Thankfully, the next few monster groups consisted of two or three kobolds, and Duke and the elf could easily take them down together. It seemed the elf was being more cooperative, realising if she didn't help, she was never getting out of here.
From these groups he got another three kobold corpses in decent condition, making his total six. The kobolds in this dungeon were level 6 on the first level, so still somewhat low, but Aug didn't care. As he was lower level, he was bound to still make decent gains experience-wise from processing them.
As they walked through the rock tunnel to the next group, the elf dropped back to talk to Aug.
"Hey big guy," she whispered, tilting her head upwards to look at him.
"The name's Aug," he replied, sending her a smile. He was not fond of being called big, even though he was.
"I know your name. Anyway, what is your class?"
"Why don't you use-," he began, but decided it was not worth arguing. "Nevermind. My class is nothing combat-related."
"I figured that. How have you been putting those corpses in your inventory?"
Thankfully for Aug, she was whispering so no one else could hear.
Aug's heart sank. He had been careful; how did she see him? Since she was a ranger, maybe she had exceptional sight, or a sight ability. He sighed, realising if this was going to be his life, that he had to be even more careful in the future.
"How did you know?" he asked, trying to get clues so he knew what to do better next time.
"I have exceptional sight and hearing," said the elf, in an even lower tone that even Aug barely heard her.
Aug didn't respond because he wanted to know if she wanted anything or was just making an observation. After a long pause, she continued talking.
"If you give me all the money we earn from this dungeon, I won't tell anyone."
So her angle was blackmail. No wonder she was in the loser group. She was conniving.
"Yeah, not happening. Tell who you like," replied Aug, speeding up his walk to get in front of her.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Aug felt an overwhelming pain in the back of his leg. As he looked back, she had shot him in the calf with an arrow.
"I'm so sorry! I saw something move and missed it!" she said, in an unconvincing tone.
Aug fell to his knees. He reached around and pulled the arrow out, the sharp tip layered in blood. It seemed like she had only partly notched her arrow, as it had punctured, but not too deep.
The elf had been collecting her arrows after each shot. It seemed she only had five or six, so in an act of defiance, he snapped the arrow in half and threw it on the ground.
"What the fuck! I will kill you for that!" she yelled, anger coursing through her veins. She notched an arrow, but this time the full draw of the bow. Then she moved around to his front and stood at minimum range, her arrow aimed at his head.
"Oops. I was pulling it out, and it snapped," replied Aug, playing the same childish games she had, whilst shaking hands with danger.
Duke stopped and stepped in front of the arrow with his shield.
"Now, children," he said in a condescending tone, as if he hadn't just been a child himself not long ago.
The elf lowered her bow, picked up her broken arrow, and stomped off. She then pulled some tape from her inventory and attempted to fix her arrow.
While this was happening, Crazy Eyes was running in circles pretending she was a plane, making propeller noises with her mouth. She was no longer walking with a limp, so she must have healed herself.
"Hey, miss," said Aug, looking at Crazy Eyes.
"Wadda ya want," she replied, keeping her arms up in the air, as if not to break character.
"Can you heal me?"
Crazy Eyes lowered her hands and laughed hysterically. She voluntarily fell to the ground and began rolling around in hysterics.
"I tricked you all. I can't heal!" she laughed.
Aug rolled his eyes. This was, somehow, not unexpected. He pulled a first-aid kit from his inventory and, with a bandage and gauze, compressed the wound so it would stop bleeding.
He then got up and, with a limp, began walking down the tunnel towards the next group, determined to finish the map and get out of here.
A few minutes later, he stopped just before the next pack. Duke had been following him closely and was ready. The elf had also caught up, but she was still sulking over her arrow and not talking to either of them now.
She had repaired her arrow, but as Aug looked at it, it was not straight, so if she fired it, who knows where it would go.
Crazy eyes had run off and was probably back at the previous cavern trying to get the shiny crystals again.
They fought one more group, to which the elf shot each corpse as many times as she could, making them less useful for Aug's ability.
She was a remarkable shot, but then Aug noticed it was her power. Once off the bow, the fletching of the arrow would glow a faint blue if the arrow was off course, directing it true. This made her shooting his leg look even more intentional than it already did.
Once the looting was done, to which Aug didn't bother collecting any corpses, they rounded a corner into an enormous cavern.
The cavern housed a village, protected by a shoulder-height spiked wooden wall, with a chest-high gate in it.
As Aug looked over the wall, he could see numerous shoulder-height huts lining the cave walls. In the centre were several communal huts and at the back a larger hut, probably belonging to the chief. There were kobolds walking around the village, so this must be their home.
As Aug looked over the wall, Duke grew impatient. "So what do you see? Tell me now!"
Because the wall reached Aug's shoulders, and he was about two feet taller than Duke and the elf, they could not see beyond it. Aug reported back what he saw. He then approached the gate to see if it would open.
As he approached, six kobolds emerged from a small door with spears. They aggressively pointed them at him, trying to look threatening despite the size difference. To Aug, kobolds reached about halfway up his thigh, so understandably the kobold guards were quite intimidated by him. Interestingly, they weren't attacking him, just defending their position.
Aug reached in and snatched a spear from one of the kobold guards, aiming it back at them. The now spear-less kobold pulled a small dagger from its waist and brandished that. Aug clearly frightened the kobold, but the creature held its ground.
"Take me to your leader," said Aug, sensing that they might be friendly. Surprisingly, the kobolds stepped aside, and the gate opened.