Deathmatch Cage

Soul Power: 86. Integrity: 71%. That was Duke's current condition.

Duke accepted reality with bitter helplessness.

The bitter part was that, to keep his greatest trump card from being exposed so early, he had to die one more miserable death. He had not felt much after dying eleven times in a row, but now that he had calmed down, he realized just how painful death truly was.

Worse still, he had to put on an inexplicable show of bravado and die one more time.

Duke cursed wildly in his heart. Sargerass—oh, no, Sargeras, this is all your damn fault! Whether you did it this time or not, I'm pinning it on you!

But what Duke found most impossible to stay calm about were the records in the system log.

"Because you have died three times in succession within a short period, you have triggered the negative soul state—one of the Seven Deadly Sins: [Wrath]. After resurrection, your spell power increases by 20%, your attack speed increases by 30%, your evasion rate drops to 0, your defense decreases by 30%, your willpower increases by 200%, and you become immune to most mental spells and special effects."

After a huge pile of messy information, an even more eye-catching scarlet notification appeared.

"Because you were killed ten consecutive times by the demonized elite monster—the gnoll leader [Hogger]—you have triggered the frenzied effect [Deathmatch Cage]! You have lost your sense of self and automatically designated [Hogger] as a mortal enemy that must be killed. Until you completely kill Hogger, you will continue to resurrect in a frenzy, attacking Hogger by every means available to you."

"[Deathmatch Cage]: After this effect is triggered, each time you resurrect, your maximum health and mana will temporarily decrease by 10% based on the amount before your previous death. With every additional resurrection, your spell power and attack speed will each increase by 10% over their previous values. This effect will persist until you kill the target, or until you completely lose your humanity."

After reading all that, Duke was completely speechless.

It seemed that dying repeatedly could turn him into something like a berserker, but this was even crazier than a gambler who had lost his head—it was the madness of an addict!

Either he pulled off a dramatic reversal and killed his opponent in one go.

Or he degenerated into a ghoul and was completely finished!

Of course, Duke had not overlooked the words "Seven Deadly Sins." Wrath, pride, envy... just thinking about those traits made him feel like he had the makings of a Demon King!

If not for the fact that the Scourge was full of undead and did not have a single normal girl, and joining them would further tank what little looks he had left, Duke really might have joined the Scourge and snatched the Lich King's throne for himself.

Right now, the system spirit simply could not assess how powerful the demonized Hogger was. But judging by the original game, Hogger had been nothing more than an elite monster in a newbie zone. How strong could he become after being demonized?

Could he possibly be stronger than evil dragons, Old Gods, demon army overlords, and the like?

Duke suddenly realized that the road ahead was long!

Mm! The wind tonight was a little noisy!

As Duke mulled things over, the effects of his lost integrity began to show without him noticing.

Humans were highly sensitive creatures.

Though Duke claimed that it was no big deal, the faint chill of indifference he gave off after losing his integrity made Macaro and the others, whose nerves were at their most sensitive, grow increasingly uncertain.

They exchanged glances and understood each other's thoughts: it seemed that this secret was quite important to Lord Marcus.

Not the most important, but still very important.

In that instant, they formed their own estimate of just how significant Duke's inherited [Mirror Image] secret was.

After a great battle, it was naturally time to clean up the battlefield. Such heavy labor naturally did not need Duke to do it.

Repeated resurrections also brought abnormal exhaustion. It was not merely physical; the damage to his soul also left Duke looking somewhat sickly.

Duke turned in early.

The next morning, as the first light of dawn appeared, last night's brutal battlefield had mostly been cleared away. The many gnolls killed by the Ice Storm had already thawed out. No one had the time to bury those oversized gnoll corpses; once they thawed completely, they would become food for vultures.

Macaro respectfully came to the carriage to report. "The Stormwind Kingdom has a standard bounty on gnolls: ten silver coins for a pair of adult gnoll claws. But gnolls this large should fetch a higher bounty. Most importantly, Hogger's claws have separate bounties posted in at least five towns throughout Elwynn Forest, aside from Stormwind itself. How would Lord Marcus like them handled?"

Duke's somewhat cold eyes shifted. "What do you think should be done?"

Swept by Duke's slightly sharp gaze, Macaro assumed Duke was testing him and immediately gave the answer he had long considered. "If you can trust me, I'll leave my son here while I take two men to transport Hogger's head and claws back to Stormwind. I guarantee that within a week, your glorious feat of killing Hogger will be known throughout half the Stormwind Kingdom!"

Leaving his son behind was effectively offering a hostage.

But Duke did not care about that at all. He was thinking about something else: last time, he had gained reputation with Northshire Abbey, and it seemed to have restored 1 point of integrity. This time, he had killed Hogger—and a demonized Hogger at that. How much reputation would it bring?

Whatever. One point recovered was still one point.

Every little bit counted.

"Macaro, let's do this. I won't need your mercenary company to protect me from here on. I have something more important to entrust to you."

"Please, tell us!" Macaro was immediately thrilled.

"A few days ago, an outpost should have been attacked by Hogger and his underlings. So not only are you to spread word of my accomplishments, I also want you to give half the bounty you receive to the wounded and to the widows of the victims as compensation."

Macaro understood at once and asked, "And after everything is settled? We all owe you our lives, my lord. We are willing to serve you."

Duke thought for a moment. His plan did indeed require someone to run errands.

"After you're done, come wait for me in Moonbrook. I'll be back within two weeks at most."

"Understood."

Duke had already made inquiries. At this point in time, Moonbrook was not yet the desolate little town full of bandits and robbers that would later be controlled by the Defias Brotherhood.

As a frontier settlement of the Stormwind Kingdom, it had more than a thousand residents and a lord. That baron had formed a militia of one hundred men as the necessary armed force.

Perhaps this was the predecessor of the later Westfall People's Militia.

But that was not Duke's destination. He had set his sights on the coastline north of Westfall. There were countless... Murlocs there!