So, one question has been answered. Are there intelligent beings near me? If you can call Kobolts an intelligent race, it is. They're using weapons so they can't be complete idiots. They also work in groups and from what I see they communicate in their own language.

As I have already looked, there are four of them and I can hardly distinguish them from each other. What should I say? They all look the same and the differences are small and sparse. I'm sure they're able to tell themselves apart, but don't ask that of me. Let's take a better look at them anyway.

The first one is the one I've appraised before:

Name: Rue | Race: Kobold LV.13

Appraisal Block

This Rue guy, he looks like he's in charge of this whole party. At least he talks the most, and others listen to him. So you can take it for granted that he is the strongest, or at least it would be the tribal society on which these beings are based from what I see.

Now, looking at the others who came with Rue. They are dressed the same way in animal skin thrown over their shoulder or tied at their waist. I checked them too:

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And that's their status, as I thought Rue is the strongest of them. Really, tribal society is so easy to work out. It's simple and direct, but it's also dangerous. If one of them comes back to their village and tells them about me, they'll probably try to destroy me. Well, if they didn't notice my entrance, I could ignore them, but it's too late for that.

When they approached my entrance, they started to examine it thoroughly, apparently they didn't expect to find it here. Zure looked at them most closely, apparently there is some kind of hunter or trapper using typically professional terminology.

 

After he took a good look at them, he turned towards the leader and started to speak something in a language I don't understand. Rue, having listened to him, took a pose similar to a thinker with his hand on his lizard chin. Apparently he came to some conclusion as he called the rest a little louder.

I don't know what he told them, but it looks like they decided to go inside. Not the smartest decision if you ask me. I wouldn't make that decision without enough information if I were him. After all, I am a mysterious structure in the depths of the forest, without any paths leading to me, and yet my walls resemble stone bricks. Looking at it, it appears damn suspicious.

 

And so they lit a torch, each one of them and in a string all at once entered my tunnels. As if it was the most obvious thing to do. Dear me, check the walker before entering the area or send someone to the village that you found something in case you don't come back or something.

No. I shouldn't complain. If I get rid of them all at once, I'll have plenty of time before they send someone new here. So I should thank them that they're such a wonderful victim who's voluntarily giving up to me.

 

Thank you, your sacrifices will not go to waste, you will serve as guinea pigs for my traps.

They crossed the first Pitfall trap, but its pad didn't crack because I had thickened it to withstand their weight. We don't want them to get to understand what's going on so quickly, right. Besides, I better make sure I can catch them when they start running away.

 

The action started when the four of them were at the intersection of my tunnels. They said something to each other. If I'm supposed to guess, they're considering splitting up or staying together, if the latter is also which direction to choose. And I was right because they nodded to each other and went towards my door, which is good for me because I haven't done much with the second corridor yet, I just added two traps. I focused more on developing the tunnels behind the door and if everything goes my way, they will experience it first-hand.

 

I let them go through my traps without activating them. When they finally got to the door, Rue stretched out his hand to open it, and he did it without much trouble. When they opened them, everyone started to cross them one by one.

When the last two were in front of the door, I activated the trap in front of the door. Three pendulum blades started to fall down destroying the stone hiding them. The kobolts, hearing the sound of the stone, turned away just to see one of them being scooped on the blade. The force of the stone blade was sufficient to pierce the Aru through and still taking its prey with it, hit Ri and knock it slightly. However, the impact force and weight of Kobolt broke the stone blade and Kobolt flew forward.

 

68 Dp. was acquired.

After a while, Aru had apparently die of bleeding or shock itself, who knows. He is now lying on Ri who is still pierced by a blade that protruded from his companion, visibly wounded. Well, it's time to start exterminating the intruders, right. This is only the beginning, after all.

***

Ri's point of view. An hour before the mysterious tunnel is found.

Ri and her companions were inside the forest and marched in the direction they expected to find the reason for their problem. The problem is that animals from the areas surrounding the village of kobolts were beginning to move in this direction. They understood this very quickly, because in one day of hunting, their hunters noticed traces of animals heading here.

