Overpowered Wizard

Before the Floridians arrived, Ezda was taking stock of changes and improvements while waiting at the entrance of the stronghold. She recalled how she went from Level 94 to being a Level 96 Blood Brute after surviving the Chimera Tyrant Lair.

She’d gained a new trait and new skill levels. She’d even come out with a few new achievements, adding more raw stats to her Willpower, Strength, and Agility, which was huge for her even if her build prioritized the physical stats with Mysticism.

Having more Willpower was a must after enduring Sigma Elder Naomi’s hellish Willpower training.

In result, Ezda was more powerful than ever before, and she was proud of that. There hadn’t been a gnoll elder who reached this far in a long time.

But Ezda was also afraid of her growth.

Normally, the gnoll poachers from Carrowmore would’ve come down and stripped her of her fur coat by now.

She still remembered how Ekri the Tailor had stripped a gnoll elder of her fur and flesh from when Ezda was a pup. Having seen that had inspired Ezda to get the shifter skill in case she could hide from poachers using her humanoid form.

She was one of the few among the gnolls to have that skill. The others would’ve looked down at that if it wasn’t for how she could also shift into a more giant bestial form. Many gnolls found that form impressive.

But poachers from Carrowmore weren’t the point of why Ezda was really afraid of her growth.

She was afraid because it was normally tradition for the strongest gnoll elder to sacrifice herself to Killall once they drew close to becoming a Master Ranker and having access to the First Star Ascension Trial.

Becoming a Master Ranker wasn’t guaranteed, but after the Chimera Tyrant Lair, Ezda sensed she would get to rank up when she reached Level 100.

Thus, she was a prime candidate for sacrifice.

But that was unlikely to happen for the sake of Killall. Because Ezda had convinced most of her gnolls to turn away from Killall and submit themselves to Zarian Darkrun and his party of powerful adventurers.

Ezda believed Zarian, the Dark Lord and husband of Evil Goddess Shadowfell, was the One True God of Absolute Killing. She believed all of his party members from the World of Swamps and Princesses were the Chosen Ones of Absolute Killing.

They were far greater than all the gods except for maybe Evil Goddess Shadowfell and Evil God The Dragon, who was still a scary force and potential rival of Zarian.

Thus, Ezda had nearly driven her gnolls mad in preparations for the arrival of their alpha elder god and his chosen ones.

They had a few weeks from when Ezda returned from the defeated Chimera Tyrant Lair. That should’ve been enough time. But nothing seemed to have gone perfectly right to Ezda.

Her gnolls had failed to hunt enough silver wulvers, a rare type of wulver in the Level 60s. Their fur reflected light like silver coins under the sunlight. Those would’ve been pretty to have as decorations.

So the gnolls had to seek silver hawks, who were in Level 80s and the natural predators of silver wulvers. Those were more dangerous hunts, and some gnolls had lost their lives in the pursuit of the silver feathers.

But look!

The main road leading to the Blood Prairie Savages’ stronghold had the pelts of silver wulvers and the feathers of silver hawks glinting brilliantly on tall posts made of prairie mammoth bones.

Ezda would’ve preferred all silver fur pelts or all silver feathers for everything to match, though. But there were other issues she’d scrambled around to fix, so Ezda forced herself to let it go.

After seeing the cleanliness of Ride-or-Die Village, Ezda had attempted to make her gnolls clean up their ancient ancestral home. Despite their high population, despite the high levels of the elders and their best warriors, trying to wipe away a few thousand years of stains had turned out impossible!

The most Ezda could do was get everyone to clean up after themselves. She’d taught them to pick up bones and trash wherever they found some on the floor. They now had a designated area for wastes further outside of the stronghold.

Then she’d taught them to bathe and wash off more regularly once every few days, which was a hassle since there weren’t any nearby river-moats. They’d fixed that issue by digging up one for themselves and redirecting water from a nearby lake to flow closer to their stronghold.

