My Computer Leads to an Instance Dungeon-Chapter 60: Kobold Priest

A little over ten minutes later.

Fang Zhen came to a stop about twenty meters from the entrance to the mine.

Quade caught up, his light jog serving as a warm-up.

Fang Zhen unloaded the gear from the motorcycle. He took the Dragon Gall Crossbow out of his pack, gave Quade the backpack containing the Molotov Cocktails to carry, and handed him the Anti-Riot Shield.

"Nervous?" Fang Zhen asked, noticing Quade’s quickened breath and flushed face.

"A little, but more than that, it’s a feeling I don’t know how to describe," Quade said. "I trained as a Knight’s Squire for three years without ever seeing a battlefield. I thought I’d never get the chance."

"Heh, that’s excitement. Good." Fang Zhen smiled and patted Quade’s shoulder.

"Once we’re inside the mine, stick close behind me. I don’t need you on the front lines killing enemies. Your job is to stay with me and hand me the gear I need when I call for it."

Fang Zhen told Quade the names of the equipment, like the Anti-Riot Shield and Molotov Cocktails, and made sure he had memorized them.

"Alright, let’s head into the mine. I’ll take the lead. You don’t need to fight, but I won’t allow you to run away like a coward."

"If you do run, I’ll give you a punishment you’ll never forget for the rest of your life." Fang Zhen’s tone became stern and imposing.

He really didn’t want to be stuck with a spineless teammate, not even a support Attendant.

"Sir, I will not be a coward," Quade said, instinctively puffing out his chest.

"I hope so." Fang Zhen nodded, preparing to enter the mine.

Just before officially starting the assault on the mine, Fang Zhen asked casually, "These Kobolds are strange. Besides ore, there shouldn’t be anything else in the mine, right? Don’t they need water?"

"There’s an underground river inside the mine," Quade said.

"Oh?" Fang Zhen raised an eyebrow. That was new information.

"They discovered it when they were mining on the second level," Quade continued. "The old miners said it’s rare, but possible."

"It’s not clear where the river leads, but it probably flows a long way out."

"The river also provides ventilation inside the caves. Some crazy Mercenary from town once tried to smoke the Kobolds out, but it didn’t work. The airflow inside is too strong."

Hearing this, Fang Zhen felt it all made much more sense.

No wonder the Kobolds could hole up in the mine without coming out.

"Okay, let’s go."

Fang Zhen took the Night Vision Goggles from Quade’s pack, put them on his head, and adjusted to using the Dragon Gall Crossbow while wearing them.

The double lenses made aiming more difficult, but Fang Zhen could still manage.

Feeling that he was ready, Fang Zhen waved his hand. With a long spear in one hand, the crossbow in the other, and the Night Vision Goggles on his head, he entered the mine.

Quade, carrying the backpack, followed closely behind Fang Zhen as they plunged into the mine.

After entering the mine, Fang Zhen’s vision was much better than last time thanks to the Night Vision Goggles.

He had been through this part of the mine once before and was already familiar with it, so his mindset was much better this time around.

He pushed forward and soon arrived at the main cavern.

Upon entering the main cavern, Fang Zhen stared for a moment, a look of surprise on his face.

In the main cavern, the tunnel leading to Mine Area A was dark, with no candles lit. Even with Night Vision Goggles, he couldn’t see anything. It seemed no Kobolds were mining in Area A anymore.

What surprised Fang Zhen was a new pile of bones and pelts in the main cavern.

Fang Zhen took a few more steps, approaching the small mountain of bones and pelts, and examined it closely.

After a moment, Fang Zhen was genuinely taken aback.

He realized the bones and pelts looked like they had been stripped from Kobolds; the skeletons and hides were different from humans’.

The pelts and bones weren’t dried out yet. He could even see bits of flesh still clinging to them.

’No way... Did the Kobolds skin and butcher their own kind?’

’Do they have to be this savage? This evil?’

Fang Zhen’s expression remained calm, but inwardly he was deeply shocked.

He had been planning to use wounded Kobolds to tie up the enemy, but he never expected to see a scene like this.

The Kobolds were the only tribe in these caves. No other creature could have been responsible for stripping the bones and pelts; it had to have been the Kobolds themselves.

Fang Zhen was stunned.

Quade wasn’t a complete coward, but seeing this, a look of terror appeared on his face.

