A solid plan has to account for every possibility.
The plan might not be perfect, but I’m not about to be careless when it comes to the important parts.
So I could easily predict that the enemy would catch on and order the remaining skeleton warriors to stop. Even weakened, the group would still inflict heavy losses on my side.
That’s why choosing this particular stretch of plain, despite there being so much other land with the same gray meadow soil, was part of my plan.
It seemed the enemy hadn’t noticed that right beside the plain where the army had charged through earlier were two patches of terrain that looked like ruins. The piles of rubble there were perfect for cover.
“Attack the rear ranks.”
Just as the skeleton warriors received the order to slow their charge, more than a hundred slimes suddenly crawled out from the rubble piles. On my command, they sprayed their slime at the skeleton warriors in the rear ranks.
Green liquid splattered across the bones of almost every skeleton warrior in the rear ranks. It seeped into their joints, making their movements even stiffer.
I’d ordered the slimes to focus on their leg bones. The slime stuck their joints together, leaving most of the skeleton warriors in the rear unable to keep their balance. One after another, they pitched forward.
And so, though the monsters had stopped their charge on the enemy’s orders, the ones in the rear pushed them forward, sending them toppling like dominoes.
Quite a few more skeleton warriors tumbled into the pit. Only a fifth remained by its edge, but they were just as tangled up as the unlucky ones down below.
Without a doubt, I’d driven the remaining skeleton warriors into the pit at little cost. I’d deal with them later.
Of course, their leader wasn’t nearly so lucky.
I easily led my subordinates in surrounding it.
“Surprised?” I blinked at the skeleton’s empty eye sockets. “Everything earlier was just an act. I didn’t expect you to fall for it so easily.”
I’d thought the enemy might get suspicious, so I’d planned to provoke it by bringing up breasts. Though I still couldn’t understand why a skeleton was so fixated on them.
“You despicable bastard! How was I supposed to see through such a vile trick?” The flames in the Red-Eyed Skeleton’s eyes burned with rage.
“If you’d given it some thought, you’d have gotten suspicious. Well, I guess it’s normal for skeletons like you not to be much good at thinking.”
I even tried to comfort it, offering a reasonable excuse. “If anyone else couldn’t see through it, then they’d really have no brains.”
It was such heartwarming comfort, yet for some reason, the Red-Eyed Skeleton fell silent.
Seeing that it didn’t react much, I shrugged and finished it off.
System: Skeleton Warrior Elite slain. Gained 80 experience.
“Huh? It wasn’t a boss?” I froze in surprise.
I’d assumed the enemy had to be an intelligent boss, or at least a leader-level monster. But in the end, it was only an elite. I couldn’t help feeling confused—
How could an elite monster have the intelligence to communicate with me and give orders to every skeleton warrior in the open-pit mine?
But I probably wouldn’t get an answer to that question.
I didn’t dwell on it. I took Hill and some of the monsters with me, leaving the rest behind as we headed to the open-pit mine.
“That’s strange. Why hasn’t the quest completion message appeared yet?”
You didn’t have to eliminate every skeleton warrior to capture a stronghold. As long as there were no enemies inside the mine and our forces outnumbered theirs, that was enough.
Some strongholds did require extra conditions, but the open-pit mine wasn’t one of them.
So to complete this quest, I could’ve simply sent my subordinates in while the Red-Eyed Skeleton was away with all the skeleton warriors.
But I’d planned to wipe out every enemy in the open-pit mine in one fell swoop. Sneaking in like that would obviously have ruined my plan, so I hadn’t done it.
“Maybe there are still enemies hiding inside the mine.” Hill glanced around the area. Scattered veins of ore poked out of the ground, and there were plenty of tunnels. It made sense that enemies could be hiding in them.
I nodded. “Looks like that skeleton had at least a little brains.”
I gave the subordinates around me their orders. They immediately split into groups of two or three and headed for the nearby ore veins and deep into the tunnels. If they found any enemies, they were to report back to me at once.
Soon, guided by several Dark Bats, Hill and I arrived at an underground chamber in one of the tunnels.
We followed the steps down to the bottom, and a wave of heat hit us. To my surprise, there was no hidden army of skeleton warriors here—only a towering figure wreathed in blazing flames.
“You despicable invader. You’ll pay for your foolishness.”
A muffled voice came from within its fiery shell. Terrifying waves of flame surged around it, radiating an overwhelming sense of menace.
I instinctively took a step back, recognizing it almost at once. “A Flame Demon!?”
A demon race born in magma, its entire body wreathed in flames. Every movement sent towering waves of molten rock crashing outward.
In my previous life, a player from the Dark Faction summoned a Flame Demon to the surface. It appeared and immediately destroyed a town. In the end, it took several guilds joining forces to bring it down.
That battle made sure players remembered not only its massive size, but also its terrifying strength.
A level 180 Lord monster.
I knew it was pointless, but I still put all my monsters in front of me to protect them, warily watching the giant across from us, wrapped in flames.
“Why are you here?”
“Because this is my territory.” I’d only been talking to myself, so I hadn’t expected an answer.
I froze, then realized something. “Was that red-eyed skeleton warrior under your control? Were you the one giving all the orders?”
That would explain what had happened earlier.
“You’re clever, kid.” The Flame Demon’s gaze swept over from afar, its voice icy. “But I don’t like clever ones. And I like despicable ones even less.”
“So get out while I’m still in a good mood.”
I gritted my teeth and looked at the Flame Demon, unwilling to accept it. After going to so much trouble, ending up with nothing left me more than a little resentful.
But when I thought about its level and strength, I swallowed my frustration, turned around, and started to leave.
But Hill suddenly stopped me.
“Demon King, something’s off about this one.”
I blinked and stopped in my tracks.
The Flame Demon’s voice grew even colder. The waves of flame around it surged more fiercely. “I don’t want to repeat myself. Get out.”
I suddenly understood what Hill meant. With strength like that, the Flame Demon could crush our side without a second thought. So why had it been wasting time talking?
It couldn’t be that everyone in the Dark Faction was a chatterbox who loved to run their mouth.
When it saw that I wasn’t afraid at all, the Flame Demon seemed to panic a little. “This is your third chance. Get out of here, now.”
I tilted my head and studied the Flame Demon. Setting its appearance aside, it didn’t seem all that intimidating in practice.
“If you don’t leave, I’ll burn every one of you to Ash!”
After thinking it over for a moment, I gestured for the Dark Bats and slimes beside me to surround it.
“Wait! Don’t come any closer! Aaaah!”
