Chapter 15. Uninvited guest.

Maybe the wolves had come back? I thought to myself as I crept along the walls.

That was proven false when I heard the gutteral grumbling of a sentiment creature.

"Where did they put it? Mistress said the milk maid had been milked yesterday so it should be around here."

And here I was hoping she would have turned over a new leaf after our chat last night but it seems not. Zeldi also mentioned that her milk had gone missing before and that her previous milking machine had broken mysteriously. Seems I found the answer to all that.

I followed the scratching into the barn as the creature kicked over a broken broom. Whatever it was I'd likely didn't expect something to be sneaking up on it because I did a piss poor job of stealth and it still didn't turn around. It allowed me to get close enough I could make out what it was.

My first thought was goblin due to its height. The creature would have only just reached my hips if it was standing up though that was a guess as it was hunched over and covered in a black hoodie like cloth.

The other two things that said it wasn't a goblin was the thick tail coming from its rear that was covered in red scales.

"Kobold?" I questioned out loud stupidity.

The kobold turned quickly and let out a squeal that rattled my eardrums. "Who are you?"

"That should be my question." I said back. "What the hell are you doing on my farm?"

"Your farm?" It's eyes widened. "Deed owner!"

"Yes that would be me." I stated.

The kobold squealed again but this time grabbed something from a pocket in its cloak and threw it at me.

I reacted as quickly as I could, summoning one of the still usable posts into my hands to form a makeshift shield. Two of the items sank deeply into the wood while a third impacted my chest.

Only to bounce off harmlessly.

We both stared at each other in confusion at what just happened.

I broke eye contact first to see the post in my hands and found what looked like sherikuns half embedded in the wood. Definitely deep enough that it should have buried itself in my guts instead of just bouncing off.

"Guess I know what they meant by not being able to harm me on my property." I laughed. "Oh you came to the wrong place mister kobold."

The kobold hissed and pulled out more sherikuns. "Mistress Maletary said to kill the deed owner if found."

Not Mistress Tilty? Is there another fawn somewhere out there trying to ruin my day?

I don't get a chance to ask before another three sherikuns were thrown towards me. Like a famous Australian that wrestled crocodiles I walked calmly forward as the blades bounced harmlessly off my chest. "Now down here we have some of the narliest creatures you'll ever find."

Realizing his plan wasn't working the kobold pulled a different object from his pocket though instead of throwing it at me he threw it at the ground. Smoke puffed out around the red creature while I stepped back to avoid the cloud.

"Is this guy some really crappy ninja?" I mumbled watching the smoke part and the creature run for the open door I'd come through coughing through his own smoke.

Yip definitely a crappy ninja.

I gave chase, emboldened by my newfound invulnerability.

The smoke had given him enough time to reach the door but the creature made the mistake of looking back at me as if I wasn't going to give chase. He screeched and ducked right as I was about to grab his neck then bolted for the edge of my property.

I didn't let up following hot on his heals, my longer legs eating the distance between us. Hearing my footsteps getting closer the kobold pulled out another smoke bomb.

Not giving him the chance I summoned one of the posts still in my inventory and swung it mid run. The resulting crunch as it hit his side told me I'd broken something as the creature rolled for a moment, still alive enough to try crawling away.

In a similar position I rolled to stop my momentum the log vanishing back into my inventory as I came to a stop. The smoke bomb had dropped to the ground in our scruff and even added another thing to my quest that I needed to clean up but I left it there in favor of the still living kobold. I hadn't ment to hit him that hard but I also don't regret doing it.

Catching up to the crawling creature was a lot easier and I grabbed its neck to lift it into the air. As I did so one of its arms dangled uselessly in an odd angle.

"Start talking. Who sent you and why?!" I could take a guess as to why but if this really was someone else then I had more work to do.

My response was a dagger to my forearm that the sneaky bastard had hidden in his unbroken hand. Unlike the sherikuns this broke through my skin and only stopped when it hit bone.

