Leo stood atop the ten-meter stone wall, surveying the newly upgraded watchtower. It stood as a silent sentinel, rising twelve meters above the ramparts with a broadened platform designed to let four archers rain death simultaneously.
The sun was sinking, its golden duty done for the day. Leo sighed, brushing his silver hair back from his brow, his hand resting deep in the pocket of his black coat. ''So, when were you planning to tell me, Luna?'' he asked, his voice low as he addressed the girl standing beside him.
''It isn't that I was trying to hide it,'' Luna replied softly. ''I thought it was better to pretend I didn't know Hye-na. I was worried you would feel like you were losing control... and,'' she turned to meet his gaze, ''I was afraid you might hurt me because we were friends.''
Leo's eye twitched. He had played the part of a cold killer when he forced her to submit, but it was a calculated performance to secure her talent. He never actually intended to cause her harm... probably.
''So you've been friends since high school, then?'' Leo asked.
Luna nodded, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
''Do you know about her mother?'' Leo pressed.
Luna hesitated, her expression clouding with a flicker of pain. ''I don't know the full story, but I heard she fell into a coma when Hye-na was around eleven. After that, everything changed. Hye-na became distant, a shadow of herself. She carried so much guilt, Leo. While she was battling her own nightmares, you lost your parents. She wasn't there for you when you needed her most. By the time she learned of the accident, you were already drowning in trauma and lost memories. She stayed away because she was terrified that seeing her might trigger the very things you were trying to forget.''
''Sigh. It feels like I'm listening to a biography of a stranger,'' Leo remarked, his own childhood still a fragmented blur of fog and shadows.
Luna's eyes drifted toward the horizon, where the army was returning from the hunt. ''Let's focus on the present, Leo,'' she said with a faint smile. ''If we survive this, there will be time to mend the past.''
The heavy gates groaned open. The undead and ogres marched back into the stronghold, bearing the scars of battle but reporting no total losses. Leo could have easily assigned his new maids to increase the harvest, but he needed this fledgling army to learn to move under Malphas's command. He couldn't be the center of every skirmish; his commanders needed to grow.
Leo dismissed the undead to their barracks to begin their slow, necromantic recovery. The wounded were directed to Gleam, his maid, who had begun manifesting a talent for arcane healing.
Outside the warehouse, Malphas dropped to one knee before Leo, extending a silver storage ring. ''As ordered, my lord. We dismantled two rare-grade camps and cleared a handful of kobold stragglers along the path.''
Leo took the ring, checking the contents. Now that Leo's level had risen, Malphas had reached rank D++. The commander was a powerhouse now, capable of wiping out a rare camp single-handedly if the need arose.
Leo initiated the dismantle command on the mountain of corpses.
[Dismantle Complete] [Resources Acquired: Bone Fragments x1500, Beast Leather x900, Sharp Fangs x400, Raw Meat x1200, Aether Core (F) x20, Aether Core (E) x8, Aether Core (D) x3, Sanguine Essence x1400...]
He then turned his attention to the spoils of the rare chests.
[Acquired: Skill Book: Pain Partition (Rare), High-grade stamina recovery potions x3, Gold x7000]
He learned the skill instantly. Pain Partition would allow him to shunt aside physical agony during a frenzy, keeping his mind sharp when his body was failing. After moving the materials into the warehouse, Leo turned toward the practice grounds. He finally had the resources to see what his mutated recruitment options looked like. With Malphas and Frost looming behind him, he summoned the interface.
[Recruitment Tab]
[Human Swordsman (Uncommon) - 50 Gold]
[Human Archer (Uncommon) - 60 Gold]
[Authority II: Sovereign's Mandate Active]
[Mutate recruitment to an Exotic Race - 1000 SE Required - YES | NO]
He tapped 'YES' without hesitation. His Sanguine Essence plummeted to 500 as the screen flickered and distorted like a failing transmission. When the image stabilized, a new race occupied the slots.
