Leo remained hidden behind the shrubbery and bushes as the kobolds patrolled through the area. The small creatures were looking for him but their search was sloppy at best.

Their leader seemed to be an adult male, as it was a whole head taller than the rest of its peers. The creature looked pretty old too. Its scales were mostly brown and grey in color, and some parts of its body had cracks and signs of old wounds. On its head were two stubby horns pointing upwards. A long, ragged, dark blue cape with red embroideries was draped across its back and secured around its neck with a rusty iron chain.

Despite being covered by the cape, its upper torso was bare except for the various accessories it wore on its body. Two rings made out of bone decorated its left hand. There was also a necklace adorned with some strange black stones that looked like coal. They had a smooth texture and emitted a soft glow as if they were lit with some invisible fire from within. Overall, they were rather crude and simplistic in design, but the care that went into crafting them showed clearly that these objects were valuable items in the eyes of kobolds. In its hands, it carried a roughly one, maybe one-and-a-half meter tall glaive. The wooden pole was thick and sturdy, while the bone saw blade at the top of the weapon was stained with dried blood.

While the leader itself looked fairly intimidating, the other four kobolds surrounding it weren't particularly impressive. Four smaller kobolds were carrying wooden spears in their clawed hands while wearing rags for clothes.

Leo watched as they wandered around the area. Their actions were erratic. Sometimes they would walk through the same spot three times and even once, they even made a circle without leaving the premises. These creatures were far from professional trackers. Their only advantage was the numerical superiority.

They didn't seem to have any kind of formation either, all of them just sort of roamed around aimlessly. The leader occasionally would let out a barking sound as if signaling them to follow it, but otherwise, it mostly left the little ones to wander wherever they wished.

However, no matter how pathetic it was to look at, Leo wasn't planning to underestimate his enemies. He observed his surroundings carefully. No matter how poor their tracking skills are, a fight in the open would give the kobolds the advantage. He wanted to wait for an opportunity first. If there were no such chances, then he would have to come up with some strategy to separate them and hunt them one by one.

As soon as the group walked past him, Leo left the cover of the bushes and followed after them quietly. The kobolds moved slowly, so he didn't have too many problems catching up to them. Occasionally, one of the creatures would stop and look around before continuing along their route. This made sneaking after them much easier since Leo would be able to keep his distance.

When they entered deeper into the forest, the kobolds continued walking in a straight line. Soon, the path veered slightly to the right as they rounded a large rock formation. From that point onwards, Leo lost visual contact with most of the kobolds. He trailed behind them quietly until the path narrowed and turned sharply to the right. At that point, the kobold vanguard disappeared completely.

At the same moment, Leo spotted three kobolds splitting up and moving in opposite directions, splitting the party into four distinct groups. He waited for them to gain some distance from each other.

"It's my chance." Leo thought to himself, rushing to get close enough to the group in front of him without being discovered.

Luckily, the kobolds ahead of him appeared distracted. One of the smaller ones was busy eating a mushroom while the older one with a glaive was resting against the tree trunk. The rest went somewhere else, but Leo was sure that they were still somewhere nearby. The older kobold suddenly glanced toward the one in front of him. He then raised his right hand and struck the small kobold with the butt of his weapon, growling at it angrily.

The impact caused the mushroom to fall out of the creature's mouth, which earned another loud growl from the leader. The small kobold whined sadly as it picked up the piece of food from the ground and started chewing on it again.

Leo almost burst into laughter at the absurd scene before him, but he caught himself just in time before ruining his cover.

The small kobold's behavior prompted another growl, causing the smaller kobold to hurriedly throw the rest of the mushroom into its mouth and begin gathering stones lying around. Looks like they were setting up camp.

He crept forward silently. The kobolds hadn't noticed him yet, and that suited Leo perfectly. He weighed his chances of silently taking out two kobolds at once. It was risky, but it could work out if he timed it right.

And indeed, as he drew closer to them, Leo realized that this opportunity might just be exactly what he needed to test the limits of his newly improved stats. All he needed to do was to take out the leader quickly. He wasn't that much afraid of the small one and its wooden spear. In an unfortunate case of him getting injured by it, he could just retreat back to the Sanctuary. The leader's weapon, on the other hand, was something Leo absolutely did not wish to get hit by.

So, after briefly assessing his current condition and analyzing the terrain, he made up his mind. "It's now or never." He muttered under his breath, charging at the unaware kobolds. His footsteps sounded light and muffled. Yet somehow, the older kobold must have sensed something amiss as it suddenly spun around to face him. The two of them locked eyes and immediately the creature raised its glaive up.

But before it could bring the weapon down, Leo slammed into it. Using the momentum of his charge, he tackled the surprised kobold, knocking it over backwards. As the kobold landed on its back, Leo grabbed the handle of its weapon, ripping it out of the creature's grip. Without wasting any time, he swung it around and stabbed the head of the stunned monster. There was a dull crunching sound as the tip of the weapon cracked its skull. But it was not enough.

Then Leo lifted the bloody glaive high above his head and plunged it down once more. This time he aimed at the kobold's chest where its heart resided. It pierced through the flesh easily, sinking deep into the creature's ribcage.

With a sickening squelching sound, the sharp edge of the weapon broke the unfortunate kobold's bones, severing the heart and tearing open the kobold's torso. Dark red blood gushed out in torrents as the kobold coughed up a mouthful of crimson fluid before finally passing away.

Leo glanced at the fading message of the system, slightly disappointed that he didn't gain any XP. He already expected this to be the case, but some part of him still hoped. A sudden cry of agony brought him back to reality as he turned around to see the other kobold running away, screaming at the top of its lungs.

"Fuck. I was careless, for just one second!" Leo cursed silently, flipping the glaive over to hold it properly. With a swift movement, he hurled it forward. The weapon sailed through the air, striking the fleeing kobold in the back. It tumbled down, screeching in pain as the sharp edge sliced through flesh, cutting deep into its body.

The smaller kobold tried crawling away, but Leo caught up to it in a matter of seconds.

"Sorry about this." He said before finishing off the struggling creature.

The most surprising thing for him was not how easy it all felt. It was how comfortable he felt with the process of killing living beings. It shouldn't be like that. He should feel more or less horrified and disgusted by himself. But strangely enough, he felt neither. Maybe it's because he subconsciously classified these creatures as inhuman monsters. Maybe it was due to the adrenaline coursing through his veins, clouding his thoughts. Or maybe something had changed about him when he arrived in this place. In any case, Leo simply felt indifferent about taking lives. At least when it came to kobold lives.

"Now where are the other ones?" The other three kobolds should have heard the cries of their companion for sure.

As he gazed at the rapidly fading body of the slain kobold, his thoughts were interrupted by a sound coming from above him.

Leo's stats when he fought the Kobolds:

MasterOfGainDomain

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