Logan began scaling the side of the mountain.

Although not smooth sailing, his progress was steady. But halfway through, he stopped.

He thought he heard something—a soft, harmless squeak.

At first, he thought it was a mouse. Though after pondering for a while, he deemed it impossible for a rat to be scaling the stiff wall of a mountain.

’Must be my imagination,’ Logan thought as he decided to continue his journey.

Yet another squeak sounded again, making him pause in his ascent.

It was then that he saw a flying squirrel hovering several meters above him.

"You..." Logan’s eyes widened in shock, recognizing this flying squirrel.

It was the same beast that attacked him with lightning bolts a few days ago.

Realizing his plan might’ve been compromised, Logan had to quickly decide between two options.

Hurry down from the mountain to escape, or continue climbing as fast as he could to infiltrate the fortress.

This internal battle only lasted for three seconds in his head.

In the end, the Orc Champion climbed up faster to bypass the fortress walls.

Blitz didn’t do anything and simply looked at the Orc Champion with an evil smirk across its adorable face.

The Grimjaw Mountain was Leone’s domain, after all.

It was the heart of his territory.

And now that his Territory Rank had been upgraded to Rank 2, he could now do things he was unable to before.

As Logan increased the pace of his climb, the stone wall in front of him suddenly moved.

A stone pillar suddenly jutted from the side of the mountain, targeting the Orc Champion’s chin.

However, Logan was fast enough to use one of his hands to crush the stone pillar before it could hit him.

It was a good move.

Yet it was merely a distraction for Leone’s true attack to come.

When Logan smashed the stone pillar that aimed at his chin, another stone pillar simultaneously emerged and slammed onto his stomach.

A grunt escaped the Orc’s lips in response, but he was still able to endure the punishment due to his superior strength.

Unfortunately, even though he was a Rank 5 Orc Champion, that didn’t mean he was invincible.

Out of nowhere, a stone pillar emerged from the mountain and slammed onto his balls. The male squirrels shuddered, horrified from witnessing such a tragedy.

"Ughk...!"

Logan almost lost his grip at that very moment. The pain that assaulted him was out of this world.

Because of this, he failed to react in time when another stone pillar emerged from the stone wall and slammed onto his face!

The Orc Champion was finally blown off the mountain after that as he headed for a direct collision course with the ground.

Using every will of willpower and strength that he had, Logan forced himself to land on his feet.

But just as his feet were about to slam on the ground, the ground opened up, revealing a deep pitfall trap designed just for him.

Daedalus calculated the exact location where Logan was about to fall and activated one of the pitfall traps that had already been prepared beforehand.

Logan subconsciously tried to use his hands to grab hold onto something in order to prevent his fall.

Though, as if it was already expecting him to do that, the pitfall’s size increased, preventing him from grabbing hold of anything!

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

And so, the pitiful Orc Champion fell into a bottomless abyss.

Well, it wasn’t really bottomless. It was only a hundred meters deep!

To Logan’s surprise, he fell on a water’s surface, breaking his fall. It was still very painful, but it was still far better than falling straight into hard ground.

Just as the Orc Champion was reeling from the pain and the unfortunate turn of events, a lightning bolt lit up the darkness.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A scream escaped the Orc Champion’s lips. He couldn’t do anything but endure the lightning current washing over his body.

To make matters worse, the water itself seemed to have grabbed hold of his body, preventing him from escaping!

"Let’s see if you’re as tough as you look," Kael said as he manipulated the water using his powers.

He was the Bloodriver Tyrant. As long as there was enough water and blood in his surroundings, he could bind even the Orc Champion. It didn’t matter even if the latter was two ranks higher!

With Kael and Blitz working in tandem, the only thing Logan could do was scream.

Unable to move due to the pain of being electrocuted, the Orc Champion was starting to lose his strength.

Sure, he had a powerful regeneration ability that healed most of his injuries, but that was all.

He wasn’t immune to pain. Not to mention, he had no way to block Blitz’s shock therapy. He tried, but nothing worked.

Unable to get a foothold to exert some force from his body, Logan soon lost his strength.

After that, he finally lost consciousness.

