The worm was getting out of the hole in the wall. There was something sluggish about it, but the flame plumes it was letting out told Nikola that this was no joke.
He took off running towards the worm. His pickaxe was raised high!
The brunette began to hack and slash at the worm. Trying to cut it into ribbons. Trying to remember how one could kill a worm.
Something so mundane that Nikola had never needed to look into it.
He hit again and again, until a hot red ooze began to fall from the worm.
When the stone caught on fire, Nikola knew not to let this thing fall on him.
He backed away. Trying to find anything in the mine that could help him.
The wooden support beams were too sturdy to be broken by someone who only had a pickaxe. There were more pickaxes on the ground, but most of them had chewed-up edges.
Nikola took in a deep breath.
He was a songweaver. Or at least that was the class guild master Arnold had given him.
He began to sing. A song he had heard only once. A sad song about the last Tsar before the fall.
The worm began to give out strangled noises. It was trying to get back into its hole.
Nikola was not going to let it happen!
He took a step towards the worm. Now singing about the red crescent.
The worm let out one last shriek and exploded. Bathing everything around it, and Nikola's shoes, with the red goo.
He didn't think. Turning back and running were the only agendas on his mind.
When he finally got out, he sank to the grass.
The kobold chieftain was there. A water bottle in his hand.
"You know," the kobold told him, as Nikola began to drink up the water. "If you can't protect us, then we will have to protect ourselves. The problem with that is that we can't. So, here is the quest: kill off everything in the mine. You have a day!"
The system showed him a timer.
Nikola propped himself on his right arm.
"You don't need to say it twice," the brunette told him. "I will go back in there. But first, do you have arrows?"
A quiver with arrows was his answer. One that had a bottomless rune on it.
Nikola took it, slung it over his shoulder, and then looked at the mine before him.
The dark maw of the cave looked so, as if it were ready to swallow him whole. The cold breeze coming off it stank of death and decay.
Nikola knew that he couldn't force the kobolds to march in there with him.
He knew that he had to deserve their loyalty.
****
The corridors were endless. The heat was too much to bear. Nikola had stripped down to his underwear. Thanking God for the fact that his boots had survived the fire worm's ooze.
He looked to the right. There was a bigger corridor that way. But there were screams coming from the left.
Nikola had no idea what he was supposed to do. He only knew that he could not just go up and leave.
He took the bigger corridor. His feet making soft tap-tap noises.
The thing he found was not something he wanted.
There were three stone statues there. And, amidst them, a woman with a snake's tail.
"What are you doing in my home, human?" The lady asked as she uncoiled her tail. Nikola could bet that she could reach 5 meters if she simply stretched her whole tail.
"My lady, this mine is mine. I would like for you to evict the premise." Even as Nikola said it, he felt silly. But, still, he didn't want to just go in there arrows blazing.
He was a human, not a monster.
"Leave? From my home? How about you look me in the eyes and tell me that again?"
Nikola closed his eyes. Taking in a breath, tasting the air for vibrations with his tongue.
When his arrow flew, he heard a scream.
He nocked another. Letting it fly in the same direction.
The heavy thump of a tail was to be heard. But as Nikola dared to open his eyes, the Lamia lady was still clinging to life.
She had grown. Becoming bigger in size.
As tall as the mine itself!
Nikola heard as she took a saber from next to a wall. As she began to slither towards him.
"I tried to give you peace," Nikola murmured as he aimed once more. "But if that is not an option, then I will give you death!"
He aimed once more. His eyes were wide open. He let the arrow loose with all his hopes and dreams of seeing his family again.
The saber fell. The Lamia swayed on her tail.
"Please," she gurgled out. Nikola opened his eyes, just to see that there was an arrow over her heart. "I don't want to die."
Nikola's heart skipped a beat.
Could he leave this woman be? Could he let her recover, maybe make a deal with her?
"Please!" The Lamia yelled, her voice pure desperation.
"Kill her now! She is letting poison in the air!" The system roared.
Nikola narrowed his eyes.
The last arrow met the Lamia's neck.
She began to choke. Trying to get the arrow out. Trying to stop the blood.
"I can't trust no monsters in this world," Nikola said as he took his pickaxe. "None!"
He rushed to the Lamia. Hacking and slashing until she finally stopped moving.
He was breathing heavily when the system gave him a message.
"Congratulations! You have killed a C grade monster! The Lamia, with all its quirks and attack strategies, is now uploaded to your bestiary! For the brave deed, you are given 100 XP points! Now you can level up. Where do you want your points to go to?"
Nikola mulled over the question a little. He wanted to put them in intelligence, just like every other time.
But the Lamia had to be butchered just because he didn't have enough strength.
"Strength, please," he said.
He could always grind his intelligence with books. But strength was not something he had enough time to grind.
It was a shortcut. A band aid which was going to let him fight for longer.
Nikola knew that he had to make some changes.
He was running out of time.