Lord of Rot

The Cape Caverns. The castle.

The Giant Lizard poked its head out of the ”coffin.”

Its earth-yellow scales were laced with strands of red, and its head was the size of a small carriage.

”ROAR!”

Its roaring, open maw could easily fit a whole person.

Griffin Grass had a tremendous effect on the body. After the magical transformation, the old, sixteen or seventeen-meter-long Giant Lizard had actually grown a full size larger, its loose, sagging hide becoming taut.

Its once-flabby claws were now solid. Looking up from its claws planted on the ground, one could see the tight lines of muscle on its short legs.

Before becoming a Corpse Ghost, the Giant Lizard had just been an aged beast that happened to look massive. Its body was long past the vitality of its descendants, but the Extraordinary Magic Potion had transformed it, returning its body to peak condition.

Leech was long prepared. His consciousness instantly invaded the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard’s body.

The Giant Lizard’s memories spanned a vast amount of time.

It began with hatching from its shell. It was hungry, so it ate its siblings.

It grew strong and quickly reached adulthood. When the season was right, it would find a random lizard to fulfill its life’s great purpose. Autumn passed, spring came, and so it went, year after year.

Leech quickly browsed through the lizard’s memories. It was likely because his Spiritual Power was growing stronger that he was no longer passively receiving them.

Of course, this also meant he could see more and more of its memories from before death.

About forty or fifty years ago, a famine broke out. People set their sights on the Giant Lizard’s family, hunting them. The Giant Lizard fled in a panic.

It didn’t know where it had run to, but life went on as usual.

Ten years, twenty years, thirty years.

The lifespan of a Giant Lizard was long, allowing it to live for over eighty years, but it was finally nearing the end of its life.

That is, until it met a black-haired woman in the forest. A wolf tried to ambush her, but she easily grabbed it by the neck and lifted it up. Her slender arms hoisted the wolf, which looked heavier than she was.

She extended a finger and lightly traced it across the wolf’s chest, slicing open a gash.

Inside was a beating heart.

The woman pierced the heart with her fingernail, drawing out the energy within.

”Human hearts are still more delicious,” she said.

This was the most profound part of the Giant Lizard’s memory, and Leech learned of it as well.

After the woman left, the Giant Lizard happily went over to gnaw on the wolf’s corpse, eating its fill before the scent of blood could attract larger beasts.

After that, the woman came often, always muttering, ”That foolish King Kaven.”

”If I used his head as a crucible, I’m afraid I could only brew a fool’s magic potion.”

For the sake of food, the Giant Lizard began to consciously follow the woman, and each time it was able to scavenge the corpses of some stupid beast.

It noticed the woman picking a special kind of grass in the woods. The Giant Lizard tasted the grass. It was a carnivore, but for some reason... perhaps out of curiosity about the woman, or perhaps because it was on the verge of death, the Giant Lizard ate that grass.

There were no obvious changes to its body.

The woman never came back, but what did arrive was a great fire that swept through the forest.

The Giant Lizard fled, crossing mountains and ridges, perhaps even crossing an ocean. It had no direction, no goal. That part of its memory was a muddled haze. As Leech continued to watch the fragmented memories, he discovered the Giant Lizard had already reached Pig Head Mountain, and its body had developed beyond that of an ordinary lizard.

’Have a few months passed, a year, or several centuries?’

The Giant Lizard hadn’t grown for decades; it had already reached its species’ limit. Judging the passage of time by its growth was highly unreliable, especially since it had eaten that strange grass before.

Leech himself had experienced rapid physical changes after using a Magic Potion, shooting up in height in an instant. He knew that such rapid changes in size were not a reliable reference.

The Giant Lizard’s final memory was frozen on its battle with two white-haired Hunters.

Unfortunately, Leech didn’t manage to learn any abilities this time. Before its death, the Giant Lizard was just a wild beast. Its hunting experience wasn’t suitable for humans; the methods were too primitive.

Leech tried to communicate with the Giant Lizard using his Spiritual Power and was surprised to find its intelligence seemed to be on the same level as the Red-haired Earthlings.

Controlling the lizard’s body to crawl felt extremely unnatural, so Leech could only guide the Giant Lizard to run some tests.

It could easily smash a house, its strength greater than even the Extraordinary Corpse Ghost Aina.

A wave of demolition swept through the Cape Caverns. Luckily, it was only a brief experiment, or the Giant Lizard might have really torn down all the buildings.

Its running speed was also very fast. If not for the twisting motion required to run while crawling, it would definitely be an excellent mount, capable of keeping up with an ordinary draft horse.

After all the tests, Leech handed the job of training the Corpse Demon Giant Lizard over to Aina. Aina was very happy; she had another of her kind.

After the tests, he had a rough assessment of the Giant Lizard’s combat capabilities. ’If it really came to a fight, the Red-haired Earthlings would definitely be no match for the Giant Lizard. Even Aina might not be its opponent.’

Griffin Grass had a significant strengthening effect on the body. Using it on a huge creature was clearly more effective than using it on a small one.

The massive Giant Lizard was a war-grade behemoth. In a head-on clash, even Leech might not be its match, purely due to the suppression from its strength and size.

The Corpse Demon Giant Lizard also had weaknesses. It was too big. A few flasks of fire oil could burn away half its life.

Aside from that, Leech also memorized what the grass the Giant Lizard ate looked like. If he had the chance, he would definitely get his hands on it.

’It either makes the body grow larger or increases lifespan.’

’It must be another rare Magic Potion.’ However, its effects couldn’t compare to Griffin Grass; it couldn’t turn a creature Extraordinary.

In truth, even Griffin Grass couldn’t turn a creature Extraordinary.

Leech had only succeeded because he had absorbed the formulation ratios from his predecessors.

’As for the Corpse Ghosts... it’s hard to say if the Red-haired Earthlings and the Giant Lizard count as Extraordinary. They’re just stronger than they were in life, but they’re clearly not like me and Aina, who possess distinct Extraordinary powers.’

’Three stalks left.’

Leech thought of the Black Market where he’d found a bargain and bought Aina. ’If only I had a chance to go again. If I could buy another Transcendent... and even if I can’t get a Transcendent, a dying Cat-eared Lady would be fine too.’

’Be rational!’

Leech shook his head. ’Then again, a Snake Woman, the kind with a forked tongue... that would also be great!’

”SQUEAK—!”

He opened his eyes. In the doorway, a large gray rat was staring right at him.

”Squeak squeak!”

The large gray rat looked at Leech, its gaze seeming to say, ’Kid, I’ve come to your house for a snack.’

Leech snatched the quill pen from the table.

He held the pen between his fingers and threw it forcefully.

SWISH!

The light quill pen transformed into a dart, striking the large gray rat square in the head and piercing through it. The pen even dragged the rat’s corpse along after it passed through, nailing it to the wall.

With his master-level throwing skill and his status as a muscle-enhancement type Transcendent, even a quill pen possessed terrifyingly lethal power in Leech’s hands.

He picked up the bell on the table and gently shook it.

Soon, there was a light knock on the door, and it was pushed open. ”My lord!”

The manservant who entered saw the rat’s corpse nailed to the wall and his mouth fell open in a daze.

”The rats in the castle are getting more numerous,” Leech said. ”Find a rat-catcher.”

”Yes, sir!”