Chapter 11: Reed, the Death Knight Dragoon

"What did you say?" Li Bin jumped up at once, eyes wide as saucers, staring intently at Reed.

"Calm down," Reed replied smugly. "Ever since I used up all the dragon bones here, I’ve been considering joining a player. But as you know, this godforsaken place is dominated by the Barbarian faction. Finding an Undead player is harder than making a bone dragon, so I kept putting it off."

"Then… could you become one of my subordinates?" Li Bin asked cautiously, afraid Reed would say one thing and do another.

"Of course I can, but only if you agree to a few conditions," Reed said, looking for all the world like he was the real boss.

"Please, tell me," Li Bin replied. In this situation, he felt he would even find a way to get Reed an Undead city if that was what he wanted.

"First, I’ll only serve directly under you and manage bone dragon-type troops. I won’t handle any other units, and don’t try to assign them to me. Also, don’t use any excuse about splitting forces to send me off on my own." Reed raised a finger to make his point.

"Agreed," Li Bin said without hesitation. He currently had no way to produce or recruit bone dragons, so he saw no problem in promising this.

But Reed seemed to see right through him, raising a second finger. "Second, until you have made a bone dragon, I’ll only guarantee your personal safety—I won’t follow any other orders."

Li Bin frowned but said nothing, as Reed raised a third finger. "Third, when the time is right, you must help me deal with the Silver Dragon Clan and a human hero named Carter. I want him to regret ever coming to this world."

"No problem." After a brief consideration, Li Bin agreed to all of Reed’s demands. Reed nodded in satisfaction and handed over his token of allegiance.

At that moment, a system notification appeared, displaying all of Reed’s attributes before Li Bin:

Reed, male, Undead Dragon Knight, Level 5/1, Undead Hero, Warrior type, humanoid appearance, dragon wings, silver scale armor, short silver hair, wields a two-handed sword, skilled in triple strike, possesses dragon aura, reducing enemy morale by an additional 1.

Combat Attributes: Strength 20, Agility 12, Constitution 17, Intelligence 6, Perception 13, Charisma 7.

Campaign Attributes: Attack 4, Defense 3, Knowledge 0, Wisdom 0, Leadership 1.

Special Skill: Bone Dragon Instructor—after campaign level 5, for each level gained, all bone dragon-type troops and their modifications under his command gain +2 attack.

General Skills: Intermediate Offense, Intermediate Defense, Basic Leadership, Basic Logistics, Basic Diplomacy, Basic Soul Summoning.

Own Troops: One small unit each of Dragon Soul Wraiths, Dragonbone Skeletons, Dragonblood Skeletons, and Dragon Servant Skeletons.

War Banner: Black and red, emblazoned with a roaring spectral dragon.

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With Reed’s addition, Li Bin was finally free from the shadow of death. After instructing the Dragonbone Skeletons to suppress their draconic aura, he called in all the Forest Pursuers to rest, while he himself set about a new task—digging.

In truth, from the moment he learned Reed had used up all the dragon bones, Li Bin had wondered if he could wring some benefit from Reed, to avoid making the trip in vain. But Reed’s willingness to join him forced Li Bin to abandon that thought. After all, a player cannot forcibly demand anything from a subordinate hero.

In the end, with no other option, Li Bin turned his attention to the soil of the Dragon Tomb. After being steeped and cleansed by so much draconic power and blood, this earth had gained potent properties and negative energy.

Originally, Li Bin should have summoned his Graveyard Demon here at the tomb to evolve it—perhaps straight into a powerful Dragon Tomb Demon. But the current circumstances forced him to give up that tempting idea. Obediently, he dug up the tomb soil, packed it, and stored it in the Undead Scorpion’s space.

In the end, Li Bin managed to pack over thirteen hundred bundles of Dragon Tomb soil from this small tomb. Even if every ten bundles filled only one storage slot, it still took up much of the Undead Scorpion’s capacity.

He was forced to take out some standard corpses and immediately convert them into small Harpy Venom Maidens to relieve the spatial pressure on the Undead Scorpion.

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Just as Li Bin was considering taking the opportunity to study the creation of Harpy Venom Maidens, a ghostly crow arrived with news from Tordina and her group.

"Master, something terrible has happened! Something big is going down on the Bloodthirsty Wasteland. All the troops are gathering there, and every resurrection point has been taken over by a group of players. They’re even attacking players who’ve just revived!"

Reading Tordina’s message, Li Bin and San Nei couldn’t help but frown. The situation was now clear: the people who had lured Li Bin and the others into this underground world must be this very group. And with everything they were doing out in the open on the Bloodthirsty Wasteland, anyone sharp could see their intentions.

Just then, a system alert appeared: "Black Moonstone Guild attacks Hoof Village, Black Moonstone Guild attacks Wildmang Village, Black Moonstone Guild… The bloodthirsty Lord Xiu Bi of Bloodthirsty City now issues a regional warrant: Black Moonstone Guild is an illegal guild on the Bloodthirsty Wasteland. Killing Black Moonstone Guild members will grant rewards…"

"It looks like Black Moonstone Guild wants to do what those other super guilds did—take over a new player continent for themselves," San Nei remarked after reading through the system notices.

Li Bin nodded. He’d heard of such things before entering the game. Three guilds had already seized the old Undead starter continent, Bone Wasteland; the Human starter continent, Missybrin; and the Infernal starter continent, Ninefold Abyss, forbidding any player not belonging to their guild from completing the starter quests on those continents.

And because those three guilds had powerful backing, the game company was forced to designate those continents as their territory, and reassign new starter continents for those factions. As a result, those three guilds had expanded rapidly, becoming three of the top ten guilds in Judgement.

This set off the ambitions of other guilds. Those with strength also set their sights on the starter continents—Black Moonstone among them.

If Black Moonstone managed to occupy every city in Bloodthirsty Wasteland for seven days during this campaign, they would become the undisputed rulers of this starter continent. All players would then have to join their guild to earn permission to leave the continent, and their power would swell dramatically.

Thinking of this, Li Bin sighed. "I’ve had my run-ins with Black Moonstone Guild. San Nei, how do you think we can help that bloodthirsty Lord Xiu Bi?"

"Help him? You think Black Moonstone Guild isn’t wary of you?" San Nei shook his head. "Look at this mission. Ninety-nine percent, it’s designed to weed out dissenters. The weak are sent to the harpies to die, and the strong get dragged underground…"

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