"Mother Ffff!"

Unfortunately for the creature my reaction to he pain was to tense my hand and I felt his neck snap before I could stop myself.

Dropping his corpse I looked back behind me only to realize I'd crossed my boundary in my chase, a part of my mind that felt airily similar to when I had previously crossed the wispy white line screamed to get back. I listened growling the whole way until my foot crossed the barrier.

Like magic the pain faded and the dagger was almost violently propelled from my arm while the wound closed.

"Got it. Invincible only on my land." I said to myself almost laughing at how obscured this was. I put the dagger in my inventory for safe keeping. No telling when it would be useful.

Whatever this deed thing was about it really didn't want me to be anywhere but here. Zeldi did mention that I was a focus point between the Leylines and the farm itself so it made some twisted sense to incentivise staying.

Is that what I'm calling my new powers? An incentive to stay still? Maybe my analogy of a guilded cage was a little closer that expected.

I shook my head and brought up my quest.

Current quest: Clean up rubble around farm.

Reward: Trespassing.

Progress: 86 / 100

Almost there. The smoke bomb increasing my requirements was an interesting development. Best not to let Tilty find out as I'm sure she's not above sabotaging my quests. I mean she's already doing it to Zeldi. But who the hell was this Maletary?

At some point I would need to deal with Tilty then this new problem although that problem was correcting itself if her father was going to strip her of her position if she went back to being a livestock. It made me question her living conditions.

Was I sympathizing with her? Absolutely not but while Zeldi's entire town seemed to benefit from her milk at least from her explanation, why was Tilty's abandoning her? A Baron could easily benefit from whatever resource she produces even if he couldn't marry her off. There was something I was missing to this whole picture.

I shook my head abandoning that thought as I heard the familiar clop of hooves approach. Before she could get close enough I quickly ran over to the corpse and pulled its cloak off. It seemed to have a few things in it and I'm not one to waste anything. Tucking it under my arm I was happy to be right as I felt a few bumps from various pockets.

Zeldi however did not look amused.

"You're injured!" She cried out when she was close enough.

"No I'm not....." I said looking down at my arm. While the wound was gone the blood had stayed. "I'm not anymore." I clarified as my little mare grabbed my arm and inspected the area around the blood splatter.

"What happened?!" She demanded.

"Kobold." I answered with a shrug. "I'm apparently invincible inside my domain."

"We all are." Zeldi said back. "But for you to bleed means you were injured outside."

Well she had me there.

"Why did you leave the farm Clovek?" She growled finally releasing my arm.

"I got carried away chasing someone I think was here to steal your milk and didn't look at were the property ended." I answered honestly. "Killed him though."

Zeldi blew a raspberry. "Master Clovek even outside of your farm you won't die, at least I believe you will be reborn in the same body as you are in now but that doesn't mean you can just blatantly disregard your own life. Even if it's to stop a thief."

Wait I just respawn if I die outside? Why wasn't I told earlier?

"But I'm fine now so all's well that ends well." I tried to placate the Centaur trying to bore a hole through me with her eyes.

"I guess." She conceded with a sigh. "I was coming over to tell you that I filled another one of those bottles before I saw you running like a stallion had kicked your ass. You need it for your shop thingy right?"

"Yes." I said quickly seeing the opportunity to jump subjects. "But I'll join you in a second. Almost done with this quest."

Zeldi nodded taking the cloak from me. "Don't take too long. I managed to get some potatoes to grow by the creek we bathed in yesterday so we don't need to have the gruel for lunch."

"I won't." I said back as she started to make her way back.

Once I was happy she was far enough away I looked back at the kobold. "At least that's one pest down. Kinda wish I had my old shotgun for shooting rabbits. Would make this a whole lot easier." I was specifically ignoring the fact I'd just killed a sentient creature. I'm sure that would probably come back to bite me but I did what I had to do. No regrets.