Chapter 159: A Month Later

___ A Month Later ___

Ka’z’s eyes were shut tightly as he sat in a crosslegged position, his back straight and his hands resting on his knees while crimson steam escaped through the gaps between his scales.

His brows were twisted together in discomfort, and sweat poured down his entire body despite the relatively cool temperature inside the cave. Every muscle in his body remained tense as he struggled to maintain his concentration, resisting the instinct to stop the process entirely.

He could feel something completely different from the usual flow of mana moving through his mana circuits. Instead of mana, it was his blood that was rushing through them, following the same pathways before spreading throughout every part of his body.

The sensation was unusual, almost unnatural, and the further he pushed the circulation, the more painful it became. It felt as though his veins were being filled with something they had never been designed to contain, while every scale on his body seemed to heat up from within.

For several minutes, Ka’z endured the sensation without moving, forcing himself to maintain the circulation pattern he had learned from Tud’or’s Elemental Body. His breathing gradually became heavier as the pain intensified, but he refused to break his concentration.

When he finally reached the point where his body could no longer maintain the technique, Ka’z abruptly opened his eyes and released a loud gasp. His chest heaved up and down as he struggled to catch his breath, while the crimson steam pouring from his body slowly faded until nothing remained except the beads of sweat covering his scales.

He remained seated for a few more seconds, simply breathing and allowing his body to recover before his gaze shifted across the room.

Za’r, Tu’ka, Ru’k and Kurg were all doing the exact same thing, each of them seated in a crosslegged position with their eyes closed and their bodies covered in varying degrees of sweat.

After witnessing Ka’z’s battle with Kurg, the three younger kobolds had become much more serious about developing their cores.

They had spent almost every spare moment cultivating and strengthening their mana control, refusing to remain behind Ka’z and Kurg after seeing the difference a Silver Core could make.

Their efforts had finally paid off a week ago when all three successfully broke through into the Silver Core realm, officially becoming Silver Core masters alongside Ka’z and Kurg.

Now the five of them had turned their attention toward mastering the Elemental Body that Tud’or had left behind, and honestly, the process had been nothing short of a bumpy ride.

Ka’z had originally assumed that using the technique through his Blood affinity would make things easier for him, especially because Blood was naturally connected to his body, but that assumption had proven to be horribly optimistic.

The technique was incredibly painful even for him, and every attempt forced him to endure the strange sensation of having his blood circulate through pathways normally reserved for mana.

Whenever he thought about it, he couldn’t help but wonder just how much more painful the process must have been for Tud’or, who had spent twenty years developing the technique through his Fire affinity.

Ka’z could hardly imagine forcing his body to adapt to such a destructive element for years, especially considering that Tud’or had eventually used that very technique to fight Grash and nearly kill him.

Ka’z slowly wiped the sweat from his brow before glancing toward the others again. Kurg remained completely motionless, his expression calm despite the sweat running down his face, while Tu’ka’s brows were tightly furrowed as he struggled through the process.

Za’r seemed to be handling it slightly better, although Ka’z could still see the occasional twitch of his fingers whenever the pain became too intense. Ru’k was similarly focused, refusing to acknowledge anything happening around him.

Seeing them all working so seriously made Ka’z smile faintly. Two month ago, their biggest concern had been surviving the Ashmork Clan. Now they were sitting together in the same room, attempting to master a technique created by one of their greatest warriors while simultaneously building an entirely new settlement outside their cave.

Their lives had changed considerably in a very short period of time.

’Open the settlement panel,’ he ordered inwardly, and the System responded immediately.

[Settlement Level: Colony]

[Structures:]

[Well]

[Archer Towers: 12]

[Walls]

[Requirement For Upgrade: Colony to Village]

[Residential Building: 20]

[Temple: 1]

[Infirmary: 1]

[Academy: 1]

[Chieftain’s Court: 1]

Ka’z’s eyes lingered on the panel for several seconds before a smile slowly appeared on his face. They were finally getting somewhere. The settlement was still officially classified as a Colony, but the difference between what they had started with and what existed now was enormous.

The temple was currently one of the builders’ most important projects. Ka’z had decided that the Greater Kobold deserved a proper place of worship and remembrance rather than simply another crude shrine inside the caves.

The construction of the temple had already begun, and the creation of the sculpture that would stand at its center had been commissioned to Kong’gong.

There was hardly anyone better suited for the task. Kong’gong was not only one of the oldest and most knowledgeable kobolds in the colony, but also the most skilled Earth magus among them.

Ka’z’s gaze eventually shifted toward the Red Scripture resting beside him. He reached over and carefully picked up the thick book, its worn pages already showing signs of how frequently he had handled it during the past month.

He had spent almost every free moment reading it, and the sheer amount of information contained within the book had repeatedly left him stunned. He had originally expected it to be primarily a collection of magical knowledge, but Luthor D’ Lanthor had apparently been interested in almost everything that could influence the development of a civilization.

The first portion had been dedicated heavily to magic, and Ka’z had been particularly surprised by the way humans trained their magi.

