Chapter 16 The Escaped Kobold
More than half a month has passed, and snowflakes are also falling in the sky on the high slopes of the storm.
The rock fortress already stands majestically at the entrance to the "Burning Nest", blocking all invading creatures.
The goblins who were not cold-tolerant set up simple camps in the valley and huddled together to keep warm. The ogres were treated slightly better, occupying several huge caves and sleeping soundly in them.
Cassius is also sleeping in the Giant's Mouth Cave. At this moment, he is yawning in various ways, exhaling streams of sulfur-smelling hot breath from his mouth, filling the cave with smoke.
The red dragon naturally likes warmth, and the geothermal heat in the cave makes it reluctant to leave.
Several bipedal flying dragons were resting shamelessly at the entrance of the cave. In name, they were to guard the entrance of the cave and protect their owners, but in fact they were just soaking up the heat in the cave.
But seeing how diligent they were, the red dragon turned a blind eye.
Rumple, on the other hand, specially found a warm and secluded cave as a library, studied his books all day long, and complained to Cassius every day why the goblin army was so weak and could not rob new books from human caravans.
"Ouch——"
The flying dragon hovering in the sky howled.
The sound was—someone was coming.
Cassius regained his energy, stood up slowly with his limbs supporting his body, fluttered his wings, walked out of the cave and flew into the sky.
For most of the month, he was either sleeping or studying spells in the cave.
In terms of food, the hobgoblin led an elite hunting team to surround several woolly mammoths, and even sent one to the Giant's Mouth Cave.
The red dragon can be said to be able to reach out with clothes and open its mouth with food.
Just when he was really bored and worried about squandering his excess energy and desire for destruction, things came to him.
When the flying dragons piled up at the entrance of the cave saw that Cassius wanted to leave, they quickly got up in fear, lowered their heads respectfully to make way, and then followed closely behind him.
But when Cassius flew to the entrance of the valley and looked down and saw the uninvited visitors in front of the rock fortress, he felt a little less interested.
Under the city gate was a group of skinny, short humanoid creatures, about a hundred of them.
Their bodies are covered with scales, ranging in color from dark brown to black. Their heads look like a mixture of dragons and dogs, with two small light-colored horns on their foreheads - these are kobolds, cave-dwelling reptilian humanoids who often Worship dragons as demigods.
This group of kobolds were obviously not in good condition. Many of them had wounds and blood stains on their bodies. They gathered in a panic and made noisy noises under the city gate.
Cassius could tell it was dragon language, but when it came out of their mouths, the sound was like a noisy bark.
"It is a great dragon!"
"It's really a dragon!"
Until one kobold raised his head with difficulty, saw the red dragon in the sky and let out a scream.
"We are saved!"
Suddenly, all the kobolds knelt down in piles like devout believers experiencing a miracle, muttering vague dragon language.
"Boom——"
The red dragon suddenly descended from the sky, causing the thin snow to splash in front of the city gate.
"Why are you here? (Dragon language)"
Under the pressure from the depths of their bloodline, the kobolds still knelt and did not dare to raise their heads.
After a long time, a slightly stronger kobold picked apart a group of his own kind and trudged out of them.
It threw itself at the feet of the red dragon, and spoke in dragon language like a barking dog, with a cry in its tone: "Lord Dragon, we are here to seek refuge with you——"
The red dragon looked down coldly at the little creature in front of him, as if it could crush it into pulp by just moving its body a little. It is said that these kobolds have a trace of dragon blood flowing in their bodies, and they are naturally fond of defecting to evil dragons. However, they are really weak, and there are goblins as substitutes, so their use value is really not great.
Seeing that the red dragon was unmoved, the kobold raised his head secretly, with an extremely sad expression: "All of our kindred were eaten by that monster, and there are only so many people left. But when we felt your powerful power, we all Come to join you”
After hearing what the kobolds called "monsters", Cassius finally became interested.
"What can I bring by taking in you weak kobolds?"
Seeing that there was a turn of events, the kobold rolled his eyes and said quickly: "Gold! We can bring you a lot of gold!
"Our entire tribe originally lived in the mines and was enslaved by human smugglers to dig gold for them. We are familiar with everything there, understand the direction of the mineral veins, and know where the most gold is."
The kobold behind him also quickly agreed.
"Yes, yes."
"Yes, I can dig as much gold as my head every day."
"Lord Dragon, you must take us in."
Cassius became more interested.
Gold is hard currency everywhere. With enough gold, he would be confident to obtain various contraband from humans, including but not limited to weapons, equipment, and magic books, thereby rapidly expanding his power.
If you can't buy it, it only means that the gold is not enough.
What's more, there are so-called "monsters" in the kobold story.
Cassius continued to ask: "What is that monster you are talking about?"
Hearing these words, a trace of unconcealable fear suddenly appeared on the face of the leading kobold, and all the kobolds that followed were also in an uproar, and some of them were even timid and cried out of fear.
The kobold leader patted his chest to calm down, then slowly said: "Master, you must believe what I say next."
The red dragon did not hesitate about his title, but nodded slightly.
The kobold seemed to be still immersed in the horrific memories and spoke in an immersive tone: "That was really a very scary monster. Its body was bigger than a small mountain, and its mouth was also very big. The cave is even bigger and can eat ten kobolds in one mouth.”
Speaking of this, its voice couldn't help but tremble.
"In the mine, it is everywhere like a shadow. No matter where we run, the monster can find us. There were more than 700 people in the tribe, and they were all eaten by it, not even their bones. Spit it out.”
The kobold looked frightened.
"I worked hard to bring out more than a hundred of my kind from the secret tunnel of the mine." After saying this, it breathed a sigh of relief.
After it finished speaking, the kobolds behind it all huddled together in fear and did not dare to say anything.
"Is that monster you mentioned bigger than me?" Red Dragon asked with interest.
Cold sweat broke out on the kobold leader's head, and he didn't know how to answer for a while.
In its memory, the red dragon is the most arrogant and cruel creature. Maybe a slight offense will cause people to die without a burial place.
"Tell the truth," Cassius said impatiently.
"Yes, yes." The kobold replied tremblingly, and even closed its eyes.
"What's your name?"
"Gold Teeth."
When the expected sharp claws did not appear, the kobold leader immediately let out a long sigh of relief and put on a flattering smile on his face, revealing the particularly conspicuous gold tooth in his mouth.
(End of chapter)