The bodies were slowly being moved out and buried a reasonable distance from the cave. It was a terribly sad sight. Kaz continued to watch the Kobolds as they worked. He did not sense any hostility from them. It seemed to him that they were very docile, If anything. Most of them were women and children with only a few male warriors in the group if he could really call them warriors.
This would be a perfect chance for Kaz to amass an army starting out, but he was not sure why the soldiers placed the Kobolds here. It did not make any sense to him. He could show himself and try to become their leader. It did not seem like they really had any order to their group. But it could also be unfortunate if the soldiers came back to check on them and saw him in charge. He would need to prepare these kobolds for combat if that were the case.
He knew where to find them if he wanted to talk to them. Giving it some thought, Kaz decided that it would be best to speak with Perish first and see what she thought of the situation. Being careful not to let them notice him, Kaz left the cave and returned to the hut. Perish was preparing a stew. She saw him coming home and waved to him. She seemed to be in a good mood.
Approaching Perish, Kaz waved back and pointed his thumb behind him. "Did you notice anything strange while I was gone?"
Shaking her head, Perish looked confused. "Did something happen?"
"A bunch of soldiers carrying carts of Kobolds appeared in the woods and unloaded them at my old den."
Sighing, Perish looked at Kaz with a somber expression. "It would seem they finally restocked."
"Restocked?"
Perish stopped stirring the soup. "That den is a training ground for the Main city adventuring recruits. They replenish the Kobold there who die when adventurers kill them."
"What do you mean? You are telling me that place is a dungeon that respawns to some extent?"
"If they restocked it, that means the next group of recruits will be coming soon to fight the kobolds."
"Do you think it will be Sarah and Peter?"
Perish looks at the ground. "It might be. What do you want to do?"
Contemplating a bit, Kaz came to a decision. "We need to help the Kobold. They don't know what's coming their way, and I don't think any of them are prepared for a fight."
Perish looks away and clenches her teeth. "If we are going to help them, we need to come up with a plan."
Kaz thought for a second and came up with a plan, "Why don't we take control of the new kobold establishment and see what they can do?"
Perish was uncomfortable with the idea. Using Kobolds for their own gain was not something she was okay with. But she listened to Kaz's plan because he was in charge.
"Perhaps we can see how a Kobold civilization would hold out in this area, and if it does well, we can grow it and prosper."
Perish was not so sure. She had seen plenty of Kobold towns fall to the empire's attacks. She knew that it would not last very long, but she agreed anyway.
"How should we command them? They seem pretty weak, and I think they need some training,"
Perish thought for a moment. If Sarah could be trained in a week or two, perhaps there was hope for the Kobold.
Kaz decided it was best to confront the Kobolds and try to become their leader. He wandered back to their group and exposed himself. They quickly surrounded him and called him a leader. They did not really have a leader, and seeing someone appear like them out of the blue made them think that he was worthy.
He quickly found himself at the end of the dungeon, waiting to give commands, but the Kobolds did not ask for anything specific. They just continued on with their lives. Kaz could see they were just trying to return to some semblance of a normal life, but he knew it was all pretending. If they did not learn to fight for their home, they would easily be cut down.
He felt bored. He was hoping it would be like an RTSMMO, but it was in real-time, and that was even slower than he expected. Kaz watched as the women and children continued learning their language and becoming adults and realized that if anyone attacked them now, it would mean the end of their small and new civilization.
Wanting to do more, Kaz decided he would train the males in the group. He gathered them together and began teaching them and quickly realized they were all talk. Not a single one of them knew anything about fighting. They just looked tough. A few would try to pick a fight with Kaz for dominance, but they were quickly subdued.
Begining the training session, he raised the ten Kobold males that the group had and began teaching them basic fighting techniques. Although in hindsight, he would have taught them gorilla tactics like he used in the first fight. But he did not think that far ahead. Thus their demise was all but set when the adventurers came.
Kaz waited at the end of the dungeon like some kind of prize waiting to be captured. He wanted to go up to the front and help out his new friends. Still, he knew that would ruin the surprise for any adventurers that came by, plus he was not confident in his abilities to take down a fully prepared adventurer when he could wait them out and kill them when they were weak and susceptible.
Weeks passed by, and the Kobolds were starting to take their positions seriously, even changing out guards regularly to keep everyone fresh. But it was not enough. Kaz heard the screams down the hall as his people were being killed off. He did not feel anything for them. He wanted to, but for a ruler, he thought only of the numbers. Perhaps he was becoming cold-hearted.
He knew the adventurers would come, and he knew that also meant his close friends. He wanted to prepare for an assault on them, but he did not want to endanger his friends, so he continued to wait while his new minions were slaughtered. The screams were drowning out his own thought until he finally heard the door open from the other end of the room. In peaked, a small girl who looked cute, but he knew she could also be deadly. He waited to see if she was going to be friendly, and when she attacked, he knew it was time to defend himself.
He was not the strongest person in the world, but he knew he could handle a new adventurer since he had killed three already. He just hoped that part of the group he was facing were his friends because if it were anyone else, he might actually have trouble fighting them. Considering he fought three adventurers using dirty tricks. Fight four on one without any tricks would be nearly impossible.
When he saw Sarah and Peter arrive, he knew he would be alright. Either they would call off their companions, or they would be killed. It was very simple for him. He fought the small girl, and when he was wounded. Perish finished the job. Although he wished she would be more kind to their companion, he knew that a surprise attack would need to be effective, so what she did was not uncalled for.
The fight was over before it really even got serious, and with the little rogue girl take care of the one-armed man was nothing for Kaz. He actually felt sorry for defeating such a weak adversary. When they finally died. Sarah and Peter relaxed and apologized for killing all of his new recruits. They wanted to avoid as much slaughter as possible, but their companions were full of bloodlust, and it seemed like they would not stop even for a breather.
Kaz could tell they were serious with their apology and accepted that it was the only outcome they could expect. This was definitely an experiment in leader management for Kaz, and it ended poorly. He would need to really work on leading people better if he was going to run a dungeon.
Kaz pulled out a small chest he found in the leader's quarters and handed it to his two friends.
"I have a feeling this is what you two were sent to grab."
Sarah and Peter looked at the box and back to Kaz. Peter grabbed it and nodded. "Thanks, Kaz. We'll see you soon!"
Opening the box, the two were covered in white light and disappeared from Kaz's view. He looked at Perish and sighed. "Guess we better see if there were any survivors and head back to the hut."
Perish agreed, and they set off.