"H-Hogg, how did you rest last night?" Landen asked, looking at Hogg as she came up from the underground level. Although this was already Hogg's third day since arriving, Landen still felt somewhat unaccustomed to addressing her. Faced with such an unbelievably adorable Beast-eared Cutie, Landen simply couldn't force himself to associate her with the Gnoll that let out strange roars, had bloody strands of flesh hanging from her claws, and reeked of foul breath.
"I'm very well, my lord!" The Beast-eared Cutie answered with an extremely serious expression and a solemn tone.
This only elicited another bitter smile from Landen. He had already guessed that would be her answer, and he also knew that, in fact, Hogg hadn't rested at all last night. Actually, ever since she had arrived here, she hadn't rested even once.
And all of this stemmed from one of Landen's orders.
Dozens of hobgoblins had been captured and brought back by Landen. They were imprisoned in the underground level of the bunker, and even the room that had once held Ella had been cleared out for them. Landen's order to Hogg was to use her Interrogation Technique to make them truly submit.
Actually, Landen's original intention had only been for Hogg to deal with the two hobgoblins who possessed Black Iron strength. The other Low-tier Black Iron hobgoblin had already been skewered like candied fruit by Mikhail, while the remaining one had become the absolute leader of this hobgoblin group. As long as those two obeyed, the rest of the hobgoblins wouldn't be a problem.
However, whether Hogg had misunderstood Landen's meaning or had always been especially interested in this, after dealing with the two hobgoblins in very little time, she began the "re-education" of the other hobgoblins as well.
The poor hobgoblins had just been beaten into neurasthenia by the Mind Storms of two Mind Flayers. Before they even had a chance to rest, they suffered another bout of inhumane abuse. This time, it wasn't merely psychological. Hogg had mastered the Interrogation Technique, and physical torment was what she was best at—and liked most.
Er, don't ask Landen how he knew Hogg liked this. Every morning, when the Beast-eared Cutie emerged from the cells to report her progress to Landen, she looked as if she had received immense satisfaction. Her spirits were even more vigorous and high than Landen's, despite his having rested properly for an entire night. In fact, yesterday morning, Landen had even seen a trace of a smile at the corner of her mouth. The Beast-eared Cutie had maintained an extremely serious expression ever since she appeared, and that was the only time Landen had ever seen her smile.
Hogg's behavior of tormenting others for her own amusement was quite effective. When Landen entered the cells once more, the two hobgoblins with Black Iron strength led the way, crawling to his feet and kissing his boots. This group of hobgoblins was completely obedient now.
Actually, when Landen had successfully captured them, the system had already determined that they had been successfully subdued. The difference from now lay in their Popularity Value. This value represented the satisfaction of the residents in the territory. The higher it was, the more satisfied the territory's residents were with their home. When it fell below a certain level, the residents might rise up and rebel, and the lower it was, the more likely that would be.
When Landen had subdued the Mind Flayer family, this value had been , which had already surprised him somewhat. After all, his relationship with the Mind Flayers was transactional and could not even be considered a lord-and-resident relationship. He guessed that the system had given him a little out of sheer exasperation.
When the mission had just been completed, this value had immediately changed to . This was still an extremely low value. If Landen had simply left those hobgoblins alone, they might have caused some kind of rebellion before long.
As for now, Landen was no longer worried at all. After Hogg had disciplined those hobgoblins, the Popularity Value had astonishingly become !
This was an absolutely safe value.
Detected hobgoblins eligible for conversion into soldiers. Convert them?
This prompt had appeared after Landen finished "inspecting" those residents. hobgoblins amounted to roughly half of the group, and Landen was extremely satisfied with that number. Hogg, however, clearly didn't think the same way.
"My lord, I don't understand. These wastes are useless except as slaves and food. Making them soldiers would be irresponsible toward you and your territory. I strongly advise against it!"
As Landen's first—and currently only—follower, Hogg was the only one who dared say such things. The Minotaur Butler had dared to do so before as well, but after witnessing these events firsthand, the Minotaur Butler had become even quieter.
"Come on. Your River Claw Gnoll Clan is nothing more than a bunch of rookie-village weaklings who haven't even reached level ten, all right? And the leader of those hobgoblins has Mid-tier Black Iron strength, just like you. You call them wastes—then what does that make you...?"
Strength was determined by the height of a person's primary attribute. Generally speaking, an ordinary adult human had a base total of five attributes equal to . When their primary attribute—their highest attribute—reached , they were considered to have entered the Black Iron Domain and attained Low-tier Black Iron strength.
When their primary attribute reached , they entered Mid-tier Black Iron, and when it reached , they entered High-tier Black Iron.
However, advancing from Black Iron to Silver was not so easy. It required the primary attribute to reach a full , exactly twice that of High-tier Black Iron. The process was naturally extremely difficult. During this process, only after the primary attribute reached could someone qualify as being at the Black Iron Peak.
Therefore, in that respect, Hogg, whose strength had reached , indeed still belonged to the Mid-tier Black Iron category, just like the strongest hobgoblin. That was also consistent with her status as merely a Green Talent.
Of course, those words existed only in Landen's mind. He wasn't foolish enough to say them aloud. So when he spoke, he said, "There's nothing we can do about it. You should know the condition of my territory. Even in the underground world, this place counts as a barren wasteland. In a place like this, forget a group of hobgoblins—even a single goblin is a precious resource."
"Besides..." Seeing that Hogg seemed about to say something else, Landen hurriedly spoke first. Faced with a Beast-eared Cutie speaking so seriously, an adorably overwhelming sight, Landen was afraid that if his heart softened, he might agree to some unreasonable demands.
"You should know that there are no true wastes in this world. These goblins are called wastes only because they haven't yet met someone capable of making them shine. As luck would have it, I happen to be that person."
"Besides, if I can train such a group of useless hobgoblins into an elite force, wouldn't that also prove how capable I am as a lord?"
"My lord, you have a way to make them stronger?" Hogg stared at Landen with those adorable, enormous eyes, obvious disbelief written in them.
"Of course." Landen shrugged confidently. "The Omnipotent Lord System can only truly be called omnipotent when I'm the one using it. How could I possibly fail to solve such a simple problem? Have you heard of a Dwarf Knight?"
Before you continue