So boss Rue got a mission from the village elder to see what's going on and best to get rid of it, or secure it. He gathered two members of his team and set off. Ri wasn't supposed to set off at first, but her mother Rira was one of the few in the village to use magic and even rarer healing magic. There were two reasons why she wanted her younger daughter to be a member of this expedition. She mainly wanted Ri to gain some experience for the upcoming war with the goblins.

The goblin village was in a different direction to the village than the one they had chosen now, but from what her mother said is inevitable. Since the black wolves came and established their territory not far from here, it has become more difficult to get food. Their village is mainly focused on hunting and gathering, and the threat of wolves does not help.

That's why Ri is now looking with her partners for another source of trouble. She hopes it won't be anything unusual. When she learned from her mother and the village herbalist, she heard about the fact that some plants rich in ether naturally attract both plants and animals as well as the beast. This is because they have healing properties and are much more nutritious.

This was the second reason why Ri is here, if she finds this plant she has to inform Rue about it. They can't do it alone because they can't exactly sense the mana. Every creature is able to sense it to a certain extent, so animals react so expressively to it but without proper training they are not able to get exactly where it is.

Ri received this training from her mother because she showed a magical talent, although small in comparison to her mother or older sister. However, this is enough to find a plant or use simple spells, fortunately from the talent she inherited from her mother she is also able to heal. In case of danger this should come in handy. Ri herself would prefer it if she didn't have to use magic.

"Hey, Ri, you sense something?" Rue asked her without even turning his head to look at her.

Ri was pulled out of her thoughts, and she quickly said.

"The mana I'm sensing is getting stronger and stronger, we should get closer slowly." To her earnest answer, Rue just nodded, apparently focused on his surroundings.

From what she' s seen and heard, Rue himself is quite an experienced warrior of their village, though not the strongest. That doesn't mean he is weak, however, it makes him very strong for his young age, the strongest of the generation and has a bright future in the village. After all, he is the brother of the chief warrior of the village. Even his character is not the worst. Ambitious and hard working but maybe a little too confident. Although the latter can't be seen because he doesn't speak much, but he shows it when he fights or trains.

When she thought so, her eyes were moving across her companions. Zure is an experienced trapper and hunter who plays the role of a scout in this team. From what Ri has observed, he is serious and pragmatic, which however cannot be called a flaw.

As for Aru, she is a warrior who, like Ri, has a slightly lighter shade of green to her skin compared to male kobolts and is slightly shorter but this is hardly noticeable. It is difficult to notice the differences between males and females of kobolts, as mentioned just now, it can be seen after skin tone or height but also almost unnoticeable breasts. As for the latter it comes down to the fact that the female kobolds wear leather covering them.

Aru herself is energetic, but now she is bored with travelling, so you can't see it. After all, we've been walking for almost half a day.Less than an hour ago she was looking around curious, in the part of the forest where she was not yet.

(I hope it will end without incident) Ri thought, focusing on the journey again.

***

After another hour of marching and searching for clues through Zure, Ri and the company found themselves in front of a small slope where there was a hole that looked like it was made by an intelligent creature.

"Is it here?" Asked Rue, turning to Ri.

"I feel like the ether is gathering there." She answered to Rue, he just nodded his head, and then turned to Zure.

"What can you tell us about this?" To that question, Zure came up to the entrance to see it. He squatted down by them and said to give him a moment.  After about five minutes of watching the entrance and inside it, he turned around and said."Definitely created by someone quite recently, there are walls inside and the floor is lined with bricks, but I can't see any lights."

"Okay, so we go inside, stick together." He ordered Rue

"Yes, sir!" And here comes his overconfidence, Ri thought, nodding. Shouldn't they have made a plan or something first? But Ri couldn't object to him being a different rank in the tribe hierarchy. That's why Zure probably agreed to it too, even though he had a sour face for a while.

And so they went inside, Rue led them, and Zure was right behind him being alert to any traps. After all, he was the only one of them who was able to detect anything, but from what he told them before the expedition, they must be either poorly hidden or their mechanism must be magical. (I don't know how it would work, but the Skills is a mysterious thing given to us by the gods). Ri thought and then focused on the mission again.

