Morphus: “Wow, so many kingdoms, so many that the kid knew 8 off the top of his head”

Ranga was not exactly a native to this land, having immigrated to this continent from a place called the Land of Rising Sun, but he did acquire basic knowledge of the geography and neighboring kingdoms, so he at least knew this much.

The 8 Kingdoms that were known to him were: Midgard Kingdom, Ignis Kingdom, Aquarius Kingdom, Ventus Kingdom, Tonitrus Kingdom, Lumen Kingdom, and Nox Kingdom. There were probably other ones, but those were definitely the big ones.

Midgard Kingdom was the kingdom with the greatest number of known heroes, producing more than other countries. The sheer number of normal heroes they had was mind boggling, and they have even produced several Champion Level Heroes, and yet, the elusive Legendary Level Hero has yet to appear. Rightfully, it was also known as the Kingdom of Magic Knights.

Ignis Kingdom was arguably the most powerful kingdom among them, not because of power of individual heroes, but because of their unique leader. For over the last 400 years, the kingdom was led by rumored to be an immortal sage, King Leamas Ignis, who brought unprecedented revolution that made the kingdom advance so fast that now there is a saying that Ignis Kingdom is 2 centuries ahead of everyone else.

Petros Kingdom was a land where rules and rights were defined by might. Strength and skill were a measure of everything. For some, enormous mana reserves and extreme magical power were most valuable traits, while others focused on physical sight of strength. It was a common knowledge in this land that anyone could be challenged at any time. Perhaps because this was a land where might triumphs over everything else, beast folk and demi-humans have taken it over. Human beings were viewed as a slaves at best and source of food at worst.

A common etiquette was that killing was allowed, but only during duels. Refusal of a duel was seen as a shameful display and was like an admission of defeat, leading to being seen as a weakling by everyone. For the prideful Petros kingdom beast warriors, backing down from a challenge was seen as a greatest form of shame, which is why, many would rather perish rather than back down from a duel. In a duel, the rules were simple, anything goes and Winner Takes All.

Uniquely, unlike the other kingdoms that had royal lines, Petros Kingdom was ruled by the one who bore the title of Golden King, the strongest warrior in all of Petros Kingdom. The current Golden King was the Golden Lion King. He could be challenged at any time, and if he were to lose, the victor will claim his title and throne. Such was the way of the might obsessed Petros Kingdom.

Because beasts controlled the land, this was likely the worst kingdom to be born a human.

Ventus Kingdom was a land ruled by Dragon Riders. It is said that only the descendants of the royal line had the capacity to develop magic that allowed them to bond with and control dragons. Every single Dragon Rider of this kingdom had some royal blood in their veins. Fully grown dragons were believed to be impervious to all known forms of magic, extremely resistant to weapons, and could cause mass casualties and devastation.

If it were not for King Leamas, Ventus Kingdom would have, without a shadow of a doubt, to be the strongest kingdom on the continent. When not united against a common enemy, Ventus Kingdom was at a constant war with itself, with each ambition ruler pitting themselves either against rivals or the existing ruler. Due to this, the lifespan and reign of their rulers tended to be incredibly short. The longest a single monarch managed to rule in peace was about 40 years, far cry from 400+ years under King Leamas’s belt.

Tonitrus Kingdom. Apparently, all Ranga knew about it that the ruling lords were called Lords of Something. Local rumors claimed that many strange people came from there to the point it was called the Land of Weirdoes.

Lumen Kingdom was known as a Holy Kingdom. Unlike many kingdoms that had religious majority worshipping the Secondary Gods, Primary Gods, and King of Gods, they worshipped something entirely different. Ranga was not entirely sure what they worshipped. They viewed Holy Magic as the greatest form of magic and like the Midgard Kingdom, had their own order of greatest heroes, the Sacred Order, all gathered around the round table.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Nox Kingdom was ruled by a tyrant, the Masked Princess. It had similar beliefs to Petros Kingdom, but while Petros Kingdom emphasized might and strength, in Nox Kingdom, Power was everything. Unlike Petros Kingdom that were all about direct confrontation, for Nox Kingdom, power meant all forms of control. They would do anything to gain more power: bribery, manipulations, dark magic, poisoning, torture, mutilation, threats, murder, hostages, etc. anything was a fair game as long as it let them have more power. Select few in this Kingdom worship the Ender, also known as the Stranger, The Reaper, or simply, Death.

