The strange master of Hunger Mountain had recognized Murphy at a glance and called him a lord whose fame was on the rise. That made it clear that people beyond Transia had begun to take notice of him.
But His Lordship wasn't surprised.
Shani had once reminded him that the halflings had established a Thieves' Guild that kept watch over the entire continent. It was the largest intelligence organization in the land, and Sluik Flywheel was a mysterious halfling. It wasn't surprising that he could use the Thieves' Guild's channels to gather information.
As far as Murphy was concerned, anyone capable of establishing a foothold in a place like Hunger Mountain couldn't possibly be some naive innocent. Sluik Flywheel's choice to recruit a bunch of ogres as guards seemed ridiculous, but the man was undoubtedly one of the most complicated people Murphy had faced since his reincarnation.
As everyone knew, in most contexts, "complicated" meant "dangerous."
After getting past the Four Hungry Brothers and walking from the platform halfway up the mountain into the space concealed within it, Murphy was soon met by a wave of heat.
He walked down a passage in the natural cavern and saw several fully armed bugbears patrolling ahead.
They were humanoids with green skin and stood over two meters tall. They were a little shorter than gnoll berserkers, but taller and sturdier than humans.
Their most distinctive features were their pointed ears, which looked a lot like elves' ears. But their bearing was far sloppier and uglier than an elf's, largely because they had tusks and were covered in hair.
Their bodies were covered in a thin layer of hair, giving them a distinctly brutish appearance.
Bugbears were also native to the Dark Mountains, and there was a huge amount of variation between individuals