Goddess Kaleidoscope

As Hume spoke, she deliberately bent down, displaying the breathtaking view beneath her collar to Ludwig. Based on her previous experience teasing Ludwig, this trick always worked wonders on him, making him unconsciously stare for a few seconds. Ludwig was no exception this time.

Suddenly, Hume's face changed to a smile. Knowing her master well, Fallen Leaf knew it was a prelude to her impending prank. So, before Ludwig could react, Hume, who had been seducing him, unexpectedly transformed into the orc girl from before…

End of this chapter

The next morning, Zaka took Lud and Hume to a meeting of the Allied leaders. Lud was initially worried that since they were both unfamiliar faces, their sudden appearance at the meeting would attract a lot of questions, but when they arrived, they realized that they had worried too much.

It was supposed to be a meeting of the leaders, but the venue was actually an empty space. Each boss had more than 20 underlings supporting him, making it look like a primary or secondary school sports meet, except for the opening ceremony.

Ludwig and Hume, disguised as dark elves, were both wearing robes and blending into a group of tall, burly orcs. Unless they jumped around a couple of times, no one outside could see them.

Through the orc's armpit, Lud observed his surroundings. At first glance, the scene resembled a scene from Journey to the West, with all sorts of demons and monsters gathered together, and even some humans.

However, what concerned Lud most was the group of ratmen at the head of the procession. A group of priests surrounded an old rat with a white beard, presumably the ratman high priest Midi that Zaka had mentioned. Behind them was the enormous palanquin that had patrolled the entire camp the previous night.

By this time, the straw curtains on the palanquin had been completely drawn back, revealing two young women kneeling inside. One was a young female rat-person, dressed in similar attire to the priest, while the other, seated in the very center of the palanquin, was of a race that Lud couldn't discern even after a long examination!

"I said, do you recognize this?"

"You've really stumped me; I don't know him either."

Ludwig and Hume exchanged a glance, and the latter shrugged, indicating that she was merely a master thief, and being knowledgeable didn't mean she had seen everything.

Because the girl's face was veiled, Ludwig couldn't see what she looked like. But he estimated her age to be around sixteen or seventeen, with physical features largely similar to humans, except that she had a pair of horns on her head, wings on her back, and a large tail. Her "human-like" ability was estimated to be below 3.

Based on the limited characteristics, Hume speculated that the girl was probably a hybrid of a lizardman or a dragon and a human, and that her human bloodline was closer to the human side, which is why she looked like this.

While Lude was secretly observing the girl, the leaders' meeting officially began. But although it was called a meeting, after listening for a while, Lude felt it was more like a group of thugs cursing in the village entrance.

The leaders competed to see who could shout the loudest and spit the most. The blue-faced, fanged orcs had a racial advantage in this regard, with their naturally droopy underbites. So when Zaka opened his mouth, his spittle flew like a spray bottle, making Lud frown and wish he could get him a mask to wear.

The core issue arguing among the leaders remained the timing of the attack. The volatile orcs demanded an immediate action, believing that the coalition's current force of tens of thousands was sufficient to conquer human towns. However, the ogre sitting opposite them immediately jumped out to object.

But these burly, green-skinned fat men weren't unwilling to fight; they simply didn't get along with the orcs. So they kept making sarcastic remarks to Zaka, and the two sides glared at each other, giving the impression that their verbal battle could turn into a physical fight at any moment.

At this moment, the ratman high priest Midi stepped forward to smooth things over. This old rat spoke slowly and deliberately, and looked as frail as a candle in the wind, but none of the leaders present dared to underestimate him.

Midi explained to everyone that the reason they were still holding back was that many demi-human tribes were still on their way. This time, they planned to attack human towns directly, so the more troops the better. Moreover, the Dragon King's priestess had received divine revelation, instructing them to wait until the next new moon night to make their move, in order to ensure absolute success.

In short, the old rat spoke slowly and deliberately, making the listeners drowsy. But Ludwig suddenly sensed something was wrong. He looked at Hume beside him, who silently nodded.

"Those rats are secretly using magic!"

Lud looked around. The leaders, who had been on the verge of conflict, now all had blank stares and looked as if they were dozing off. The ratman priests behind Midi all had their heads down, and because of the masks on their faces, it was difficult to see that they were chanting incantations unless you looked closely.

Soon, the vast open space fell silent. Midi glanced at the tribal chiefs on either side, all of whom were now silent, and stroked his beard with a smug look. Lud and Hume stood among the orcs, pretending to be under control as well, waiting to see what these ratmen were up to.

At this moment, another group of ratmen approached, carrying earthenware bowls and sharp knives. They specifically targeted areas like the calves and back of the neck, taking blood from the group of demi-humans present.

Seeing this, Ludwig was somewhat horrified. Fortunately, Hume suddenly grabbed his wrist, and then Ludwig saw a layer of gray mist rise from Hume's body, spreading along his wrist and enveloping his entire body. Hume mouthed a warning to him not to move.

Soon, the blood-drawing ratman came to the two, but as if he saw nothing, he pricked the other orcs around them, ignoring Lud and Hume who were right next to him.

