NOVEL NEXT Chapter 40: Pets and Kobolds
Kazue POV
“Hello there, What is your purpose for coming here?” <Guard>
A guard immediately greeted me and ask for my purpose.
“I am an adventurer and I will be going to the forest to do a quest.” <Kazue>
I replied confidently to the guard.
“Adventurer? Oh, you’re not from around here, no wonder I did not recognize you.” <Guard>
With a look of realization, the guard exclaimed while looking at my face.
From the looks of it, the guard was still young; he looks like he was in his early 20s.
“Yeah, I arrived here in Luron yesterday.” <Kazue>
“Is that so? Then I assume you’re not very familiar with the hunting area around here?” <Guard>
I thought for a while before I answered.
“Not really but I don’t think it would be a problem.” <Kazue>
“Just in case. May I ask what quest you’re after, miss adventurer?” <Guard>
“Kobold fang subjugation and Romera fruit collection.” <Kazue>
The guard asked and I answered right away.
I don’t have any reason to not tell the guard what quest I’m after.
[If he could give me some information about it that would be better.]
The guard grumbled thinking about something.
“Hmnn~” <Guard>
“Let’s see… you can find Kobold after traversing the forest for about 30 minutes. As for Romera Monsters, they live on rocky places so if you want to find them you can look for them at the edges of the cliffs.” <Guard>
The guard seems to know his stuff as he explains to me where to find these monsters
“Is that so? Thank you for the information, that helps me a lot.” <Kazue>
“Hehe! I’m glad I could help.” <Guard>
He pounded his chest in satisfaction.
I bowed toward the guard, paying my regards.
[The guards here are quite useful, they’re also friendly and helpful.]
For some reason, I suddenly remembered the uncle guard from the Imperial capital who would often greet me with a smile every time I went out on a quest.
A smile appeared on my face.
The guard opened a large gate via a lever on the wall.
“Take care adventurer!” <Guard>
“I will, thank you for your concern.” <Kazue>
As I answered he seemed to have noticed the three monsters behind me while rubbing his eyes.
He can’t seem to fathom how such a large blue-eyed wolf appeared inside the city.
He even tried to grip his weapon tightly.
“??, Is there a problem?” <Kazue>
I asked the guard to help him understand that these monsters are not hostile.
He looked at me and back to the wolves several times.
After a few moments, he seems to have understood the situation.
“Ah! Are those…” <Guard>
He gave me a look to confirm his conjecture.
“They’re my pets.” <Kazue>
“Oh! A tamer… I see.” <Guard>
“Well… something like that.” <Kazue>
[He appears to have misunderstood something but since it’s bothersome to explain I’ll just leave it that way]
He scratched the back of his neck; he was ashamed of himself for not noticing this and laughed lightly at himself.
“I shall go now, thank you once again, Mr. Guard.” <Kazue>
“Ah, right. Take care miss adventurer.” <Guard>
He looked awkward as he replied.
I walked forward and exited the city through the gates together with my reliable pets.
After leaving the west gate of Luron, I immediately notice a dense forest covering the surrounding.
Unlike that of the Imperial Capital, where you still have to walk for about 20 minutes before reaching the forest.
Here the forest was right around the corner.
After over 2 months of being an adventurer, I am now accustomed to the forest fields and hunting for monsters.
I confidently entered the forest with my pets and we were on alert right after I stepped foot in the forest.
“Hayate, go on advance and scout the area.” <Kazue>
Without a reply, Hayate quickly moved ahead.
Out of all my pets, Hayate has the best sense of smell, hearing, and intuition out of the three wolves.
The three wolves started to learn “skills” on their own after becoming my familiars.
Hayate seems to have learned skills best suited for stealth, scouting, and ambush.
If Hayate had a job class, I would say that he could be a good Scout or an Assassin.
Isamu on the other hand was walking beside me.
His large frame which was 3 times the size of a normal blue-eyed wolf walks tall.
His size was comparable to a small horse.
He has a strong body enough to carry me without any trouble.
I will seriously consider making him my mount if I had the money to order a custom-made saddle.
In fact, I tried to ride him before but the lack of a saddle makes it hard to pull off.
Isamu's brute strength makes him a valuable “TANK”.
He once took on an attack from an orc before and managed to resist it so there’s no doubt he could body up monsters of that level.
If Hayate had a job class, I assume that he could have a warrior-type job class.
Lastly, Kaori was walking behind.
Although out of the three wolves she was the only one who did not have changes physically.
Her ability to use magic was a surprise, she can use Water, Wind, and Ice Magic.
In fact, she is the first monster I’ve ever seen to use magic aside from the unique ghoul I fought before.
Her magic was not that strong but it was enough for her to defeat a monster of at least E-rank
In a sense, Isamu, Kaori, and Hayate can fill up my weaknesses making the four of us a quite balanced party.
As we are traversing the forest.
We found some familiar monsters such as Slimes, Goblins, Hunter Spiders, Green leapers, and Giant Mantises.
I also found new monsters like Silk Shooter who looks like a dog-size caterpillar.
