The Boss King actually disguised himself as a novice village chief?!
Chapter 162 - 149: The Dwarf’s Foster Son

Chapter 162: Chapter 149: The Dwarf’s Foster Son

The blacksmith Laud with a goatee beard was somewhat worried, as the war that erupted today not only affected the inner city, touted as the safest area, but also saw the mighty legion soldiers crumbling like paper mache upon contact.

No one, including Laud, expected what happened next.

There was no massacre, no looting.

It was hard to understand how a group that had been so aggressively and brutally attacking moments ago could suddenly be chatting and greeting you with a smile, enthusiastically inviting you to join them.

Join? Of course, join!

When Leon City was breached, one of the three legion commanders, Lord Yang, died in battle, his body kneeling on the ground, clutching his longsword, a sight witnessed by every departing citizen of Leon City.

The other two legion commanders fled with the remnants of their forces.

Since then, Laud had no other thoughts.

Whoever didn’t let him join, he was ready to quarrel with!

"I, Laud! Will serve Star Dragon Ridge loyally,"

until the death of the lord.

The rest of the sentence he kept to himself.

After leaving Leon City, they walked for half a day and finally set up camp before nightfall.

"Line up, one by one!"

Up ahead, an Undead was distributing food. As a member of the inner city blacksmiths, Laud certainly recognized the Undead; he had repaired their weapons and heard far too many stories about the Undead in small taverns.

He knew that the Undead, truly immortal, acted without any taboo.

He had also heard that the Undead consume Magic Potion to gain strength.

And he had heard that the Undead can’t take off their underpants, haha!

A ration of hardtack, the bread was too tough to bite.

Laud was not quite satisfied; he was not like the men and women up ahead, who treated the food they received in line as if it were a treasure. As a blacksmith, Laud ate much better stuff, at least the bread did not contain sawdust.

But a rumbling belly cures all fussy eating habits. After spending half a day in fear and another half on the road, the extremely exhausted Laud could not resist taking big bites of the bread.

Delicious!

"Hey, do you want a child?"

A voice approached, and Laud turned to look at the newcomer.

An Undead? Probably, because Laud had seen too many faces like this one before. These Undead seemed to have a lot of twins; sometimes they looked so alike that you couldn’t tell them apart even when they were stark naked.

But why was the other person holding a child over?

"This is a child who has lost his mother," the Undead continued. "I remember you, you are the big-bearded blacksmith from the inner city. How about it, would you like to raise this child? He can take care of you when you’re old."

Laud glanced at the child: "Not interested."

With an uncertain future ahead, Laud had no intention of taking on a burden, and he was used to living freely anyway.

The Undead did not pester Laud further and went on to find the next person. For Laud, this was just an episode.

The next day, they resumed their journey. However, when they reached the Trident junction, the Undead chose to head south, and only a small portion of the soldiers stayed to escort Laud and the others.

Looking at the gleaming longswords, no one chose to resist. Better to obey and behave.

Besides, why resist a force capable of breaching Leon City? One should be happy to join them.

After two consecutive days of travel, Laud was utterly exhausted. After crossing a mysterious underground river, a group of fully-armed soldiers awaited them.

They were then brought to a crowded town.

Crowded!

In the midst of an apocalypse, there was still a town gathered with thousands of people. What had these people been subsisting on? With the arrival of Laud and his group, he didn’t even want to think about how much food it would take to feed everyone for a meal.

All he knew was that even Lord Leon couldn’t afford to support so many people.

The entire town was bustling.

Laud was arranged in a queue, where he had to give his name, age, profession, etc. Then he would receive a small badge, which he had to wear on his chest.

Having been a blacksmith before, Laud naturally obtained the identity of a blacksmith once again. But even before Laud could rejoice, he realized he seemed to have fallen into a terribly horrifying environment.

Forging, ceaselessly forging, fiercely forging.

Large quantities of ore were being transported over, and the work seemed endless.

Laud began to miss the leisurely days in the Leon Territory.

Having been a blacksmith for most of his life, Laud experienced for the first time that the sounds of "clang clang" from hammering iron and the hot sparks invading his dreams as soon as he closed his eyes at night.

The next day, he continued to forge.

The third day, he continued to forge.

The fourth day...

Forging and forging, the rapidly expanding population of Prey Town seemed to hint at a transformation into an industrial town.

...

"I’ll take good care of this little guy, look at him."

Ludo was holding the boy. Though he was just over a year old, he was already considered "big" for a dwarf.

As Star Dragon Ridge Watch gradually shifted from light to darkness, serving as a secret Magic Potion military base, the Former Territory’s watchtower was progressively taking its place.

NPCs like Ludo and Aluna also had been brought over, and they were required to provide more immersive performances for the Undead.

Plus, Ludo was a dwarven jester, and a cunning jester would sometimes trick the Undead into betting and gambling, which could bring substantial revenues for the territory.

Today, when the Undead came looking for an NPC willing to take care of the boy, Ludo the dwarf stepped forward.

Bereft of the ability to procreate, he couldn’t take a wife either; perhaps having a son of his own wouldn’t be so bad.

"You..." Sweet Mushroom wasn’t familiar with Ludo and felt that Ludo might not be able to take care of the child properly.

Yet, Sweet Mushroom was a bit anxious. Overwhelmed by emotions, he had rashly taken on the "task," but the child had been quite draining as he needed constant attention, and Sweet Mushroom also had to grind for Points to exchange for Magic Potions.

The station had already opened, and now Catastrophe Warhorses were said to be fetching exorbitant prices, with tycoons making offline payments to buy them.

Every minute he wasted was like throwing away money.

Just toss the child away as a string of code? If he could do that, he wouldn’t have taken on the task in the first place.

"Are you sure you can take care of him?" Sweet Mushroom still couldn’t bring himself to irresponsibly hand over the child.

"I’m certain." Ludo’s eyes remained on the child, and the child himself seemed to find Ludo quite amusing, giggling nonstop at him.

"See, he likes me a lot."

"Alright, I don’t have a choice," conceded Sweet Mushroom with a nod, glad that someone was willing to take over.

He also knew well that compared to being bound by benefits or moral obligation, a person willing to take the child of their own volition would certainly treat them well and ensure that the child wouldn’t be abandoned.

"Thank you very much," Ludo said with a smile, "How about you give this child a name?"

"Is this... a task reward?" Sweet Mushroom stared blankly at the boy.

In their recent interactions, they had developed some affection, and the boy would even reach out for a hug when he saw him.

Dismissing the numerous, silly names that came to mind, Sweet Mushroom took a deep breath: "May I ask, sir, what is your name?"

"Ludo."

"Perhaps the child could be named, Luke?"

"Luke! Look, you’ve got a name now~" Laughing heartily, Ludo entertained the boy with his antics; after all, dwarves were professionals at making people laugh.

Though he didn’t receive any tangible rewards, Sweet Mushroom found it quite fascinating to have named an NPC.

He took his leave, ready to grind for Points.

"Shouldn’t have been named Luke," Sweet Mushroom suddenly stopped a short distance away, smacking his forehead. Blaming his sentimentality for taking over once again, he mused that if he had named the child "Sweet Mushroom is Handsome" or "I Love Sweet Mushroom," the Undead would certainly think of him whenever they saw the little fella.

That was a missed opportunity to become famous!