"He sure is a tough nut to crack," Kael muttered after confirming that Logan was truly unconscious and not simply faking it.

"Good job, Kael," Leone said. "You too, Blitz."

*Squeak!*

The flying squirrel patted its chest, showing it was very proud of its achievement.

"Too bad you don’t have enough BP to buy a Master B*ll," Daedalus commented as it hovered beside Leone. "We could have captured him easily if we had that."

"What’s a Master B*ll?" Leone asked.

"Something you can use to catch monsters with a 100% success rate," Daedalus explained. "Let’s just tie him up with the 15,000 BP Adamantine Shackles that are strong enough to bind Rank 6 Monsters."

"Our BP has been decreasing a lot lately," Leone sighed.

But since he understood that this was the only thing they could use to deal with Logan, he had no choice but to buy the shackles as an investment.

[BP: 9,130]

Leone looked at his remaining BP and heaved another sigh. With the war coming soon, having a very low BP was a problem.

Still, the Orcs weren’t a threat he could turn a blind eye to. The sooner he dealt with Logan, the sooner he could focus on more important matters.

After the Orc Champion was securely tied up with the Adamantine Shackles, he was hoisted up the pitfall trap and taken inside the fortress.

This operation had been carried out without the knowledge of the entire Aslan Tribe because this was a special mission.

After taking Logan to the prison especially made for him, Leone asked Otto, Arion, and Blitz to head to the Orc Tribe when morning came to tell them that their leader was captured.

The young man hoped they were now willing to talk with him now that he had the upper hand in the negotiations.

"Are you sure you don’t want to kill him?" Hassan emerged from Leone’s shadow as soon as the young man returned to his own quarters to rest. "If you don’t kill him now, then we might not get another chance to do it."

"Maybe you’re right, Hassan," Leone replied. "Perhaps I’m just naive and ignorant of the world. However, I want to believe that we can co-exist with the Ravage Tribe."

"You sure are daring, Young Master." Hassan sighed. "You must have inherited this trait from your mother."

The masked man remembered that distant memory where he was still a wandering assassin in the Kingdom of Britannia.

He had been hired to kill Leone’s father, Marco, in the past.

Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed in his mission and was instead captured by the men who worked under Leone’s mother.

"Do you wish to live?" Leone’s mother, Helen, had asked him back then.

He said yes back then.

And in return for sparing his life, he had signed a contract with Leone’s mother, promising to serve her until he drew his last breath.

However, Leone wasn’t Helen.

Rather than turn the Orc Champion into a slave, he chose to negotiate with it instead.

Unbeknownst to Leone, the masked man had a private talk with Daedalus.

Hassan asked if it was possible to turn the Orc Champion into a slave that would serve Leone without fail.

To his surprise, the grimoire confirmed it had the power to do that.

However, it also said that it wouldn’t do it.

Why?

Because Leone didn’t want to do that.

Daedalus had a policy of letting its owner do what they wanted. It only served to assist them in whatever way it could.

If its owner wanted world domination, then Daedalus would work alongside them to dominate the world.

If they wanted to save it, then it would also do its best to make that happen.

What Leone wanted was to create a kingdom where there would be no discrimination between monsters, humans, and other races.

A place that would keep them safe from the world if need be.

It was such a childish dream.

A dream for dreamers.

But since it was what Leone wanted, then Daedalus would help him make that dream a reality.

After all, it was the King Maker.

And the King he served right now was not a tyrant, nor a brute who ruled using an iron fist and fear to control his subjects.

Leone was different.

He was weak compared to the monsters that roamed the world.

Naive compared to the nobles who played politics in the shadows. Inexperienced compared to the famous kings in history.

And yet...

Daedalus found itself growing more interested in him with each passing day.

Leone didn’t fit his prestige class, a Hero King. He was more like the King of Dreamers, who only wished to have a peaceful, happy ending.

Sadly, the world was not so forgiving.

Which was why people like Brann and Kael were very useful to Leone.

They were the people who were more than happy to dirty and bloody their hands, so that their King would be able to shine in the light while they dabbled in the darkness of the night.