Kill The Old Ones!

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”Goodness gracious, it is so hot in here!” Derek complained for the nth time as the party traveled closer to the kobold lairs.

”It’s not so bad!”

”Shut up, Jen. You’re an exception, not a standard. Your martial physique’s practically built for environments like this,” Derek huffed at her. ”You wouldn’t say that if we were at some dark forest or night dungeons.”

Jen didn’t refute his words because she too knows that it’s true. But she did blow raspberries at him.

Well, this was normal. Jen’s martial physique was highly compatible with fire, so she was, indeed, built for environments like this. She’s probably one of the very few people who doesn’t mind volanic biomes.

The Green Tea Party is at Stage 16, raiding it as a team for the first time.

Ren doesn’t know if anybody challenged this place solo like he did yesterday. Whether they did or didn’t, it’s clear that, aside from Jen, everybody doesn’t feel very welcomed by this place.

Jules had it rough. He needed to shed his heavy armor or else he would collapse the ledges leading deeper into the volcano with his weight. He can’t even keep his shield out since that’s heavy too.

Even now that they’re on relatively flat and solid ground, Jules still had it rough because his armor felt hot. It’s like it’s melting to his skin. He’s been sweating ever since, and the heat made him incredibly uncomfortable.

Kaycee and Derek were suffering too, but definitely not as much as the big guy.

Because Kaycee was with them, they saved up time and had a clear direction where to go. Kaycee wasn’t wearing any heavy armor, and neither does Derek, but this heat still bothered them a lot.

Derek was the most vocal about it. He’s been complaining about the heat since they started going down, and he’s still going on about it.

As for Jen, forget about her. This was a walk in the park for her; nothing much to say about that.

Ren was doing okay. Since he raided this place yesterday five times in a row to use his daily quota, he had practically taught his chakra to completely adjust to the heat. His chakra helped him stay relatively comfortable even with this heat.

”Jules, off with the armor. It’s literally starting to melt. I’m not kidding.” Ren couldn’t stay silent anymore and urged the big guy to remove his armor.

Jules was alarmed. Ren wasn’t one to fool around in the dungeons, so he heeded his advice. And his words were true.

It wasn’t as exagerrated as he thought, but some of the finer details of his armor were indeed starting to melt.

”Dang it, it’s going to need another repair,” Jules grumbled as he shook off his armor.

He felt both relieved and annoyed at the same time. The relief comes from getting rid of the heavy and bulky armor that’s slowing him down and literally melting in this environment. The annoyance came after knowing that he will need to have his armor repaired again soon. The worst part is that it wasn’t even caused by a monster, just the environment.

”Maybe you can add a new and better armor to the list of new equipment you need to buy soon,” Ren suggested as he helped his teammate take off his armor.

Jules sighed and muttered: ”Yeah, maybe I should.”

He knew what Ren meant. Ren had been subtly telling him to buy a new shield. The one he has was old. Very old. The repairs aren’t doing much for it anymore.

Jules said that it had a sentimental value; that’s why he couldn’t put it down. But he also realized that if he insisted, at some point, it would break, possibly in the middle of a fight too, and that would not only cause problems for him but for the party as well.

He’d been delaying it for quite some time, but now, it seems that he needed to make a decision soon. He’s running out of time.

Ren didn’t insist. He understood Jules’ attachment. He could only try and nudge his teammate to a better solution, because this current one had grown really old and weathered.

”Alright, team! The treasury is near. Let’s be more careful and make less noise from here on out. We empty the treasury first, and then we clear the requirements, and we get out of here soon. This place isn’t meant for humans.”

It’s clear that Derek wants to be out of this place as soon as he can. He doesn’t like the heat, the haze, and the constant threat around him.

To clear stage 16 as a party, they need to kill 100 ordinary kobolds. It’s doubled because they’re a party, and there are certainly more kobolds roaming around.

Ren gained an up-close and personal experience against the kobolds yesterday when he cleared stage 16 solo. They weren’t too difficult, but definitely more challenging than orcs, goblins, and slimes.

The kobold lair appeared before the party pretty soon.

They saw a walled settlement made with concrete, bricks, and stone. There were crude cannons, catapults, and ballistas mounted on the walls. If the party were spotted by the guards, they would definitely be bombarded from a distance; that’s for sure.

Fortunately, Kaycee was with the team. With her bloodline ability, the party had already found a blind spot in their defenses and were making their way there.

Through this spot, they can sneak inside, go to the treasury, and loot the kobolds clean before killing them en masse.

Because kobolds are better crafters than any of the monsters they’ve encountered so far, they have plenty of raw and refined ores in their treasury. In fact, most of the metals they store are in the form of bars or ingots, fetching a higher price in the market.

They also store plenty of minerals and gems in there: rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, lapis crystals, obsidian, diamonds...their treasuries are filled with those.

Because of the influence of their draconic bloodline, kobolds tend to be hoarders too. They will only use what is necessary, nothing more. The rest will be kept safe and sound on their treasury for them to sleep on or admire in their free time.

The Green Tea Party, or any party, for that matter, will not hesitate to rob them clean. Such is the way of dungeon explorers; after all, it’s a sin for them to come back with clean pockets.

Besides, who wouldn’t be tempted after seeing a kobold stash? Even those who don’t need such resources would still take them, just in case.

So, even in this harsh and very uncomfortable environment, it wasn’t all bad. Parties will endure it for the sake of fat loot, that’s for sure.

With the path identified before them, the party sneaked into the kobold lair without raising any alarms and arrived at their treasury.

They searched for traps, disarmed the ones necessary, and collected everything in there, not even leaving them a single coal behind. All of it went to the party’s inventory.

Once they’re done, they stop hiding.

With chakras flaring, they announced their presence and attracted the attention of the kobolds around.

Kaycee put some distance between herself and made sure to take care of the kobolds who are planning to use the cannons, catapults, and ballistas on her teammates. The rest of the party went on a killing spree.

Derek and Ren made the most gruesome and bloody kills. Derek eviscerated and backstabbed kobolds in conjuction with his eerie movement technique, while Ren was exploding kobold heads with punches and kicks, displaying what real violent aesthetics would look like with skilled hands.

Jen was having fun stabbing kobolds with her sword and cooking them from the inside. Their leathery and scaled skin was tough, sure, but her sword was sharper. She did not have any problems sinking her sword into their bodies and liquefying their organs from within.

Jules stood still like a monolith; with a simple adjustment of his stance, he became anchored to the scorched earth. With his giant shield before him, he endured blows, scratches, pokes, and whatever comes his way.

Of course, he wasn’t just defending. He was hitting back whenever he could. But he wasn’t the killing machine here; it was his friends.

Ren, in particular, made sure to look after him. He never allowed Jules to be overwhelmed or surrounded with enemies. Not since he joined this party and probably never. That’s part of his duty to this team after all.

Whenever he discovered that Jules was about to attack more monsters, he would quietly withdraw near him and clear other monsters to lighten his load for a bit.

If he couldn’t do it, then Kaycee would.

She has been sniping at those who were trying to climb the walls, wanting to mount the weapons. But she was also thinning the herd around Jules from time to time.

With just the five of them, they endured the assault of 100+ kobolds.

They were tired by the end of it but successful. It’s the heat that sapped their energy faster than the kobolds did.

But everything went well. They looted the treasury clean and cleared the dungeon stage without any accidents.

With that achieved, they were out of here for a brief rest.