"..."
A mission?
What was that? Leon thought seriously for a while, but he really didn't remember having such a setting.
Still, seeing how immersed this player was, he decided to go along with it.
It saved him the trouble of explaining.
Clearing his throat, Leon faced the Skeleton Soldier staring at him with eager eyes. He pinched his voice and spoke with an imposing calm.
"Very good... Since you've already understood your mission, there's no need for me to explain anything unnecessary."
Following the usual RPG formula, the next step was to issue a quest.
Umm...
What should he have this guy do? Leon glanced around, and his gaze finally landed on the entrance to the underground labyrinth.
"That is the Old Demon Lord's labyrinth. Those wandering within are all traitors to Hell. Go down and take a look. If you find anything, come back and report it to me. If anyone attacks you, don't be polite. Beat them senseless for me!"
Traitors to Hell?!
This had triggered the main quest!
"By your command, Lord Demon Lord!"
One Leaf Knows Autumn's eyes lit up. He answered energetically, then scampered toward the labyrinth entrance.
Some players noticed what he was doing and curiously followed after him. Others turned their gazes toward Leon, their eyes shining as they looked at this man radiating boss-like presence.
So this was the beginner-guide NPC?
He should've said so earlier! They had wasted so much precious starting time doing nothing!
Having sent off that overly enthusiastic little player, Leon was about to check on the Demon Lord Territory core and see whether there were any new quests when he discovered a huge wave of Skeleton Soldiers copying the same behavior and gathering around him.
Before he could speak, a cacophony of creaks and clacks surrounded him.
"Quest! Ding ding! Skip! Hurry up!"
"Esteemed Your Majesty Demon Lord, I am your smartest, smartest, smartest servant! Please grant this lowly one a quest too, so I may share your burdens!"
"Lord Demon Lord, look at me too! I'm your fiercest minion! Leave that Female Hero to me—I'll teach her a lesson!"
"Lord Demon Lord, don't listen to him! This guy's a total scumbag!"
"I'm your long-lost biological older brother!"
"Succubus!! I want a Succubus!!"
Leon: "..."
What the hell was this?
Seeing this bunch getting more and more worked up, Leon drew a deep breath and shouted sternly.
"Quiet! All of you, quiet down!"
At the same time, he decisively activated his authority. In an instant, every noisy little skeleton was frozen in place.
They were like machines whose power had been cut off, standing motionless in the exact poses they had held a second ago.
Although the Calamity System had not granted Leon a "paralysis" function, the Skeleton Soldiers these players controlled had ultimately been summoned through the Demon Lord Territory core.
As the Demon Lord whose soul was bound to the core, his authority within this domain was absolute.
No one could question it!
The mine finally fell silent.
Facing this impatient bunch of monkeys, Leon continued in a resounding voice.
"As you can see, I am the Demon Lord here—and your lord as well."
"The land beneath your feet, stretching all the way to the mine entrance, is our Demon Lord Territory... Its area was originally somewhat larger, but the previous Demon Lord was a universally acknowledged idiot. That guy not only ruined everything, but also left behind an enormous mess, forcing us to start over from scratch."
"Our medium-term goal is to establish a permanent base in the heartland of the human world. Our long-term goal is to spread the faith of Hell across the surface from that base!"
"As for now, we... First, we must take up our weapons and fight! We must reclaim this mine and labyrinth that belong to us from those filthy rats!"
While he was still in the middle of his speech, Leon had already noticed the pairs of scarlet eyes in the distance glaring at him hungrily.
In fact, Leon had noticed the moment he first entered this area... This mountain called North Peak had become ratmen territory.
Perhaps they were the former Demon Lord's minions, or perhaps they had spread here from somewhere else... Either way, it did not matter.
Since they had raised weapons against their Demon Lord, they must have been ready to die.
As he finished his opening speech, Leon released the authority sealing the skeletons' movements and pointed at the rats hiding in the shadows.
"Go—"
"Smash in their heads with your pickaxes! Take their weapons!"
"Finders keepers!"
He had been a little worried these players might ignore his orders and leave him standing there awkwardly.
But now that he saw them, he realized he had been too conservative.
These energetic players were even more obedient than he had expected. The instant they regained control, they grabbed their pickaxes and charged at the ratmen lurking in the shadows.
"Chargeee!"
"Quest! Quest!"
"Don't fight me for it! Leave it to me!"
"Long live Lord Demon Lord!!!"
"..."
Quests?
More than one player had shouted that, and Leon could not help feeling puzzled.
Could these players, like him, receive quests issued by the Calamity System? It was perfectly reasonable for players to accept quests from NPCs, but he wanted to figure out exactly how the quest-issuing mechanism worked.
And—
He had not prepared any rewards for these players. It would be ridiculous if he had to pay them later.
While Leon was pondering this, an army of dozens of skeletons had already surged toward the dozen or so Slave Rats.
The sea of skeletons filling the mine also frightened those ratmen, who were half-heartedly clutching short swords and spears, nearly to death.
There was no need for any flashy technique.
The front-row skeletons simply swung their pickaxes at the huge rats. Never mind that the ratmen's shields were made from dismantled door panels—even iron shields could not withstand being battered like that!
After all, these ratmen were merely cannon fodder in the labyrinth. Normally, they only relied on their numerical advantage to bully rookies.
But this time, by sheer coincidence, they had run into a pack of rookies—rookies with locked morale, rookies numbering like an endless sea...
In an instant, they were stunned silly by numbers no fewer than their own! "Squeak—!!!"
At last, one ratman could no longer bear the fear in his heart and turned to flee into the darkness.
