Lord of Rot

A voice suddenly echoed from the depths of his heart.

”Wear it, and you might become the King.”

”Wear it, and you will possess the world’s strongest army.”

”Wear it, and you will obtain endless wealth.”

”Wear it, and the world will tremble at your feet.”

Leech, who had been about to probe it with his Spiritual Power, immediately abandoned the idea.

’It can even bewitch people’s minds!’

He inwardly sighed. That was a close call.

If the crown had told him how to return to Earth, Leech might have actually put it on. Life on the Lu Leiyi Continent was good, but it was a bit boring. There was too little entertainment and too much mental friction. He would rather go back to Earth, play video games every day, and be a carefree societal deadbeat.

But as for using this thing to conquer the world, he would pass.

It was just too unreliable. Rule the world just by wearing a crown? If the crown got stolen, would the world be gone too?

He didn’t dare hand the crown over to anyone else. Who knew what would happen if someone else put it on?

Leech stepped closer and looked at the female corpse. She had been hit by a fatal shot to the heart, but her body was still relatively intact.

’Isn’t she that female Mercenary from Waterfall Land who applied to be a sailor?’

He suddenly recalled last year, when he had gone to a town in Waterfall Land to recruit sailors. This female Mercenary had claimed her husband was a Captain who had left behind a treasure, and she had hoped Leech would fund her search for it.

To think he had turned her down, and she had ended up going to the Bills.

Leech had no idea about the dirty dealings involved—whether Dreden Bill had acted alone or if that ”old monkey” was also in on it. Not that he needed to understand their motives.

’What was her name again? Anna? Jenny? Connie? Ah, I’ve forgotten.’

Leech marveled at his own good luck. After all the twists and turns, the treasure had ended up in his hands anyway.

Besides the crown, there was also a portion of treasure.

That was probably the Captain’s treasure the female Mercenary had mentioned. He estimated it was worth several dozen Jinri—a decent haul.

Leech ordered the Soldiers to start moving the money to the ship. He would never complain about having too much money. The only shame was that there wasn’t a single Jinri coin among it.

”Trevor!” Leech looked toward the four-armed Mercenary. The man was using a knife to pick a musket ball out of his flesh as if he were squeezing a blackhead.

While marveling at the man’s physical toughness, Leech also wondered if his own body could be that resilient. He, too, was a flesh-and-blood enhancement type of Transcendent.

”Yes, Sir!” Trevor stood up.

Leech pointed upward. ”Get those cocoons down.”

He had only just noticed the hundreds of giant cocoons on the ceiling.

’Cocoons are good stuff. They can be used to make silk clothes.’

’It seems the Lu Leiyi Continent doesn’t even have the concept of silk.’

’I was thinking about growing cotton for textiles before. Why not use these cocoons for spinning instead?’

Climatically speaking, Porcupine Territory wasn’t suitable for sericulture. But then again, Earth didn’t have moths the size of calves, so he could try raising them through trial and error.

’First, I’ll take them back and try to spin them.’

The four-armed Mercenary was fast. He climbed up, cut the cocoons loose with his knife, and then Soldiers carried them out in pairs.

In addition, Leech had all the glowing conches from the cave collected as well.

These biological little lamps could be given to the sailors from Waterfall Land to raise. It would be best to also research whether they were edible.

After all, the conches weren’t small; each one was about the size of two fists.

If they weren’t edible, it didn’t matter. Their ability to glow was, in itself, quite useful.