Chapter 139: Minecrawler King

Name:Black Onyx - Forgotten Magic Author:
Chapter 139: Minecrawler King

Knock, knock!

Gerald tapped on the stone lightly, but nothing happened. He took out a knife and tried to scrape off some of that gold. Again, nothing happened, but he was also unable to scratch it.

"Hmm..." He took out a mace he bought this very day in the camp and used his entire strength behind the swing.

Bam!

The metal mace received a dent on one of its spikes, but the stone was fine.

He stored the mace away and pointed at the stone with his cannon.

Boom!

Smoke covered the tunnel and the cannonball ricocheted off the stone slab, striking the wall and chipping off a piece.

But, once again, the orange stone was completely fine!

"What the hell is this thing?!" He scratched his head in bewilderment.

Unfortunately for him, he didn't have much time to think about it. The loud sounds he just made, and especially the last explosion, attracted some unwanted guests.

Rumbling of many legs striking the stone surface traveled to his ears, and soon he saw more than twenty Minecrawlers, both Workers and Warriors, running towards his direction from all sides.

"Uh-oh, time to go!" He did not waste any time in making his quick escape from the area. Angry screeches reverberated through the underground after the beasts failed to find their target.

Sneakily attacking one or two lone Minecrawlers was doable, but dealing with more than twenty at once was suicide, even for him.

"I spent enough time here for today anyway! I better get back or my friends might start to worry." He quickly backtracked his steps and returned to the surface. Visiting one of the merchants, he sold the armor plates and a few Ether Crystals for approximately ten gold.

"Damn, making money is so easy now!" He stored the money in his Space Pouch with a smile and went to check on the guys.

"Gerald! You are back! We were just starting to worry..." Kerius went to welcome him with a bright smile when he saw him coming. He had an extra bottle of beer and handed it to him.

"Come, let's celebrate our hunt today!" He dragged Gerald to the campfire where the team was gathered.

"Let's all offer a toast to Gerald, for killing those Minecrawler Warriors and saving us all!" Kerius lifted his beer bottle in the air as he spoke.

"You never know when it might come in handy..." he murmured and stored the notebook away.

Then, using his Magic Eyes, he observed the golden symbols on the rocky surface. To his surprise, Mana was flowing through it in an orderly manner, following along the gold symbols exactly and not deviating at all.

"Hmm?" He followed the direction of the energy and saw many thin lines of Mana all around. They were extremely delicate, which is why he didn't notice them earlier.

He rushed along the tunnel and noticed a few more of those orange stones poking out of the wall. The structure inside the rock was uniform, straight, and repeated every once in a while. It was the same on the other side, a mirror image.

"Is this some ancient structure encased in stone?" he gasped after seeing a part that looked like a pillar. It was similar to the first piece he saw, although this one was still intact and stood straight, making the tunnel bend around it.

Soon the caverns expanded and many tunnels merged into a single massive stone hall. It was so large that Gerald couldn't see the other side.

It was also swarming with Minecrawlers. There were thousands of them, like a sea of living beings, walking across each other.

A small mountain, a behemoth, soon entered his sight. A Minecrawler, bigger than a grown elephant, was slowly stomping around, munching on Demon Mushrooms, and occasionally on a Minecrawler Worker. The tough shell offered no resistance whatsoever to the massive mandibles as it was crushed like old crackers.

The inside juices were sprayed all around on the floor and the rest of the Workers, who, weirdly enough, didn't seem to mind.

"Oh...my...god!" Gerald whispered, his eyes bulging out as he observed the monster.

He recalled the picture from the Bestiary, it was the Minecrawler King. However, the picture did not do justice to the monstrosity before him.

It was recorded that the approximate strength of this being started at Silver 8-Rank, meaning it could lift more than eight metric tones! That was probably twice its body weight.

But that was only the beginning of its strength. This one appeared to be bigger than the book described, probably approaching the limits of the Silver Rank.

"This is dangerous! If people come here and try to pick a fight with this thing, they will all die! But at the speed they are progressing, it will take at least a week for them to come here. I still have time to think about what to do about this..."

He took the notebook and made a picture of what he saw. There wasn't much light in the cave, but luckily some bioluminescent moss was growing on the ceiling, and with its glowing strands hanging down like chandeliers, it was throwing dim light on the ground below.

Straining his eyes to see in the dark, Gerald noticed a structure behind the behemoth. It was massive, probably more than a hundred meters tall and a few hundred meters wide.

"It's definitely an ancient building, probably from before the Demon Invasion. It's possible that it was buried for thousands of years until the Minecrawlers excavated it and made it their home."

He had his hypothesis, but he didn't dare go any further in to confirm it. Even if he could escape the senses of Workers and Warriors, testing out the Minecrawler King was not a good idea. No amount of magic could protect him from that thing.

He remembered the speed of the Brown Boar Kind, and if this beast was anything like it, it would be like a modern tank going at full speed! No barrier could stop it.

"Yeah... I think I'll be on my way now..." He floated away soundlessly, fully alert of any sudden movements around him.