Humans had developed a system where magi were encouraged to specialize heavily in one particular branch of magic instead of attempting to master everything their affinity allowed.

Their reasoning was surprisingly simple.

They believed that spreading one’s attention across too many disciplines resulted in mediocrity, while specialization allowed a magus to push their chosen field to an extreme level of proficiency.

One magus might dedicate their entire life to arrays and magical formations, another might focus solely on becoming a battle mage, while a third could devote themselves entirely to healing magic.

Individually, each would become exceedingly skilled in their respective fields, and together they could provide far more value to a kingdom than three mediocre magi who knew a little bit of everything.

The concept still felt incredibly constraining to Ka’z. His instincts had always pushed him toward versatility, yet he could understand the logic behind the human system.

Mastery required time, and time was limited. If someone spent decades learning ten different disciplines, they would inevitably have less time to perfect each one than someone who dedicated those same decades to a single discipline.

After the sections on magic, Luthor had gone even further, writing about forging, magic weapon enchnatments, runes, Words of Power and even military formations.

There were detailed discussions about how weapons could be constructed to better accommodate magical energy, how magical materials reacted to different elements and how formations could be arranged to maximize the effectiveness of soldiers on a battlefield.

Luthor had even devoted considerable attention to economics, apparently believing that knowledge of wealth, trade and resources would be just as important to his future children as knowledge of magic.

That part had made Ka’z pause for quite some time when he first read it.

Luthor had wanted his children to build something of their own outside the wealth and influence of the royal family. He understood that depending entirely on royal resources would leave them vulnerable to the same political forces that had trapped him.

If they could establish their own wealth and influence, they would possess a degree of independence that many other princes and princesses could never obtain. It was another example of Luthor thinking several generations ahead rather than simply focusing on his own circumstances.

Now, after an entire month of reading, Ka’z had finally reached the point where Luthor’s writings changed completely. The prince had stopped discussing theories and knowledge gathered from books and had begun recording what he personally encountered while traveling across the continent.

’According to this book, the Humans, dwarves and elves are currently the core race of Athedal. The requirement to be considered a core race is the existence of an empire for that race. There are several other minor kingdoms but all these kingdoms bow and pay tribute to one of the three empires of those three races in exchange for protection and continued existence... Even the Kingdom of Lanthor bows it’s head to a bigger human empire and that makes everything much more complicated.’

Ka’z sighed quietly as he stared at the book.

The information had completely changed the way he viewed the world outside Evergreen Forest. Until now, he had understood that humans were powerful, that Lanthor was a kingdom and that the world contained several other races, but he had never truly understood the scale of the civilization surrounding them.

Evergreen Forest was not an isolated world. It was merely one small piece of a land dominated by civilizations that were far older, larger and more organized than anything the kobolds had ever built.

And their own position was painfully insignificant.

What made the situation worse was what Luthor had written about Lanthor’s growing interest in Evergreen Forest.

The kingdom had already recognized the enormous resources hidden within the forest, particularly its magical materials, rare herbs, metals and aether crystals. Those resources could potentially allow Lanthor to increase its wealth and military strength enough to challenge the empire it currently paid tribute to. That alone would have been worrying, but Luthor’s records revealed something even more troubling.

The empire itself had begun taking an interest in Evergreen Forest.

If Lanthor eventually decided to invade the forest, they would already be facing a kingdom with vastly greater resources and manpower than their own. But if Lanthor received support from the human empire behind it, the situation would become almost impossible. Even if Ka’z somehow managed to transform his settlement into a kingdom powerful enough to defeat Lanthor, the human empire would still remain above them.

And if they avoided conflict entirely, that would not necessarily save them. Eventually, someone would come for Evergreen Forest. Theg would discover what they were building and dqecide that the resources beneath their feet were worth more than their lives.

The realization left Ka’z feeling unusually heavy. The threat of extinction was hanging over them, and nobody else even knew it.

Ka’z closed his eyes for a moment before slowly exhaling.

There was, however, one piece of information in the Red Scripture that had provided some measure of relief, although even that relief was far from comforting.

Luthor had called it the Invasion of Athedal.

According to his records, a new race had begun pouring into the continent from an unknown region, and nobody had discovered where they came from. Their physical abilities were comparable to those of powerful magical beasts, yet their bodies also possessed an extraordinary resistance to magic. They could withstand spells that would normally tear ordinary warriors apart, making them a terrifying opponent for conventional armies.

Several kingdoms had already fallen to them, and the invasion had grown serious enough that the major powers of Athedal were now forced to divert their attention toward this new threat.

That was the only reason Evergreen Forest had not yet become the center of a massive territorial struggle. The kingdoms and empires were too busy fighting for their own survival.

Ka’z understood immediately that such a distraction could not last forever.

The invasion might buy them years. It might even buy them decades if the invading race proved strong enough to keep expanding. But eventually, one side would gain the upper hand. When that happened, the surviving powers would once again turn their attention toward everything they had previously ignored.