391. Chapter 389: 388 Mission Sequence 003: “The Carrion Lands”

Chapter 389 388.

Hogg is poisoned.

It’s a terrible poison that will kill him if he doesn’t get an antidote within seven days.

He thought that he would cry when he heard the news, but in fact, Hogg found himself very calm, perhaps because he had already expected that he would not be able to get such a high-level spiritual energy item so easily.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for .
Wait a minute, did he have too much contact with those warriors?
This was clearly not the Jackal’s traditional way of thinking! Slamming the table!
“Don’t worry, it’s just the vampire heart.”

Murphy admonished in Hogg’s mind:

“It’s not like it’s a rare thing, in order to get these Command Sectional Staffs that can instantly become an army, not to mention Vampire Hearts, even if it’s a living Vampire, my Warriors will find a way to kidnap it for you.

And I have a suggestion, Hogg, look, you take one is poisoned take ten is also poisoned, anyway, now all have been poisoned.

Why don’t you take a few more from Cripple Claw here?
After all, you might not get the chance next time.”

“Hey, we’re discussing the hearts of your fellow vampires, Lord Murphy, is this chatting about vampire hearts like talking about pig’s guts really appropriate?”

Hogg spat madly.

But it realized that Murphy’s reminder came at just the right time.

Its own reconnaissance mission had been completed, next time it would not personally risk coming to this dangerous place where it could lose its life at any time, since it was a hammer deal naturally it wanted to get more.

So the blood claw chief eyes a turn, the table scattered more than twenty can only control 10-20 skeleton army of poor quality command knuckle staff are stuffed into their own bag, and wagging his tail lifted his head to the two eyes were looking to the left and right up and down sides, salivating a hard downward flow of crippled claws said:

“I can bring you the Vampire’s Heart, we fought vampires before when we were under High King Kenport but it’s a dangerous job, you know what I mean?

I may need to hitch a lot of clan elites for this, I know it’s nothing to do with you but I was hoping for more assistance, like more Command Sectional Staffs?”

“Nope, Mentor Torn Flesh didn’t give me much either.”

Crippledpaw wiped his mouth, regretfully:

“Mentor has forbidden me to use them since the last time I commanded the lovely Skeleton Army to tear apart a dozen or so barbarians who were bullying us and turning them into experimental material.

But I have my own secretly made ones here, not as well made as my mentor’s, which occasionally fail when manipulating the skeleton army, but can control 50 of them just as well when it doesn’t fail!
And yes, when it’s not out of control, they’re no different from the original.”

“Give me that!”

Hogg said lionizingly:
“Give me all those uncontrolled command knuckle wands and I’ll bring you the Vampire Heart as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, that stuff wouldn’t sell anyway, other cowards wouldn’t even dare to use the knuckle staffs I made, you’re a courageous guy, Hogg, gah gah gah.

Maybe your courage will make you a better test subject than the other jackals?”

Crippled Claw once again let out a laugh so odd that it creeped Hogg out, and it quickly brought Hogg a large bag of rather crudely made and not even carefully polished bone command knuckle staffs.

As Chief Bloodclaw turned to leave after the “bloodbath”, Crippledclaw suddenly called out to him again:

“Have you ever seen Kenport die? Do you know what was done with his body?”

“Ow, those vampire bloodservants were going to burn the body of King Kenport, but he was a hunting priest, and the flames couldn’t burn his flesh, so I secretly saw those bloodservants burying the body in a pit.”

Hogg said scratching his head:

“What are you inquiring about this thing for?”

“What great material!
Pure-blooded bone-biting scions like Kenport’s aren’t plentiful in the Dark Mountains, and the assassins of the other great clans have been eliminating them by all means.

What a waste!”

Crazy Crippled Claw mouthed off:
“The Bone Biting Clan is also afraid that they will die in vain, now that the Black Plague has risen but the throne of the ‘King of Jackals’ is still vacant, several clans can’t choose a leader at all, but the hunters, barbarians, and warlocks agreed with the priests that they don’t want to see the descendants of the King of Bite Bone ascend to the throne again!
Anyway, I wish to get pure-blooded Bite Bone’s body to experiment on, so you sneakily dig up Kenport’s corpse and bring it back to me.”

