Chapter 28 – That Squirrel Was Very Aggressive

“Gurua, garuguaonn…zzz.” (Chief, I’m entrusting the world to you… zzz)

No, that’s too heavy!

What kind of dream is he having anyway!?

I shook my head from side to side to awaken myself as I listened to Buster’s incomprehensible sleep-talk in the morning,

“Wafa…” (So sleepy…)

If I remembered the events correctly, we safely escorted and left Muriel at Viel village in the morning, captured and looted a band of bandits, and by the time we finished with the other little things we had to attend to, it was already night time, and then, we grilled the wild boar meat that Dagger hunted and ate it. And, we stayed up till the wee hours of the morning…

The weather was not particularly bad, so we all laid down at the central square that Ax had cleared of trees and developed, and fell asleep gazing at the stars.

“zzz… Guua, guuaruuaaonn, garuokuauuh!!” (zzz…Squirrels, there are so many squirrels nooo!!)

Ax, you too, huh. I wonder what’s the deal with those squirrels.

I really cannot understand what kind of weird dreams these two are having.

“Garuu waon waoon.” (I wonder if I’ve said something weird too.)

“Pfft.”

I glanced at my tall, skinny childhood friend as he let out a telling sigh. My eyes then landed on my sister, who was sleeping while being curled up in her fox tail nearby.

“U~, kuon, waaonh.” (*yawn* Big brother, good morning.)

“Nn…” (Nn…)

Lancer, who was sleeping beside my sister, also woke up and stretched as the sunlight filtered through the trees.

After I finally woke up and stretched out, I spent the morning hours peacefully as I waited for Buster and Ax to stir, and finally decided to once again inspect the loot we had laid out in the square before they roused.

The loot was mostly Short Swords and Long Swords, but there were some other weapons too like a Bow, a Slingshot, a Great Sword, a Hand Spear, and finally, the Head Bandit’s War Hammer was in here too. Additionally, we had found a whetstone too among the provisions that we acquired from the bandits.

As for the armor, most of what we got was light armor, but there was also Brigandine armor, which is basically small metal pieces embedded in light armor. However, when I tested it out, it turned out that it was not compatible with us Kobolds as it would affect our agility.

In the end, it seemed like we would have to continue relying on light leather armor.

We had acquired about a dozen Leather Armors in the loot this time, this was not including the pieces that were rendered useless by Buster and Ax’s slash attacks and Blazer and Lancer’s thrust attacks.

“Gurua, garuguruuaoh.” (Chief, let me have this.)

Buster lifted a double-handed Great Sword from the pieces of equipment laid out. The one he has been using up until now had already been quite worn down and chipped in places. Well, if one always wielded their weapon with all their might, then the damage due to wear and tear would naturally increase.

“Gua, waonn.” (Sure, go ahead.)

“Garuaonn.” (Thanks.)

As the massive, black-armed Kobold tested out the heaviness and compatibility of his brand new Great Sword, I picked up a projectile weapon from the arms that were on the ground.

“Waoan, garugoan?” (Blazer, do you think you can use this?)

“Wau, kuruun uooon…” (Ah, that human’s weapon, huh…)

I picked up a pebble lying by my feet and loaded it into the Slingshot, and aimed it at a tree standing at the edge of the central square. After I released the Slingshot, the pebble flew and got stuck in the tree and a few wood splinters were blown off from the impact.

“Garu… guooagau.” (This is… perfect for surprise attacks.)

I threw the Slingshot at an interested Blazer who deftly caught it with his hands. After that, I noticed that his Long Sword was also quite damaged, so I replaced it with one from the loot.

“Gurua, guruuu?” (Boss, what about mine?)

“Guruoan, uooon.” (There are no Battle Axes this time, but would you like a sword instead?)

“Nn~, guruoaoon.” (Hmm, my Battle Axe seems fine for now.)

“Guruu kuugaoon.” (I would like to have a Short Sword too.)

In other words, he did not replace his weapon since we did not have anything similar to what Ax currently used. My sister liked the dagger made from the jet-black unicorn’s horn that we got from “Balberra Forest,” so she only replaced her auxiliary dagger with a new one.

“Guu, guruu, garuouoonh.” (Well, I guess everyone prefers the weapons that they’ve gotten used to.)

Lancer seemed to be comparing the new Spear with the one she had been using, but in the end, it seems she decided on the conventional spear that had more reach and also smartly secured one of the daggers for herself.

Furthermore, the armors we acquired this time allowed me to equip all 5 Kobolds, except for Ax, with Leather Armor. As to why Ax did not have any armor, it was because none of the bandits who owned the light armors matched his more than 190 centimeters tall, macho frame.

While he was rummaging through the defensive armaments, Blazer stated that he would stop using a shield because it hindered his movements, and equipped steel gauntlets on his arms that could allow him to perform certain patterns of attacks.

By the way, we realized early on that the cloaks were unnecessary, so we tore and processed them into cloths and rags.

And so, everyone’s equipment after reorganizing was as follows:

Name: Buster (Male)

Weapon: Bandit’s Great Sword (replaced)

Armament: Leather Armor

Name: Dagger (Female: Sister)

Weapon: Thrusting Dagger (Main), Bandit’s Dagger (Auxillary: replaced)

Armament: Leather Armor

Name: Blazer (Male)

Weapon: Bandit’s Long Sword (Main: replaced), Bandit’s Slingshot (Auxillary: replaced)

Armament: Leather Armor, Steel Gauntlet(replaced)

Name: Ax

Weapon: Battle Axe

Armament: Shield

Name: Lancer

Weapon: Spear (Main), Bandit’s Dagger (Auxillary: replaced)

Armament: Leather Armor

Name: Archer (Male: me)

Weapon: Bow and Arrow (Main), Bandit’s Short War Hammer (Auxillary: replaced)

Armament: Leather Armor

“Wafu? Guruua wafiruooufu.” (Huh? I’m the only one who hasn’t changed weapons!)

While Ax was voicing his discontent for some reason, I looked at the Short War Hammer I had secretly secured for myself. The weapon had an iron core, and it featured a thick and sharp spike on one side and a hammerhead on the other side. With this, I could probably vary my fighting style by quite a bit!

After equipping ourselves, we proceeded with distributing the remaining weapons to the three to six-year-old Kobolds. Now more than a dozen of our brethren were finally equipped with leather armor and iron weapons aside from us.