When Lucas entered the far right path inside the cave, he summoned Ghost.
"Now that you are here, guide us through the best paths to take out as many kobolds as possible without danger."
"Understood master."
They started moving with Ghost in front, Krasbert at his side and Grishna at the back.
After only a couple minutes of walking, they encountered a group of 5 hyena kobolds.
"Leave one for me and kill the rest."
Ghost and Grishna replied simultaneously.
"Yes master."
Ghost charged with full speed, killing two at once and Grishna shot two consecutive arrows at two kobolds.
4 out of 5 hyena kobolds died instantly without a struggle.
The last one tried to run away, but Ghost kicked it towards Lucas.
Lucas leaped forward and swung down his steel sword, slicing the kobold from his right shoulder to his left side.
'That felt good.'
"Nice one Ghost. Next time leave two for me."
"Understood."
After storing the corpses in his inventory, they kept moving.
Another couple of minutes later they found another small group, this time just four.
Grishna killed two and Ghost appeared behind them to prevent them from escaping.
Lucas attacked one with a ferocious swing, decapitating him instantly.
He immediately raised his sword to stab the second kobold that was charging at him.
Lucas aimed at his chest, but hit his shoulder instead.
The kobold was bleeding and writhing in pain, but Lucas quickly cut his head off.
'Although killing them isn't hard, my swordsmanship could use some improvement.'
'What's interesting is that even though they are humanoid, they seem quite stupid and also don't use weapons.'
"Krasbert, why don't you use a weapon?"
Krasbert replied in his deep voice.
"Hm, I didn't really think about it. It just doesn't fit my fighting style. My kind also uses our body as a weapon, especially our claws and fangs."
"Right. That makes sense."
They moved on and kept encountering small groups of hyena kobolds.
After 30 minutes they arrived at a large cavern.
'So this is the hyena kobolds nest that Ghost talked about.'
'I see about a hundred here. The rest should be scattered among different paths in small groups. Like the ones we encountered.'
"This is too much for us, let's head back to where the other teams were."
His avatars all responded simultaneously.
"Yes master."
On the way back Lucas was thinking about how close he was to reaching level 12 and Krasbert level 10.
'I already have enough avatar points to evolve Krasbert, that's good.'
'Once I level up I might distribute my attribute points, I have 4 right now and soon I will have 6.'
***
After 15 minutes of walking, they were back where they split up from the other teams.
Before they arrived, Lucas had unsummoned Ghost.
Lucas then saw Captain Bacher with a few teams.
Captain Bacher noticed him and called his name.
"Hey Lucas! I was worried. You were gone for a while."
"Sorry sir. This cave is much larger than we thought. I ran into a few small teams of E-rank hyena kobolds and at the end of different paths I found their nest."
"Tell me more."
"Okay. There were around a hundred of them all in a very large cavern. I suspect that around another hundred are scattered around different paths in small teams like the ones I encountered."
"Shit. That's really troublesome!"
"That's not all sir."
"There's more?"
"Yes. I saw that at the end of the large cavern were a couple of big entrances. I suspect that there are stronger monsters further in."
"For fucks sake!"
"This is too much. We need to report to the commander."
"Yes sir."
Lucas and Captain Bacher left for the forest at the entrance. The teams stayed behind to stand guard.
***
After reporting everything, Commander Schmid and a few officers were caught up.
"I see. That really is a problem."
"Lucas, how strong are these kobolds?"
"They are E-rank monsters that are levels 5-10 with stats in the 20s."
"I believe it will take 2-3 awakend to kill one of them. Except for a few of the stronger awakend."
"Hm, this isn't good. There are not only more of them but they are twice as strong too."
"What do you sugest we do?"
Lucas pretended to think a little before answering.
"If it was an all out battle we'd be annihilated, but since there are so many different paths with just small teams of them. We should reduce their numbers and think of something else later."
"But we should move quickly before they notice that a few teams are already dead."
"I volunteer to take a path by myself."
"Alright, looks like that's our best option. I will send 10 people per path, they will be our best awakend. And you will take the fourth."
"Got it."
Commander Schmid immediately started moving.
He called for the strongest awakened and made appropriate teams.
In the teams were some familiar faces to Lucas.
Sarah Minho, Ruben Tavher, Michael, Gürt, Rafael, Chima and Arman Volkov.
Everyone greeted Lucas, though with different attitudes.
This was also the first time that Lucas and Arman met face to face.
"Hey, I'm Arman." He said with an arrogant grin.
He tried to squeeze Lucas his hand to assert dominance, but it backfired.
Lucas squeezed back and it made Arman flinch.
"Hello Arman, I am Lucas."
They let go of each other's hands and Arman turned back with a frown on his face.
'I knew it, that guy can't be trusted. He's a lot worse than Gürt.'
They soon all departed for the cave.
When they were in front of the 5 paths, they split up. Captain Bacher was also in a team.
Captain Bacher lead a team with Ruben and 8 others in his team.
Michael Kahl was a team leader with Sarah Minho and Rafael Fernandes in his team.
And lastly, Kristoph Gürt lead a team with Chima and Arman in it.
'Those are strong teams, but I feel bad for Chima. He's a nice guy but has to be stuck with the cocky Gürt as leader and the arrogant and fishy Arman as a team member.'
Lucas also realized that Captain Bacher's original team were probably the strongest in Zurich. Though there were other strong awakend in their current teams, mostly soldiers.
***