Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The wind swept past, yellow sand drifted in the air. The dust limited the vision of the soldiers.

In the distant sandstorm, a human figure slowly appeared on the yellow land. It was approaching the fortress one step at a time!

Clank! Clank!

The sound of metal hitting the ground came to them. It was oddly piercing.

The soldiers had never seen anything like it. They continued to stare intently…

“Are those chains on its back?” a soldier on the watchtower blurted out in astonishment.

It looked like a homeless refugee in ragged clothes, covered in filthy stains. It had a bulky build; its skin was like a dead tree, wilted and lifeless. It was leashed by chains as thick as an adult human’s wrist, wrapped around it twice.

The creature was obviously hauling a great weight. Every step it took would leave a deep footprint on the yellow sand. Its body was covered in bulging veins!

The soldiers of Northguard Fortress were dumbfounded.

What the hell was that? It looked like a human, and despite its muscular build, it seemed to be bent over by fatigue. The great effort it was putting in just to move forward, and the hatred and grudge it was bearing…

Was it really so much of a threat that the fortress had to be placed on red alert?

A similar figure walked out from the sandstorm as the soldiers were all confused.

The second figure was following the same line as the first creature, also hauling a chain. Other figures were visible when the dust was blown away by the wind!

As the sandstorm in the distance slowly faded away, more bulky figures bound in chains showed up. They moved forward at the same time, and every time they took a huge step forward, they would let out a deep groan, as if they were using all their strength!

The creatures kept repeating the same actions, moving forward with great effort, slowly drawing closer to the Northguard Fortress. To everyone’s astonishment, the numbers of these bulky figures with ragged clothes and skin like a tree was a lot higher than they had imagined. Most importantly, they were all yoked to chains!

The chains were stiff and straight; they were all dragging something behind them! The spectacular sight of thousands of these bulky creatures dragging something so heavy behind them was terrifying!

They finally saw something being dragged out of the faint yellow line on the horizon. It had a bloated, ugly face; its mouth was as wide as its face, and its unusually large eyes were poking out. It did not have eye sockets…

It was shockingly massive, like a mountain of flesh filled with lumps, and the lumps had holes, too! The chains were tied to the lumps, allowing the muscular creatures to drag it along the ground.

The mountain of flesh was reluctant to move, and was in great pain whenever the chains pulled it. It was forced to step forward, or more appropriately, skid forward!

A few thousand muscular creatures dragging an enormous monster frog-thing forward with chains. How striking was the sight?

The soldiers defending the Northguard Fortress were stunned. They had never seen anything like this, nor had they faced an enemy with such a formation. What were the creatures that were dragging the chains, and what exactly was the eerie-looking monster frog?

The muscular creatures moved forward like enslaved haulers on a riverbank. Some of the creatures eventually fell to the ground, overwhelmed by fatigue. As the giant demon frog eventually caught up to the creatures that had fallen to the ground, it stuck its tongue out and ate them straight away!

It explained why the muscular creatures were brimming with fear, and why they were trying so hard to keep moving forward despite being overwhelmed by fatigue.

“Eternal labor, eternal pain; it’s the Underworld Monarch Frog!” Lingling’s eyes flickered with astonishment upon seeing it.

Lingling had read about it before. It was an ancient recording about the early era of slaves in the west. Slave masters had set up a terrifying Curse to force their slaves to keep working.

Anyone that signed the Contract sold themselves into slavery; they would turn into one of the Yoked when they died if they slacked even the slightest as a slave. These slaves had to drag the heavy frog around while searching for a residence for it. Their souls were bound by the chains, and they were bowed down by fatigue for eternity. If they stopped, they would be eaten by the frog. The Underworld Frog would slowly digest them, from their skin to their flesh, then to their bones. In addition, they would remain conscious during the digestive process…

The tortured souls would not vanish. The Underworld Frog would spit the slaves out again after the torture, forcing them to keep hauling!

Lingling always thought the Curse was amusing. She assumed it was just a lie to trick the slaves and force them to work as hard as they could. To her surprise, the Curse was real in Egypt’s underworld. The Underworld Monarch and the Yoked were real, too…

Compared to the abstract drawings in the ancient records, the sight of the enslaved haulers in ragged clothes being forced to march forward in great pain by the greedy slothful Underworld Monarch before her was suffocating!

“What the hell is that thing!?” The people of the Northguard Fortress were about to lose their minds. The pain that the Yoked were displaying was so real. It felt like they were being tortured themselves!

“Do you know what they are?” Commander Bin Wei asked Lingling.

She was shocked, too. She had been living here for many years, yet she had never seen such spooky monsters. These were no living creatures of their world; they were a bunch of demons from Hell!

“These slave haulers seem very tired. Does that mean we just need to kill that giant frog?” the aide-de-camp speculated.

To his surprise, Lingling shook her head and said, “The Yoked are under endless torture. The only relief for them is when they find a city full of living humans. Every human that the Underworld Monarch Frog kills makes their chains lighter. Can you imagine how mad and passionate these endlessly tortured demons are about finding some relief from their pain?”

The aide-de-camp gaped in disbelief.

What kind of war was this going to be? Why was it different from the beasts they normally faced?

Did they really stand a chance against these terrifying existences of the underworld?