After killing Head Warden Brown and his followers, Clyde successfully controlled the wicked underground beneath Kelifu Prison. Although he did not control all of Kelifu Prison, being able to control the underground was enough.
Just as Clyde was about to reveal his plans for his new loot, these cute white lambs, his summoned shadow monster reported that they had discovered a concealed path. There was a sewer area below here through which this path ran. Although the monster repeatedly suggested that Clyde didn’t need to personally investigate that place beneath his dignity, Clyde didn’t intend to shrink back and insisted on going.
After arriving at the sewer’s entrance, Clyde regretted his resolve. The smell was honestly too strong. He felt strong discomfort without even entering. Those monsters under his leadership, however, were unaffected. After all, these monsters couldn’t distinguish between foul smell and the like. There was no difference between fair fragrances and this stench for them.
Clyde was at the point of dying. Now, he was still in human form, so he could clearly distinguish the odor. However, since he had ridden this tiger, he was too afraid to dismount, so it was hard for him to retreat. There was a large group of monsters behind him. In front of these subordinate shadow monsters, if he turned back midway like this, he would definitely lose his dignity as a Great Old One. With no way out, Clyde held his breath and descended into the pitch-black underground sewers.
This underground sewer area was built right below Benson Town. Because the Human Race of this different world basically never cleaned their sewers, these places often suffered from blockages, allowing the already disgusting trash to fester. One could only imagine that smell. Clyde had no choice but to hold his breath and explore the sewer area with great reluctance. Those monsters under his leadership follow their master into this dank place.
The underground sewer area was even damper and chillier than the underground of Kelifu Prison. There were even some low-level monsters who had lived here undisturbed for a long time. Rat monsters as big as wild boars and multiple-legged insects (cockroaches) bigger than cats and dogs were most common here. These were low-level monsters with little to no attack power against humans. They could only wait here and scavenge in the garbage like a group of disgusting, unpresentable fellows.
In accordance with the ranks assigned by the Adventurer Guild of Human Race, they were not even F-ranked, belonging to entry-level monsters. Generally speaking, subjugating these monsters had no rewards; in addition, they also didn’t drop any valuable materials. However, that was just superficial since these monsters could evolve further. As long as they had sufficient time and resources, they could advance into humanoid monsters like ratmen and insect-men monsters. At that time, their combat power would sharply increase in addition to their gaining a certain level of intelligence, becoming existences that would be hard to deal with. Merely, the opportunity for advancement was comparatively low.
Facing the shadow monsters that far outclassed them, the rat monsters and cockroaches scattered in fear, making way for Clyde. Clyde followed this path and soon found the secret passage previously mentioned by the shadow demon. In this spacious secret passage, he saw some scattered household utensils and coins that seemed to have been left here recently due to the lack of grim on them. Clyde guessed that the mayor of Benson Town must have dropped them whilst fleeing.
“Master, this path is not peaceful. There are some troublesome fellows!”
“Huh? Eh, you… you guys can talk! I thought you all couldn’t.”
Amongst the shadow monsters behind him, the nearest one suddenly spoke a few words, startling Clyde. He had never seen these monsters talk before since they had previously used telepathy to report to him. Shadow monsters were shadows without a firm appearance. Naturally, there was no way to judge their feelings via the changes in their expressions, which led many to believe them mere slaves. However, that didn’t make these beings weak. Their strength was linked to their master’s strength. The stronger their master was, the more frightening their combat power. These shadow monsters under Clyde could easily destroy the elite troops of every human nation on Ximengsi Continent.
According to the investigations of the shadow monsters, this secret path was not built by humans but rather humanoid monsters. The part under Benson Town was a corner of the iceberg, a mere branch. The true section stretched to the underground region of the Needham Plains. It was a colossal underground construction. Because of the great accident several hundred years ago, the Needham Plains had turned into abandoned ruins. Basically, no human lived there other than some odd hermits, so none had discovered the monsters hiding in the underground world. Only after Marquis Charles had recently seized that place, had there been any humans to observe the monsters’ suspicious activities.
