The three of them were startled by Anna''s words, filled with hatred, and could only remain silent.

    But after a moment, a young man spoke up: "Oy! You''re joking, right?"

    "What? Are you really willing to be his dog?" Anna glanced at the young man, her voice full of contempt.

    "That..." He hesitated.

    Indeed, who would willingly be someone else''s dog in this world? He only submitted to Caleb because he was weaker than him.

    If he had the ability, he would have overthrown Caleb and become the king of this territory.

    However, he simply didn''t have the power to do so.

    In reality, he was just an F+ rank lord. He didn''t even possess a single E+ rank monster or hero.

    The strongest hero under his command was only rank E, but compared to Caleb''s D+ rank hero, his was an insignificant ant.

    "You won''t succeed in sowing discord among us." Another young man suddenly spoke up.

    Anna snorted disdainfully: "You don''t even want to be his dogs yourselves. What''s the point of pretending to be united?"

    "You''re only loyal because you don''t have the ability to overthrow Caleb. But what if you did?"

    "That''s enough!" the young man snapped. He frowned and told Anna, "I''ll pretend I never heard a word you said. Get lost!"

    Anna glanced at the three young men. Their expressions were a mix of excitement, anxiety, and fear.

    She shook her head. "A bunch of cowards."

    With that, she turned and walked away.

    The three of them watched her retreating figure, then muttered under their breath, "What the hell is that bitch thinking? There''s no way we could overthrow the boss, right, Adrian?"

    Adrian was the same young man who had accompanied Caleb that morning. However, he didn''t seem to hear what the other was saying. Instead, he remained silent, his head lowered as if deep in thought.

    "Adrian!" the young man shouted.

    "Huh?" Adrian jolted. "Did... did you just call me?"

    "Adrian! Do you want to overthrow the Boss?" The two young men asked in fear. "You have to understand how powerful he is. We''re just weaklings."

    "Of course, I know that. You don''t need to warn me," Adrian replied. However, a seed of betrayal had already been planted deep in his heart.

    ...

    After summoning and fusing the Skeletons the next day, he took advantage of the early hours before dawn to slip away.

    Naturally, no one would notice his departure thanks to Vylyss using the veil of darkness to conceal him.

    Noan wanted everyone to think that he was still inside his territory.

    This time, he didn''t bring Zhisse along; instead, he traveled with Vylyss because Zhisse would stay behind to guard the domain.

    Upon entering the Dark Forest, Vylyss carried him for over twenty miles before stopping at a fork where three narrow paths branched off.

    Immediately, several zombie birds emerged, surrounding them.

    Vylyss furrowed her brows and murmured coldly, "Trash!"

    She swung her hand, and countless chains pierced through the air, instantly shattering the already decayed bodies of the creatures.

    The chains didn''t go to waste either—they wrapped around the energy crystals and flung them toward Vylyss.

    The zombies below heard the noise and looked up, but they couldn''t fly. All they could do was stand motionless, staring at Vylyss and Noan.

    At that moment, Noan spoke: "Vylyss, if we were to fight, could you wipe out all these zombies?"

    Vylyss looked down. The 5,000 zombies resembled a vast swarm of ants covering a large area, a sight that would make anyone shudder.

    "Master, if they were all just regular zombies, I could easily eliminate them. However..." Vylyss hesitated slightly before admitting, "D-rank zombies are among them. I can''t take them all down with my current energy level."

    Hearing that, Noan nodded. "I understand."

    "Master—"

    Noan immediately cut her off. "No need!"

    He had already guessed what she was about to say, so he responded before she could continue. "These zombies appear to be in a stable state. If we disrupt that balance, it will surely lead to big trouble."

    "Just leave them be. We just need to fly past them."

    In truth, Noan had another reason for not wanting to provoke the horde.

    It wasn''t because he cared about the other Lords, but because if the zombies went berserk, they would attack the creatures in the food forest.

    Noan could sense that he was currently the strongest person in this region. That food forest would belong to him in the future, and he had no intention of ruining his own resources.

    Even though he was tempted to have Vylyss destroy these zombies and then upgrade his ''Storage'' function, his rationality thankfully kept him from making that mistake.

    Vylyss nodded and carried him further away.

    Of course, they were frequently ambushed along the way by zombie birds, but those creatures were no match for Vylyss.

    After flying for more than ten minutes, Noan and Vylyss finally arrived at another forest.

    This time, they chose to walk rather than fly.

    Noan remained cautious. He followed a narrow path, continuing deeper into the forest.

    After walking another two miles, he finally saw a fenced-off area made of steel mesh, containing three small houses built from wood, with roofs made of dried grass and straw.

    "The Resource Storage Center," Noan murmured excitedly. "Even though it''s only a level 0 Resource Storage Center, it''s more than enough."

    From what he had learned at the academy, Resource Storage Centers were classified from level 0 to level 7.

    Level 0 was the lowest, containing only three basic resources—wood, stone, and food—with a relatively small supply.

    In this barren region, this place was nothing short of paradise.

    Looking around, Noan realized that no one seemed to have discovered it yet.

    Perhaps he was the first to set foot here.