After everyone parted ways, Lucas decided to fight with only Krasbert.
He wanted them both to level up.
While they were fighting to gain experience, the other teams were fighting for survival right now.
***
In the path that Captain Bacher and Ruben took, they were having trouble.
Thanks to Ruben's mana sense, they were always able to tell where and how many kobolds were near them.
But even with that, they quickly started to struggle. Captain Bacher's team members were all civilians so most of them were scared and hesitant in front of the kobolds.
Against the first five kobolds they struggled a lot and suffered some injuries, but with Captain Bacher's strength and commands they survived.
The other two teams were doing a little better since most of them were soldiers and were used to battle.
If it wasn't for the awakened's skills and superior intellect, they would have all died.
Even now with 10 awakened against 5 hyena kobolds it wasn't easy.
After surviving their first fight in these caves it became easier in the next ones.
***
In another path, Lucas was already almost at the end.
After 30 minutes of constant fighting and killing, Lucas leveled up.
He was now level 12 and Krasbert was extremely close to reaching level 10.
Name: Lucas Strom
Level: 12 Exp: 40/20'480
Stats:
Strength: 33
Agility: 33
Stamina: 33
Senses: 31
Intelligence: 26
Attribute points: 0
Avatar points: 8
'I used my six attribute points and put them into my physical stats.'
"Krasbert there should still be two small kobold teams ahead. You will kill them yourself with the help of Grishna."
"Grishna, just shoot them without killing them."
"Yes master!"
10 minutes later Krasbert killed the last kobold and finally leveled up.
'With a total of 10 avatar points I can evolve him and still have 5 left.'
"Can I finally evolve now master?"
"Yes Krasbert, get ready."
Lucas clicked on the evolution tab.
Do you wish to evolve this Avatar to E-Rank?
'Yes.'
Once again a bright light appeared from Krasbert.
Name: Krasbert
Race: Wolf Kobold
Level: 10 Exp: 20/5120
Rank: E
Potential Rank: C
Stats:
Strength: 38
Agility: 43
Stamina: 40
Senses: 45
Intelligence: 20
Skills: Night Vision (D), Sixth Sense (E), Steel Claws (D), Enhanced Strength (E), Pain Tolerance (F)
'No wonder the avatar evolution skill is legendary. This is incredible. To have such stats and skills as an E-rank.'
'Krasbert grew a little and his back became more straight. His fur also went from gray to a grayish blue.'
"Master! This feels incredible!"
"You are truly the best master! Thank you so much."
"I'm mostly doing it for myself Krasbert. Since your strength is also mine."
"I am still grateful."
"Alright then."
"Let's head back to check on the others."
"Yes!"
***
They soon arrived where the 5 paths began.
Lucas was the first to arrive.
After waiting for a while with the guards that were stationed here, the other teams started arriving.
'They all look exhausted and injured, but almost everyone leveled up.'
Lucas also noticed that Captain Bacher reached level 10 and got a class.
Name: Jan Bacher
Class: Warrior
Level: 10
'I find the classes to be very vague and so far kind of useless. There's also the fact that I don't have one.'
'Maybe a class is only given to someone that only has potential in that area.'
'They don't seem to get any benefits though, except for a few that get skills.'
***
They were all reporting what happened to Commander Schmid.
All teams cleared out the paths and killed every kobold in it.
Now they had to figure out what to do next.
Captain Bacher spoke up first.
"Sir, if we attack the rest of the kobolds with our full force, we can defeat them."
Commander Schmid responded.
"Yes maybe, but there is no telling how many casualties we would suffer since they have far better stats than most of the awakened. And don't forget that there could be stronger monsters further inside that could come out any time."
Lucas decided to speak up.
"May I suggest something?"
"Go ahead kid."
"If they haven't already, I'm sure that they'll soon find that their comrades are all dead. I suggest we wait in the tunnels to ambush them when they come look for us."
"That's a good idea. And if they don't come we can just lure them there. The tunnels are relatively tight so we won't have to fight to many at once."
"Yes I agree."
"Me too."
"Same here."
They all agreed and started preparing to implement the attack plan.
***
Lucas took one path for himself again and the others were split between the forces of over a hundred awakend.
The Commander stayed at the small cavern where the entrances were with a couple teams.
Soon everyone was in position and started waiting for the kobolds to arrive.
Lucas was currently almost at the end of the tunnel where the kobolds would come from.
Ghost then appeared next to him.
"Master, they are coming."
"How many?"
"From my count, 20 E-rank hyena kobolds lead by a D-rank wolf kobold are heading this way."
"Alright, that's manageable."
Once the kobold group was in sight, the avatars sprung into action.
Grishna shot an arrow with all her strength and pierced their leader's head, killing him instantly.
Your Avatar has killed a D-Rank Wolf Kobold Level 11.
You have both earned 175exp each.
'So he gave 350exp in total? That's very good and I'm sure the higher level ones will give a lot more.'
The other 20 kobolds were very easily and quickly killed.
'Ghost is very close to reaching level 10.'
'The problem is that I only have 5 avatar points and it's gonna cost 20 to evolve him.'
'Looks like growing is getting slower and harder.'
***
In the other tunnels the other teams were also facing 20 E-rank hyena kobolds and 1 D-rank wolf kobold.
But they were having a lot harder time.
Wolf Kobold
Rank: D
Level: 11
Stats:
Strength: 33
Agility: 31
Stamina: 30
Senses: 36
Intelligence: 11
Skills: Night Vision (E), Enhanced Agility (E), Steel Claws (D)