Clyde took a closer look at the underground tunnel. The workmanship level was about the same as the average of Human Race. Basically, the possibility of gnomes or dwarves building this place could be ruled out. These two races also liked to build underground, but their workmanship was much more refined. Anyone could tell the difference at a glance. However, since the stench was too fearful, Clyde turned back after investigating a little. He wanted to look for suitable items like a gasmask before exploring further.
On the basis Ximengsi Continent’s Human Race’s records, there were many strange races that liked to build and live underground. Gnomes and dwarves were the most common and had achieved high-level architecture. Their craftsmanship was simply on the master level, far higher than Human Race’s. The only difference was that the underground constructions of Dwarf Race stressed practically while the underground constructions of Gnome Race stressed artistry, making it easy to distinguish between them.
Other than Dwarf and Gnome Race, there were a variety of other underground races. However, architectural styles of the other underground races were hard to distinguish. Therefore, it was very hard to divine the builders from just their architectural style. In the case of the underground sewer before them, the shadow monsters could only guess that it had been built by some kind of humanoid monster.
After Clyde returned to the underground part of Kelifu Prison, he saw that those white lambs were still waiting for his arrangements. Because they had already accepted their fate and already lacked the extravagant hope of escaping from his control, they had listlessly waited in their prison cells. With zero combat power, it was basically impossible for them to accomplish anything.
“Eh, you all are still here! How come you all didn’t run away?”
“Master, we beg you to stop joking and testing our loyalty. Without your orders, we won’t go anywhere!”
“That’s good. Now, I will tell you what to do next.”
According to Clyde’s arrangements, after the war, these trophies would be given to military officers who had made significant military contributions as wives. Naturally, there was a difference between this and Clark Alliance’s reward slaves. Clyde’s reward was matching, a Suzerain resolving his troops’ personal problems. It was not gifting slaves. Prior to receiving this reward, the recipient’s character would be inspected to ensure that no maltreatment would occur.
The wives and children of the former mayor were excluded from this. Those few young ladies would stay beside Clyde as maids. After all, they were the golden daughters of the former mayor. Despite this, the number of white lambs in the underground prison numbered roughly one or two thousand, not enough for the 10,000 soldiers of Steinbeck Fief. Therefore, he could only prioritize soldiers who had achieved great military exploits or those who were well-off bachelors.
Regarding his arrangements, these female prisoners had no objections. Compared to being treated as sacrifices for some evil ritual, this arrangement was pretty good. That handsome devil was unexpectedly good and had made fairly suitable arrangements. Most of the white lambs already had wicked slave marks imprinted on their bodies. If they were in Clark Alliance, they would only have the fate of being reduced to being commodities.
After appeasing the emotions of the female prisoners, Clyde left behind those shadow monsters to guard the underground section of Kelifu Prison. Because the prison section above was still under the control of the human soldiers, it was impossible to quietly transfer so many people without the help of a special magic item. Afterward, he integrated into the shadows and calmly left Kelifu Prison. Once outside, he returned to the castellan residence next door, looking for Miss Anna to discuss what had happened.
In her room, Anna was lying on her soft big bed. She hadn’t fallen yet asleep although she had already taken off her magician robes and was only in her extremely thin, black, lace undergarments of the garter series style along with a pair of transparent, black, silk stockings. In this unguarded, tempting appearance, she lay on a pink bed sheet. When Clyde suddenly appeared in her chambers, she was so scared that she jumped and nearly screamed. Only after seeing that it was Clyde did her hands that had originally been preparing to cover up her well-developed bosom stop.
“Eh, Lord Clyde, you returned so quickly! What happened? Did you discover… Wait a moment. I will change my clothes… Ah!”
“Anna, there’s no need to change so quickly. Truly, I endured for so long over there, and I saw you like this as soon as I returned. Do me a favor, will you?”
“What favor? Wu… now… Wait… So intimidating… I, I got it.”
Clyde had endured for too long in the underground prison, and his “spear” was already reaching its limits. When he returned, he had immediately seen Anna’s alluring appearance; therefore, he could do nothing about it and had to request Anna’s aid. Anna naturally didn’t refuse. She sat up with a charming appearance. Afterward, remembering her actions in the inn of Adrian Empire’s capital, Samuel City, she swallowed the towering source of evil, reducing her master’s fire.
