I wasn't sure how old I was when I woke up and muttered out loud, "Dang. How long was I unconscious?" Feeling dried snot on my nose, I rubbed it away and looked at it, mostly to make sure it wasn't blood. "Gnome brains, it is blood."
The voice in my head responded to my question, "You have been unconscious for one hour, fourteen minutes, and thirty-eight seconds."
"So I'm still two days old then," I groaned as I tried to ignore the throbbing pain of the worst headache I've ever had in my short life. Remnant memories were still dancing through my mind. "So," I asked, "did I pass the test?"
"You did wonderfully. In fact, you scored off the chart. I was able to insert a lot of information directly into your mind, much more than any of my other students. You should be familiar with this process since it is very similar to what I believe your people call vísindimuna."
"Ahh, ancestral memory encoded into our genetic structure," I muttered. "That's not the same at all. The only similarity is the fact that the memories can be accessed. This is more like encoding memories directly onto neural tissues in the cerebral cortex."
"What? Explain yourself." Hyggiandi definitely didn't sound like she was making a request. No, it sounded like a demand. "What are neural tissues and what is the cerebral cortex?" Just by the tone of her thoughts, I could tell that she was going to ask me again and again until I explained. She was like a cat sniffing catnip.
I smiled, realizing that I had found another means of controlling her. I could share facts with her from my previous life. There was so much information that I could use to motivate her to be a help instead of a hindrance. Deciding to earn some goodwill, I shared some basic information about the brain structure.
Fifteen minutes later, I was regretting my decision. I had to agree to tell her more about it later and instead brought her up to date on what was happening with the kobold tribe. After all, she might be useful. Because of this, I spent another few minutes explaining about my situation.
"Interesting, so there are some smart kobolds," she said after listening to me. "Of course, that is probably because of your draconic bloodline."
"Hey, kobolds aren't stupid," I said, a little offended for my race. "There are many types of intelligence. Okay, perhaps kobolds aren't the best in linguistic intelligence. However, we more than make up for this in other areas of intelligence, for example, naturalistic intelligence."
I didn't say anything about interpersonal intelligence since kobolds seemed to focus more on the me side of things, such as "me hungry" and "me mad." I also didn't want to get into a discussion about how many types of intelligence there were. After all, that was mostly a matter of opinion.
"Well, judging just based on my previous experiences with kobolds, I haven't been impressed. Then again, while there are a few smart humans, most of them are just as dumb as kobolds. In fact, almost all of the races except for a few subspecies of elves and dwarves seem just as bad as humans and kobolds. However, in general, out of all the common races, gnomes are the only species that seem to be a little smarter than the others."
THE FOLLOWING FEW MINUTES OF SCREAMING AND THREATS WERE REDACTED DUE TO THE GRAPHIC NATURE OF THE WORDS USED IN THE CHASTISEMENT OF HYGGIANDI. THE SYSTEM WAS IMPRESSED BY THE REINCARNATED KOBOLD'S COMMAND OF COLORFUL VOCABULARY BUT DOES FEEL THEY ARE APPROPRIATE FOR DISSEMINATION.
"I'm sorry," Hyggiandi sobbed, her mental voice quivering with fear, "I was wrong. Please don't melt me. Gnomes are the stupidest race that exists. If you ask me, with all my years of experience, what is the height of stupidity, I would have to say that all you have to do to find that out is to measure the height of the nearest gnome. Gnomes are stupid and smelly."
Somewhat mollified now that Hyggiandi had realized her mistake, I stopped casting Eldritch Bolt at the necklace and picked her up from the corner where I had thrown her. Although I was still annoyed, I decided to let it go and muttered, "You're lucky I don't have Fire Bolt memorized or the fact that there isn't a fireplace in here," as I placed her around my neck again.
I was about to say something more when I heard a knock on the door. Without even thinking about it, I said, "Enter."