After the ratmen left, Hume slowly withdrew the gray mist. Ludwig noticed that her forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, clearly indicating that the attack had taken a considerable toll on her.

Are you alright?

"fine."

Soon, the ratmen finished drawing blood and withdrew. High Priest Midi coughed lightly, and the other priests behind him immediately stopped their low chanting.

As the magical effects wore off, the demi-human leaders, who had been stunned, quickly regained their energy and started arguing loudly again. Most of them didn't realize that they had been bled, or they touched the cuts and mistakenly thought they had been bitten by some kind of insect.

Having witnessed everything, Lud did not make a sound, but continued to observe silently. He glanced at the dragon girl sitting on the palanquin; she seemed somewhat uneasy and tried to get up to do something several times, but was pulled back by the female ratman beside her.

And so, this eerie meeting of leaders came to an end. Zaka left cursing because his expectations had not been met, and his eyes were practically spitting fire as he looked at the ogre leader.

Back on the orcs' own territory, Lud thought for a moment and decided not to tell Zaka the truth yet, but he already had a plan in mind.

If all goes well, Pine Tree Village may be able to disintegrate this seemingly massive demi-human alliance without losing a single soldier!

End of this chapter

The discoveries at the meeting made Ludwig and Hume realize that the true purpose of the ratmen was probably not, as they claimed, to unite all the demi-human tribes in the Virtual Forest and raid humans as a group.

They brought together so many tribes, openly engaging in religious activities to collect faith, while secretly carrying out underhanded tactics, using meetings as a pretext to collect the blood of powerful races. Their actions reeked of a cult.

Hume, however, combined some secrets she knew and had a vague idea of ​​what the ratmen were up to.

"These rats are definitely creating a god!"

"But they shouldn't have the primordial fire, right?"

"That's not a problem. The main function of the Primal Fire is to increase the efficiency of collecting faith and accelerate the process of creating gods. It doesn't mean that gods can't be created without fire. Otherwise, where did we all come from?"

"So, they also understand the nature of the gods?"

Hume nodded. The Skaven Empire could be considered the catalyst for the final battle in the War of the Gods.

Just as Ludd guessed, the ratmen understood the nature of gods more than three hundred years ago, and without the blessing of the primordial fire, they figured out a method of creating gods on their own and boldly common sense.

Later, the gods discovered the ratmen's underhanded schemes, which seriously infringed upon their interests and even threatened the gods' superior position over mortals. As a result, the ratman empire instantly became the enemy of the world and was besieged by all the gods and kingdoms.

Hume, having completely lost his fighting ability, did not participate in the final battle, which ironically saved him from disaster.

She later learned that the Skaven Empire's plan to create a god had indeed succeeded, but they lacked the ability to control the terrifying monster they themselves had created. This monster triggered the final battle, leading to the fall of hundreds of gods, the extinction of more than two-thirds of intelligent life on Earth, and the complete annihilation of the once-powerful Skaven Empire.

All the gods who participated in the final battle kept their mouths shut about the details, and even ordered their mortal sects to do everything in their power to erase this part of history.

The new generation of mortals only knew that a terrible war of the gods had taken place three hundred years ago, but they knew nothing of the details of the battle. It seemed that the surviving gods had reached some kind of agreement to do everything in their power to erase a certain "terrifying being" that could not be mentioned!

In order to completely eliminate the possibility of the Skaven Empire's resurgence, the gods not only had their sects define the Skaven as an "evil race," but also joined forces to cast a vicious curse, causing the infant mortality rate of the Skaven race, which was once known for its super-high birth rate, to increase dramatically.

In fact, if it weren't impossible, these gods would have preferred to use divine punishment to kill all the ratmen and completely wipe out the race.

Following this line of reasoning, Lud believed that the rat-man tribe in the Void Forest had most likely found the method of creating gods used by the rat-man empire. Therefore, taking advantage of the survival crisis caused by the dragon, they planned to use the demi-humans they had tricked to create their own god.

However, this reasoning is still just a hypothesis. Lud has not yet obtained crucial evidence, and other demi-human races may not believe him.

So Ludwig and Hume discussed it and decided not to expose the ratmen's plot yet. Instead, they would find an opportunity to explore their camp again that night to gather more clues, and ideally, find "ironclad evidence" that the ratmen intended to plot against other demi-human races!

Ludwig even gave this infiltration operation a code name that Hume couldn't understand at all: "The Adventures of the Sloppy King," which fully revealed his age class in his previous life.

So the two patiently waited until dark, then closed the tent door early, pretending they were about to "do business".

Due to racial differences in aesthetics, the orcs have a severe lack of sexual interest in females with insufficient body hair. Therefore, in their eyes, Hume is a "hairless ugly monster" whose only redeeming feature is his breasts, and naturally, they have no interest in even peeping at him.

After closing the door, the two quickly used Hume's abilities to sneak out of the Orc camp and head straight for the Skaven territory.

