Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 13 [The Cuckoo Chicken, the Wheat Sack, and the Super Pain Potion]

3pm.

Five adventurers were making their way on the road to Fallenthorn City, three in front and two behind.

"The Crackclaw Bird is a proud beast, a ferocious warrior! What a pity, what a shame! Fate brought that poor beast to me, the ultimate hunter, the Crackclaw Bird's destined warrior, Lukwin Rost! Claw and sword clashed back and forth, like snowflakes shimmering in the winter wind—"

The one leading the conversation was none other than the "famous" captain of the Crackclaw Birds of Thorn City, Lukwin Rost.

On either side of him, two adventurers followed closely: a short, chubby swordsman with a mushroom-shaped haircut and a skinny, bespectacled mage with slightly protruding teeth.

"—At that moment, the Cracked Claw Bird leaped into the air, its shadow obscuring the sky! Like the wings of a dragon!" Rost recounted passionately, "But as a warrior, the more critical the moment, the calmer and more composed one must be! I swung my sword in a backhand strike..."

The chubby swordsman, panting heavily, followed behind, clutching his sword. He listened to the story of the Cracked Claw Bird, which had been repeated countless times, with an expression of adoration and great enthusiasm. He was clearly a big fan of Rost.

He was dressed exactly like his idol, Lukewin Roth, wearing leather armor over a cloak—even the armor and cloak were the same size—which made the leather armor too narrow for him, as if it would burst open at any moment. The cloak was too long for him, and he kept tripping over the hem of his cloak along the way.

The skinny, bespectacled, buck-toothed mage kept his head down the whole time, watching his feet intently and carefully with every step he took, as if he might step on a few Erdrik gold coins—it seemed that because his nearsightedness was quite severe, his thick, bottle-bottom-like glasses were so thick that wearing them only further impaired his vision and sense of balance, so he had to keep looking at the ground to avoid falling.

"...This is our team's first victory! I cut off the head of the Cracked Claw Bird and plucked its most magnificent feather as a trophy for our first mission! It is also the origin of our team's name!" Rost finally finished his long-winded narration, turned around triumphantly, and showed the two tall knights behind him a stiff feather hanging around his neck.

The feathers are about the length of a palm, brown with black and white stripes, coarse and stiff, like a stiff feather on a bird's wing.

Samael and Talia exchanged a glance.

Talia laughed first. She coughed twice, raising her claw-shaped gauntlets to cover it up.

"Wow, that's impressive!" Samael clapped in agreement, then leaned his helmet close to Talia's helmet and whispered, "What's a Crackclaw Bird? Is it a Deinonychus?"

"Coo-coo chicken." Talia raised her gauntlet to cover the contact between their helmets and whispered a word.

"What?" Samael didn't understand.

“The Cracked Claw Bird, which the demons call the Cuckoo Chicken,” Talia whispered. “It’s a type of poultry that’s been affected by the ecology of the Demon Realm… It’s a medium-sized poultry, and there are quite a few of them in the wild. It’s non-toxic, and it looks like an enlarged pheasant. It digs in the soil and eats insects, so its claws are quite sharp. It’s very timid and will run away at the slightest noise. It will only fight if it can’t escape.”

"Is he very strong?" Samael asked in a low voice.

After hesitating for a long time, Talia finally blurted out:
"Not as good as a root ball."

Samael remained silent for a moment.

"Then, how did this Lukewin Rost survive so long in this treacherous wasteland?" He stared in bewilderment at the chattering figure ahead. "Perhaps he possesses some unknown extraordinary ability?"

“I don’t know,” Talia shrugged. “But compared to this chicken killer, I think your latrine cleaner friend’s team is acceptable.”

"Hey! Uh, Mr. Rost?" Samael rubbed his hands together and stepped forward, greeting him cheerfully. "Could you tell us what the main tasks of today's internship are?"

Lukewin Rost, who was striding ahead, suddenly turned around, revealing a bright and proud smile, and gave a thumbs up. His expression was full of confidence, much like the Banana Man that Samael often saw on the bizarre video website in his previous life.

"Don't be scared, newbie! We're going to hunt the most dangerous magical beasts, the most terrifying monsters of the demon realm!" He said with a serious expression, uttering the mysterious word in a low voice, "Cracked Claw Bird."

Samael remained silent.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Talia leaned closer and whispered, “If he only attacks the clucking chickens, they are indeed quite hard to kill. The clucking chickens are not poisonous, have weak combat power, and dare not attack other creatures. Their only survival advantage is that they travel in groups and are relatively fast.”