“That’s too dangerous.”

Hogg refused instinctively:
“There are witch hunters guarding that place all the time, I’ll be hacked to death by them if I go over there! I’m not going to mess with those dangerous witch hunters, I’m not doing this job!”

“You’re poisoned, you’ll do it even if you don’t!”

Crippled Claw chided very grumpily:

“Don’t you want to live anymore?”

“I want to! But I’d much rather die peacefully in my den than be chopped up by the witch hunters and have my name on the Blood Rat Gang’s bounty list right now!”

Hogg was adamant in his refusal, yet it was only a bargaining tactic.

This cunning jackal knew very well that in the current situation where the Plague Clan was stuck in the swamp and had to complete the task of finding the secret stash of the King of Biting Bones, Crippled Claw would not be able to find a second person to do the job of collecting the body for him even if he had a great deal of skill.

In other words, this job could only be done by himself!

Now is the “seller’s market”, he was also poisoned by this dog, not ruthlessly slaughtered a sum of money are sorry for their own suffer this foreign crime.

Seeing Hogg’s cowardly appearance, Crippled Claw was also furious, but in order to persuade this coward to help, it’s strange out-of-focus eyeballs rolled, and said with an obtuse face:
“I have Hades Knights here that I can lend you for your protection, I’ve never seen such a cowardly fellow like you when I’ve traveled throughout the Dark Mountains!”

“One is not enough! Those witch hunters are fierce.”

Hogg immediately shouted:
“2.”

“Make it more, we’ll split it fifty-fifty afterward, and I’ll even consider giving Kenport’s head back; since we’re experimenting, the more intact the body, the better, surely?”

Murphy’s voice rang out at just the right time, causing Hogg to stop talking, then cough and say:
“Twenty!
It would take a minimum of 20 Hades Knights in a squad escort for me to dare to raid the tomb of a vicious vampire, but I don’t want yours for nothing, I can bring you back the corpses of the guards that Ken Potter has strengthened with the secret priestly arts as well.

And as you can see!
I’m a great jackal thief, and if you can give me a little bit of security, I can even find a way to risk going to the Scarlet Castle to steal back Kenport’s head hanging from the city gates for you as well!
Don’t you want to experiment?”

Hogg whispered seductively:
“Look, even though I don’t know much about Plague Warlock’s learning, I guess the quality of the finished product of this production will be greatly reduced if there’s only a corpse without a head, right?

Can an excellent corpse construction master like you allow such a big flaw in your work?”

“Uh.”

Crippleclaw hesitated for a moment.

It could sense that Hogg was taking advantage of it.

But the problem was that its crazy brain was really incapable of proper and serious thinking, so after a few seconds of confused contemplation, it said:
“But I only have 7 Underworld Knights, I can only withhold so much at most without being discovered, any more than that won’t work, tearing the meat is getting old! It’s getting more and more suspicious, it feels every day that someone is trying to harm it to take it’s place, and this makes it more and more dangerous .
l’ve already made one mistake.
I don’t have a chance to make a mistake.”

“Seven would be fine, though barely.”

Hogg made a not-so-satisfied face, but was actually happy in his heart.

This was a Knight of the Underworld!

Although he himself didn’t know what these guys could do or how powerful they were, you could tell that these guys were definitely not ordinary just by listening to the name of their profession.

It said:

“Give them to me and I’ll send you everything you want within seven days! I’ll give it a go this time, it doesn’t matter if I put my entire clan on the line for the sake of my friendship with Lord Crippled Claw.”

“Seven days! Hahaha, that’s great, I like this efficiency!”

Crippled Claw also got excited.

It rubbed its paw that was missing a few fingers and said excitedly:
“I’ll prepare the test bed right away to get those lazy necromancers moving, my capable good brother in Transylvania, when you bring me what I need I’ll get to work right away!”

