his slaves. He had no means to get his own food, not really, and so we had to spend our days trying to meet the quotas he demanded. If we didn’t he’d eat our family members.”

  “That does seem to have a certain amount of suck to it,” I said.

  “It is a nightmare,” Meikeljan said. “I cannot imagine how you lived like that.”

  “We did what we had to do,” Skeld said. “And, thankfully, it is not like that any longer.”

  “And he changed it?” Meikeljan asked, pointing at me.

  Skeld nodded, taking a large bite of stew. I think because he hadn’t really intended to talk so much about his past. That minor monologue was the most talking I’d ever heard from Skeld. I missed Ragnar. I like the little loquacious guy. He always seemed to bring everyone’s moods up just a little bit.

  “Was that how you first came to know Eona?” Meikeljan asked me, his eyes twinkling.