The moon showered the farm with a warm

  blue glow, seemingly in an effort to help Sebastian in his task to look

  out for small monsters trying to raid the farm. Although the light was

  rather dim, at his current level of cultivation it felt like a

  searchlight illuminating the entire farm. Cultivation had enhanced every

  aspect of his being, from his strength to his senses and even his mind.

  As a result, Sebastian’s mind no longer played tricks on

  him during the second night. His brain had adjusted to the sights and

  sounds of the farm over night—or rather over day. He now knew which

  sounds belonged and which didn’t. With that subconscious knowledge came a

  sense of calm which washed away the paranoia of the night before.

  He couldn’t help but marvel at the wondrous effects

  cultivation had had on him while he patrolled. Not only had his body

  become stronger than humanly possible, his mind was sharpened. Most

  importantly, his mind was increasingly able to process his issues and

  trauma. The rage he had felt back during those first days in the canyon

  no longer overwhelmed him. It was still there, though, in the back of

  his mind, a certainty more than anything. Something to be wielded to

  further his purpose rather something that gnawed at him.

  Sebastian shook his head and took a deep breath as he pulled his focus back to the job at hand.

  I’m not on a leisurely late night

  stroll here. I need to keep my attention up. No more wandering thoughts!

  These kobolds might be low leveled but I have no idea what they really

  look like, or what they can do.

  He continued his patrol until the sun rose once again, after another uneventful night.

  Declan and his wife were kind enough to provide him some

  basic meals along with the lodging. Two days and nights of no monsters,

  plenty of good food, time to study his manual, and to cultivate. It felt

  like a dream. Sebastian felt a part of him hoping this could continue,

  that maybe this could be where he settled down. Why go through the

  trouble of finding some other town farther away? It’s not like anyone

  even knew that he was alive so nobody would be searching for him, after

  all.

  The third night came around, and he went on his nightly patrol yet again.

  By this point, with his current senses and mental acuity,

  he knew the farm like the back of his hand. He had seen just about

  every bit of it, he had heard every sound, and he optimized the paths he

  walked as he patrolled. Which was also why he felt that something was

  off tonight. He couldn’t put his finger on what, but something was

  different.

  Then it hit him.

  There weren’t enough sounds.

  While the nights here were usually quiet, there was

  always something. Some bug crawling around or some critters fighting,

  but tonight there was barely anything.

  Until there was something.

  A ruffling in the grass and the pitter-patter of... something running toward the farm. Sebastian took off like a rocket.

  It didn’t take long to find the culprit.

  A kobold running toward the chicken coop.

  The monster was smaller than he expected, slightly

  smaller than the goblins even. It looked almost like a large rat running

  on two legs with a knife in its right hand, murder in its eyes and a

  tongue hanging out of its mouth, flopping as it ran. It stopped the

  moment it saw Sebastian sprinting toward it.

  He dashed the final stretch and swung his sword downwards with everything he had.

  It dodged, by the skin of its teeth.

  The little monster stared at Sebastian, standing in front

  of it with his sword embedded into the ground. No more than a few

  moments later, Sebastian ripped the sword out of the dirt and swung

  again. Once more the kobold dodged his attack by jumping to the side

  right in the nick of time.

  It seemed that the kobold didn’t consider Sebastian as much of a threat, given how casually it evaded his efforts to kill it.

  The giggle as it moved was the worst part.

  The situation bothered Sebastian to no end, especially

  given the vast difference in levels. The kobold not only dodged his

  every attack, it even pounced on him in between swings and managed to

  get a few cuts in with its little knife. Nothing that actually did any

  damage given Sebastian’s physical cultivation but more than enough to

  thoroughly piss him off.

  Sebastian dashed at the kobold as he swung, but each time he hit nothing but air.

  He couldn’t help but shout at the little beast.

  “Come here you rat bastard! Goddamnit, stop jumping around and just die!”

  Naturally the kobold had no intention of letting

  Sebastian kill it, and so it kept dodging. Worst of all, the giggle

  seemed to have evolved into a full, wet laugh, mocking Sebastian for his

  every failed swing. After a few minutes of fruitless struggle, the

  kobold decided to give up on the night’s raid and scurried off,

  completely unharmed and giggling as it ran away.

  The night before this, Sebastian had felt so marvelous.

