Lord of Rot

On the road.

A green dot appeared on the ground, moving wherever Leech looked.

’The situation in Giant’s Foot looks dire.’

On the surface, Prince Hoffman had swept through all of Giant’s Foot by herself, becoming its undisputed sole ruler.

But in reality, Prince Hoffman had no money, no food, and perhaps even no army.

The army wasn’t a huge issue. Given the overwhelming power Prince Hoffman had casually displayed, Leech would believe her even if she claimed she could slay a dragon.

A ducal territory with a population no smaller than that of the East Gorge People, yet it had to import grain. That was a huge problem.

’Their food shortage must be massive. I’m surely not the only supplier.’

Five million pounds of grain might sound like a lot, but that was relative to Porcupine Territory and Iron Valley, which had a combined population of only ten thousand.

But for Giant’s Foot, five million pounds of grain would, at best, be enough for half its population to have a single meal—and a watery gruel at that.

Leech suddenly recalled the captive from Giant’s Foot they had captured at Three-fork River Castle. There was definitely more to that story.

But in the end, he just shook his head. ’Not my damn problem.’

...

After returning to Iron Valley, Leech immediately dispatched men to Burning City for follow-up negotiations.

The several cartloads of treasure he brought back were sent to the vaults of Iron Wall Castle, where they would wait until he found an opportunity to sell them off.

Disregarding the time it would take to sell them, in terms of sheer value, he had made a killing.

「In a hidden courtyard at Iron Wall Castle.」

Leech’s gaze slowly fell to the ground. The green dot instantly expanded into a circle.

The ground trembled slightly as a tombstone rose from the earth.

The blank tombstone had a single groove, which was overgrown with moss.

He opened the crypt and walked inside.

After a walk down a winding path, Leech stopped. He saw the headless corpse of the four-headed snake blocking the entrance.

Its body was still twitching and squirming.

”Such powerful vitality,” Leech marveled.

Even for a creature beyond the Extraordinary Level, its head was gone and its body dead, yet it was still ’alive.’ He didn’t dare to imagine what it would be like for a Legendary being.

’Or maybe for Legendary beings, the very concept of death doesn’t exist?’

’Thinking too much about it would just muddle his mind. He’d find out eventually, once he got his hands on the corpse of a Legendary being.’

’With such potent Life Force, it would surely be perfect for crafting runic equipment!’

But today was not the day to experiment with Runes. Leech directed the two Corpse Ghosts waiting outside, Guy and Rabbit, to bring in the three Transcendent corpses he had acquired previously.

’It’s a shame I couldn’t retrieve the corpse of the Transcendent who got his head blown off. I could have extracted more Extraordinary matter from it.’

CLANG! He casually lifted a coffin lid.

Inside a custom-made coffin, the naked body of a man who had been sliced in half at the waist was soaking in Magic Antiseptic.

The two Corpse Ghosts lifted out the man’s corpse—which looked more feminine than a woman’s—and placed it into another coffin nearby, one inscribed with a Magic Array.

The body had been stitched back together and had remained undisturbed in its coffin, so it looked fine. All that mattered was that the body remained whole during the Corpse Refining process.

Leech filled the stitched-up gap at the waist with gold, placed an Extraordinary precipitate on it, and closed the lid, waiting for the process to finish.

He wasn’t sure whether the Extraordinary precipitate or a Wondrous Item would be more effective. However, since this precipitate came from the four-headed snake, even at only the Extraordinary Level, its effects were bound to be better than most Wondrous Items.

Leech had learned the gist of the three Transcendents’ abilities and origins from ’The Scorpion’ Allen.

The man who had been cut in half, the one more bewitching than any woman, was named Biqi. His ability was snake-related.

His body was lithe and agile, like a human python. It was a common physical enhancement ability, similar to Leech’s own Extraordinary power.

However, his overall attributes were high, and he was said to be a handful.

Leech wouldn’t know. He had cut Biqi in half with a single swing of his sword.

The other two were twin sisters, Ella and Meira, and their abilities were identical.

