Era of Radiance, Year 8775, July 5, Noel Main Plane, Griffin Kingdom, Lorand City.
"Chief Civil Officer, Kened Town was overrun by a group of Blood Nagas yesterday evening. All 1300 inhabitants had their hearts removed, none survived!"
"The Hawk Knights found traces of them twenty miles outside the town, in a passage leading to the Underworld. Currently, the Guard Legion is gathering, and three squadrons of the Griffin Legion will participate in the cleanup..."
The Lorand City Chief Civil Officer, with a hawk nose, blue eyes, semi-bald head, and a belly larger than a woman eight months pregnant, sat behind a desk piled with documents, glancing through the gaps between pages at the subordinate reporting in front of him, his tone unfriendly.
"Those damn underground bastards, one day we'll clean them all out!"
"Send twenty clerks to Kened Town to handle the aftermath, and assign a new mayor there. Also, recruit residents from the city's vagrants to replenish the town's population..."
"As you command, sir."
"Has the village destroyed by ogres last month been rebuilt?"
"Not yet, it's expected to be completed by the end of the month, but the progress in recruiting residents is very slow... that village has been destroyed three times this year, and none of the city's vagrants want to go there."
The officer rubbed his temples in frustration.
"Find a way to solve it yourself... anything else?"
"Sir, this is the list of Pioneer Lord applications handed in just now..."
"Wasn't the list already submitted five days ago?"
"Sir, someone submitted it again the night before last..." he said with some hesitation.
"Perhaps you'll find it interesting..."
Hearing this, the officer's curiosity was piqued, and he took the list, flipping through it a few times before seeing the additional names.
"Lear Els?... Els Clan?!!"
A fat face with a hint of emotion, finally letting out a long sigh.
"Els... it's been ten years since he died, and his family has fallen to the point of becoming Pioneer Lords?"
"Who is this Lear Els? Where does he live?"
"Sir, he is the only blood heir of the Els Clan, moved to the Ninth District three years ago..."
"The Ninth District?!"
"Yes..."
After a long silence, he closed the document with a complex expression.
"Send it to the Duke..."
After the subordinate left, he gazed blankly out the window...
The Ninth District, viewed as sewers and garbage dumps by the nobles of Lorand City, nightly erupts into robberies, theft, and murder.
Foul air, reeking of urine and the stench of sewers, with flies swirling everywhere.
A filthy place even outsiders don't want to glance at, rarely visited even by missionaries devoted to converting lost souls.
Yet over a hundred thousand poor dwell in this squalid area.
Lear weaved through the winding alleys, carefully avoiding the filth beneath, stepping over pools of black, smelly water, the stench reddening his eyes.
Paupers passing by him, their gazes blank, faces bloodless, mostly wearing tattered clothes of hemp, with more patches than original fabric on some.
Older residents trudged through the stinking pools, letting black water soak their pant legs, their expressions numb, like moving corpses.
Even after three days in this world, Lear could not bear it.
Hurrying along, after several turns, he reached a low house covered with black moss, looked at the rusty lock, and sighed deeply.
With a gentle twist, no key needed, he opened it directly.
Pushed the door open and entered.
Inside, about a dozen square meters, devoid of any furniture.
In the corner lay a broken, low bed, with only two blackened covers.
The phrase "bare walls" had never been more apt.
Lear, undisturbed, sat on the bed, but as soon as he sat down, he felt uncomfortable.
He reached under the bed, pulling out two fist-sized, hard-as-stone black loaves, with deep bite marks on them.
Black bread!
He chuckled bitterly, this stuff even dogs turned away from, yet it was his food!
Placing the black bread aside, he stared dazedly at the wall through the narrow window.
Transmigration.
Easy to say, but heavy when it truly happens to you.
He had died saving a person from drowning; how did he end up in this damned world?
The civilization level was akin to medieval Europe, but with extraordinary powers! Even gods!
Divine Spirits ruling with authority from high above, punishing with divine wrath, city-destroying and clan-exterminating.
Sects spreading the light of gods, proclaiming god loves all mankind.
Evil dragons perched on mountains, seizing treasures and destroying towns.
Demons, undead, various malevolent existences, practicing bloody ceremonies daily to appease Evil Gods.
Underworld's evil beings frequently emerge on the earth surface, slaughtering humans.
Various powerful races rampaging in the wilds, ready to attack towns and slaughter the innocent.
Endless wars, racial strife fierce as a firestorm.
Scarce resources, backward means of production, stalled civilization, extraordinary powers enslaving the populace, rigid class structures, knowledge monopolized by nobles and sects... the factors for disaster were almost complete!
The body he occupied belonged to a fallen noble, devoid of awakened powers, family wealth, social status—an unremarkable ordinary person...
In this fantasy world with extraordinary powers, ordinary people were like swine, insignificant, ripe for the slaughter.
Even living peacefully was a luxury.
With the family's wealth long gone, the original body lived only in the Ninth District, where paupers gathered.
Worse yet... three days ago, the original body applied to inherit the family's stripped titles.
Griffin Kingdom's law states a noble whose titles were stripped must become a... Pioneer Lord to inherit!
"Little Els, you're back? Heard you've applied to inherit the title?"
