Chapter 124 Lich PoV, and Gluttony

Third Person Point of View

Master felt his connection with Famine snap. When a thread was severed, it normally meant one thing. That connection was lost because the person on the other end was dead. If Master still had eyebrows to raise, one would have quirked up in surprise that one of his strongest troops could be killed, but it was Famine’s own fault.

The giant wasn’t all that smart; out of his four horsemen, he was actually the weakest in close-range combat. Most had their classes to help, while Famine used his size to his advantage. The four were supposed to complement each other; Famine, in particular, was expected to hang back and lob rocks at large formations of troops to weaken them.

His entire build was centered around strength, but that meant he was slow and easily killable, only his undead fortitude and race allowing him to stay alive when against opponents. It appeared that something in the dungeons was strong enough to counter him, but it wasn’t really that large of a deal. For the briefest of moments, he thinks to bring them back and rethink the entire plan, but it has been too long.

No, most people would think undead were a renewable resource, but there was a finite amount of corpses in their land, and they had hit the limit trying to push through centuries again. Every year, there were casualties, and every year meant the population of the undead would only shrink. No, they needed new bodies soon; otherwise, the humans to the east would realize their numbers had decreased and might push into his territory.

That was the problem with the undead; he could order them, but the common fodder undead were too stupid. They had no survival instincts. Ordering them to do something as mundane as building ships could have casualty rates as high as twenty percent of the undead participating in the process, and many projects Master had started immediately ended.

It was exhausting to use the undead for his plans, but that was what needed to be done. He sacrificed his own life to fuel a wish to kill the dwarves, and as long as he lived in his undeath, the curse would remain on them. Some might think that after hundreds of years, his hatred would have faded, but it hadn’t in the slightest. It had only grown cold; the quiet rage he had was now set on the back burner. The dwarves would eventually fade out, and he needed to make sure he lived long enough to see it happen.

But he couldn’t see it happen. The separation of the south from the other regions crippled his information gathering; he had no idea what shape the dwarves were in, and that irked him tremendously. All the power he held in life was wasted, separated by the efforts of humanity, and only now that so many years had passed, and the ‘undead threat’ wasn’t taken nearly as seriously, could he even attempt to break through.

He would have sighed if he could. Being so intelligent was sometimes a curse. He waited for more of his connections to be severed. If that were to happen, he’d know how big a threat pushing into the dungeons was, and could pull back his forces if it seemed like the losses would be too high. He could always wait another hundred years before he tried again. After all, he had all the time in the world since he was immortal.

…

Third Person Point of View

Gluttony had rushed ahead of the other forces. He was worried that Famine would eat all the other monsters. They had a sort of rivalry because of their hunger, but Gluttony was weaker and lower down in the command chain than Famine. It meant that most of the time, Famine was chosen for these types of missions.

Famine got to attack the eastern wall, eating people. Famine got to be the first to attack the dungeon, letting him eat his fill. That was why he had rushed ahead, but once he made it to the first dungeon, his progress had stopped. Famine could eat large amounts of food, but because he was a giant, he didn’t bother with smaller creatures.

Some of the dungeon animals had escaped from both Famine and the army he led… And that was currently what Gluttony was eating. The undead troll had incredible regeneration, except for a single unrecoverable wound. As he chewed and gnashed the meat and bones to a pulp, he swallowed. The food went to his stomach… It then proceeded to fall out of the gaping hole where his stomach should be.

Eating anything was euphoric to him. He could get by on tree bark or dirt, but the food that made him feel the best when he ate it was meat. When he wasn’t filling his literally bottomless stomach, he felt empty inside, literally. The gnawing hunger made him far more impulsive than any other Sin commander, which was why he rushed ahead, just for the chance at this.

He came out of his euphoric fugue as he looked around, searching for more animals, anything else he could consume, but after seeing nothing, his gaze turned downward to the pile of freshly eaten meat as he began to shovel in the same creature he had already eaten back into his mouth again. This cycle could repeat countless times. Eating a fresh corpse was far more appealing than the meat paste he had already had, but when that wasn’t an option, he’d repeatedly eat the same food in an almost endless cycle until a better option for food came up, or someone stopped him.

He could sit there for weeks, just consuming the same food over and over again in an endless cycle until something came along and stopped him. Right now, there wasn’t anything that would stop him except a better meal.

…

We bunkered down in an underground home we made as a safe zone. After killing the undead giant and after his army was dealt with, we didn’t see any others pushing deeper in. It was already late, and we were tired, so going to sleep and pushing further in tomorrow was our best option. Tems and Leaf were exploring, Cherry was busy making dinner, and I was using my earth control magic to further expand our hideout to more comfortably accommodate all of us.

We all worked together like a well-oiled machine. Some helped Cherry cook, others swept up the unpacked dirt, while others just stayed out of our way. Sarah and Sophia were the two who were not doing anything right now. Sarah was taking a break, and Sophia would just get in the way when she tried to help.

I was hollowing out an indentation that would become a storage area when I felt a hand caress my crotch from underneath. I didn’t even have the time to think about who it could have been when I heard Sarah whisper in my ear. “It’s been a while since we’ve all had sex together. I’m raring to go tonight, and I know everyone else is too.”

I couldn’t help but smile as I started to grow hard in her hand as she rubbed me through my pants. I knew we weren’t getting much sleep tonight, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.