Almost immediately they reached a branch in the middle of which they found something resembling some kind of pebbles. There was a powerful ether coming from within.

"Ri is that it?" Rue asked

"It has a powerful ether. It's probably attracted animals, but that would mean it's some kind of food, but it doesn't look like it." She said to him, saying her opinion of these rough stones. But Ri herself had no idea what they could be made of.

"Split up or stick together?" Zure asked him while still watching the two tunnels. The torchlight didn't light up too far, but you could see that both tunnels were turning, though in opposite directions.

"We stick together." Rue said, and then he added. "For now, we're gonna leave it here and go through the right tunnel. We need to see if there's any more of that here." Then he sent everyone a meaningful look and they moved on. Of course they stayed in formation and were focused.

As they walked, Ri noticed that Zure looked at the ceiling for a while, but the next he shook his head as if throwing a stupid thought out of his head. Nothing happened and so they reached the door. It wasn't too big, but each of them would fit in without any problem. What surprised Ri was that they were made of stone, she was curious how they were put here.

Rue came up to them and opened them, they weren't closed, which surprised them all. Ri thought maybe the owner was inside. The rest probably thought so too, because they sent themselves a quick look followed by a light nod. Rue went in and the others followed him.

Shzzrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

*Crack*

Ri heard the sound of a stone rubbing against each other, and then its crack. She and the rest of them started to turn only to hear the strange sound of the meat tearing apart, and they saw Aru, which was pierced with a stone blade. Ri, however, did not have time to think about it because Aru was pushed by the blade for a moment, directed towards her, but also started to float a little. She was guided by a pendulum blade.

*Crack*

The blade's shank broke, which caused Aru and a piece of stone still stuck in her, to shoot straight at Ri. She didn't fly too far and hit Ri. The piece of stone blade that sticks out of the pierced Aru hit its next victim.

"AAAAAAAyyyyyyyy" Ri was screaming, clenching her teeth, trying to withstand the pain. They fell to the ground Ri being crushed by Aru who had only an open mouth, not even screaming. Rue and Zure ran up to them, then Rue pointed his spears towards a tunnel that had not yet been explored, and Zuru started to pick up Aru.

"Aru , Aru speak to me?" He didn't get an answer and didn't expect it, but he still had to ask. Then he put her aside and headed for Ri. "Are you okay?" He asked her looking at the wound  was in her right abdomen. She was bleeding heavily.

"I will survive, I will heal." She told Zure, then she put her hand on the wound and said a spell. "O spirit of life, come heal the wound. [Lesser Heal] Done."

Ri, after healing her wound, using the magic of spirits inherited from her mother, got up and looked at Aru. She wanted to heal her but knew she was already dead when she looked into her empty eyes. She then looked at her other companions and asked.

"What now? Are we going back?" This question was mainly addressed to Rue, but Zure's experience should influence the decisions. Rue heard the question and thought about the next steps to take. Finally, when he finished putting his thoughts together, he asked Zure.

"Were you unable to detect this trap?" Zure just nodded his head and gave a short answer to that question.

"I couldn't." Everyone knew what it meant. The only option would be to withdraw, eventually what they can do if even their trapper can't warn them about the traps that can kill them in a moment.

"We are retreating. Ri in the middle, Zuru you ahead. Forward!" By order of Ri and Zuru, they entered the formation and started to retreat. Rue kept a close eye on the tunnel in front of him and started retreating backwards. When they all walked past the trap, he threw a torch into the front tunnel but didn't see anything, just another turn. With his free hand, he picked up Aru and began to retreat. The extra weight of the stone meant nothing to a person of his level.

Everyone was walking close together and quite fast but suddenly Zure stopped and pushed Ri to the ground. She was surprised but only for a moment. Everything was clear when she heard the sound of the broken stone from above. It was another trap, (but how) she thought. After all, it wasn't here before, it was like someone had let them through...

