Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 608 - 598: Just Listen to Me

"Circle formation! Circle formation! Surround the wagons!"

"Use the wagons as cover to fend off the attack!"

"No way! If this batch of goods is destroyed, do you think the employer will let us go?"

"Damn... They have over twenty Explosive Crossbows! The Mage’s shield won’t last long!"

Shouts, roars, and screams mixed and emanated from not far away. Krumar, who had chosen to return, was now hiding behind a thick ancient tree, his face pale and body rigid as he peered at the infernal scene on the road.

The originally orderly caravan was now in chaos.

The attackers, cloaked in gray-brown camouflages and moving as swiftly as wolves, swarmed out from the dense forest on both sides of the road, surrounding the convoy completely. At a glance, there were as many as two or three hundred of them, nearly three times the number of the caravan guards!

The first wave of arrows and magic dropped the few outermost guards into pools of blood.

The horned Demon from earlier, who was enthusiastically talking about taking Krumar to see the sights, had now turned into a charred corpse lying by the roadside.

Under the command of the guard captain, who was also Krumar’s brother, the guards quickly suppressed their initial panic and moved swiftly towards the core of the heavy wagons, forming a defensive formation and starting to retaliate.

In all fairness, the average strength of the caravan guards was even above that of the attackers, with more seasoned battle experience.

However, the absolute disadvantage in numbers, combined with the equipment disparity brought by the Enchanted Weapons and Explosive Crossbows, still left the guards visibly at a disadvantage.

"What to do... What to do?" Krumar clenched his fist, a surge of hot blood rushing to his head, wanting to rush out regardless and fight alongside his brother to the death. But his legs felt like they were filled with lead, pinned to the spot by deeper fear.

He was just a young lad, and though having Silver Level strength at his age was quite impressive, in the current battle, he was at best a cannon fodder.

Let alone helping the caravan, even getting through the enemy encirclement was uncertain if he rushed out now.

He suddenly recalled the book and hurriedly opened it, seeing a few more lines of writing appear:

[Told you not to come back, why don’t you ever listen?]

[Looking at the situation, do you still want to get involved?]

"Do you... do you have a way? A way to save my brother?"

[Even if it’s very dangerous?]

Krumar watched in the distance as the defense line wavered again under another volley from the Explosive Crossbows, his brother’s figure swallowed in the rising dust.

His heart pounded wildly, but he finally nodded his head hard.

[Hahahahaha]

The page suddenly burst into a flamboyant display of writing, as if it had seen something amusing.

[Look at what I found? Altruism?]

[Kid, are you really a pure-blooded Demon of the Empire? Could something strange have sneaked in?]

"Enough nonsense!" Krumar growled, his eyes bloodshot, "If you have a way, just say it! They can’t hold out much longer!"

[Why the rush? At this pace, they can hold on a while longer]

[So rude, acting like I owe you something]

[But, who can resist a kind heart?]

[Now, turn around, head west. There’s a cliff, with a large cave covered by vines at the bottom]

[Inside, there are things that can save... help you all]

"West, large cave?" Krumar looked towards the west but didn’t see any cliffs.

[Believe it or not, it’s up to you]

The writing stopped there, adding no more.

Krumar hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth, leaving the shouts behind and sprinted westward.

Thanks to his fairly agile skills, it wasn’t long before he actually found the cliff.

"It’s right here..." he panted, using both hands to roughly tear apart the tough plants.

A dark cave entrance was exposed, with a cold, damp air mixed with the strong smell of blood and decay blowing in his face.

Krumar didn’t care about much else and bent down to enter. The cave’s interior was more spacious than expected, but the scene that greeted him nearly froze his blood.

Several large trolls with dark brown skin were sitting around the cave center.

In their midst was a mound made of various Demon remains. Krumar even fearfully recognized that in that pile of food, there seemed to be one or two Demon Race corpses mixed in.

The trolls were feasting, the sound of their fangs tearing through flesh echoing throughout the cave.

The commotion from Krumar’s entry caused these diners to simultaneously stop their actions and fix their eyes on this freshly delivered meal.

"Roar——!" A roar filled with greed and excitement rolled from the throat of one troll.

A half-eaten, unknown Demon’s leg bone slipped from its hand with a "clatter."

Obviously, compared to the already decaying stockpile, the young horned Demon’s fresh flesh was more enticing to them.

"No!" Krumar was scared out of his wits and turned to flee.

The vines blocked the trolls but didn’t stop them for long. Soon, they tore through the vines along with the attached rubble, and the five trolls chased after him!

