If the Kobold King’s health was brought low enough, I could execute it with [Heart Ripper]. Unfortunately, the boss was nowhere near execute range yet.

To end this battle with the least amount of casualties possible, I decided that I’d attack at the same time as giant Books. Playing safe had its merits, but if the kobolds sufficiently whittled our force down, our survival rate would go down as well for the days to come.

With no news from regiments 1-3, it meant that every soldier’s life I saved might be extending my own lifespan by a few hours.

Commander Isaac did not let up his flurry of attacks at the Kobold King. He was a [Master Fencer] class, and it showed in the precision of his blade work.

The various necklaces around the Kobold King’s neck danced as it swung its cleaver back. Giant Books charged forward with a mace he picked up from one of the fallen Kobold Commanders, making sure that he didn’t waste the duration on his Potion of Giant.

The Kobold King’s cleaver struck the incoming Books in the side, creating a bloody cut wound, but giant Books had an enormous health pool and physical defenses on par with boss monsters at the moment. He only lost a tenth of his hp from the hit.

Books swung his mace down at the Kobold King and hit it in the thigh, causing its knees to buckle for a moment. I caught up at this point, and lashed out with love whip at the Kobold King.

[15 damage]

Damn, this thing was tough. My whip didn’t do too much damage.

One of the commander’s officers, a high level archer, notched a spirit infused arrow and shot it towards the Kobold King.

[55 damage]

It roared in pain as the arrow landed in its lower abdomen.

“Minions, defend your king!” the Kobold King shouted.

“Protect the king!” the kobolds yelled, and the entire cavern’s focus shifted towards the middle of the fight.

The kobolds rushed to their king’s side, changing priorities from attacking squishy targets to killing the king’s assailants.

--------------

“–news. The first and second regiments are now arriving at the high penalty area known as Jagged Dorsa. Both regiments had a deadly run in with an undead horde in the Boglands, and have lost nearly a quarter of their soldiers.”

John from KB broadcasting was hosting the segment, but his partner was absent today due to sickness.

“There has been an update on the third regiment, which was quiet until now. The third regiment suffered extreme losses at the hands of bog dwellers, and has turned back to the capital.”

“In other news, the Imperial Court has begun to enforce conscriptions and has sent divisions of the royal army to every major human city under threat from the goblin-orc monster coalition. Players are now able to explore up to roughly one kilometer distance away from cities due to the presence of royal army patrols, opening up opportunities for adventuring and dungeon exploration previously not possible.”

“The City of Talos is the sole exception to this one kilometer safe zone. As the closest adjacent city to Mountain, the monster coalition is now concentrating its attention on taking the city. Talos is currently under siege by the monster known as the [Orc Commander].”

“Talos is not as fortified as Mountain, but we hope that Talos can stay steadfast until reinforcements arrive.”

“In other news, it has been reported that the Rabid Monkeys on Easter Island can drop epic gear. Hundreds of players have flocked to the region to farm these monkeys, and competition is stiff…”

---------------

There’s something I call coincidence theory. I was reminded of it just now, watching giant Books punch a Kobold Commander as if it were a ragdoll. His Merchant of Avarice class was simultaneously underpowered and overpowered with a slight lean towards underpowered, similar to my own.

From a third party perspective, it did seem quite coincidental that I ended up partying with another unique class player. Just a quick look on the forums revealed that the number of unique class holders was rather low, since it was a one in a thousand occurrence in character select. But if you thought about it more, meeting Books was more of a highly probable possibility than a coincidence.

You had to consider the anatomy of the coincidence. How did I meet Books? I met him in a small village after respawning from death. Why was I dead? The same reason why Books was dead– Steel Slice killed me.

Now, if someone was following my train of thought, they would be asking this–what does this have to do with the fact that we both had unique classes? The answer is simple. Steel Slice and other noob bullies went around targeting new players that they considered to be easy prey. The easiest prey of all were players that were alone with no weapon, and minimal combat stats.

And of course, unique classes were more likely to be alone with no weapon and minimal combat stats. It was no coincidence that I met Books, it was a highly probable scenario.

