Flotog was a thirty-three-year-old peasant who believed in Sosos, the God of Herbs and Poisons. He lived in the commoner district northeast of Crookes and was unmarried.
He worked in the nearby Sosos Potion Chain Store — it was a chain business founded by the believers of Sosos, the God of Herbs and Poisons, and the main source of income for the Sosos Church. It was a common sight in many major cities and mainly sold tobacco and potion ingredients.
Every day, Flotog would work overtime until the stars shone at night before he could return home.
Although his work was related to tobacco, he did not smoke and only dabbled in alcohol.
He would sleep when the stars were overhead, and he would sleep for eight hours every day. Before going to bed, he would drink a mug of hot ale and pray for 20 minutes. Once he got into bed, he would immediately fall asleep. He would sleep until dawn, and he would never leave his stress and fatigue to the next day.
Even the Temple of Life's acolyte said that he was normal.
Flotog was the same as usual even when he got off work today.
Aside from the fact that he had been impersonated by a swampman.
A loner like him who appeared perfectly normal but was essentially unconnected to anyone was the swampmen's favorite bait: it was less dangerous to mimic and would not be easily noticed, and even the unintelligent swampmen could do the job.
At the moment, Flotog the swampman was kneeling before the statue of Sosos and praying.
Swampmen were creatures without faith and could not pray for the blessings of the gods. However, after they impersonated humans, they would inherit not just their appearance, but their memories and habits as well.
That was why even if his prayers were completely useless now, he would still carry out the act according to his original habits.
At this moment, a knocking sound came from outside the door.
Flotog frowned.
In his memory, he was an orphan with no relatives. His friends were limited to a few colleagues in the Potion Chain Store, and they were not close enough to visit each other's houses. No one should have come to visit him at this time.
Be that as it may, Flotog couldn't just ignore the visitor.
"Who is it?"
He rose to his feet and went to the entrance, opening the door warily.
Then, he was shocked by what he saw.
At the door were three teenagers with strange postures. Two of them looked normal, but the one on the right had a muscular build. At first glance, he looked like a bear wearing clothes.
At this time, the silver moon had just risen. Due to the angle, it gave the illusion that the three of them were standing under the moon.
"Excuse me!" The bear-like youth's voice was rather loud. "Uncle Qiao, you're here!"
"Don't be nervous, it's just a small investigation." On the left of the three was a skinny youth. He looked like a simple and honest village boy, but for some reason, he gave off a slippery feeling.
"Are you a swamp man? You don't have to answer. " The young man in the middle, who seemed to be the leader of the trio, held something that was either a torch or a wand. "We'll see for ourselves."
However, his words caused Flotog's scalp to go numb.
"Oh? Looks like there's no need for confirmation … "
Before the youth with the flame wand could finish his words, the muscles on Flotog's arms bulged, and he tore off the door in his hands and smashed it at the three of them. Meanwhile, he turned into an arrow that left the bow and fled through the empty space on his left, slamming the door behind him as he fled!
"Familiar spirit!" The bear-like youth shouted.
A humanoid silhouette appeared beside him.
The mysterious man launched a series of punches with both of his fists, shattering the door into pieces and turning it into wood shavings all over the sky. This was much more difficult than knocking the wooden door away.
Meanwhile, Flotog the swamp man had seized the chance to leap far away.
Some city watch who had been ordered to lie in ambush ran out from the alleys on both sides, intent on stopping Flotog's escape. However, they clearly couldn't stop the swamp man whose basic attributes were a notch higher than normal humans.
A single charge from Flotog sent the city watch scattering like bowling pins.
"Young mister, that's the area we've checked. We'll have to check again if it escapes," a city watch who appeared out of nowhere told the three youths.
"Don't worry, it won't get away."
The slick-looking youth raised his hand, and his gauntlet rapidly disassembled and assembled itself into a shining golden crossbow.
"[Split Shot]."
Then, the crossbow automatically reloaded, aimed, and fired in a single breath, the entire process so smooth that it took no more than a second!
The moment the shot rang out, the swamp man's head and legs were blasted apart. That was an attack that could pierce even a dragon's wings, and a normal person would have been half dead with a single shot.
The surrounding city guards looked at the weapon in the young man's hand that had been disassembled and reassembled into a gauntlet. Their faces showed an envious expression similar to that of a chuunibyou teenager when he first saw the Iron Man suit in the movie. Regardless of how powerful it was, this thing was so cool!
Even so, the swamp man wasn't human. Even if it was decapitated and its legs broken, it was still crawling rapidly over the ground.
Even now, the Players didn't know where the swamp man's weakness was, and could only kill it by draining its HP bar or blasting it to bits.
Although it wouldn't be able to escape to the searched area and hide again with its crawling speed, there was a ditch not far from the roadside. Unlike Lancaster's complete drainage system, Crookes didn't have sewers that could hold people, and the only way to drain the floodwaters was through the ditches dug out by the roadside.
Those ditches were covered with stone slabs, with openings at intervals. Since they weren't cleaned regularly, they looked like stinking gutters.
The swamp man's true form was no different from mud, and it would be difficult to dig it out once it hid inside.
'Just a little bit more … I just need to get inside …'
Even without its head, Flotog kept crawling towards the ditch and eventually made it inside, curling up in the mud and hiding as one with it.
Hence, it calmed down, and a smug emotion appeared in its not-so-smart brain. 'You didn't see this coming, did you? Damned humans, this is my escape route!'
But in the next split second, the pile of mud it deliberately left at the entrance showed an unbelievable sight.
The youth holding the fiery wand raised his hand, summoning a sheet of black flames.
The flames quickly condensed into a black dragon with blood-red eyes, and shot a bullet of black flame directly into the ditch.
In the next moment, all the ditches on the street were immediately filled up by the sweeping black flames!
Moments later, the flames faded, and not a single cockroach was left in the ditch, let alone the swamp man.
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