by Phoenix Grey
Janine flipped open her bestiary and rattled off a list of items that could be harvested from the kobolds. There were twelve in all. Uden suggested they take the time to butcher the entire corpses, but the rest of the party just wanted to get out of the dungeon, so they settled on the most easily accessible bits.
You have received the following items:
Kobold Guard Fang
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.3 kg
Uses: Crafting.
Kobold Guard Pelt
Item Class: Rare
Quality: High
Weight: 3.5 kg
Uses: Crafting.
A rare item. Azure hoped that meant it would be worth more. This was mostly all about the money for him, after all. And up to this point, with allowing Janine and Uden to kill almost everything, he didn’t feel like he’d collected enough loot to earn much.
When they were done looting their kills, they reconvened before the door. As if to tell them they were in the right place, they heard a woman’s voice coming from inside. She sounded like she was pleading.
“You guys ready?” Azure asked, looking to his comrades.
“I could do with a bit more Health.” Uden glanced from Lonnell to Azure.
“You didn’t lose any in that last fight.” Lonnell scowled at him. “Stop begging. You’ll be fine.”
“I’m not begging,” the half-imp grumbled.
“The three of us in the front. You in the back.” Azure pointed to Uden. It was important to keep him safe since he wasn’t in the best shape.
“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes before taking a few steps back to allow Janine to fill in his place.
“On the count of three.” Azure kept an eye on Uden as he counted down. Had the two of them been alone, the half-imp likely would have rushed in before the count ended. He was brazen and irrational like that. In a full party, they had him pretty well under control, though.
On three, Azure pushed the door open, and the Adventurers flooded the room, weapons brandished. They barely had time to get the lay of the land before the skirmish began. The room itself was the size of a warehouse with plenty of empty space for melee. A throne made out of bones decorated the very back with the largest kobold Azure had ever seen sitting atop it, clearly the boss. A few yards to the right was a crude wooden cage with a woman inside. She clutched at the bars, her face lighting up with hope as soon as the party entered. About ten feet away from her, two smaller kobolds tended to a fire, that of which blessedly illuminated most of the room and made it unnecessary for the Adventurers to cling to their torches. On both sides of the throne, a kobold guard stood, protecting their king. As soon as the door had opened, they left his side to engage the threat.
Azure focused only on the boss, loosing an arrow straight at his head. The kobold bent his neck and dodged, then roared furiously. Janine, Lonnell, and Uden rushed forward to match against the two guards. Only the kobolds that had been tending the fire seemed apprehensive to join the fray. At least, that's what it had looked like to Azure as they both took a few steps back before disappearing.
Shit. It's the invisible ones. Azure hadn't even had time to Analyze them. At present, they seemed like the biggest threats in the room...until he took the time to Analyze everything else.
Level 11 Kobold Guard.
Level 11 Kobold Guard.
Level 15 Kobold Leader.
He was pretty sure that the other two had been adepts, but there was no way to tell for certain without Analyzing them. Whatever the case, with their sheer numbers combined, the odds were slightly tipped on the kobolds' side thanks to that invisibility spell.
Already, Azure was regretting not coughing up the extra healing potions for Uden. A few swipes by the invisible kobolds and he'd be done for. As it was, he was smartly staying safely back, throwing daggers at the kobold that Lonnell was directly engaged with, hyperaware of the threat that loomed in the shadows.
The leader was stomping toward them. Azure needed to make a quick decision. Which was more important, going head to head with the one opponent that clearly out-leveled all of them, or slowing down an invisible threat that could put a quick end to Uden?
Thankfully, none of his companions had their back to the leader. If need be, they could run.
Azure decided that breaking the other kobolds' invisibility was imperative to Uden's survival, so he twisted in the direction they had been standing and cast Grease, making sure not to overshoot and hit the fire. That would be bad.
The globs of oil that came from his hand coated one of the invisible kobolds, but his caution of the fire made him shoot short, and the other managed to evade being hit. It was the best he could do for now, he thought with a bit of disappointment, putting an arrow in the now grease-drenched kobold. Somehow, the first shot didn't down the creature. It clutched at the arrow in its chest before a second came to rest by its side, vanquishing the kobold.
Defeated Level 10 Kobold Adept. 80XP rewarded.
By that time, the leader had reached the rest of the group. Lonnell and Uden had defeated their foe, and the kobold fighting Janine seemed to be struggling to stay alive.
The leader swung its paws wildly at Lonnell, causing him to block with his staff. He dug his feet into the dirt, placing himself between the kobold and Uden. Uden tried to sneak over to the leader's side but was caught off-guard by a paw appearing from the void to knock him to the ground.
Shit. Of course, it would go after him.
The half-imp’s Health dropped by nearly 50%, and Azure once again cursed himself for not giving Uden another healing potion. For as much as he’d bitched at Lonnell, he had plenty to spare too.
Azure quickly cast Woodlfesh on himself, then traded in his bow for his Bergen’s Glaive. Even though it gave him amazing stat boosts, he just didn’t feel like the Gnollish Club would cut it in this battle. The kobold leader was at least a foot taller than he was. Stick it with the pointy end seemed to be a better strategy than smash it over the head.
