Hog was in a good mood.
When it left Flesh Render’s mage tower, its triumphant attitude was impossible to conceal. Nash, who followed beside it, looked at its chieftain with admiration.
This small Gnoll had thought they were done for earlier.
But unexpectedly, its chieftain not only easily resolved the danger but also secured aid from the fearso Lord Flesh Render and even received a promise to beco a Hunting Priest.
Ah, so this is what the chieftain always talks about – the “power of cunning wisdom”? Now it’s visibly much more useful than the heavy flail in hand!
“You two went to talk with that madman Flesh Render and actually didn’t die?”
The Gnawbone Clan vanguard captain guarding outside the mage tower looked at Hog and Nash in astonishnt as they left the tower completely unhard. This warrior, as strong and powerful as Kenport, even rubbed his eyes vigorously.
It thought it had seen wrong.
Lord Flesh Render had recently been anxious and angry about mission issues, already executing several unruly warriors for various trivial matters. In this captain’s view, these two crippled lowborns who dared to disturb Flesh Render would definitely not et a good end.
The reason it stayed here was to watch the interesting scene of these two foolhardy idiots being torn apart by the mages and fed to those grotesque otherworldly creatures, however, they miraculously survived!
This is truly unbelievable today!
Are all the crippled lowborn Gnolls from Transia this lucky?
“Lord Flesh Render is an excellent plague mage, one of the few wise ones among Gnolls. You should show respect to our mighty ntor of the Plague Clan!
You mindless brute who speaks without thinking!”
Hog put its hands on its hips and berated:
“Apologize! Apologize for calling Lord Flesh Render a ‘madman’!”
“What an upstart dog!”
Seeing Hog acting so arrogant with borrowed power, that vanguard captain beca furious and drew its flail to attack it. When had this mighty vanguard warrior from the Dark Mountains ever suffered such humiliation?
But in the next instant, the cold gazes from several Gnoll mages at the bottom of the mage tower made the Gnawbone warrior freeze in place.
What’s going on here?
These bastard mages are actually supporting this crippled lowborn’s provocation? This mongrel from Transia actually really got Flesh Render’s backing?
Damn!
Sothing that so many Gnoll warriors from humble origins in the Dark Mountains couldn’t achieve was actually accomplished by this waste who isn’t even as tall as its waist?
How did it manage to do that?
“Hmph! I’ve already been given a mission by Lord Flesh Render to protect our Plague Town outside the swamp, sothing that you mindless brutes who only know how to fight can’t do!
The Lord even personally promised to help complete the Hunting Priest transformation!
You brainless fool, show so respect now!”
Hog felt the support from the mage tower, which made its courage suddenly surge.
Now acting like an opportunistic lackey who had gained power, under Nash’s shocked gaze and Murphy’s subtle laughter in its mind, it raised its head and shouted at that warrior:
“Are you going to apologize or not?
I happen to be going to the Construction Tower to select skeleton troops to bring back to Smuggler’s Woods as guards, and I think I could use a strong zombie Gnoll warrior.
You’d be perfect, brother.”
“F**k!”
That humiliated Gnoll warrior was now filled with hatred.
But it still had so brains after all, it knew that the Plague Clan had beco increasingly insane after being banished to the Foul Swamp, and provoking them here would definitely not end well.
So after a few seconds of standoff, this fierce warrior lowered its head and said in a mosquito-like voice:
“I apologize, I shouldn’t have spoken that way about the mighty Lord Flesh Render.”
“Huh? I couldn’t hear that!”
Hog rolled its eyes and said:
“Speak up! Haven’t you eaten? Such a big body and you can’t even speak clearly? How stupid are you?”
“You son of a… Just wait till I get the chance!”
The Gnawbone vanguard was practically grinding its iron teeth to pieces, but seeing more and more gazes from the mage tower focusing on this direction, it knew it couldn’t drag this out any longer.
These Gnawbone vanguards all entered the Foul Swamp following Kenport, and while Kenport was still alive they could coexist and even cooperate peacefully with the Plague Clan, but now that Kenport was dead, their value in the eyes of the Plague Clan was rapidly diminishing.
At tis like this they had to lay low and not draw attention, otherwise they could easily be disposed of.
The Plague Clan was the most insane faction among the Gnoll tribes in the Dark Mountains, no one knew where these mages who rose to power 30 years ago learned their abilities to control undead creatures.
But everyone knew that the Plague Clan mages stubbornly believed that zombies and skeletons were more useful and obedient than warriors. Their small clan had no warriors or hunters at all, being composed entirely of plague mages, necromancers and loyal zombies.
Because of this, the Plague Clan had a very bad reputation in the Dark Mountains. Although this small clan possessed first-rate spirit power in Gnoll civilization, several major clans were unwilling to cooperate with them. Kenport was already the best puppet the Plague Clan could find.