“Ask it if it can pick its own knights of the underworld.”

Murphy reminded in Hogg’s mind:

“Find a Hades Knight named ‘Berenice’ and bring her out, and I’ll send someone forward to your den to receive and bring you Kenport’s head.

But if it doesn’t work don’t forcefully ask for it, lest you trigger the other warlocks’ vigilance.

This Crippled Claw is a ‘talent’, Hogg, keep an eye on it, its unstable spirit could even become a war weapon for your Bloodclaw Clan if it is ‘well guided’!”
—
“Buzz.” The vibration of the spirit energy dissipated in the office of the Scarlet Cloister, representing the interruption of the remote scouting spell.

Murphy rubbed his eyes to acclimatize himself to the return of his vision, and he leaned back in his chair to ponder what he had just seen through Hogg’s eyes.

In front of him, Heru had already prepared a pen and paper to map out the topography of the plague town through the information that Hogg would send back through the arithmetic beads in a moment to prepare for the raid afterwards.

Murphy waved his hand, signaling Heru to go out for a while and then come back in, and the very discerning scout immediately turned around and left, not disturbing the next secret talk between the lord and the grand duke.

“It’s not good.”

The vampire lord whispered:

“There are thousands of undead creatures being transformed in that tectonic tower alone, and that’s not even mentioning the necromancers and skeleton armies that the Plague Clan has strengthened with death spirit energy.

Bella said there were at least 40 necromancers and underworld knights there, and now it looks like they’ve made more, and even if Hogg took out 7 of them the remaining number is still significant.

Add to that the Plague Clan warlocks acting as psychic attackers and the two abandoned mage towers as the core of the defense.

Regardless of whether it was in terms of quantity or quality or terrain, the threat of the town controlled by the Plague Clan was far higher than the jackal army that Kenport had gathered.

But on the flip side, as the last large-scale copy of the Closed Beta, it’s just perfect!”

Murphy stood up and walked around in a bizarre “dev team ecstasy” stance as Tris watched, still with eyes glowing and chanting:

“The elite skeleton army and the necromancers and knights of the underworld outside the plague town are already strong enough for patrols, and the gate bosses are the Bone Biting Clan’s vanguard brigands and the captain of the guards who was humiliated by Hogg that we’re bound to encounter when we enter the town!

This could be made into a battle between offense and support.

Then enter the town and raid the Tectonic Tower first, where my warriors will need to challenge the Mad Tectonist Crippled Claw and the Bloodsucking Zombie Kenport that it crafted!
This is the first half of the copy.

The second half is then in the Plague Tower!

There the warriors will not only have to face the evil warlocks of the Plague Clan, but also fight against the hidden mechanisms in the abandoned mage tower.

Eventually, they climb to the top of the tower to face the old but evil jackal and the Great Warlock.

Gee, it’s just perfect design!”

“Maybe add a little more field combat?”

Trixie said as she couldn’t help but get involved in the promising job of “dog planning” for the first time:

“There are a lot of dangerous beasts in the Filthy Swamp, and the weaker beasts have long since run away from Plague Town because of the jackal encampment.

The ones that dare to stay are the powerful ones.

We can pick out the ones that have been contaminated and strengthened by the toxins discharged by the jackal warlocks as an ‘optional battle’?”

“Hmm! That’s a good design!”

Murphy brightened up and clapped his hands:

“Think of it as filling in the copy process, Tris, you’re good at this business, so this 003 group book ‘Land of the Carrion’ is settled.

Next we need Hogg to send its people to keep scouting and exploring, after figuring out most of the details, we can do a pre-event warm-up or something in advance.”

“Also, I noticed that both that Jackal Vanguard and Crippled Claw inadvertently revealed in their words that the Plague Clan’s next target for action is the legendary creature Ninkinanka that exists in the Tainted Swamp.”

