Chapter 34: Floor 9 and Trashing the Blind! (1/2)
Before long the lady had co back. Josh could see her unwillingness. He was expecting her hands to be full but surprisingly she was only bringing a small bag with her.
"What's that?"
"C-clothes. Here's the shower." She then made a small rectangular cabin appear out of nowhere. "C-can I go now?"
Josh simply nodded as both interrogators hurriedly left afraid that Josh would order them around so more. Josh couldn't help but wonder how she had done that.
Ronan chuckled: "Later on in the Tower, you can acquire inventory space that can be used for anything. While it's nothing big it's pretty useful in modern society."
"Wait, can't people easily steal with that then?"
"Yes, there are anti-theft systems installed in most shops for that very reason. As for individuals...well try not to lose sight of your own things."
After a quick shower, Josh wore his new clothes, black ones that gave him a cool albeit slightly evil look. In a typical movie, he would have clearly been the antagonist haha. Then they exited the premises with people respectfully nodding to Ronan.
"How are you so popular in this place? Isn't this a governnt building?"
"Here is the thing, S-Rank guilds have close ties to the governnt. For instance, becoming an S-ranker is one way to board ?"
"Ah, you may have noticed but there is a flying ship right above the center of the tropolis. It hosts so of the most important people there are. Lots of decisions are made onboard. It is also one of the greatest honors to have access to it."
"Hmm, so do I have permission to go then?" after all Josh had the highest internal guild rank in .
"Yes, but I suggest you don't. People would be jealous and possibly try to kidnap you."
"Makes sense, not that I intended to anyway. I was simply curious."
"So, what do you plan on doing now?", Ronan inquired.
"Climb." Josh simply answered. He had already wasted enough ti with this little interlude.
"Haha, the right attitude to expect from soone in . Well then, good luck and try not to murder anyone."
"Any advice on Floor 9?"
"Sa as all the other ones haha, don't die."
Josh simply nodded before sending a ssage to Dale telling him he was alright. Then he stopped in front of the Tower, sohow he already had been missing it haha. The usual red glow later, Josh was in.
[Mission: Capture Blind Kobold! Enjoy!]
Talking about a blind kobold, it wouldn't be missing much since the environnt was extrely dark. Josh could barely see a ter in front of him. It seed to be a small tunnel. Not only was there the challenge to fight with low visibility but the cramped space may potentially be an issue too for many.
Now, where would the target possibly be? Was it a nad NPC? Why was it needed to capture him? Either way, Josh simply followed the tunnel.
On the sides, Josh could see seemingly empty ore deposits. There were marks of the rock having been dug. This place was most likely a mine. Just as Josh was calmly walking a creature sneaked out from behind a rock. It advanced slowly with a pickaxe in hand. A few monts later it swung it heavily in order to crack the human's skull open.
Still, that darkness wasn't enough to hide its presence. Josh took a step backward with the weapon missing him entirely. Josh then drove his sword in the creature's throat making it die in incomprehension. Even at death's door it never understood how it had been noticed.
The creature was smaller than a human. About 3/4 the size of one, but very lean too. It had a reptilian face, scales across its humanoid body, claws at its feet and hands, with a tail completing its look. Its entire body was a reddish-brown. It wore so kind of rough cloth, nothing else. Its pickaxe had clearly been used for mining. Josh simply left the body there on the side.
Heading deeper Josh ca to a fork. There were a plethora of tunnels to possibly explore. He slowly started scouting. After a few rounds, he had seen or heard more kobolds. There were two types of kobolds. The guards that were watching the surroundings and the miners that were simply digging. The miners always had grey nas and were weaker.
There were three types of tunnels. There were so active tunnels with lots of kobold miners and a few guards. So were semi-active with a few miners and almost no guards. Finally, so were abandoned. Josh had spawned in one such tunnel, with as straggler being there by chance...or as a tutorial for the Floor.
Both miners and guards only had one pickaxe. The difference was how well-maintained the tools were. The ones of the guards for instance seed sharp and had for purpose to kill.
The kobolds were working mostly in darkness, with so lighting from green glowing mushrooms from ti to ti. The mission was one well suited for sneaking around in the darkness. Good thing there were naplates because all the kobolds looked the exact sa.