  He had felt that his cultivation had strengthened his mind enough that

  he was no longer overwhelmed by powerful emotions and could focus

  wholeheartedly on his cultivation and progress.

  Now he stood alone in the dark, seething with a fury the likes of which he had only felt once before.

  This was in no way comparable with being betrayed and

  left to die, this was more like being bothered by a mosquito that you

  can’t catch, after all, but the past month had awakened something in

  him. Something that never existed in his home world, or rather,

  something that his home world could never bring out of him.

  When the night was over, he found Declan who was doing his morning chores as usual.

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  “Mornin’, looks like you had a rough night,” Declan said when he saw Sebastian.

  “A kobold made a run at the chickens. I stopped it and

  scared it off but—the slippery little shit just danced around me and ran

  off!”

  Declan gave a hearty chuckle. “You did mention you didn’t

  have much experience with kobolds, I guess I could have warned you.

  Kobolds are notorious for being… slippery little shits. Protecting the

  chickens and scaring ‘em off is good enough for me. Keep doing that and

  our farm is safe, after all. With a little luck they’ll give up

  completely and find some other poor bastard’s farm to raid instead of

  ours.”

  “I suppose,” Sebastian said dejectedly before he balled

  up his fist and shook his head. “I really want to catch and kill them

  all, though.”

  Declan laughed and gave him a nod. “Best of luck, my friend! I think you’ll need it if you hope to clear ‘em all out.”

  Sebastian decided that he needed to learn a little bit

  more about kobolds if he wanted any chance at actually catching them.

  Apparently they had a reputation, that meant there was information to

  find. Weaknesses or known strategies for hunting kobolds. Something to

  give him more of an edge.

  Later that day, he walked back to the town. Just as with

  the farm, he was rather familiar with the town by now, even though he

  had only walked around parts of it twice. He didn’t know exactly where

  the Hunter Association’s branch HQ was but he had at least an idea of

  where it might be.

  It didn’t take long to find.

  He soon stood in front of a large building with a grand

  sign hanging over its arched entrance with the words, {Hunter Association}, written on it in golden text. The buildings in Blackoak

  were all of top quality, both in terms of construction and architecture,

  but this branch HQ was a step above the rest.

  There was a wraparound balcony made of fine wood on the

  second floor which led to a small connected bridge over to the building

  across the street. Above the balcony was a beautiful decorative window

  with what Sebastian assumed was the Hunter Association logo, a boar

  with an axe sticking out of it.

  Sebastian walked inside and was met by a bright lobby

  with a reception area to the left and staircases to the right, which led

  to a second level wrapping around the lobby. The second floor had

  several doors with numbers above them. The lobby was decorated with a

  chandelier made out of the horns and bones of various monsters.

  His first stop was the reception desk.

  A thin young man sat behind the counter, bunching up some papers which he put aside when Sebastian walked up.

  “Welcome to the Blackoak Hunter Association, how can I help you?” the young receptionist said.

  “Hi there. I’m looking for some information about the monsters that’s been bothering the farm I’m working at, kobolds.”

  “I see. Unfortunately, access to our library is reserved

  to members. Non-members can be granted access by invitation only. I

  would recommend trying the Brutish Boar across the street. That’s the

  tavern affiliated with the association. There are always plenty of

  hunters to be found in there, perhaps one of them can help answer your

  questions or provide you with an invitation to access our library.”

  Sebastian’s next stop was the Brutish

  Boar, a tavern slightly more lavish than the Ashen Stallion where he had

  stayed earlier but otherwise similar. The main difference—besides the

  fact that this place was a pure tavern without rooms for rent—was the

  number of customers. The Ashen Stallion was mostly empty during the day

  whereas the Brutish Boar had plenty of people eating, drinking, and

  laughing. Perhaps some hunters had been out hunting all night and only

  just returned to celebrate a good result.

  In fiction, the bartender was usually the person to go to

  for information so that what Sebastian did. He approached the tall man

  standing behind the bar, stacking the shelves behind him with bottles.

  “Hi there, I’m looking for some information about kobolds.”

  “I see, well—“, the bartender began answering but was interrupted by a man sitting by the bar.

  “Yous got a kobold problem dere, bud?” The man sitting by

  the bar, elbows leaning on the counter, looked more like a homeless

  lumberjack than a hunter. His long horseshoe mustache jiggled as he

  spoke. For whatever reason, he wore a jacket lined with some sort of fur

  around the collar, even though it was warm enough to go around in a

  t-shirt—and they were indoors.