She was hit by a terrible thought. She started thinking so fast that time had slowed down. She heard stories from her mother about her grandfather, who traveled the world. He always thought it was just a story, but now she knows it wasn't. The stories of tunnels underground that grow like living beings expanding. They were filled with traps and monsters. The stories of the dungeon.

*Kling*

The sound of a falling spear pulled her out of her mind. She looked up quickly and saw Zure whose shoulder was pierced by a long spike that came out of his armpit to the ground. Luckily the rest of the spikes did not pierce them. But she was very lucky because Zure pushed her to the very edge of this trap.

"Are you alive?!" Rue screamed. He stop in place from shock. Right before the trap.

"Hrryy... Yes." Zure's words were spoken through closed teeth.

*Crack*

The stone floor under Rue started to crack, but at exactly the same time he jumped back. He wasn't able to move forward after he was disturbed by spikes. He would have been able to do it himself, but not with Aru's body after all, he jumped back with all his might without worrying about anything.

*Crack*

But Rue didn't expect there was another trap behind him. Being in the air he couldn't protect himself from it, all he could do was wait for the worst. And the worst it was, the spikes fell like the rain of doom and the next moment they broke through his chest piercing his heart. Eventually, both his body and Aru's were suspended in the air pierced by the spikes.

Ri and Zure looked at this unfortunate scene in absolute shock. In his anger, Zure started to hit the stone spike. Once. Two. Three. And finally, a crack after many attempts. Then he ripped the spike from his body and threw it against the ground. Ri ran up to him and started treating him.

"Oh, spirit of life, come heal the wound. [Lesser Heal]" A moment of silence came after that, interrupted by Zure with one word "Come".

They were walking slowly, carefully watching the ceiling around. They reached the junction and went towards the exit without even paying attention to the bait.

*Crack*

Three blades started to fall from the ceiling from the side of the junction. Zure immediately pushed Ri forward, and he tried to bypass them, there was at last a large gap between them.

 

 *Crack*

Another two blades fell from the entrance. Ri was already out of their reach but he was completely exposed to them. He tried to bypass the first three and the wounds from the earlier one took everything from him, he was unable to bypass them. He knew he was going to die.

"Run!" Those were his last words before the blades stuck to his body silencing him forever. There wasn't even a scream.

Ri heard his last words followed by the sound of the blades breaking into Zure's body and ran from the forward. She did not even look back. (I must inform the village. They must know that there is a dungeon here.) Repeated in Ri's head, silencing her fear.

*Crack*

Ri when she heard that sound almost peed out of fear. Instinctively, or out of this fear, she threw herself on the ground. One spike managed to scratch her leg slightly. (I will be fine. Just a little bit more...)

*Crack*

The floor started to crack. Ri, still on the ground, stopped thinking, and pushed her legs as hard as she could, going forward. She started falling into the hole. She miraculously managed to grab the edge and started to climb.

She noticed the exit and this view filled her with despair. The exit started to shrink. The stone began to fill the hole. Now it is only a barely half-meter entrance. (I have to hurry up quickly. I'll do it!) She screamed in her mind.

She rose with all her might and will come out of the edge. The death of Zure, who saved her, can't go for nothing. With these thoughts giving her strength she almost came out...

"Huh..." Ri was surprised. Something grabbed her leg.

Just her determination won't help her now. When she turned her head, she noticed a black tentacle holding her leg. That tentacle was sticking out of the trap wall and two more came up. They grabbed her by the other leg and in her knees. Then these black semi-transparent tentacles with amethyst veins began to pull her on to them.

"No, no!" Ri started screaming. "I beg you no!" beg and cry. Her eyes were full of tears, and the picture of her exit started to blur. "I don't want to die."

Ri didn't want to die. She didn't want her village not to know about that dungeon. It' s a threat to her family. She must warn the village before it starts spitting out monsters. She can beg this monster who killed her comrades for her life just to warn them.

Her pleads have changed nothing, and the tentacles have slowly pushed her onto the spikes. At last, a new tentacle appeared and raised her fingers. And so Ri fell to her demise, her last words were not heard by her loved ones, nor understood by the dungeon.