Chapter 106: Hard Labor

Although his minimap didn't have a marking function to mark a specific location on the map, Matthew had memorized the characteristics of the surrounding area back when he was still at the marked location earlier this morning.

Additionally, the place was located near the edge of the bright part of Matthew's minimap which means that he didn't have anything much to memorize at all. Matthew only needed to go to the edge of the bright(discovered) part of his minimap then search around the place to find the mark that he had made earlier with the first kobold kid.

The 45 minutes-ish journey turned to about only 20 minutes long of swinging and jumping from trees. And moving in a direct straight line also helped to quicken the traveling time compared to walking in a slightly roundabout way on the ground to avoid thick bushes or even the trees themselves.

Matthew then searched the area to find the stick that he had shoved into the ground and it took him another 5 minutes to do that. But now that he has arrived at the marked location, his work has only begun and what's about to do next is the exact definition of 'hard labor'. Which means that it will take a lot of effort and a decent amount of his stamina.

Fortunately, after getting used to moving around in his body by doing things such as dragging beasts bodies, fighting hard battles, and traveling itself and after his third evolution, Matthew's stamina is now good enough that moving his whole body for 20 minutes is negligible and wasn't enough to tire him.

And now, without complaining and just focusing on the fact that winning the bet is not only crucial for him but also for the kobold kid and Mutt, Matthew started digging down the earth that was inside the marked circle.

His claws might be very dangerous to other living beings around him as proven by the fact that his claws could rip apart a person's legs by swiping past them and it could also tear the bear's neck by pinching them hard enough, but when it comes to digging the earth, Matthew's claws were not the right tool for the job.

Well, it might be easy for him to pierce through the earth with its pointy shape, but getting a large amount of dirt is hard by only using his hands behind those claws.

As a saying somewhere says, regret always comes when it's too late,

"I should have stole…borrowed a shovel from the field earlier…"

Matthew muttered while keeping his hands moving in a repeated motion of digging the earth and throwing them out.

When his hands are finally fully covered in dirt and his arm muscles already felt sore from over 30 minutes earlier, a 5-meter deep hole is made inside the marked 3-meter long circle on the ground.

Matthew had already realized that the sky had gone dark from a long time ago, but with his night vision and the slight moonlight that went past the gaps between the leaves, Matthew was still able to do his job properly.

However, this made him realize that he had spent hours digging as he remembered that he had started digging in the late afternoon or early evening and it has gotten dark from a while ago which means that a few hours are not enough to describe how long he had been digging and moving his hand in the same pattern over and over again.

But Matthew had applauded his monkey hands for being able to dig for hours without proper rest and even though it needs considerable effort for Matthew to even lift them up properly, his objective of creating a deep enough hole that would be impossible for the deers or the boars to jump out is finally done.

The boars will no doubt wouldn't be able to jump out with their physique and Matthew would be confident with only making a 3-meter deep hole if he could make sure that the ones that will fall inside the hole is a boar, but with a 50/50 possibility of a deer falling instead, Matthew had to do the extra work by making the hole deeper.

The width of the circle being only about 3 meters is also something that made Matthew sigh in relief as it also meant that the deers won't have enough space to gain enough momentum to jump up and Matthew had guessed that 5 meters deep would be enough,

"If 5 meters is still not enough and whatever animal it still succeeds in getting out of the hole, then I can only take it as the work of the bearded God preventing me from getting the kobold kid to learn magic."

Matthew wanted to just lay down at the hole and get some of the sleep that his body demands, but he knew that his work is not done yet because he is only halfway done.

For those who haven't figured it out yet, Matthew is going to make a pitfall trap. And his hours of work earlier is only making the 'pitfall' part and the 'trap' part is what he is going to make next.

Moving his slightly limp limbs, Matthew climbed out of the hole not so easily. When he arrived at the top of the hole, Matthew looked back at the hole that he had made with enormous effort and felt that his burden had lightened a bit knowing that he had done a lot of work for a supposedly brighter future for the first kobold kid and the kobold village.

Matthew certainly couldn't sweat with his scales, but it didn't stop him from wiping away his forehead with his arms out of habit before he started gathering twigs, leaves, and most importantly, berries to complete the trap.

He arranged the twigs in a way that they held each other strong enough so that it wouldn't crumble into the hole when placed above it, but it also wasn't strong enough to not break when a creature stepped onto it.

Matthew then layered the twigs with leaves to completely cover up the hole making it as if there's only a bunch of leaves on the ground before finally picking a bunch of berries from the berry bush nearby and placing them on top of the leaves, right in the center of the circle.

The trap was almost perfect that the fatigued Matthew had almost forgotten about it and was about to walk over the bunch of leaves to place over the berry. Fortunately, his head that had been running in semi auto-pilot returned working at the last moment and reminded him to place the berry using his conveniently long tongue.

After carefully placing the berry, Matthew's job is now done and all he has to do left is to pray that his trap would work and make sure to get back here with the first kobold kid as late as possible since more time means higher the chance that a deer or a boar will fall into the trap.

Matthew opened up his minimap and saw a fair amount of distance between his current location and the village.

"How I wish teleportation was a thing…"

Matthew then started dragging his body back to the village, and due to his hands that were doing the most work when setting up the trap, his legs are still in considerably good condition and Matthew finally arrived about 45 minutes later even with the direct route that he took and luckily, he didn't meet any beasts and was able to conserve his stamina.

Arriving back at the village ready to drop at his bed, Matthew greeted the kobold patrol that he didn't know the name of, skipped dinner, and went straight to his comfortable straw bed.

—

Earlier at dinner, the first kobold kid had saved Matthew an extra portion from his as thanks for helping him to escape his grandpa that had been pestering him to learn magic, but the first kobold kid couldn't find Matthew's whereabouts even after running around the village, so he gave up and just ate as usual.

And later in the morning, a boar was happily minding his own business when he was traversing the forest as usual with his group and he suddenly found a bunch of fresh-looking berries on the ground as if it was waiting for him to go and eat it right there and then.

The innocent boar walked into Matthew's trap and with his front legs slipping into the hole, the rest of his body soon followed after him.

In the end, the boar still got the berries that he wanted, but in exchange for that, he was in a 5 meter-deep hole that he had no way of escaping. His friends had realized the danger when seeing the hole and decided not to jump into it to save their friend.

They tried for hours but they couldn't think of a way on how to save their unfortunate friend who had fallen into the unknown hole that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and avoided it. Fortunately, they didn't have to be confused for so long as they will soon meet the still-tired Matthew and the overly-excited first kobold kid.

A few days later, in a certain part of the forest where the humans built their camp. A man was kneeling on the ground while facing another man that was sitting on a horse while wearing full-body armor that had a lion-shaped helmet.

"I welcome my liege, the second prince."