Under the curtain of night, Benson Town suffered a large-scale attack from humanoid monsters, and flames soared throughout the town. With bloody moonlight as a background, the atmosphere appeared especially abnormal. After several battles, the controlling power of Benson Town had changed several times, but finally, Clyde had captured the town.
The human armies had all been defeated. The forces of the three earls had already withdrawn to the outskirts of the Leopold Lake area to observe. Although they altogether had over 150,000 soldiers who had some combat power, the three earls each had selfish calculations. No one would take the lead in this battle. They feared that after their armies suffered casualties, the other two forces would take cheap advantage of the situation. Therefore, they retreated without fighting. Before Clyde’s monster army had intervened, these human troops had actually had a chance to defeat those humanoid monsters. Merely, at the critical moment, they had given up because of their higher-ups’ fears.
Now, a large number of human villages and towns in the vicinity of Leopold Lake showed signs of a mass evacuation. Benson Town was already under the control of monsters. As for the other villages and towns, they turned into uninhabited areas. Under the threat of the monster army, the people who had lived here for generations had no choice but to reluctantly leave, becoming refugees. The only place still under the control of humans was Ian Town where the army of Steinbeck Fief was stationed. They defended the final dignity of the Human Race, nothing more. In fact, they had close relations with the monster army, but it didn’t show it on their proudly waving flags.
There were a large number of refugees. Because the Leopold Lake area hadn’t originally had any relationships with these powerful powerful aristocrats, the earls and the aristocrat forces following them refused to accept any fleeing refugees. They didn’t have the extra land or any obligations toward them. If they accepted these refugees, they wouldn’t be able to arrange cultivable land for themselves; moreover, they would also then have to provide food and relief for these miserable souls. It was not worth it.
Now, the refugees could only seek shelter from Steinbeck Fief. The population of Steinbeck Fief was not great, and there would be enough land for the refugees to cultivate. Thus, Steinbeck Fief received a large number of refugees by taking advantage of the monster attacks in Leopold Lake, further expanding the population. It quickly achieved the basic population condition for the advancement of a fief’s rank, becoming the only winner among the human camps from this incident.
The three earls intended to wait at the periphery of Leopold Lake for a while. If the situation were amiss, they would immediately return to their own territories and not care about Leopold Lake’s fate, letting it turn into an ownerless land. However, they would first determine whether any profits could be made. With so many monsters moving about, no matter how rich in natural resources that place was, they wouldn’t dare to approach. This task clearly was a losing business without any profits. They didn’t want to become the unlucky ghost to purchase this land.
From the perspective of the three earls, the most suitable sucker to sell this land to in the nearby vicinity was Steinbeck Fief. Since Steinbeck Fief had no connections with their forces, they wouldn’t have any guilty consciences when digging a pit for Steinbeck Fief. After calculating for a good while, the three earls agreed to send a messenger to the imperial palace of Samuel City, the capital of Adrian Empire, jointly requesting the emperor to make Leopold Lake area fall under Steinbeck Fief’s jurisdiction, forcing them to purchase this land. They didn’t want to have any connections to the Leopold Lake area as they could be enlisted to defend it later.
Clyde already controlled Benson Town. Most of the underground ratmen had already been driven back to the underground world while the fishmen hunters had similarly been driven back to the underwater world beneath the large artificial Andy Lake, not daring to appear at the surface. If they dared to appear, then the high leveled monsters guarding the lake would immediately kill them. Most important landmarks of Benson Town such as the mayor’s residence, Kelifu Prison, Service Hotel, and so on had been completely cleared by Clyde’s forces. Nevertheless, a few places still had ongoing battles against the pockets of stubborn underground ratmen who refused to admit defeat and continued confronting the fearsome monster army in the alleys.
In Clyde’s monster army, most were high leveled monsters. Their combat power had an obvious advantage. It was only a matter of time before these pockets were thoroughly defeated, so Clyde set up temporary headquarters in the mayor’s residence of Benson Town. Formerly, Earl Gerard had used this place as his temporary headquarters. Therefore, it only needed some basic renovations for Clyde to truly use it as a proper headquarters.
The spoils of war in the underground part of Kelifu Prison were finally able to see the light of day. After the underground ratmen had retreated in defeat, they had been released. These white lambs had already accepted their fates. After coming out, like the female survivors of Service Hotel, the egyptian maids used special white bandages to wrap them up before placing them into those special, ventilated coffins. Clyde wanted to confirm the situation of the underground passage, so he temporarily didn’t have the time to enjoy the spoils of war. Otherwise, he would have enjoyed those young ladies of the former mayor’s family here in the mayor’s residence.
“Master Clyde, we…”
“It’s okay; lie down at ease. Our master will not turn you all into sacrificial offerings although we very much want to do that.”
Clyde slightly nodded his head, tacitly approving the instructions of those egyptian maids. After getting confirmation from their master, those female prisoners obediently let those maids wrap them into mummies and put them inside the coffins. Although he hadn’t find much money or valuables in Benson Town, he had found a lot of special spoils of war like these white lambs. Unfortunately, he was not a suzerain of Clark Alliance. Otherwise, using these special spoils of war as tribute to the higher-ups would have been enough to advance the rank of Steinbeck Fief. Victor Alliance was more troublesome.
