Chapter 499: Dogfolk and the Spy

The northwest edge of the Twilight Hills.

There lies an unremarkable slope with a patch of gentle grassland and a few ancient trees, which the locals call Old Oak Slope.

Looking from afar, Rod saw two sides currently standing in confrontation on Old Oak Slope.

One side was naturally our forces led by the witch Dimia; the ghoul Pan Ni and the female beastman Amy were off somewhere unknown, leaving only the banshee Chris by her side, along with several Wendigo.

The other side was six warriors clad in light leather.

Interestingly, each of the six carried three or more steel swords on their back, looking as though they had been trained by the same teacher.

At their forefront stood a young man, fairly clean-cut in appearance, the strongest among them, probably around the mid-seventh tier.

The steel swords on his body were the most exaggerated of all — fully six of them.

Rod felt sorry for him just thinking about the weight.

However, if it were only these people, Dimia wouldn't have asked him to come personally.

Even though the ghoul Pan Ni and the female beastman Amy were currently busy raiding a large bandit den, they could have rushed back to defend with a little effort.

The reason Dimia called for help was naturally not just because of these few people.

As a witch, her magical perception was inherently powerful, and combined with the reconstruction of her magic circuits from the spirit seed back then, it far surpassed those of the same tier.

On top of that, she had always been cautious in her work, and every time she operated on the Twilight Hills, she would preemptively set up dragon-warding spells on her body.

Therefore, she sensed a secret none of the others present had detected:

—A dragon was spying.

Come clean with the sword-folk in front of her and tell them about the dragon?

Dimia didn't dare.

Among the chromatic dragons, there was often a habit of picking proxies within urban society; if a dragon's spying had just been discovered and these people showed up to pester, who knew whether they might be in cahoots with the dragon.

So she could only call for help from a certain forester big brother who had once driven off a dragon.

Rod had already learned all these details through their communication via the 【Far-Speech Chain】.

He also knew that what he had to do next was to fire the opening shot — grand, imposing, and utterly resolute — to purge the Twilight Hills and compress the black dragon's raiding space.

Since the city of Gale, after the Argyle family's full deployment to the front lines, refused to do its job properly, then Quartz Town and the forest would seize the initiative of this place into their own hands.

Boom!!!

With the arrival of February, the dust storms gradually weakened in power, and the sky grew correspondingly clearer.

And then suddenly came an earth-shaking explosion!

Rod simultaneously erupted the power-amplified 【Repulsion Spell】 from both hands and feet in the pale blue sky as propulsion.

He directly blasted open a ball of white mist midair, abruptly accelerated, dragging a long white tail-stream behind him, and streaked away.

Both sides on the ground looked up at the same time.

Dimia and Chris's side naturally felt reassured.

As for the side carrying several swords, they felt alarmed and frowned.

Seeing the figure in the sky heading straight toward them, they grew even more uneasy.

Another booming explosion!

Rod forced a landing on the ground not far away; the earth was crushed and burst apart by the high-pressure impact, curling up like a giant wave and slamming out a crater.

As the smoke cleared, he walked over unhurriedly with a cold expression.

His clothes were still spotless.

Well, how could that be.

Actually, Rod had stealthily used the 【Lightless Chang En Fa Yin】 at the instant of landing and detonated it.

The explosive force of the field not only blasted the dirt open in a very cool, grand manner, but also directly pushed the mud and dust away.

I'm a respectable person, after all, with no small amount of strength.

It's time to do a cool entrance.

The man wearing six steel swords over there showed not the slightest fear and stepped forward.

Rod ignored him.

He went straight to Dimia's side and asked in a low voice:

"Can you tell the dragon's location?"

The witch Young Lady shook her head: "My 【Dragon-Sense】 shares its origin with the dragon-warding spell — it's a spell specifically targeting dragons, but the opponent's position itself exceeds my sensing range; I can only vaguely know that something triggered."

That's the beauty of spells.

Extremely targeted.

Even beyond their own sensing range, they can still trigger.

Rod's 【Spider-Sense】 was strong, but it was a purely physical perception — beyond its range, there was no way to sense anything.

He'd heard that over in the Celestial Court Flower Kingdom, in response to the legendary spells the Aethelorn Kingdom could fire at ultra-long range, they had specially researched a spell called 【Legendary Sense】.

"Mm, then forget about it. I'm right here — if you manage to find it, let me know."

Rod nodded in reassurance.

Tally's shared skill 【Pain Lash】 could enhance spell effects; perhaps he could give Dimia a lash and try.

But then again.

Let's deal with the current situation first.

He looked at the banshee Chris, who was sneaking over, and sighed.

Today's banshee outing was in her undead form.

Her semi-translucent blue-grey skin glowed with a faint silver light, and a head of pitch-black long hair floated in the air like smoke.

She wore a high-collared, slim-fitting long dress that had likewise turned blue-grey under the influence of undead power; clearly she cherished this dress — even while floating in midair, she kept her knees bent to keep it from touching the ground.

Precisely because of this, the form-fitting long skirt outlined her hip and waist lines with perfect clarity.