The creatures themselves were nurous, but they were pretty weak individually. Most kobolds had grey nas and were level 9, so green level 10, and one blue so far lv 11. Josh tried throwing a rock to see their reaction. They all jumped out surprised while being on high alert. Before long they resud their mining activities.
Now this place was obviously very disadvantageous to humans. Low visibility and outnumbered in unknown territory. Getting spotted would clearly an having to fight countless of them, to the death. Yet Josh didn't feel like it and shouted instead: "Hey guys, wanna play fill the tunnel? It's an easy ga really. You check how many kobold corpses it takes to block it completely. You guys down?"
Following Josh's voice, many kobolds ca on the assault. Actually, only six kept going, the others aborted thinking it would already be overkill. The miners kept peacefully doing their job. Except that they would soon change their opinion.
A few stabs later, 6 kobolds laid unmoving on the cold hard rocky ground. That's the mont the others finally turned their attention to Josh. Seeing the downfall of their brethren the miners started screaming at the top of their lungs. It sounded sothing like REEEEEEE, reminding Josh of so kids on Earth.
After a while an adult …eh mining supervisor finally ca to check on them. Noticing Josh it too started screeching for reinforcents. Until finally there were about 3 dozen kobolds assembling. With low grunts, they charged toward Josh.
Unsurprisingly the result was as expected. They had the advantage in numbers…in a small tunnel. This seed like a chain at processing plant. "One kobold cos in, gets turned into at then it's the turn of the next one!" As more died the corpses started piling up. "Behold the great kobold wall of ….whatever this place is.", Josh proclaid.
Before long, they retreated. Then the miners stopped for a few instants, looked at Josh, at the pile of cadavers, then at their fleeing protectors. That's when they started running too, so even dropping their pickaxes in the confusion. Was it possible to simply grab all these tools and sell them to a blacksmith so he could slt it all? Probably not.
The rocks they had been hitting looked to be containing iron, albeit with small red lines in it. Was it so kind of magical iron? Perhaps an entirely new resource? Josh wouldn't bother too much with it. He simply kept progressing. He was expecting reinforcents to co any second now, but the tunnels were quiet. No sign of any hostiles whatsoever.
It is only after a good 10 minutes of walking that he finally managed to see sothing special. In front of him stood a blockade made of…barrels? These monsters were clearly special. They were not especially bloodthirsty, they were careful and knew how to assu a defensive position.
Now that Josh thought about it, the goblins too had resided in villages. It's just that he had invaded them directly in their ho. They had nowhere to retreat back then. It was either killing him or dying.
How would one go about destroying a blockade? Josh simply went around exploring more tunnels. He went around for probably a few days. It was hard to tell in the complete darkness. Still, soon he was done mapping it all. By now he had understood the system.
There were writings on the walls indicating where every branch led to exactly. It described the quantity of mineral left, the number of troops assigned, and all. Of course, Josh wouldn't pretend to understand it all. But at least he was able to recognize a few symbols determining roughly where everything led.
There was also a specific symbol pointing to their headquarters. It turned out that there were countless tunnels heading in there. There were probably a few hundred kobolds inhabiting the place.
Soon the kobolds started sending guards to patrol the area. They were trying to find Josh. Josh simply hid. As best as they tried they were making too much noise to avoid his detection. Whenever one was coming he simply hid behind a rock for a little while.
Soon enough, the miners ca out too again. It seed like they were not aware of the nature of this place. If they knew how the Tower worked they would have known for sure that Josh was still lurking.
Now he needed to sohow enter their bastion. It seed to be guarded by a few kobold guards at every tunnel. The difficulty was to infiltrate unseen. They had a better vision than him so the darkness wouldn't help much.
Still, Josh figured sothing out. Not all entrances were carved equally. There were a few that were linked to tunnels that were spiraling. aning that behind the corner it wasn't possible to see what was happening. There was an issue of course.
The more at-risk tunnels had more guards. Instead of one or two kobolds, there were about 5. That is when Josh formulated a plan, one that would most likely fail, but that was worth a try. He waited until the start of a new day. That was when the kobold miners ventured outside to mine…
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