[The Bloodtusk Clan]
[Tuskbreaker Axemen (Uncommon) - 120 Gold & 100 SE]
[Stonegut Slingers (Uncommon) - 120 Gold & 100 SE]
'Interesting,' Leo thought. This wasn't just a race change; it was a fundamental shift in the army's makeup. He quickly converted the batch of F-rank cores he had just acquired, bumping his SE back up to 2600. He immediately commissioned ten axemen and ten slingers.
The air in the training ground rippled as a portal tore open. The sound of heavy, rhythmic thuds preceded the arrival of the boar-kin. They were massive beings with thick bellies and skin etched with tribal markings. Bare-chested and clad in rugged trousers, they carried heavy iron axes across their broad shoulders. Their tusks were jagged and stained with the remnants of past hunts.
The ten axemen stepped onto the gravel and slammed their weapons down in unison. They threw their heads back and unleashed a deafening roar. ''We are of Bloodtusk! We do not kneel! We do not yield! OHHHHHH!''
The cry shook the very walls of the stronghold. The few humans nearby recoiled in fear at the raw arrogance radiating from the new recruits. Then, the slingers emerged. They were a stark contrast—lean, agile, and silent. They wore their hair in intricate braids, and their tusks were shorter, more refined.
'Wait... those are female,' Leo realized, noting the feminine curves beneath their light leather armor. They didn't roar; they simply stood ready, their hands hovering near the slings at their waists with predatory patience.
The commotion had drawn a crowd. The arrogant Tuskbreakers didn't hide their disdain for the 'weaker' races around them, their aggression flaring the moment Grakul and his Pig-kin tribe arrived to investigate the noise.
Grakul's brother let out a wet, mocking laugh, pointing a meaty finger at the lead axeman. ''Brother, look at these hideous boars. They actually think they can stand tall in front of the Lord.''
The lead Boar-kin's eyes glowed with a dark, murderous red. He took a heavy step forward, the edge of his iron axe scraping a harsh line into the stone. ''I would rather be a boar of the wild than a piece of livestock like you, pig.''
Grakul, the lean and cunning leader of the pig-kin, smirked as he leveled his staff at the Boar-kin. ''Mind your tongue, swine. My tribe has bled for this ground since the beginning. To us, you are just a meal that miraculously learned how to walk on two legs.''
The female slingers remained silent, but their hands dipped into their pouches with practiced lethality. One of them, a lithe Boar-kin with bone-beaded braids, hissed through her tusks. ''Try us, baby-skin. I will put a stone through your skull before your lips can even finish a chant.''
Leo, positioned between the two factions, struggled to suppress his laughter. On his left stood Grakul's tribe—pink, rotund bodies with pig-like faces, clutching machetes and spears. On his right were the Boar-kin—muscular, covered in coarse brown fur, and bristling with axes and slings.
'It never changes,' Leo thought, his silver hair catching the fading sunlight as he leaned back. 'Humans divide themselves by the shade of their skin. It only makes sense that boars and pigs would find a reason to hate each other, too. War is universal, but so is petty prejudice.'
While Grakul was smart enough to keep the conflict verbal, the newly summoned Boar-kin were far more volatile. One of the axemen, his pride wounded by the 'livestock' comment, let out a guttural snarl and lunged toward Grakul.
Grakul didn't even flinch. He just watched the charging brute with a pitying smirk. 'You have no idea whose presence you are in, fool.'
Before the axeman's boot could hit the ground for a second step, a wave of absolute zero swept over him. In a heartbeat, the massive Boar-kin was transformed into a jagged, shimmering ice sculpture, his face frozen in a mask of rage.
Frost stepped forward from behind Leo, his aura radiating a killing intent that made the air crystallize. His voice was a frigid whisper that cut through the shouting match like a glacier. ''Try that again, and I will freeze every internal organ in your wretched, fat bodies.''