Lake Kingdom Dungeon, Zone 10. 'The Farm'.
In the heart of the city, a vast expanse of land suddenly unfolded. Endless rows of fruit trees, planted at precise intervals like blades, stretched out before the eyes.
On one side, a barn; on the other, fields and paddies...
Originally, it was a top-grade farm exclusively supplying the King's Castle, reserved for the royal family.
Covered with pristine glass walls, this facility maintained optimal temperatures and lighting for plant growth through magic.
Even as the kingdom fell to ruin, shrouded in darkness and monsters, this place continued to operate.
Guided by the will of its current owner.
Trickle, trickle.
From the terrace of the central mansion, overlooking this wide and beautiful farm.
Into the wine glass on the outdoor table, red wine poured with a clear sound.
"Do you know the difference between fermentation and decay?"
The burly man, having filled the glass halfway, slowly set the bottle upright and began to speak. His deep voice flowed from him.
"The principle is the same. Microbes multiply, and, simply put, 'rot'. But the outcomes are different. When rot deepens the taste and aroma, it's fermentation. When it produces foul odors and toxins, it's decay."
The man swirled the glass in his hand. The red wine rippled, nearly spilling as it spun inside the glass.
"It's all rotting, but if it benefits humans, it's fermentation; otherwise, it's decay. Quite a convenient standard, isn't it?"
"..."
"Even in decay, there are flavors like this wine, a time for harvest, and the subtlety of maturation. Yet humans neither understand nor try to appreciate its true taste."
Slowly, the man raised the glass, examining the red liquid in the light of the farm.
"So, I sought to enlighten humans with the aesthetics of my decay. But failing to embrace my philosophy, they branded me a monster."
The man chuckled.
"Oh, the irony! When it suits their taste, I'm hailed as a great doctor. But when I follow my own path, they treat me as a plague monster. Really, so arbitrary. I've always consistently studied rot."
"..."
"So, as people wished, I became a monster. Using my body as a breeding ground, I infused all my researched decay into myself... I became the embodiment of plague."
Gulp-
The man downed the glass.
Having savored the last drop of red wine, he let out a satisfied exclamation and set the glass down, then looked across the table.
"I've rambled on. Why not have a taste? It's my farm's own brew. Quite good, actually."
"..."
"Afraid to drink something brewed by the Plague Master? Or has my bare face put you off your appetite? Either way, I suppose I understand."
Wiping his mouth, the man picked up a mask lying beside the table. A white crow mask.
Donning the crow mask and a black top hat, he took his place.
The fourth-ranked commander of the Nightmare Legion.
The lord of the Plague Legion - Raven, sat and faced his visitor.
"So, what brings you here today?"
"..."
"Your silence makes me prattle on all by myself."
Sitting opposite Raven was a Frost Giant.
This Frost Giant was remarkably small for his kind, only slightly larger than a typical human.
Yet, this man was the commander of the Frost Giant Legion, the Last King.
One of the most formidable among the hellish monsters beneath this lake - King Hraim of the Frost.
Hraim, who had been silently staring at Raven, finally parted his heavy lips.
"I'm done."
"What are you referring to?"
"I'm done being a dog for your Plague Legion."
Hraim, having bluntly stated his purpose, pushed back his chair and stood up. Raven tilted his head to the side, puzzled.
"Does this mean you're abandoning your wife and children, held hostage by my legion?"
"...!"
Hraim, his eyes flickering wildly, growled fiercely.
"For hundreds of years, you've held my wife and children hostage, using my Frost Giant people like your slaves."
"I thought it was a decent collaborative relationship."
"I sent my forces to capture the Succubi Queen on your orders. But the result was annihilation. Many of the few remaining warriors of my race were needlessly lost due to your command."
"You speak as if I killed your warriors."
Raven smirked mockingly, shrugging his shoulders.
"I requested cooperation, and you accepted. The annihilation by the Succubi Queen was due to the weakness of your men."
"..."
"To lose all your subordinates and not even capture a single Succubi, the Frost Giants have really declined."
Insulted to his face, a terrifying malevolence erupted from Hraim.
Looking as though he might draw the greatsword on his back and attack Raven at any moment, Hraim eventually exhaled a long breath, suppressing his rage.
