319. Chapter 317 – 316 Lost Treasure of the King of Bitten Bones

Chapter 317: 316. The Lost Treasure of the Bone Biting King

Murphy’s appearance in the Smuggler’s Woods quickly triggered a “weird enthusiasm” among new and old players, and the fact that the mainline NPCs appeared here meant that they had indeed triggered an extraordinary hidden plot.

On the other hand, the way Murphy appeared in the game was also eye-opening for veteran players.

This time, he didn’t fly over, but rode a skeleton horse that was decorated like a monster made of skeleton and steel.

Its appearance was very similar to a skeleton cavalry carrier, but just from its appearance and face value, one could tell that this thing was definitely a “high-grade item”!
“Lord Murphy’s new mount is so handsome! Is the dog planner painting a picture again? Can we get this skeleton warhorse from Scarlet Castle through some damn channel?”

Shovel Bro, who was itching to see this, whispered to Niu Niu beside him, who didn’t reply immediately, but instead looked at Lord Murphy’s “horse and horse in one” posture in front of him.

Have to say, go gloomy style vampire and skeleton war horse this kind of ominous thing is really a perfect match, highlight is a “evil school flower beautiful man style”.

“Probably some kind of high-level reward?”

Badger, who loved brainstorming, couldn’t help but ponder:
“Look, we’ve seen skeleton cavalry in the smuggler’s woodland and almost got cartwheeled over by them, does this mean that the hidden plot that was triggered has something to do with skeletons?
There’s precedent for that too!
It’s like the various equipment sold by the Blood Rat Gang in the sewers are related to ghouls, so I guess, we’ll get this special carrier reward after we go through this plot?”

“Ah, why the ground carrier?”

Touch Your Poor also liked the gorgeous style of the Skeleton Warhorse, and he couldn’t help but spit it out:

“Why don’t we just get invincible with wings? How cool is a skeleton horse that can fly! That way I can bring my stinking treasure along to soar through the heavens.”

“Hmm, good idea!”

Murphy, who was beside him, had a heartbeat.

Immediately, he decided to write down Little Rich Brother’s idea in his little notebook, and turn around and have that necromancer try to see if he could add the wings to the Skeleton Warhorse.

This thing belongs to the undead constructs.

Its body is already dead, and it is only relying on the spirit energy of death to support its body to continue to move, so theoretically speaking, its shape is not bound to a certain fixed form, so adding wings to it sounds outrageous but is definitely feasible!
However, before Murphy could share the “hidden plot” of the Smuggler’s Woods that he had already conceived with his little player, he received a psychic communication from Tris.

“You said that necromancer was Adele’s elder?”

The lord twitched at the news.

But when he thought about it, the necromancer’s statement that he had died in the Filthy Swamp more than twenty years ago coincided with Adele’s escape into Transylvania, which then made him unable to resist dispersing more associations.

He immediately realized that he could get more information from the necromancer through Adele’s relationship, so Murphy didn’t stay here any longer, and after encouraging his small players and giving them a pie in the sky, he handed over the Commanding Staff and the Skeleton Horse to Hogg and left them at his disposal, and opened his wings to fly back to Scarlet Fortress at dusk at a rapid speed.

His Excellency Hogg, Chief of the Blood Claws, was also confused.

It had thought that requesting Lord Murphy’s warriors to come out could solve the problem it was currently facing, but it didn’t expect that these guys had just entered the Smuggler’s Woodland in less than half a day, and the Blood Claw Clan’s big trouble had already been completely solved.

In the jackal outpost, Hogg gripped the very cold Command Knuckle Staff in his hand very clumsily and used the thing to maneuver that elite skeleton army.

It very regretfully placed the knuckleduster close to its bosom after a few minutes of use.

This thing was powerful!

It could control that elite skeleton army for its own use, but unfortunately, the only necromantic creatures bound to this knuckle staff were those two hundred or so.

This meant that the other Skeleton Soldiers wandering in the woodland were still a big threat to the Bloodclaw clan, but having the most troublesome elite Skeleton army under their command undoubtedly doubled the Bloodclaw clan’s strength in a matter of moments, and meant that it had finally become the “King of the Woodland Clearing” in the truest sense of the word.

With the clan brigands, elite dog-heads and this skeleton army under its command, it could even call itself the second most powerful force in the Dark Baron’s Domain after the “Unbreakable Wall” of Crimson Fortress!
“Lord Hogg, what should we do with this strange looking bone horse?”

The small man Nash who was following Hogg looked at the skeletal warhorse that was quietly parked not far away, waiting for orders, and it said with some regret:
“This thing is quite powerful, it looks like a powerful thing that only a Governor is worthy of owning, but it’s a pity that it’s too big for us Jackals to get used to riding.”

“Then shelter it in the clan treasury.”

Hogg narrowed his eyes and said very slyly and decisively:

“Give it as a gift to the strongest among the warriors who are friendliest to us! Since there is only this one, then naturally it can only be given to the most majestic champion!
Nash, you go and convey the order.

