46 Greed

Clint was the son of the city lord of Iron City. But, as Iron City was often in a state of war with 4 other underground cities in its vicinity, he spent more than half of his time on the battlefield. Rather than the Prince of the City, he was more like a soldier.

Despite being a normal human with average height, his 2-meter tall gray heavy armour covered everything. On the bizarre bird-head helmet, a pair of bright eyes could be vaguely seen.

Even after he was given the full authority by his father to visit another land without war, Vance, as a diplomat, he decisively brought along his full battle gear. The adamantine heavy armour that never left his body was just the configuration, there was still a 3-meter long gun behind his back, two swords and an easy to reach Dwarf pistol by his waist.

The little prince who managed to escape with his life due to luck on the battlefield dozens of time was already used to being in a constant battle ready state at anytime.

"Actually, Prince Clint, you don't have to be so wary. In fact, there's no need to make your servants get into a battle formation. This is Vance, the City of Platinum where gold can be found all around. This wasn't an endless battlefield here, unlike your homeland."

The goblin Merchant Seross, who was tagging along with him, felt frustrated. He was already regretting his actions of accepting the request to bring Prince Clint to Vance for the Alliance Conference, having coveted the small request fee. On the way, he already got fed up with those over-sensitive nerves of the Prince and his War Syndrome.

It was no wonder why Seross was so unhappy. It was enough that their camping ground was surrounded by Goblin Mines. In the tent, he had placed a few claymores within the tent. Fine, so he should already be safe like tha, right?. Wrong, at that point he had put a dummy on his own bed and slept on the tree instead.

Every morning before the merchant team could set out, they had to spend up to half an hour to find him. Not only that, they also had to be careful because of all the traps laid around him so as to not get injured.

"While you were asleep, the sentry on night duty tried to cover you with a blanket out of goodwill but he almost got cut into half by you. Your nerves are really too sensitive! I know that your homeland may be unstable, but you can rest easy here! There is no war here!"

After a short moment, the metal can stretched out his forefinger, swirled them around the air before putting the finger into his mouth.

"…The taste of smoke, crawl down!!"

Afterwards, the iron giant really fell to the ground and his servant followed suit.

"YOU…YOU, IT IS SAFE HERE…" The goblin's shriek was still sounding by his ear when two crimson red light whizzed past his body. The deadly heat wave that came along with it almost vaporized him. Afterwards, the light of fire started to spread and the buildings not too far away had plunged into a sea of flames.

"Dragon Breath!! It should be an Adult Dragon, get ready for battle!"

Clint immediately got moving together with his servants. He started to create a temporary base, using his luggage as a blockade and started assembling his rifles… To enjoy such treatment right after entering Vance City, the goblin Seross was completely astounded.

But, this wasn't the moment to be in a daze. The next moment, two Red Dragons swept past the top of his head. This showed what kind of scary fight they were caught in.

The next moment, a deadly flash of darkness cut across the skyline and the Red Dragon didn't even have time to groan before it was sent spiraling down to the ground while spilling a rain of dragon blood.

"Splat!"

The smashed meat and dragon blood crashed onto the ground right in front of him. The goblin Merchant, who was hugging his head with both of his hands, could no longer find the courage to claim to the others that this was a safe zone.

Following which, another Red Dragon seemed to have seen some kind of nightmare and immediately tried to fly higher and escape. But, a red light similar to the flash of darkness before pierced through its head. Fresh blood splattered everywhere and the headless dragon corpse fell to the ground like a shooting star.

"AHHHHHHH!"

Before Seross's piercing scream could escape fully from his mouth, a large metal hand stuffed it right back into him. Clint shivered as he stared at the sea of flames. It wasn't because he was worried but rather, it was the sharp instincts of a prey reacting in alarm to a naturally powerful predator above.

In the sea of flames caused by the Dragon Breath, a slow humongous figure advanced gradually. The Beastman that were trying to stop his movements by his side seemed just like small ants in comparison.

It was more than 30-meters tall and the 8 gigantic pillars of hoofs it was walking with seemed to be as sturdy and heavy as metal towers. Every time it moved, the surrounding houses would tremor.

