The adventurer at the bottom is fantasizing again.

"Hahaha, I knew you wouldn't die so easily!" Piper jumped up from the ground in a flash.

The shouting halfling shattered its illusion; the Dragon Shield Guard felt a sudden darkness before its eyes and nearly collapsed.

"%&￥#..."

He muttered something under his breath, but still struggled to lift the scalding shield and charged towards Piper.

There's nothing you can do; even if the leader is incompetent, the subordinate can't really say anything.

But it still managed to take a hit from the Burning Hand. It ran a few steps and knocked Piper away again, but it only had enough strength left to lift its shield and cover its head to take the hit.

"Hey! Ha! Ha!"

Piper became even more excited, slamming his warhammer into the reddened shield. The heated dragon scale shield deformed noticeably under his attack.

Taking advantage of the gap in the Sorcerer's spell, Lorraine raised her hand and covered her left cheek. With a thought, the Burning Word Ring immediately emitted warmth.

The warmth seeped into the skin, the burning pain receded like a receding tide, and the taut skin on the face slowly relaxed.

He struggled to open his left eye.

The scene before me was somewhat blurry, as if my left eye was nearsighted by 500 degrees, while my right eye was normal.

But he regained his sense of space, and at least he no longer walks unsteadily.

"Lorraine! I'll hold this gopher for you, you go around and kill that damned sorcerer!"

Piper kept hammering the Dragon Shield Guards, occasionally shifting his position to the left and right, always maintaining a straight line with the two kobolds.

Lorraine's forehead twitched. He remembered that he had blamed all the spells he had acquired on the warlock bloodline, and this little dwarf clearly knew that.

The sorcerer seemed to only now remember that there was someone else, so he turned around and began chanting spells again.

The kobolds chanted spells in dragon language, making it difficult for Lorraine to decipher their magic from the incantations. Fortunately, their body language was undeniable.

Flames rose from his fingertips... It was a fire arrow!

"boom--"

Lorraine lunged to the side, but the kobold seemed completely unprepared for this concept; dodging such flying objects was no problem for him now.

If he opens the panel now, he will find that there is now an additional skill in the skill bar.

[Rolling and dodging → Beginner]

Lorraine roughly estimated that he was very close to the kobold-scaled warlock, and was probably already within the range of the lightning pull.

He began casting spells again, and the repeated casting caused his head to throb, but fortunately he could still squeeze out some magic power.

Lorraine's Lightning Pull

An arc of electricity shot out through the air, heading straight for the Scale Sorcerer, but was stopped in mid-air by a shield.

"A bald monkey without scales!"

The Dragon Shield Guard roared and, ignoring Piper's swinging hammer, threw his shield away.

"Boom—"

"Bang!"

The two sounds came out almost simultaneously. Lorraine collided with the Dragonscale Shield and was knocked to the ground by the shockwave, feeling as if his soul was about to be knocked out.

The Dragon Shield Guardian fared even worse. Without its shield, it took a full hit from Piper's hammer. Its hard leather armor was no different from paper under the long-handled warhammer, and its chest immediately caved in.

"puff..."

It spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward toward the scaled sorcerer behind it, only to crash into a semi-transparent shield.

[Shield Spell]

The Dragon Shield Guardian glanced resentfully at the scale mage who stood there dumbfounded, muttered a few words, and then spat out a hateful "idiot..."

The Scale Sorcerer stretched out his hand, seemingly wanting to explain something, but it was too late.

A cold glint flashed in the corner of its eye, and it felt itself spinning in the sky a few times, then becoming a little shorter.

A headless corpse lay on the ground before it. It examined it closely and felt that the body looked somewhat familiar.

An artistically designed patchwork animal skin robe, two long horns symbolizing noble lineage, and dashing rusty red scales...

"So that was me..."

The kobold-scaled sorcerer's consciousness fell into chaos.

[First enemy kill - Kobold Scale Warlock]

[Reward: 200 Exploration Experience Points]

Lorraine slammed his rusty throat to the ground and leaned against it, panting heavily.

The intense battle had exhausted his physical strength and magic. The adrenaline receding brought not only fatigue, but also warning signs from injuries he had inadvertently sustained during the fight.

He felt that he was physically afflicted from head to toe.

Lorraine looked around and found that the halfling had already plopped down on the ground, staring blankly at the ground after leaving his berserk state.

His gaze then shifted to the collapsed Dragon Shield Guardian, whose mouth was oozing blood and whose chest was rising and falling very slightly.

Very good...

Lorraine grinned.

He staggered a couple of steps to the Dragon Shield Guardian, then laboriously lifted the rusty throat and pressed it down hard on its neck.

[First Enemy Kill - Kobold Dragon Shield Guard]

[Reward: 200 Exploration Experience Points]

Current balance: 452 exploration experience points

Seeing the balance displayed on the panel, Lorraine laughed heartily, finally unable to support herself any longer and plopped down on the ground.

The stench of blood that filled the air gradually faded, replaced by the previous foul, fishy smell.

Most of the torches that had been thrown out had gone out, leaving only the one that Lorraine had stuck in the wooden frame, still burning faintly, stubbornly leaving a patch of light for them.

"Why do these kobolds smell so bad?" Lorraine frowned.

"Gurgle—"

The halfling patted his belly and said:

Piper is a little hungry.

This guy seems to be in the mood...

Lorraine twitched the corner of her mouth and began searching for her backpack.

"Give."

Piper tossed him an oil paper package.

Lorraine hurriedly caught it, opened it and found it was a shortbread. Although it was a bit dry, it could at least replenish some of her energy.

But as he ate, the fishy, ​​pungent smell kept getting into his nose, and after a while, he couldn't stand it anymore.

He leaned closer and smelled the corpse of the dragon shield guard on the ground. Apart from the smell of blood, there was only the smell of burnt leather.

"That shouldn't be the case, this one doesn't smell that bad," Lorraine mumbled.

Piper stopped what he was doing, sniffed the air carefully, and almost vomited.

"Pip smelled it too, it seems to be coming from inside." He pointed in the direction where the kobold-scaled sorcerer had appeared.

Lorraine pondered for a moment.

They've been sitting here for almost half an hour, and there's been no movement inside, so there's probably no enemy there.

Moreover, logically speaking, a kobold scout team shouldn't have both a warlock and a dragon shield guard at the same time; they must have come here for some purpose.

hiss...

Is there some kind of treasure inside?

No, if there were treasure, the previous miners would have found it, and they wouldn't have had a chance.

Lorraine suddenly thought of something.

He struggled to his feet, ran to his backpack, took out the adventurer's handbook, and began searching through it.

Dog-headed man... stinks...

This is it!

His gaze fell on a line of text.

[Kobold expedition outposts will set up incubation chambers outside the lair, which are usually located at the deepest part of the lair and maintain a constant temperature using geothermal heat or fire sources.]

Because fermenting organic matter accumulates indoors to generate heat, the air is filled with a strong, fishy, ​​and musty smell.

"So this was actually an expeditionary outpost?!"