Maou is the bestest master ever! He can even trigger [Displaced Reincarnation]s early! Who needs freedom when you live in paradise?
With master's help, we can help the crazies in the desert find true homes too! It's not only his greatest dream, but our calling, duh!
-Carillyn Maximus, 1st Wife of the Demon Lord, T4 Succubus, 1822 FE
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"Hey there! Glad we finally found others down here. You wouldn't even believe the day my friend and I have had!"
"Kssshck. What do you want, ssstranger."
Kobolds. Goblin-esque creatures with rat tails, extra skinny features, slightly hunched backs, and whiskers poking out of their protruding snouts. Four of them stood in aggressive stances facing the tired newcomers.
Two were T3 while the others were T2. The only difference between them was a foot or so of height. All of their affinities were laughably low, lower than Odd's.
"Just to pass, would be nice."
Good thing Trafaul was here for diplomacy, because Odd was starving. His ghoul nature was rearing its head and Odd wanted nothing more than to start eating the creatures in front of them. Maybe they would attack them unprovoked?
Or maybe he should just kill them anyway? If they were quick, then the kobolds shouldn't alert others and he wouldn't be hungry anymore. Plus, they could leave one alive for torture to find a way to the surface.
"That ssshhhhould be fine."
"But we's could eastsss them, I'm hungry!"
'You're telling me, brother,' Odd thought to himself. He just noticed that the hungry kobold with a low ice affinity had white, albino skin and pink eyes.
The white kobold reminded him how dreadfully cold it was in here. Thankfully, his constitution kept him up and Trafaul claimed he could adapt to any environment that wasn't too hot with little trouble.
The two of them had been walking upwards for what felt like a day and it was cold enough for to see their own breath. Neither had a clue where they were, but finally running into living creatures was a godsend.
Living creatures... Odd was so hungry.
Trafaul coughed in a fist. "I'm not very tasty. You know, spikes, fishiness and all. My friend here is, uhh, unpalatable as well. So what do you say to letting us pass instead?"
"EAATTSSS!"
Odd's hands grasped at his daggers and he fell back against the wall. His plan was to let spikey here get there attention.
"NO!" one of the bigger kobolds smacked him and pushed him back. He shook his head in disgrace and gestured for Trafaul to come with him. "Boss makes choice."
"You know boss willsss eatsss them!" the albino kobold screeched.
"That's boss's choi..." he gurgled and coughed as the other tier 3 kobold shoved his spear into his neck.
"Kissass!" he yelled and the other two charged at Trafaul.
Odd was too stunned from the scene to intervene, so he watched Trafaul clack his hooves as we dodged the strikes of the tier twos.
"Look, you don't have to listen to him just because he's bigger than you!"
"Ksssssshhhhck!" the kobolds frothed and continued.
"Finish him!" the T3 melodramatically yelled as he entered the fray.
Trafaul deeply sighed, "If you must, you corrupt the youth, so I'm sorry."
The fishman flicked his left wrist to the side and his fingers sharpened into a drill-shaped spike. Odd continued to watch the fight as Trafaul dipped under the strike from the larger kobold and stabbed through his throat before pulling back, away from the little ones.
"See, he's gone now, so you have no reason to fight!"
One of the kobolds halted. Obviously, he figured the fight wasn't worth it. Odd rolled his eyes and skipped over to the fresh corpse. So hungry!
"Friend, are you calmed down now?"
Odd turned his head, swallowing an ear. He looked just in time to see one of the kobolds waving his arm around with his other hand stuck on a spike jutting from the side of Trafaul's knee.
Shink! The spike was pulled out and Trafaul patted the slightly crying kobold on its ugly head. "Sorry about that, but we can be friends now, right? Can you take me to your leader? I come in peace."
Sniff, sniff, "Okay." The kobold stood up and whispered a little to the other living kobold before they started punching and kicking each other like they were having a schoolyard brawl.
"Hey, hey, enough!" the fishman yelled.
"This will take a while," Odd hummed as he pulled out the albino kobold's heart. It was a crisp. Maybe the ice affinity? Such a strange world they lives in. His eyes fell to those strange crystals that were linked together into some kind of formation. For a ritual or a powersource?
His eyes didn't give him enough information about them, but he was expecting anything other than kobolds really. They're no more than simple pests.
Even though he loved adventure, Odd wanted nothing to do with whoever really ruled this mountain. Any being that would and could pump that much mana into the ground for any reason wasn't anyone he wanted to mess with.
The faster they got out of here the better. Odd had no problem with diplomacy, but he didn't really expect it to work with idiots. Both his idiot and the kobold idiot's leader. 'At least I'm not hungry anymore,' he thought to himself as he finished his meal.
Odd let out a visible breath. Maybe just get some better clothes next? It wasn't like these kobolds would have anything, but his pants were currently, slightly frozen. They didn't properly dry out from the river due to the temperature.
Odd swore that he was like a punching bag. It was like life was forcing him to be uncomfortable and miserable forever. Are clothes really too much to ask for when stranded underground?
"You can join us too, friends, we're on our way to your benevolent leader!"
Where did those kobolds come from? Maybe it was a good thing that Trafaul stopped the two from fighting.
Despite the new comrades, the living ghoul was worried about the glowing gems in the walls, and knew that it was just a matter of time before he found out what they did.
Also, it was just a matter of time before everything went to shit.
Again.