Ezda had done all she could to teach her gnolls many new and hard-to-understand concepts within a very short time. She’d mostly failed a lot. But not everything had ended up in disaster.

There were some changes that came about within the last few days and were successful. Then the humans made their approach well within view of the gnoll scouts. ʀ�

Now Ezda stood at the open entrance of the stronghold. She was in her human form, which made her weaker and smaller compared to the other gnolls of the main greeting party, which comprised elders and their best warriors.

In Ezda’s hands was Reiki’s shiny, pearly core.

It still wouldn’t turn back into a dungeon even when Ezda had planted it in the ground in multiple areas. One elder who had an appraisal skill kept saying the core was going through a development period. It hadn’t stopped developing since Ezda, Naomi, and Reiki conquered the Fortress Bear Dungeon over a month ago.

Why was it taking so long for Reiki to finish developing after consuming the Fortress Bear Dungeon Core?

Stolen story; please report.

Had Ezda done something wrong to upset Reiki?

Had Reiki forsaken the gnolls?

What would Alpha Elder God Zarian think?

Ezda figured it wouldn’t matter in the end. The Alpha Elder Blood Rites would fix everything, and Ezda would show her new god her complete devotion.

She was afraid.

But regardless of her fear, she would commit herself to Zarian the best way she knew how, just like how it was passed to her by her mother and her mother’s mother and her mother’s mother’s mother and the ancestors of many years before.

“This is foolish, Elder Ezda,” hissed MagMag. She was the only elder leading the defiant minority among the Blood Prairie Savages.

There were ten gnoll elders, all female per their tradition. Ezda’s tenure of leading as the alpha elder and her bloodline from the original clan who conquered and united the other gnoll clans of the Walled Continent gave her a lot of social standing. But MagMag’s minor group contained some of their best seers, shamans, and utility-focused gnolls.

MagMag’s group wasn’t very strong.

But they were many times smarter than Ezda and the majority. They were highly valued for abilities outside of fighting. They helped keep their savage empire functional and handled issues that brute force couldn’t solve.

Thus, Ezda found it ironic that MagMag’s tiny rebellious faction was certain of their position against leaving Killall. They refused to worship Zarian and his chosen ones.

During the clean up, they’d looked with distrust of all the changes that seemed beneficial for a society that wanted to progress and be more than what their savage name presented. They’d also got uppity at the most inopportune times, such as moments before the arrival of the true god and his chosen ones.

Ezda shifted the core to one hand and turned to smack Elder MagMag in the belly.

The elder grunted in pain and annoyance while towering over Ezda’s human form. But even in her human form, Ezda was still dominant in the hierarchy and MagMag had to look away first.

“Killall will punish us, Elder Ezda,” MagMag grouched. “And you haven’t addressed the issue with Ekri the Tailor loping around our territory!”

The other elders shifted uncomfortably from hearing the name of that abhorrent drider. Even the best warriors could barely hide their fear and discomfort at the tailor’s mentioning.

Ezda remained calm on the outside, exuding nothing but Strength through her human form even though she was truly scared of the drider, too. What if the tailor disliked how Ezda presented herself?

Ezda wore materials that the humans would consider ‘cute’, with her locks of furry hair braided with silver ribbons tied into them. She even wore a silver dress that reached down to her knees, which Bianca had given her.

The dress seemed nice on her dark human skin. It also matched the decorations along the road leading to the front of their stronghold.

Bianca had explained that ‘cuteness’ was its own source of power, and Ezda believed herself to be cute and powerful.

So she bore her gnoll fangs and grouched up at MagMag. “Even if Killall tries to punish us, our new Alpha Elder God will stop him! And Ekri the Tailor won’t touch us! He’s been on his best behavior because he, too, recognizes the greatness of Zarian!”

“I wouldn’t say I recognize his greatness as much as you do, my lovely gnolls. But I definitely recognize he’s quite useful,” said the tailor, appearing from thin air beside Ezda.

