Kobold Assault Force

With the immediate trouble resolved, the Skeleton Soldiers had more or less knocked out all the Kobolds.

Under Caelan's command, the Skeleton Soldiers formed a circle, surrounding the remaining Kobolds.

The Kobolds were all covered in wounds, with severed limbs everywhere.

The Skeleton Soldiers were not without losses either; three Skeleton Soldiers were shattered and lay on the ground, while the others also sustained some damage.

Without further ado, now that the Kobolds were in poor condition, it seemed like a good time to collect them into the Chaos Encyclopedia.

He raised the Chaos Encyclopedia, opened it towards the Kobolds, and injected magic power to capture them.

Captured targets would resist, and if their resistance failed, they would be absorbed into the Handbook.

After being thoroughly beaten, these Kobolds not only lacked the strength to resist but also had no will to do so, and were absorbed almost effortlessly.

Kobold

Race: Beastmen

Level: 2

Strength: 36

Agility: 77

Stamina: 43

Endurance: 25

Magic Power: 0

Talent: Tracking

Aside from Agility, their attributes were even lower than those of Skeleton Soldiers.

He was about to collect the other Kobolds when, looking at the Kobolds before him, Caelan suddenly had an idea.

This time, Caelan's target... was all the Kobolds.

Immediately after, runes formed by magic power enveloped all the Kobolds present, turning them into specks of light that entered the Handbook.

Kobold Assault Squad

Race: Beastmen

Level: 8

Strength: 38

Agility: 89

Stamina: 40

Endurance: 23

Magic Power: 0

Talent: Tracking, Pack Tactics

Tracking: Kobolds possess a keen sense of smell and can track subtle scents in the air.

Pack Tactics: Kobolds operate in groups, cooperating with each other.

The image in the Handbook showed a group of vicious-looking Kobolds, holding various weapons and facing the camera, and it was clear that their injuries had not yet healed.

"It actually worked to collect them into one entry?"

Caelan was a little surprised.

Because every time a monster was absorbed into or released from the Handbook, it consumed magic power, and releasing monsters one by one was also very time-consuming. So he wanted to try if he could put a group of similar monsters into one entry, and he didn't expect it to succeed.

Moreover, it seemed that for this type of unit-based monster, the displayed level was the total level, but the attributes seemed to be only average attributes... or was it possible that talents were also part of the level evaluation?

"...I'll see what the book says later."

Caelan only thought about it for a moment before deciding not to dwell on these questions.

What he should do now was eliminate hidden dangers.

He released the single Kobold and ordered it to lead the Skeleton Soldiers to track the other Kobolds in the castle.

Monsters absorbed into the Handbook could retain their original consciousness but would become fiercely loyal to their master. This ability to twist minds truly deserved to be called a demonic secret treasure.

With an insider, finding the other Kobolds was effortless.

Those Kobolds were already stragglers, and under Caelan's commanded encirclement, they had no power to resist.

For these scattered Kobolds, he didn't waste time and magic power capturing them one by one; he just killed them all.

By the time everything was finished, Caelan's stamina and magic power were both at their limits, and he was relying solely on willpower to stay awake.

After recalling the Kobolds who were still gnawing on the corpses of their former companions into the Handbook and ordering the Skeleton Soldiers to stand by, he returned to his room and collapsed into bed.

Until he fell asleep, he was still thinking about how to utilize the Chaos Encyclopedia.

The night passed uneventfully.

...

The next day, it was drizzling.

Faint light filtered through the window, and Caelan opened his eyes.

He had slept so soundly that for a moment he wondered if everything that happened yesterday was a dream.

He fumbled around by his head, and only when he touched a rough metal object did he suddenly become alert, sitting up abruptly.

"It wasn't a dream... it's real."

He opened the Handbook, looked at the pages of monsters recorded within, and let out a long breath.

After being in this world for so long, he finally had a glimmer of hope.

Before this, he had been living in a daze, after all, in a place like this, with his strength, any aggressive monster could easily take his life.

Although he was still alive, he was merely existing; his life was like duckweed, and a slightly larger wave would probably send him to the bottom of the water.

Now, he finally had the strength to gain a foothold in this world.

As for rebuilding the Demon King's glory, that was not something he should be thinking about now.

Just winning against a group of Kobolds and then thinking about challenging the Seven Demon Generals? That's not ambition, that's overconfidence.

As long as they didn't come looking for him, everything would be fine.

Standing by the window and looking at the pitch-black land, Caelan decided to do something he had been contemplating for a while.

—Deactivate the grand magic array that enveloped the entire Demon King's City.

This grand magic array wasn't anything particularly powerful, otherwise, a group of Kobolds wouldn't have been able to invade so easily... it simply covered the Dark Aura around the Demon King's City and the dark clouds overhead.

In short, it was a weather array.

This array caused Caelan to see no sun during the day and no moon at night, and it rained constantly, causing the entire castle to be covered in mold.

Moreover, it also extracted magic power from the earth, causing nothing to grow around the castle.

The wood Caelan used to grow mushrooms was all transported by the previous Demon King himself, who went outside the array's range to cut trees.

He seemed to have considered turning off this magic array, but since it was a symbol of the Demon King's City, if it were turned off, the Demon King's City would look no different from an ordinary castle, so he gave up on the idea.

Caelan, in any case, found it hard to understand the previous Demon Kings' obsession with "face."

He planned to grow vegetables around the castle to improve his quality of life, which meant he had to turn off this magic array.

He hadn't done it before because the magic array was located in a secret room beneath the castle. The last time he went, he heard snoring like thunder coming from inside, and he immediately turned around and left.

You can't joke with your own life, can you?

It was different now; if things got really bad, he could have the monsters buy him time to escape.

Although it was still somewhat dangerous, Caelan felt the risk was worth taking.