Chapter 160: The Next Battle (1)

Red focused his scouting around the village first. He went in the three directions he hadn’t explored before, making his mark as he searched for more kobold villages. He only had half a day, so his scouting bore no result. The dire news was that he truly couldn’t find a single living being. The kobolds tried to wipe out all the beasts around their village.

He returned before dark and made his report to the Chief. Fortunately, the village’s food storage was brimmed with food. Also fortunately, the Chief rationed the food instead of letting anyone take as much as they wanted.

Red looked at the food in his hand, and he didn’t know if it could be considered food. He didn’t know what kind of meat it was. Definitely not Rabbon or Marget, not Dire Wolf or Dire Lupus. Maybe Harke or Jakar because he never saw their meat. Or maybe the meat was from the beast he didn’t know of.

He ate it anyway since he didn’t want to waste his blessing just to fill his belly. The mouth was tougher than the meat he usually ate. He needed to chew it ten times or more. Totally different from the meat made by Darla that easily melted in his mouth.

Fortunately, the meat had a taste: salty, extremely salty. That was better than eating tasteless meat. Or maybe not, because his mouth became extremely dry after eating two pieces. That was his night after the battle. This time the Chief put hobgoblins on guard as well, along with the goblins.

Red woke up with the uncomfortable dryness in his mouth. The first thing he did was to look for a water source, looking for a creek or river. There should be one not far from the village. He found a creek, slightly bigger and deeper than the one near his village. The creek near his village was about his belly, and this one reached his chest.

He washed all the sweat from the battle yesterday and drank the water until he got that uncomfortable dryness in his mouth. Then he left the village again without informing the Chief. The Chief and the three Goblin Champions were still sleeping the last time he checked, so he was not going to bother them.

Learning his lesson, he took a piece of meat with a bone in it. Two pieces would make his mouth extremely dry, so one piece should be good. He did the scouting, going further into the opposite direction where they came from. He thought the kobold village might be in this direction, just a hunch, though.

Red expanded his search this time, more thoroughly this time instead of just checking casually while moving. He followed the mark he left behind yesterday just to ensure the area was still safe. Then he started searching for a new area after the marked area was safe.

It was boring duty, especially when he didn’t encounter anything. The good news was that the area was not wet. The branch was not as slippery, but the atmosphere didn’t really change. It was still ominous with how eerily quiet the area was.

Six hours passed, and he found nothing. He drew the conclusion that if there was a kobold village in this direction, he should have found it by now. If he didn’t find the village, it meant there was no kobold village in this direction. Then he decided to return, getting his meal before continuing the scouting.

He checked on Chief, ensuring he was not killed by the other three Goblin Champions. That was less likely after the Chief’s show against the Kobold Chief, but he did so just to ease his heart. The Chief was recovering and alive. The hole on her shoulder was regenerating new flesh.

He stayed next to the creek, so he could have water after finishing his meat. Scouting while eating the meat was a bad idea. As he ate his lunch, he decided where to go. He decided to go down from the initial area he had already scouted.

It was the second village’s entrance that was still intact, and he would go this direction this time. He spent the day inside the jungle and still could not find the next village or any living being around.

It was already dark by the time he returned to the village and reported to the Chief. The Chief was fine with it because he still needed time to recover to his top condition.

The surprise came from the Fool. That one no longer made a fuss about him. He expected the Fool to try something just to get on him. Especially when he couldn’t find the next village in two days.

Red left and spent the night in one of the houses, tossing and turning because he could not sleep. He actually wanted to try to work with his new skills, Rune Weaving and Rune Engraving. He wanted to know what this rune was, but he stopped himself from doing it.

The reason was his mana. He wanted his mana at full capacity in case the village was attacked. But still, he could not sleep and ended up going to the kobold’s weapon storage.

It seemed the goblins liked the food. They were still awake, chatting while chewing that hard meat. They enjoyed the food more than he expected.

He realized that his meeting and getting close to Darla had changed him. He remembered how he ate a whole Marget, raw marget to fill his belly. That memory was still fresh in his mind.

He chuckled, shaking his head as he arrived inside the weapon storage. It was a mess, as the hobgoblins and goblins had swarmed this place earlier, wanting to get a new good weapon. The armor certainly didn’t fit them because of the difference in their build.

Red was looking for the bow first and found out all the bows were the same. He had the same bow, but he was refined and tempered with his skills. Even so, he still took one because the bow was in good condition, properly maintained.

Then he took a quiver of twenty arrows to replace what was broken during the battle yesterday. He decided to work on the arrows and keep the bow for now. Twenty arrows should not consume a lot of his mana.

He worked on the arrows, repairing, refining, tempering, then sharpening. It took him seventy to one hundred mana for one arrow. He was left with a little over a thousand mana by the time he finished with his work. The work seemed to help him with sleep, as he fell asleep in the following hour.

The following morning, he was woken up by noises. His eyes stirred and opened. He could not hear it clearly at first.

"...ATTACK! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"