Chapter 480

Chapter 480: Demon Bodies

After Erlan and his group finally came down from upstairs, everyone had breakfast and lunch together, then set off towards the east.

Seeing the tired faces of the group, Aubergine didn’t look very happy, it seemed like these guys had caused trouble together at night before.

Once they passed Stonewatch Keep and entered the forest to the west, the path became unclear. Without the patrols of Stonewatch Keep or the sentries of Lakeshire, the warlocks’ demon servants could appear one by one.

Along the dappled forest path, Erlan’s imp Gelkik vividly recounted everything from the night before, while Wallis excitedly added various details.

From their conversation, it was clear that Gacresse was the leader last night, this guy seemed to have unlimited stamina and never got tired.

But Jesse knew that this guy was actually like Molofeel, using sports to drain everyone’s energy. For a demon like him, as long as there is endless energy, he will never get tired.

Except for Erlan, the other guys were not very interested in the details of the gathering, but they were indeed curious about Molofeel who was with Jesse.

Jesse knew they were not interested in his succubus because there was not much desire in their eyes, but rather some alertness.

Perhaps men in general are more able to sense the threat of a female succubus. After walking for about three days, when they reached a dense forest at noon, Jesse suddenly heard the sound of water.

He remembered when he and Vereesa were heading east along the Redridge mountain ridge, they finally saw a river in the forest, which meant they had arrived to the east of Redridge and were close to the Gnoll forest.

At that time, he was considering whether to replenish supplies around that river, or to directly cross through the valley in Burning Steppes to reach the other side.

Upon reaching the riverbank, Aubergine glanced at the rushing river water, pointing to a distant rocky beach, saying, "Let’s rest there for a while."

"Will it be easier for the Gnolls to discover us this way, Dunn?" Surena asked.

"Just look at those demons, Surena Caledon," Hunter Dunn pointed to Gacresse and a few imps over there, saying, "If you were a Gnoll, would you pick a fight with these people?"

Erlan gently patted Hubert’s thick shoulder and said, "If I were a Gnoll, I wouldn’t dare to approach this priest."

Wallis chuckled and glanced at Gacresse behind him, "I suddenly wonder why Gacresse has been so quiet these days. Wasn’t he determined to win over our priest before?"

Hubert frowned and said, "Stop making such jokes, Wallis."

"I really want to know," Wallis looked at the incubus and asked, "What’s going on? What happened?"

Gacresse hesitated for a moment after looking at Molofeel, finally sensing a hint of fear towards Molofeel from this succubus, Jesse.

It turns out he wasn’t confident because of his strength, he just didn’t know the full story.

Maybe he held a high position when he was loyal to that previous mistress.

Dunn noticed Gacresse’s reaction, leaned against the female dwarf, glanced at Molofeel sitting beside them, who returned the smile.

"It’s clear now that I didn’t understand my place before," Gacresse whispered, "I apologize to all those I’ve hurt with my arrogance, especially to my master… and Mr. Jurke."

Wallis, including the hunter and priest next to him, looked surprised and seemed like they wanted to say something but didn’t know what to say.

"Gacresse almost got that thing chopped off by Ms. Molofeel, just for trying to provoke our friend Jurke." Erlan hugged Jesse next to him and said, "Now he is much more obedient, right, Surena?"

"He was really out of line," Surena said. "I take the blame, after all, I am his master."

"Thank you very much, Ms. Molofeel, you really saved me a big trouble," the priest said quietly.

Now he could see the succubus looking more relaxed than a few days ago. As a priest, such a change was not easy, so Jesse could imagine the trouble Gacresse had caused for the men here.

"No need to thank me, Mr. Hubert Martin Loss," Molofeel nodded and said.

Even though the past two days of travel had made everyone somewhat familiar with each other, Jesse still felt uncomfortable with the strange conversation, and he wasn’t the only one.

"Finally, we meet," Dunn cleared his throat and said. "I’ve been looking forward to this scene since our last journey, a priest thanking a succubus. I will write this conversation into my novel."

"Remember to change my name," Hubert said.

"Don’t write my real name," Aubergine said, "if you’re including me in your story."

"Do you really think that a few people will read the rubbish I write?" Dunn chuckled.

"No matter what it is, there will always be someone who appreciates it," Wallis said. "If you’ve been to the grand library in Ironforge and read the travelogues written by the Explorer Association, you would know. Sometimes, I even doubt the mental state of those adventurers…"

Since Jesse had just joined this group, he wasn’t quite comfortable with interrupting directly.