Now it starts to make more sense, why a thief class with a magic cat and a merchant class with the ability to turn into a giant were currently winning against a boss monster leagues above their levels despite being swarmed by kobolds.

“He’s hurt!” commander Isaac shouted.

The Kobold King reeled in pain as Isaac and giant Books pummeled him with blows. Minion kobolds armed with mining equipment, pickaxes, and spears charged at us from all angles, but were being held at bay by officers.

Mages were also in the fray, firing area of effect spells at the clumped up enemies. Some of our soldiers were hurt in the process, but nobody was getting insta killed unless Barak was the caster. Every time Barak finished setting up a spell, both humans and kobolds alike dove for cover and prayed to dear god for salvation from the mad scientist mage.

The fight was so hectic at this point that I highly doubted that anyone would get clear footage of my more unique abilities, or even notice that I used them, as long as I wasn’t too conspicuous.

As a wounded kobold lurched at me, I twisted my wrist to command my whip.

“Restrain.”

The whip snapped across the kobold’s body, binding it. I let the whip squeeze the already battered and bruised kobold into a state of near unconsciousness, unwilling to waste any more of my health on thunderbolts unless it was necessary. As it slumped forward, I retracted the whip.

Now, there was a clear path to the Kobold King.

“Taste blood!” I yelled, running into melee range of the Kobold King.

The necklace adorned lizard king was held down with a rear naked choke hold by giant Books. To the left, the commander was engaged by a Kobold Commander on his flank.

“Thunderbolt!”

[-31 health]

[280 damage]

Health: [137/332]

A black mist emanated from my left hand, indicating that the Kobold King was within execution range.

“Heart Ripper!” I roared, plunging my hand into the Kobold King’s chest. I crushed the Kobold King’s heart by closing my left hand into a fist, and then yanked my hand out with the bloody remnants still gripped in my hand. The amount of blood that burst out of the boss’ body was inconceivable.

You have slain the Kobold King.

You have gained 100 souls.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Level 35. The experience was shared, but was still enough for an instant five levels because a Kobold King was far beyond my capabilities to kill at this point in the game. Taking down monsters beyond your level activated an experience modifier.

The Kobold King sank to the ground, lifeless. A few items dropped next to its body upon death, including a large cleaver, several gold and silver necklaces, and a golden crown.

Technically, this loot was the empire’s property. As the contract we signed stipulated, only dwarven loot belonged to the finder. Other spoils were considered the army’s possessions.

It was chaotic in the cavern though, and the other participants of the battle were still engrossed in melee. As I was the one to kill the Kobold King and the closest to the loot, I decided to discreetly pocket one of the necklaces and the shiniest item in the loot, the gold crown.

You have obtained Gold Necklace.

You have obtained Crown of the Forgotten King.

You have earned accomplishment [Kobold King Slayer]

You have gained Theft experience.

What? Theft experience?

In the corner of my eye, I saw the experience bar for Theft rise ever so slightly.

Theft, 0.80658% to level 1.

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I’d check out my new ability later. Like most other things that came with this class, the description of the ability was probably another set of question marks.

At the sight of their king falling, the rest of the kobolds gave up resisting and began to scatter. No way was I going to let so much free xp run away like that. Especially not after having risked my life for it.

I downed a health potion, which brought me back up to [287/332], and began chasing the retreating kobolds with Meat Shield. Even my stupid cat managed to hit level 31 during the mess of a fight.

Whoosh. My whip cut through the air and struck a kobold in the back. The Kobold Commanders and minion kobolds were running to another opening in the cavern, with the intent to escape into the forest outside.

You have slain a kobold.

You have gained a soul.

You have gained experience.

You have gained silver.

You have slain a kobold.

You have gained a soul.

You have gained experience.

You have gained silver.

You have slain a kobold.

You have gained a soul.

You have gained experience.

You have gained silver.

It was so satisfying watching the notifications pop up one by one. The kobolds I was killing were already exhausted and battle worn.

A few of them managed to escape, including most of the commanders, but between the warriors and archers cutting down kobolds and the mages blasting and freezing them, we managed to route a good amount of them.

Books began to shrink in size, returning to normal as the duration of Potion of Giant expired.