My Skill Bar is Full of Monster Skills-Chapter 45: Deeper Within

Actually, even without Fabian’s reminder, Raine had already felt a strong gust of wind coming from above!

A dark shadow suddenly swooped down towards his face. Raine quickly spun around, raised his shield to block, and with a sudden burst of power, met it with a Shield Bash!

"Bang!"

A winged creature let out a wail and was bounced away like a ball.

Huh? It’s a Winged Kobold!

Raine’s eyes lit up!

During the tactical briefing by Reya earlier, he was not assigned the task of killing the Winged Kobold, which left him slightly regretful.

Although the bloodline of even a Winged Kobold should not have any enhancement effect on him at the moment, having never tried it, his heart held a bit of regret.

Unexpectedly, the opponent had actively sought him out.

"Hoo!"

Raine took a quick step forward and swung his hammer at the Winged Kobold who had just gotten up and was still unsteady.

Evidently, its canine head was not much harder than a regular Kobold’s. With a ’thud,’ a hole was smashed into its forehead.

The Winged Kobold’s eyes bulged, twitched twice, and instantly died!

After Raine dispatched this Winged Kobold, the subsequent battle was without suspense.

As three Winged Kobolds died one after another, the Kobold’s morale collapsed, hurriedly fleeing in all directions, which hastened their defeat.

Soon, a group of Kobolds, including the three Winged Kobolds that had been perched at the top of the mine hall, lay motionless on the ground.

It was then that Raine finally had the chance to scrutinize this creature he had only seen in the Basic Monster Atlas.

The Kobold, as the name implies, is a creature with a dog-like head, with most of its reddish-brown skin exposed, only the critical parts wrapped in a small amount of tattered leather or linen.

However, beside the Kobold’s bodies, there were mostly miner picks, along with scattered candles.

The candles, while serving as illumination for humans, were a different matter for the Kobolds.

For Kobolds, these were their faith—candle worship, a somewhat niche belief.

As for the Winged Kobold, aside from resembling a regular Kobold facially, its appearance significantly differed, the most noticeable being its large, scale-covered, bat-like fleshy wings, and claws much longer than those of ordinary Kobolds.

Additionally, from a combat perspective, Raine estimated that one Winged Kobold was the equivalent of three ordinary Kobolds.

In fact, if not for Reya’s pre-battle reminder, Raine would likely have considered these Winged Kobolds, which were not in the Basic Monster Atlas, and regular Kobolds to be two different demons.

After all, the difference in their appearance was quite significant.

In terms of combat experience, neither had left a particularly strong impression on Raine in terms of individual combat prowess.

Whether ordinary or Winged Kobolds, in his attack, each one fell with a single blow.

However, upon careful consideration, their use of catapults to hurl rocks was quite a powerful long-range attack; if sufficient in number, it could cause quite a headache for an average Adventurer Squad.

Overall, Raine believed their fighting capabilities surpassed goblins of equal numbers.

...

"Found it! Here are some human chain armor, leather armor, and other weapons, likely from the missing squad," Fabian called out as he rummaged near the fire.

Raine looked in the direction Fabian pointed, where a pile of clothing clearly fit for human size lay before him.

This prompted him to stride forward to examine the relics.

Though many items were in disrepair, most were recognizable. Soon, a kite shield with a fractured center caught Raine’s eye.

Its somewhat familiar size and shape instantly made him realize this was the shield Robin had purchased at the Iron Furnace Workshop, causing Raine to recall Robin’s youthful and vibrant face, filled with excitement and a beaming smile.

Feeling somewhat heavy-hearted, Raine slowly picked up the shield.

Turning it over.

On the back, he saw the faintly blurry lettering of ’Iron Furnace Workshop.’

Without a doubt, this was Robin’s relic.

At the same time, while Fabian continued searching, Raine also noticed in the relic pile a broken spear with only the spearhead remaining.

The spear and shield were both accounted for.

Raine said nothing, but bent over, wiped the spearhead slightly, and affixed it to his hip.

"The disappearance of the adventurer squad a few days ago was likely due to these few special Winged Kobolds."

Chris pointed his torch at the unique Kobold form on the ground, using his sword tip to flip the bat-like fleshy wing over, and continued:

"Three such rare winged entities appearing at once is quite a threat."

"If they suddenly ambushed with rocks from the rear, a typical adventurer squad caught off guard would likely panic and rush inward, thus delving further into the abandoned mine."

"Yes, once deeper, the Kobolds could use their advantage in terrain and numbers to slowly slaughter the scattered adventurers," Fabian nodded in agreement.

"Especially for ordinary Adventurer Squads, who wouldn’t possibly foresee them like we did."

Had Raine not alerted them in the earlier battle, they might have indeed been ambushed by the Winged Kobolds.

With the Kobolds laying atop the mine hall, they were indeed easy to overlook.

Of course, for their level of squad, even if all three Winged Kobolds successfully carried out an ambush, it would at best cause some disturbance—perhaps some individuals would be injured, but the battle result wouldn’t change.

After all, they were not a bottom-tier Adventurer Squad, but an elite squad.

Despite Chris and Fabian’s logical deductions, Raine still harbored suspicions.

For instance, in his view, the damage on Robin’s kite shield in his hand didn’t look as if the Winged Kobolds’ stones had caused it.

After all, to punch a fist-sized hole through an inch-thick specially processed quality oak shield from the center seemed beyond the capability of a Winged Kobold.

Of course, it was still uncertain.

After all, at the northwest corner of the underground hall, there remained an unexplored passageway leading further down.

It was possible that below, there were more Kobolds, or even a specially mutated Winged Kobold individual.

Thus, Raine didn’t immediately say anything.

However, noticing Raine quietly staring at the shield, Reya’s gaze followed.

Upon seeing the damaged shield in Raine’s hand, she widened her eyes slightly, uttered a soft "huh," and walked over, voicing the same deduction as Raine:

"The rocks thrown by the Winged Kobolds wouldn’t cause this effect."

Reya’s statement naturally drew the attention of the others.

"This looks more like it was smashed by a Warhammer," said Grande, who was usually reticent, unexpectedly spoke up.

"A Warhammer? Could it be a mutated Kobold?" Fabian glanced at Grande, puzzled.

This...

Momentarily, the scene fell silent, as this was indeed a possibility.

"Does this imply there might be an undiscovered mutated Kobold individual?" Chris mused, stroking his chin.

"Is it deeper?" Fabian looked towards the entrance of that passage.

With Chris’s words, the group inevitably directed their gaze towards the dark and dim passageway at the northwest corner leading deeper within.