The Gigantic Skeleton Beast had 3 heads, all of them consisting solely of bones. One of them was the head of a Giant, another one was a Goat-headed Demon and the last, the head of a Bone Dragon. The Goat-headed Demon's brain still had black light encircling it while the mouth of the Bone Dragon had infernal flames still lingering in it. At this moment, the head of the Giant seemed to have just finished its long incantation and it was time for its performance.

"Polar Storm, The Icy Plains of Giants."

Under the curse of the Polar Giant, snowflakes began falling and the ground started to freeze. Vast's ice plains became reality as the legendary homeland of the Polar Giants was summoned to this ground. In comparison to the Polar Giant, which had a physical body allowing it to ignore the extreme cold, the Beastmen were too weak; they had zero resistance towards the cold and they died frozen as a group.

"The 'Demonic Bone Beast' Crimspur, the most dangerous mutated Bone Beast in the world, the 6th Senator of the Xiluo Empire!! Why is it here?!"

That diabolical battle form was the best name card for the Undead Lord.

It may seem to be moving very slowly but in reality, it was a false impression due to its gigantic stature. Within mere seconds, the three-headed Bone Demon was already right in front of their eyes. The head of the Giant even glanced at them, but looking at the wary Clint and his guards, he only tilted his chin in scorn and continued moving on.

"Boom!" "Boom!" Accompanied by the sounds of explosion and earthquakes, Crimspur advances towards his next target.

"… We've been ignored."

"We have been spared!! Let's leave quickly!!"

The sound of the catapults of the Beastmen could be heard from afar. The war between a single being and an army continued. No one wished to become cannon fodder for no reason, so Seross pulled aside Prince Clint and escaped.

10 minutes passed. The group from Iron City, who had successfully escaped, panted heavily by the side of the road. At this moment, the old goblin had managed to make sense of the situation.

"Prince, it seems that there are still 3 more weeks before the legendary Eternal Night Scepter will be auctioned off, that's why the Undead Lords from the surface are trying to steal it. Hehe, our luck was really bad. However, you can rest easy now. The gate that we passed by earlier was the East Gate, the territory of the Beast Sovereign. The reason why we got entangled in that mess was because the Scepter is in his hands. Now that we're out of his territory, you can loosen up."

Clint quietly stared at the goblin and pointed behind him. A bunch of wild beasts were rushing through, sending innumerable passersby flying and wrecking numerous vendors.

The one riding on the head of the bull and leading the way was the Dracon Hunter and chasing at his back were countless pursuers.

"Bastard, you actually opened all the cages in the zoo and the Druid's territory, did you eat something wrong?!"

"You even claimed that you were a vet, return our animals to us!! You scammer!!"

"Little Xue, don't be sad. I know that you are disconsolate over your husband's death, but look. Am I not strong? And don't I resemble your husband? Accept me as your Alpha Wolf and I shall treat you sisters well…" His expressions and movements in trying to poach them were sincere, making one feel quite moved. But the person he was talking to was a female wolf… he was intending to create a Wolf harem…

The dumbfounded goblin spent half a day before his spirit floated back into his body. Wiping away the sweat on his forehead, he continued.

"Hehe, there are scammers and criminals in every city. Our luck has been terrible so far, but this city should be mostly safe."

Clint shook his head and pointed towards another direction.

Right there, a bunch of villains were surrounding two female Elves, and seemed to harbor malicious intentions. In the chaotic Underground World, such things happen too frequently. Old Seross shook his head, not intending to interfere as he possessed no strength to.

"What a pity. These two are probably ladies of nobility who secretly escaped from home. They are indeed rare beauties, it's really such a pity."

But in the next instant, he recalled that Clint possesses decent fighting, so it was possible for him to save them. The old goblin sent a gaze of expectation towards him, but the other party simply shook his head in response.

"…Too many people. Trap. The baits are male."

The flabbergasted Seross turned his head back. It was about time to rein in the nets for the trap. A group of Dark Elf Knights suddenly came rushing in from the corners of the road.

"Incantation of Law: Judgement"

"Incantation of Law: Judgement"

This instant, the crowd turned into a sea of red. But the targets of the Justice Knight were the bunch who were the reddest. They had to have carried out other crimes on top of this one.

