Kobold Miners
Do you know how the hierarchy works in our party? Rydia is first, Shadow is second, and Benny is only third. For reference, I'm excluded from the ranking game because I'm a man. Or should I say I'm not even recognized as a competitor? If I had to put it one way, I'd be the victor's trophy. In that case, the important one is the sidekick. That's what gacha and trophies are for in the first place, right?
With that lighthearted thought in mind, I wrapped my arm around Rydia's waist. Thanks to the bikini armor, I could feel the bare skin of her waist against my forearm. Enjoying the sensation of Rydia's waist—soft, warm, and slender enough to fit snugly in my arm—I curled one corner of my mouth into a smirk. Just to show Benny.
"Ugh, grrr!" As payment for the bet, Benny, now carrying the backpack, rode atop the shadow monster while grinding her teeth. I shot her a smug smile and said, "Benny's party member is pretty impressive, huh?"
"Graaah!" The third-ranked Benny nearly tumbled off the shadow's back but was caught mid-fall when the shadow monster extended a tentacle to grab her waist and lift her back up. The shadow monster shook her gently, as if sighing, before placing her back on its back.
While I was snickering at the sight, Rydia gave a wry smile and peeled my arm away. "Yona. Don't tease Benny too much."
"Tease her? I was just trying to get closer to Benny."
I shrugged and played it off for a moment. Even while joking around, something caught the edge of my sharpened senses. Clang! Clang! Clang! Faint metallic sounds echoed from afar. There was only one thing on the second floor that could make noises like that.
I pulled my slackened nerves taut again and listened closely. There were four overlapping, irregular metallic sounds. "Up ahead. Four kobolds. I'll take the lead."
"...Understood."
Rydia equipped a pair of glasses-shaped magical tools that could pierce through darkness, just in case. Benny, who had been suffering at the bottom of the hierarchy (?) just moments ago, also changed her demeanor. She set the backpack down on the ground and stood with her arms crossed. The shadow monster had already sunk back into the shadows, ready to strike from anywhere at any time.
"This time, you don't have to fight with magic alone. Fight freely, but try mixing in some magic."
"That's my specialty, after all."
I nodded and activated the Sound-Eating Steps. In an instant, a thin membrane formed between the world and me. After taking a few steps forward, the kobolds—now traveling in groups of four instead of one or two—came into view. Looking like a mix of wolf and lizard, they wore nothing but rags and were focused on chipping away at the wall with pickaxes.
Up until now, the kobolds had always spotted us first, but this time we found them first, so they hadn't stopped working. The underground labyrinth on the second floor was similar to the great forest on the first floor, yet quite different. Just as the great forest was the domain of the World Tree, the underground labyrinth was the domain of the Earth God—but that was where the similarities ended.
Unlike the great forest, which had been created with the clear purpose of protecting the elves, the underground labyrinth was simply a neglected land where various creatures had gathered. The fallen sun had evaporated rivers and seas, and raging blizzards had extinguished even the first flames. Yet the land alone had stubbornly held its ground amid all the miracles wrought by the gods. Sometimes deeply gouged, sometimes melted away, the land never went anywhere. It always stood firm in the same place.
Drawn by that reliability, one by one, beings had burrowed into the earth. The kobolds, once proud warriors but now reduced to miners and slaves. The Spider Queen, once the mother of an army. The earth spirits that simply liked the ground. The steadfast land accepted everything without discrimination, even those who would gnaw at its own flesh.
How many times had it served as a refuge during the long war? Before long, the underground labyrinth had become a sanctuary symbolizing the Earth God and was buried within the labyrinth along with the god's remains. And now, within it, I was hunting the followers who once served the Earth God.
Thud! The pristine white blade of the Unicorn Dagger slid in smoothly. A kobold with its cervical spine pierced through collapsed without a sound. The surrounding kobolds, startled by their comrade's sudden death, stopped their pickaxe work and panicked.
"Ko, kobol?!"
"Kobolkobol!"
"Kokobol...!"
It would have been nice if I could take them out one by one like this, but the moment I attacked one, the ability had deactivated. These creatures had developed heightened senses to compensate for their degenerated eyesight. They would quickly notice that I was standing behind them. In fact, one of the kobolds sensed my direction and swung its pickaxe at me.
Whoosh! I twisted my waist at an angle to dodge the pickaxe. My forearm brushed against it slightly in the process, but it wasn't enough to pierce the armor made from Iron Wolf hide. Enduring the slight numbness, I grabbed the arm of the kobold that had just swung the pickaxe and pulled it toward me.
Thanks to achieving the feat of being the first to defeat the floor guardian on the first floor, as well as doubling the labyrinth's growth rewards with Basilieus, my physical abilities had grown significantly over the past few days. That said, it still wasn't enough to win a contest of strength against even the weakest kobolds on the second floor... but it was more than enough to yank its body forward.
