Chapter 162: Demons’ Mine (1)  

It was just a simple message this time as well. There was nothing about fame or infamy this time though.

It made sense. I had already absorbed all of the infamy and fame when I took him in as a slave the first time.

‘Status Window Open!’

[Master the Kobbit Village Level 10]

Dexterity: Intermediate Level 3, 27%

Strength: 123

Agility: 28

Stamina: 221

Intuition: 613

Magic: 99

Vitality: 150

Mana: 852

HP: 1,486

Loyalty: 89

Faith: 0

Knowledge: 327

Charm: 12

Sensitivity: 661

Fame: 0

Respect: 0

Infamy: 0

His loyalty was extremely high.

He’s such a sly little bastard that I can’t completely trust the loyalty level, however, he probably will not think about betraying me at least for the time being.

Chief didn’t betray me twice in the game either.

“Your name is Chief again.”

“Caw! Thank you very much, master. I will do my best to support you.”

Okay, now that I got Chief back...

I turned my head to see that the other Kobbits were still warily looking at me. None of them were thinking about attacking me because they were afraid, however, there were none that were trying to be my slaves like Chief had done.

Of course, I could not take them in as slaves. Monsters need to meet certain requirements in order to become a slave. First of all, they needed to at least be a unique monster.

The rest of these Kobbits were not at that level.

However, I still had a method to turn them all into my subordinates.

It was simple.

I started to walk toward the Kobbit Chieftain. The other Kobbits flinched like scared kittens and moved away with each step I took.

The Kobbit Chieftain had woken up. However, he was in a lot of pain from his broken arms and legs.

I grabbed him by the neck again.

“Translate this word for word. I will kill you and all of the other Kobbits in this village and around this area if you don’t surrender. But if you swear your loyalty to me, I will completely clean out the Demons’ Mine.”

“Kiroo. Kirooroo. Kikikookoo......”

Chief translated my sentence into the Kobbit language.

The Kobbit Chieftain’s eyes opened wide once it reached the point about the Demons’ Mine.

“Kirooroogoorooki?”

“What is he saying?”

“He’s asking if you can really destroy the monsters in the Demons’ Mine.”

“Of course. But he needs to swear his completely loyalty to me.”

Chief repeated what I said once again and the Kobbit Chieftain nodded his head.

“Caw!”

“Master, the Chieftain has sworn his loyalty to you.”

A complete surrender.

However, I didn’t receive any message about how he had lost all will to resist or to take him in as a slave.

This meant that I shouldn’t trust him even though he claimed to promise his loyalty. He would be able to betray me at any point regardless of his loyalty.

However, it will not be easy to do that. I showed too overwhelming of strength for him to do that.

“Fine. Then I will heal his wounds.”

I used a potion to heal the Kobbit Chieftain’s wounds. The Kobbit Chieftain then bowed his head multiple times and promised his loyalty once again.

I put on my Shadow Fox’s Leather Armor and my magic bag. I had returned to my original settings.

Shall I take a look to see how loyal he is to me?

I reached my hand out toward the Kobbit Chieftain.

He looked at me with confusion. He didn’t seem to understand what I wanted.

“Tell him to hand over the Warrior’s Ring.”

The Kobbit Chieftain put on an awkward expression once Chief translated it to him.

However, he could not say no. He seemed to have given up any thoughts of resistance after hearing me specifically ask for the Warrior’s Ring.

The Kobbit Chieftain led me over to his house.

The Chieftain’s house was not in the common area, but inside of a cave on the side of the cliff. The cave became wider as you went in and divided into multiple rooms.

The Chieftain’s room was definitely larger than the other rooms. There was even a storage room to the side.

The Chieftain went through the storage room and brought out a wooden box. He then handed the whole box to me.

“Caw!”

I opened the lid to find all sorts of items inside.

However, the only thing that caught my attention was the ring. It was the only item that was clean and shiny in the box full of rusty old items.

The information popped up as soon as I picked up the ring.

[Warrior’s Ring]

A ring made by the Ares Temple specifically to fight against the power of darkness.

Divine powers related to Ares will increase by 60%.

It had only one effect.

However, it was an amazing affect. The fact that divine powers increased by 60% meant that any priest from the Ares Temple who wore this ring would see all of their skills increase in strength by 60%.

I debated putting it in my inventory before putting it on my finger. I immediately felt something ominous along with a message.

‘Ah! The Ring of Darkness!’

I quickly took off the Warrior’s Ring. It wasn’t like someone like me, who wasn’t a priest, would be able to use this ring anyway. It wasn’t like the ring increased my number of Guard Points nor anything like that.

“Then shall we head toward the Demons’ Mine now? How far is it from here?”

“Caw. We can get there in 20 days if we run as fast as we can.”

days. Do they understand the meaning of days when there are no days nor nights here?

But Chief’s loyalty was close to 90 so he was probably not lying.

I’m sure they had their own ways of calculating time as well.

I will just call Kaicher and the others at the entrance of the Demons’ Mine.

“Let’s go!”

I had two Kobbits lead the way. I had the Chieftain stand to my left along with Chief. It was because this was a dangerous area where something unexpected could happen at any moment.

The other Kobbits didn’t matter, but I needed to keep the Chieftain alive until we find the Demons’ Mine. I naturally didn’t want Chief to die either.

Slither-

“Caw!”

I knew this would happen.

