Angel or devil

Finn counted eight kobolds and one kobold king. The kobolds were all level 3, and the kobold king was level 5.

Fighting them all head-on would have been suicide, so he crouched down near one of the walls and decided to observe first.

After looking around for a while, he noticed that all of the kobolds had weapons and were ready to fight even while eating or sleeping.

One of the kobolds was even sleeping while hugging his stone axe that had the word "Bob" engraved on it.

'Who gives their weapon a human-like name?'

Finn then started thinking of a plan to kill all the kobolds while considering all the pros and cons.

Once he was done, the plan he thought of was risky, but it had the biggest chance of success, so he went with it.

He first grabbed a handful of small rocks from his little pouch, and then walked to one of the dark spots of the hall while crouching.

After he arrived, he threw the stones into the cave tunnel he came from.

BANG

The stones were small, but with Finn's high strength stat, they made a loud banging sound as they hit the cave floor.

The echo of the cave amplified this sound, which caused the kobolds to stop what they were doing and turn to look at the tunnel.

As soon as the sound echoed throughout the whole cave, the kobolds thought that something must have happened to the two kobolds standing guard outside the hall.

"KRAAAH, KRAAAAGH!"

The kobold king shouted loudly as if a general were commanding his troops, and all eight kobolds grabbed their weapons while going outside the hall to find out what the sound was.

Finn rejoiced because the first part of his plan worked.

He knew that the kobold king was a proud being and wouldn't care about not having any guards around him, so he knew that the kobold king would send everyone away.

Finn used the sound of the rock hitting the ground to lure away all the kobolds, making the fight a one-on-one duel.

The kobold king was on high alert as he stood up, grabbing his two-headed, one-meter-long axe.

It was not made from stone like the other kobold weapons but instead was made from some type of metal that kept shining, reflecting the light from the torches.

Finn needed to use the element of surprise to deal as much damage as possible.

So he checked his equipment, knowing he had only one try.

Suddenly, he noticed a few cracks on his dagger, and he knew what that meant. Equipment in Second Life had durability, and his dagger's durability was almost exhausted.

'It's going to break with the next strike…'

He frowned as he looked down.

'I can't use it then. Change of plans.'

Finn quickly came up with a plan that would probably work.

The kobolds could return any minute now, so he didn't really have time to think about the plan too much and just went with it.

Whenever the kobold king looked away, Finn would get closer using different obstacles and shadows.

After a few seconds of running, Finn was standing behind the stone throne with the kobold king in front of it.

The kobold king was holding his one-handed axe with his right hand while looking around.

Pulling out a piece of cloth from his inventory, Finn used it to tie a flat rock to his knuckles on his right hand and prepared to attack.

He jumped out from behind the throne and, using his skill Vital hit, punched the kobold king's right wrist, his punch receiving a 150% boost for his next strike.

With Finn having the strength stat of 26 and using a rock as a brass knuckle-like weapon, he easily fractured the kobold king's wrist, making him let go of his weapon.

The kobold king kneeled down on the ground while holding his broken wrist.

Finn used this moment when the kobold king was preoccupied to swiftly grab the axe and swing it at him.

WHOOSH SPLURT

The slash went from his left shoulder to his stomach, making him bleed like a fountain.

"KRAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!"

As a last ditch attempt, the kobold king shouted with all his might, trying to call his subordinates, but he bled out soon after.

[You have killed a kobold king - level 5 and gained 100 exp]

Finn knew it was just a matter of seconds before the other kobolds rushed back, so he swiped the system message away and, after cutting the kobold king's head off, packed up the corpse into his inventory.

Quickly dousing all the torches in the hall, he created the perfect environment for his upcoming fight.

When the kobolds finally arrived, all the torches but theirs were off, so they couldn't see almost anything.

The leading kobold had a torch, and he held it as they walked closer to the throne to investigate the situation.

As he was walking, the leading kobold heard some noises behind him.

Swiftly turning around, he counted only four kobolds, including himself, which made his pupils constrict and his hands started to tremble.

He knew that there were eight of them when they entered the hall, so he quickly shouted at the other kobolds, and they stood with their backs facing each other to evade any sneak attacks from a potential enemy.

They kept looking around, but their visibility was minimal as they only had one torch.

Suddenly something fell out of the darkness.

THUD Thud thud...

It bounced three times and then rolled to one of the kobolds' feet. When they all looked down, they saw their king's wide-open eyes staring at them.

They all panicked and started running towards the entrance of the hall.

Wanting to get out of there as soon as possible, they threw everything they were holding away, even their only torch, which was the only thing keeping them alive.

CLUNK Clunk clunk…

As the torch fell, it made the noise of a wood stick bouncing on the stone floor, and once the kobolds left the light of the fallen torch, only the sound of four bodies falling could be heard.

Finn walked out of the darkness that the kobolds had just entered, his black cape and black mask stained with crimson blood.

The weapon he had used to kill those kobolds was a sharp stone dagger that he had found in the hall while sneaking around, so they had all died by a weapon of their friend.

He then knelt down to pick up the torch that had fallen, and he started walking toward the person he had seen in a cage before.

