NOVPUB"Sigh…"
A heavy sigh sounded as a trio—a man, his mare, and his monster—galloped across the leaf-strewn, loamy ground of a forest inside a death zone.
"Oh? Why the deep sigh, boss?" Nookie asked in curiosity and intrigue.
This was the first time it heard its monstrous boss so burdened.
"Hm? Ah, it's nothing. I'm just worried about my little sister." Shye responded in mild surprise, not expecting the imp to care about his worries.
Well, he wasrrect, as Nookie was merely curious and was far from the word ncerned".
"Hoh? A little sister? This is the first time I've heard of this...What happened to her?"
Shye unhesitatingly told Nookie everything that happened to Maia.
After all, heuld snuff the life out of the creature with a mere snap of his fingers.
There was no need to worry about Nookie betraying him.
Not that Maia'sndition mattered much to others.
"I-I do wish that her treatment goes well..." Nookie said with a bow, finding what happened to Maia rather horrifying.
It had heard of the words "Soul Arts" before.
However, ituld have never imagined the horrors oneuld do with the forbidden practice.
Shye decided to pick Nookie up first due to two reasons: first, he wanted to check on the necrollin's progress.
Ofurse, Shye was quite pleased that it was thriving in the Throgon Death Zone.
Commanding a massive and terrifying army, Nookie reigned supreme over a vast expanse of the death zone, its forcemprised of three (S)-ranked overlord monsters, seventy (S)-ranked monsters, a hundred and fifty (S-)-ranked creatures, and over three hundred monsters ranked (A) and below, among them a select few with highly valuable utility skills.
With the help of the Omniscient Raven'srpse, Nookie cleverly maneuvered around humans, using its intelligence to either avoid them entirely or ensure that any human adventurer parties it attackeduld never escape to report its existence.
As a result, its domain became a place of great fear and mystery among weaker adventurers.
However, extremely strong ones, such as titled adventurer parties and champion parties, never euntered anything unusual, leaving the WAA perplexed by the disappearances of several adamantite-ranked adventurers.
Whenever the WAA sent powerful adventurers to investigate Nookie's strange, overlordless domain, they always returned empty-handed, without euntering a single dangerous creature worth reporting.
Ultimately, the WAA had no choice but to issue a warning to those venturing into the necrollin's territory.
Theyuldn't spare any more attention to the strange territory within the Throgon Death Zone.
As a result, Nookie truly managed to claim its territory for its own, now notorious among the monstrous inhabitants as the elusive and mysterious Corpse Collector Overlord.
Its formidable army enabled it to expand itsllection of valuablerpses, successfully taking down another overlord and its forces in under a year.
Now, in addition to the Stygian Mantre and Firindroth, the Fire Dragon Emperor, the Mutated Rock Dragon Emperor—once known as Rockzor but now unjustly renamed as Pebbles—had also been added to itsllection.
Learning of the news, the other overlordsuld onlywer in fear within their domains, praying that the Corpse Collector wouldn'tme for theirrpses.
Luckily for them, the mysterious otherworldly overlord was now summoned for subordinate duty.
Nookie had to temporarily halt the expansion of its army to assist Shye innstructing a vast yet hidden roosting area for his Grand Dragon Army.
This was the snd reason Shye visited the little necrollin's domain.
With the war just six months away, heuldn't afford to have his dragons scattered all over.
He needed to gather them in one place, ready to unleash death and destruction upon Dweezel's forces at a moment's notice.
Over the past eight months, Shye busily entered and exited the headquarters, subduing as many dragons as heuld while doing his job as the Black Dawn Unit's Commander.
Even young ones of less than a hundred years of age were tamed by him.
Additionally, he gave Zeth free rein to go on a rampage, allowing it to kill any monstrous creature it desired andnsume a massive number ofres, which greatly boosted its strength.
With how smart and experienced she was, there was no need for Shye to worry about her safety.
Only the final battle would reveal exactly how strong the duchess had bme.
At present, Shye had managed to subdue a total of one hundred and fifty dragons: thirty elders of various elements, ninety adults, and thirty young dragons under a hundred years old.
Though questionably deserving of the term "grand," his dragon army, if divered by Dweezel or the WAA, would undoubtedly unsettle the old veterans on the opposing side, leaving them gnashing their teeth and biting their nails in anxiety.
Ofurse, Shye planned to focus on growing his dragon army over the next six months.
He even had a plan on how to obtain a dragon emperor that would lead his dragon army.
After all, it was impossible to tame one, so he had to be a bit creative. 𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒑𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝒐𝙢
But for now, the roosting areames first.
The best location to make such a huge dwelling place for hundreds of towering dragons would naturally be somewhere close to Yon Augenn City, where Hadean Varsa's main assault would take place.
The problem with this setup, however, was the risk that the WAA and Dweezel's forces might detect the existence of his dragon army, which he wanted to avoid.
He didn't want to give them the chance to destroy his army in advance or prepareuntermeasures against it.
Fortunately, Nookie was quite familiar with the Throgon Death Zone, having ured a vast majority of it in search of worthy additions to hisrpse army.
Soon, they arrived at the outskirts of the hidden entrance to a vast underground cave, though it was more accurate to call it a hidden Lord Dungeon, as it was infested with thousands of ogres ranked (A-) and above.
While Nookie wasn't interested in adding these ogres to itsrpsellection, deeming them unworthy, the little necrollin was quite familiar with the area around the cave.
To make things better, the entrance was so well hidden that Shye wasnfident it hadn't been divered by adventurers,nsidering how the thousands of horrifying ogres had managed to multiply to such an extent.
He was certain that if the WAA were aware of such an area, they would never allow such a superior race of monsters to multiply unchecked.
However, heuldn't help but narrow his eyes, as only someone clever enough to rgnize that humans were the true superior raceuld have made such a hidden clan of ogres thrive for hundreds, if not thousands, of years without being divered.
'Hoh? Or...uld it be?'