Still, he had some guts. His face was pale, but he held it together.

’Have I been underestimating the ’evil’ in ’evil creatures’?’ Fang Zhen couldn’t help but wonder.

At the same time, a question formed in his mind.

’I’ve heard about what happens in extreme cases when a person living alone dies. If a dog’s owner dies, there’s a seventy percent chance the dog will eat its owner’s body out of hunger on the same day. There’s another twenty-five percent chance the remaining dogs will eat the body within two days.’

’Hyenas on the savanna will turn on their own pack when starving, even eating them alive.’

’Are the Kobolds in this cave really that hungry? To the point where they won’t even spare the flesh of their own dead?’

’But if they’re that hungry, why are they cooped up in this cave? They could just hunt some game outside. It shouldn’t be so bad that they have to resort to eating corpses, right?’

Fang Zhen couldn’t make sense of it.

His intuition told him there was some deeper conspiracy at play.

Fang Zhen let out a long breath, his gaze gradually sharpening.

’Who cares what kind of conspiracy is going on? I’ll just slaughter my way through and destroy all these Kobolds’ physical bodies. I refuse to believe they can summon spirits to fight me.’

Fang Zhen quickly adjusted his mindset.

There were no candles in the direction of Mine Area A, but Fang Zhen didn’t let his guard down. He put on his night vision and crept inside.

To avoid being surrounded and to prevent the Kobolds from springing an ambush, Fang Zhen had to see for himself that it was clear.

He had traveled this tunnel before, and he navigated it with familiarity to Mine Area A.

There were still traces of the previous battle, but no Kobolds.

After confirming there were no ambushes behind him, Fang Zhen felt mostly relieved.

Fang Zhen returned to the main cavern the way he came.

Quade had a puzzled look on his face, not understanding why Fang Zhen was going back and forth. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

But Quade was loyal. He didn’t ask questions, simply sticking close to Fang Zhen wherever he went.

Back in the main cavern, Fang Zhen made some adjustments. He had Quade take the Molotov Cocktails out of the foam box in the backpack and place them at the entrance to the tunnel leading to Mine Area B.

As for Fang Zhen himself, he took out two high-intensity flashlights, clipped them to his belt, and cocked the Dragon Gall Crossbow.

He spent about ten seconds swapping his gear, replacing the Night Vision Helmet with a thermal imaging helmet. He had Quade hold on to the Night Vision Helmet and be ready for his return.

Once ready, Fang Zhen signaled for Quade to wait at the entrance.

Fang Zhen then walked steadily and slowly into the cave entrance.

Inside this tunnel, just like the one to Mine Area A, a candle burned every ten meters or so.

Fang Zhen’s thermal imaging helmet had a feature that allowed for a foldable monocular display.

In his vision, his left eye saw the thermal image while his right eye saw normally. The sensation was quite strange.

Looking at the thermal display with his left eye, Fang Zhen could see the white heat sources of the candles.

The candles were more than two-thirds burned down, looking like they had been lit for a while.

Fang Zhen moved stealthily, gently kicking over and stamping out each candle he passed.

In this way, Fang Zhen extinguished three candles, advancing about thirty meters.

Suddenly, Fang Zhen felt a faint breeze from ahead.

There was one more candle ahead, and just beyond it, the tunnel turned.

Fang Zhen crept forward.

He heard a low, resonant canine growling sound from up ahead. It was uniform, not loud but coming from many sources. For a moment, it sounded like the low chanting of prayers in a church.

Fang Zhen moved forward quietly and slowly.

Wearing the thermal imaging helmet, he peeked around the corner. He saw that Mine Area B ahead was at least twice the size of Mine Area A.

Fang Zhen knew that only a small part of the Redstone Town Mine had been manually excavated; most of it was a network of natural underground caverns. A space as large as Mine Area B wasn’t man-made but a masterpiece of nature.

Fang Zhen now saw, about forty meters away, nearly thirty Kobolds prostrated on the ground, continuously emitting low, murky growls.

And a single Kobold, wearing a black-and-white feathered headdress and holding a wooden scepter, was jumping and whispering in front of the prostrated Kobolds, as if performing a ritual.

’A Dogman Priest?’ The vision in Fang Zhen’s uncovered right eye suddenly sharpened.