Korgash stared at the five surviving scouts, who sat in silence after his question. The King of the Slimy Sky felt a vein throb in his temple. He knew their intelligence was at the level of a puddle, so he had to ask simple questions.
"What were you doing?" he growled.
"Scouting," they replied in unison, unnaturally dragging out the vowels.
"Where?"
"Valley of Eternal Darkness."
"What did you see?"
"Goblins."
Korgash furrowed his brow so hard that his toad skin folded into a thick ridge. Goblins? Those wretched, green pests were supposed to have wiped out forty-five of his soldiers? It made no sense.
"What were they doing?" he asked further, feeling like he was missing something.
"Digging."
"What were they digging?! Gold? Iron ore?"
Instead of an answer, one of the toads pointed a slimy paw at a giga-potato lying on the ground. Korgash froze. He picked up the vegetable, examining it from all sides. Suddenly, his expression shifted 180 degrees. Enlightenment struck him like a bolt from the blue.
These potatoes don't grow here naturally.
If the goblins are cultivating them, it means someone is ruling them.
Korgash knew that in this world, Demon Kings were a greater threat to each other than Heroes. A Hero was just an obstacle, but another Demon King was competition for resources, land, and glory. One mountain cannot hold two tigers - and the Valley of Eternal Darkness was far too close to his cave.
He had been buying those potatoes on the trade chat himself to keep his toads alive. That cursed "Potato King" had monopolized the market, and Korgash had to pay him with hard-earned gold.
"Do they have a lot of them? Those goblins?" he asked, pointing at the tuber.
"Mist... mist made it hard to see," one of the toads gibbered, scratching its head. "But... hundreds of great mountains of potatoes."
Korgash went still, potato in hand. His large, yellow eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "You saw this too?" he turned to the rest. All the toads nodded their broad heads vigorously.
The King of the Slimy Sky began to pace nervously left and right, his wings scraping against the damp rock. His mind was working at full speed.
"There's no way... nobody buys those amounts just to feed them to goblins! It makes no economic sense!" he suddenly shouted, then stood rooted to the spot.
The potato slipped from his paw and rolled through the mud. "Is it possible...?" he whispered in disbelief, which suddenly turned into a guttural roar. "Could it be the Demon King of Potatoes?!"
Korgash sat in the darkness, his mind working faster than ever. The information began to fit into a logical, incredibly tempting whole. This mysterious "Potato King" who had been flooding the market with offers for days had to be his neighbor.
"Is it possible?" he murmured, licking his wide lips. "Could this famous tycoon actually be some overgrown goblin who got lucky with fertile soil? That would explain why he hides his race. Who would want to admit they shake the market as a green-skinned midget?"
One of the toad-bats, seeing that its master had calmed down, rasped additional information: "We wanted... to fly further. But suddenly... powerful purple creature. Fast. Killed brothers in a second."
Korgash clenched his fist so hard his claws dug into the muddy altar. A purple creature? Probably some elite unit or building that rich guy bought with millions earned from potatoes. But it didn't matter. If the Valley of Darkness truly was the vault of the Potato King, then Korgash believed he had just hit the jackpot.
"That guy earned such a fortune that he can afford to buy all sorts of blueprints and buildings, that's clear," Korgash reasoned aloud, greed burning in his eyes. "But money isn't everything. In this game, I hold all the aces!"
He began to count on his thick fingers. First: Initiative. Demon Kings don't know about each other until they are found. He already knew the location of their farms, and this "Potato" had no idea Korgash even existed. Second: Mobility. His army of Toad-Bats might be weaker in close combat, but they ruled the air.
"Hahaha!" he burst into a guttural laugh that echoed off the slippery cave walls. "That fool sits on his sacks of gold and thinks he's safe behind his goblins. I'll carry out a lightning raid. I'll strike straight at his Altar before those purple monstrosities even look at the sky! Beheading the enemy and seizing his entire fortune... Truly, the heavens are with me!"
Korgash stood up, spreading his great, membranous wings. He felt incredible. The vision of seizing millions of gold pieces and eliminating the richest player in the region made the blood circulate faster in his veins.
"You can have your purple elites and millions of tons of vegetables, Potato King!" he roared toward the cave exit. "But against the King of the Slimy Sky, you're just a fat tuber waiting to be devoured!"
Korgash didn't intend to leave anything to chance.
All night long, the cave trembled with low, guttural sounds as the Ruler sent out supersonic waves, summoning all scattered hunting groups. He knew the strike on the "Potato King" had to be swift and total.
***
The next day, Korgash's base was bursting at the seams. Over two hundred toad-like units swarmed in the damp corridors, sharpening bony claws and checking membranous wings. Korgash sat on the altar, tracing an attack plan in the dirt with a claw. He was already imagining those mountains of gold he would seize after the fall of this newly discovered Demon King.
Suddenly, the silence of planning was shattered by the panicked fluttering of wings. One of the servants burst into the main chamber, slamming with momentum against the wall.
"We are under attack!" the toad gasped, spitting slime.
Korgash raised his massive head, his golden eyes flashing with purple anger. "What?! By whom?!" he roared, unable to believe someone had beaten him to the punch.
"Four... four figures!" the servant croaked.
Korgash froze for a moment, only to burst into a thunderous, contemptuous laugh a second later. Four? Only Heroes were stupid enough to seek out his cave in the heart of such dangerous terrain.
"Hahaha! A worthless band of cockroaches dares to challenge me in my own nest?" he stood up, straightening his powerful wings. "Let them come! Their souls will only strengthen my power before the battle. I've already killed six like them; four more are just free skill points!"
He rejoiced inwardly. If the system threw Heroes at his feet just before the raid on the Valley of Darkness, maybe he could activate a new combat talent. However, his confidence was brutally trampled just a few seconds later.
"Master!" another cry, this time full of pure terror, came from deep in the corridor. "It's terrible! Death is coming! The outer caves have been lost! All the guards are dead!"
Korgash sharply let out his breath, his bloated belly trembling. "What did you just say?!" he screamed, his voice cracking with fear for the first time.
"How is that possible?! We lost the outer chambers in less than a minute?"