Chapter 114: Flesh Proliferation and Night

Seeing that their master made no other move, the ghouls began to clean up the rat-people corpses.

"How do you plan to distribute them? Convert them all into ghouls?"

Rod watched her pick and choose, pinch the rat-people's muscles, and test their spiritual nature.

Then he asked curiously.

"No, Master. I will select the seven finest corpses to convert; the rest will serve as rations. My strength is limited; too many might be hard to control."

Counting the three from before, she planned to have only ten ghoul subordinates.

"You can only control ten at the sixth tier?"

Pan Ni paused, fearing Rod would think her capabilities were insufficient.

She hurriedly said, "No, no, Master. If I go all out, I could control fifty or sixty. It's just... after our last battle with you, I realized the importance of quality."

"Very good."

Rod praised.

With the population increasing, the ghouls' food costs would double.

Thinking of this, he fell slightly into thought.

It wasn't that he minded the money.

Rather, he thought of a new skill he had never used before.

【Flesh Proliferation】.

Then, under Pan Ni's curious gaze, he reached out and touched a rat-people corpse.

The next moment.

The corpse began to grow fat and swell at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if being inflated.

Layers of fat piled up; fingers began to regrow on the palms, while the face sprouted dense flesh tumors, vaguely taking on the shape of a nose, lips, and ears.

In any case, it looked extremely strange and disgusting.

"What spell is this?"

Pan Ni felt no aversion or fear toward these things; she only felt curious.

But asking her to take a bite right then and there was impossible.

Not because she feared poisoning or plague.

Ghouls weren't stupid; their own race was already unpopular. Would they deliberately dance on their master's minefield? How would I ever turn the tables and pin this Forest Warden beneath me afterward?

At most, I'd wait until Master leaves, then secretly hide it away to eat.

Rod ignored her.

He carefully observed the appearance of the transforming corpse.

Confirming it was merely the repeated growth of previous organs.

He injected spiritual nature again, but this time he intentionally controlled it.

Plop, plop—

He saw fingers grow one by one at the positions he specified along the edge of the palm.

"Controlling this is much simpler than 【Gravity Well】."

Having said that.

Rod raised his palm.

Plop—

A finger slowly grew beside the pinky.

Then he tried to control it.

"Not bad... a bit unaccustomed at first."

It felt as if a thin thread was tugging, exerting a force opposite to yours.

After growing tired of it, Rod cut off the proliferated finger.

Although he had not yet fully comprehended the Grass Domain, such a minor injury was no problem.

He tossed the severed finger to Pan Ni.

Watching the ghoul's eyes widen, holding the severed finger with both hands as if it were a divine object, he found it somewhat amusing.

The newly proliferated parts could be retracted; Rod was just bored and wanted to see Pan Ni's reaction.

"Thank you, Master! Gratitude! Deep gratitude!!!"

Pan Ni prostrated herself completely; ghouls are naturally extremely craving for the flesh of those close to them.

Especially while under the Nu Yi Zhou.

Oh my god, I've wanted to eat Master for ages!

【Pan Ni's obedience to you +5, current obedience: 45】

Decided.

After sucking the skin and flesh off the finger, use the bones to make soup!

Given that only he could resist the mental shock of the Strange-Jawed Beast.

He stayed in the magic treehouse in the Sha Liu District these days to continuously monitor changes in the ritual.

As for the treehouse's original occupant, Amy, she was temporarily on leave, free to go anywhere to play.

Provided she didn't cause trouble, didn't leave the forest, and bathed every day.

Anyway, there were many small houses in the Wind Wall Forest; she could stay wherever she liked.

Tally and the Banshee Chris still lived with Rod.

Originally, this Banshee naturally did not want to approach the Death Desert, but under the control of the Nu Yi Zhou, it was not her turn to speak.

As for the three spell researchers—the elf, the witch, and the dog-kin.

They had begun a tense life of seclusion devoted to their research.

Rod had only seen them twice, when he went out to pick wild fruit to satisfy his cravings.

As for the situation with the monsters.

Over these past few days, they had indeed been trickling in, but none were as strong as the first one, and now that he had a way to counter them, dealing with them was quite easy.

On the third day, Rod had even forced his way alone into the Death Desert and slaughtered a wave of them.

But by the fifth and sixth days, he barely saw any more.

Worth mentioning is that Chris's mental resistance was quite decent.

She could actually withstand the Ghost-Jaw Beast's charge to a certain degree.

Perhaps because she is a spirit-type being?

One night.

Rod suddenly sensed three people approaching from a distance.

Not from the desert, but from within the forest.

At this hour, movement like that could only be those three mages currently doing their research.

He hurriedly let go of Tally's horns and uncocked his weapon.

"Don't—don't come out~ What are you doing~"

"Someone's coming. Get dressed."

The succubus gave a discontented hum.

Wrapping herself in the blanket that bore a wet stain, she turned her head away and ignored him.

Rod quickly pulled on his clothes.

Outside the door, the sound of an animated discussion drew closer, and in a short while, a knock came.

When the door opened, sure enough, it was those three ladies.

"Mr. Rod! It might work! The labyrinth method might actually work, hey? What's that smell?"

Sharon was excited like a little puppy, her tail wagging furiously behind her, then she sniffed in confusion.

Dimia and Lady Kali were far more composed.

One gave a gentle smile, the other wore a sour expression.

Then, upon noticing the scent drifting out of the house and the faint sheen of sweat on the man's forehead, both of them froze for a moment.

The dog-girl and the witch both stepped back at once, their expressions awkward.

The elf gave a cold snort.

"You'll be the death of yourself, human."

"Let's step outside and talk about Chris in detail! Bring the chairs, the table, and the tea!" Rod ignored her remark.

He tossed a small stone at the banshee huddled in the corner of the roof beam.

She jolted awake with a shriek:

"No! Master, don't do me again! I'm undead! I can't take it!!!"

After seeing the gazes of everyone upon her.

Chris froze on the spot, then pulled her hair forward over her face and silently drifted down to fetch things for everyone.

God only knows what that one had been dreaming about.

A while later.

Outside the magic treehouse.

A bright spell radiating warm light rose into the air.

Everyone sat around, each taking a sip of the hot tea before them.

"You're saying that with current techniques there's still no way to build a new labyrinth, but you can, like with plant cuttings, take a cutting from some labyrinth and transplant it over?"

Rod was somewhat surprised by their idea, and what they said sounded overly simple—almost unbelievable.

"But, can this actually work?"

"We did find experimental records of such a spell, but the data... isn't much."

The witch Dimia shook her head; she turned a smile toward Rod, her baby-faced smile carrying both cuteness and intellect.

"And the crux of this experiment depends on you, Mr. Rod."

"Me?"

What does this have to do with me?

Lady Kali then said: "Not long ago, when Miss Xiao Ke, Little Little Bangde, and I were chatting, I mentioned that you once entered the open-air labyrinth in Blazing City and obtained a pass, didn't you?"

Rod nodded.

He had told that story to Little Little Bangde as if it were a tale; the little fellow listened with eyes sparkling, looking quite envious.

Of course, the parts about the half-dragon Xia Li and the land naga Eve had been quietly hidden by him.

(End of this chapter)