Chapter 184: Something Is Wrong

Red returned to the village with a sword in his hand, keeping up the pretense to keep his Storage Pouch secret. He was satisfied with the harvest. He got five levels and increased the size of the Storage Pouch. Though he was low on core reserve now. He only had twenty Magic Cores now, but all of them were Mediocre Quality.

The "fight" was not over yet; the hobgoblins were finishing off the trapped kobolds now. They grabbed the weapons on the ground and threw them at the kobolds inside the pit. He counted the number of the hobgoblins with a frown.

They won the battle, but they paid the price. Only fifty-eight hobgoblins survived the battle, losing half of them. Considering the number of kobolds they killed, that was the best outcome. Half of them survived against the kobolds that were three times bigger than them.

But that was the problem because this was not their last battle. They had to fight more kobolds because that was their task. The Chief wouldn’t pull back unless they truly could no longer fight. At best, they could only fight one more time with their current number. Even Red was not confident they could win if the kobolds kept sending a bigger group to them.

There was a chance that the kobold would send two Kobold Challenger or two Kobold Elders along with four hundred to five hundred kobolds. If that happened, they didn’t have a chance to win the fight.

If it was up to Red, he would return now and wait for the reinforcements before going on campaign again. Their number was not the only issue, but they had supply issues as well. Sure, they could survive another week or two since they lost half of the hobgoblins. That would change once the reinforcements came.

However, he knew the Chief well enough that they would not return now. They would return only when they could no longer continue the fight.

Red walked back and felt something weird within him. He felt something stirring inside his core, where his mana gathered. His Mana Sense detected unusual movement from his mana. When he tried to concentrate to find out what happened, he was hit by a sudden drowsiness.

He kept his eyes open, picking up his pace. The Chief became more active, overseeing the looting process. Again, he was ensuring the loot was fairly divided among the hobgoblins.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" The Chief asked, noticing the frown on Red’s face.

"I..." Red almost spilled what happened, but he didn’t feel like telling the Chief what happened. He was still unsure about telling the Chief about his condition.

"I am just exhausted... Can I take a break for a while? A few hours of sleep will help me get back to my top condition..."

The Chief nodded. "Go ahead. I will tell the others not to disturb you. There will be no more kobolds coming to attack us for a while after we wipe out this army."

Red nodded and picked up his pace into the village. The drowsiness hit him harder; his eyes were heavy. He had a hard time keeping his eyes open.

’What happened to me?’

He was alarmed by his condition, and he was running now to find a place to lie down. His eyes were half open now, and he found a random house. He couldn’t even reach the straw bed as he went limp, falling to the side before the darkness took over him for a moment.

That was right, just for a moment, because he regained his vision right away. Instead of inside the house, he was standing in front of a blazing fire.

Red was confused for a moment. The crimson fire blazed fiercely, yet he didn’t feel the heat, and it didn’t burn him either. Then the fire pounced at him. He subconsciously raised his hands to cover himself from the fire. That was what he tried to do, but he realized he didn’t have a hand. The fire engulfed him as his vision went crimson for a moment, then he appeared in a new place.

His ears buzzed as the clanking sounds resounded from all directions. He was confused about what happened until he saw the scene in front of him. It was more than he had no choice but to see since it was right before him.

A human wearing a leather apron was smashing metal with a hammer. The clanking sound came from that action, and this human was not the only one who did this, smashing the metal. There were a lot of humans, more than twenty of them, each with their own station.

’What are they doing?’ That was the first thought that came into his head.

Red looked around, and his eyes widened if he had eyes. The reason was that he found a red "hobgoblin", another him. This red-skinned hob wore a similar apron, but there was a symbol on it, while the human’s apron didn’t have a symbol.

Not just one, but there were five of them, walking around with their hands on their chest, checking on the human. He knew they were not hobgoblins. They were just like him, a race he didn’t know. They were his people, or he was their people.

He watched what they were doing, focusing on a station where the red-skinned monster instructed the human. He realized what happened here. His people were teaching this human... smashing the metal?

The humans didn’t look like they were slaves. There was a spirit in their eyes, eagerness to learn. They were doing this on their will, not forced. He kept watching until he found out what they were doing.

The humans didn’t just randomly smash the metal. After an hour of watching, he understood what they were doing. The one in front of him was making a shield. A round shield made of gray metal. Once the shield was finished, he could see the joy in the human’s eyes. It was as if he had created something amazing.