Scavenger is a monster that looks like a mix of a rat and squirrel that is about the size of a bear.
Lastly, a monster called Lesser Treant a small tree-like monster.
Either way, these monsters do not put too much danger for me.
From the fact that these monsters are just E-ranked monsters, we did not have much trouble dealing with them.
Either I killed them with my sword or Isamu, Kaori, and Hayate dealt with them with their fangs, magic, and claws.
Then I thought.
[Aa, I should have taken a quest related to these monsters. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I could have gained extra cash for this!]
I continued to kill these monsters on the way, I was hoping to level up from defeating these monsters.
After all, I only level up once in the past month.
Well, I understand why I only level up once.
I defeated more monsters from the event that happened 1 month ago in Altus City than the monsters I defeated during my journey here to Luron.
There were quite a number of undead during that time, so I ended up leveling up a lot during that crisis.
That is why I wanted something like that to happen, something that the main characters would experience every now and then.
[I guess I could only experience such events if Chiho and her party members are nearby?]
After all those guys reak of the aura of the "main characters" of a story.
“I wonder if I leveled up?” <Kazue>
I lifted my open hands with the wooden ring to check my status.
“Status” <Kazue>
A stat sheet appeared like a hologram from the ring and showed my stats.
An information window appeared.
Also, I discovered that I could also see the status of my tamed familiars with this ring.
Not too long ago, I got curious and experimented with how to check the stats of my familiars, and apparently, I could use my guild ring to look at their status by swiping the information window that appeared.
[I wonder if this is how “Tamers” check their familiars’ stats]
“No changes huh.” <Kazue>
No changes had appeared from the last time I checked our status.
I closed my fist and the information window disappeared.
“Hmpf” <Kazue>
An uncontrollable pout appeared on my face and I snort at the fact that nothing changed.
I shook my head to reset my mind.
“Oh well.” <Kazue>
I walked for about 10 minutes.
[Mother, I found a new monster.] <Hayate>
Hayate notified me, through our mind connection.
I closed my eyes and directed a reply toward Hayate.
[OK, don’t attack it just yet, wait for us.] <Kazue>
[I understand, mother] <Hayate>
I quickly moved my body toward Hayate’s location that is not too far from me.
I moved as silently as possible and hide behind a bush.
From there I saw a Dog-like monster standing on two legs while holding a weapon.
There was a total of 5 monsters with the same appearance.
Kobold.
Kobolds are monsters with high intelligence.
Kobold is a D-ranked monster similar to ghouls.
They are about as tall as I am as they stand on their two hind legs,
They look like “werewolves”, No, I guess “weredog” is a better description.
I’ve read about these monsters in the adventurer’s guild library before.
It was said that kobolds move in groups, just like goblins.
But unlike goblins, the kobold carries different weapons and moves more coordinated than goblins.
I’ve read that to deal with them, the book suggests fighting it with a full party.
I studied the 5 kobolds within sight.
One of them is holding a greatsword while the other 2 carry a sword and shield and the last 2 kobolds wield bow and arrow.
And as I was observing them at a distance, I noticed that one of them stopped moving and started sniffing the air.
Then it started growling.
[Did it notice us?]
The kobold holding the greatsword pointed its claws toward my direction.
With that, I was sure that they had already noticed me.
“Tsk.” <Kazue>
[I guess it did notice me.]
I clicked my tongue.
I unsheathe my Katana and charged toward the Kobolds before they could attack us.
“Isamu! let’s go!” <Kazue>
Isamu replied by activating one of his skills (Howl).
With Isamu’s (Howl) the slightest doubt, I felt from a moment ago disappeared.
The kobolds with swords and shields intercepted me and blocked my path.
I intended to attack the kobolds with the bow and arrows, they moved like they knew what to do.
They protected the ranged weapon user just like adventurers would do during a fight.
Isamu followed after me and jumped over the two kobolds who blocked my path.
But the kobold with the greatsword stopped Isamu.
Then the 2 kobold archers shoot arrows at me and Isamu separately.
“Kaori! BREEZE!” <Kazue>
Before I even said the command, Kaori already cast the magic to protect me and Isamu.
A strong upward breeze of air shifted the direction of the arrows making them miss their target.
The arrows flew up into the air.
Dust, leaves, and dirt blew up distracting the kobolds momentarily.
(Aura Blade)
My katana gave a faint white glow.
I quickly slash it toward one of the Kobolds.
It tried to block it using its wooden shield but the shield was not able to resist the power of my slash enhanced with (Aura Blade).
I managed to slash through the shield like it was nothing, resulting in the amputation of the kobold’s arm holding the shield.
It squirmed in pain, I did not miss this moment and used another skill.
(Katana Skill: Decapitation Slash)
A quick horizontal slash aimed at the kobold’s neck was delivered.
At first, it looks like nothing had happened but I knew this kobold was as good as dead.
I quickly shifted my attention to my next target.
The other kobold swung its sword diagonally toward me.
I shifted my body to the side to dodge the attack.