Tell the good news to the warriors who have been hired by us, that whoever kills the most skeleton soldiers in this bounty hunt will receive the ultimate gift from the Blood Claw Tribe.

Ah, I probably understand how to use their power.

Also since the safety of the woodlands has been entrusted to the warriors, our barbarian soldiers patrolling around no longer need to be on their toes.

You go find the best hunters and brute soldiers in the clan and form a squad, I’ll take them into the Filthy Swamp after the clan settles down and we’ll explore a path for Murphy-sama.

That’s the job we must accomplish!”
—
“Are you sure that guy is your Uncle Bella who escorted you out of the swamp and died because of it?”

Murphy summoned Adele in his office after returning to the Scarlet Cloisters, and E-sister had a rather subtle expression on her face this time.

Facing Murphy’s inquiry, she answered hesitantly:

“It does!
I’ll never forget Uncle Bella’s face and its voice, but it’s not quite, death seems to have taken away something that belonged to him, making it strange even to my eyes.

I have talked to it.

All I can tell you, my lord, is that I can’t trust it quite as much as I used to.

As it says, it is now just a cursed dead, a controlled necromancer, and it does not even have free control over its own existence, so naturally it cannot talk about being able to express its emotions without reservation.

But there is one more piece of news that you need to know.”

Adele paused as she said:
“It’s not just Uncle Bella who has been resurrected by Jackal Warlocks, my Aunt Bernice was just as much resurrected as a Knight of the Underworld also manipulated by Jackal Warlocks.

Uncle Bella realized the power we possessed after hearing about our experiences fighting in Transylvania, so it asked me to save its wife.

It told me that he could trade some ‘dangerous’ information in exchange for that help.”

“So your Uncle Bella did hold back on me in our previous conversation, what a cunning fellow.”

Murphy grunted as he asked:
“Can you describe for me the Uncle Bella you remember?”

“Uh-huh.”

Adele answered immediately:

“Uncle Bella is a half-elf, and like my father was once a gladiator of the House of Mejva.

At one time he was more adept at psychic powers, and Uncle Bella was one of the staunchest supporters of my mother when she plotted her escape.

His desire for freedom was as unquenchable as a flame, and after we entered and lived in the Valley of Seclusion, Uncle Bella served as commander of the valley’s defenses.

He and Aunt Bernice were companions.

They were a deadly pair in the gladiatorial arena, their years of fighting had given them a heart to heart, and they had a daughter born in the same year as me.

I remember her as ‘Lisa’ and she was my best childhood playmate.

But as you say, Uncle Bella was also a cunning man, and the first half of his life dictated that he was bound to think in terms of what was best for him.”

“Can you give me a little advice?”

Murphy nodded as he asked again:
“If I need to come to some sort of mutual aid type agreement with your Uncle Bella, where do I start?”

“Freedom!”

Adele answered with certainty:

“I’m sure the person who was able to pay whatever it took to escape the gladiator arena with my mother in the first place can’t possibly have no complaints about his accidental resurrection and manipulation by jackals for a second life.

It could never have willingly served the Jackals even if it had been brought back from the dead!

In fact I think Uncle Bella may have been secretly plotting another escape in the name of ‘freedom’.

I think we can totally cooperate with him in this regard, those Bone Biting Clan Jackal Warlocks who are busy in the Tainted Swamp are a common enemy for both of us!” “Well, that makes sense, bring it in.”

Murphy interlaced his fingers and spoke to Adele as E-sister pushed the door open and walked out, returning to the office a few minutes later with the necromancer Bella.

The guy had restraint shackles made of brass on both his hands and feet that didn’t interfere with his mobility.

However, through these suppression items made by Tris herself, it was able to suppress the necromancer’s psychic energy to the point of extreme weakening minimizing its threatening nature.

Seeing Murphy again made the necromancer Bella unable to resist cursing fiercely:

“I should have unleashed the Underworld Fire to burn you bastard to death by the swamp before, you dog! How dare you turn ‘Freehand’ Mona and ‘Phantom Hydra’ Truman’s only daughter into a vampire!
I curse you! Murphy!
I curse you to end up in Hades for all eternity!”

“Curse, ha, if such weak curses could really make a vampire fall into the Underworld, then our race would have been extinguished eight hundred years ago.”

Murphy said nonchalantly, banging on the table:
“So please calm down, Mr. Bella.

If you’ve heard Adele’s story you should know that I was the one who saved her from the tragedy of falling to a blood ghoul and brought her back to earth under midnight.

I don’t pray for your gratitude, but at least I shouldn’t be so vicious!
All right, down to business.

Tell me everything you were hiding before, about those jackal warlocks who manipulated you, what the hell were they doing in the swamp?”

“Ah! If there’s a choice…”

Bella sighed as if she were alive.

The necromancer pulled his hood back up to hide his dry, corpse-like physique as he spoke in a muffled voice:

“They are searching for one thing, one thing of extraordinary importance to the Jackal race, a lost treasure to be exact.

From the King of Biting Bones who mysteriously disappeared at the end of the Fourth Black Plague one hundred and ten years ago.