“I was wrong! I shouldn’t have slandered the mighty Lord Flesh Render!”
The Gnoll vanguard warrior was pushed to the edge, gritting its teeth and shouting in self-abandonnt, then rode away on its howling dire wolf mount under Hog’s satisfied laughter, making a vicious throat-slitting gesture at Hog from afar.
This made Nash sowhat worried.
It quietly asked Hog:
“Chieftain, what if these guys ambush us on the way back—”
“They wouldn’t dare!”
Hog sneered and said in a low voice:
“We’ll be returning with 10 command scepters and over 500 elite skeleton troops, they’d have to be crazy to ambush us on the road.
If I were them, I would wait until we’ve let our guard down after returning to Smuggler’s Woods and launch a surprise attack with elites on so night—
But Nash, you know very well what dangerous ‘beasts’ roam in the woods.”
“Hehe.”
Nash understood.
It also laughed cunningly and said to Hog:
“Yes yes, those man-eating ‘beasts’ will bury them for us, no, their fate will be worse, becoming pitiful gladiators…”
“Mm, exactly!”
Hog nodded, calculated the ti, then turned to Nash and said:
“You go ‘take a walk’ around the small town, I’ll go to the Construction Tower to receive the troops Lord Flesh Render gave us, we’ll et at the town gate in two hours.
Since we rarely co to the swamp, we should look more at the ‘cultural landscape’ here, no need to rush.”
“I understand, Chieftain.”
Nash got the hint.
This was Hog telling it to scout inside the town, best to morize the layout of various facilities in this town.
The two separated, with Hog hurrying to the Construction Tower to et Lord Flesh Render’s apprentice La Claw.
Just from the na one could tell this Gnoll mage’s characteristics, its left leg seed to have been bitten off by so beast, and a crude chanical foot was attached to the stump, making it walk with a pronounced limp.
Murphy keenly noticed through Hog’s eyes that this one’s chanical foot also bore Ryuk Flywheel’s signature craftsman’s mark.
It seems the rumors about the wild Halfling warlord from Hunger Mountain having good relations and doing business with certain Gnoll clans were true.
However this was good news for Murphy who was currently observing from afar through another’s eyes.
If that Ryuk Flywheel didn’t object to trading with Gnolls, it also ant that when a poor, weak and helpless but wealthy vampire lord in desperate need of help appeared before him, he would likely not refuse Murphy’s trade requests either.
Hog didn’t know Murphy’s thoughts.
It was currently still focused on the mage La Claw before it.
This was undoubtedly a very strange fellow, but considering the Plague Clan was full of such odd characters, this one’s peculiarities hardly seed worth ntioning.
But compared to the gloomy Flesh Render, La Claw who was assigned to create new skeleton troops and corpse mages in the Construction Tower seed more “cheerful”, this fellow welcod Hog into its “domain” with a very strange smile.
However the ground floor of the Construction Tower had a row of blood-stained iron hooks right at the front, with various corpses found in the swamp hanging from them including several Gnoll warriors that had just been hung up, the bodies still dripping blood like a cold storage full of hanging pork.
This scene made even a Gnoll like Hog’s hair stand on end.
It turned its head away to avoid looking at those hanging things, then discovered many reanimated corpse mages silently busy processing these bodies, repairing damage before throwing them into different Netherworld ritual arrays according to the type of conversion, filling them with chilling Netherworld energy for transformation.
“This is the Plague Clan’s ‘corpse factory’! We create different ‘warriors’ according to the clan’s needs. I love this swamp, here we don’t have to consider those fools’ opinions and can freely combine the constructive wisdom from death.
This is a completely free place, a paradise for necromancers!
I don’t understand why others in the clan hate it so much here—”
La Claw wiped the drool dripping from its wolf mouth, then spread its claws and shouted madly:
“Anyway, welco to my territory, my skinny compatriot from Transia. That you could escape death from Lord Flesh Render already proves your uniqueness, and I’ve already received the orders.
Look, I’ve prepared the command scepters you need.”
“What’s wrong with this guy?”
Hog imdiately felt that La Claw’s ‘joy’ was sowhat incomprehensible, its thought process also diverged far from normal thinking.
Through its eyes, Murphy noticed this strange “corpse constructor”, and Tris maintaining the detection spell beside him also sensed Murphy’s curiosity and confusion, so she softly explained:
“Generally speaking, such individuals have likely suffered severe ntal trauma, causing their minds to enter chaos. This one can no longer control its deranged ntal state.
Notice the suture marks on its scalp!
This proves it was previously used as a test subject for dangerous experints, but usually such subjects would be disposed of, yet it can still be entrusted with managing the Construction Tower.
This indicates either Flesh Render has other plans for it, or proves this one has such talent in corpse construction that Flesh Render cannot give it up.”
