"Khk… kkhik" The sound of some sort of creature echoed through the cavern. My head rapidly turned towards the source of the sound only to find a sort of being that seemed to blend so well into the background of the cavern that I could barely even make out the silhouette of it.
Though there was this little instinct in me that told me that this creature meant no harm, as if it was my ally. This instinct though just put me on guard, never had I felt that sort of comfort and trust towards anybody. Well, not anybody that I could actually interact with. The faint figure that filled my dreams was the only person that I could trust, the only one that I felt completely at ease with.
That was why it was so weird, for my own instincts to betray me, to tell me that this creature could be trusted. It was something that I could not see myself ever doing.
"Khuak…" As if it sensed my emotions it let out a pitiful whine, the silhouette of its head lowering to the ground as if to cry but no tears fell.
[Kobold]
A small screen popped up above the head of the creatu- no Kobold. It made sense now, not why I was feeling this sort of emotions towards this Kobold but why it had not attacked me nor shown any hostility. It was my subordinate and my duty to lead them, though I was half tempted to kill it, it would be so easy. Those thousand points would be mine but when I looked again at the now more tangible silhouette I only felt this protective and pitying feeling towards it.
The emotion was strong enough that I just could not bring myself to raise my blade against it. I just sighed and motioned for it to follow. Though what surprised me was that it wasn't alone, twenty more silhouettes appeared behind the initial one and started to follow me.
Soon they caught up to me, my body still frozen at the sight of the small division of Kobolds that deemed me their leader. I didn't stay like that though, I had a mission to do. Any emotions not related to that could be relegated to later.
"Khk" One of the smaller Kobolds had appeared in front of my gaze, its hand holding some sort of flower. It reached its hand out, a shy gesture of affection, and gave me the flower.
[+1pt]
My eyes widened at the implication, I quickly scrolled through the mission list again and found the exact mission that had given me that point. It was one of the useless missions that I had discarded.
[477. Give a personally picked flower to an ally (1pt; repeatable)]
My Kobolds could do missions for me, it was obvious in hindsight but now that I knew it I couldn't help the chuckle that came from my lips. I was planning on doing all of these hard missions in order to gather up as much points as was possible for me but now. Now I had an actual plan, one that wasn't fully formed but a plan nonetheless.
I was going to have them follow me while I looked for enemies to fight and gather points from but now that I had seen that they could individually do missions for me I had other plans. I scrolled down the list of missions and picked out some that could net me hundreds of points a day if I had the kobolds carry them out. They were missions that I had initially ignored in favor of the more difficult and rewarding ones but now I saw them in a new light.
…
[489. Sleep comfortably for 1hr(2pts; repeatable)]
[389. Cook a meal for your allies(5-20pts depending upon quality; repeatable)]
[290. Train in combat for 1 hr(20pts; repeatable)]
[200. Build a bed(25pts; repeatable)]
…
There were more that I could dedicate time to but these were the ones that stuck out. A lot of these weren't ones that I had initially considered mostly because they weren't immediately useful and were ones that gave less points than subjugation type missions.
Immediately after picking out the missions I started to lead the Kobolds towards the faint light in the distance. I knew that the cavernous world that I had been sent to would not be completely cavernous as the missions had me in competition with the other contestants, if there was no way for us to interact then there would be none of those missions. It was easy to deduce then that their environments would be accessible.
However that did not mean that I was going to immediately bum rush their worlds. No, I was going to build up my forces here and make sure that they were prepared for a war. The missions reflected those intentions, with all of the missions dedicated to subjugation one might miss it but now that I had gone through them again more of the lucrative ones were about the building up of our assigned species. Of course most of those required that I had a good foundation built before I could do anything which is why I had chosen to focus on those four missions.
Three for easy points and another to develop their craftsmanship abilities. I could have done the craftsmanship on my own but I knew it would be inefficient with only one person doing it.
Lost in my thoughts I hadn't noticed that we had reached our destination until it hit me right in the face, a cavern filled with crystals glowing with light that illuminated the rest of the cave. All around me was gravel and stone but that wasn't all. Littered around were traces of plant life, stems and leaves popped out of the cracks of the walls. I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face at the sight of the cavern. I was expecting to have to travel much farther before I could make anything but now that I saw these plants and the gravel ideas started to form in my mind. Blueprints of things unknown and methods foreign flew from my skill into my skillset.
[Memoria rank 1(0.8%)]