“Protect Uden,” Azure yelled to Lonnell as he shouldered his way to the front line, meeting the kobold leader with the edge of his blade just as the creature swiped down to attack. Its paw sunk into the metal, and it instantly drew back with a roar.
Not as easy as beating against that staff, is it? He thought smugly, though he had almost lost his grip on his sword from the power of the blow.
Janine charged in from the side with her ax, a battle cry bellowing from her throat. Apparently, the adrenaline from slaying her previous foe had given her a boost of confidence and energy. Unfortunately, the noise caught the kobold leader's attention long before she reached it. It sent her sailing with an easy backhand, shaving off a quarter of her Health in the process.
The momentary distraction allowed Azure to step in and plunge his sword into the kobold’s stomach. He hoped for a critical hit, but no notification came up to indicate such. This particular kobold seemed to have super tough skin. The tip of the blade only went in about an inch before the kobold stepped back and returned its attention to the front.
“Shit,” Azure cursed between clenched teeth as the creature rushed forward with another barrage of swings. It took all of his strength not to fall over from the heavy blows, let alone guard against them. The kobold seemed to have no qualms cutting itself up on Azure’s sword to try to get to him.
Janine had recovered, and not having learned her lesson the first time, charged in again with another yell of adrenaline. This time, when the kobold tried to swat her away like a mere annoyance, she ducked and swung her ax to the side, burying the edge deep into the kobold’s hip.
“Nice,” Azure praised her, knowing there would be a small window for him to attack.
He held his hand out and cast Dirty Move, blasting the kobold in the eyes.
The creature roared again, blinking rapidly as it looked from side to side, clearly blind. Janine
pulled her ax from its hip and started hacking away with her usual vigor. Ten seconds was all the two of them needed to down the beast, Azure ending it by forcing the tip of his blade into the stubborn chest cavity and putting all of his weight behind running it through. A bit overconfident and refusing to let go, just in case, he succumbed to the kobold leader’s flailing, taking a hit in the head before the creature finally stopped struggling and fell to its knees.
Level 15 Kobold Leader delivers 75 damage.
Azure's ears were ringing and he was far more exhausted than he'd expected to be, but the job was done.
Defeated Level 15 Kobold Leader. 150XP rewarded.
"Fuck's sake, Azure. Couldn't you have at least let me get a hit in? I needed that experience," Uden complained from several yards away.
The other adept had managed to land another hit on him before Lonnell had been able to take it out. Hunched over with his hands on his knees and bleeding profusely from several claw marks littered across his body, the half-imp didn't look in any condition to fight anything.
"You snooze, you lose," Azure said with all of the gusto of a cocky anime protagonist.
"Here, drink these." Lonnell was now being a lot more generous with his potions, tending to Uden with all of the care of a concerned brother.
"We did it, guys!" Azure threw his hands up proudly. And no one died. That was another huge success in his book.
Janine seemed less in the mood for celebrating, already heading over to the cage to free Jasmeen. The woman clung to the dwarf’s side, muttering thanks to them all and prattling on about how horrible her experience had been. Apparently, the kobolds had planned to cook and serve her to their leader that very night.
A glance at Jasmeen’s belly revealed why Lord Blakemore had put such a high price on her rescue. She was pregnant.
“Bet it’s his,” Uden whispered as soon as he was well enough to hobble over to Azure.
“I wouldn’t bet against you.”
Jasmeen was a dark-skinned beauty. Young and buxom with full lips and raven curls that framed her face. Azure was pretty sure that all of the men in the room were attracted to her.
“You’ll be all right now,” he told her as they watched the wall behind the throne fall away to reveal a way to the surface.
She thanked him in a French accent but remained clinging to Janine’s side as if she was afraid to touch any of the men.
“Does your bestiary have bosses in it?” Azure asked Janine.
She pulled the book from her Bag of Holding, flipped through it for a few moments, and then shut it with a shrug. “I imagine you can get the same things from it as you would the other kobolds.”
“It might have a monster core,” Uden suggested.
Azure had already forgotten about those. Not since the dawnflayer had it been mentioned to him again. And this didn’t seem like a particularly unique monster.
“I wouldn’t even know what that would look like,” he admitted.
“I do. But if I go through all of the trouble, then it’s mine,” the half-imp said greedily.
“You didn’t even get to touch it.” Azure gestured to the body, then turned his attention to Janine. “Want to split the parts?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Are we just going through the easy ones? It might be worth it to butcher the whole thing, since it’s a bigger monster. But that’s up to you. I don’t really need the money.”
He scratched his cheek, not really feeling like doing the work. Azure still had the dirty business of looting the kobold adept covered in grease. For that, he’d definitely use his Loot Automizer Pendant. Had this been a solo kill for him, he’d use the pendant on the kobold leader as well, but he and Lonnell and Janine all deserved a portion.
“What do you think?” he asked Lonnell.
“It’s his first dungeon since being back. I think we should let him have the core.” Lonnell smiled fondly at his brother.