"Big… Big returns! I knew that putting Krose and Victoria up as baits was a briliant idea. Look, even when the rest of you walk around in provocative clothing, you only end up catching 7 to 8 of them. On the other hand, despite not putting on any makeup and not sending seductive looks around, just by walking around with lowered heads, they managed to catch 300 to 400 of them. Look at those few well-dressed people, they are shining the reddest. They must be veteran scammers and villains."

"The security here is really bad, there are bastards everywhere… The criminal in front of me, hold it right there. You are almost purple from all of the red and you still dare to try and creep away? I will give you 3 seconds to stop, otherwise I will slash you… You still dare to run! Try my Rotten Shoe Strike1 (Po Xie Zhan), oh, wrong one, Demon Destroying Strike (Po Xie Zhan), wrong again… Sin-Splitting Strike!!" (Zhan Zui Ji)

"Hmph, to say the truth, it's a little depressing to lose in femininity to a man. However, losing to the #1 beauty of the judiciary, Krose and Victoria, I don't even feel a tinge of sadness. Have you seen any women who are more beautiful and feminine than them? Right, this must be a new record for our catch. Who's the one with the lowest record? Say it out so that everyone can laugh about it."

"Vice-captain Yawen, 1. Captain Diana, 0. As expected of our Big Sisters, they're really masculine such that those scums don't even dare to come near them.

"…Pu, they're really pitiful. Even Momo attracted 16 of them. Big Sister always has a solemn face that scares away others. Coupled with the pressure as a Legend-rank and her Epic-class weapon, her result can be considered quite normal. I think the most pitiful one is still Second Sister. She speaks like a man and looks like a man. No wonder people call her 'Buddies with the Saber2', so it was actually another way of saying that she doesn't have any suitors. Right, this joke is also not bad. Let's share it with the rest when we get back, it's more fun laughing together as a group."

"Momo… Vice-captain Yawen is right behind you."

"Ah Li, you tricked me!! Second Sister, I am just joking. Come on, give me a smile. Why are you drawing your saber?!"

Looking at these female knights with silver light radiating from them, the old goblin was quite astonished. That was obviously the Power of Order. It couldn't be that there were actually Holy Knights coming from the evil Dark Elves. Then again, the Holy Light should be gold in color, so this was really confusing for him.

Very apparently, these knights were different from normal Holy Knights. They actually ignored the Demon Progeny and Necromancers they met by the road. These were enemies that Holy Knights would go all out and fight them the death upon meeting.

This time, the old goblin could only mumble to himself.

"Change is happening too fast. But at least, the Goblins should still be normal."

This time, Clint pointed towards yet another direction. There, Goblins and Dwarves were testing out a rocket car with a gigantic rocket tied to it. The sight of harmony between the two races, in the eyes of Seross, was like a bolt out of the blue.

"What kind of joke is this?! Goblins are actually working together with those ugly Dwarves?! These goblin traitors, let old Seross fix you all!!"

Just as he was about to go up to challenge them, he was stopped by his companions… It was fortunate that he was stopped, because just as the rocket car started to move, it started flying upwards above everyone's head only to turn into a shooting star, until it reached the ceiling of the roof.

After that, 'pah', with a loud bang, it turned into fireworks.

"… It's all because that old bull was too heavy, that's why we set the horsepower too great such that it flew up instead. We need a much lighter experiment subject, errr, no, I mean pilot."

"Lowe, isn't it about time to show the willingness of you Goblins to sacrifice everything for the development of engineering?"

"The best contribution I can make towards goblin engineering is my survival… Where can I find a dumb goblin? Ohhhhh, this friend here, are you interested in the goblin rocket car?"

Very apparently, if he were to nod his head now, then Seross's 30 years of experience as a merchant would be in vain.

It took him a lot of effort to shake off the annoying goblin Engineer. Old Seross's face was filled with exhaustion as he sat on the step of stairs, smoking his pipe.

"This world is really changing too fast. Maybe, there will be a bunch of lunatics running nude the next moment…"

Eaglestorm and his tribesman ran across the sight of the group. As quickly as they came, they left. Lightly waving their hands, they bid farewell to the dumbfounded audiences. They didn't take away any fanfare, nor did they leave anything behind… They weren't even wearing anything, so what could they have left behind?

The old goblin rubbed his eyes in a daze.

"Inconceivable, what I say really comes true??? Is it possible that we might even meet with the Senators from the Undead Empire?"