They had incredible explosive power in their legs and a shared mind.

According to ’The Scorpion’ Allen, the twins’ telepathic bond was seamless. They could influence each other, and while not powerful individually, they were exceptionally effective when fighting together. Two ordinary Transcendents taking them on at once would be guaranteed to lose.

It would take at least three Transcendents to stand a chance.

In Leech’s eyes, the abilities of all three corpses were rather mediocre. Biqi’s snake ability offered decent combat power, and once he became a Corpse Ghost, he would have virtually no weaknesses, save for a shot to the head.

The twins’ explosive leg strength was impressive, granting them decent speed and mobility, but it couldn’t compare to the Extraordinary Corpse Ghost Rabbit.

As for perfect coordination, Leech could use his spiritual power to control his Corpse Ghosts in battle. He could make ten Corpse Ghosts fight with the same seamlessness as the telepathic twins.

’But they’re Extraordinary Corpse Ghosts, after all. Can’t be too picky.’

’Aside from needing a periodic soak in antiseptic, they were obedient and docile, didn’t need to eat, never got tired, and felt no fear. They’d take a blade for you without a second thought and required no pay. Where else could he find such useful minions?’

Of course, ordinary corpses were a far cry from Corpse Ghosts. They were just reanimated puppets that required a constant exertion of spiritual power to control—not even in the same league.

「A night passed.」

The Corpse Ghost emerged from its coffin.

Leech immediately infused his Spiritual Power into the coffin, and the memories of Corpse Ghost Biqi flooded his mind.

”Papa, Mama...”

”SOB SOB... Papa! Mama!”

He was inside Biqi’s memories.

A little boy was wiping his tears, looking off into the distance.

The memory was empty, devoid of any buildings. Biqi’s memory of his parents must have faded; all that remained was the raw emotion of his own crying, how heartbroken he had been.

Every twisted person likely has an unhappy childhood.

An unhappy childhood often leads to an unhappy life, and Biqi was clearly one of the unfortunate ones. He was sold as a slave to a brothel to satisfy the particular tastes of certain nobles.

Later, nobles bought Biqi for themselves, tormenting him in all manner of ways.

This part of the memory was so depraved that Leech, who considered himself thoroughly desensitized, couldn’t stomach it. He had to fast-forward through it, lest he become twisted himself.

A few years later, Biqi’s mind was utterly warped.

Biqi managed to awaken his Extraordinary power, escape his tormentors, and become a Mercenary.

Haunted by his trauma, the escaped Biqi began to take pleasure in torturing men—especially strong men—just as he had been tortured, using it to satisfy some dark need within him.

This continued until the end of last year, when Biqi was hired by someone in Monkey Territory. There, he encountered Leech and took a particular interest in him, hoping to capture and thoroughly torture him for his own gratification.

But he never expected that Leech would slice him in two at the waist with a single stroke.

”Sigh...”

Leech let out a sigh.

’Everyone’s got their own struggles.’

He tried giving the new Corpse Ghost Biqi a command. A Corpse Ghost’s intelligence wasn’t low; it could carry out almost any instruction.

Although Leech didn’t gain the snake-like Extraordinary power, his own muscle control and flexibility had noticeably improved.

’All in all, not bad.’

’I should convert the twins right away, too.’

Leech took out two portions of Extraordinary matter. If they weren’t used, their power would dissipate naturally and be wasted. It was better to use them up quickly.

Only the beyond-Extraordinary precipitate from the four-headed snake remained, and he had yet to find a use for it.

’If only I had a method for forging Wondrous Items, that would make things much easier.’

’Such methods were found, not sought. I’ll start by spending some gold to ask around. If that fails, I’ll just find a corpse and stuff this beyond-Extraordinary precipitate into it.’

’Maybe I could actually create a beyond-Extraordinary Corpse Ghost.’

Just as he emerged from the crypt, something unexpected happened. ’The Orc’ Pig had come asking for an urgent audience, claiming he had a matter of great importance to discuss.