DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro was leaning onto Lugo's antlers while reading one of his books. Since he would be able to finish this rather quickly if he just tried to, he instead figured it was a good idea to do the opposite for once and just stretch the time that he could spend enjoying this good literature out to as long as absolutely possible.

He didn't really have much else to do, after all. Since he was riding on Lugo's back, he couldn't practice any sort of combat in the slightest. And on top of that, in the area they were in right now, he couldn't properly practice his magic at a larger scale either.

Well, he was doing a couple of things while reading and riding on Lugo's back anyway, but they were just miniscule things that the Demon mostly used to keep his mind busy so that he wouldn't get bored somehow.

For example, he was trying to produce different sorts of poison in his stinger, now that he got a rough grasp on it. Eiro started to fill them into different small glass bottles that he could use to track his progress a bit more directly. And of course, just having different sorts of poison available to him at any time in the form of small bottles would certainly be useful. He couldn't produce that much instantly, after all. That, and Armodeus could use them to develop the item that Eiro could use to increase his Toxin Resistance's skill-level.

It seemed like it would take him a little while to make something that would give out a constant, minor amount of Toxin out of an item like that, that would be just barely strong enough to cause someone to get just enough proficiency for a skill without producing lasting side-effects.

It would mean that the item would be required to track different parts about the user, like the stat composition, phyiscal build, and of course the current state of different skills. It was a lot more complex than it might think at first, considering how lightly Eiro put it.

Of course, at the same time, Eiro should just be able to judge things like that personally, considering the fact that he was able to differentiate between incredibly tiny amounts of practically anything. Even just a little off about something that Eiro had seen a couple of times before would be something that he could notice and hopefully use to come up with a good time to stop. But that was bothersome, especially considering that Eiro also wanted to make use of it in his sleep. He wanted to improve at literally any time that was possible in any conceivable way.

But on top of trying to practice poison-production as well as thinking about methods that could be used to improve Eiro's skills properly, Eiro was also using magic at a small scale. He made a few pebbles float around with some drops of water, creating a strong gust whenever he wanted to.

Of course, this included practicing how to pull flames out of his Elemental Gateway just to gather them up, compress them, and save them up for a time where the Demon might be able to make use of them in an emergency.

He could sense anything that was in the direct vicinity, so it really wasn't all that tough to snipe at something far away with these small orbs of compressed flames. Well, he had to be a bit careful because of the plantlife, but since these were magical flames, they were more easily affected by one's will.

Hence, if Eiro wanted them to, as the one that 'summoned' these flames here from the Elemental Plane of Fire in the first place, he would be able to, he could make the flames go out rather quickly after he stopped directly manipulating them.

It should be enough to damage and kill any sort of trouble that wasn't worth stopping to deal with on his own, but that was too troublesome for the spiders that were following the carriage secretly. Then, those spiders could grab the body if Eiro thought it was necessary, and then he could look at it when they were going to take a break for the horses' sake the next time.

Well, for the most part, they probably could have made use of new methods that didn't require horses, but in the end, very briefly actually, Armodeus and Eiro both chose that creating a carriage that was pulled by the Giant Spiders that Eiro and Bavet had 'tamed' was probably not the best idea around. Well, now they still had them pull some of the carts behind the carriage that they were taking with them with the materials that they would bring to improve on the Goblin Village before heading off to meet the Dragon.

Gobo would stay behind with Ariella and Mikey by his side, as those three were now a bit closer to each other and the Hobgoblin was capable of fighting pretty well with their help, and lead the other Goblins as well as all of the spiders to properly develop the Goblin Village.

Eiro was actually pretty curious about how the Village had developed so far in his and Gobo's absence. It had been quite a while, after all. In the worst case, one of the other Hobgoblins had taken over as the new leader and Eiro would have to force them all into submission once again. It seemed like a bother, but at the end of the day, if it was necessary then Eiro would do it. It shouldn't be that hard either, really. He did it before, and that was when he was a good bit weaker than he was now.

