6-3. Kobold
An air-splitting crack exploded outward. A sound that chilled not just the bandit but even Suhyeok, who'd swung the blade.
Both were too stunned to react. The bandit raised a hand and touched his own neck.
It's still...... attached.
Still attached!
The bandit spat a string of curses.
"F-fuck! I thought I was dead!"
It was because of the broken sword. The weapon in Suhyeok's hand.
A single hand's width longer and it would've taken the bandit's head clean off, but it hadn't reached—rendering that ferocious strike useless.
The bandit bared his teeth and charged.
"Y-you had a trick up your sleeve, huh! Time to die...!"
That was when it happened.
The bandit himself didn't seem to notice, but his agitated upper body had begun to visibly swell.
His muzzle and arms elongated, his bared teeth grew sharp—he was transforming into something no longer human.
Suhyeok was startled but kept his composure.
He knew this was that kind of game. He calmly reset his stance.
One more time, just like before.
The sword flashed upward like lightning. A vicious diagonal upstrike riding the physics. This time he'd gauged the reach, so it didn't miss.
SLASH—!
The thing's shoulder was cut open. Its eyes flared red as it howled.
"Grrk. I'll kill you!"
It seemed to be surrendering to animal instinct. It even threw away the sword it was holding and swiped with claws that had already grown long.
CRUNCH—! Gashes were carved into the dirt. Its body was now covered in shaggy fur and could no longer be called human.
A beast of the canine family, walking on two legs. Suhyeok recalled something he'd seen in the monster concept designs.
'A Kobold Human.'
public class Kobold : Character, IBeast { …
public Kobold(string name, Job job) : base(name, job) { …
this._combat.SetAdvantage(Human, multiplier: 1.3f);
this._ai.SetReaction(Aggressive); … }
public interface IBeast {
void Growl();
…
Kobold's internal code came back to him.
True to the IBeast type, it was a demi-human race with respectable physical abilities and a tough combat style.
Compared to the human race, it had nothing but advantages—a hexagonal stat profile with no weaknesses—and was especially strong against humans, making it a troublesome opponent.
Its only drawback was a somewhat aggressive default temperament, which in an already ongoing fight was no drawback at all.
'This isn't going to be easy.'
Suhyeok swallowed hard.
At least it didn't have regeneration, so one solid hit should do it...... but he wasn't confident he could break through its high reflexes.
The reason his earlier strike had only grazed the shoulder was because the thing had reacted. An absurd reaction speed, befitting a beast.
On top of that—
Growl();
"Grrrrrr......"
The bandit—no, the Kobold Human—growled.
Not an empty threat, but a <Skill> of the Beast type, and Suhyeok felt his body seize up.
Wow, this got implemented too.
I'm the one who wrote this skill's code.
Suhyeok was simultaneously proud and unable to be proud.
Because that thing was about to tear his frozen body apart any second now. He was gritting his teeth, struggling to break free.
TWANG—!
The Kobold Human grunted "Gkh!" and looked down at its own neck.
A deeply embedded arrowhead.
An arrow had come from somewhere.
The Kobold was bewildered, and Suhyeok, freed from the Growl() skill, slashed out with his blade. The thing dodged swiftly, but its attention had been split by the arrow, and its right wrist was severed.
"GRAOWW!!"
"I-I hit it! Sir mage! Now's your chance!"
Suhyeok couldn't spare a glance to see who'd shot the helping arrow. The Kobold was flustered—now was the moment. He had to press the advantage and seize it.
A straight attack would get dodged, so...... Suhyeok swung his arm.
"Grr!"
The Kobold, even in its panic, made the best possible call.
It leapt backward to create distance—a judgment befitting a bandit hardened by years of dirty fighting.
The plan was to break away from the fight briefly and regain momentum. A solid call—no, a good one under the circumstances—but......
"GYEOWL!!"
Suhyeok reading one step ahead was what doomed it. He'd anticipated the retreat, which was why he didn't swing the sword—he threw it.