“I admit, I may have overestimated the strength of low- to mid-level adventurers.” Samael hesitated and said in a low voice, “Maybe… uh, maybe you’re right, maybe I’m overthinking it, and there’s nothing to worry about with adventurers at all… um… no, no, no, of course not, not all adventurers are different. We can’t let our guard down because of a few isolated cases.”

He snapped out of his daze, shook his head, clutched the visor of his helmet, and wondered if he had been too nervous.

Talia smiled gently as she looked at him.

As the five-person makeshift party passed through the gates of Fallenthorn City, a familiar voice rang in their ears again:

“You two… monks?” Guardian Number One and Guardian Number Two looked at Samael and Talia in the group, as well as Rost at the front of the group.

"Good afternoon, uncle." Samael waved.

“Good afternoon, monk. We thought…” Guard One hesitated.

"Where's that kid Rondar?" Guard Number Two asked. "Did that brat abandon you?"

“No, no! Uncle, we got along very well with Rondar and are preparing to officially join their team tomorrow,” Samael explained. “It’s just that the league has a rule that newly registered members need to participate in at least one team internship mission before they can carry out missions independently or join other teams.”

"Oh! Is that so? I thought that kid had connections at the front desk and could skip the process and get you guys into the team..." Guard Number One was halfway through his sentence when Guard Number Two raised his hand and slapped his mouth shut.

"Nonsense! There's no such thing. Even the Demon King has to follow the rules if he becomes an adventurer!" Guard Number Two declared righteously. "Rules are rules, and everyone is treated equally!"

“Yes, that’s absolutely true,” Samael said. “That’s the truth. It really is.”

A dull thud. Samael looked down at Talia's black armored boots stepping on his foot.

He struggled for a moment, still holding the helmet, and pulled his foot out from under Talia's boot.

Avoiding the topic would only make us seem suspicious! Samael tried to express the long sentence with his eyes or facial expressions, but he had no eyes, no face, and no expression, so he could only symbolically nod his helmet in response.

"So the newcomer's internship assignment was snatched away by that gossipy and annoying Lukewin Rost?" Guard One frowned, glaring at Lukewin Rost.

"Hey! Show some respect! How dare you swear at me, you gatekeeper! What do you mean, 'annoying bastard'? I'm an adventurer about to advance to level three, the glorious Crack Claw Warrior Rost!" Rost waved his fist menacingly.

"The professional code of the Alliance Guardians requires us not to insult adventurers who have committed no crime without cause," Guardian Number Two continued. "In other words, we are simply stating the facts."

The two guards exchanged a glance and chuckled.

"I'm magnanimous, I won't hold it against you." Rost snorted, picked a weed stalk from the roadside and put it in his mouth.

"We actually saved you during the dust storm, and this is how you treat us?" Guardian Number Two said.

"What do you mean you saved me? Are you stopping me from going out to complete my great mission?" Rost chewed on a straw and glared at Guard Number Two. "You're just jealous of my warrior prowess and my bountiful hunt in the wasteland, that's why you're stopping me from going out hunting."

"Yes, yes, we've learned our lesson. Next time a dust storm comes, we won't stop you; we'll let you out." Guard Number Two laughed.

"It's a shame you're just annoying, not a criminal," Guardian Number One said in a low voice. "If you ask me, being a nuisance and annoying should also be considered a crime, recorded in the Adventurer's Code, and the punishment should be a good beating—I really want to beat you up."

"Tch, just two gatekeepers." Rost chewed on a straw and scoffed. "I have to mentor some new recruits today, don't interfere with my mission."

Rost's party of five passed through the gates of Fallenthorn City and headed into the wilderness.

“You two are really unlucky. I feel genuinely sorry for you.” Guardian Number One said sincerely from behind them. “If you ask me, the Alliance should compensate you for your emotional distress. If the Alliance doesn’t pay you, you can hire a lawyer to sue the Alliance. I believe you will definitely win.”

“Don’t listen to them, what do those two gatekeepers know?” Rost said. “I’ll teach you from experience—this is the Wasteland, a terrible and brutal land of adventurers.”

"Logically, newcomers should start with the simplest things, but that would be too relaxed and wouldn't ignite their fighting spirit. So we're going to hunt down the most terrifying and ferocious monsters—"

“The Cracked Claw Bird,” Samael replied.

“Exactly!” Rost said solemnly, “The Crackclaw Bird!”

Samael felt that Rost was a waste of his talents as an adventurer. His eloquence, acting skills, and ability to evoke emotions would have made him an excellent bard, wandering the streets telling stories. Perhaps a wrong decision many years ago caused the bard world to lose a rising star, while giving the adventurer world a dispensable and preferably nonexistent piece of sticky excrement.

