"Let me get one thing straight," I asked other prisoners while blocking the slamming claws of Mud walker. "We need to break this creature's chitin armor if we want to kill him, but none of us has a weapon that can do pierce it?" I blocked another claw attack.

Grumps answered me. "Yeah, penetrating their chitin plates is the easiest way to kill a Mud walker," He hit Mud walker's chest with his spear, but it almost did nothing.

Optimists joined our talk. "And how are we supposed to do that with weapons we got! I suppose my dull dagger that cannot even cut ropes will not be useful against that giant bug." He was behind Mud walker, trying to penetrate its chitin armor with his dagger."

The creature I saw as an easy meal is currently causing a big problem for our group. Well, we might have a better time if both the Brick and the young dwarf weren't watching it from far.

"Both of you watching from far. If you want to eat even one piece of meat, get your asses here and do something!" I shout.

The young dwarf shook his head, almost like he got out from a shock. "Okay, sir!" He raised the short sword he picked and began charging towards Mud walker.

I grabbed him from the back of his collar and pulled him away from the Mud walker. He barely dodged a swing from the creature's claws with that. "If you want to die that bad, I can find a faster way to do that."

He began apologizing, but I asked him to shut his mouth and move to help the Optimist.

Brick is still standing from far. I am going to kill that guy on the first chance.

Mud walker screeched and raised both of his claws to the air for a heavy attack, but plates around the creature's neck gave small openings.

I took the risk of getting hit and dashed towards the Mud walker from below, and I got myself a pretty good position, then thrust my weapon into the opening.

My scimitars tip went through the opening and penetrated the soft flesh inside until it hit the Mud walker's chitin armor plate at the end.

The creature began screaming and attacking everywhere like crazy. It even managed to hit the Optimist. Luckily he got hit from the blunt side of its claw and not the razor-sharp blades inside.

The creature is clearly dying, but if I don't finish it fast, we might get hit, and it might kill or critically injure one of us.

With one stupidly aggressive decision, I dash towards the creature, dodged his claws by ducking, and grabbed the scimitar. "Hunt is over!"

I twisted the scimitar, the creature screeched and stopped moving because of the pain, then I pulled the scimitar out and thrust it towards the creature's mouth.

Scimitar's blade easily penetrated flesh inside the creature's head and stopped when it hit the chitin armor.

The creature finally gave its last to breathe and collapsed. Purple slimy blood began flowing through its neck and mouth.

I looked at our game. "Gentleman, it doesn't look pretty, but I am hungry enough to eat a live cow right now. Let's prepare the fire and cook that giant bug."

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As we began processing Mud walker for meat, Brick jumped in and stopped us.

"You guys took it too long to kill, and the creature created poison. We need to separate poisoned meat from unpoisoned."

Grumps confirmed that by saying. "We had several officers dying because of badly processed Mud walkers in the past."

Still, we managed to get edible meat worth five kilograms. Considering we don't even get a hundred grams in a year. That amount is ridiculously high for us.

At first, we decided we weren't giving any meat to Brick as he did nothing in the fight, but after he single-handedly did all the butchering, fire making, and cooking, we decided to give him a fair share.

While eating the meat, we began talking with each other and did a bit of bonding.

"I know it will be a sudden question," I asked the Brick. "But where did you learn to process Mud walker meat."

He sighed. "Mud walker meat is the cause why I am here."

"And how did Mud walker meat put you in this place," I asked. "Did you kill someone for it?"

"For every one of you to understand, let me tell you my story." He got up from the ground. "I might be looking like a mere street grunt right now, but before I got here, I was a butcher processing exotic meats from giant wolves to Mud walkers."

He raised the knife he processed the Mud walker and began inspecting. "I prepared meat for the royals and best chefs of the north, but one day a duke called me. He said his man managed to kill a Mud walker before it released any toxin. I accepted the job with excitement."

"Forgive my ignorance, but what excited you that much?" Optimist asked.

"Mud walkers chest meat. One of the rarest and most beautiful pieces of meat you can find in the north." He raised his voice. "But because Mud walkers start releasing their toxins from their chests, consumable chest meat is quite rare."

"Let me guess. The meat was poisonous, wasn't it?" I said.

"Sadly, you are right, but the worst thing is I warned the chef before he cooked the meat, I said there was something wrong with the meat, and he should not use it in the meal, but he pushed me away saying. "Shut your mouth, duke wants to eat this meat, and I will serve him." And as you can guess, the duke died of poisoning, and the chef blamed me for the meat saying, I didn't warn him about it. Then I found myself here five years ago."

I assume someone assassinated that duke with that meat. There is no way a professional chef knowingly uses that meat in a meal.

"And you?" I asked the Optimist.

"A powerful noble wanted to build a mansion for his daughter, and lucky us, he chose my father's farm. Then the story is simple my father didn't accept it. Noble ordered my father to be executed him and throw me here."

So both of them were trying to protect themselves from the potential dangers of people they didn't know. I probably shouldn't go that hard to them.

"Assholes!" Grumps grumbled.

"It's almost been a year since I accepted my fate, but what about you. You came here a month ago, but they been pretty harsh to you."

"Me, I was fighting in civil war before coming here."

"I suppose you supported the wrong faction at the wrong time, right?"

"Opposite, I saved the princess with his cousin. You might know his name, Arthur. I assume he is one of the strong knights of the north."

Optimist began nodding his head. "Of course I heard about him. He is one of the most promising warriors of the northern part of the empire, but if you and he were allies, why did you find yourself here?"

"I assume it won't be much shocking, so I am directly saying. I am a necromancer, and before I found myself here, I had more than six thousand undead troops under my command, but it seems like the great general saw me as a threat, so he destroyed all my troops and threw me in here."

None of them said anything about five minutes, then Grumps talked. "Sorry for our silence, but I assume you are still not a lich because you are still alive and not reanimated in a ritual."

"What is the big thing," I asked. "What is the difference between a normal necromancer and a lich?"

"I don't know why, but a lich is much stronger than a human necromancer. I suppose that's because lichs have a better connection with the concept of death or something like that."

"I got it, a lich is strong, but what is the with me. Why are you all surprised that I am not a lich."

"That's because, if what you said to us is true, that makes you a pretty strong necromancer, and I can't blame the general. North suffered a lot because of liches in the past."

"Still, he stabbed me from my back, and if it wasn't for Arthur. He was going to execute me."