Rondok could not guess what Mrs. Cassel was thinking, but deep down, he had long since labeled her calculating, cunning, and ruthless. She had even kept someone as shrewd as Colonel Zilabeka firmly under her thumb. Rondok had no hope of outmaneuvering her.
Rondok knew his own limits. Scheming was not his strength. Since Mrs. Cassel had sent him out, his best option was to carry out the mission as instructed. Trying to be clever and pulling some little trick would likely backfire.
Three days later, following the map Mrs. Cassel had given him, Rondok found Blood Valley in the north of the Undead Kingdom.
The ground held vast deposits of iron ore, turning the valley floor dark red for hundreds of kilometers. From a distance, especially in the light of the setting sun, it looked like a blood-soaked hell.
This was the territory ruled by the Skeleton King. Rumor had it that millions of skeletons of every grotesque kind filled the valley: humans, animals, and monsters alike.
As soon as Rondok arrived, he sensed a surging concentration of death psychic energy. A tall, white, circular tower rose from the center of the valley. The death psychic energy was strongest there. It was the White Bone Tower, where the Skeleton King lived.
The dense death psychic energy made the place bitterly cold. Though no snow fell, the wind cut to the bone. Even as a half-modified human, Rondok could feel the cold of more than forty degrees below zero. An ordinary person would have struggled to survive in such conditions.
Rondok gazed at the towering White Bone Tower in the distance. It was also the Skeleton King's Mage Tower. According to Mrs. Cassel's intelligence, the Skeleton King had once been a mage. Even after becoming a skeleton, he retained considerable