Lord of Rot

Late at night.

A figure carrying a greatsword quickly left the castle, heading for the dense forest in the direction of Pig Spine Valley.

The corpse’s eyes had perhaps been enhanced by Magic. Through the eyes of the fully armored Warg Slayer, Leech could see the world more clearly than an ordinary person.

He had completely abandoned his own body, "piloting" the broken male corpse with his entire being. The untiring body allowed him to maintain top speed as he plunged into the intricate, dense forest.

Inside the crimson giant bear’s cave, there was an inconspicuous crypt in a corner. Unless you stuck your head inside to look, all you would see was pitch-black darkness.

Leech had the corpse jump into the crypt.

’Once the red dot is activated, the crypt will be here permanently. Unless I build a tombstone to control the entrance myself, anyone will be able to get in.’

’This was not good news.’

’What if a powerful Ranger entered the crypt one day? After clearing it, they could be dragged into the castle along with the crypt itself. Then, when I opened the entrance, the Ranger would charge right out, short blade in hand.’

’That absolutely cannot be allowed to happen!’

’The crypt needed to be guarded, a tombstone had to be erected, and it had to be cleared as soon to be possible.’

He eagerly anticipated the spoils from the crypt.

Deeper in the crypt, it was more spacious than the previous Necromancer’s crypt. After advancing for some time, he came to a fork in the path.

A T-intersection.

He tried to take a deep breath, only to realize the corpse’s chest was caved in and had long lost the ability to inhale. Looking down, he could see a mess of ribs and the sturdy spine that held the body together.

He took the left path. There was a faint pressure in the air, and Leech thought he could hear the sound of someone sharpening a blade.

After walking a short distance, he saw the crypt’s master. It was a woman—if you could call her that—so emaciated she was just skin and bones. Her hair was a tangled mess, and she wore no clothes. The flesh on her chest was shriveled and sagging; one breast hung down to her stomach, while the other, due to her squatting posture, rested on her knee.

She held a short blade, which she scraped against her own fingers, stroke by stroke, as if filing her nails.

Her features were no longer human, looking more like a starving goblin or a Skeleton Soldier whose gender was barely discernible.

Leech’s gaze shifted downward. She was standing on a pile of iron armor, swords, and blades.

Evidently, this was the "treasure" of the new crypt.

Leech controlled the corpse, approaching her step by step on its tiptoes. Its inability to breathe was its greatest advantage in stealth. The sound of the woman scraping the blade against her fingers echoed through the cave, masking the sound of his approach.

He drew near, then struck!

Leech, controlling the corpse, gripped the greatsword’s blade with its bare hand and thrust it violently toward the withered monster’s back. But her reaction was faster than he had anticipated. Even at such close range, she managed to spin around.

The sword only pierced her shoulder.

"AHHH!!" she shrieked. In her wide-open mouth, he could see jagged, pitch-black teeth and a long, blackened tongue.

Leech could have sworn he smelled her foul breath.

"Shut up!" Leech clamped a hand over her mouth. He let go of the sword with his other hand, grabbed her by the neck, and lifted her effortlessly into the air.

The monster struggled violently. Its sharp claws pierced the corpse’s shoulder and stabbed through its stomach, but these were not fatal wounds. The undead Warg Slayer didn’t stop its assault.

Finally, the monster stopped struggling.

Leech had the corpse pick up the dagger the monster had dropped. With no time to inspect the pile of spoils, he began dragging the body and charging for the exit.

He needed a new body, and this agile monster was excellent material.

But the bad news was that a chorus of roars erupted from the other direction.

’I have to run. But I have to take this new material with me.’

The crypt began to vibrate from the pounding of innumerable feet, and dirt trickled from the ceiling. CRUMBLE. When Leech reached the T-intersection again, he was met with a horde of creatures identical to the one he had just killed. Some dug their fingers into the walls, climbing like geckos, while others sprinted on all fours like wild beasts. The passage, which hadn’t seemed narrow before, was now completely filled with their forms.

At a glance, they looked like an onrushing tide.

As Leech directed Jamie’s corpse to drag the monster’s body in a mad dash for the entrance, back in the castle, Baron Leech’s eyes snapped open. He pushed open his bedroom door and walked out.

He rushed to the castle garden, where there were only a few burial mounds. The yellow dot in his vision landed and turned green.

A tombstone materialized in front of the empty burial mound belonging to the Warg Slayer, Jamie Duke.

There was a groove on the tombstone, one-tenth of which was filled with green moss.

Leech touched the tombstone, and a hole immediately opened in the ground. With most of his consciousness still inside the corpse, Leech saw moonlight suddenly appear ahead through Jamie’s eyes. The monsters swarmed from behind. Their dagger-sharp fingers dug into the corpse’s calves, and they began to climb up his body—to his waist, then his back, and finally onto his shoulders.

At the critical moment, Jamie’s corpse tossed the female monster’s body out of the hole.

He saw "himself"—Baron Leech.

The handsome Baron watched his "other self" with a blank expression, and then the crypt entrance closed.

Ensuring his own safety was more important than rescuing Jamie’s corpse.

"AH!" "AH!" "AH!" "AH!" "AH!" "AH!"

The monsters crawling all over Jamie’s corpse saw Leech outside the hole. They reached for him, but were sealed inside the pitch-black crypt.

Some sacrifices were necessary. Jamie’s body was already severely damaged and starting to rot. Its sacrifice had earned him a relatively intact corpse in return. Leech frowned as he looked down at the female monster’s body on the ground. It stank!

It was covered in a musty, rotten stench—the kind that comes from never bathing, combined with the foul air of being cooped up underground for years.

He bent down, picked up the corpse, and returned to his room.

Upon re-entering the crypt via his room, Leech was surprised to find that Jamie hadn’t been destroyed.

The withered female monsters were shrieking as they twisted off his limbs and roughly tore away his armor and pants. It looked like they were about to have their way with him.

At that moment, Leech couldn’t be bothered with his noble composure. He hurriedly severed the mental link. ’Jamie is already dead,’ he thought. ’The consciousness inside that body is mine. If I stay any longer, I’ll be the one "enjoying" this treatment. It’ll definitely scar me for life!’

He silently pictured "Red Rose," and even her mischievous handmaiden. He needed to think of something beautiful and vibrant to banish the horrifying scene from his mind. After a long while, his mood finally settled.

Forcing himself to ignore the stench, Leech examined his "harvest." This second crypt was far more dangerous than the first; its monsters were more numerous, stronger, and more agile.

The female monster was very light, her body almost entirely bone. Even when he straightened her out, she was only a meter and a half tall.

Her hands and feet were peculiar, likely adapted for subterranean life. They were larger than Leech’s own. Her fingernails weren’t soft and fragile like a human’s; they were more like the claws of a beast—sharp, hard, and tough. The skin on the back of her hands was even covered in scales, like a pangolin’s.

This strange anatomy allowed her to dig her nails into the dirt, and her light weight enabled her to climb like a monkey.

Leech found a small piece of gold to patch her wound.

’And salt,’ he thought. He was prepared to invest a bit more this time.