“What was different about this wolf?” I questioned Hatchet, just because I knew the thing had mana didn’t mean I knew much else about it.

“That was your first beast type monster kid” He blandly answered as he started bagging the wolf to take back to the village, all my prior knowledge of games telling me monster parts would sell for quite a bit. “Now while not all monsters have mana all beast type ones do and that separates the animals from the monster”

“Don’t all monsters have mana?” It would make sense that they would

“Most do but there are some that don’t, a few insect type don’t have mana, the same can be said about massive fish types that are fully based on size, just because a monster doesn’t have mana doesn’t make them any less dangerous, some fungus type monsters take control of other species and in doing so make them a lot stronger, turning into wolf type monsters with no mana, it is very important to make sure every time you fight a strong beast type monster that you didn’t see use any mana that you check yourself for possible sign of infestation. This one here Had some wind claws he used so we should be fine, if the rare type of controlling fungus that can access a previous mana connection got him we are dead anyway.”

That was a lot for me to process and I just stood there trying to absorb all the new information. Seeing me try to comprehend what he just said Hatchet carried on inspecting the clearing, clearly he was looking for something specific.

“What are you searching for?”

“Any sign of where the rest of the pack of this one might be” he said pointing at the wolf. “ They aren’t solitaire creatures few reasons why one as young as this would be alone but I can’t find any marks to single the presence of another”

After 20 more minutes spent in the clearing he determined that he was indeed a lone wolf.

“So, what now? we go back to the village with the wolf?”

“No, a single wolf couldn’t have caused all this, monster or not, we go a bit deeper now that we have a trail to see if we can get a hint on what happened.”

The trip proceeded a lot slower than we had up to this point, we weren’t taking any chances with carelessness. Hatchet stopped right next to a mangled tree, clearly something suspicious had happened to it, even I could tell that much.

“Fuck, we got to get out of here I know what happened.” a quiet harsh tone came out and we were both headed straight for the village. We didn’t make it more than 5 steps before I caught on to why he was so on edge, the conspicuous tree was there to draw our attention and we had just ran into whatever had set up this ambush.

The squeaks came from about 5 pony sized rats, they all looked a lot like they would fit right in with 4 turtles to train in martial arts, but they all had different odd implements, hammers, axes, arrows all made of stone.

“Kobolds, keep clear of them” was all the advice Hatchet gave me as he moved faster than I have ever seen him charging the one with a staff in the back.

I didn’t have a chance to see what else he was doing as one of the kobolds, the one with two axes, came towards me. His small stature made him quick as a drew my sword and took the shield off my back, trying to create distance between us like Hatchet told me but the little bugger was quick.

I managed to parry the first swing and blocked the next 2 with my shield when something different happened. I felt the presence of magic around the kobold, but it was different than the wolf, where the wolf had constant magic pouring into his claws to give them an effect the kobolds magic came in small bursts, targeted at his feet, and I could see the earth move to help him get a better step.

He darted off to the side and then the same thing happened again this time the magic infusing into the axe, its connection with my shield rang out in the forest with a BANG, I could see where it the stone dented my shield without chipping at all, and my whole arm went numb from the force of the impact, hanging limply by my side with the shield out of the way.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to stand up to another such blow I went on the offensive, swinging my blade towards the things neck, only to have it intercepted. But that was something I expected as I switched my swing and managed to leave a sizable gash on its leg. Odd greyish blood pouring out followed by high pitched screech.

Thinking to press my advantage I took pressed on the offensive looking to force it to put weight on the injured leg hoping it would trip, when I felt the same magic for around its axis once more and when it met my blade the power knocks me off balance, the axe coming for my chest as i twist the sword to intercept it the power of the blow sending it skidding across the grass.

The kobold raises its first axe once more looking to finish me off but stumbles as he takes a step on his injured leg making the blow fall short, combined with my own fall backwards to dodge it only leaves a small cut on my forearm. Its beady eyes stare at me promising death as his other axe is raised ready to remove my head.

His forehead exploding with an arrowhead emerging took me by surprise, brains scattering on my boots as it fell to the floor. Looking up I see Hatchet in the middle of 4 dead kobolds, a bow in his hand as he quickly dashed to me.

“Not bad kid, I didn’t expect you to stand up to a kobold before you spent any stat points, even if was just about to brain you” but his grin fell off his face as his eyes landed on the small cut on my arm. “Did you get that when falling?” all amusement was gone from his voice.

“No he nicked me with his axe before tripping on his wounded leg” I answer him, proud that while I lost I at least managed to land a solid blow “ It hardly hurts at all”

“It doesn’t matter whether or not it hurts, kobolds use poisons from underground on their weapons” He clearly didn’t know how to help me as he started going over the corpses, I suspect looking for an antidote.

I did the only thing I could to start sucking out the poison before plunging my own knife into the cut to make it a bit deeper. The next step was the one I knew would hurt as I retreated behind a tree and put my other hand over the wound focusing on bringing forth my fire magic and cauterizing the area hoping that will clean up the poison.

I wasn’t prepared for the pain that came with it and I let out a sharp cry of pain, followed by grabbing a stick and lighting it on fire, in case Hatchet tried to figure out how I cauterized the wound. In a flash Hatchet was in front of me inspecting both the stick and my wound.

“Not a bad plan, since he only nicked you at the end, sucking out anything on the surface then deepening the wound and burning it all should limit exposure, how did you think to do all that?” clearly skeptical of the approach he hadn’t taught me.

“My brother’s lover Kate is a healer for the guards and gave me a few tips on how to deal with all different type of injuries when I was resting between rounds of my brother training me” for once I didn’t have to lie, I didn’t mention that this particular method was for healers who could then speed up the healing of the burn and resistance to the poison with their magic

“Fine let me wrap it up and let's head to the village I know, we need to get a message to Lessis, this isn’t something our village can deal with” He made a plan though the skeptical expression told me my use of magic might not have gone fully under the radar as he started wrapping up my arm.

“What has happened?” I asked, trying to move to a different topic.

“Most likely one of the kobold clans in the mountain had a population surplus so the chief sent one his offspring's with a part of the population to get their own clan started, when there is no more space in the mountain they travel through the forest looking for another series of tunnels to occupy” he answered while finishing up my bandage and we both took off at a run towards the village, though not before I grabbed the quiver of stone arrows and stowed it in my pack.

“ This was just one of the scouting parties, there should be another 3 or 4 hundred of the rats deeper in the forest and among them some higher levels, nothing a small village can deal with, the good part is that it will most likely be 5 cycles before they move close enough that the village enters their hunting grounds since Kobolds are notoriously slow to move outside their tunnels. Plenty of time for a the Baron to dispatch a contingent of knights and soldiers to go deal with them”

While listening to him I also kept an eye on my health bar seeing it slowly drop lower at a very slow pace 73/130 when we left the ambush site to 72 now. Telling me that I hadn’t gotten all of the poison with my little self-immolation trick. It was then that I felt myself receive a new skill [Poison Resistance Lvl 1] that I figured I would be ok, and that the longer this poison was in my system the higher this new skill would level.