Chapter Twenty-One: Kobold Miners

Waiting was a long and tedious affair—an hour could be spent doing so many things! Jia Zhengjin sent Tina back inside to sleep, while he stealthily made his way to inspect the traps. Since the beast pen had two slots, aside from Little Ash, there was room to tame another wild creature.

Luck was on his side; two more kobolds had been caught in the traps. It seemed the kobold tribe nearby was quite populous, otherwise they wouldn’t be the most frequently captured creatures. This time, Jia Zhengjin didn’t kill the two trapped kobolds outright. Instead, he used a poisoned iron spear to paralyze them, then tied them up securely with ropes, slinging one over each shoulder to carry them home.

The round trip took about half an hour, and Little Ash was still in the process of being tamed. Jia Zhengjin threw one kobold into the beast pen, and a new option appeared above the feed trough: “Heal.” This seemed to allow for the treatment of injured beasts. He immediately selected “Heal,” which consumed a piece of raw meat. The new kobold, after eating the meat, shakily stood up. Without giving it a chance to react, Jia Zhengjin promptly chose “Tame” at the feed trough. The kobold entered the taming process, beginning its own hour-long countdown.

As expected, no more than two could be housed—the third kobold simply wouldn’t fit in the beast pen! Although the space was more than sufficient—practically a soccer field for two kobolds—there was some limitation. Unbothered, Jia Zhengjin tied the third, larger and fiercer kobold outside the pen, still paralyzed, and left it there for the time being. After all, this kobold, unlike Little Ash, was bigger and more aggressive, as demonstrated during their earlier struggle. He didn’t want to risk Tina’s safety by locking it inside with her, since she had no combat ability. An adult kobold that preys on the weak could be dangerous for her.

A message popped up: “Kobold tamed successfully. Please choose the pet’s development path!”

Little Ash had finally been tamed. A virtual menu appeared before Jia Zhengjin, offering the choices of Mount, Gathering Pet, and Pack Animal—though the Pack Animal option was greyed out, indicating that such a small kobold was unsuitable for carrying loads.

It struck Jia Zhengjin as odd—kobolds couldn’t be used as pack animals, yet they could be mounts? Could they really carry a human more than twice their size? Still, he didn’t need a mount right now, so he decisively selected Gathering Pet.

Another message: “Please provide the tamed beast with a gathering tool!”

Jia Zhengjin immediately took an iron pick from his virtual backpack and placed it in the equipment slot.

A new message appeared: “Kobold successfully tamed as Kobold Miner. You may now operate the pet.”

“Kobold Miner? Ha!” Jia Zhengjin laughed. Selecting Little Ash at the feed trough, he saw “Kobold Miner” appear above its head, along with a pet skill in the description: “Mining—an excellent kobold miner, able to extract 5% more stone than others!”

“Five percent more stone. If only it were more ore!” Jia Zhengjin thought with a hint of disappointment. He examined the controls, which included “Summon Pet,” “Start Work,” and “Imprison Pet.”

“Interesting!” He clicked “Start Work.”

A prompt appeared: “Please select the resource for the Kobold Miner to extract.”

“Iron ore, of course!” Jia Zhengjin chose iron ore from the pop-up menu.

With a howl, Little Ash grabbed the iron pick, dashed out of the beast pen, and scampered off at full speed.

Worried it might escape, Jia Zhengjin hurried after it, but soon saw that Little Ash had begun industriously mining the nearest iron ore resource. He watched for some time, and, reassured that Little Ash wouldn’t run off, relaxed. Apparently, gathering pets had their own virtual backpacks; whenever Little Ash smashed rocks, the resources vanished instantly, just as if Jia Zhengjin himself were collecting them.

Another message came: “Kobold tamed successfully. Please choose the pet’s development path!”

After waiting a while longer, the second kobold was tamed and also trained as a Kobold Miner. This one, named Little Black, was given a stone pick and joined Little Ash in mining. However, unlike Little Ash, Little Black had no extra pet skills and seemed rather mediocre in comparison.

Finally, life was looking up! After supervising the mining kobolds for more than an hour, Jia Zhengjin noticed that when they were tired, they returned to the beast cage to sleep; when hungry, they’d eat raw meat he placed in the trough; when thirsty, they’d drink from the nearby river. Once their backpacks were full, they’d pile their loot in front of the beast pen.

The efficiency of two kobold miners far surpassed Jia Zhengjin working alone! If he could upgrade the beast pen several more times and tame more kobolds to gather resources, he could focus solely on hunting and leveling up! Yes—after building the workbench and making basic necessities, he’d set them to gather resources full time and work toward upgrading the beast pen.

“With the kobold miners handling the mining, I can do other things!” Jia Zhengjin mused. “Tina spends every day alone at home—she seems so bored. Other than sleeping, she just stares into space, not daring to leave the house. Always cooped up in that little room, it’s a bit pitiful. But without enough defenses, it’s too dangerous for her to wander outside. How can I help her pass the time and let her move about freely… Wait!”

A sudden inspiration struck—why not build her a bigger, new house? If he made it tall enough, she could go upstairs to enjoy the view when bored, and watch him at work. He could add a bath for her to wash up when she had nothing else to do, and a simple slide for her to play on.

Speaking of entertainment, in his previous life Jia Zhengjin had built all sorts of amusement facilities in games using construction materials: slides, mazes, swings, monkey bars, even entire amusement parks. Of course, those required suitable materials, many of which were currently out of reach.

Still, he could make her some simple toys or time-killing tools for now. As he unlocked more technology, he could craft things like spinning wheels or juicers, so she’d have things to do when he was away.

If he was going to build a bigger house, he couldn’t just throw together another matchbox shack. His mind was filled with memories of architecture from his previous life—he’d built countless houses in games, from simple shacks to villas to palaces. Whatever he could imagine, he could build.