Chapter 41: Gratified, and a Circle

Karolith, Matron of the Imps.

As her name settled into Koda’s mind, the rest of what she was came with it, poured in through the throne.

She was monstrously strong. Her body could take a staggering amount of punishment, more than a hundred Imps put together. Her wits, on the other hand, were dim, she was slow on her feet, and anyone who looked at her would find her about as charming as an open grave.

Then came her gifts.

The first was her Rotting Miasma. She could spray a foul, poisonous gas from the tumors on her body. Every enemy within twenty meters would be poisoned, and every Imp caught in it would fly into a frenzy, hitting half again as hard as before.

The second was Imp Catching. She could grab an Imp and stuff it into one of the cages hanging from her body. She had room for twenty.

The third was Imp Tossing. She could hurl a fully frenzied Imp from one of her cages straight at her enemies.

The fourth was Devouring. She could eat an Imp to heal her own wounds.

She carried no gear.

And her loyalty had been fixed by the deep itself. It could never waver.

Last of all came one small impression, almost like a footnote.

She really, truly loved her "children"...

...

Excellent!

Even Koda hadn’t expected the very first champion he called to be this strong.

Karolith didn’t just have enormous strength. Her endurance was absolutely terrifying.

Many champions with strong bloodlines grew truly monstrous later on, but Koda had never imagined one could start out this sturdy.

Judging by her strength, her endurance, and her gifts, Karolith was a superb front-line fighter.

And with those gifts, she could work perfectly alongside his Imps.

The Imps would probably hate being part of that arrangement, but...

Clearly, that didn’t matter one bit~

"You don’t have to lie there. Get up."

Once he had taken it all in, Koda told the Matron to stand.

It wasn’t because he cared about his subordinates’ comfort. She was simply too big.

Just lying there, she was already getting in the way of everything going in and out of the gate.

"Thank you, great Lord of the Deep!"

Hearing that, Karolith immediately heaved herself up.

There was no denying it. She was enormous.

Just standing in front of him, she pressed down on Koda with sheer size.

No wonder she could carry twenty Imp cages on her body...

But before Koda could give her any orders, the bloated monster spoke first.

"Um, great Lord of the Deep, might this humble one ask you for one small favor?"

"A favor?"

Koda paused for a moment, then quickly understood.

According to what the throne had shown him, champions were highly intelligent. And like any thinking creature, it was only natural for them to have all kinds of strange desires.

Every champion wanted something different. Some wanted a certain piece of gear. Some wanted their lord to look after their people. Some just wanted riches...

And besides the ordinary requests, some champions wanted much stranger things.

Some male or female champions, for instance, would openly pursue their lord, even if there was a slight difference between their races.

Uh, just a small one...

But either way, if a lord managed to grant a champion’s wish, the champion would usually repay him in their own way.

A hidden power, a secret buried in their blood, a clue about their race, and so on.

Most importantly, granting their wishes made them more loyal!

"Fine. What do you want?"

Koda had already noticed that, because of the deep, her loyalty was fixed and could never change. Still, he wanted to know what his very first champion would ask for.

It would give him something to go on with future champions.

But Koda never imagined her request would be so bizarre...

Or so easy to grant!

---

A few minutes later, on the Tithe Lands.

"Hahahaha! I love my little Imps the most, most, most, most! Did you all..."

"Miss me?"

Across a vast plain, countless Imps were shrieking and scattering in every direction.

Behind them, a bloated "mountain of meat" kept snatching up the poor wretches one after another.

"Ow!"

One fleeing Imp got tripped by another fleeing Imp beside it and went face-first into the dirt.

It was a classic Imp trick.

As the saying went, when a predator comes, you don’t need to outrun the predator. You only need to outrun the friend next to you.

So before it could even get up and take revenge on its "friend," a pair of hands bigger than its whole body grabbed it tight and shoved it into a small, filthy iron cage.

"Oh, my precious baby. Now that you’re back in Mommy’s arms, don’t you dare think about leaving so easily~"

Karolith smiled at the Imp trapped in her cage.

But her yellow teeth and trembling lips suggested that what she was really thinking might not be quite so innocent.

"Hahaha!"

"My naughty children, stop running~ Come back to Mommy! Hurry!"

Out in the wide forest, the Matron of the Imps was playing happily with her beloved Imps, a kind smile on her face.

And the cages on her body were slowly filling up...

Watching his very first champion bond so quickly with his soldiers, Koda felt deeply gratified.

’Now that I have real heavy strength, I can finally push my plan forward,’ he thought.

He called up the Tithe Lands in his mind.

By now, the picture in his head had become unrecognizable to anyone but him.

Marks of every size, signals sorted by color, and lines of march that never stopped shifting. No outsider could ever have guessed what he was thinking.

But Koda wasn’t bothered at all. He was even enjoying it.

He had slowly grown used to chaos and disorder. Now, in his mind, he drew a black-and-red circle across the Tithe Lands.

Inside that circle of death and ruin stood a small town belonging to a neutral race.

A town ruled by a people famous for their short tempers and stubbornness.

The dwarves!