"From this moment, the Frost Giant Legion severs its master-servant relationship with the Plague Legion."
Hraim turned and began to walk away.
"Do as you wish with those held hostage. Kill them, spare them. They're no longer my concern."
"How cold, King of the Frost Giants. You intend to abandon your wife and children?"
"After holding my wife and children hostage for hundreds of years, refusing every plea to release them, you're hardly one to talk."
Hraim strode out of the mansion in the center of the farm. Or, he tried to.
Stagger.
"...?"
Suddenly, his vision lowered.
Confused, Hraim soon realized he was kneeling on the ground, his legs having given out.
"What's...?"
His stomach churned, and his vision swirled.
Hraim belatedly realized blood was pouring from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
Collapsing in a gruesome pool of blood from every orifice, he ground his teeth.
"I didn't even touch the wine you offered, what is this..."
"Such foolish talk."
Raven, who had slowly approached Hraim, tapped his mask with his fingertips.
"If you were wary of my power, you shouldn't have even breathed in my presence."
"You... monster..."
"Hasn't it been hundreds of years since we first met face to face? Did you really think I hadn't planted a plague in your body by now?"
Leaning down in front of the trembling Hraim,
"Worry not, King of the Frost Giants."
Raven chuckled heavily, his voice filled with unmistakable mockery.
"You're merely returning to the hell where your wife and children await."
"You vile, filthy... plague monster..."
Hraim cursed Raven with his last breath, glaring at him.
"Mark my words. The power of frost... will not... forgive you..."
Those were the last words of King Hraim of the Frost Giants.
The Frost Giant lay there, his body rigid and fallen.
Though he wasn't dead, having been paralyzed by the toxin Raven introduced, he was now captured alive.
And there's only one outcome for those captured alive by the lord of the Plague.
"A 'field' for a new plague to grow. Of quite a high quality, I must add."
Becoming part of the 'farm', where seeds of plague are sown, nurtured, and harvested.
"A plague cultivated from the body of the Frost Giant King. Surely, it will yield a decay of remarkable flavor."
Raven savored the sight of the Frost King's formidable body, already anticipating the new plague that would be born.
Snap!
With a flick of Raven's finger in the air,
Caw, caw...
Hundreds of crows swarmed in, grasping the body of the Frost King with their talons and began to move it.
"The Frost Giant Legion has served well as my limbs for a long time, but now they part from my embrace... Which legion shall I enlist next?"
Raven clicked his tongue in disappointment.
The Plague Legion didn't have 'forces' in the conventional sense.
Flies and crows, rats and bugs – living embodiments of the plague, these carriers he could control, but there were no subordinates with intelligence and will to move at his command.
Because merely being near him for an extended time led to poisoning, nobody could withstand being at Raven's side for long.
A One Man Plague.
A legion in himself, a plague in himself. That was Raven, master of the Plague.
That's why the Plague Legion always suffered from a manpower shortage. Even with Raven creating duplicates of himself, there were clear limits.
Hence, Raven always formed alliances with other legions and enlisted subordinates in this manner.
But the werewolf and succubus legions he had allied with were annihilated. Now, even the long-serving Frost Giant Legion had broken away...
"The remnants of the werewolves and Frost Giants will all be used as 'fields' for the new plague..."
Raven clicked his tongue again.
"But the succubus legion, which I was most looking forward to, still eludes capture."
What form would a plague cultivated from the physical body of a mental being like a succubus take?
As a researcher and seeker, Raven was always curious about this.
However, the succubus legion was decimated by the human players on a whim... and now Salome, the only remaining sample, was frequently eluding capture.
Despite dispatching various minor legions under his command to capture the lone succubus, she cleverly escaped each time.
When he sent the Frost Giant Legion, instead, they were the ones annihilated.
"Anyway, as a monster, your legion is beyond recovery, Salome."
Heading deeper into the farm, Raven muttered softly.
"Then, wouldn't it be better to serve as nourishment for my research?"
To Raven, comrades were just that.
Beings too weak to stay by his side for long without being poisoned to death.
Then, wouldn't it be better to use them as fields to conceive a new plague?