"Why aren't you helping Pan Ni and Aimi? Slacking off again, huh?"

"No way, it was Dimia who told me to follow her!"

Dimia also spoke up in her defense: "The members of the Ruins Brotherhood are always hiding underground, so having Chris's help will make things considerably easier."

When it comes to fighting, Chris's usual instinct is to hide behind the strongest person.

But upon hearing her master's reproach, she drifted back behind Dimia, only revealing half a head past her shoulder, using her swollen red eyes to glare at Rod with the bravado of a fox borrowing a tiger's might.

Rod was amused by her appearance and turned to ask Dimia instead.

"Regarding the payment, she didn't make you an outrageous demand, did she?"

"The moment I said it was your order, she gave me a ninety percent discount — just exactly the city hall's budget limit."

Dimia said with a smile.

A ninety percent discount and it's just exactly the city hall's budget limit?

One can only say she guessed it.

After all, this is Chris, who loves money like her own life.

But Rod couldn't be bothered to care — with a bit of income, this one would quiet down somewhat.

Tally suddenly poked her little head out from the shadow of Rod's clothes and pouted her lips toward Chris.

"Master, this undead hasn't attended a party in ages, and we can never find her day after day. You need to teach her a lesson."

Chris's face changed: "I have proper business to attend to. It's not like you lot, doing nothing productive every day, only knowing how to fool around in the farm's villa."

Rod's expression turned odd: "Proper business?"

This one's so-called 'proper business' usually means causing trouble.

Dimia, not understanding, asked curiously: "Fooling around?"

"Him, obviously."

The banshee decisively ignored her own master, and even committed the grave offense of pointing directly at him: "He always makes the six girls, myself included, hold parties together — the kind where we strip naked and get very lewd. Not only that, he insists on playing all sorts of messy games. After being tormented all night, our waists and legs go weak, and the next day we can't even float!"

"P-playing games?"

Dimia's cheeks flushed red, her face full of curiosity.

As the main reference model for the protagonist of that lewd novel, the hero Ophiel, she had always been very interested in Rod's romantic life.

Chris glanced at her.

She had previously had a brief exchange with this Young Lady witch at the engagement party of the old gentleman's stepdaughter Tobecca, and the main content was entirely about Rod and her bedroom affairs.

This banshee is a country undead — though she steals, swindles, and breaks out of prison, she still considers herself a good girl.

Discussing bedroom affairs with others — can't do it.

Unless someone bribes me like last time~

Thinking this, Chris very deliberately examined her own fingers, waving them back and forth.

"Oh dear, I keep feeling that paired with this long skirt, my hands look so empty~~"

How could Dimia not understand.

They're all old customers — last time she used a necklace to buy a 'undead pinned against the wall and attacked from front and behind' gameplay, and that chapter was hugely well-received after being published in the newspaper!

She also laughed, taking off a decorative emerald ring from her hand and handing it over.

"Oh my scatterbrain, I just picked up this ring behind you. I meant to return it to you, but out of habit I ended up putting it on my own hand!"

Clearly under the threat of a giant dragon and six swordsmen, she had now completely relaxed, and even had the mind to joke around with Chris.

Why?

Even Dimia herself hadn't realized that the sense of security brought by a certain ranger who had rushed to provide support was stronger than imagined.

Rod's face, however, darkened.

He gave a head-flick to Chris, who had accepted the ring with a smile. She let out an "ow" of pain and nearly burst into tears.

He casually snatched the ring back from her hand and returned it to Dimia.

He was about to say something.

"Mr.!"

The swordsman from the six-swords group stepped forward again, his gaze cold and resentful, and was slowly drawing his sword.

Only now did Rod notice.

It turned out this was a dog-person, and because one of his ears was partially missing, it was hidden in his gray hair and not clearly visible.

Not only that, his wrists and neck all bore obvious scars.

Clearly the marks left from long-term bondage.

"If I'm not mistaken, the undead lady and the lady in the shadows are both under your enslavement."

He spoke through gritted teeth, filled with hatred.

Behind him, several dog-people with similar scars were also baring their teeth, slowly drawing the steel swords from their bodies.

Rod understood in his heart.

It wasn't hard to guess.

This was a group of dog-people who had been brutalized, who had once been enslaved.

"Slavers! All of you deserve to die!!!"

Facing the charging squad of six dog-people.

Rod unhurriedly raised his hand to stop the witch's spellcasting and Tally's shadow manipulation.

"I'll handle this. You focus on sensing the dragon's position. Watch out, this will sting a bit."

He raised his hand and used 【Painful Lash】, whipping Dimia's bottom once through her clothes.

"Oh! Rod, you—? My magic power has strengthened, and its circulation efficiency has increased."

Light shimmered around Dimia as she sensed something, her face full of astonishment.

But then she covered her backside and looked at Rod reproachfully, "But why did you hit here?"

"Sorry, force of habit."

Rod laughed as he rose, activating 【Dragon Scale Art】, and met the attack bare-handed.

(End of chapter)