He’d done this multiple times the past month, so Ezda was prepared to stand firmly and composed on the outside despite her heart hammering like speeding prey trying to escape her.

No matter how the monstrous drider smiled, how he wore his well-tailored suits, or how he folded his six hands behind his back, the tailor was the most monstrous of evil aligned creatures.

MagMag, the other gnoll elders, and their best warriors shuddered. They took a few quick and cowardly steps back.

Ezda turned to the tailor and faced him down. She used her new mental growth to endure the tailor’s predatory and high-leveled presence.

“You must be on your best behavior, Ekri the Tailor,” Ezda said with confidence that she didn’t truly feel.

It helped that she stood seven feet tall even in her human form and easily towered over the drider who was around the average male human height. She placed her free fist on her hip, cradled the core in the crook of her other arm, and raised her head high.

“No poaching us for our furs. No attacks upon us. Or you risk angering our sigma and our true god.” Ezda puffed out her chest while the other gnolls gawked at her like she’d lost her mind.

The tailor seemed to have an attachment toward Sigma Elder Naomi, which was a risky arrangement, in Ezda’s opinion. It was clear to Ezda that her new god favored Naomi as the best of his chosen ones. Any foolish male who dared interject themselves in the bond between the One True God of Absolute Killing and Naomi would find themselves hunted and destroyed, no doubt!

So the tailor better watch himself, though Ezda would love to be there to see the foul drider’s destruction if he ever did trespass too far where he didn’t belong.

“Oh, no, no, no, I wouldn’t dare! I appreciate the rugged and solid nature of your pelts, truly I do, but I’ve come here not as Ekri the Tailor. I’m here as Baron Ekri of Carrowmore,” said the Carrowmore Baron.

The other gnoll elders and their best warriors gasped or let out a frightened whine. They took a few more nervous steps back except for Ezda.

She held her ground as she clenched her clawed toes and nearly risked the destruction of her silver sandals. She couldn’t stop herself from tensing up.

Everybody in this region of the Walled Continent knew the massive power the Carrowmore Barons held. They were involved in many evil enterprises.

Even Ezda had to answer to the Carrowmore Barons when they wanted her to do work for them. She had to ignore the fact that poachers from Carrowmore would hunt her kin instead of hunting actual monsters or beasts.

The Carrowmore Barons held so much power that even Ruvaria the Genocider couldn’t touch them!

Still, Ezda held her ground. “Even Carrowmore will know their place when Alpha Elder God Zarian reaches them.”

The baron laughed, sounding both melodious and sinister. He deepened Ezda’s fear, forcing her to squeeze out every ounce of Willpower and mental bravery she had to stay put. Then the baron surprised her with a flourishing wave of his three right hands and a bow.

“Of course, Elder Ezda, of course.” The baron disappeared from sight. His scent was gone, too.

It was as if he had never been there.

Ezda allowed herself to shudder a little.

Then the scouts came running in and yapping over each other. Ezda snapped at them and the smaller gnolls corrected themselves. They prostrated themselves before her as one pointed back. He said the words that made her feel joyful and terrified all at once.

“They are here! The One True God of Absolute Killing and His Chosen Ones of Absolute Killing! They are here! They are here!”

MagMag emitted an annoyed whine. It was quiet enough that Ezda allowed her to have that one small cry of dissidence. But if MagMag didn’t correct herself in front of the Floridians, then Ezda would have to make an example of her.

Ezda put away such murderous thoughts.

She recalled the ‘cuteness’ factor she’d learned from observing Bianca. Ezda made herself feel and act softer, which surprised the many gnolls who were watching her.

Then Ezda pranced forward with a weird gait while hugging the core to her chest. She exited out from the gap between the front teeth of the stronghold and stood in the light. She waved daintily and bounced around.

Be cute! Be powerful! Just like Bianca said!