Chapter 149: Ka’z Future Plans

They eventually exited the cave hand in hand, Ka’z immediately noticed four familiar figures waiting nearby. Kurg, Ru’k, Tu’ka and Kora were standing together, apparently having been waiting for them.

Ka’z’s eyes immediately shifted toward Tu’ka and Kora, whose hands were also intertwined. A knowing smile slowly appeared on his face. Tu’ka noticed it almost immediately and shamelessly turned his head away, pretending to be fascinated by something in the distance. Kora merely giggled, while Za’r gave Ka’z a small amused glance.

Ru’k, however, seemed far less interested in celebrating anyone else’s romantic development. He suddenly threw his arms into the air and complained,

"Kurg we are going to die single. We are already three years and still no girlfriend!" His dramatic declaration earned immediate laughter from everyone around him.

Kurg simply looked at him with an almost bored expression before calmly correcting him. "Actually, I have quite a few mates, but I’m not dating anyone yet."

The laughter stopped almost instantly.

"What?" Ka’z stared at him.

"What?" Za’r echoed.

"What?!" Tu’ka exclaimed.

Even Kora looked at Kurg with genuine disbelief. When they had all been around a year old, everyone had naturally assumed that if anyone among their generation would become a womanizer, it would probably be Tu’ka or Ka’z.

Kurg had always been the quiet and somewhat timid one, and his old reputation as a coward had made the revelation even more absurd. Nobody had expected him to be the first among them to have several potential mates.

"Traitor!" Ru’k screamed before diving toward Kurg with both arms extended, clearly intending to strangle him.

Kurg simply stepped aside at the last moment, allowing Ru’k to fly past him and stumble several steps before catching himself. Without even looking back, Kurg calmly returned to the group as though nothing had happened.

Everyone else followed his example, leaving Ru’k lying behind them in disbelief.

Ka’z looked at Kurg with renewed interest. "How many?" he asked.

Za’r immediately slapped his arm. "Ka’z!"

"Ouch," he muttered, rubbing the spot while Za’r stared at her own red palm in surprise. She had apparently hit him harder than intended. Ka’z noticed it immediately, took her hand gently and rubbed her palm with his thumb. Za’r’s expression softened and her cheeks reddened again, but Ka’z’s expectant gaze never left Kurg.

Kurg shrugged. "Just three... It’s not a big deal."

"JUST THREE?!" Ru’k screamed from behind them.

Everyone simultaneously rolled their eyes before beginning to walk toward the distant bonfire. Ru’k hurried after them, still protesting.

"COME BACK HERE YOU COWARDS AND FIGHT ME!"

Nobody answered him. Even Kurg continued walking as though Ru’k’s voice did not exist.

As they moved farther into the clearing, the atmosphere changed completely. The usual quietness of the tunnels had been replaced by celebration. Large groups of kobolds were gathered around several enormous fires, dancing and laughing while holding pieces of roasted meat on wooden sticks.

Some of the younger kobolds were jumping around the flames while older ones sat nearby, talking loudly and exchanging stories about the battle. Drums echoed throughout the cavern, their steady rhythm mixing with the voices of hundreds of kobolds celebrating the return of their warriors.

Ka’z slowed when he noticed several older kobolds holding wooden cups filled with a strange pale yellow liquid. Their faces were flushed, their voices considerably louder than normal, and some were laughing so hard they could barely remain seated.

"Is that alcohol?" Ka’z blurted out in disbelief.

Before he had left the colony, they had possessed nothing resembling wine. He had certainly never expected them to develop it while he was gone. Za’r nodded, though her expression immediately became annoyed.

"Ru’k found barrels of it in the goblin camp. Then he made it his life mission to recreate it, and in just one week he managed to create his own millet wine."

Ka’z blinked several times. He looked across the celebration, then toward Ru’k, who was nowhere to be seen. He suddenly wondered exactly what had happened to the colony while he had been away.

"You sound annoyed," he said.

"Of course I am!" Za’r replied. "Because of this stupid wine, everyone is always intoxicated, and old people are always drinking it too when it’s clearly not good for their health. O’nil had to make a rule banning drinking wine during the day, but everyone just drinks a day’s worth of wine at night!"

Her voice grew louder with every sentence. The kobolds around them suddenly became very interested in anything except Za’r. Tu’ka, Kora and Kurg quietly lowered their cups, while several nearby kobolds suddenly found reasons to look in the opposite direction.

Even Ru’k, who had been approaching them from behind, froze when he heard Za’r’s furious voice. He immediately changed direction, sprinted toward the nearest bushes and disappeared into them without hesitation.

Ka’z watched him vanish and struggled not to laugh.

Za’r turned around, only to discover that Tu’ka, Kora and Kurg had already resumed drinking. Her eyes narrowed.

"Traitors."

Before any of them could respond, Lan’ka suddenly appeared beside Ka’z with a cup overflowing with millet wine. His face was red and his movements were considerably less coordinated than usual.

He shoved the cup toward Ka’z’s face and shouted, "Come on Ka’z, you are a man now! This is the drink for men!"

Ka’z leaned backward to avoid the cup and rolled his eyes. Drinking had never been his thing, not even in his previous life. As a loser gamer on Earth, he had preferred lemonade, milkshakes and orange juice. He had somehow managed to maintain that clean record on Earth and he saw no reason to ruin it now.

"I’ll pass..." he said, sounding completely unimpressed.

"Come onnnnn!" Lan’ka insisted, following him with the cup.

