Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage-Chapter 526: Kobold Mountain I

CH526 Kobold Mountain I

***

’Seriously... Raven Horn wasn’t wrong when he said leaving Dragonstone right now would be dangerous,’ Alex thought to himself as the party wiped out yet another pack of monsters.

This time, it was Lizardmen.

Previously, it had been a group of underground desert gremlins.

And before that, a scattered horde of berserk beasts.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say they had killed their way out of the fifteen-kilometre radius surrounding Dragonstone.

Of course, with the numerous kills came numerous rewards in the form of beast cores.

In Verdantis, it seemed all beasts and even monsters possessed beast or monster cores. The only question was whether they were corrupted by berserk property or not.

This meant little to the team, as Alex—and now Eleanore as well—could purify the precious energy cores, which also served as legal tender across the plane.

Alex allowed the weary group a moment to catch their breath after the latest battle. Even the orcs, who usually seemed to have boundless stamina, showed signs of fatigue from the relentless slaughter.

Grrr!!!

Before the party could resume their march toward the last known berserk human gathering point, Fen suddenly became alert.

Skree!!!

High in the sky, Senu echoed the warning.

After killing so many berserk beasts and monsters since entering the Wildlands, both of Alex’s companions had grown far more sensitive to incoming threats.

Alex tapped into Senu’s vision and quickly located the source.

"There are kobolds patrolling the mountain ahead," he reported. "There’s no mention of kobolds on the map or in the information Raven Horn gave us."

"Then they must be new," Zora said.

Alex nodded.

"What should we do, Boss?" Kavakan asked.

Alex fell into thought.

"We need to be careful," he said. "Kobolds reproduce almost as fast as goblins. There could be hundreds... even thousands of them inside that mountain."

"What if we smoke them out?" Silver suggested.

Alex’s eyes lit up.

"Yes. That could work," he agreed. "If we block the exits to the cave network they’ve dug, a sustained fire spell should be able to smoke, or even choke them out eventually."

He swung down from Dread’s back.

"Udara, Silver, Havel—on me. We’ll scout the mountain and identify every entrance."

He turned to the rest.

"The rest of you spread out and encircle the mountain. Stay on standby... just in case."

"Wait, Alex. Can’t we just bypass them?" Eleanore dismounted, grabbed his arm and asked, worry evident in her voice.

"Kobolds have a strong sense of smell. There’s no way we’ll slip past without them noticing. And we can’t guarantee they won’t chase us."

He shook his head.

"It’s too dangerous to gamble our safety on whether monsters—whose numbers we don’t even know—decide to attack us or not."

"Okay." Eleanore relented.

There was another reason Alex had chosen to take the initiative against the kobolds.

But he kept that to himself for now.

[Abyssal Conqueror’s Step: Second Step – Phantom’s Veil]!

[Shadow Dash]!

[Flash Step]!

[Huntress’s Stride]!

Alex, Udara, Havel and Silver activated their movement techniques and shot forward, gliding stealthily toward the mountain a kilometre ahead.

Except perhaps for Alex, the other three were experts of stealth in their own, so there was little concern about them.

The real concern... was him.

Yet, despite not needing to, Alex had still chosen to spearhead the operation.

However, while he might not be a student of stealth, it wasn’t as if he was completely ignorant either.

Through Senu’s shared senses, Alex constantly adjusted his path according to the wind direction as he advanced toward the kobold mountain.

Darkness mana wrapped around him following the method of the Abyssal Conqueror’s Step, bending light around his body while muffling his footsteps.

Which meant scent remained his greatest weakness.

Fortunately, the kobolds were not actively searching for intruders.

So Alex closed the distance while monitoring the wind.

From Senu’s aerial vantage point, Alex soon located a tunnel exit halfway up the mountainside.

[Abyssal Conqueror’s Step: Wraith’s Crossing]!

Switching instantly to a burst of speed, lightning mana surged around him as he shot upward, arriving at the tunnel mouth, or rather... a vent in a blink.

"Let’s try this out," he murmured.

Alex placed his palm against the rocky arch of the narrow cave entrance —barely large enough for a human—and triggered a spell.

[Lightning Lance]!

Because his hand was pressed directly against the stone, the lightning spell formed within the rock itself.

Cracks raced outward.

Electric currents ripped through the structure, weakening it from the inside.

Then—

The ceiling gave way.

The collapse sounded natural, like an ordinary cave-in, rather than an external attack.

Rubble sealed the passage.

’Worked like a charm,’ Alex smiled to himself.

[Wraith’s Crossing]!

Without wasting another second, Alex burst back down toward the mountain’s main entrance.

He couldn’t be sure the others would be able to collapse their assigned exits as quietly as he had.

So he wanted to be ready in case something went wrong.

Havel’s interpretation of stealth, on the other hand, was what people in Alex’s previous life would have called... a gamer’s approach to stealth.

Once he realised he was upwind, Havel abandoned the idea of sneaking entirely.

Instead, he chose murder.

After all, the wind wouldn’t carry the scent of blood toward the rest of the kobolds.

So why waste time tiptoeing around them?

[Quick Draw Technique: Flash Slash]!

Bodies dropped silently.

The kobolds dying before they ever saw the hem of their killer’s clothes.

Havel continued forward and soon reached another vent midway up the mountain. It was also too small for a human to pass through comfortably, but more than adequate for kobolds.

He raised his sword into a traditional overhead katana stance.

Then he struck.

[Falling Sickle]!

The blade slammed down.

Yet instead of a violent crash, there was almost no sound at all.

It was as if the strike had landed on water.

Mana rippled outward, flowing across the stone and surging into the cave mouth.

A moment later, the rock trembled. Then it collapsed.

The passage sealed, trapping the kobolds inside.

Silver, meanwhile, was far more faithful to the spirit of stealth than Havel.

But when she reached her assigned vent near the mountain’s upper ridge, she found, to her annoyance, several kobolds stationed there.

She clicked her tongue softly.

’No helping it.’

Arrows slipped between her fingers.

Twack.

Twack.

Twack.

Each shot found a throat.

The kobolds dropped without even managing a cry.

After confirming the kills, Silver glanced toward the cave entrance above. Climbing the rest of the way would take time. So she decided not to.

Instead, she pulled a heavy steel arrow from her waist quiver and nocked it.

Mana flooded into the shaft, igniting Runes along it to the arrowhead.

[Power Shot]!

The projectile blasted forward like cannon fire, vanishing from sight—

And a heartbeat later—

CRASH!

The archway imploded, rock cascading down in a thunderous collapse.

But her strike was not the only one that sounded at that moment.

***