The broken blade spun viciously through the air.
The Kobold writhed as the sword buried itself in its chest. Suhyeok used the opening to snatch up the sword the thing had discarded earlier.
TWANG—!
Another arrow flew in. As it sank into the creature's thigh and sent it staggering, Suhyeok kicked off the ground.
He wouldn't give it a moment to recover.
Suhyeok charged in a straight line, ducked past its flailing arms, and drove the blade upward.
The rush happened in an instant—SQUELCH—the sword plunged in. The neck had doubled in thickness from the Kobold transformation, but it couldn't stop the blade from biting deep.
"Grr...... rrr......"
"Huff. Huff...... whew."
The thing died with a look of disbelief on its face. Suhyeok confirmed the light fading from its pupils and let out a sweat-drenched sigh.
In death, it had seized his arm in a grip so powerful he couldn't pry it loose. When he finally wrenched free, livid bruises were stamped into his skin.
A dangerous opponent.
And one he'd face countless times going forward. Kobold Humans were common in this world.
"A-are you all right? What on earth was that monster......"
Suhyeok turned. There stood a young man, bow raised uncertainly.
So that was who helped me. But Suhyeok didn't drop his guard.
"Why'd you help me? Weren't you with those guys?"
He was. The young man was one of the seven bandits. One of the three who'd survived the <Fingers of Valmorgan> earlier—so why had he helped?
His clothes are a bit different from the other bandits, though...... As Suhyeok eyed him suspiciously, the young man threw himself flat on the ground and pleaded.
"It's a misunderstanding, sir mage! It's a long story, but...... please help! Please save my young master!"
A boy no older than his late teens, prostrating himself and begging.
Suhyeok was flustered and didn't know what to do. He scratched his neck awkwardly for a moment, then said:
"......I'll hear you out, at least. If you lie or try anything, you'll regret it. Talk while I'm farm—while I'm gathering some things."
***
KingRPG was a game without levels.
Levels had the advantage of making it easy to quantify a character's or monster's strength, but Juha—who'd overseen the game's overall design—had pushed hard to eliminate them.
She'd said the level system didn't suit KingRPG's intended playstyle, which meant KingRPG had to adopt a different growth system.
After deliberating over several options, the choice was [Soul Power].
The name didn't matter much to a programmer like him; the essence was a 'Passive Skill Tree' system.
Suhyeok approached the faintly glowing cluster of light.
This cluster had flowed from the dead Kobold Human—a [Soul] that glowed a deep red.
[ Absorb? ]
In the game, a message window like this would've appeared. Since there was no such thing, Suhyeok just reached his hand in.
The light cluster rippled for a moment as if seeking permission, then seeped into Suhyeok's body.
He flinched at the unfamiliar sensation, but a rich satisfaction soon followed.
The feeling of his soul swelling. The sensation of growth.
When had he last felt something like this?
He thought he'd felt it on that stifling early morning as a child, staying up all night studying programming and finally succeeding in building a small piece of code—monitor draped with a blanket so his parents wouldn't catch him.
From that day, he was a programmer, and a programmer he became.
He was basking in the afterglow when the young man followed after him and spoke.
"First of all, I'm not a bandit. I understand the misunderstanding, given that I was with them, but I was in the middle of negotiating a ransom with those men."
While he was at it, Suhyeok figured he should absorb every cluster of light he could. The area was littered with the souls of pursuit squad members killed by Dragon Count Damlir's ultimate.
White, mostly.
Meaning human souls—not demi-human. It went without saying that even in a world like this, humans were more numerous and common than demi-humans like Kobolds.
"They captured us yesterday evening. Those cowards! If they'd fought us fair and square, they wouldn't have taken us so easily."
Suhyeok was half-listening to the young man's chatter while absorbing souls when.
The soul energy that had been swelling pleasantly suddenly congealed. It informed him that he'd reached a new level of growth and should choose its result.