He led his team stealthily across the plain, stepping over several bone-white boulders, and beckoned to a few of them.

"Look! Cracked Claw Bird!" He led his group, hiding behind a boulder, and excitedly peeked out from the side of the boulder, calling out to the people behind him in a low voice.

The chubby swordsman ran over excitedly, only to be pushed away by Rost.

“You’ve seen it before, and you’ll have another chance to see it later. Let the newcomers see it first! I’m here to teach the new adventurers!” He greeted Samael and Talia with great seriousness.

Talia ignored her.

"Oh, I'll come and take a look." Samael readily agreed, eager to join in. After all, as a transmigrator, he had never seen anything before and was curious about everything.

Behind the boulder was a small, flat area covered with low, withered yellow weeds. A dozen or so huge brown birds, each more than half a person tall, strode among the weeds, dragging their long tail feathers, pecking at something scattered in the weeds.

“See that?” Rost lowered his voice. “That’s a Crackclaw Bird—they’re very warrior-like beasts, they would never gang up on someone. Next, we need to choose a strong opponent that looks worthy of the challenge, charge straight in, and create a simple duel arena…”

He looked around, pointed to a rather large Crackclaw Bird on the edge, and suddenly leaped out of the shelter of the rocks, shouting, "Come with me! Make me a dueling arena!"

The chubby swordsman and the bespectacled mage followed closely behind!
The Cracked Claw Birds squawked and scattered quickly, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Just as the targeted Cracked Claw Bird was about to escape, it was sandwiched between the Fatty and the Glasses Guy.

It looked around in terror, trying to find a way to escape, but found that its last escape route was blocked by Rost. In the end, it had no choice but to paw at the ground and pounce on Rost!

"Let's have a fair fight!" Rost, with a blade of grass in his mouth, drew his longsword with imposing grandeur, held it horizontally with his right arm, and faced the Crackclaw Bird head-on!

"Coo-coo!" The Crack-Clawed Bird screeched, then suddenly flapped its wings violently, briefly lifting its claws off the ground to reveal sharp, thick claws honed from years of digging in the soil, and lunged at Rost with one claw!
Clang! Sparks flew! The longsword barely parried one claw, but the next claw was cunningly hidden behind the first.

"Coo-coo!" The sharp claws suddenly slashed Rost's left arm, leaving three bloody marks.

"Ah! A formidable opponent! Now it's my turn!" But Rost was not to be outdone, piercing the wing of the Cracked Claw Bird with his sword, leaving a dripping bloody sword mark.

"Newbies! Be careful, stand back and watch! Don't get hurt by the Cracked Claw Bird!" He reminded Samael and Talia as he fought.

"My goodness, such evenly matched opponents, what an exhilarating battle! It's getting my blood pumping." Talia, carrying her hammer and spear, stood to the side, yawning and watching with a detached eye. "Wow, this is amazing. I'm about to faint from fright."

She turned to look at Samael, only to see him staring blankly at the battle between Rost and the Cracked Claw Bird, lost in thought.

"Samo? Want to see something more exciting?" she asked in a low voice, bringing the helmet closer with a hint of mischief.

“…What?” Samael didn’t react.

“Watch.” A faint, eerie blue light flashed in the eyes beneath the demon horn helmet.

The Cracked Claw Bird paused, a faint blue light flashing in its eyes.

It's as if a monarch's decree is whipping its soul, and the king's power is driving its skeleton! It can run itself ragged, smash its body, and break its neck for this command!
The next second, it suddenly flapped its wings and leaped into the air!

Rost was startled and drew his sword to stab at her face!

The Cracked Claw Bird neither dodged nor evaded; its body was forcibly folded into a twisted posture by some unnatural force, barely avoiding the blade! This action broke its own bones, but with the remaining fervor of being whipped by the monarch, it charged straight toward Rost's chest!

A flash of steel-like claws. Accompanied by the crisp sound of leather armor being cut open, blood splattered.

Blood splattered, dripping onto the ground.

Amidst the screams of two devoted fans, Rost slowly collapsed to his knees. The Crackclaw Bird's broken bones could no longer support its stance; the monarch's tyrannical command had crushed it. Like a puppet without support, life dissipated from its mangled body. With its last ounce of strength, the Crackclaw Bird charged forward a few meters before crashing headfirst into the ground, its brains splattering.

Talia yawned.

"Fun, isn't it? This is much faster. Let's finish quickly and go back to rest," she said in Samael's ear, as if showing off or asking for credit.

Samael remained silent, looking at Rost lying in a pool of blood, and the two wailing fans.

