After the previous five days of marching, Lawrence and the others had arrived near the largest volcano on the island. This made Lawrence and the others move involuntarily much faster.
After climbing another hill, Lawrence and the others raised their heads and looked ahead. In front of them was a huge, black cone-shaped volcano. Wisps of white smoke emerged from the crater, proving that the volcano had always been
It is in an active state, not a dormant or extinct volcano that has fallen asleep.
On a high ground at the foot of the volcano, a kobold tribe's camp was firmly established there. The camp had a ring of walls built of stone and wood, and there were red-scaled men holding pocket bows and arrows on several commanding heights.
The kobold looked around.
The kobolds do not have the head of a dog, but instead look like a lizard with the head of a crocodile standing upright. If they were not hunched over, they would be about the same height as the rat people. Lawrence thinks that the reason why they are called this may be
Their barking sound is almost related to that of dogs.
Generally, kobolds like to live in dark areas, underground or forest areas with lush leaves. The reason why this group of kobolds live on the edge of the forest is obviously because the dragon veins in their bodies come from red dragons, so they naturally like places near volcanoes.
Places where the concentration of fire elements is relatively high.
In addition to this reason, kobolds are creatures that naturally like to mine various minerals, and the active volcano behind them contains a large amount of minerals for them to mine.
After discovering the camp, Lawrence and the others did not leave the jungle out of caution. Instead, they took out their binoculars and carefully observed the camp under the cover of various plants on the edge of the jungle.
"The opponent has at least one bronze-level caster." John was the first to discover the problem. "Otherwise, with the IQ of ordinary kobolds, even if there is an organization of awakened bloodliners, they can only form several groups of no more than 100.
At most a small tribe setting up some tents, rather than building such a large stronghold with reasonable fortifications."
As we all know, the IQ of ordinary kobolds is very poor, and they will not take the initiative to learn at all. However, as dragon-veined creatures, when they gather in large groups, some of them will awaken their dragon bloodline and obtain the knowledge passed on in the bloodline.
According to experience, most of the kobolds who have awakened their bloodline only have their bodies and intelligence fully strengthened. Their bodies have been strengthened from that of an ordinary farmer to the level of a trained soldier, and their intelligence has been strengthened from the level of a child to that of a somewhat stupid ordinary person.
Once such kobolds appear, some organized kobold tribes will be established.
However, if you want to build a stronghold similar to this kind of simple fortress, it is not enough to rely on the low-level awakened kobolds to organize it. Only by further awakening the bloodline, the kobolds who become dragon warlocks will have enough IQ and charisma.
Gather enough kobolds to build a fortress like this.
"The proportion of kobolds who have awakened their bloodline in this group of kobolds has exceeded that of the common kobold tribe. I think it may be related to the special environment formed by the volcano." Lawrence directed the phantom of the fire poisonous bee to penetrate into the stronghold in front.
Then he said, "On average, one out of every 10 kobolds is much bigger than the other kobolds. This should be a sign of bloodline activation."
"10:1?" Cog put down the telescope in his hand and looked at Lawrence. "I think it should be around 20:1. Look at the patrols standing on the wall and the guard guy on the tower. It's obviously 20:1 -
—”
"This is just the proportion of that group of patrols." Lawrence, who closed his left eye and controlled the phantom of the fire poisonous bee to detect the kobold tribe, explained. "Due to the magic defense factor, I was unable to detect the most important part of the tribe.
What's in the largest room in the center? But I found a group of kobold warriors who also awakened the power of blood in the big houses around it."
"A group of kobold warriors." Cog turned his head and looked at Lawrence. "Are they like the group of blood-awakened guys on the wall wearing leather armor and a bronze dagger tied around their waist?"
"No, there are still some differences. I feel that the kobolds in the room are better dressed than them." Because there were some strange runes on the outer walls of the houses where the kobold warriors lived, Lawrence did not dare to manipulate them.
The phantom of the Fire Bee entered those rooms. Fortunately, the kobold warriors living in them did not stay in them, so when they came in and out, Mr. Lawrence saw most of the situation in the room.
.
"For example, although the kobold warriors in that big house also wore leather helmets, their armors had large areas of bronze for protection. In addition, the weapons they used were an ax and a small weapon for each person.
A buckler, and a dagger must also be carried on it. The most important thing is that the leather armor, weapons and bodies of these kobolds have some gold decorations inlaid with shiny gems or semi-precious stones."
"But the strange thing is that I didn't find a bronze smelting site or a weapons workshop in this tribe, and I didn't even see a small head." Finally, Lawrence expressed his doubts.
"That's because - this is simply a kobold fortress." John said, looking at the target of his group on the volcano wall, the red-lit cave entrance and the kobolds coming in and out of the cave entrance.
"There is a problem with the intelligence we got before entering this space. It's not that there are several kobold tribes distributed around the volcano. It's that the two thousand or so kobolds all belong to the same tribe, and the so-called mine is also
Not only is it a mine, it should also be the most important smelting plant for these kobolds."
Just as John was talking, a dozen kobolds came out of the cave carrying several baskets. Through the lens of the telescope, Lawrence clearly saw that the baskets were filled with things made of bronze.
"Then why did the organizer of the competition lie to us?" Laka frowned. Everyone knew that there was more than an order of magnitude difference between the difficulty of dealing with 2,000 kobolds belonging to the same tribe and those belonging to multiple tribes.
"They probably didn't lie to us." Lawrence thought for a moment and said, "The organizer holds this competition to unite the next generation of various civilized countries in the New World. Cheating in this regard will only make everyone suffer losses.
No one can benefit from it."
"As for the intelligence errors, this is most likely due to the insufficient level of the people who entered here for investigation before." Finally, Lawrence concluded. "The most people who can enter this astral plane are apprentice-level staff. With their level, if they don't want to
If the monsters here are alarmed, it’s normal for a lot of the information to be inaccurate.”
"So this time it is very likely that because of these wrong intelligence, we will encounter an unprecedented trouble in this place." Raqqa quickly finished the sentence that was like a tongue twister. "If we rush up now, we will never be able to get close to it.
That mine."
As she spoke, she pointed to the ground on the volcano slopes and the kobolds standing on the high platform holding bows and arrows, and said, "Look, there are some black volcanic ash all around. Even if we use stealth methods, it will be difficult not to avoid these soft volcanic ash."
There are traces left on the ground. At the same time, the arrows used by the kobolds are very small and can hurt us by shooting at the fragile seams of our armor and clothing."
"But as long as those needle-like arrows don't hit the vital points, there's no problem." Kao Ge asked curiously. "The vital points on our bodies will definitely be defended. At most, these arrows will leave some on our bodies.
It’s just a small wound.”
"You are right, but I found that the color of the arrow is not just the golden yellow of pure bronze. It is probably smeared with poison." Laka said. "If we pass by that flat land, we will
It is difficult to ensure that no one is injured under the concentrated fire of poisonous arrows."
"So, let's go look for other people in the surrounding areas first." Finally, Lawrence said, "Let's see if we can gather as many people as possible to solve this problem."