Since the first more complex life forms emerged, the world followed a cyclical logic of resource utilization, with producers, consumers, and decomposers. Something everyone learns from preschool onwards, and even after the world was altered, this notion didn't change.
In the "park" atop the hill where Nando, Lumi, and Impeto fought, almost nothing remained standing as a witness. Only a few pools of blood, some items dropped by the dead kobolds, and several magic stones, including Drake's.
If Nando had known that Drake's magic stone had been carelessly left on the hill, he would certainly have had an aneurysm.
The smell of blood, the almost imperceptible pulse of the mana stones, and the sound of the remaining kobolds in total disarray.
All these factors ended up attracting other creatures: giant rats, slimes, some birds altered like the rats, small groups of goblins that were lucky(?) enough to stumble upon the place, and of course, some groups of shadow wolves.
These creatures wouldn't usually even get close to each other without immediately attacking, but with a whole "feast" in front of them and even easier prey with only a few kobolds still alive, they instinctively decided that fighting in that place wouldn't be necessary... at least for now.
What followed was a rather unusual sight: slimes decomposing the bloodstains on the ground, and the occasional magic stone (sometimes even some items scattered on the ground). Wolves licked up some puddles of blood along with some magic stones, birds pecked at the ground, especially in the places where Drake had stepped for some reason, and also went after magic stones.
The most unusual were the goblins; several of them were searching for magic stones on the ground, but not eating them immediately. Some weren't even picking up stones, the items: a spear, a dagger, one of Nando's arrows, etc.
The strangeness wasn't limited to the goblins picking things up from the ground; a small group entered one of the holes in the ground along with some giant rats.
The goblins didn't seem to like going in there; whether it was simply because they were entering the tunnel underground, or because they would have to "share" whatever they found with the rats, it wasn't clear.
This scene continued for a while, maybe an hour or two. In a short time, most of the marks on the ground that showed the battle that had taken place had been almost completely removed, except for the rubble and some places where the ground had gained new holes.
Strangely, none of the creatures even came close to Drake's enormous yellowish magic stone. The wolves, rats, and even the birds not approaching it made some sense. None of them could eat that thing quickly, like the small magic stones on the ground, and they couldn't take it with them either.
Trying to eat that in an open place?. Terrible idea, and that was something they knew instinctively.
The really strange part was that not even the greedy goblins or the literally mindless slimes approached, even though some groups of goblins had previously appeared trying to grab the blood-red magic stone that the kobolds were using as bait.
Too big to carry? Maybe.
But that didn't explain why the slimes didn't come near either. They were literally brainless creatures, following only the most basic instincts without even having a notion of what the consequences would be, just like jellyfish in the sea. And yet none of them approached.
But there always has to be some idiot in any group, and who was the unlucky one in this case?.
That's right, the green greedy goblins.
While one group went into the tunnels dug by the ants (later eliminated by the kobolds), another stayed "picking up the crumbs," another was more... basic. They went to the ruins of the UPA that Commander Kobolts used as a home, or at least, as a storage.
After an hour of walking, crawling, and squeezing through the rubble and some tunnels and chambers excavated by the kobolds, the goblins emerged carrying some unusual items. Some carried shirts and pants, others watches and necklaces, and many carried pieces of human bodies.
Only pieces; several of the bodies had already been almost entirely eaten or were beginning to rot. The goblins took only the parts that would still be "edible" for them.
One of them, a goblin smaller than the others, carried some necklaces that weren't shiny in one hand and a badly chipped stone dagger in the other.
He hadn't managed to get any pieces of meat or magic stone. Being one of the runt of the group, he had to find food and develop on his own in any way he could. While the other goblins played with their spoils or ate meat, this smaller goblin noticed the large, yellowish magic stone.
The boss had warned that no one should touch that stone, no matter how tempting it might be.
Goblins are almost naturally greedy, ferocious, brutal, and cowardly; however, generally when a stronger member forbids something, most obey... initially and/or for a time. But there are always those who think the leader forbids it to keep it for himself (which is often true), just like this little goblin.
'Don't take too much, just a sliver, a very small sliver, the boss won't even notice.'
The dwarf went towards the yellowish magic stone, careful not to be seen by the others, or by the other creatures. Fortunately, after "eating" until they were satiated, they were now taking a nap, something unbelievable to anyone who saw this scene.
He moved as quietly as he could, still holding the necklaces in one hand, after all, he didn't have one of the leather pouches that the collectors or the stronger members had.
When he got close to the yellowish magic stone, much larger than him, perhaps even larger than the boss, he froze. Both from its size, and from the energy he could feel emanating from it.
'Just a sliver, or two, it won't make a difference.'
He had clearly gone from a small splinter to a larger one, or rather, two. As soon as he picked up his dagger to strike one of the sharpest corners of the stone, one of the nearby wolves sensed the goblin's movement.
Rising quickly, he saw what the green creature was about to do.
"Waaaaaaauuuuuuuu!!!!!"
With a single yelp, he woke all the other creatures and drew the attention of the goblins to whom the little creature belonged. They also saw the raised dagger already beginning to descend; they either stood up or simply tried to get away from the place running on all fours or went into the rubble to protect themselves.
As soon as the dagger hit the stone.
[Unauthorized individual detected.]
[Unauthorized individual identified as hostile]
[Initiating elimination.]
If he had the mental capacity to understand letters or what elimination meant, he would have tried to flee or hide, but even if he had, it wouldn't have changed the outcome.
The slightly rhythmic glow that the stone produced suddenly increased in intensity and frequency; 5 seconds later the yellow stone was almost white. It was only then that the dwarf goblin realized he had made a huge mistake.
That was his last thought; the flash released a wave of concentrated mana in a perfect sphere with a 10-meter radius from the stone. All creatures in that area were immediately obliterated, leaving not even their magic stones behind.
Some managed to escape the affected area by a hair's breadth, but none dared to approach the place now, even having released as much energy as a truckload of TNT (or even stronger than that), not a single stone was moved by the "explosion" except by the feet of the creatures that ran
[Hostile individual eliminated.]
[Energy loss: 20%]
[Area of control reduced: 10%]
[Time to claim possession: reduced by 20%]
Monsters in general are not very intelligent beings, being slightly better than common animals thanks to mana, but they have the ability to differentiate the various creatures they come into contact with, and they also feel resentment. After losing some of their companions, they certainly wanted to take it out on someone.
Even though it was a strong explosion, not all the monsters were caught. The group of goblins that had entered the tunnels did not suffer from it, but they still felt it.
Assuming that a new predator, perhaps the one that had eliminated Drake, had arrived, they took what they could from the tunnels and began to leave.
Most of what they took wasn't much different from what the goblins who had gone to the UPA ruins had found, with the unexpected discovery that most of the meat inside the tunnels was, for the most part, from magical creatures. Aside from that, their second biggest loot was, unexpectedly, eggs.
Myrmid ant eggs, the last treasure left by the queen of that colony, which Drake hadn't destroyed because he believed the ants could be a constant food source or mounts for his kobolds.
For the goblins, it was simply food they would take back to their tribe, and perhaps they could return later to get more, if the rats hadn't finished off all the remaining ones. However, they would never have that chance; upon exiting one of the tunnels, they were surrounded by the few survivors of the explosion caused by the goblin runt.
It's unnecessary to explain what happened next, right?
At the end of that day, those who feasted most at the expense of Nando and his family were the rats, the slimes, and a few lucky monsters who hadn't been overwhelmed by the goblins' idiocy.