Za’r finally stepped forward and placed both hands against Lan’ka’s chest, pushing him backward. "Leave him alone, he doesn’t want to drink your poison!"

Lan’ka reluctantly retreated several steps before raising the cup again. "But I want him to drink my poison!" he protested before belching loudly.

Kora, Tu’ka, Kurg and Ka’z burst into laughter. Their voices carried across the field, drawing amused looks from several nearby kobolds.

It was then that Ka’z noticed his team gathered together a short distance away. The sight immediately made his expression soften. Drak, Mi’ya, Krov, Thrak, Luk, Kren, Bigi, Bruk, Gruk and Tark were all standing together, talking and laughing around the fire. Ka’z smiled before turning toward Za’r.

"Excuse me," he said, and began walking toward them.

The moment his team noticed him approaching, their attention shifted completely. One by one they turned toward him, and within seconds all ten of them were moving in his direction. They quickly surrounded him, several holding cups of wine.

Thrak was the first to make his move. Apparently already drunk, he dropped to the ground and wrapped both arms around Ka’z’s leg.

"Tell me it’s all a lie!" he cried dramatically. "Tell me our time together wasn’t short lived. You can’t quit now!"

The others immediately burst into laughter, while Ka’z looked down at Thrak with a mixture of amusement and disbelief.

"Seriously," Mi’ya said, her smile becoming more subdued. "I didn’t think you were serious about retiring. We only got to go on one adventure together."

Ka’z smiled and raised one hand. The gesture immediately quieted the others. Thrak stopped his dramatic crying and looked up at him while the rest of the team waited expectantly.

"Our adventure is not over," Ka’z said.

Several eyes widened.

"It’s not?" Thrak asked, suddenly looking hopeful.

Ka’z shook his head. "The first step is to build a village and an army strong enough to protect all the people of Vaal’kor." He looked around at each of them before continuing. "Then we’ll slowly expand to a town, a city and finally a kingdom that will occupy all of the southern region and perhaps even more. However, that’s only half of it."

His words immediately caught their attention.

"All this building won’t be done by us. So what do you think we would be doing during that time?"

The group exchanged curious glances. Nobody immediately answered. They had expected Ka’z to retire from adventuring, but this clearly sounded like something else entirely.

"What?" Drak finally muttered.

"Training to defeat the creatures stopping us from gaining full ownership of the Evergreen lands."

Ka’z slowly pointed toward the top of the hill and every expression changed.

"You don’t mean..." Gruk muttered.

Ka’z nodded firmly. "Of course I mean it. The only way to fully gain control of the entire Evergreen Forest is by defeating the magic beasts at the top of those hills. Only then can we truly call ourselves independent."

A strange tension spread through the group. Several of them instinctively took a step backward and looked toward the distant hill.

The magic beasts that lived there had always been regarded as something close to guardians. Their existence had shaped the lives of the kobolds for generations. The weaker races survived beneath their shadow because stronger races avoided territories controlled by those beasts. The kobolds had even made offerings to them, treating their presence as something sacred rather than something that could simply be challenged.

The thought of deliberately fighting the very creatures they had once revered felt deeply unnatural.

Ka’z understood their hesitation, but he did not retreat from his position. He walked past them and sat down on a large branch that had been positioned near the bonfire, the wood broad enough to accommodate several people. His team slowly turned toward him.

"The Vaal’kor kingdom I plan to build will not rely on anyone except themselves to protect their lands," Ka’z said. "It’s alright if none of you want to go through this with me."

"Don’t say it like that," Gruk immediately replied. "You know we will always follow you to the end. We’re just shocked."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Krov stepped forward. "Is that why we’re not going to go on expeditions anymore?"

Ka’z nodded firmly. "We’ll leave expeditions to Tu’ka and the others. Eleven of us are destined to be the pillars of this new kingdom I plan to build, and for that reason we need to stay put and train."

"For how long?" Luk asked.

Ka’z raised three fingers.

"In three years," he said. "I am very certain I’ll make it to the Gold core, and during that time I’ll train all of you and turn you all into powerful magus that even humans will fear to fight directly. But for that to happen, we must dedicate that amount of time to growing stronger. Only then can we ascend this hill and create history."

The words settled over them.

One by one, they looked toward the hill again. Fear remained in their eyes, but something else had appeared alongside it.

Excitement.

The thought of challenging creatures that had seemed untouchable for their entire lives was terrifying, but it was also liberating. If they succeeded, they would no longer be merely a colony surviving beneath the protection of something stronger. They would have earned the right to determine their own future.

Ka’z stretched out his hand, drawing their attention back toward him.

"So who’s going to join me in making history?" he asked calmly.

Drak stepped forward first and placed his hand over Ka’z’s. Gruk immediately followed. Mi’ya joined them next, her usual cheerful smile returning as she placed her hand over theirs. Krov came afterward, followed by Thrak and Luk. Kren placed his hand down beside his twin, while Bigi, Bruk and Tark quickly joined them.

Soon, the entire team stood together with their hands pressed against one another, their earlier hesitation replaced by proud smiles. Ka’z looked at the hands gathered beneath his own and felt something stir within his chest. These were not simply warriors following him into another battle. They were the first people willingly committing themselves to the future he envisioned.

He smiled.

"Cheers to making history!"

"History!" they all shouted together, raising their hands into the air.

Their voices erupted across the celebration, drawing the attention of everyone gathered around the bonfire. Kobolds turned toward them, curious about the sudden cheer, while Ka’z and his team laughed together beneath the warm glow of the flames.