Using their transformation abilities, Lud and Hume easily infiltrated the rat-man camp. This camp was significantly better than those of other demi-human tribes, with a well-organized and orderly layout. The two wandered around, first heading to the place where Hume had mentioned discovering the "blood pool." Lud didn't need to get too close to sense a strong power of faith emanating from it.

Lude dared not get too close, fearing that he, possessing the primordial fire, might accidentally trigger his awakening.

The two then left the blood pool and arrived at the center of the camp, where they found a large tent that looked very high-class. There were four rat-men guards in iron armor standing at the entrance, and there were more than one patrol team around it.

However, the seemingly tight security was no obstacle for the two shapeshifters. They noticed that maids were constantly going in and out, so they secretly ambushed two of them who were fetching water, changed into their clothes, and walked straight through the main entrance of the tent, swaggering in.

Having successfully infiltrated the camp, Lud discovered that the place was quite luxurious, with elaborate furnishings and even animal skin carpets on the floor.

The tent was quite spacious. The two carried the buckets of water inside, walking as slowly as possible, pretending that the buckets were too heavy and they were having some trouble, so as not to be noticed by the other maids passing by.

Fortunately, at that moment, an older rat-woman walked towards them and shouted at the two of them in a rather stern tone.

"Why are you dawdling? Why are you only coming back now after just getting some water?"

"I'm sorry."

"Hurry up and come with me. The young lady and the saintess are about to take a bath. You two are responsible for serving them. Be smart, understand?"

After being scolded by the ratwoman, Ludd and Hume pretended to nod obsequiously and followed her into a steamy bathroom. In the center of the room, a huge wooden tub was half-buried in the floor, and the surrounding floor was covered with clean stone slabs.

Lud looked around the bathroom and thought to himself that these ratmen knew how to enjoy life; the big shots at the top lived more luxuriously than many human nobles.

Because they were conscripted at the last minute, the two, fearing exposure of their identities, had no choice but to obey the rat-woman's orders and squat in the bathroom to await her commands.

Just then, Lude secretly glanced up when he heard young girls laughing and talking at the bathroom door. It was the same two demi-human girls who had been sitting on the palanquins at the leaders' meeting earlier that day.

End of this chapter

"Miner, slow down!"

"Hehe! The bathroom is finally fixed today, and I can't wait to take a bath with Romianne!"

Because they weren't wearing face masks, Lude finally saw the true appearances of the two demi-human girls. There wasn't much to say about the rat-girl; this race generally had a human-like appearance of seven or higher, essentially resembling a large, upright-walking rat.

On the other hand, the Argonian girl next to her had a very delicate and lovely face, and her figure was also quite alluring with her prominent breasts and buttocks.

The two girls from different races seemed to get along well. The rat girl was more lively, while the dragon girl she was holding was very shy and looked like the type who would easily get embarrassed.

The two girls went into the bathroom. Suddenly, the rat-woman standing behind Lud slapped him hard. Lud turned around in surprise and saw the woman glaring at him and saying something.

"You idiot! What are you standing there for? Hurry up and help the master undress."

"oh oh!"

Prompted by the ratwoman, Lud and Hume approached the two girls with their heads bowed. From their earlier conversation, Lud already knew that the ratwoman girl was named Mina, and the half-dragon girl was named Romian. The former seemed to be the granddaughter of the ratwoman high priest Midi, a fact he had heard about from other ratwomen in the camp, while the latter was the legendary Dragon Priestess.

This puzzled Lud. Why would these ratmen want to elect a girl from another race as a witch? He felt there was some kind of conspiracy involved.

With this question in mind, Lude approached the half-dragon girl. The girl was timid but very polite. Knowing that Lude was going to help her change her clothes, she obediently raised her hands and said "thank you" to him.

Seeing the other party's cooperation, Lu De displayed the composure and experience expected of a seasoned undercover police officer. He showed no sign of panic at all for personally undressing a young girl. Instead, he adopted a serious attitude of "academic research" and carefully observed the girl's unique physical structure up close.

Regardless of what others think, Ludger himself believed it!

Soon, the girl was stripped naked. Because of her wings and tail, she could only wear a backless dress. Lud immediately understood the ingenuity of the dress: by unfastening the two buttons on her shoulders, the long skirt would naturally slip down.

More than 70% of the girl's skin was indistinguishable from human skin, with a very smooth and delicate feel. Only a small portion of her skin was covered with dark red scales, which felt slightly cool and hard to the touch.

After stripping the two girls naked, Ludd and Hume stepped aside and returned to their original kneeling positions, while the ratwoman took the clothes she had changed out of and left first, seemingly to prepare new clothes.

So suddenly, only four people remained in the huge bathroom: two were soaking in the tub, and the other two were kneeling beside the tub watching.

In the bath, the two girls chatted leisurely while soaking in the tub. However, it was mostly the rat-woman Minnie who was chattering away, while Romian listened attentively beside her. At first glance, the two seemed to have a very close relationship, like best friends who could talk about anything. But Lud could vaguely sense something strange from Minnie's tone and expression.

That's the scrutinizing gaze of a veteran actor towards the new generation!