The creatures coming down the tunnel of the [Crawl] were something the system called [Sewer Kobold]s. Of course they weren’t [True Kobold]s which were the descendants of dragons and were a proper race.

Prin charged the kobolds, swinging her sword. Our ranged, using a bow in these tunnels of all things would simply fire down the tunnel whenever he got a shot not filled with Prin. The other melee sat back with Micky to protect him and help when and where necessary.

All in all, it was quick, even if these kobolds were both tougher and smarter then goblins. There weren’t as many of them, and they weren’t that much stronger than goblins. If anything they reminded Micky of those people in the village that stuck a little too close to the family.

Prin removed the skins as proof of subjugation and also as a reward that they could bring back to the guild. Kobold skin was a well known and easy to obtain armor material. Of course this wasn’t so good if there was a kobold race settlement in the area but luckily there weren’t any dragons around here. Although there were rumors of them about, but that was true for everywhere.

Micky cleansed all the buffs he added to everybody. This was for the best, so that they could calm down and relax, and not overstress themselves.

The group wasn’t even tired so they moved on after they finished skinning their ‘prizes’. The tunnels were an endless maze of differently identical muddy brown tunnels. The group decided on the double tried and true method, write down each direction they went and always take the left path. Of course nobody was going to dirty themselves or their weapon with marking the path, and the [Crawl] would likely repair the damage by the time they got back anyway.

Squishy was oddly enough, the best scout for the team. Not only was she uniquely suited to the tunnels, but she also had no problems or detriments to living in the tunnels. She could see and hear just fine, not being confused by the echo or the darkness.

The next group was a similar group of kobolds but this time they themselves brought a group of tamed slimes with them. So Squishy of course, thought of it as a personal challenge. How dare those slimes show their face in front of it? They should bow down to her superiority!

Micky however, was getting ever more concerned with Squishy’s ego. She was starting to really sound like Pepperoni! Stop laughing, it wasn’t a good thing to be whipped by your own pets.

Squishy charged the slimes and issued a challenge of her own. They responded and the fight was on. Prin was busy fighting the kobolds, these were obviously a more advanced species then the previous group, though still just kobolds. The archer continued to simply fire down the hallway hoping to hit something. Luckily she could use mana arrows in a pinch to save on ammunition, the bane of every ranged class.

Micky controlled the engagement from afar and the melee sat back to guard Micky. “The next group is mine!” exclaimed the other melee. “Fine.” Prin called back.

This group actually knew what it was doing and parried Prin’s attacks as a group. In these tunnels the melee fighters attacks were unwieldy, and the ranged was constricted. Only the small races had an unrestricted time in this tunnel. This happened to include [Sewer Kobold]s and [Sewer Goblin]s, and did not include Orks.

But Prin was still able to power through, albeit with a few minor injuries, definitely smarter then goblins. Micky still cast his twin spell to force some of the Kobolds to become more violent to each other and much less cooperative.

Squishy however, had no problem with it’s slime opponents. It then looked over at Prin and gave her a taunting gaze, asking “I’m sorry, do you need some help with that? Anything else you need? Tea and snacks maybe?” It seemed to say with it’s eyes.

Prin went almost apoplectic. I say almost because the Kobolds ended up as squishy boneless lumps that could still be harvested and not simply paste. When she finished she didn’t turn around to look at the smug slime.

Micky definitely needed to get her ego in check. She had taken way too many notes from Pepperoni.

The group continued on, giving each melee a turn at the front in a rotating order. The ranged did ranged things, Micky did Micky things, and occasionally they would let Micky ‘git a gud’ hit in so that he could collect on his XP. It was a good thing that support classes usually had the [Party Baby] perk, even if it was [Salt In The Wound].

The group came down the tunnel to find a wooden barricade. It looked to be cobbled together from old barrels and crates, and other junk that had been discarded just a little too close to a sewer entrance.

The group was both excited and nervous to see this. It clearly meant one of two things. One, it was a place that the monsters gathered, which would then mean that they stored their loot there. Two, it meant that there was a NPC village, a Non-Person-Creature. These were places in various mana locations that created ‘Pacifist’ monsters. These monsters would then develop in more intelligent ways instead of simply strengthening their bodies. Of course they still weren’t a race, and would just perform simple actions since they lacked a ‘will’ to move them onward.

But of course, the group was hoping that it was an NPC village because then they would be able to get [Quest]s from it. And everybody knows that [Quest]s give rewards and [Loot]. So the group of four looked at each other. They had to know if they felt like they were up to the challenge if this wasn’t and NPC village. Because that would mean a fight, a fight that wouldn’t compare to what they had been fighting before. A fight that would likely end with a [Boss].

Not the boss of the area, which some people called the [Don] of the area, but ‘a’ boss of the area. Prin gave a nod, the other melee gave a nod, even the ranged gave a nod. Micky was outvoted already, even though he knew that Prin would follow his vote, she kinda forced this onto him. Of course, the other party members didn’t give a shit what the support had to say though. After all what would it matter if the noble supporting their entire class had an opinion on this? Of course, they didn’t know that either.

So the two melee walked up slowly to the entrance of the settlement of the local sewer gang, that controlled this section of the sewer. They walked up to the wall and knocked. Then of course, all hell broke loose. Tiny arrows flew out from whatever slits in the wood there were, stones were thrown, curses were said in exotic tongues. Everything went fubar and nobody stuck to the plan anymore.

Prin ran back towards the rest of the party dodging and parrying the small, but slow arrows, so did the other melee. Micky hit everybody with as many [Acceleration] stacks as he could. And they all ran to the nearest corner.

As they closed in on the corner the barricade broke apart to a flood of kobold. The archer just had to make sure she shot down the way, and she would hit something. Heck, Micky was tempted to start The Hendrickson Estate’s favorite sport and start throwing stones down at the tide. Prin tried to throw some of her spears down at them while still in cover, to mixed results. It was a situation where you literally couldn’t miss.

The koblods would have been faster, had they not been literally climbing over each other to get to the group. This would squish the kobolds in the lead as they clambered over one another. It would have been funny and a little cute in any other situation. But instead it was a well known [Mob] battle tactic, swarm the shit out of everything. If they reached Micky and co. like that, they would just climb on top of them and tear them apart in a literal wall of flesh, literally.