Chapter 506: Gratitude and Conscription

Building a cart behind closed doors is of little use.

After deactivating the plague in the medical station, Rod called the Arachne Elf Watching Yuna to clean up.

He himself leaned on a cane and went out for a stroll.

After a night's rest, he was actually almost fully recovered; only his skin still looked red and swollen on the surface.

As for the cane, it was just him pretending for a moment on a whim.

He wandered around for a large circle.

Rod arrived at Henry Farm to watch the workers feed the livestock, chewing and chewing.

Although it was very boring, he watched for quite a while and couldn't bear to leave.

"Rod! Why have you gone out!"

A familiar exclamation of surprise.

Rod turned his head and saw the Witch Dimia coming this way with yesterday's six-member Dogkin group.

The Young Lady Witch hurried over in a small run.

She probably saw him leaning on a cane and thought it was some serious injury or complication.

Today, the Young Lady Witch wore a velvet robe, over which she had put on a high-collared white shirt that jumped with her running steps; the buttons on her chest were extremely tight, ready to burst under the strain at any moment.

"Ah, Dimia."

Rod raised an eyebrow.

Just as he was about to explain, he saw a shadow flash across the ground, deliberately trying to trip his foot.

Tripping him was impossible.

But Rod still deliberately stepped on it.

So his foot slipped, the cane lost its support, and he was about to fall, only to collide squarely into Dimia's arms.

"Ah!"

Dimia cried out in pain, tightly hugging his head and pressing it into her bosom to prevent him from falling.

Her body scent entered his nose, soft and like a water balloon.

With a crackle, Rod found and captured an interesting line of thought from the countless thoughts in his mind.

—Since the fusion of the Plague Domain and 【Yudian's Ice Blade Domain】 is conflicting and erroneous, do I have a catalyst to force the error to become a catalyst?

The answer is yes.

The 【False Spirituality】 first produced by the 【Trembling Soul Blade】!

"Miss Tally! What are you doing!"

Dimia complained.

She wasn't blind; seeing the shadow on the ground, she naturally knew it was a mischievous trick by the Succubus.

But immediately feeling the hot breath on her chest, wandering freely through the soft gaps, she couldn't help but feel a tingle in her heart.

Pink climbed onto her baby-fat cheeks.

Rod lifted his head from her chest.

He quickly wiped away his refreshed expression and pretended to look embarrassed.

"Sorry, that fellow was acting up last night; I punished him, so he's probably throwing a small tantrum."

He glanced down.

He saw Tally showing her small face in the shadow, giving a knowing and flattering silly grin.

Hmph.

This fellow probably wanted to help speed up Rod's progress with the girls to gain forgiveness.

Rod didn't bother to deal with her.

"You too; why come out if you can't stand steadily? Where are Kali and Watching Yuna?"

"... Let's not talk about that first; what happened to them?"

He nodded his chin toward the Dogkin squad behind him.

The gray-furred Dogkin Nick and the rotting-faced female Dogkin, who were exhausted yesterday, had recovered somewhat, but their faces were still deathly pale.

They had tied Mickey, who was affected by the Black Dragon Dagger, up tightly and brought him along.

These few didn't dare to approach; as soon as Rod looked at them.

They all knelt down and kowtowed, partly to express gratitude and partly to apologize.

These people were kidnapped young, didn't understand social customs, and only knew this method.

"They insisted on following to apologize; I couldn't dissuade them, so I had to let them follow."

Dimia said helplessly.

"Mr. Rod, please do not blame Miss Dimia; we insisted on this. Also, this is the agreed-upon apology; please accept it. We can only gather this much for now; the rest will be made up later. We are very sorry!"

Saying this.

The gray-furred Dogkin Nick trembled as he stood up and handed over a heavy small bundle.

Rod took it and weighed it in his hand.

It probably totaled only about two hundred Jin Along.

For a small squad possessing two Seventh-Rank members, they could be called utter paupers.

Look, they couldn't even afford a magical satchel, and the weapons they had re-equipped with were even the broken swords Rod had snapped yesterday.

"..."

Rod pondered for a moment.

He said to them, "I lack people to deal with the giant dragon at Coral Bay; will you come?"

"Come!"

Nick's face twisted with hatred and anger.

He had already learned from Dimia that Mickey's condition was caused by the influence of the Black Dragon Dagger.

How could he not hate it!

Rod threw the small bundle in his hand back to him.

"This is the deposit; the compensation money will be deducted from your wages later."

Nick paused for a moment: "But..."

"Stop being so indecisive! Let me tell you, our deal is one-time only. Once Coral Bay is resolved, you and I will have no further connection."

The dog-kin knew full well that the Ranger in front of him was deliberately helping him.

Immediately, his heart was deeply moved; his nose stung, and he nearly shed tears.

He knelt down once more.

Rod, however, paid him no further mind.

Leaning on his cane, he walked into the forest; he had to try 【Erroneous Spirituality】.

Behind him, Dimia and the dog-kin people exchanged a few words of farewell and comfort, then trotted over to catch up.

He spoke in a low voice.

"Rosalie sent a secret letter, Rod."

"Oh?"

The Tooth Fairy, Rosalie, had been forcibly recalled by Storm City a month ago; she had gotten along quite well with Dimia here and, he heard, had maintained contact through letters.