[You have killed a kobold - level 3 and gained 50 exp]

[You have killed a kobold - level 3 and gained 50 exp]

[You have killed a kobold - level 3 and gained 50 exp]

[...]

The system kept showing Finn his kills, which he swiftly swiped away.

He knew that he needed another 1500 exp, so there was no need to look at his status screen.

Once he arrived near the cage, he realized he didn't have the key, so he chose a different way to open it.

BANG

Busting the lock with his dagger, which turned into dust after its durability had been finally used up, he opened the cage and crouched down to wake the shivering man up.

"Is it finally time for me to die…?"

The man mumbled as he tried looking at Finn through his muddled vision.

He had difficulty seeing as he hadn't eaten or drunk anything for a few days now.

Finn noticed this and gave him some water and beef jerky to revitalize him.

The man devoured the food and water like a starving beast, and after finishing the food, he looked at his savior, who was smiling at him.

"An angel? No, you look more like the devil."

He looked at Finn's black clothes which were covered in kobold's blood.

Finn wasn't wearing his mask because he knew that he didn't have to hide his face from the NPCs, so even his face was all red.

As soon as Finn heard that, his smile froze, but he still tried to get on the blacksmith's son's good side.

"I'm a human, though… I'm Finn, and I was sent by your father, Druhan, to find you and bring you back."

"Father sent you! What an embarrassment I am… I came here to find materials for my new creation, but I got imprisoned in the first cave that I entered… Oh, I am Pyron! Nice to meet you."

Pyron offered his hand to Finn, who shook it and pulled him up from the ground.

"As a thank you for saving me, I will lead you to this cave's treasury. I saw the kobolds open it numerous times when I was still locked up here."

He smiled at Finn, and after taking the torch, he started leading the way.

They came face-to-face with a wall that was right behind the throne. It was just a normal cave wall, but Pyron started touching it as if searching for something.

Normally, the player who finished this dungeon without this quest wouldn't be able to discover the secret treasury and would have to leave this dungeon without its main loot.

Click

Soon, Pyron shoved his finger into a small, inconspicuous hole, and a click sounded.

The wall separated into two and slowly opened as it revealed a small room with various weapons and metals.

Pyron immediately ran to the metal section of the room with his eyes sparkling. He then started to inspect all of them, looking like he had just found a treasure trove.

Finn also went to look, and he saw a lot of interesting metals.

The highest rank was E, so he couldn't wait to look at the weapon section to see if there were also any E rank weapons, but suddenly Loki spoke up.

'Wait, boy, lift up that gray metal in the corner.'

Not knowing why Loki stopped him, Finn did as he was told, and after lifting up the metal, he saw a black material that had red sparks flashing around it.

It was about the size of Finn's head, and with all the other metal lying around, it looked like a diamond surrounded by trash.

'Diabolium! How did this end up here… Take it with you! If handled correctly, it can be made into a powerful weapon.'

Pyron was too busy with the other metals to notice that Finn had put the piece of Diabolium inside his inventory.

Finn then also packed up all the weapons in the room.

Most of them were just primitive stone weapons, but there were a few F+ rank weapons, and if he sold them, he would get some money.

The metals got split up between Finn and Pyron, with Finn getting a bigger portion, and once they packed everything up, they left the room.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry the metals for you in my spatial storage?"

"Yes, I am sure. I have been stuck in this cave for too long, and I need to do some exercise for my rusty muscles."

Finn offered to carry the metals for Pyron, but he insisted on carrying them himself in a huge leather backpack he found in the kobold treasury.

Staying in the cave made his body weaker, but because he had dwarven blood inside his veins, his strength quickly recovered.

He also found his clothes, which the kobolds had taken from him when they captured him.

Their walk back took a few minutes, but because there were no other pathways, they couldn't get lost and soon arrived at the entrance to the dungeon.

Once they left the dungeon, Finn got a notification from the system.

[You have completed an F-rank dungeon Kobold cave]

[You are the first person to complete a dungeon click here to announce your heroic feat]

'Again? If I press this, I will just piss everyone off, and I should lay low after the first world announcement.'

He first shook his head and covered his eyes with his hand, but then he made a hole between his fingers and looked at the system message again.

'But that intoxicating feeling of standing above everyone else and being in the spotlight. I knew that my Second Life experience wouldn't be peaceful after I chose to be a champion, so fuck it.'

Finn pressed the message with his index finger, waiting for the announcement that soon came.

[World announcement: Congratulations to the player Chained_Trickster for being the first one to complete a dungeon, Kobold cave – rank F]

The other players were still recovering from the shock of the first world announcement, but now there was another one.

Normally, completing a dungeon at this stage of the game was feasible, but completing it solo was just unthinkable, so the Second Life site, which started to calm down after all the players accepted the first world announcement, became chaotic once again.

---

Sitting on a corpse of a black wolf was a muscular blonde boy who had just finished fighting a wolf pack.

He had a blue system window on front of him that kept shooting out small, colorful fireworks.

His previously bored face changed into a smirk as he eyed the content of the message.

"Interesting… I want to fight him!"

Leo excitedly shouted as he looked at the announcement, not knowing that the player he just set his eyes on was none other than his friend Finn.