Not too far away, the sounds of the hoofs of a horse could be heard.

"Ah Dang, did you really feel something? We have been looking for a week now, is our Emperor really in this city?"

"Ah Pa is here, Ah Dang is sure!"

The two Undead Senators walked past them, riding a Skeleton Horse…

"Black sclera, white pupils, it is the Bone Dragon Queen!!! Wait, even if Titans are to appear in front of me now, I won't be surprised anymore…"

"Pah!!" Following the loud boom, the tea standing in front of them was reduced to flat ground. A gigantic Metal Titan walked past them. At the back of the Robot Titan, the large words 'Roland Titan' were shining.

"I…"

"Shut up!!!" This time, even the reticent Clint couldn't stand the inauspicious mouth of the old goblin…

---------------

"Thanks to the effort of those trouble-makers, a large portion of the attention on us has been diverted away. Our secret interactions with the other underground city lords have been quite successful. There are already more than 27 underground cities that are willing to support us in the Alliance Conference. This afternoon, we will be getting in touch with 3 more factions. One of them is the Underground Autarch Eduar, you must meet with him personally. Also, the prince named Clint seems to be be quite eminent. He had expressed goodwill towards us, so it would be best if you meet him personally as well."

I nodded my head, expressing my approval. It was about time for me to personally meet with Eduar. Also, the Iron City was said to be a city comprising of many different races, I had been interested in the city from the start, so there was no harm meeting him.

Within a week of entering the city, the Dark Elf Knight army's demonstrations of the Power of Law in public had turned it into treasure coveted by many city lords. Using this as a bargaining chip, the meetings for alliances were quite successful.

Noting my agreement, Elisa continued her report.

"Within a week, the Lion King's Residence has been destroyed 12 times. There's not a building left there. Now only a gigantic pit remains. According to the latest news, the 6th Senator Crimspur has appeared along with his old partner, 'Ant King of Corrosion' Lamost. "

"Have the Undead Lords crossed swords with the Underground Autarch yet?"

"Not directly. It seems that both sides are still testing each other. Crimspur had destroyed two military barracks in the Beastman District and an entire street. Yet, only Molly's Red Dragons counterattacked. Furthermore, there were only two young dragons that weren't of age, so…"

"Destroyed in one blow3 huh, it's normal. Crimspur is an Undead of the previous generation that survived the last Sacred War. He had been ambitiously coveting the seat of the Undead Emperor for a long time, so it won't be easy to deal with him. However, he should have already received some results from his probing. It seems like the Scepter should be in the hand of the Dragon Empress, otherwise Molly wouldn't be willing to send out young Dragons to serve as cannon fodder."

"It looks like we must reassess the relationship between the Dragon Empress and the Lion King, to think that he would be willing to lend the Scepter to the other party to research…"

"Hehe, looks like their alliance is much stronger than we thought. Ah hahaha, rest easy, everything is under control!"

I laughed maniacally but Elisa seemed to be a little restrained.

"Master… There are some things which I don't know whether I should say them."

"Do I seem like a petty person? Go ahead!"

"We have no money. If you don't start thinking up an idea, we might end up living on the streets."

"What?!"

Hearing this, I exclaimed in shock. I remembered that the funds I brought should have been sufficient for us to live here for 3 years.

"You remember telling those fellows that they could call for backup anytime they wanted if they find themselves on the losing side? They really did it. They called for backup more than 60 times this week. The depletion of Magic Stones, the replacement of the machine's parts and even the acquisition of new machines to replace the destroyed ones. This adds up to a massive sum and we hadn't taken these into account when calculating our budget."

I nodded my head, expressing my acknowledgement towards Elisa's report and the additional expenses. Previously, we didn't expect that we would be able to prepare so many 'Rolands', so it was very normal for us to overspend. Engineering was a job that burnt through money, and those big robots were even better at burning money. To face a monetary crisis in such a short period of time, I guess it was only logical.

"Hehe, fortunately, I made additional preparations. Come over here, let me introduce you to my new treasure! It's called Greed, isn't it cute!"

On the experiment desk, there was a transparent bottle. Within the bottle, a bizarre and slimy liquid was thrashing about. It appeared to be trying to break through the seal of the bottle but it was sent flying back due to the lightning shock from the seal of the bottle.

