Chương 18: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 18 - The Ettercap Tribe

The dragon's roar shook the cavern walls, and instead of fear, it whipped the kobolds into a frenzy. Some flopped belly-down on the ground, wriggling their lizard-like tails in ecstasy. Others pumped their metal plate shields and rust-spotted dinner knives overhead, barking "Woof! Woof! Woof!" at the top of their lungs. A few had broken into a completely unhinged dance around the bonfire. Chaotic? Absolutely. But the joy on their faces was genuine. Every single one of them was over the moon to be ruled by a dragon.

Su Nian stood there holding Anna, blinking slowly. He let himself imagine it for a moment, if he'd been a boss back in his old life, and his employees had been exactly like this. Forget intelligence. With this kind of enthusiasm alone, every company on the Fortune 500 would have been his.

"Bolikri. Is this all your tribe has?" He flew to the center of the hall and surveyed the kobolds from above. Most of them were old or very young. The younger ones were wrapped in mismatched bandages of every color, some missing an arm, some a leg. The evidence of a recent war was written all over their bodies.

"Master, you have to stand up for us!!" Bolikri dropped to his knees, his dog face crumpling with genuine grief. He let the snot and tears flow freely.

"The Broken Fang Tribe used to be a proper medium-sized tribe — four, maybe five hundred kobolds. I wasn't even chieftain back then. But then a group of Ettercaps showed up with their spider swarms and attacked us. They took everything. Our territory, our mine..." He choked up.

"For the survival of the clan, I gathered whoever was left and ran. This cave is where we ended up." The surrounding kobolds had started crying too, right on cue, a low chorus of whimpering that sounded almost exactly like a litter of beaten puppies. Ettercaps? Su Nian dug into his Dragon Heritage memories and pulled up what he needed almost instantly. Humanoid spiders. Generally second tier, with exceptional specimens pushing third.

The comparison to Spider-Man ended right there, though, these things were nothing like that. Four thick, powerful limbs that could walk upright or scuttle on all fours. A head like an ordinary spider, complete with compound eyes and sharp, venomous fangs. Honestly, just looking at one was enough to tank your sanity score. Ettercaps had a specialized mouthpart that worked like a flute. They used it to command spiders, the way a snake charmer coaxes a cobra.

Being creatures of darkness, they made their homes in lightless forests or deep underground. Brutal by nature. They especially loved sucking out brains, though the spider control was really just their opener. Their own combat capability was nothing to dismiss either. Humanoid body or not, they could spit webbing from glands in their mouths, casting wide nets to immobilize prey.

Then came the stinger, a hollow venomous spike on their lower abdomen, used to inject a dissolving toxin into whatever they'd just wrapped up. Su Nian's old lair on the edge of the Silvermoon Forest had kept him clear of these things. He'd never crossed paths with one. That wasn't the point, though. The point was: what did he just hear? The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. A mine. A mine meant money.

Money meant he could buy supplies from traveling goblin merchants: potions, materials, anything he needed. He could sleep on a pile of gold coins.

"Bolikri." Su Nian's tone sharpened.

"What kind of mine? And how many Ettercaps are we talking about?" Bolikri blinked twice, and behind his weeping face, his heart leapt. The Black Dragon was asking. That meant he was interested. If the Black Dragon was willing to help, they could actually drive those Ettercaps out, or kill them, and take the old territory back.

"Great master, our former home was called the Dogtooth Tribe's den, four or five times larger than this cave. Those metal shields — our old tribe had over a hundred of them. And these metal forks, our finest weapons — over two hundred. And the female kobolds, so graceful, their figures so, " Su Nian exhaled a sharp blast of hot air directly into Bolikri's face. The jet of breath hit the cold cave air and turned to white steam. Bolikri spun head over heels and hit the ground.

"The point." The Black Dragon's voice hit like a thunderclap.

"Get to it."

"Yes, master! Reporting!" Bolikri scrambled to his feet and snapped into a rigid, military-style stance.

"Silver mine. Five Ettercaps. Their spiders... the spiders are... too many to count." Su Nian didn't bother asking whether Bolikri couldn't count or just couldn't add. He was already running the math in his head. Five Ettercaps, maybe more by now. The level 10-20 range wasn't the real problem. The problem was the spider swarms, and the webs strung through every corner of the nest. Fighting in that environment would be a nightmare. And going in close would just get him swarmed. There was also the alignment question.

Ettercaps were neutral evil, unpredictable, unruly. Black dragons had tamed them before, but they didn't follow order. What concerned him most was whether they'd go for Anna. Kobolds were different. Lawful evil, yes, but lawful. Anna was part of the group now. They'd protect her. That distinction mattered. He turned it over for a while, then decided: worth the fight. Anna's condition couldn't wait.

Money would be needed somewhere down the line, and there was no guarantee a human mage wouldn't show up looking for trouble. He always planned for the worst. He couldn't spend his days eating and sleeping like every other dragon. Time to actually put in some work. The fastest way to build his strength right now was the modification system. Su Nian pulled up the system panel and scanned through it until two entries caught his eye.

[Primary Furnace] Modifies the venom sac that stores acid fluid, installing biological furnace cells to produce magma. Allows the expulsion of molten fire carrying toxins. (System Point Cost: 1, 000) [Primary Breath Accumulation] Modifies the cell walls of the venom sac that converts acid fluid, enhancing the storage rate of dragon breath. (System Point Cost: 1, 000) Ettercaps feared fire. His acidic dragon breath barely scratched their chitinous shells. Melee was asking to be buried under a thousand spiders.

The answer was obvious: become a black dragon that could breathe fire, and the Ettercaps stopped being a problem. A cold glint moved through Su Nian's eyes as he ran the numbers. Blazing Hares: 1-2 system points per kill. Mountain Wolves: 2-3. Silvermoon Wolves squeezed out 5-6, but the effort-to-return ratio was terrible.

The real windfall was humans, they registered as a righteous faction relative to him, which doubled the system point payout. One second-tier human was worth at least 15 points. He was going to have to throw hands with the locals sooner or later. The last trace of his old humanity stopped him from raiding civilian villages. But mercenary companies? Bandit gangs? Those he had no patience for. Killing players would be even better, of course. The system, though, had made clear they hadn't arrived yet.

"Bolikri." Su Nian shifted gears without warning.

"Are there any human bandit strongholds in the area? Any mercenary companies? Black Beast Mercenaries, something like that?" Bolikri blinked, thrown completely off balance. Weren't they just talking about reclaiming the mine? How did it jump to humans? He didn't ask. He just answered.

"Praise the great master! There are two bandit groups in the nearby area. As for mercenary companies, there's only the Blood Lion Mercenaries, I haven't heard of any Black Beast group."

[Author's Note: For readers who follow the chapter comments, the Ettercap was added at a reader's suggestion, which I thought worked well. It then turned out to overlap with Blazing Tyrant. The original Ettercap stats were pulled straight from the 5th Edition D&D Monster Manual, including the image, which is public domain. The kobold stats are the same. Blazing Tyrant pulled from the same source. Anyone can compare. But since some people have accused me of copying Blazing Tyrant without understanding how this works, I've gone ahead and modified the Ettercap stats. Please understand the difference between borrowing, coincidental overlap, and plagiarism before making accusations., Revised August 3, 2022.] Eyeball deposit. ➤ Next: The Gale Bandit Group