“So in other words, it has value… hmm, a second BOSS with background and history, not bad not bad, after so ‘polishing’ by you and , my warriors will surely co to like such a ‘tragic character’.”
Murphy narrowed his eyes, then instructed Hog:
“Build so rapport with this one, might be useful later. Don’t be afraid, it’s already insane, it won’t harm you.”
“It’s exactly because it’s insane that I’m afraid.”
The puppet-like Hog complained bitterly in its heart.
But it still followed Murphy’s instructions and walked with La Claw towards the room storing the command scepters while trying to get friendly with conversation.
However La Claw was truly insane, speaking incoherently and occasionally howling, making it impossible for Hog to understand any of its thoughts.
Until it saw the 10 command scepters La Claw had prepared for it, Hog imdiately bristled.
“This is not what I wanted!”
It grabbed one of the crudely made scepters and snarled at the innocent-looking La Claw:
“I want those exquisite powerful scepters, like this one at my waist, the powerful thing that can control an entire skeleton army! Not this inferior product that struggles to control even 10 skeletons!
This is not what Lord Flesh Render promised !
I’m going to complain about you!”
“But this is all I have left, if you don’t want them then there’s none.”
La Claw showed no fear at all.
In fact with its terrible ntal state, it probably couldn’t even understand where Hog’s anger ca from. It scratched its obviously sutured head with its claws and said:
“You want scepters, I give you scepters, why are you still angry? Are all you Transia Gnolls so emotionally volatile?
Could it be that body mutations cause you to be unable to properly control your emotions?
Ah, I really want to cut open your body to find the answer… Want to be my test subject? I can guarantee you’ll be able to watch the whole process while conscious, share the joy of finding answers with .
It won’t hurt much!
I swear, it just feels like a saw cutting through your skull, actually only a mont of numbness when the pain nerves are burned away… I’m starting to miss the pain, hehe hehe.”
“This is not what I want! Forget it, I can’t explain anything to you.”
Hog felt utterly discouraged.
It found it completely impossible to communicate with the insane mage before it, so it could only draw the command scepter at its waist and show it to La Claw saying:
“This kind! I want this kind!”
“Oh, high-grade command scepters, we have those.”
La Claw suddenly understood, but then showed a hesitant expression and said:
“But those are supplies prepared for the later attack on the Ningkinanka nest, Master Flesh Render doesn’t allow us to use them casually, those are powerful items only the master can make.
I’m just in charge of managent, I don’t have the authority to give them to you.
However—”
“However what?”
Hearing this subtle transition, Hog quickly asked, and La Claw said sowhat hesitantly:
“I still have my own unfinished research, I need so special materials to create the most powerful plague warrior according to my imagination!
But the master never approves, which is regrettable.
If you could find the materials I need—”
“I’ll help you, now give the scepters!”
Hog promised La Claw like coaxing a child.
The latter seed convinced, muttering as it limped out of the room, returning a few minutes later with an animal skin bag which it handed to Hog.
Hog took it and looked inside, imdiately delighted to find 10 high-grade command scepters within. It took one out to examine, absolutely premium quality.
It was extrely satisfied.
Even the drooling ntally handicapped Gnoll before its eyes beca “adorable”.
Hog first put away the command scepters, then asked in a drawn-out voice:
“So, what materials do you need? Let’s hear it.”
“Are you stupid or what, we’re close to Transia, so I’m asking you what’s Transia’s specialty?”
La Claw made a strange laugh, made a scratching motion, moved its claws stiffly and distortedly, and shouted:
“I want vampire hearts, at least three!
That way I can put those midnight force-filled miracles into my warriors, this may not turn warriors into vampire Gnolls, but at least it can give them rapid regeneration power.
Yes!
My research has reached the final step.
I want vampire hearts!
Bring them to ! Hog, get them for !”
“F**k!”
Hog and Murphy cursed the madman simultaneously.
But now that the items were in hand, Hog didn’t care anymore. It casually placated with a few words and was about to leave, when at this mont, La Claw’s reminder ca belatedly.
“Ah, I forgot to tell you, as the guardian of the high-grade scepters, to prevent them from being stolen I applied my own concocted poison on them.
Once touched, you’ll be poisoned, and without the antidote within 7 days you’ll beco a reliable and capable Gnoll zombie—”
“?”
Hog turned back in shock.
Behind it, La Claw still had that brain-atrophied brainstem-missing look, its two eyes not even focusing on the sa point. While wiping the uncontrollable drool with its dirty sleeve, it said:
“You touched them just now, right? Ha, poor Hog, you’re already poisoned, 7 days rember, 7 days oh, three vampire hearts.
Otherwise I can only try using you this waste as a substitute ha, you probably won’t survive it, no! You definitely won’t survive it.”
Now, Hog finally understood why Flesh Render kept La Claw confined in the sunless Construction Tower.
This one was absolutely insane…
In every sense of the word!
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