We were in a regular cave and a group of Death Snakes suddenly popped out. There were five of them.

The two Kobbits leading the way were poisoned by the Death Snakes before they even had a chance to respond.

It would have been terrible if the Chieftain and Chief were leading the way.

I quickly got rid of the Death Snakes.

There was nothing we could do about the two Kobbits who were poisoned. Even if there was something that I could do, I wouldn’t use those precious potions on these Kobbits.

I still had a lot of Kobbits who could be used as sacrificial lambs.

“Put those two in front instead.”

Chief told my message to the Chieftain who then ordered the Kobbits.

Two Kobbits looked scared, but they could not go against the Chieftain’s orders.

“Run faster.”

“Caw!”

The Kobbits in the front raised their speed. Maybe they were moving in order to get rid of their fear, but they were running much faster than I expected.

Not that I minded, as this was better for me.

We ran like that for about 15 days.

The exit of the cave finally appeared.

However, that was just the start of a new cave. Outside the cave was a large cliff with a wide grassland underneath it, with ten cave entrances at the edge of the grasslands.

The Kobbit Chieftain pointed to one of them.

“Caw. Kooehhehh.”

“He says that one is the entrance to the Demons’ Mine. Caw.”

“Lead the way.”

The Chieftain put some other Kobbits in the front to lead the way. However, they were reacting differently than they had until now. Their shoulders were curled in and they had their necks down, making them seem completely terrified.

They even stopped moving once they got to the entrance.

“Caw!”

“He says that they cannot go inside here. Caw.”

“Why? Is there some kind of barrier?”

“Caw! Apparently none of the Kobbits who went into this cave came back out alive, caw.”

In other words, they were just too scared to go in.

Then I know what I need to do. I just need to lead the way. I will have the Chieftain follow behind me with Chief.

Of course, I don’t plan to lead the way on my own. A large number of allies who cannot be seen right now were just waiting for me to call them.

I created a portal at the cave entrance. The red portal was created in less than 3 seconds and the others soon came through from the other side.

The brave Dwarf Goonto was naturally in the lead.

“What took you so long? I was so bored.”

The other Dwarves soon arrived before Rohas, Harrison, Shione and the others all showed up.

“Huh, why did your numbers go down?”

Two of Harrison’s group had died. There were 71 when I left them but only 69 came through.

“Do you think we were chilling in some kind of paradise? There were so many monsters.”

“We couldn’t even sleep properly because they appeared at night.”

“Ahaha. Didn’t you sleep all you want during the day?”

I understood what happened.

I did leave them in the middle of the Western District that was known as one of the most dangerous areas.

“But where is this place?

Is that perhaps......?”

Goonto glared at the large cave entrance.

He looks like he would be slow, but he seems to be quite sharp.

“You’re right. That is the Demons’ Mine. You’ve been taking good care of Chubach’s Solar Blade, right?”

“Of course.”

Goonto touched his scabbard. He had brought his own solar blade that he had made along with Chubach’s Solar Blade to hunt the monsters.

“Then let’s get started. I will lead the way. Goonto, you stick behind me with all of them.”

Goonto finally turned his head to see the group of Kobbits.

There were approximately 60 of them. We had started with over 100 Kobbits, but they had kept dying along the way.

The Kobbits became stronger due to the demonic aura, but they were still less than level 200. On the other hand, Dwarves were the warrior race that were known to be strong.

The Kobbits all flinched as the Dwarves glared at them.

“Why do we need these weak ass monsters?”

“Pathfinders. They are from the area.”

That was enough explanation. Goonto nodded his head in understanding.

“Then let’s hurry up. I want to finish this and head home.”

That was my plan as well.

But I still needed to put some precautions in place.

The Shadow Fox’s Leather Armor should make it difficult to find me in that dark cave.

However, it would still be better to put another set of eyes in front of me.

‘Guardian Elemental, lead the way.’

A shining orb popped out of my clothes as I gave the order.

The Guardian Elemental uses a bit of Spirit Energy. That was why I might not be able to use Spirit Energy in a time of need if I kept it active for a long period of time.

But I really needed it right now for safety reasons.

I was able to see 20 meters ahead of me thanks to the Guardian Elemental.

I quickly started to move after confirming it was safe. Goonto, Harrison, and the others placed magic lights on their foreheads and followed behind me.

Kiiiiiii-

Two Hell Spiders suddenly popped out from behind a large boulder. They seemed to have been waiting to strike.

They were aiming directly at my face.

“Watch out!”

“Dodge!”

I heard Goonto and Harrison’s concerned shouts coming from behind me.

However, they had no choice but to gasp. Goonto’s Twin Blades moved as soon as the Hell Spiders popped out.

Slash-

The two Hell Spiders quickly turned into corpses and fell to the ground. I had sliced them in one hit.

“What is going on? You easily took care of the sneak attack earlier as well.”

“Did you know that the monsters were here?”

Of course I knew. Why else would I be using Spirit Energy in order to keep the Guardian Elemental in front of me?

But there was no reason to let them know about the Guardian Elemental. I just told them it was a floating magic light.

As for how I was able to notice these sneak attacks?

“I already told you. I’m a bit special.”

It wasn’t really telling them how, but they just nodded their heads. I had shown them enough surprising things for them to not question this.

“What are you doing? We still have a long way to go.”

I took the lead once again.

Miraclerifle

Proofreader: Borderline Masochist