“You can’t do that,” Samael said in a low voice. “He… he is indeed arrogant, boastful, annoying, and oblivious to his own stupidity, but he doesn’t deserve to die. He even cared about the task of training the new recruits the whole time, calling me over to watch and telling us not to go near—”

He pushed Talia aside and went to check on Rost's injuries.

Talia stood there, silently watching Samael rush forward and help Rost up to check his injuries.

“It’s nothing…it’s nothing! Just a minor injury…” Lukewin Rost groaned, his face pale. “Ah…battle wounds are an adventurer’s badge of honor, and this is a scar from a head-on duel. It must look pretty cool…uh…”

Samael activated the scanner in the helmet's UI:

[Target race: Human]

[Biological structural integrity: 54% (rapidly declining)]

[Stamina: 20%]

[Psionic Power: 26%]

[Status: Severely injured, near death.]

Estimated time of death: 36 minutes.

His abdomen had been ripped open by sharp claws. Without proper medical treatment, he probably wouldn't live much longer.

Beasts driven by kings are always driven by a reckless fervor and possess a treacherous and unpredictable style of attack. Even the timid and clumsy Cuckoo Chicken can be transformed into a frenzied, bloodthirsty warrior under the lash of psionic energy.

"Don't you have any emergency medical supplies?" Samael asked. "Shouldn't adventurers prepare plenty of supplies in advance?"

He recalled playing a game called "Darkest Dungeon" on his computer in his previous life. In the game, before setting off on an adventure with four warriors, when you needed to buy adventure supplies, the narrator would always say jokingly:
"Now we pay with money, later we'll pay with blood."

So Xia Mo'an would always be cursing the unscrupulous merchants for their expensive supplies while simultaneously spending piles of money to buy them, all amidst the joking comments of the game's narrator.

"I...I don't know healing magic yet," the bespectacled guy stammered, adjusting his huge, thick-rimmed glasses.

"The healing potion... is very expensive. Captain Rost said it's a scam..." the chubby boy with the mushroom haircut sobbed.

"Ah...of course it's a scam! How could it be so expensive!" Rost said weakly, his face pale and beads of cold sweat streaming down his face.

He was quite a tough guy; even with his abdomen ripped open, he stubbornly refused to scream.

Samael's face darkened.

Where could he find medical supplies in the middle of nowhere? He pondered this, when a sudden, unusual weight around his waist brought him back to his senses.

Rondar had previously given himself a leather pouch filled with potions. Among them were more than twenty vials of healing potions on a chain.

“You should thank Randall… If you manage to get back alive, remember to apologize to Randall Riska.” Samael opened the leather pouch at his waist, pulled out the string of glass tubes filled with murky, deep red liquid, ripped open a healing potion with one hand, and poured it into Rost’s mouth without a word.

The next second, Rost screamed like a pig being slaughtered!
"Aaaaaaahh ...

"What's going on? Has this not had any therapeutic effect?" Samael examined the wound.

The granulation tissue at the wound was wriggling and slowly growing.

[Biological structural integrity: 56% (increasing)]

Clearly, the potion was very effective.

"Oh, one bottle probably isn't enough. I knew it! Who could drink from a bottle the size of a finger?" Samael realized, ripped open another tube, and forced it into Rost's mouth.

"Aaaaaah, it hurts! Aaaaaah, stop giving me that thing! It hurts! Aaaaaah, it hurts! Aaaaaah, stop giving me that thing again! It hurts! Aaaaaah!" Rost, who had been stubbornly enduring the pain, screamed like a pig being slaughtered.

[Biological structural integrity: 60% (rapidly increasing)]

“This bottle is so small, the pain must be due to insufficient dosage. This is a healing potion, just drink another bottle and you’ll be fine!” Samael forcibly pried open Rost’s mouth and poured another bottle down his throat.

"No, no, stop! No, no, no no no no no ahhhhhh!" Rost shouted halfway through before being forced to drink another bottle.

[Biological structural integrity: 68% (rapidly increasing)]

【生物结构完整度：75%……82%……91%……99%……100%】

[Status: Stable. Coma.]

"Oh, it should be alright now." Samael let go of his hand. "Rost, how are you feeling?"

"Captain Rost?" The chubby boy and the bespectacled boy shook him.

Rost rolled his eyes and fainted from the pain.

"It's alright now. My condition has stabilized." Samael scratched his helmet, looking at the empty bottle in his hand. "Why did drinking the healing potion cause such excruciating pain?"

“The purification techniques of novice potion makers are terrible,” Talia’s voice rang in her ears. “The raw materials for healing potions include bloodthorn, which contains a thorn toxin that causes excruciating pain that is very difficult to remove. Novices usually can’t remove it completely. It doesn’t affect the efficacy, but it will cause excruciating pain.”