Tris continued to add in a low tone:

“It seems that the Plague Warlocks have determined that the lost treasure of the King of Biting Bones is in the lair of those legendary creatures, and this is an opportunity, Murphy.

Or rather, it’s the only chance.

While the Plague Clan jackals are at war with the legendary creatures or when they return from their disastrous victory or defeat, that will be the best strategic window we can get.

But there can be no rush in this matter.

Let’s make our plans then wait for that moment to come.”

“That ‘ninkinanka’…”

Murphy whispered:
“Is it really as powerful as you describe it?”

“You’re still very young, you don’t understand what the words ‘legendary creature’ stand for, I can tell you that if Torn Flesh intends to conquer that legendary thing, then it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it will get into Ninkinanka’s lair even if it throws all the power it has at hand into it.

Those legendary giant snakes live in packs.”

Tris said, shaking her head:
“I saw one of those strange creatures once when I was younger, and it left quite an impression on me.

I know that His Holiness has a set of body armor made from the jeweled leather of Ninkinanka, which is said to be a trophy from their pre-Epoch crossing of the Tainted Swamp, decapitated by His Holiness himself.

It was also the pinnacle of the old Edwardian leatherworker’s craft.

It was certainly impossible to truly say that these beasts were so powerful that they were unconquerable, but even gold powerhouses wouldn’t just mess with them.

Haven’t you always wondered why there are no dragons on this continent?
Actually, there are.

Those monsters living in the Filthy Swamp are probably the closest thing to the legendary dragons.

Though in my opinion, those are just some awesome big lizards. And while they can only be called ‘difficult’ in other places, challenging Ninjiranka in the swamp is an act I can only call ‘sending them to their deaths’.

That was the true spirit of the swamp!
Its existence and power were closely related to the entire Filthy Swamp, and there was even a theory that the reason why that swamp had swelled to such a huge extent today was because of the nest of Ninkinanka residing in it.

If the jackals are really going to attack it, we can breathe a sigh of relief.”

Hearing Tris’s explanation, Murphy cocked his head to think about it, and suddenly his eyes lit up.

He slapped his hand on his fist and said aloud:
“So, a field boss!

Right, how could a classic role-playing online game not have this link and gameplay?

Write up everything you know about Ninkinanka, Tris, and I’m going to mark this rare and powerful thing on our upcoming updated map of Transylvania and the surrounding area as a strategic guide for the younger players in the future once they’re out of the ‘newbie village’.

Speaking of which, are there many legendary creatures on this continent?”

“There certainly aren’t too many if they can be called Legendary Creatures, but when you think about it their numbers aren’t too small either.

Legendary creatures I’ve seen with my own eyes besides the ‘Swamp Dragon’ of the Filthy Swamp, Ninkinanka, there’s also the Anuka Stallion in the northern mountains of the Grimni Archipelago, which is said to be the source of the bloodline of all the Royal Flying Lions and the Grimni Stallions.

The great wilderness is roamed by black ominous giant wolves.

The locals call it the ‘Winter Wolf’ in horror, and every time it appears it heralds the arrival of a terrible winter that will freeze to death.

The Vampire Coast of the Dark Mountains is home to a pack of life-feeding ‘bloodsucking magical beasts’, the Drapacabra, causing that coast to be one of the few areas untouched by jackals.

There are also giant water monsters in the mirrored sea of the uninhabited Gray Desert, the aquatic gargoyles known as ‘Luktava’.

Legends of the ‘Life-Weaving Spider Queen’ have been circulating in the deepest darkest regions of the Eternal Rift.

There are too many.
Even I can’t collect them all.”

Tris shook her head and rolled her eyes with a “I really can’t do anything about you” gesture while writing down the information she knew with her own hand:

“No one knows where those legendary creatures come from, but they just exist in their respective territories, and their very existence represents mystery and power, noble beings that stand at the top of the natural world.

But one thing is certain, these legendary creatures have existed in this great land for a much older time than us mortals.

Most of them have existed before the Mysterious Era, alas, and no one has been able to decipher their secrets yet.”

(End of chapter)