Thus reborn into a never-before-seen plague, they would inhabit Raven's body – an eternal companionship.
This, Raven sincerely believed, was true camaraderie.
Having moved King Hraim's body to an appropriate location, Raven sowed the seeds of decay into the Frost Giant's body.
So genuinely delighted that a hum escaped from under his crow mask.
Having completed his task, Raven, with a reverent gesture, wiped his hands and headed towards a warehouse on one side of the farm.
"On the day a new plague is sown in the body of the Frost King... It's only fitting to celebrate with a drink."
Despite being the master of a plague rotting the world with his power of decay,
He was a true connoisseur when it came to alcohol.
Fruits and grains were stored cleanly, not using the power of decay, and the joy in his life was to ferment and age them with time and care.
"There were some freshly harvested Immortal Peaches. Paired with the peach wine I brewed last year, it will be exceptional."
Thrilled with the small joy of ending his day, Raven opened the warehouse door –
"...?"
Raven sensed something amiss.
It was gone.
In the deepest part of the fruit warehouse, where only the rarest and top-quality fruits were collected, Raven's cherished collection – was completely gone.
"What, what...?"
Raven let out a perplexed groan, staring at the empty shelves.
The Immortal Peach, a fruit that grew by absorbing magic power.
Among them, the Pantao Peach, which only ripens once every three thousand years, even rarer than any elixir, was nowhere to be found.
And not just that.
All the other precious magical fruits that Raven had painstakingly harvested over many years, stored in the best condition with dozens of preservation spells, and which he hesitated to even eat or brew into alcohol, merely admiring them –
Gone.
Completely cleaned out.
"Who on earth..."
Raven's shoulders trembled violently with emotion.
"Which audacious madman dared to sneak into the deepest part of this Plague Master's farm and steal...!"
There had been many instances of theft in the farm. Most monsters of the Lake Kingdom were driven by greed.
But never had someone selectively stolen only the most precious items. This was the first time since his resurrection in the Lake Kingdom that he felt such rage.
Unable to control his power of decay, poisonous energy boiled over from Raven's entire body.
The other fruits and grains stored in the warehouse rotted away completely.
"I will kill them...! Whoever stole my possessions! Those who coveted them! All of them!"
Raven's voice, filled with rage and despair, echoed loudly.
"I will find them all and kill them-!"
***
On the path from Zone 10 to Zone 9.
Mason was scouting at the very front, and Salome was likewise keeping an eye on the surroundings from the rear. And I,
Crunch.
Was eating a fruit Salome had acquired yesterday.
I do need to eat to live, after all. Mason and Salome don't seem to need much in the way of supplies, but I need food to keep moving.
Especially since today we're entering Zone 9.
Unlike the calm atmosphere of the final Zone 10, Zone 9 is an absolute hellish battlefield. Supplies are crucial as real battles will start.
Crunch!
Biting into a peach, my eyes widened in surprise.
"Wow, what's with this peach? It's really good."
"Tastes good, right? Haha. I did have a bit of trouble sneaking around for it."
Salome boasted from behind.
But it wasn't just empty praise; it was genuinely delicious. Maybe slightly better than canned peaches from Earth?
But remember, Earth's fruits are top-notch, improved by generations of scholars through breeding.
Isn't it a huge compliment to say a fruit from this fantasy world tastes better than Earth's?
'I wonder if it's just me, but I feel full of magic power now.'
After finishing one, I felt revitalized. I asked Salome,
"Got many fruits left?"
"Yep! Brought loads of them. Don't worry about eating them all! I can just sneak into that farm again!"
Stealing crops that someone else has worked hard to grow is wrong...
But well, it seems these were grown by a monster legion commander for his consumption. No need to feel too guilty, I guess.
"That's great. Thanks. It's delicious."
"Hehe, leave it to me!"
Salome, her nose in the air, proudly exclaimed,
"For you, I'd raid that farm until it's empty!"
I don't know who the farm owner is.
I just hope they don't get too stressed out by our raids...
***
And when we arrived at the place connecting Zone 10 and Zone 9 – 'The Great Bridge'.
"...?!"
Someone blocked our path as we attempted to cross the wide bridge.