The Boss King actually disguised himself as a novice village chief?!
Chapter 522: Title 423: The Power of Titles

Chapter 522: Title 423: The Power of Titles

"More and more?" Black Blood’s eyes brightened.

Humans are naturally cunning merchants, while Beastmen are more aggressive and irritable. The Scorpion Flea Merchants fall somewhere in between.

Hearing this, Black Blood was certain that a fight had indeed taken place, but it wasn’t the humans attacking the Scorpion Flea Merchants. Instead, the Scorpion Flea Merchants had seen the humans with money and decided to seize both the people and their wealth.

Black Blood was all too familiar with the nature of these merchants!

"Yes, suddenly hundreds of humans burst out. We only had about ten people. We were vastly outnumbered, and my brothers either got killed or captured, only I managed to escape," wailed the Scorpion Flea Merchant, "They’re demons!"

Black Blood kicked the Scorpion Flea Merchant, sending him flying through the roof of the tavern, exploding into a rain of blood in the air.

His crying was irritating, and he was full of lies!

Regarding the Scorpion Flea Merchant’s words, Black Blood only listened to the parts he believed.

Black Blood turned to his subordinates and said, "Since there was a battle involving hundreds of people, there must be some traces left in the desert!"

Having hundreds of humans could definitely be a lucrative haul if brought back to Lionheart Fort, and those finicky powerhouses would not be stingy with their rewards.

But he had too few men under his command. They could capture them, but managing them afterward might prove difficult. Should he find some more help?

"First, let’s pin down the location of the humans. If there’s no problem, then we can get some people to help."

Black Blood knew a few good friends, getting together a few dozen men wouldn’t be an issue.

...

In a cramped, sealed room, a Scorpion Flea Merchant was tied to a chair, facing a long table with three humans.

Two of the humans sat behind the table, one asking questions, the other taking notes.

The standing human used an Illumination Spell, focusing a tube of bright light directly onto the Scorpion Flea Merchant’s face, blinding him.

"We really are just merchants who sell Scorpion Fleas."

"I’ve heard that one before, tell me something I don’t know."

"Tell you, tell you what?" The captured Scorpion Flea Merchant was on the verge of tears. From the beginning to the end, they hadn’t done much.

Yes, even if they marked up the Scorpion Fleas—okay, by ten times—as long as both parties agreed, it was a fair trade.

Only then did the Scorpion Flea Merchant realize, these humans didn’t care about the price of Scorpion Fleas. From the start, their intent was to rob.

The money was to make sure where his merchant group’s money was, and then they would steal it together.

These weren’t humans in front of him. They were demons!

"Where do you get your Scorpion Fleas, where are they delivered, and how much is the cost price?"

"How many people in your family? How many acres of land do you own? How many cows, tell me, tell me..."

Scorpion Flea Merchant: "Just kill me!"

...

In front of Lind lay a tattered corpse.

The poor, tattered body was covered in bloody holes and traces of magic blasts; it was so mutilated that its original beast-like features were unrecognizable, with large patches of bare skin, like a scalded, plucked chicken.

The Undead had been too harsh.

There were many more bodies, but because they smelled too delicious, Lind worried that the Undead would opt to serve them on plates, so he had only taken this medium-rare one.

"Is this an Orc?" William used his sword to lift the corpse’s arm, giving off the impression that he was adept with knife and fork.

"It should be called a Beastman, but it doesn’t have much to do with beasts."

The so-called Beastmen, Beast-headed People, and such were similar to primates, moving on two legs and capable of wielding weapons with their hands.

But they had few other animal characteristics. If one had to classify what species Beastmen belonged to, they could use "Night Fiend" or "Green Skin" as examples because they had changed due to worshiping certain deities, becoming a new era’s Mutants.

William had likely scalped pigs before; after scraping off the Beastman’s fur, he discovered this creature was indeed a type of Mutant.

Like the Lady of the Night, but the difference was that the Beastmaster was much stronger.

Lind was filled with interest at the thought of facing a real deity next, but... he still had to be cautious.

This encountered "Dominus" would certainly not be as weak as the Lady of the Night.

"My lord, the interrogation is done!" the Undead called out as he approached at a jog.

"What did you find out?"

"There’s a Sand Pit Ranch not too far from us, where they’re breeding a ton of Scorpion Fleas, at least 3000 of them, enough to meet the needs of our team."

"Anything else?" Lind asked.