If Lumen Kingdom was the Light, then Nox Kingdom was the Darkness.

Aquarius Kingdom was by far the weakest of all kingdoms. This was widely known to be a kingdom of retirees and rookies. In terms of development and everything important, this kingdom was so behind that it was a miracle it was still intact and not conquered by others.

Morphus: “And of all kingdoms, we are in Aquarius Kingdom, the Country of Rookies. It’s kind of fitting”

Current situation was self-explanatory.

Morphus could only sigh as he watched the scene unfold before him.

A monster subjugation…at least that was it is supposed to be.

What he bore witness to was nothing more than a slaughter. And not from the monster side.

Most of the adventurers that took on this quest were reduced to chunks of meat, and they were the lucky ones. Some unlucky chaps ended up swallowed whole by the enormous jaws of the beasts.

Morphus: ‘They must have racial trait for an increased stomach capacity, otherwise, no way in hell can they eat that many of them in one sitting’

Adventurers were clearly outmatched. Their weapons did nothing to pierce the skins of the monsters.

Perhaps because they were underprepared, but not a single adventurer had a silver weapon, but with this kind of difference in power, it would not have made much of a difference.

Werewolves. Even a pup is strong enough to kill a grown man. And there were 20 of them.

To kill a werewolf, one needs to be at least a gold rank adventurer.

Their current group consisted of Low Rankers: Copper, Iron, and Bronze Rank adventurers, eager to take on a quest that did not pay much.

Mid to High Rankers, Silver and above, have refused to take on this quest due to low rewards for their work.

But to be fair, the ones who made the request for the guild had no idea what type of monster they were dealing with, assuming it was a small fry that could be taken care of even by low rankers.

Boy, were they wrong.

Human beings were, in simplest terms, balloons of flesh filled with red water. And those werewolves were simply popping those balloons, one by one.

Ranga was fighting for his life, but his level was too low and his equipment was of poor quality. The sword he wielded had already snapped in half and he was wildly swinging what remained of it at the incoming monsters, but it was just a matter of time before he would also be consumed.

In this world, anyone could gain experience by training or killing monsters. Training took far longer, but it was safer. Killing monsters allowed you to accumulate experience much faster, but it was a dangerous endeavor that could cost one’s life.

None could tell how much experience points a person has accumulated unless they could use status skill, which apparently was a skill rare enough that people had to actually pay someone to get an accurate measurement.

Experience, after reaching a certain quantity, is converted into a level. To reach a higher level, one needed far more experience than the previous level.

To become level 3 in a warrior class required more experience than it took to become level 2 warrior, and it only got harder with each level.

Many tried to take the easier route of killing an enormous number of monsters, thinking it was the fastest way to level up, but more often than not, it led to a meat grinder. You were far more likely to be killed along the way before gaining any valuable experience or levels. Not to mention, some people had an undeniable level cap, the highest level they were capable of reaching, turning dreams of many into dust and tears.

Killing weaker monsters could only take you so far. After a certain point, no matter how many weak monsters you killed, you would not level up. If you truly wanted to become stronger, you had to kill stronger monsters.

Morphus: “Perhaps not the best choice for a mask”

With the money Ranga lent him, Morphus bought a mask that resembled the face of an elephant. To say that he looked ridiculous would be an understatement. There was a ring on his right hand’s middle finger, but apparently it was on the corpse before Morphus possessed it. Perhaps the man whose body he had stolen was married and Morphus was desecrating his memory. It made no difference to Morphus. He would use anything he could get his hands on, no matter how dastardly or evil it was.

While everyone and Ranga were fighting for their lives, Morphus was sitting on the grass, sipping on tea, and eating sandwiches. Amidst all the death, destruction, and slaughter, he was having a picnic.

Had Ranga not been fighting for his life, he would have certainly punched Morphus in the face.

Out of the 50+ adventurers that came here for a subjugation, only about a 6 or so remained alive, including Ranga.

Morphus: “Well, he was gracious enough to treat me and even gave me money for clothing, so I might as well interfere, just a little”