Our Dharma Masters are like this.

Chapter 76 Going deep into the lair
Seeing this, Zellier shook his head slightly.

It seems that teenagers raised in aristocratic families often lack a certain degree of wariness towards the outside world.

If you're unlucky enough to run into a team led by Drake, you might end up with a scenario where Lant "unluckily" dies during a mission.

……

The carriage traveled smoothly on the dirt road.

Like a child on his first long trip, Lant pressed his face against the car window, watching the fields and hills rushing past with curiosity and excitement.

As they approached their mission objective, Marcus tied up the carriage and parked it near a grove of trees, and the group disembarked and began to proceed on foot.

Before me lay a desolate hilly area, the land bearing a barren, reddish-brown hue due to overexploitation in earlier years.

There were hardly any tall trees on the ground, only some tenacious weeds and low shrubs.

The air was filled with the smell of rust and dust, and several abandoned mine shafts stood silently in the distance like tombstones.

Perhaps it was the nature flowing in his blood that made Vales feel both regret and helplessness when he saw the environment destroyed like this.

Following the map's directions, Marcus quickly located the mission site at the foot of a mountain.

It was a mine entrance half-hidden by wooden planks and rubble, with traces of trampling on the surrounding soil.

"Can you be sure they're kobolds?" Marcus asked Hill.
Hill crouched down and examined the area for a moment, then nodded slightly.

"This is it. I can still smell the sulfur residue on them."

Marcus tightened the straps of his scale armor and began to arrange the positions.

"Hill, you lead the way and scout for traps. The squad will follow behind, in the order of me, Gray, Vales, Lant, and Zellir."

"Understood," everyone replied.

Lant nodded seriously, his expression changing from excitement to seriousness, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Soon... we'll be meeting those monsters that only exist in books!
Once inside the mine, the space wasn't as cramped or confined as I had imagined.

This was originally an abandoned site mined by humans, not a den dug by the kobolds themselves, so the passageway was quite wide, enough for three or four people to walk side by side.

Rusty rails lay on the ground, and as you walked along, you could occasionally see various broken tools scattered around your feet.

As the group ventured deeper into the area, the light began to dim, making it difficult to see clearly.

“Lant”.

Zellier whispered a reminder, "Use the Light spell."

"Um……!"

Lant gripped his wand tightly, beginning to sketch out the structure of the spell in his mind.

You could tell he was very nervous. Even with such a good wand, it still took him more than seven seconds to cast a simple illumination spell.

A ball of light slowly rose and floated above everyone's heads, illuminating the surrounding environment, and the team continued forward.

Hill, like a ghost blending into the shadows, didn't need the light from the orb to illuminate her, and she alone pulled ahead of the group by a large margin.

Sometimes you know she's right there, even if you're staring intently at her, you still feel that Hill's figure is elusive and indistinct, and sometimes you might even lose sight of her altogether.

Is my perception too low...?
After all, it's only 30 points now. If it were a bit higher, would it be easier to spot Hill's whereabouts? Zellier couldn't help but wonder.

The mine was quite quiet, with only the deliberate light footsteps of the group and the dripping sound of water from the distant rock walls.

The air grew increasingly cold, and Lant could even see the white vapor of his own breath. He cautiously observed his surroundings, his inner tension growing ever stronger.

A kobold... it shouldn't suddenly pop out, right?
A warm hand rested on Lant's shoulder, and Zellier's reassuring voice quietly rang out.

"Don't be afraid, I'm watching you from behind."

With Zellier's reassurance, Lant's emotions eased considerably, and he nodded vigorously.

Just then, Hill suddenly stopped. She raised her hand, signaling the team to stop, and then pointed to the ground.

Everyone slowed down.

In the light of the illumination spell, they saw that there was an area of ​​loose soil on the ground ahead that appeared to be deeper than the surrounding soil.

Hill carefully peeled back a layer, revealing several sharpened splinters underneath, and judging from their color, they were clearly coated with venom.

If you were to step on it carelessly, the soles of your feet would probably be pierced.

The team carefully avoided the pit.

On the rest of the way, Hill discovered four or five more disguised traps.

It was either wooden spikes, tripwires hidden in the crevices of the rock face, or a net of falling rocks hanging overhead.

"These kobolds... they're really cunning," Gray muttered under his breath.

Finally, the team came to a fork in the road, where three equally dark mine tunnels appeared before them.

Hill stood silently for a dozen seconds, then opened her eyes and pointed without hesitation to the rightmost road.

The team continued forward following the directions. This time, they hadn't gone far when a series of clanging sounds faintly came from the depths of the passage.

"What are the kobolds doing?" Vales asked softly.

"Dig and build your own nest."

Gray lowered his voice.

"This small kobold tribe has just migrated here, so they are relatively easy to deal with. But if we let them develop for too long and dig out a dozen interconnected tunnels, then it will be troublesome to kill them."

Marcus made a "shush" gesture, and then the entire team fell completely silent, moving forward stealthily until they finally reached the end of the passage.

The group only peeked out from behind the rock wall, cautiously looking around.

Before us was a huge main hall in the cave, clearly the natural core area of ​​this mine, and it was very spacious.

Inside the main hall were more than twenty short dog-headed men, who, like industrious worker ants, were tirelessly carving out new passages with various rudimentary stone tools.

Adventurers' Guild General Monster Encyclopedia

Sequence 4: Kobold

Individual Threat Rating: [Simple]

Appearance features:

A short, humanoid creature, rarely exceeding 1.5 meters in height.

Its skin is covered with small, brownish-red scales, and its head resembles a hybrid of a lizard and a canine, with sharp claws and a long, thin tail.

Lifestyle habits:
A typical cave-dwelling monster, possessing a rudimentary social structure, understanding hierarchy and division of labor, and frequently stealing ores and tools from human mines.

They deeply worship dragons and most of them build simple altars in their nests.

special power:

Kobolds are natural digging experts, highly skilled at setting traps in their lairs.

Core weakness:

It has many weaknesses, just like a goblin, and can be easily killed.

Their scales have poor defensive capabilities and cannot withstand sword strikes.

Association Notes:

The greatest threat from the kobolds is not the kobolds themselves, but the traps that are everywhere in their lair. Adventurers must be careful when carrying out extermination missions.

(End of this chapter)