"Also, the Sand Pit Ranch is only guarded by a little over a hundred at the first tier and just over a dozen at the second tier. Sir, if we put on the Abyss suits and max out our buffs, we can easily take over the Sand Pit Ranch!"

There are many things that could excite the Undead—new gameplay, new plotlines, new skins, and new mounts!

Their mounts from the Rand Kingdom, the Calamity Warhorses, couldn’t be ridden over, the Volcano Monster Birds couldn’t keep up with their needs, and they couldn’t be brought to Magic Land.

But new mounts were different, and they had been envious of Lavee’s Scorpion Fleas for a while.

Those adorably ugly desert Scorpion Fleas—they just made you want to raise one.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to spend the money, but the Scorpion Flea Merchant they encountered always had a Red-Name hovering above his head.

When you’re dealing with someone whose NPC tag is Red-Name all the time, it’s hard not to get suspicious.

Trying to trick a sagely and mighty Undead? They must be planning to sell us stuff and then kill us to take both the goods and the money.

Well, you asked for it, Red-Name Monster. Don’t blame us for flipping the table first!

So the overly imaginative and "innocent" Undead chose to strike first.

Not ruling out that they were probably just planning to rob the merchant without paying.

It was only unfortunate this time that they only managed to steal a few dozen Scorpion Fleas, some of which were frightened or crippled, reducing the number they could actually ride.

The consensus amongst the Undead now is, the desert map is vast, gathering places are too far apart from each other, they must unlock new mounts.

From their experiences following Lind—helping him conquer territories and capture beauties—the cities they conquered would become main cities, the local specialties would be "unlocked" for permitted sale, and even captured beauties would become their Poster Girls.

Waste not, want not.

So now they were all for letting Lind attack the Sand Pit Ranch, even if Lind himself wasn’t keen. They were ready to push him to expand his territory.

Once the ranch’s store was unlocked, everyone would be able to buy mounts for traveling. Walking in the desert was simply too torturous, and if it weren’t for being able to browse outfits online, they would have lost patience long ago.

"No rush on the Sand Pit Ranch, any other news?"

"Yes! We got their trade route map, it could be useful for future merchandising."

Their obtained information revolved around making money, getting gear, and securing mounts.

What else to focus on than these, are you thinking of dealing with NPCs? Whether or not they wear underwear is irrelevant, Beastmen are just too hairy, they need to go to special XP zones, Western, Japanese, and Korean zones won’t take them.

Under Lind’s persistent questioning, the Undead finally spilled the less important bits they thought.

Lind had watched the entire battle live. These days, he mostly focused his attention on the 3000 undead in Magic Land, with a smaller focus on the internal developments in the Rand Kingdom and the progress at the Great Rift Abyss in the Black Marsh Kingdom, hardly missing any crucial details.

Just as he had guessed earlier, professions and titles were the source of Beastmen’s strength.

They also had divisions of heroes, epics, legends, but "ranks" were more important, with methods to boost strength including drinking Magic Potions and receiving titles.

Drinking Magic Potions was similar to humans, used to unlock different professions, and there were over a dozen sub-routes under the power of the Beastmasters.

Low-level professions included Trackers, Berserkers, Archers, and Beast Tamers, each profession bearing different responsibilities, even certain families being designated as Trackers, with no members allowed other professions.

Offspring of high-level Beastmen were also high-level professionals; the low-tier ones could only be low-tier.

Royalty and kings among Beastmen were born only from high-level professionals.

Titles had many origins—any family following a different sovereign had a chance to receive an ethnic title.

Dying in a certain war could grant a title.

Killing a sufficient number of a certain type of enemy would also earn you a title.

It was like a tangible form of prestige, and it was also granted through a show of strength.

The "titles" of the Beastmaster were particularly worth exploring, and even more attractive to Lind than the Beastmaster pathways’ Magic Potions.

The titles known so far varied from good to bad, showing that titles could coexist, greatly assisting in boosting the Undead’s strength, and even more so in increasing Lind’s power.

As everyone knows, if Lind’s titles were to be listed in detail, it would take no less than half a minute to read through.

What the Undead thought was different, having already bound themselves to Lind’s faction, even if the title system wasn’t opened now, once Lind conquered a few places, it would surely unlock.

Parts of a game would ultimately become part of the gameplay, like shops not opening yet—is that because Lind has nothing to sell? Of course not! It’s because the plot hasn’t progressed to that point yet.

The Undead just need to keep pushing forward with the storyline, and everything else will follow. They had immense confidence in Lind.