“Fine,” Azure relented with a backward wave of his hand. “I didn’t want to deal with dissecting it anyway. As long as Janine is fine with it, he can have it.”
The dwarf shook her head at the kobold’s body as she petted Jasmeen’s hand soothingly.
“Much yes!” Uden said excitedly, pulling out his dagger and getting to work.
Azure walked over to the edge of the grease puddle and pointed his Loot Automizer Pendant down at the body, ending up with another Kobolt Adept Ear.
“Disappointing,” he frowned at the loot.
Though it wasn’t anywhere near as disappointing as Uden going through all of the work to extract the monster core only to find out that there wasn’t one.
“Well, that was a load of crap.” He scowled as he sat amidst the kobold leader’s entrails. “You guys can have the rest.” The half-imp stood and scoffed down at the corpse.
“Nope. That’s all yours,” Azure told him, not wanting to get his hands dirty. “Your reward for surviving your first dungeon.” A smirk crept across his face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE REALM – Day 87
Feeling like Jasmeen’s comforting protector, Janine didn’t part from the group to kill things after they left the burrow. Uden ventured out every once in a while, but they still made better time than they had on their way there, reaching Squall’s End a little after nightfall.
Once they arrived, Janine ushered Jasmeen to her room for the night, not emerging again. Meanwhile, the guys had rent to worry about. The lease on their room had expired, and it was time for Azure to make the decision he’d been mulling over since he was first able to afford rent on his own.
“Give me your share, and I’ll pay the innkeeper,” Lonnell told him, holding out his hand.
Azure just stared at it for several seconds, doing calculations in his head. Currently, he had 32 gold. Once they turned in their quest tomorrow, he’d have 5 more. Plus, he had loot to trade in, which would only increase his overall amount.
Then again, now that he owned a bedroll, sleeping on the floor wasn’t as big of a deal. The question was, did he want to continue rooming with the two brothers or go his own way. It would be nice not to be woken up in the middle of the night when they came in late from a quest or have Lonnell wake him up earlier in the morning than he would have liked. Independence sounded sweet right now.
“You know what? I think I’m going to get my own room.”
“Ohhh, can I room with you instead? He’s no fun.” Uden stepped up next to Azure but thumbed toward his brother.
Azure looked over at him. “That would defeat the purpose of it being my own room,” he made sure to enunciate that last bit.
The half-imp frowned.
“It’s a waste of money,” Lonnell argued. “That is what you and I are both trying to do, isn’t it? To save money.”
“Some things are worth spending on. Besides, I’m not sure it’s worth purchasing a whole month when I think of all the nights we all spent out.”
“That’s why splitting it makes things more cost efficient. I’m sure there was rarely a time when the room sat empty all night.”
“I doubt that.” Azure thought back to when Uden was busy with his prerequisite quest and they were in the dungeon of Digby Mansion. Hell, they had all just been questing and wasted the past few nights leaving the room empty. “No. I think I’m going to try just buying a night at a time for a while.”
Lonnell shook his head. “You’re being foolish and impractical.”
“Be that as it may, that’s my choice.”
They went to the innkeeper and paid up. Lonnell purchased another month for himself and Uden, and Azure parted with 8 silver for two nights. It did seem a bit steep, and maybe he’d grow to regret his decision. There was only one way to find out, though.
As soon as he was in his room alone, any fear of making a mistake disappeared. Azure shrugged off his clothes and enjoyed his privacy. It was so rare that he actually got to strip down. Not having
to worry about someone walking in on him was almost better than any loot.
The silence wasn’t enjoyed for long though, as there was a knock on his door. Cracking it open, Azure found Uden on the other side.
“Are you naked?” The half-imp’s gaze shamelessly drifted down, even though Azure’s body was mostly concealed by the door.
“What do you want?” he barked, shortening the gap a bit more.
Uden quirked his head back and frowned. “Jeez! You sound like you hate me. I just came to see if you wanted to grab a drink in the tavern, but fuck all if I want to hang out with you in such a piss poor mood.”
Azure’s face relaxed, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sorry, man. Not tonight. After being cooped up with you three for the past few days, I’d rather enjoy my privacy than alcohol.”
“I can see that.” Uden looked him up and down again. “Perhaps tomorrow then.”
“Maybe.”
He shut the door and went back to relaxing, praying that there were no more interruptions to his peace.
Lonnell still came to wake Azure the next morning, but he was fine with it. The earlier they got to The Adventurers Guild, the less of a line there would be. Unfortunately, meeting up with Janine and Jasmeen in the tavern in the morning put them a bit later than any of them would have liked. After waiting for thirty minutes past the opening of The Adventurers Guild, Azure was sent to retrieve the ladies from Janine’s room. Neither of them seemed to be in any hurry to get the day started.
The line was five people deep when they finally arrived, so they had to wait a while before Uden could claim the prize for the quest. Azure stood back so that he wasn’t further crowding up the line. He had no plans to pick up another quest anyway. Instead, he scanned over the Open Quests board to waste time. To his surprise, he noticed a familiar quest with some changes.