In the main hall of the residence, Clyde called together the commanders of the various monster armies and held a group meeting to discuss their plans against the underground world. Although the three earls had been resolved, and the next step, to send an armed force against Marquies Charles in the Needham Plains, had already been planned before, because of the appearance of the underground ratmen and insect men monsters, Clyde had to temporarily change his plans. These underground forces took precedence. Otherwise, these forces that had been hiding under the Needham Plains would become a big threat.
The members participating in this secret meeting were Clyde’s younger sister Lucifer, Undead Queen Lafania, Lafania’s younger sister Cursed Queen Mephis, and Ancient Demon King Andrisno. None among these four was a human. The room was filled with dense, dark air, like a secret meeting between villains. As the one hosting this meeting, Clyde sat at the head position. All these four beauties of the dark force had unordinary relationships with Clyde. Other than Lucifer, the other three regarded Clyde as their master. He could make them do anything he pleased. Only Lucifer’s presence hindered him from putting his hands on them.
“Big Brother Clyde, my Bloodkin familiars investigated that underground passage. This is the new map. Take a look!”
“Sister Lucifer, you worked hard. I will reward you after returning!”
“I don’t need any reward! With our close relationship, we don’t need that.”
When Clyde took the map, Clyde caressed Lucifer’s head in passing as a reward, and his sister closed her eyes with a happy expression. She seemed to like this type of spoiling a lot. The other beauties turned their gazes to other directions to avoid attracting Clyde’s attention. They were no match for Lucifer. Once they attracted Clyde’s attention, his bullying methods wouldn’t be as simple as caressing their heads; it would definitely be more wickedly erotic.
On the maps drawn by the Bloodkin, Clyde saw the rough overall layout of those humanoid monsters’ underground city. Although the underground ratmen and insect men monsters were opponents and had fought for supremacy of the underground world for a long time, they had built their cities together. This crisscrossing architectural layout between their zones caused them to encounter each other frequently, so it was impossible to avoid daily fights. It seemed that the warlike attributes of these two races were difficult to change. They had intentionally built their cities to make it convenient to fight every day.
“Lord Clyde, I have arranged for the ghosts in the Needham Plains to secretly investigate. It seems that Marquis Charles has discovered some of the anomalies of the underground world. Those ghosts sent me a lot of intelligence. Marquis Charles has already issued a bounty mission and hired many mercenary groups and adventurers to explore the underground world below the Needham Plains.”
“Oh, that’s interesting. Marquis Charles, that fellow seems a little wise. Andrisno, what else did those ghosts find? Did the mercenaries hired by Marquis Charles discover those humanoid monsters underground?”
“They have yet to find them. None of the adventurers and mercenaries hired by Marquis Charles returned after entering the underground world. Currently, they suspect that the monsters in the underground world are goblins and spirits.”
Ancient Demon King Andrisno had sent a large number of ghosts in her monster army to sneak into the Needham Plains and investigate Marquis Charles’s army of 120,000 troops stationed there. According to the latest intelligence from those ghosts, Marquis Charles seemed much more vigilant than the three earls. He had immediately noticed that the underground world under the Needham Plains was not peaceful and spent a huge sum to hire adventurers and mercenaries to explore it. However, all had failed.
Marquis Charles still believed that the active humanoid monsters of the underground world were goblins or spirits. These two monsters were also humanoid, but their builds were generally small, and except for a few variants, their combat power was not worth mentioning. Their strength was equivalent to that of a human child, nothing more. Humans could easily beat them back.
In the Adventurer and Mercenary Guilds, the rewards for exterminating goblins and spirits were quite low. The prize for exterminating underground rat and insect men monsters was at least three times greater. Clyde wondered whether Marquis Charles was intentionally insisting his problem was goblins and spirits to save money. He would then send the adventurers and mercenaries hired at low cost to their deaths, thinking of getting rid of those humanoid monsters by relying on numbers.
If low-leveled adventurers and mercenaries died in action, the employer and respective guilds were not responsible and wouldn’t need to pay any compensation. Only high-leveled adventurers and mercenaries were entitled to compensation if they died in action. Marquis Charles was actually very shrewd and cunning. He didn’t want to deplete his own elite troops by exterminating those underground ratmen and insect men. Hiring adventurers and mercenaries saved a lot of money. If the elite soldiers loyal to his family died in action, he would have to pay compensation to the family members of the deceased. Comparatively speaking, hiring low-level adventurers and mercenaries was quite economical.
If Clyde were in Marquis Charles’s place, he might have also done so. However, he had many monster troops that cost him nothing, so he didn’t have to do that. Thinking this, Clyde no longer evaluated whether Marquis Charles’s way of doing things was proper. In any case, once many low-level adventurers and mercenaries died, the Adventurer and Mercenary Guilds would become alert to some extent and no longer arrange for their low-level members to go to the Needham Plains, but rather send special envoys to discuss the issue of raising the employment costs.
“Big Brother Clyde, should we arrange for demonic monsters to deal with those low-leveled underground monsters? Now, we could dispatch enough high-leveled monsters; we don’t need to act in person.”
“Lord Clyde, although those humanoid monsters are huge in number, outnumbering our monster troops by over three times, they have no way to surmount the power gap. We will win for sure. My younger sister and I are willing to be the vanguard and banish those hostile monsters from the underground world.”
“I have an acquaintance over at Marquis Charles’s place. I will visit her first and see whether she has a plan. You all, standby here. I will go by myself.”
“Big Brother Clyde, then I…”
“Sister Lucifer, you should also stay here, but rest assured that if there is anything interesting, I will call you first.”
