Chapter 163: Enshrined

"I'll talk, I'll talk!"

The mushroom man Toru, lacking much backbone, immediately slid to his knees.

He threw away his staff and even began to squeeze out tears.

Actually, unlike the feathered person Caroline, he was not a subordinate of the demon Atou, but an adventurer introduced by the Ruin Brotherhood.

Although he often did dirty and grim work in his daily life.

He rarely engaged in acts of killing directly.

Indirect acts didn't count; at least, in Toru's eyes, they didn't.

"But I can't say! I signed a magic contract."

"What's that? Eve."

Hearing the call, the natural contract-breaker—Naga Eve—ran over from far behind.

"Hahaha, a tiny magic contract, what is it in my eyes? However, I must remind you, actually, these magic rings for breaking contracts are quite expensive."

The second half of the sentence was spoken to Rod.

We Nagas do not make losing deals.

"... I'll refresh a new Spiritual Art for you tonight, is that okay?"

After all, a lot of Growth Spirituality has been left over recently.

Come to think of it, infusing 【Growth Spirituality】 cannot keep refreshing new skills indefinitely.

The two who received the most were the Tree Spirit Vivian and the Succubus Tally.

They have already refreshed the same Spiritual Arts many times.

Repeated ones are not ineffective; they just strengthen that Spiritual Art to a certain degree.

For instance, Vivian's 【Vine Entanglement】 and Tally's 【Hypnosis】 have already reached +7 and +8 respectively.

But massive infusion will also bring them into a state of spiritual instability.

To avoid burdening their bodies, Rod has not performed any new refreshes during this period.

"That's more like it."

Eve was happy to have made another big deal that only earned and never lost.

She took out the magic ring she used against Rod in the Open-Air Labyrinth earlier and handed it to the mushroom man Toru to use.

But this fellow hesitated a bit.

"You two understand, I am an adventurer. If word gets out that I unilaterally broke a contract, my reputation will be greatly damaged."

"Indeed."

Tally poked her head out from the shadows and said in a sarcastic tone, "Reputation and life, so hard to choose, both are so important."

"..."

Sensing the threat in the Succubus's tone.

The mushroom man silently swallowed his saliva as he saw Rod's expression grow even colder.

He hurriedly activated the magic ring.

"Huh? Failed."

As it activated, spirituality gathered together, forming a magic contract in mid-air.

But when the ring's power tried to dissolve it, it lost its force and could not tear it apart.

"Is it a countermeasure?"

Rod asked.

"Doesn't look like it."

Eve checked for a while, then remembered, "It's a soul contract of the Demon Kind. Such contracts are very difficult to handle, and since the Demon Kind has been hidden for the last few decades, I have no corresponding method to break them."

As experts in breaking contracts, the Nagas studied the types of contracts quite thoroughly, and Princess Eve even more so.

Demons, huh.

Rod rubbed his chin.

This matched the smell of sulfur mentioned in Miss Xiao Ke's prophecy.

So Fried Argyle has colluded with the Demon Kind?

This was somewhat surprising to him.

But for now, no matter what, he must inform the Witch Dimia first.

One hour later.

Tally brought Dimia rushing over.

After listening to Rod's description, she hesitated not at all, nor did she care that the evidence was actually insufficient.

She immediately planned to organize a team to ambush and control Fried first.

As for this mushroom man who could contribute no intelligence...

Killing him would invalidate the contract, which would also signal the other party, so they could only imprison him for now.

Destroy the formation.

Afterwards, everyone left the pit.

Dimia and Rod each went to gather forces, agreeing to launch a night assault tonight.

Rod returned to the forest.

And planned to form the front line with the female orc Amy, the zombie Selena, Tally, and himself.

The Tree Spirit Vivian and the Ghoul Pan Ni would control the enemy's remaining scattered forces in the middle.

And Little Little Bangde the pony girl would serve as ranged firepower; at that time, he would entrust the elf Lady Kali and the half-deer Miss Xiao Ke to protect her, after all, these two are not enslaved subjects, making it hard to ask them to risk their lives.

Naga Eve's identity is special and not suited to appear; it's enough for her to lurk as a shadow operative.

As for the banshee Chris.

To be honest, in terms of combat power she's a bit lacking.

In the recent assessment test, being at the lower tier of fifth-rank, she failed to defeat Little Little Bangde, who was only at the middle tier of fourth-rank.

After all, Little Little Bangde possesses the 【Centaur Bloodline】, so fighting across ranks is indeed no big problem.

Still, from actual combat one can see she's just that weak.

"Under my command, not working is not allowed."

Rod had no intention of letting her off.

Such a good training opportunity — let her follow Vivian and Pan Ni to fight some small fry.

After running around and informing everyone of the mission.

By the time Rod found Chris in the sand-willow area of the forest, it was already dusk.

"What a rare sight — what are you doing here?"

Chris rarely came to the sand-willow area; she was terrified of the sand tornadoes of the 【Dark Vortex Rift Barrier】, afraid of being swallowed up.

Something was off.

Moreover, she was currently in her physical form.

Her face was covered in dark smoky makeup.

It seemed that since the banquet, she had taken a liking to this look.

"Hehe-hee, Master, big business!"

"Your only business right now is the farm. Keep your feet on the ground."

"Farm? What farm? Once it's done, you'll have to worship me like a shrine."

The banshee's tone was far too arrogant and smug, showing no respect for her master.

The corner of Rod's mouth twitched.

He wasn't going to indulge her either.

He immediately ordered her to kneel.

The banshee instantly realized her mistake and tearfully knelt on the ground begging forgiveness.

"Speak — what rotten thing have you done now."

"That's not fair at all — everything I did was for you, Master."

Chris knelt beside Rod, fawningly smiling.

The banshee said she couldn't take it anymore.

Keeping herself chaste wasn't working either.

Every day, out of nowhere, she'd get whipped — the pain was killing her.

Better to just give in cleanly — maybe he'd even be gentle with me.

Look at how happy the ghoul Pan Ni was that night — the farm lost money and she wasn't punished; her magic accumulation even seemed to have grown stronger.

When you live under someone's roof, you have to bow your head.

She's already enslaved anyway.

But faced with this small temptation, Rod was unmoved.

He snorted. This one's mind was crooked and she refused to be disciplined — absolutely must not be spoiled.

The "pain but happy" approach didn't suit her.

Only harsh whipping would do.

"Speak up — what did you do!"

"It's nothing. You see, the farm lost money recently, and I was so worried about you, Master, worried to the point I couldn't eat or sleep, so I struck a deal with the Naga in the desert."

She knelt closer.

She pressed the two mounds of flesh on her chest against Rod's knee.

Then she lowered her head and kissed it.

But her movements were clumsy and unpracticed; on her face she tried hard to strike a seductive pose, yet only looked like a winking, brow-furrowing underage monkey.

Not a shred of sexual appeal.

Compared to Tally's natural charm, there was simply no comparison.

Rod watched and couldn't muster even half an interest.

He grabbed her cheeks in one hand.

"Ah! Pain, pain, pain!"

"One more word of nonsense and I'll hang you up and whip you a hundred times."

(End of chapter)