"Is this... is this the ’good stuff’ you mentioned?" Krumar roared hoarsely in the direction of his arms while sprinting, his lungs burning with pain, "How can there be a wild giant troll colony so close to the Giant Beast Bone Field?!"

[Who said they are wild?]

[Don’t you know that the nobles of the Empire often have a habit of raising some small pets near their territories?]

Krumar no longer had the energy or mind to argue or question further.

All his will was used to drive his legs, with the roars behind him getting closer, mixed with the excited grunts of the trolls.

Luckily, Krumar was agile enough to narrowly escape being caught by the giant fan-like hands of the trolls, rolling and crawling back to the edge of the battlefield.

When he led the five mobile mountains of giant trolls crashing into the battlefield behind him, the chaos caused was beyond imagination.

The first to suffer were naturally those attackers on the periphery.

These attackers, who were originally focused on besieging their prey, never expected these frenzied predators to burst from behind.

A charging troll, like a boulder, didn’t pause for a moment and directly smashed into two crossbowmen shooting at the caravan’s defenses, breaking their bones with screams as they flew away.

Another troll extended its long arm, casually grabbing an astonished attacker who turned back, and without looking, shoved him into its bloody mouth, resulting in a crunching sound that made teeth ache, leaving only half the body hanging powerless.

"Behind us! It’s the trolls!"

"How did these beasts appear here?"

The attackers’ formation was instantly in disarray, with some starting to fight back against these unexpected guests.

Explosive crossbows burst into splatters of fire and blood on their thick skin.

The pained trolls let out deafening roars, their charging momentum slowing, even stumbling back under the impact of the explosions.

Swords and blades cut into them, leaving wounds that healed at a speed visible to the naked eye due to the trolls’ incredible life force.

The pain, instead, completely aroused the ferocity of these gigantic creatures, and after a brief retreat, they became more savagely murderous!

"Now’s the time! Everyone, take the wagons and charge out! Don’t worry about the formation, just go!" The caravan guard captain, Krumar’s older brother, although equally shocked by the appearance of the trolls, would not let this fleeting opportunity slip by.

He roared hoarsely, charging ahead, swinging his warhammer like the wind, and fiercely knocking over a confused attacker in front due to the chaos.

The guards, finding life in despair, unleashed their last efforts, no longer standing firm, but instead clustered around the core wagons, desperately charging through the breach torn open by the trolls.

However, amidst the chaos, a bloodthirsty troll seemed annoyed by the blocking wagon. It roared wildly, wielding a thick log picked up from who knows where, and slammed it into a wagon loaded with goods, splintering it and scattering crimson wine in all directions.

The losses were severe!

Yet the remaining guards dared not linger and fought their way out of the encirclement in disarray.

Watching his brother’s figure disappear into the dust at the end of the road along with the remnants of the caravan, Krumar leaned back against a tree trunk, slowly sliding to the ground.

It wasn’t until this moment that the exhaustion of surviving the disaster surged like a tide, and with shaking hands, he pulled out the yellow-covered book from his arms that had saved him and slowly opened it.

"Actually... really saved..." His voice was hoarse and filled with incredulous confusion, "What... are you?"

Even with Krumar’s limited experience, he clearly realized how extraordinary this book was!

Until not long ago, he was still thinking of taking it back for his knowledgeable brother to identify.

But for some reason, this thought quietly evaporated.

Only a vague, near-instinctual idea remained: This book must not be given to anyone.

On the pages, the writing slowly appeared:

[What am I?]

[I am your chance to change destiny, a friend to help you fulfill your wishes]

"Destiny... wishes... friend..." Krumar murmured, repeating, with a slightly unfocused gaze.

Not far behind him, the roars of the trolls, the curses of the attackers, the clash of weapons, and the tearing of flesh still faintly reached his ears, composing a brutal background sound.

But all this seemed to be separated by a partition, as his attention was wholly captivated by the writing on the pages, which seemed to siphon his soul.

[Yes, my friend]

The writing on the pages became softer.

[What you desire is more than just surviving today, isn’t it?]

[Wealth enough to fill a warehouse, a name spread throughout the Empire, power to protect everything you wish to protect... including your brother’s safety and happiness!]

[As long as you follow my guidance... all this shall be within your grasp]

The content of the yellow-covered book was like the sweetest poison, dropping into Krumar’s heart, dissolving the little vigilance and resistance left under numerous desires like spring snow.

He looked at those lines: "I... will listen to my friend."

At the moment those words fell, an invisible power connected with Krumar’s spirit.

[Charm·Moderate (Complete trust in the caster)]

[Hahaha]

[Good, my dear friend, let us seize the future together!]