Dróttinn walked into the room, followed by the same group of maids who had helped me earlier. "Greetings Gothi Nóttormr," Dróttinn said after bowing with the others bowing at the same time. "I hope the Phylactery of Hyggiandi is to your liking. It was the only suitable offering we could give you in our treasury."
"Thank you," I replied. "I am sure that it will be useful." I was also certain that there were better items in the treasury. However, I wasn't likely to get those magic items. After all, if you were a kobold, an adult dragon who is at their physical peak or a two-day old kobold who might be possessed by a god who admits to still being weak?
Also, for red dragons, losing even one copper coin or the most worthless trinket could cause them to fly into a rage and hunt down and mercilessly destroy the supposed thief. The fact that I was given anything proved how much I was valued. Of course, I was certain that the red dragon Einvaldskonungr would never be told. After all, it hadn't been given to him yet. More than likely, Dróttinn was probably taking a risk by giving me the necklace. After all, dragons weren't known as being particularly generous creatures.
In fact, I should probably be extremely grateful that they gave me anything near as nice as the necklace, much less the other magical trinkets, worthless as they were. While I hadn't checked on how my information screen had changed because of those magic items, I already could tell there would be a big difference.
"I wanted to assure you that there is no need to worry about the concerns you raised," Dróttinn said. "We have long since prepared for possible invasions. However, I have assigned additional scouts to watch our perimeter and have even sent a few brave members of the tribe to investigate areas beyond our borders."
The younger maids looked at the chieftain, apparently reassured by his words. Considering that a group of invaders had just been stopped, I could definitely understand their fear. The older maid, however, didn't look worried at all. More than likely, she had been through similar situations in the past. Then again, it could be that she had met Einvaldskonungr, the red dragon, and anything short of that couldn't be considered a real threat.
"Whether it is good news or bad news is debatable, but the ambassador from the Groenneitr Tribe cut his visit with us short. He said that he feared for the safety of his guards and left with his party. Although the timing is suspicious, there is nothing we can do but allow him to leave."
I was actually surprised by this. Dróttinn was proving himself to be wiser than I had given him credit for. Also, for some reason, I felt that the kobold chieftain was more than willing to get his hands dirty if it was to protect the tribe. This brought a smile to my lips since I approved such sentiments.
"I haven't heard back from the scouts yet," Dróttinn said, "but I'm sure there are more threats on our border. With just the number of humans you encountered, there is no way they could have made it to the treasury. Of course, that is unless they were a tier two group," he added, acknowledging that tier two opponents could probably do it.
Tier One were local heroes, usually ranging from levels one to five. Tier two was regional heroes. Adventurers usually became Tier Three national heroes when they reached level eleven. Once they reached Tier Four at level 16, they were considered world class heroes. Of course, very few heroes advanced to Tier Three, much less Tier Four.
After considering for a moment, I had to agree that the adventurers I had encountered were probably still at Tier One. Obviously, a few of them were close to reaching Tier Two, at least from what I could surmise. That was evident by how much damage they could take and how the types of magic items they possessed. low-level adventurers rarely had valuable magic items.
However, just by practicing their craft, whether martial or magical, every adventurer could reach level two within a year's time. They could do this even if they only practiced in a school. That was evident by the fact that I had earned one experience point just by practicing my cantrips and spells for a few hours.
Despite how quickly it was possible to get to level two and level three, each successive level was harder and harder to reach because the experience required scaled dramatically. This was one reason I was able to level so quickly. I had slain a large group of adventurers who were higher-level than myself. In fact, I probably received bonus experience because of that fact.
I know it was selfish of me, but I kind of wanted more adventurers to arrive. Of course, I didn't want any kobolds harmed and tried to prevent that from happening. Whether I wanted it to happen or not, I was certain that more invaders would be arriving soon. At least, that would give me the opportunity to gain some more experience. I really wanted to level-up. In fact, I was already feeling addicted to it. I wondered how long I would have to wait until I leveled up again.