Dragon God’s System

While I could move around using the Invisibility spell, I would lose the effect if I attacked anyone. I briefly considered using the Zone of Death spell, but decided against it. When casting the spell, the caster had to designate a spot on which to center the spell. While I could target a large group of people, they could also run out of the affected area. While I might be able to slay a few of the weaker soldiers, the stronger soldiers would probably be able to escape.

Another option was to target myself as the center of the spell. That would enable me to drag the Zone of Death around with me. Unfortunately, I would have to get close enough to affect them. I took a second to consider possible combinations. Hopefully I would be able to create a good combination, such as using a Web spell to trap enemies so that they couldn’t escape in time.

One of the best plans I thought of was using the Improved Invisibility or the Greater Invisibility spells in combination with the Zone of Death spell. Then I could fly over the heads of my enemies, and they wouldn’t even know what happened. While the Improved Invisibility had a chance to be seen through, the Greater Invisibility spell did not. However, with both spells I would have to worry about my enemies using the Detect Invisibility spell once they realized I was there. My hope was that by then it would be too late for them to react.

Instead of attacking immediately, I decided to instead use the Invisibility spell and see if I could collect any information about the attackers. It would be good to know who was attacking our village. Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi both said that you should know your enemies. That sounded like good advice to me. After all, I would hate making an attack only to find out that there was an extremely strong enemy who could swat me like a fly waiting on the backlines.

After taking a moment to gather up my courage to do something I knew was stupid, I noticed that the soldiers were making no move to move any further back. In fact, they looked like they were setting up a camp. I guess they had attacked as soon as they arrived, hoping for a quick victory. Once they discovered that wasn’t going to happen, they must have decided to make a camp.

That way they could take care of injured soldiers, make plans, and prepare for a long-term occupation. I was a little concerned about that fact. Why would they want to prepare to stay for a long time? While my tribe did have some treasure, such as gold and gems that had been mined, I doubted it was enough to pay for the loss in life that had already occurred on their side.

Training soldiers wasn’t cheap. Every fighter they lost was a resource that would take years to replace. A small group of warriors committed to a smash and grab attack I could understand. They could go in and get out quickly after grabbing the gold. However, this was more like an actual war.

I could think of a few reasons they might take this action, but I didn’t know which one was the real reason. Had the soldiers been given false information, such as an exaggerated amount of treasure was stored inside? Was it for access to the kobold mine itself? Maybe there was misinformation provided to them about the presence of precious metals? Did they believe the kobolds had a mithril mine? Were they attacking because they felt they needed to in order to protect their own territory?

There were actually too many reasons I could imagine for them to invade. Who knew the real one. Maybe they were xenophobic and just wanted to kill the kobolds for being kobolds. Realizing I couldn’t find out anything where I was, I finally cast the Invisibility spell and started flying toward the edge of the enemy soldiers. I noticed a small group of them near a large rock. I figured that would be a perfect spot to listen for any news.

Not only was it nearing the edges of the enemy encampment, but I could sit on it and listen to what they were saying. It was out of their reach and would allow me to hide on top of it. Even if my invisibility was interrupted, I would still be able to use my stealth skills to stay there unobserved. Once I was in place, I listened attentively to whatever they had to say.

“I can’t believe we are having this much trouble with a tribe of kobolds,” a young, bearded warrior with a shield on his back said. “This is embarrassing.” He actually seemed offended that my tribe hadn’t rolled over and played dead as soon as they arrived.

A grizzled old archer with a white beard responded, “What did you expect? While they might be physically smaller and weaker than us, that doesn’t mean they are idiots. You should know kobolds are known for their traps. Once we get past the traps, however, things will be different.”

“Yeah,” a middle-aged man in robes said, “we’ll roll right over them once we get past the traps. Think of them as rats who have made their home in a hole that happens to have some jewelry. We just stuck our hand into the hole and got bitten. All we have to do is get a shovel and dig our way in. Once that happens, the rats will scatter, and we can get what we want.”

I was quite offended by this. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended he was referring to our tribe as a group of rats or whether it was the implication that we were weak and cowardly. Either way, I decided that he was going to pay for his words. However, now wasn’t the right time.

The youngest of the three, the one with a shield asked, “So do you think the kobolds really discovered goulou?”

I could almost hear the annoyance from the older archer as he responded, “It’s gaulau you idiot. Did you even bother listening to the sergeant when he told you what we were searching for?’

“Hey, I’d never heard of it before,” the young warrior said. He was the one who seemed offended now, “Come on. You can’t even pretend that you had ever heard of this mineral before either.”

