Ch. 16 - This Bard is Overly Cautious
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"Huff... huff..."
The tunnel was surprisingly quiet. Tang Qi, dragging Jackal's corpse behind him, could hear almost only his own agitated heartbeat.
The taste of killing for the first time was far from pleasant.
He'd already thrown up earlier.
But with Jackal repeatedly making things difficult for him, he absolutely wouldn't allow himself to remain in danger.
So after Jackal fell, Tang Qi forcibly suppressed his nausea and stabbed him several more times with his longsword. Only after confirming he was thoroughly dead did he dare to feel at ease...
The premise of adventure is to minimize all risks.
Otherwise, it's just called suicide.
Tang Qi wasn't afraid of death, but he still wanted to live brilliantly.
"Take his sword, it can still be used for self-defense... forget the armor though, or Black Snake might get suspicious."
Tang Qi pondered his next moves. Before he knew it, he'd already reached the tunnel entrance.
Along the way, just as he'd anticipated, he hadn't encountered any other kobolds.
This naturally wasn't because Tang Qi had some ability to predict the future.
Rather, from the cave's environment and the clues he'd discovered along the way, he'd deduced a possibility.
Now, borrowing the darkness that the campfire couldn't reach, Tang Qi crept forward as quietly as possible.
He laboriously removed Jackal's chain mail.
Without doing this, he couldn't throw the corpse.
As he hurled it toward the campfire with all his strength, he also got a clear view of everything by the fire—
Most of the kobold corpses scattered across the clearing had already vanished without a trace.
All that remained were small skeletons the size of chairs made of bone, collapsed by the campfire.
Beside the skeletons, a pool of yellow-green liquid substance crawled slowly near the firelight.
It looked like yellow phlegm stuck in a throat and accumulated for years, or perhaps snot—or simply a massive combination of both mixed together.
The corpse flew over, and that mass of liquid responded urgently, retracting the slime spread across the floor and gathering into an irregular, trembling sphere.
The edge contours immediately extended, stretching out a slender pseudopod that lashed at Jackal's incoming corpse—
"Smack!"
Jackal's body was whipped back to the ground, probably breaking two or three ribs, though he couldn't feel it anymore.
That mass of liquid paused for a moment, seemingly realizing this wasn't a surprise attack, but rather... a gift from nature, and slowly rolled toward the corpse.
As it approached, the sphere opened what looked like a viscous giant maw and simply swallowed the body whole.
Inside the yellow-green translucent pus, dense milky white bubbles were secreted.
The "glug glug" sounds gradually replaced Tang Qi's heartbeat in his ears.
When he clearly saw Jackal's skin beginning to dissolve, exposing the scarlet flesh and bones beneath, Tang Qi finally breathed a sigh of relief:
"As expected, it's an Ochre Jelly."
Ochre Jelly—a type of ooze lurking in dungeons.
It could be crudely classified as one of the so-called [Slimes].
But it was far from weak.
Due to its body's fluidity, it was immune to all slashing attacks.
In the temporary party, probably only Stonecrusher's warhammer could have any minimal effect on it.
Moreover, it was composed of microscopic living protoplasm.
Crushed or separated parts could still attract each other, forming small Ochre Jellies.
Without a spellcaster present to handle the Ochre Jelly with non-physical means, it would be quite troublesome.
But this was precisely the reason Tang Qi could deduce its presence in this cave—
Kobolds were natural experts at digging tunnels.
The passages they excavated were narrow and cramped, often leaving medium and large invaders with strength but nowhere to use it.
For instance, swinging Jackal's standard three-foot longsword would constantly scrape against the earthen walls, restricting movement—far less efficient than a shortsword or a thrusting short spear.
If the temporary party didn't have Stonecrusher, the kobolds would only need to form ranks in the tunnels, use long spears for distant stabbing, then harass from range with bows and arrows.
Even someone as strong as Black Snake would find himself stretched thin.