According to legend, the King of Biting Bones fled into the Tainted Swamp after his defeat.

He took his most valiant guards and tried to return to the Mossy Valley of the Dark Mountains through the swamp in an attempt to rise again, but the King of Bites entered the swamp and never came out again.

The jackal king who had nearly toppled the continent must have died somewhere in the swamp.

But the problem is that there is a legend that has been circulating in the Bite Bone Clan.

It was said that the King of the Bitten Bones held something that could grant the Jackals unique powers, allowing one lucky individual to leap to become the king of all Jackals!

It was with that kind of treasure that the King of Biting Bones was able to coalesce a legion as large as the Fourth Black Plague, and as you know, with the character of the Jackals, it would be impossible for them to form a tide of darkness of that magnitude under natural conditions.

Therefore, I personally feel that this legend still has some credibility.”

“Have they found it?”

Upon hearing about the lost treasure of the King of Biting Bones, Murphy didn’t feel surprised.

It was quite normal that this kind of stormy figure could still trigger some unwanted developments even after being dead for more than a hundred years.

As for the treasure
There might be, but Murphy didn’t really care.

After all, that is the racial treasure of the jackals, other people can’t use it even if they hold it in their hands.

But they can not use also can not let the enemy get, the so-called meaning of victory is not just their own access to something, let others return empty-handed is also quite useful strategy.

In the face of Murphy’s question, necromancer Bella let out an odd laugh, it stretched its voice and said:
“As I said, it has been more than three years since I was resurrected, and it has also been three years since my consciousness was pulled back to the material world from the chaotic underworld, which means that they have been active in the swamp for a long time.

The Tainted Swamp may be huge, but it’s not that big in front of a restless army of the dead, and those jackalope warlocks have rummaged through almost every part of the swamp, and they’ve come up empty-handed.

They couldn’t find the thing!

They weren’t doomed by fate!

Just as I was getting orders to leave the swamp to set up an observation outpost in the smuggler’s woodlands, the plague warlocks were already planning to concentrate their efforts into the swamp sanctuary.

They had a strong suspicion that the treasure they wanted to find was hidden in that dangerous place.

If you ask me, I’d say that’s self-seeking in desperation”

“The forbidden place?”

Murphy asked, narrowing his eyes:

“What’s there?”

“One or several legendary beasts.”

Bella said, shaking her head:
“Bernice and I died at the hands of one of those things, Adele would remember the time.”

“Ninkinanka, ‘giant serpent’ in Elvish.”

Lady Adele explained in a cautious tone:
“Legendary creatures hidden in the filthy swamps, like a mix of giant snakes and lizards, I only remember that behemoth emitting a light in the swamps to conceal itself subsequently setting off a terrifying attack like an earthquake.

These are not beings for mortals to fight, Master Murphy, please do not take any interest in things that exist only in legend.

The fact that the Jackals dared to actively provoke that behemoth means they are mad enough and desperate enough.”

“But this is an opportunity!”

Bella the necromancer followed up:
“The Jackal Warlocks intend to challenge the Swamp Monster to find the lost treasure of the King of Biting Bones, and they will surely put all their strength into it.

This means they will relax their surveillance of the rest of the swamp.

All that’s needed is an elite team!

I can lead you to infiltrate the camps that the jackals have set up in the swamp, and we can steal back our lifeboxes.
I promise you, Lord Murphy, that all 45 necromancers and knights of the Underworld, including Berenice and I, will serve you with loyalty as long as we can get our lifeboxes back, and as long as we are granted freedom after death!”

“Master, I am willing to accomplish this for you!”

Adele also pleaded earnestly:

“I also hope that Uncle Bella and Auntie Berenice will be able to get rid of this enslaved humility that I owe them.”

“No, child, you don’t owe us anything.”

The necromancer shook her head:
“Mona has brought us more favors than we could ever repay in a lifetime, and Berenice and I have never had any regrets about dying to protect you, and you don’t have to feel any remorse for that.”

“However at the moment I don’t have that many elites on hand.”

Murphy got up and shook his head as he said:
“At the very least the vampires are untouchable, that’s all that’s left of the Blood Vulture Clan, however, Adele, there seems to have been no progress made regarding your faction or your selection of warriors.

I know that with your character you are not very willing to put energy into such things, but now you have enough reasons to perfect the forces under your command.

I have given Hogg the order.

It needs to explore a safe path through the Filthy Swamp for me, and the Blood Rat Gang is also a force you can mobilize, as you said, since you are willing to share the burden for me, you will start moving from now on.”

He said to his heir:

“You will preside over this, you will plan you will recruit you will carry it out, I will not be involved nor will I dictate, I will stay at the Scarlet Fortress expecting a good result.”

“Uh-huh.”

Adele nodded, then Murphy’s gaze went back to the necromancer Bella as he said:
“On the other hand, since we are now ‘family’, Lord Bella, there are some things I can ask more openly about Dusk .
Tell me everything you know!”

(End of chapter)