[ Beastification ]
[ Focus ]
[ Swift Script ]
Suhyeok could visualize the night sky within his own soul.
A dark sky with nothing in it. A kind of mind map.
If he chose [Beastification], a red nebula would be added to that night sky and his overall physical abilities would improve. If he chose [Focus], a white star would appear and he'd receive various probability corrections.
And [Swift Script] was apparently a trait influenced by his 'occupation'......
'Normally, the player's initial build concept is determined by what class they pick for their character. That's how it's set up, but......'
If a character started as an archer, traits related to archery would appear among the options. But Suhyeok realized he was in a rather absurd situation.
'Don't tell me—because this body is a scribe, my class is also a scribe? No, f—...... no matter how you look at it.'
Scribe. What the hell was he supposed to do with a class like that?
Sure, it helped with writing code, but that was that and this was this. With countless battles ahead, a desk-bound class like this would be useless.
Goddamn it.
Suhyeok scratched the back of his neck, making his displeasure known.
"Even after we gave them everything, those men got greedy. In the end, I agreed to go back and bring the ransom. But then those men again...... um...... sorry. That was a long preamble. The point is, my young master is being held captive at their hideout."
The young man who'd been going on at length finally closed his mouth.
He seemed to worry he'd talked too much and was reading the mood of the prickly—mages were usually that way, he'd heard—mage. Suhyeok let out a soft sigh.
The saving grace was that KingRPG wasn't a game that forced you to build as an archer just because you'd picked archer.
There might be some disadvantages, but pivoting your build direction was entirely possible. The proof was that [Beastification] and [Focus] had appeared among his choices.
Because not only the character's class but also the absorbed souls influenced the options.
The Kobold soul had produced [Beastification], and the pursuit squad (human) souls had produced [Focus].
Since the choices always came in sets of three, he could simply ignore the scribe option.
'Swift Script might have its uses depending on how I play it, but...... right now I need something that helps in combat.'
Having made up his mind, Suhyeok discarded the [Swift Script] option.
That left [Beastification] and [Focus], and even this wasn't a choice to make lightly.
First, [Beastification] was a trait with clear combat advantages.
Selecting it would immediately increase his build. Muscle strength would grow, reflexes would sharpen like that Kobold's, his sense of smell would become acute—overall physical corrections across the board, making it the best possible choice for shoring up this scrawny scribe's combat ability.
On the other hand, [Focus] was a trait with a utility element.
Selecting it meant that when concentrating, probability corrections would apply to all actions. Things that would miss wouldn't, and things he normally couldn't do would become crudely possible.
Picking this wouldn't produce the dramatic changes of [Beastification], but everything would go more smoothly, and the nature of the 'lone white star' left room for alternative applications down the road.
Suhyeok groaned, "Nnngh."
The two were so fundamentally different that the choice was agonizing.
Combat power or utility—in any game, in every game, an eternal dilemma for all players.
The young man beside him fidgeted anxiously.
"Um...... Is it difficult? Could you please help? I'll repay you however I can. There should only be four or five of them left at the hideout, so with you helping, sir mage, we could sweep them aside easily."
Hideout. Young master. Rescue.
After much deliberation, Suhyeok chose [Beastification]. The soulscape visible in his mind's eye shifted.
A barren night sky, fitting for a newbie. A red nebula settled in, claiming a place for itself.
A nebula flowing blood-red. Still nothing but clouds for now, but before long it would cradle several stars.
This was the beginning of [Beastification]. The start of the Beast tech tree.
Of course, [Beastification] alone wouldn't be enough to fight the bandits remaining at the hideout, but he had something to count on.
'There's still more to absorb.'
Souls still glimmering in every direction. The pursuit squad members killed by Dragon Count Damlir's ultimate were a heap.
Suhyeok figured that absorbing the rest would push his soul through one more growth, earning him another trait and the synergy that came with it.
THUD.
His clothes and shoes felt tight.
A noticeably larger Suhyeok strode toward the next soul.