Yet the weapons they commonly wore were crude bone hammers—simple blunt instruments obtained from dismantling beast skeletons.
This clearly didn't follow normal logic.
After all, their trap-making skills meant that crafting bone spears from skeletons wouldn't be difficult.
What's more, above this cave, there were clearly many natural conical stalactites.
Why would they go to such lengths to hang up that massive boulder?
It could only mean 'they needed blunt weapons.'
And considering that the kobolds had sounded the alarm before dying, yet Jackal at the rear of the party had never been flanked.
One could conclude 'something existed that made them fear attacking blindly.'
After that, there were the corroded small skeletons visible everywhere along the way.
All these signs led Tang Qi to only one possibility—
As predators in dungeons and caves, Ochre Jellies fed on the flesh of living creatures.
In fact, they often digested corpses left unattended after adventurers cleared out a nest.
Their soft, malleable bodies also allowed them to seep into small crevices and lie dormant.
Those kobolds probably knew it might devour their dead companions, which was why they'd been too afraid to poke their heads out from the cave.
Tang Qi didn't want to tempt fate either.
From the force with which the Ochre Jelly had whipped the corpse with its pseudopod, he knew that even two hits would send him following Jackal to heaven.
Considering that Ochre Jellies acted purely on biological instinct with no intelligence to speak of, and generally wouldn't actively attack while feeding, Tang Qi decided not to linger.
Unable to stay in place, he quickly gripped his longsword and ducked into another nearby tunnel.
"It's just a shame about that chain mail. I really could use a piece of armor right now..."
Feeding Jackal to the Ochre Jelly was mainly to cover up his murder.
Although Black Snake knew of the conflict between them, Tang Qi couldn't figure out what position Jackal held among the mercenaries.
What if they only disliked him on the surface but were actually brothers-in-arms?
Trying to explain with "he started it" would be far too feeble.
The excuse of 'an Ochre Jelly attacked them, Jackal was completely digested, and I barely survived' would be much safer by comparison.
The chain mail left behind could also help verify the 'fact' that Jackal had been digested.
Moreover, the chain mail would somewhat restrict his movements anyway.
"I also need to watch out for kobold ambushes."
Tang Qi held up his torch and gripped his longsword, advancing cautiously.
In his mind, though, he wondered whether his skills would be enough to escape if surrounded by kobolds.
So in the labyrinthine tunnels, aside from confirming there were no more trap-sealed passages, every time he reached a corner, Tang Qi would peer around as cautiously as possible—
At the ends of those narrow passages, the small paths connecting separate chambers, behind walls, even the pitch-black ceiling overhead... any of these places could hide some sneaky kobold lying in wait to ambush him.
The cautious Tang Qi would absolutely not give them the slightest opportunity.
Unfortunately, after fighting wits and courage with thin air the entire way, he only discovered a few simple traps.
Such as bear traps hidden in the dirt, tripwires attempting to make Tang Qi fall, rapid-fire iron spikes embedded in both sides of the earthen walls...
After dodging past them, he still hadn't caught sight of a single kobold.
It wasn't until Black Snake's shouts echoed from the end of the tunnel that Tang Qi finally confirmed his bearings.
The shouting sounded quite irritated, making Tang Qi wonder if Black Snake had run into some trouble.
Tang Qi quickly took a deep breath, gripped his longsword tightly, suppressed his restless thoughts, and slowly moved toward the exit.
Only to discover he'd arrived at a nest even more spacious than the earlier camp.
By the firelight, he saw Black Snake sitting on a stone step, fiddling with the curved blade in his hand while barking orders at a robed kobold:
"Tell your tribesmen to move faster. I need to get back before dark. If you delay me, I'll slaughter you first!"
That kobold looked terrified, waving the staff in its hand and shouting frantically at its tribesmen:
"Hurry, hurry!"
Tang Qi blinked.
Wait.
This kobold...
Was it speaking the Common Tongue?