As he dug out some crumbs of bread from his pack and popped them into his mouth, he listened to them discussing the adventure story Dunn was writing. But before long, he felt like the bread crumbs had taken on a strange taste. How could these dry bread crumbs go bad so quickly?

Jesse soon realized that it wasn’t the bread that had gone bad, but that the wind had shifted, faintly carrying a slightly familiar and unpleasant smell from the southeast. However, he couldn’t quite place where he had smelled it before.

"Can you smell that?" he raised his head to sniff the gentle breeze coming through the forest. Upon hearing Jesse’s words, Hunter Dunn also stopped smiling and joined in the sniffing.

"It’s the scent of a demon’s corpse," he said.

"Are there demon corpses here?" Aubergine asked. "We’ve only just entered the Gnoll Forest not long ago."

"I can smell it too." Erlan stood up and sniffed around, then looked towards the far riverbank where the wind was blowing from, and said, "But this smell is a bit different from the one we smelled before from the demon corpse, can you feel it too?"

"There’s a sense of darkness in the air, everyone." Hubert said.

When the priest mentioned it, Jesse suddenly realized why this smell felt familiar.

This is the smell of a demon corpse burned by Shadowflame, reminding him of the battle he had fought alongside Greed on a gryphon against the Doomguard leading a group of felbats.

It was that time when he bombed the Doomguard in mid-air with a Fireball infused with shadow.

The Shadowflame burned his flesh, and the smell that emanated seemed to be this scent.

Someone is using Shadow Magic to attack demons?

Or is someone roasting demon corpses with Shadowflame?

"Let’s go check it out." Mage Aubergine said, "It’s almost time for us to rest anyway, we are getting closer to danger here, we shouldn’t relax like we did back in the valley earlier."

Everyone nodded and packed their things to follow Aubergine towards the direction of a stinky smell, passing through a dense forest by the riverbank to reach a clearing. Before long, they indeed saw a dark object on the riverbank.

"Looks like a silly Mo’arg," Saenor said.

"Was he killed by other warlocks?" Wallis asked.

"Doesn’t seem like it," Saenor said. "To me, it looks like he was burned by shadow after death!"

"Who would burn a demon’s body? Isn’t that a waste of money?" Erlan asked in surprise.

Hubert pulled up his mask to cover his nose, took the hammer off his waist, and inspected the area, saying, "I’ll go check out what’s going on."

"Hold on," the hunter stared at the dense forest behind the demon and said, "I sense something fishy."

"Is it a decoy?" Jesse asked.

He remembered the first time he came home, encountering a leopard named "Dark Night Baron" on the ship, that feline seemed to want to lure these hunters in with a half-dead wounded creature.

"Bait?" Aubergine asked suspiciously, then immediately understood what Jesse meant.

"Are you saying… someone is using this as bait to lure scavengers like us over and then rob us?"

"Has this ever happened before?" Jesse asked.

"Maybe, but I haven’t heard of it," Aubergine said.

"Maybe it’s not just robbery," Erlan said. "It could be the work of Gnolls, as only these foolish beings would think of burning demon corpses randomly. Who knows, the tattoos and armor on this demon’s body might be more valuable than everything we brought along! And don’t forget, some of them are shadow mages."

Hearing this, the female Dwarf Warlock looked at the demon corpse and said, "As far as I know, Gnolls have always avoided trouble. They keep their distance from us, demons, and the army as much as possible, knowing they can’t afford to pick a fight with anyone."

"But what if they suddenly come across something worthwhile?" Erlan said. "One Gnoll tribe tried it, successfully plundered something, and now other Gnoll tribes are following suit…"

"After all, their territory has also been encroached upon," the priest nodded. "That makes sense."

"In that case," Dunn pointed to a distant spot and drew an arc, saying, "Let’s go around this way and check for any ambushes…"

"We don’t need to look for a fight, we’re not here to cause trouble with the Gnolls, everyone." Mage Aubergine said, "This body is already burnt like this, probably not worth much money. Let’s leave this place and head south, go into The Black Morass first."

"The key now is, the Gnolls may be waiting for us on the road," the hunter said.

"Didn’t you say Gnolls wouldn’t attack us with demons?" Surena asked.

"I did think that before seeing this demon’s body," Hunter Dunn said, "But now… the situation here is always changing, we can’t rely on old experiences to deal with new situations, Mrs. Caledon."