Otto the death priest looked at the priestess of life and light Sara who was giving him a hard stare. Why a priestess of his gods chief enemy was visiting that maniac Bob was beyond him. Even Otto had been frightened by Grunts stories of Bob brutality when drunk. Why was a priestess of everything Bob tended to kill going to see Bob was a mystery to Otto.
Or it was until Sara began talking. “I am not going to let you corrupt that gentle soul Bob. I know from the paladins of light Bob is a caring and gentle soul who loves farming and has given up much of his wealth to help his fellow farmers.”
Otto felt a chill down his back this crazy bat actually believed what she had just said. Otto remembered that the paladins were often trained from families that had lost members to the slavers. They were fanatic in their hatred of slavers. With Bob offering them a chance to kill slavers there was no way they would not lie so they could kill some slavers.
Otto nodded “Yes indeed I have heard that the evil slavers have tried to spread falsehoods about Bob. May I ask what you have been told?”
“You know they say Bob poisoned a dragon to death with laxative. What a impossible suggestion everyone knows that dragons have poison resistance. The claims they have about Bob that he on his own attacked the slavers and killed them all. Such lies they tell they claim Bob used to wipe out entire goblin towns on his own. At least the lies they tell about Bob hiring assassins to kill slavers are more believable. Or would be if you never meet Bob. A more generous and kinder soul you never meet. How could they tell those horrible stories about him?”
Sara grinned “You know they even claim Bob skinned a entire village of elves alive because one of the elf's looked at his sister. Can you imagine it Bob killing someone Otto? ” “No I mean his name is Bob not Destrocto the Destroyer” Sara nodded “Its good you see it clearly even some of my fellow priests and priestess think Bob is some kind of evil maniac. You know they think Bob is planning on killing every noble in three or four counties and breeding a new race of high humans. They make him sound like some kind of evil demon lord whose plans after centuries of plotting are about to come true. Any way if your not here to try and tell be Bob is some kind of evil demon why are you here? Also can you talk to my sisters. Jessica thinks the paladins have all left because Bob is about to do something awful. You know she thinks Bob skins his enemies alive and buries them because its good for the soil.”
Otto shuddered remembering the time Bob had done that to a troll. Otto blinked if the paladins were leaving Bob's service then maybe things would get back to normal. Sara's next statement almost had Otto running for the hills. “Jessica said the paladins are leaving so they are not forced to stop the cruel and inhuman methods Bob is about to use on the slavers. Apparently some of Bob's old buddies have come to her to complain that what Bob is planning is inhuman. She believes that cannibals were so scared of what Bob is planning they came to the church of light to convert. They eat people over fires and they are suppose to be so scared of what Bob asked of them that three of them committed suicide.”
A chill of dread went down Otto back “What did Bob want them to do?” “They said Bob wanted to plant people in the ground and see if they could grow magic herbs on them while they were still alive. Can you imagine?” Otto could imagine it was something Bob would actually try.
Sara shuddered “You know they told far worse lies about Bob. That he already begun growing magic herbs on people and that he was hiring a undead necromancer to create some kind of undead farm. Where they would bury people up to their necks and then cast spells on them to turn them into zombies”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Otto smiled at Sara “You know what why do you not go first I have to go and do something.” Bob's voice called out “Otto get in here now I need to discuss plague cure spells” Otto cursed Sara in his head but not Bob. Because even thinking certain things could get you killed by Bob. Otto entered Bob's room and closed the door. The door lit up and Otto recognised the sealing ward.
A spell that stopped air and noise leaving. Bob looked up “The necromancer guild has been pestering me, I was hoping you could accelerate my plans.” A feeling of dread overcame Otto. This was Bob whatever he was planning was probably so evil even a devil would puke after hearing about it. Why had he decided to come and see what Bob was up to. Bob grinned “Relax relax will you all you have to do is round up a few murders from the prisons and escort them to their execution. ”
Bob's face looked demonic “You know my main class is farmer everyone knows. But what they do not know is that there are several types of undead that I am hopeful we can grow plants on. The plan is we plant a seed in the slavers stomach and put them in the ground.” Otto hand shot out “I do not want to know any more. What do you need me to do and what is my sect's payment?”
“Well it turns out the flowers we grow if treated with spells to keep the undead aura from killing them are valuable. They can be used in poisons of course but also to increase strength and grant disease resistance as well as help reduce childbirth deaths. It is perfect I can kill my enemies use their flesh to grow plants and raise their skeletons to fight for me. Even better the soil around where we are burying them will become lesser grave soil which the necromancers love.” Otto looked at Bob who was too happy if that was all there was to it. Otto thought about it carefully “Your main class gets a lot of experience for growing unusual plants does it not. I bet the plants your planning on growing grant you a lot of experience.”
Bob smile widened “It grants me a amazing amount of experience and opens up whole new sub classes as well as new skills. With this I might even reach a legendary farmer class. You know how rare classes like that are?” Otto knew he also knew there was no might about what Bob was planning. Bob would kill every human and demi human in a thousand miles if he had to. Otto began to sweat “Bob how much land are you taking?”
“That is a stupid question as much as I can. Honestly its kind of embarrassing. You know they are driving out all the priests with spells that target the undead. For some reason they think that by bringing in the merchant priests and those of the what is it called. The Class priests the ones that claim everyone should be assigned their class at birth based on what their parents did. They are flooding the area with those idiots. Meanwhile the priests of war and priests of death like you are being driven into my waiting arms.
What kind of idiot chases out the god of war's priests before going to war? ” Bob sighed “They are tearing down the shrines that protect cities from the undead. I mean what do they think I am not going to hire necromancers? That I am not the kind of person that will not kill their families and send them out after them as undead? ”
Otto kept very still as Bob glared at him “I know I should be happy my enemies are crippling themselves. More than likely the merchants are making a lot of gold out of this. But what about the farmers like myself. Well like I used to be the guys living on the edge. With maybe a sling and axe which is mostly used to cut fire wood between them and the bandits and monsters. The merchants are using me to form a buffer against the monsters. It looks like they are weakening certain border towns. I think and this is just me because anything else does not make sense they plan on me taking a most of the border regions with them retreating letting me do the fighting.
What is their plan weaken the outer regions let me capture them and then hope I spend so much time defending the outer regions I am unable to take the inner region?
Of course they might underestimate my greed a bit. When we have them nailed to trees they will know they make a mistake.”
Otto felt a wave of pity for the merchants. They obviously thought Bob was going to stick to their rules and oppress the lower class. After all if you did not oppress the lower class and let them take combat classes they could rebel. But Bob was from the lower class and would not hesitate to train up the poor. Worse for the merchants he would be smart about it.
In a year or maybe less he would have a army of fourteen years old with combat classes and the will to slaughter all that stood in their way.