The sun was setting by the time Rahz made it home, it only took him 3 hours to get back to the village and considering the weight he was carrying it was quite an accomplishment.
" Woot!! I made it in time for dinner, there is nothing like mom's cooking".
Rahz walked inside his house and the smell of succulent meat being stew made him salivate. He dropped the sacks full of ore by the door and made his way to the kitchen.
Etta was hard at work cutting the veggies and putting them into the pot. When Rahz walk into the kitchen Etta turned around and sniff twice while waving her hand she said to her son, " I am glad you are back but you need to take a shower before sitting down for dinner, you stink".
Rahz was about to dash toward the pots but stop in his tracks. With a dejected look, he sagged his shoulders and left to warm some water for his bath.
Rahz jump inside the barrel full of warm water and let out a blissful sigh. The water relaxed his muscles and he couldn't help but think that there was nothing better in the world. As the sun went down over the horizon the stone on Rahz's neck started sparkling underneath the water.
"No wonder only an Elite Kobold had a treasure like this, I should have my father take a look and tell me what is called"
Rahz finished cleaning up and went inside to find out his dad was already home and was taking a look at the 2 sacks full of ore that he left by the door. Contrary to Rahz's expectations, there was a deep frown on his dad's face.
"Did you go inside the mine?"
Rahz face dropped when he heard his dad question. His parents had warned him not to do anything stupid and going inside the tunnels alone qualified as a stupid thing to do.
Rahz rubbed the back of his head and with his best smile said, " I did, but I only went as far as the first 2 rooms. No worries though, beside the Elite Kobold there was no one else that was my match.....OOPS!... I shouldn't have said that... Please don't tell mom".
"Don't tell me what"
Seeing his mother by the door made Rahz trembled, not only was his dinner in jeopardy but his excursions outside the village as well. "No-nothing!".
"HAHAHA! that is my son alright!! Look at this honey not only did he get this two sacks full of copper our son beat an Elite Kobold inside the mines. Isn't it amazing?"
Compare to Rhaen, Etta was not as thrill, she squinted her eyes and said, " How wonderful, It seems that our little Rahz is growing up, We should increased his training to 20 times the difficulty. What you guys think?"
Rhaen and Rahz looked at each other and quietly made their way to the table.
Despite Etta's concerns, the fact that her son was able to clear a couple of rooms inside the mines and comeback home with just a few scrapes was pretty amazing. Throughout dinner Rahz told his parents all about his adventure, he told them about how he had used the bread crumb strategy to clear the first room, how hard the fur of the Elite Kobold was, and how he had manage to discover his opponent's flaw and how he used the information in the fight.
"Oh I almost forgot! I got a memento from that tough Kobold"
Rahz reached for the leather rope around his neck and pull out the stone from his leather vest to show it to his dad. Before Rahz could realized it, the stone was no longer in his hands and he was being asked by his dad, " Did you say this was on the neck of the Kobold with a metallic looking fur?"
Rahz nodded and said "I thought it was pretty cool, it reflects different colors depending where the light hit it . Is it valuable?"
Rhaen passed the necklace to his wife and answer Rahz with another question.
"Have you shown your necklace to anybody else?"
"Nope, I was going to show off my wealth in front of Bhirl tomorrow but I came straight home after leaving the mine".
"Good! For now you are forbidden to talk about this necklace to anybody, you are also forbidden to carry it around"
Rahz didn't understand why his father was so anxious about a rock but he agreed just the same. Rahz ate his filled and turn in for the night, his father and mother clean up the kitchen while discussing what to do about the piece of iron ore in their hands.
"I need to talk to chief Cerdic tomorrow and ask him to send Aya or another scout to the mines and ascertain how far in we need to go, and how big the deposit actually is."
The following morning, Rahz woke up early and started practicing his weapon skills followed by round after round of energy depletion until it was time for breakfast. At the request of his parents, Rahz started heading to the training grounds to join the rest of the village warriors in training and was not allowed to pick up a task.
In the meantime, Rahz' father went to see chief Cerdic and the rest of the elders in order to request further inspection of the mine and to stress the importance of keeping the findings underwraps.
If the deposit was large enough, the village could see a period of prosperity even bigger than anything they had ever experienced. However, they had to take a lot of precautions because Iron Ore was Pandora's Box. It could bring wealth and prosperity just as easy as it could caused the annihilation of the Village.
Rhaen gave the ore necklace to Aya and explain to her the different shades it could take. It was very important for her to understand what she was looking for. Rhaen went back to his blacksmith while the elders and the chief continued discussing the possibilities.
The daily training of the village had remained the same through out the years. The exercises were designed to give the warrior as much as they put in. In this way, it was very easy for the instructors to separated the elites from the fodder.
The events that happened 3 years before affected many people for the better. They started working harder at first but with the passage of time they went back to the same comfortable zone they knew. The only time they gave their all were the times Rahz came. Rahz always gave 110 percent and made them feel ashame of the effort they were putting in.
Training was still divided into Evolve warriors and Pre Evolve warriors like Rahz. It was extremely difficult for a Level 9 warrior to even take a punch of a Level 10 so the village use this gap to separated them into groups.
With shear effort, Rahz had become the undisputed king of the sparring ring. There was not one person except for Bhirl that could go a couple of rounds with him and that poisonous tongue of his made everyone want to knock his teeth out.
" Come Come... which one of you Loo-Hoo-Zuh-Hers wants a piece of the king"
Everyone by the side of the ring gnash their teeth but they were helpless. Only Level 9 fighters could put up any kind of resistance against Rahz and even them were always beaten to a pulp.
"Since you are so good Rahz, why don't you take on two of us at the same time?"
"Well, come on over Loo-Hoo-Zuh-Hers"
Two smiling Level 9 scouts climb up to the ring and faced Rahz who had a grin on his face and both arms folded across his chest.
As soon as the Referee started the fight, both scouts activated Sprint and launched themselves at Rahz in a pincer attack.
Rahz sneer and just waited in placed for them to get closer. As soon as they were in striking distance he activated Strengthen Defense and feint a charge towards the scout coming from his right. Seeing Rahz coming towards him, the scout change directions to avoid the hit but to his surprised no hit came.
What he did see was his partner being hit by a no look kick to his abdomen that took the wind from his sails. After that came a hook to the shin that sent him to ground.
There was no way to beat Rahz in a 1 on 1 fight so it was pointless to continue. After the other scout woke up and learned that his partner had forfeited the fight the moment he was knockout filled him with so much rage that he attack the other scout right then and there.
The rest of the trainees just laughed and cheered at the situation. The next few days passed by fairly quickly with Rahz getting more cocky with each passing day. On the third day, he challenge 4 people at once and was finally taking down. Everybody Including the referee cheered with every punch and kick that landed on him. It was Glorious.