  “Uhm— Yeah. I’m working for a farm outside of town and

  I’m trying to deal with some kobolds for them. I’d appreciate any

  information or tips you could give,” Sebastian said, taken aback at the

  man’s interjection yet grateful for any help he might find.

  “Oh, yous’re in for a tough time, aye! Dere are few hunts

  I hate more dan kobolds, don’t ya know. Your best bet is to just keep

  ‘em away ‘til dey give up on de place entirely, ya hear? Might take a

  few months but it’s worth it, dat’s for sure.”

  Sebastian struggled a little to keep up with what the hunter was

  saying, and the accent with which he said it—made worse by the lisp, but he gave the

  man his full attention. “Really? Is there no way to actually kill them, I

  mean they’re barely level 10?”

  “Hah! Sure, yous can kill ‘em, but dey’re fast enough dat

  even hunters triple their level struggle to so much as a get a clean

  hit on ‘em, ya hear.”

  The man spun on his barstool to face Sebastian directly,

  and he put on an act as though he were some sort of school room teacher

  as he continued his explanation.

  “Listen up, bud, typically dere are 4 ways of dealing

  with kobolds, ya see,” he said as he held up a finger to show his

  counting.

  “1. Yous use bait, aye. Now dere are plen’y of

  con-artists out dere peddling trash with the claim dat it’ll bait

  anyting, including kobolds, mm-hmm. Don’t listen to ‘em dere, bud. Dere

  is only one sure-fire way of attracting dem kobolds and dat’s with the

  pheromones of a female kobold, don’t ya know.

  “The only issue is, female kobolds are extremely rare.

  Dey stay hidden their entire lives and just produce litter after litter,

  ya hear. Dat means dat their pheromones is even more rare, and rare

  means expensive, dat’s for sure. Even when it does show up on the market

  dey’re usually reserved for the extermination of large scale

  infestations by the city guards, ya hear.”

  Next, he held up two fingers.

  “2. Yous hire an experienced party of hunters, aye.

  Trouble is we hunters mainly move for two tings: experience and money,

  don’t ya know. Kobolds barely give any experience which means money is

  your only option dere, bud. Except, everyone hates dealing with kobolds

  so we’ll squeeze as much money out of yous as we possibly can, dat’s for

  sure.”

  A third finger propped up.

  “3. Yous get a large group together and get proactive

  dere, bud. Clear out dem woods, grid by grid, ya hear. Push ‘em out of

  the territory entirely, mm-hmm. Dat’s easier said than done though, even

  if dey’re weak as far as monsters go and generally not very aggressive,

  dey’re still monsters, ya hear. Dey won’t hesitate to pounce when

  dey’re threatened, dat’s for sure. Dat means yous need to gather people

  around level 15, at—the—very—least,

  ya hear. Kobolds aren’t the only monsters living in dose woods after

  all, dat’s for sure. Dis is the preferred method of the city guards, but not

  really something your average farm can handle, ya know.

  He held up his fourth, and final finger.

  “4. The final—and realistically the only—option, ya hear.

  Persistence, persistence, persistence, bud. Keep watch and fight ‘em

  off every time they show up and hope dat yous can outlast ‘em, ya

  hear.”

  Each option sounded worse than the last as far as

  Sebastian was concerned, especially since he still intended to leave

  Blackoak before long. “Can’t you trap them, somehow? Since they raid the

  farm every other night or so, I shouldn’t even need any bait.”

  The hunter shook his head. “Yous might catch one or two

  dat way but dey’re too clever to keep falling for the same traps, dat’s

  for sure. Worst of all, if yous catch or kill one kobold, yous won’t

  scare the rest of ‘em off, ya hear. All yous’ll accomplish is to piss

  the rest of ‘em off something fierce and dey’ll just come for yous

  harder than ever, dat’s for sure.”

  “I’m only planning on staying at the farm for a couple of

  weeks, I don’t really have time for options 1 through 4 so a fifth

  option would be nice.”

  “Hah, yous and me both dere, bud. I’m sorry to say, yous’re out of luck dere, dat’s for sure.”

  Sebastian reluctantly accepted the veteran’s advice and returned to the farm without any real plan.

  If there’s no simple solution to find then I’m just gonna have to figure it out myself.