Just as he was thinking about all this, the Demon noticed that they were finally getting rather close to the Goblin Village. Or at the very least, they were now starting their ascend of one of the mountains that had enclosed the Goblin Village.

Gobo was getting rather excited over it, since he hasn't been home for a good while. Meanwhile, Eiro and Gondos were making sure that the roads were ones that the carriages and carts could traverse without any issues with Earth Magic. And once they got close enough so that Eiro was able to sense part of what was happening in the Goblin Village right now, and if he had to be honest, he would have preferred if one of the Hobgoblins had taken over the village... But that sadly wasn't the case at all.

Once they reached the entrance, Eiro jumped off of Lugo's back and used earth magic to open the path up and straighten the cave so that the carriages and carts could move through there properly. The Demon took the lead with a deep scowl on his face. He honestly wondered how this even happened in the first place.

While walking through the cave, Eiro took off his mask and cloak while telling the others to stay back for a little while until he told them that they could come. And the moment that the Demon stepped into the light of the village, he was already more than just annoyed. It was as if all the work that he had done here had already become absolutely useless.

Eiro's steps echoed through the valley-like village, that had been infested with a new sort of plague. Kobolds.

The Dog-like, bipedal Monsters stared at Eiro with violent, aggressive expressions as the Demon made his way through to the 'new Leader' of the village. Some of the more idiotic Kobolds tried to attack Eiro, but the Demon obviously cut off their heads before they could even get close to him with his Three of Swords. Meanwhile, all of the Goblins were bowing to Eiro, as their master had finally returned to them.

It seemed like there was one Kobold to every three Goblins, so Eiro really wondered why there were being treated like this. The Goblins seemed to practically be servants to the Kobolds. While Kobolds were slightly stronger than the average Goblin, that shouldn't be the case with Mountain Goblins. They should be at a rather equal standing, as far as Eiro could judge at a glance.

He could tell that there was something special about the leader of the Kobolds, which might explain what exactly happened. Although, it still seemed rather bothersome to deal with. Eiro soon reached the place in question, and stared at the sight in front of him in disbelief.

The four strongest Hobgoblins that Eiro had left here were a complete mess. Clypt the heavy warrior and Vent the wind mage were standing beside the new head of this village, while Glat the swordswoman and Sagit the female Archer were standing at the sidelines with their arms and legs put into chains. Eiro wondered how they even got their hands on something like that, but for the most part, the Kobolds seemed to be a bit more knowledgeable than the Goblins anyway. So that might have to do with their rather special leader.

"What a rare sight. A Kitbold?" Eiro asked, actually a fair bit curious since he had never seen one of them, and the leader smirked in response. At this point, the four Hobgoblins had all noticed Eiro as well and immediately threw themselves onto their knees to bow to the Demon.

"Kitsue must say, intruder is also rare sight~! Kitsue never see red Goblin with wings before!" The Kitbold pointed out with her legs crossed with a rather weird pose otherwise, as if the female Kitbold was trying to seduce Eiro right off the bat, something that obviously didn't work on someone that had zero sexual urges whatsoever.

A Kitbold was something similar to a Kobold, albeit a lot more rare, at least in this part of the world. Instead of having the appearance of a four to five foot tall bipedal wolf, they had the appearance of a usually roughly four-foot tall bipedal cat instead. They weren't particularly stronger than Kobolds, but often rather more intelligent and agile, with a surprisingly low aggressive nature.

Eiro read that some wondered if Kitbolds were actually just the offspring of Kobolds that somehow mated with wild feline animals, thus losing a fair bit of their monstrosity. Either way... Eiro really didn't like the way that this Kitbold was staring at him right now. Slowly, she stood up from the 'throne' she was sitting on, and walked toward Eiro with a determined expression.

She waved her hips to the sides slightly, as if somewhat badly emulating the way that those women in the red-light district of towns moved to attract new customers.

The Kitbold walked up to Eiro with a broad smile, "The Red Goblin is strong! Kitsue will allow you to become her mate!"