On the other side of the door was a farm. It held alien plants, unlike anything I had seen in any world. They looked almost like corn stalks, towering over me. Alien ears of fruit hung from the sides, and I grabbed one, unwrapping it.

I could feel it. It was ripe with Qi, buried under thick leaves that I pulled back. I stared at it.

It was translucent, like a jelly, when I bit it, it tasted hot and spicy like a pepper, the Qi sliding down towards my stomach.

I smiled bitterly. The quality of the Qi in the fruit could push someone towards the Second Realm, but not passed it, and it would take an astounding number of them. It would be a great resource to someone looking to found a sect.

I had no disciples to speak of. Nor a bag to carry them in.

I continued munching on the alien fruit as I crept along the edge of the room. The tall narrow stalks were covered in wide, wavy leaves that seemed to almost dance in the room, causing undulating shadows beneath stones that hung from chains in the ceiling, burning brightly.

Circling around the left of the room, I finally heard footsteps approaching, and a garbled, alien tongue. I crept into the lines of plants to wait and listen, holding inhumanly still through mental discipline. I slowed my breathing, listening as they passed.

Two Kobolds, talking with each other. They spoke in a series of squeaks and screeches.

These ones wore clothes. And they filled them.

Unlike the thin, skinny Kobolds from before, these ones had clearly eaten well, even if their clothes were little more than ragged plant fiber, likely collected from this very farm. They moved around to the door, holding more refined weapons than the stone and sticks of those below.

One held a dagger hewn from bone, sharpened to a dull point at the end, the handle bound in leather. In the Kobold’s grip, it looked more like a sword, extending as long as the monster’s arm. It explored across the subterranean farm with the dagger extended, its eyes scanning the room as it continued talking in squeaks, growls and grunts.

I watched from inside of the brush, staring down at the Kobold at the gate as it stopped and investigated.

It picked up splinters of the wood, prodding at the broken gate, at the hinges that held it together.

Then it shot to its feet, staring around. It pointed at the exit, barking something at the second Kobold, who broke into a run, running deeper into the complex.

A messenger to warn whatever forces were beyond the town, surely.

I moved through the brush, all but silent as I crept towards an interception direction for the Kobold.

It dashed around the plants, not into them.

I reached out to grab its arm and it yelped as I pulled, twisting its arm behind it.

With a quick motion, I cracked its neck, silencing it and feeling the Qi circle inside of me. Not quickly enough.

I turned to the other Kobold at the door, who was trying to press it shut, wedging the shattered wood against it. It raised the bone dagger, its head darting around to find the source of the noise.

It made a questioning noise, as if asking the location of the Kobold it came in with, a bark with an intonation even I could recognize.

An intonation of fear with an unanswered question.

I crept closer as it moved along the wall.

When it was a few feet away, I slammed it into the wall, delivering three quick kicks to the side of its head until it’s body went limp against the stone. I pulled the bone dagger from its death grip, freeing its lizard fingers. The bone was feather light, the grip comfortable in my hand. I tested the weight twice, swinging experimentally.

Glancing between the farm in front of me and the Kobold behind, I pulled the little monster into the crops to hide the body. No reason to send up an alarm early.

Crops meant a farm. A farm meant a civilization. A little fort or town was ahead.

Each one of the little, human eating monsters was a source of Qi to me.

The excavated cavern for crops curved around the room, and I kept the wall to my left as I proceeded forward to the underground civilization in front of me.

The crops here must have been the size of a soccer field, the magic stones casting the same frustrating light as harsh fluorescent office lights, and I heard my own heartbeat in the quiet stillness as I found the second exit.

This one was left open.

I stopped by the door, listening without looking out.

There were distant noises— the sound of a river, for one, water pouring over stone and raising a cacophony of wind. Many grunts and squeals, Kobolds talking, though incredibly distant. The sound of metal hitting stone, with a tink, tink, tink and the distant sound of crackling fire. The light dimmed outside, the doorway a portal into a world of shadow. I had to crouch to move through the door, which opened to a breathtaking view.

Beyond me was a veritable city.

I stood on the edge of a cliff that opened to a massive chasm within the mountain, held aloft by towering pillars of stone. The room was clearly carved from the earth.

Below me, furnaces billowed smoke, and I could distantly smell cooking meat. Carts sat beside the furnaces and along the river. Tributaries were carved from the water, feeding around and back through fields of aquatic plants, like rice crops growing underground.

To the right, dozen of cave mouths opened, stopping shortly after. They were houses, carved from the stone, linked together by intricate staircases and scaffolding. Kobolds filled the rooms, sleeping or eating or— gross. Reproducing.

To the left, Kobolds swung away at metal veins that snaked through the stone walls of the cavern, supported by rickety scaffolding. Across from me were buildings, or the outlines of them— most lacked roofs. Ranches held creatures that looked like miniature cows and pigs. Fields of mushrooms grew from mud.

Distantly, I saw a marching band of the Kobolds heading out into another exit of the complex. They sported weapons and armor, nothing like the Kobolds we had encountered in the caves below. And in the center of it all was another type of Lizard person, this one bigger and taller. It stood at the height of a regular human, staring around and barking at other Kobolds here and there.

When other Kobolds approached it, they shrunk down, acting diminutive and lowering their head before it. I wondered if it was a world boss of some sort.

Far above, the roof of the cavern wasn’t stone. It was clear— either some super compact ice, or a cloudy crystal buried in layers of snow. The light from light crystals adorning the walls and down below shown into it, revealing its transparent nature.

I played with the knife in my hand, moving down the scaffolding below me, the wall on my left, descending into the city.

I was going to reach the Second Realm today.