A deep voice at the door interrupted his thoughts, and Lear turned to see a man in his fifties leaning in, looking at him with concern.
White-haired, hands calloused, body slightly frail from long-term malnutrition.
Armed with the original body's memories, Lear recognized him immediately.
The current neighbor, Jem, works at the docks. In his youth, he was also a powerful knight who knew much about the outside world.
He is straightforward and generous. Even in the slums, he took great care of the original owner and several times saved him from fainting from hunger by providing food.
"Uncle Jem..."
The middle-aged man looked at Lear's somewhat pale face, opened his mouth to say something, but finally just sighed.
"Why the need for this..."
"Do you know what lies beyond the Wilderness?"
"Orcs, Barbarians, Carrion Eaters, Vampires, Zor Elves, Half-Snake-men, cultists, undead..."
"There are passages connected to the dark and dangerous Underworld, spatial rifts that link to mysterious and terrifying Other Planes, and ancient lingering evil spirits plotting to overturn order, demons..."
"In the Wilderness, the word 'safety' does not exist."
"In thousands of years, the Empire has never conquered this area!"
"Though life in the city is tough, at least one can still survive..."
"When you go to the Wilderness, becoming that Pioneer Lord... everything is out of your hands!"
"I know you want to inherit the title, but this time, sigh..."
Jem's tone was exceedingly complex.
When the other moved to the slums three years ago, his youthful face was still fresh in Jem's memory. He watched this young man grow up, and truly couldn't bear to see him head to his death.
Baron Els passed away due to an old illness ten years ago, and within a few years, the clan had already declined.
The law of the Griffin Kingdom stipulates that if a noble dies and no one inherits the title within seven years, the title is automatically lost.
The first condition for inheriting the title is... turning 16 and coming of age.
There are many unreasonable rules upon closer inspection, yet they have been passed down without resistance from the noble class. There seems to be some deep, untouchable secret behind it.
As the only descendant of the Els Clan, Lear had just turned 15 three years ago.
The Els Clan, with no one to inherit the title, was directly expelled from the noble ranks.
And for the descendants of nobles who have lost their title to re-inherit it, they must become a Pioneer Lord, claiming new lands for the Kingdom!
But is becoming a Pioneer Lord that easy?
The Griffin Kingdom, in its two thousand two hundred years, has only nibbled away at a thousand miles of the Wilderness!
But what was the cost? Over two thousand years, the bodies of Pioneer Lords could make a grand mountain! Could build a mighty city on the sea!
How many living Pioneer Lords are there?!
Jem took a deep breath.
"Every Pioneer Lord is personally approved by Duke Lorand..."
"Let's hope the Duke disapproves..."
Mid-sentence, he suddenly swallowed his words, warily turning toward the entrance of the alley.
Lear sensed something amiss and looked through the crack in the door.
Step-step~
Step-step~
A soldier in black armor, with a soaring hawk emblem on his chest, his gaze indifferent, hawk-nosed and blue-eyed, approached with a cold face.
After confirming the house number, he directly bypassed Jem, walked in with large strides, and handed a yellowed paper to Lear.
The blood-red seal on it was particularly striking—
Griffin Empire · Duke Lorand
The soldier's tone was stiff.
"Lear Els, your application to become a Pioneer Lord has been approved by the Duke."
"Gather at the Duke's Mansion at ten o'clock tomorrow morning to receive Pioneer supplies and choose your Pioneer territory."
"This is the Pioneer Order and the document for inheriting the Els Clan's baronial title."
"Congratulations on reclaiming your family's title, Baron Lear Els."
Having finished his routine words, he didn't wait for Lear to respond; impatiently, with a cold face, he turned and left the house.
The stench along the way almost made him explode, if not for the military order, he would never set foot in such a damn place in his life!
Damned!
I issued orders to these dreamers without any benefit to gain...
There are always the ignorant seeking to leap to the skies in a single bound!
What's the Wilderness like?
As a level 10 High Tier Knight, he doesn't dare to venture easily.
Let alone developing territory there, building towns... isn't that seeking one's death?
After the messenger left, Jem looked at the document in Lear's hands and fell silent.
Lear also had nothing to say as he looked at the document in his hands.
The original owner had been crushed by a life of hardship and no outlet, thinking if he stayed here, he would die anyway, so why not gamble, inherit the title, and fight for wealth outside the city.
But before he could go, he was already defeated by his frail body, taking a fatal fall.
Now, he would have to realize the other's dream of being a Lord.
According to the laws of the Griffin Empire, anyone who voluntarily applies to become a Pioneer Lord and refuses to go to the Wilderness, or finds other excuses not to perform the order, is treated as a deserter and punished by hanging.
In this world with extraordinary powers, not even fleeing is possible,
Lear took a deep breath, his eyes reflecting complexity.
In this world, is it really this hard to simply live?
At this moment, a trace of blue light suddenly appeared in his mind.
That light gradually coalesced and then formed into a panel.
It displayed densely packed text—
"Detected that you have become a Lord, the Intelligence System automatically activates, this intelligence can refresh..."
Intelligence System?!!
Lear shot to his feet!
Joy surged through his heart.