"She said Storm City received news that the Asheron front lacks manpower; the Yige Sect has formed an inspection team and may dispatch knightly orders to various locations to forcibly conscript combatants."

"No, does Asheron even have the capacity to forcibly conscript troops?"

"Do not underestimate Asheron. Although it is now a sick tiger, it is still a tiger at its core. Its internal knightly orders vary greatly; there are always those skilled at monitoring officials, investigating crimes, and suppressing rebellions, rather than being suited for fighting on the front lines."

Understood.

Like the Eastern Depot and Western Depot, those special intelligence agencies...

"Are you saying they might conscript us?"

"I personally think it is possible, especially if we successfully resolve Coral Bay. The bards will surely sing of it, you understand; under the weight of such fame..."

Rod smiled:

"What do you think? After all, your rank is far higher than mine; I am merely a humble Ranger."

Dimia grew serious: "I do not care about Asheron; I only care about Young Lady Daphne. If she had not taken me in back then, I would long since have been a corpse by the roadside. Before Young Lady Daphne departed, she instructed me to protect Shi Ying Town; I will certainly not break my word and leave."

Rod sighed as well: "It is a pity that the so-called 【Heart of the Divine】 has never been found."

That noble Young Lady had a kind and gentle personality.

From the perspective of a friend, Rod also held her in high regard.

Regarding the 【Heart of the Divine】, he inquired about it wherever he went, but this thing simply had no one who had ever heard of it!

"After all, it is something even the Argyle family could not find; perhaps it was merely the ramblings of that half-deer High Elder's prophecy... Perhaps precisely because they could not find a way to save Young Lady Daphne, the Argyle family seems to have reached some agreement with the people of the Yige Sect, which is why they went to the front lines without hesitation."

"Is that so?"

Upon hearing the name Yige Sect,

Rod began to feel nauseous, even though these fellows had not shown their faces in the Twilight Hills for a long time.

Evening.

Ranger's Hut.

Having received the injury assessment from the Elf Lady Kali, which passed, Rod could finally return to his own hut.

Of course.

A certain succubus, currently in a state of punishment, still could not enter.

At this moment.

Rod curled up on the beast-skin sofa, which had changed color due to over-cleaning, without lighting any illumination.

After all, right in front of him was the 【Omnipotent Furnace】, blazing with orange flames, sufficient to make the not-so-large Ranger's Hut shine brightly.

Not long after.

Rod's eyes lit up.

A message refreshed on the panel:

【Refining Successful】

【Name: Ice Maggot Matriarch】

【Details: A Nature Spirit possessing simple intelligence; however, its state is absolutely not that of a naturally born spiritual creature. It is an erroneous creature that should not have been born into the world.

Upon absorption, it will strengthen "Yudian's Ice Blade Domain" and grant the following effects:

Putrid Ice Blade: Each time cold damage is dealt, it applies the "Necrotic Ulceration" status, reducing the healing effect received by the target by 25% on their next instance.

Plague Breeding Ground: Creatures killed by Ice Blades will drop 1 to 4 Ice Maggot larvae, which automatically attack the nearest warm-blooded creature. Those possessed can trigger "Ice Pustule Outbreak."

Plague Siphon: Every creature within the Ice Blade Domain will be absorbed, restoring the caster's vitality, spirituality, and mana. The absorption speed depends on the gap in rank between the two parties.

Wailing Ice Tree: Every five minutes within the Ice Blade Domain, a "Wailing Ice Tree" grows. Each tree increases Ice Blade intensity by 5%. One can forcibly grow it by consuming 50% of the caster's internal spirituality.】

【Evaluation: 62 points】

"..."

Is this leaning a bit too heavily towards plague?

And maggots and such.

Doesn't quite fit the identity of a dignified person like me, does it?

Sigh.

If it's undignified, then so be it.

After all, it was obtained by spending the last remaining 50 points of aberrant spirituality—there won't be any more.

Rod pinched the half-palm-sized ice-maggot mother between his fingers, ignoring it as it rubbed against his palm trying to show affection.

He crushed it with a sudden squeeze.

Its outer skin was a layer of resilient thin ice; the moment he applied force, it burst open and spurted out a large clump of something mixed with frost and yellowish-green innards.

Rod endured the nausea and absorbed it into his spirituality.

Not long after.

He felt a mother ice-maggot of identical appearance clinging to the heart in his chest—only this one was formed from spirituality.

He looked at the panel again.

【Udian's Ice Blade Domain】 had become +4.

"Quite a decent boost."

He shook the ice shards off his hand.

Rod stood up and stretched, just thinking about whose place to spend the night at tonight, when someone knocked at the door.

A slight probe of his senses revealed it was Tally.

"Come in."

"Hehe."

Tally pushed the door open and walked in, grinning foolishly.

Today she looked like a young girl, wearing a pure white dress; her chest wasn't adorned with any fancy frills either, just an ordinary swell.

"Master, Tally's been obedient today, hasn't pestered you for a single meal all day."

"Mm, come here and handle it yourself, I won't bother with you." Rod sat back down.

"Oh."

The succubus knew her master was in a foul mood and didn't dare act coquettish.

So she obediently came over and sat down on the carpet in front of him.

(End of chapter)