Samael turned his head. Talia's helmet was just inches from his face, a few strands of gray hair swaying slightly through the gaps in the helmet. She had her hands behind her back and was looking down at the medicine bottle in Samael's hand.

“Your latrine-scavenger friend probably forgot to tell you that poorly purified, off-brand healing potions need to be taken with painkillers—he also keeps an equal number of painkillers in his bag.” She extended her claw-nailed fingertips, rummaging through the twenty-two tubes of painkillers in the leather bag. “Healing potions are very effective; one tube, while slow, is enough to stabilize your condition. You accidentally fed yourself too many, causing you to faint from the pain.”

“…Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Samael looked at Rost, who was in so much pain that he had fainted and his eyes had rolled back, and silently put away the leather bag.

“It’s about time to go back.” He bent down, picked up Rost, and hoisted him onto his back.

"We must take the spoils of war too!" the chubby swordsman added, pointing at the corpse of the Cracked Claw Bird.

Samael glanced at Talia.

"Oh, okay," Talia reluctantly agreed, dejectedly lifting the heavy carcass of the Cracked Claw Bird with one hand.

The body was dragged away, revealing the weeds underneath.

"Wait a minute." Samael suddenly stopped in his tracks. "This is..."

Light brown particles were scattered in the weeds. These were what the Cleftclawed Birds had been pecking at.

“…Wheat grains?” Talia said, her tone questioning.

Why... are there wheat grains in the wilderness of the wasteland? Ordinary human agricultural practices should not be able to grow in the psionic, enchanted soil of the wasteland.

Samael followed the trail of wheat grains and slowly walked to the center of the weed field.

A coarse cloth bag, torn open by a bird's beak and claws, lay quietly in the center of the weeds, still half-full of wheat grains inside.

"Take this with you too." He glanced at Talia.

Talia nodded, and picked up the burlap sack with her other free hand.

The cloth bag was printed with incomplete text:
[The grain was transported to Kanas... (torn and mutilated by bird claws)... the city].

……

In the city of Fallenthorn, on Old Wood Street, in the public workshop opposite the barracks.

Among the adventurers are many skilled craftsmen, including potion makers, hunters skilled in traps and projectiles, mages and elven buffaloes adept at crafting magical items, and dwarven hammersmiths skilled in forging and processing. However, the adventurers' barracks are cramped and lack equipment, making it difficult to carry out crafting work.

Therefore, alliance outposts typically establish communal workshops near barracks, which include a large amount of specialized manufacturing equipment. The equipment and individual rooms can be rented together for a fee. Compared to purchasing equipment and rooms separately, communal workshops are clearly more convenient and cost-effective.

In a potion maker's workshop, a short, blond potion maker stood on a stool, stirring various raw materials in a crucible on a large workbench, fiddling with an extractor and a dropper.

Randall sat at his desk, taking advantage of the large surface area to organize his study notes.

"He's here to freeload off my studio again..." the short, blonde potion master muttered.

"Can I borrow this table for a moment? It's big. I'll leave as soon as I'm done organizing my notes." Rondar stacked his notes on the habits of plants and animals, tapped them on the table, and aligned the corners.

Achoo! Randall turned his head to the side, covered his mouth, and sneezed.

"Have you caught a cold, Captain?" Apprentice potion master Ruby asked as she stirred and heated the crucible.

“No…it’s nothing,” Rondar replied. He pondered, “I feel like I’ve forgotten something.”

“You forgot to pay me—you’re organizing my notes in my rented shared studio, so hurry up and split the rent in half! Pay up!” Ruby reached out her hand.

“No… I’m pretty sure that’s not what I’ve forgotten.” With the agility of a hunter, Rondar dodged her hand.

"By the way, why are you suddenly asking me for potions again? Did you use up the amount I prepared for the whole team so quickly?" Ruby asked.

“I gave my share of the potion to the new teammates who will be joining tomorrow.” Rondar stroked his chin. “Weren’t we just talking about two very strong fully armored knights… Oh!”

He exclaimed.

"What's wrong now? Why are you so easily startled?" Ruby asked.

“I forgot to tell them that your healing potion is extremely painful! You need to take it with painkillers!” Rondar suddenly stood up and knocked over a chair.

"It's good enough that it's treatable! It doesn't affect the efficacy of the medicine... It's not my fault that the Bloodthorn toxin can't be completely removed. I've tried my best to keep the impurity content very low—do you know how much effort I spent to remove that little bit of impurity? How pretentious!" Ruby muttered.

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(End of this chapter)