"Really… Really gross!! White and sticky, it's indeed the same good that you use for thinking." Elisa said with a look of despise.

She was just mocking me for using my lower body to think. I had already experienced this level of venomous tongue many times after my collections had been discovered such that I was already numb to it. Instead, I laughed gleefully.

"That's because you don't know how useful it is. Don't judge it by how small it is, I only have to assimilate it into the waterways of this city and it will start replicating rapidly, forming countless clones. Within a few hours, this milk-white Slime will fill up the pipes and drainage system of the city…"

"Extremely disgusting!!! I beg of you to stop talking! What exactly do you intend to do?!"

"Hmph, you really aren't good at appraising things. It's called Greed, it instinctively looks for gold coins, swallows them and brings them back to the main body. This way, we will be able to solve our financial problems."

Usually, even if there's an ultimate treasure that was to be auctioned, the Auction House would normally just bring out a few items of equal level to hype up the crowd. I did not expect to get my hand on another God Equipment, but as long as the Lion King hoped to retain his pride, he would definitely bring out some good stuff to the auction.

Thinking about the auction that was about to be held, I intended to gather more money so as to buy some local specialties. Ever since I had dreamed about my experience in creating Ah Dang the last time, I focused my attention on getting my hands on the ingredients required for my specialty, Undead Creation.

And Greed here was the result of my hard work for an entire week.

[Mutated Slime: Greed/ Tribe: Undead Slime/ 1 point in all stats/ Race Talent: Targeted Devour, Fiber-Decomposing Secretion, Rapid Cloning/ System Evaluation: Extremely dangerous. Please destroy its main body as soon as possible. If you are to lose control of this being, not mentioning this entire city, the entire Underground World might disappear. As a side note, please stop creating beings. Your talent in this aspect is totally wrong. If you are to continue on this route, you might destroy the entire world even before the calamities strike! ]

Seems contradictory? Its abilities were obviously trashy but it actually generated so much fear from the system.

It was an existence hovering between life and death. To all beings, the simpler their demand was, the stronger the desire for it. This Greed represented avarice. In my settings, gold coins, mithril and different kinds of precious metal were the reason for its existence.

The simpler the being is, the easier for it to reproduce. The expenditure in cloning a single-cell organism was very low. Following the settings of its creator, Greed would clone itself frantically to steal more gold coins. It had no attacking ability whatsoever, the only thing it could do was to invade vaults with iron-tight defence, decompose the sacks that were full of treasure and steal the gold coins and expensive metals.

However, I could understand the system's concerns as well. If 'Greed' were to lose control, as long as it reproduced to a certain point, the countless Slimes could take over all the living space, leaving no space for other beings.

Of course, the precondition was that there was no limit to its cloning…

"Look, its main body is in this bottle. I will only release a tenth of it, so their reproduction ability and its size will be limited to a tenth of the original. Also, their lifespan will be limited, so they should all die within two days. At most, it will only be a gold coin thief."

While explaining, I carefully released 'Greed' into the waterworks. Suddenly, a wind blew and somehow, my nose, which should be devoid of any senses, felt itchy.

"Ah…. CHOOOOO! Who has been gossiping about me!?"

"MASTER!!!!!!"

Elisa's shout made me regain my focus. … but it was too late. Half of the main body of 'Greed' had already been released into the drainage. Very soon, it would follow this thousand-mile-long ancient drainage system and clone itself in the waterways. Then, it would swiftly invade the entire city.

"…Calm down, there's still half of it left. 'Greed' would only be slightly stronger than expected."

"How much stronger? Will it hurt anyone?"

"It will be slightly bigger… 5 times more than expected, slightly bigger than the size of a human. Following their intelligence setting, it might change its attacking pattern to swallowing a person and disintegrate their clothing while taking all the metal away from them… Calm down, I had adjusted the settings properly, 'Greed' definitely won't harm any beings, it will leave after swallowing clothes."

"Swallowing clothes? The entire city?" A terrifying image appeared in Elisa's mind. Countless Eaglestorms and Xuetis dancing around in a circle and more and more perverts start to join them…

"MASTER!! PLEASE RESEARCH A WAY TO DESTROY THIS DEMON FROM ITS ROOT QUICKLY!!!!!"