Keir and his party are on their way to completing their mission.
'In the Village of Mizu, a horde of kobolds have been kidnapping human kids and women and collecting them in holes hidden from human sight.
Things to complete-
1) Find the Woman and Children and get them back to the Mizu village
2) Kill the Kobolds.
3) Destroy their lair.
Reward- 6 gold coins. 2 coins for each task.'
Is their task. First of all, kobolds are creatures with the head of a turtle and the body of a lizard, and have sharp long ears. Kobolds walk on two legs and are smaller than normal humans. They have the mind of an early human who can only create stone weapons. They usually hunt inferior creators for food.
The mission took place outside Yiling City, so they had to take a carriage to travel there. They took a carriage right after buying Mira's equipment.
It took them 2 days and 2 nights to reach Mizu. They took intervals between their travel, of course. They all talked during their journey, but Keir preferred to stay quiet during that time as the voice asked him to stay careful as he does the mission, which Keir doubtfully understood.
Raj and Jin would often talk during the intervals which Keir and Mira never heard, nor were they interested.
They had reached Mizu in the morning where they met up with the Chieftain of the village and paid their respect, after which the chief let a soldier lead the party to the hole where the kobolds stayed.
The soldier led the party into a thick forest and walked until they reached an unknown part of the forest. The part didn't seem any different from any other part of the forest.
The soldier dug the ground and after a few minutes the shovel he dug with found something hard. He removed the soil with his hand and what was revealed was a wooden door.
"This is a hidden passage we installed to the underground lair of the Kobolds to inspect it but their numbers are huge. We couldn't rescue those innocent people."
The soldier opened the wooden door. It was dark beneath and sunlight could barely light the passage. They all nodded at each other and went in.
*The chieftain's perspective.*
The Chieftain sits with a cup of wine in his hand while he stares out the window to the dull and rainy sky with his servant sitting right beside him, arm folded.
"Chief do you think that four of those 15-year-olds could survive this mission?"
the servant asked as he tied his eyebrows and was in worry.
"It's not about the kids.....It's about the money we would get as compensation for not completing our mission and the compensation is always huge if it is a guild."
The old man said with a sinister-looking smile as he took a sip of his wine."
"But did we not fake the rank of the mission? Considering the number of Kobolds it is at least C or D rank, they would be coming for investigation,won't they?"
The man said looking guilty.
The old man burst out laughing.
"No! they can't. It is private property unless there is a death of 5 or more death due to the monster's attack. A secondary party cannot investigate in a private area."
the man said with a menacing look.
*Keir and his party's perspective.*
It was too dark for the party to see. The soldier lit a torch and handed it to Keir, who would be the one leading the party. The people in the party unconsciously took Keir as their lead for some reason. It can be because he seems like a mysterious figure and knows more than them or it could be to be their shield if danger appears.
They kept walking in the cave-like tunnel made of soil and roots. A few minutes later, Keir saw a red light shining at the end of the tunnel.
They threw away the torch to not get any attention from the Kobolds and hurried towards the light. They reached the end and found a sharp cliff. Kier looked below on the ground and saw a bright red pool surrounded by hundreds of Kobold and they were speaking words as if enchanting that were unknown to them. It was an enormous underground cave-like structure lit only with red. The cliff Keir and his party stood on, went around the sides of it.
'KEIR! Jump in that pool of blood and bring what is underneath. It doesn't matter what method you use.'
The voice ordered eagerly.
Keir unsheathed his sword and started running by the side of the wall carefully to not make any sound. Jin and Raj looked at each other and started following him after they had drawn out their weapons, but Mira stayed. She was afraid and trembling as she dropped to the floor.
Keir slowed down, seeing him as the other two followings slowed down until all of them stopped.
Keir huffily turned to Raj and said-
"Raj, I am sorry and good luck."
Keir said as he handed Raj his potion of Healing and pushed him off the cliff.
Raj terrified, screamed with a horrified expression, Jin was about to jump in and grab him but Keir covered his mouth and pulled him back from saving Raj.
"He is going to be fine as long as he runs. Now follow me! I have a plan."
Jin couldn't ignore Keir's order and followed him with a distressed expression.
As they ran, Raj recovered and started running as far away from the kobolds as possible and killed as many as he could with his bow and arrow. After killing a couple of kobolds, Raj finally found high ground and was able to eliminate a few more. Since Kobolds are much smaller than a human, they were very easy to kill but they were fast due to their size, so it is harder to catch one than to kill one.
As Keir and Jin ran, Keir threw a potion of stamina at Jin and he lost balance trying to catch it and was about to fall when he grabbed the edge of the cliff. Jin shouted for help but Keir instead stomped on his hand grabbing the edge of the cliff, because of the pain Jin could not hold on anymore and fell. Fortunately, he landed on his two legs with minimum damage which was just a bit of pain in the knees.
Angrily, Jin started running and slashing at the kobolds as Keir watched. When Jin slashed his Katana was barely visible when in motion. One moment the shining Katana in his hand and a kobold in front of him and the other moment, a red blade in his hand and a split-apart kobold in front of him.
Keir now looked at the glowing red pool and drank the power-boosting potion.
His muscles tightened and swelled and his veins popped up on his limbs. His speed increased drastically until he reached the edge and made a large jump. He slowed down in the air and was now ready to swim in the red pool. He splashed in the pool and started swimming in it.
Keir tasted a salty sourness in his mouth and had an iron-like flavor in his mouth. It was blood, it was a pool of blood.
As he went deeper, he saw infants, and bodies of dead children. There were small bones and skulls, but even if he saw those, that wasn't his motive. His motive was to bring something underneath the blood.
Keir went deeper and saw something that was the source of the red brightness. He dug the bones and flesh of children and infants and found a red shining stone. He grabbed it and immediately went to the surface and gasped for air.
Kobolds were jumping in the pool, aiming for Keir. One reached Keir but was slashed into two pieces with the sword Keir had in his hands. He saw an area where there weren't any kobolds and swam towards it. Just as he got out of the pool of blood, he saw two vast hordes of kobolds, one attacking Raj, who was standing on a large boulder, and the other was attacking Jin relentlessly.
Keir opened the box he had been carrying and brought out a sphere with a ring on it, he pulled the ring and ran straight at the horde attacking Jin. . He pushed aside all the Kobolds and grabbed Jin by both his hands. Keir gathered his strength.
And made a huge jump toward Raj. As he was in the air, Keir dropped the sphere and a huge blast took place, killing most of the kobolds.
Keir landed on the boulder Raj was on and shouted.
"Raj! Grab a tight hold of me! Quick!'
Keir shouted while he huffed, and Raj climbed on his back. Keir took a moment and gathered his strength and jumped towards the entrance. They came and saw Mira trembling at the sight of the three boys covered in blood. Keir brought out another sphere, pulled out the ring, and dropped it at the group of kobolds. The bomb exploded and the body parts of the kobolds flew everywhere.
The boys were covered in kobold intestines and blood. The three fell apart and lay on the ground facing the top while huffing uncontrollably. Jin and Raj burst out laughing.
"THAT! was crazy"
Jin shouted as they both continued to laugh because of the thrill they felt. On the door of death, all will fear and all may experience the thrill of it.
Mira calmed down recognizing the three and poured her newly bought potions into their mouth.
"It may heal a few of our wounds but a low-quality potion will not heal extreme muscle strain, internal bleeding, and broken bones. Raj and Mira, you both can walk, right? take me and Jin to the village, quick!"
They carried Keir and Jin outside where they met with the soldier and they explained to him everything, which shocked him to hear.
And the red stone that Keir had gotten was hidden in the box where he kept the bombs.