Then more and more ratmen began running... These experienced cannon fodder had actually been scattered by rookies going into battle for the first time.
"Don't run!"
"Stop right there!"
"Experience! My experience!"
Seeing the walking experience packs running away, the players at the front immediately chased after them.
Undead naturally possessed night vision and could sense the presence of living creatures.
Even after leaving the torchlit area, they could still move as though nothing was wrong.
But some players stopped, not daring to chase any deeper into the mine.
After all, where there were bold brothers, there were naturally timid ones.
Many of them were seeing rats half the height of a person for the first time.
Even if the game had toned down the horror of these monsters, they still needed time to get over it.
"T-Too scary... How can rats be this fat?!" Xiao Wan Can't Get Enough trembled in terror as she crouched in a corner, clutching her skull.
She might not even have been afraid if they had been goblins or dragons.
But rats...
This game was way too freaky!!!
Before long, a troublemaker noticed her and walked over with a grin, dragging a huge rat by its tail. It was still barely breathing.
"Bro, want some experience? There's still one here that isn't dead yet—"
"Go die!!!"
"..."
"Not bad. So-so. I'd give them an eighty... out of one hundred and twenty."
Leon was fairly satisfied with the quality of this batch of players, and he also remembered a few especially unusual—or rather, outrageous—IDs.
Although all these skeletons looked alike, whenever he focused his gaze on one of them, he could see the nickname above their head. If he stared for a little longer, an attribute panel with a health bar would appear as well.
He wondered what the world looked like from the players' perspective.
Could they see his health bar too?
The first day was an adjustment period. Leon did not intend to assign the players too many quests. Instead, he handed them the initiative and let them freely explore North Peak Mine and the underground labyrinth.
After all, first, he still did not know enough about these players' abilities and temperaments. Second, the functions of the Calamity System still required further exploration.
In any case, he needed to observe them a little longer.
When Leon saw a Skeleton Soldier trying to pull down Chris's pants, he had originally been too lazy to interfere. But out of concern for public decency, he still called out.
"That's enough! These people are my prisoners! If you want prisoners, catch your own!"
The Skeleton Soldier called Knowledge Explosion sprang away with a whoosh. Seeing all the eyes turn toward him, he hurriedly waved his hands in explanation.
"I-I-I just wanted to—"
"Check whether it's realistic, right?" The Boar-Headed Knight grinned and hooked an arm around his shoulder. "I get you, little bro!"
"Equipment! I meant equipment!!!"
"Alright, alright, we all know. While this NPC isn't around, we should..."
Leon: "..."
I understand Chinese, you know! Forget it.
Leon could not be bothered explaining to them. He directly added two rules to the server rules to prevent these players from making his prisoners disappear.
Only living people could contribute Faith Power. Most Demon Lords who could capture people alive generally would not kill them. As for being tortured until they wished they were dead, that was another matter entirely.
Anyway, these prisoners were still useful to him.
"I need to make a cage and lock them up."
He might as well try Steel-level magic.
Leon took out a slender Magic Wand and waved a dark yellow beam toward a nearby wall.
"Stone Prison!"
The ground trembled faintly. Thick stone pillars, each as wide as a thigh, rose from the earth and interlocked, forming cages against the wall that separately imprisoned the disarmed adventurers.
Although he was a necromancer, Necromantic Magic was not all he knew. Its close relative—earth magic—was also something he was proficient in.
Besides the Stone Prison, Leon set up several Bronze-level Magic Arrays around it as traps to ensure these prisoners would not escape.
There was also the Demon Lord Territory core.
Although a few Skeleton Soldiers could not possibly damage that thing, to prevent certain players from getting itchy hands, he added several automatic logout rules through the system and deployed defensive arrays around the statue.
How to protect the Demon Lord Territory core was also a required course at Demon Lord Academy.
After finishing all that, Leon clapped his hands and turned toward the Stone Prison beside him, looking at the "Greyhound" staring at him in horror.
This guy was the only one still awake.
And he had witnessed Leon's "coronation" from start to finish.
Admiring that timid expression, Leon smiled faintly and said threateningly.
"If I were you, I wouldn't try to escape from here. Death is a small matter. Becoming undead would be much worse... Am I right?"
The skinny man nodded nervously. He was just short of swearing by the name of Saint Siss.
Leon ignored him after that, giving him only a meaningful glance before picking up a fallen torch and walking straight out of the gloomy mine.
Though he was a necromancer, he had no intention of spending the night in a graveyard.
Especially since this mine contained not only undead, but also a great many wandering monsters.
Besides, there was an abandoned inn right outside the mine entrance.
Although the building looked like it had been deserted for many years and resembled a haunted house from the outside, Leon did not care.
The dormitory at Demon Lord Academy had been far more terrifying than this place.
Not to mention the Man-eating Flowers and lava fountains.
Sometimes, while washing his face in the washroom, he would look up and find a woman with disheveled hair standing in the mirror. That was basic stuff.
Finding a room that barely kept out the wind, Leon tossed his suitcase beside the bed frame, took out his Magic Wand, casually recited a few warning and defensive spells, then lay down on the hard wooden bed.
He would make do for one night.
After flying across several time zones to this godforsaken place, he had already been unbearably sleepy by evening. At last, he could get some sleep.
However, just as Leon was about to sleep, he caught a glimpse of a white shadow flickering past in the mirror beside him.
A hair-raising chill shot straight to his head. Leon flipped off the bed, Magic Wand in hand.
"Who's there! Come out!"
Brothers, please spare a monthly vote. Monthly votes seem really important for a new book right now. Please!!!
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