The kobold initially resisted my grip, but when I subtly tripped it to break its balance, it was helplessly dragged along. "Ko, bol?!"
Just as much as I was pulling, I thrust my own body forward. In an instant, the distance between me and the kobold reversed. And then—
The pickaxes swung by the kobolds, who had belatedly realized my position, struck it directly.
Thwack! Thud!
"Kooook...!"
A kobold with pickaxes embedded in its forehead and shoulder. Still alive, it writhed on the ground. "Kobolbol!" "Kobolkobol!" Realizing they had killed their own comrade, the two remaining kobolds charged at me in fury, this time side by side to avoid another team kill.
Unlike goblins or the other monsters on the first floor, which were merely evolved beasts with simple thinking, these kobolds had considerable intelligence. But even they couldn't have expected this. "Basilieus."
A crown of trees materialized above my head. Having absorbed what little divine power I had, it dyed my empty hand green. And then—
Vwoom—! The seeds I had prepared in advance grew rapidly and entangled around the lower body of one charging kobold. At the same time, I fired the wrist crossbow at the other's knee.
Shhhk... Thud!
"Ko, bolkobol?!" "Kokobol...!"
The one whose feet were bound by vines fell forward with a panicked cry, while the one struck in the knee collapsed to the ground with a pained scream. Though their circumstances differed, both kobolds were now pressed to the floor. I pulled out a handful of seeds I had prepared from my subspace ring and scattered them over the two.
Then I squeezed out every last drop of my divine power. Vwoooom! Plant stems erupted with explosive force. The tangled vines tightly bound the kobolds' bodies. The characteristic of this plant, called oil vine, was that it secreted a sticky, flammable substance from its surface.
Now, only one thing remained. I pointed my index finger at the squirming kobolds. "Weak Flame."
A lighter-sized flame flickered to life. I flicked my hand lightly. The scattered sparks fell onto the kobolds. And then—
Fwoosh! Flames erupted violently. Their momentum was so fierce that even the kobolds' screams were drowned out by the roaring fire. But high reactivity also meant rapid consumption of fuel. The flames died down in less than ten seconds.
Revealed within were the kobolds, their outsides crispy and insides still moist. Because the burning time had been so short, they weren't completely dead, but the severe burns—enough to char their scales black—made movement impossible. They could only wait for death, gasping hoarsely. I brought the dagger down on their necks.
Thud. Roll...
Heads rolled across the floor far too easily. I grimaced at their unrecognizable forms. "Inefficient."
It was true that combat had become much easier. But the problem was that oil vine seeds were quite expensive, and the divine power consumption was greater than expected. "Kobolds themselves don't even fetch much money either..."
I let out a deep sigh and stepped past the corpses to pick up the pickaxes they had been swinging. Iron from the labyrinth—that is, material that could be used to make adventurer equipment—was reasonably valuable. Even these pickaxes, which were little more than scrap iron, were worth more than a kobold's magic stone.
...Should I just snatch the pickaxes and run next time? No, given the nature of the labyrinth, there wasn't much space to escape anyway, so I'd have to fight. Sighing inwardly, I used the dagger to cut the handle just below the pickaxe head.
Slice.
I gathered only the separated iron parts and headed back to where my companions were. Benny wore a somewhat disgusted expression. Grinning at her, I held out the bundle of iron. "This time I brought pickaxe heads instead of kobold heads! Pretty good, right?!"
"Uh. Ah. Yeah." Benny accepted the pickaxes with a completely unenthusiastic voice. While she busily organized the spoils into the backpack, I moved to extract the kobold byproducts and magic stones.
"Ah, wait a moment. We're about to reach our destination and head up, right? The backpack's already full." "I suppose so?" "So this time, I'll show you my magic. You need to know what you'll be learning and what you'll be helping with, after all."
"Huh?" I tilted my head, wondering what she meant by "helping," but only for a moment. Benny looked at the sprawled kobold corpses and snapped her fingers. Snip!
"Dissect."
At that single word, Benny's shadow stretched out long. The moment the unnaturally extended shadow enveloped a corpse, it absorbed the body as smoothly as if it were sinking into a swamp. Shortly after, something popped out from the shadow.
"...A horn?" It was a small, protruding horn. Among kobold byproducts, it was one of the more expensive ones. Various other kobold parts continued to bounce out from beyond the shadow, and finally, even the magic stone was spat out.
The shadow, having dissected the kobold as cleanly as removing bones from chicken, returned to Benny. Then came a cute burp from between Benny's sharp teeth. "Uurp." Benny reflexively covered her mouth, but soon placed her hands on her hips with a confident attitude.
"How about it? Not bad, right?" "Benny, would you mind filleting my bones for the rest of my life?" "Eek." I heard somewhere that filleting bones is true love, after all.