A second horizontal slash followed, and I dodged it by ducking down.
At that position, I thrust my sword toward the kobold’s neck then twist the sword and swing it outward.
Blood sprayed out of the kobold’s neck, I felt that some of it sprayed on my face.
The blood felt hot but it did not bother me.
I'm already used to seeing blood from the monsters I hunt.
The kobold dropped its sword and tried to cover the fatal wound on its neck with its hands before falling.
With that, I defeated the kobolds that stopped my charge.
Meanwhile.
Isamu was having a hard time dealing with the kobold with a greatsword.
Isamu was biting onto the greatsword making the two in a stalemate.
“Kaori, assist Isamu!” <Kazue>
“Arff” [Yes, mother!] <Kaori>
I quickly moved toward one of the archers.
A smile appeared on my face.
It was because I saw Hayate already managed to dispatch one of the Kobold archers.
Hayate is biting into the jugular of the kobold archer.
He attacked the kobold archer after sneaking to their back with his (Stealth) and then pounce at them while using (Critical).
The other archer was not even aware of the fact that its comrade was already defeated because it was too focused on me.
“Nice.” <Kazue>
I said to the air.
The kobold archer tried to shoot an arrow at me in panic.
I ran in zigzags to make the kobold miss, as I expected the kobold was having a hard time aiming at me.
In desperation, it released the arrow but badly missed.
Before it managed to fire a second arrow.
(Burst)
I used (Burst) to quickly move forward closing the distance of about 5 meters to 0 in an instant.
Before the kobold could even react, I knew it was already too late.
(Katana Skill: Decapitation Slash)
I swung my sword to remove some blood from it.
I reach into the pocket of my coat and took a piece of cloth that I use to wipe off the blood from my sword.
I wiped my katana with the cloth and returned it to its sheath.
I made sure to do this series of actions as gracefully as possible.
With a slight delay, the head of the kobold archer fell on the floor.
This was followed by its body kneeling and falling.
The same thing happened to the first kobold I killed using the (Katana Skill: Decapitation Slash).
With a slight delay, its head fell on the floor.
A smirk was on my face.
I even nodded my head at myself while feeling proud.
[Perfect! I know I nailed that sequence of moves! I feel so COOL!!!]
I looked back at Isamu and the Kobold with the greatsword.
The kobold no longer holds a weapon and 3 ice-like objects were pierced into its shoulder, thigh, and back.
Isamu attacked the kobold again, the kobold tried to stop Isamu’s bite attack by holding his mouth with both hands.
Then Isamu forcibly closed his mouth completely ravaging the kobold's hands.
The Kobold screams in pain raising its ravaged Hands.
Isamu tried to bite the kobold once again but it used its arm to protect its neck.
This time Isamu did not try to release the kobold and just slammed it brutally to the ground several times.
-slam- -slam- -slam-
Then finally threw the kobold to the side.
Before the kobold could even recover, several spheres of water moving at bullet speed blasted into the kobold's body, finishing the job.
"uwah... that looked brutal..." <Kazue>
“whew” <Kazue>
[Good job everyone!] <Kazue>
My familiar gathered at my side.
Hayate and Isamu had blood on their fur.
“Kaori, Water magic please.” <Kazue>
Kaori created a water sphere in the air.
I washed my face covered with blood with the water created by Kaori.
Isamu and Hayate did the same and removed the blood on their fur.
“Now, then…” <Kazue>
I said to myself while looking at the corpse of the kobolds.
[How do I collect their fangs?] <Kazue>
This is the first time I ever fought a kobold, to be frank, I never experienced removing fangs from monsters before.
I am now troubled by how can I remove the fangs of these kobolds.
I thought of several methods for doing it but I did not have the right tools to do it.
In the end, I just brutely pulled off the fangs by hand.
“I hope this would not ruin the fangs; I do not want “deductions” from the reward. I am short of money after all.”
I said to myself as I prayed to not damage the fangs I gathered.
Each one of the kobolds had a pair of fangs, by defeating all 5 of them I managed to complete the "Kobold Fang Collection" quest.
“Oh well~ this went better than I expected, I managed to complete the quest in 1 swoop. I guess I can’t complain about that.”
[Now then let’s look for Romera Fruit.]
I said to Isamu, Kaori, and Hayate.
They just looked at me with innocent eyes not knowing how to answer me.
I just saw them wagging their tail and panting at me cutely.
The image of them ravaging the kobolds to death earlier seems like an illusion.
Author Note:
Hi there!
I was planning to publish this chapter together with the new cover picture.
I wanted to commemorate this chapter with the new cover picture
After all, I've managed to write until the second arc of the story, and I thought it would be perfect if I could do it in chapter 40.
But because I overestimated myself, with a busy schedule plus my procrastination, I ended up not being able to finish the cover in 4 days hahah~
I was also having trouble coloring the background.
After all, it's not my forte.
Anyway, all I could do for now is include here the WIP version of the cover
I am hoping to finish it today too, but I still have to work on my paid commission ahahah~