The man in gray robes declared proudly, as if he finally had something to brag about, “I have. Gaulau is a magical mineral. It is a grayish powder. You can tell what it is because the tiny grains are constantly moving. It is almost as if it is impelled by some living force.”

The man didn’t even give them a chance to say anything. Obviously, he enjoyed being a know-it-all and was taking the chance to show off his knowledge. Ugh! I hated people who always thought they were smarter than everyone else around them. It was amazing how many stupid people I had encountered who thought they were smart.

Just listening to his tone of voice made me want to go down there and slap him in the back of his head. I bet he was bullied a lot when he was younger. In fact, I was kind of hoping one of the other two would smack him around while I cheered them on. Unfortunately, the old archer was obviously too tired and was content to let the annoying man make fun of the youngest man.

The man in robes, obviously a spellcaster, continued, “With just a small amount of gaulau, a wizard is capable of powering magical golems and other mechanical wonders. Apparently, just a few grains of the powder would be enough to awaken awareness in a suit of metal armor. Even a single grain of gaulau would be enough to animate a scarecrow.

“There are even legends that describe floating castles being powered by this mineral. A sorceress named Glinda discovered the mineral over a hundred years ago. She even sent visions into the dreams of others promising great riches to anyone who could help her find it.”

I frowned, wondering why that sounded so familiar to me. However, I pushed the thought aside as the robed wizard continued, “However, she disappeared almost immediately afterwards. Some wizards believe that she had actually come to our plane in search of the mineral, and after she couldn’t find it here, decided to travel to another plane.”

The old archer finally interrupted, perhaps worried that the robed wizard would keep talking. “Bah! Who cares about that? All that matters is that the kobolds might have discovered gaulau. If they did, it could be used to create an unstoppable army of animated armors. If the rumors are false, then at least we can take the treasures the kobold tribe does possess and seize control of their mine.”

The young fighter puffed up his chest, trying to regain some of his dignity, “Yeah! We don’t need any stinking kobolds on our borders anyway. This is Konungdómr. They will just end up spreading diseases and causing crime as soon as they cross the border. Those rabid dogs are violent criminals who need to be eradicated.” The man nodded after finishing, as if he had solved some major debate that had been going on for years.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Oh, my goodness,” I couldn’t help but mutter in my mind. What an idiot. I mean, I knew fighters focused a lot on the physical attributes but couldn’t he have at least spent a single point to raise up one of his mental attributes. The guy was a living embodiment of all brawn and no brain stereotype.

As for comparing my tribe to diseased criminals and rabid dogs, I had to resist the impulse to snap his little neck like a pretzel. Of course, with my current physical strength, I wasn’t able to do so. However, the desire was certainly there. Okay, yes, a few of my roguish brethren did occasionally raid warehouses in search of shiny objects we could give to the red dragon Einvaldskonungr. However, most of us weren’t diseased.

The rabid dog reference was particularly offensive. Yes, I knew there were a few kobold tribes whose draconic bloodline had run thin. A few of these tribes did have a few canine traits and could theoretically be described as possessing dog-like features. However, such tribes were in the minority.

Usually, these were the kobold tribes that were found in cities, far away from the influence of dragons who could reinforce kobold bloodline purity with regular dragon blood infusions. Once rewarded with these infusions, the kobolds would gain tremendous improvements and gain draconic traits. It goes without saying that a kobold male who gained the dragon’s favor in such a way were incessantly sought after by the kobold females.

The male kobolds dreamed of living the life of siring draconic gifted hatchlings while female kobolds dreamed of having a hatchling with draconic traits. Unfortunately, since the eggs were kept and raised communally, no one really knew who the parents of an individual hatchling were. Because of this, every kobold would think the hatchling with draconic features must be their offspring if they possessed or had been with a kobold who had draconic traits.

This meant those hatchlings were loved and doted on by some of the kobolds. Unfortunately, the rest of the kobolds had a love-hate relationship with hatchlings that had draconic features. They loved that their tribe was blessed with another inheritor of the draconic bloodline. This made them feel much more special than their dog-like cousins in the city. However, they also were jealous because they knew they didn’t have the same draconic traits. Needless to say, this sometimes caused some resentment.

Speaking of resentment, I decided that the young fighter who was bad-mouthing kobolds needed to pay for his words. While I wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet, I was determined to do something to make the young soldier regret what he said. I sat there, mostly ignoring what the group of soldiers were talking about. After all, I already knew why they were attacking my tribe. What I needed to do was come up with how I would make the man regret the day he was born a human instead of a kobold.