Chapter 140: Pay Day

Chapter 140: Pay Day

Coming back to the surface, Gerald went back to his team.

While they were celebrating the profits, he sat alone, with his back leaning on a tree, deep in thought. He recalled the scene he has just seen. The way that beast calmly ate its brethren...

Compared to that Minecrawler King, he was just an ant. Even if he used everything he had, Stone Body, Iron Heart, and Stone Armor, he would be crushed, there was no doubt about it.

Maybe if he was just smacked around he could survive one or two hits, but there was no way he would try it.

"Man And just when I thought I became strong too! How can something like that even exist?!"

Gerald found it hard to believe his eyes. A beast that big should be slow and weak compared to its smaller versions. That's how nature worked, size goes up, relative strength and speed goes down.

As the strength of a material goes up squared, the mass goes up cubed. That means that there is a point at which the mass of an object grows faster than its structural strength, and it collapses under its own weight. But it appeared it was just the opposite!

The Minecrawler King was already so big and heavy, that it should logically be approaching that limit. It's exactly for that reason that bigger animals are relatively slow. If they move too fast, their bones would break, unable to withstand the extra force from their movements.

"Magic!" Gerald hissed, "It's reinforcing its body with magic!" He remembered how the Earth Dragon mocked him for not knowing how to use the true magic. He didn't think much about it back then, but now that he thought deeper about it

It had to be some sort of passive enhancement, otherwise, these animals couldn't grow to such enormous sizes. Especially not Minecrawlers. They didn't have lungs to breathe, instead, they absorbed oxygen through small holes in their exoskeleton, like insects.

And they should be limited in size due to that fact. Unless the pressure and oxygen concentration in the air increased, they shouldn't be bigger than a palm of a hand. Being bigger than an elephant should be impossible.

And yet, they were real. Some sort of magic that acted as life support had to be in effect. Something that was always active, through the entire life of a monster.

"True magic, huh?" Gerald rubbed his chin, "Is that what makes the living beings in this world evolve? If that is the case, then it would make sense why people get stronger by eating the flesh of other strong beasts..."

It was simple, really. Since wild beasts were able to reform their own body with magic and enhance their biological functions, if someone consumed their flesh, a small part of their cells would probably also change and be replaced by the enhanced version. Maybe...

In the Black-Iron Forth

"Can I help you?" A guard stopped Gerald from going further in and said, "Outsiders can't be here, the place for rewards is over there." The man pointed with his finger in the opposite direction from where Gerald was going.

"I know," the latter answered calmly. "I need to speak with your superior."

The guard lifted his eyebrow, "What? Do you have a meeting with the Commander or the Bishop perhaps?"

Gerald shook his head and said, "I don't know who they are, but if they are in charge here, then I need to speak with them."

"Listen, kid..." The guard pinched his glabella, "Don't make my work harder than it needs to be and just leave. As I said, outsiders have nothing to do here. Just go, shoo!" The guard waved his hand at him as if he was trying to get rid of an annoying cat.

Gerald rolled his eyes and was just thinking if he should create a commotion to get some attention, when

"Hey, what's going on here?"

Hearing the voice, the guard seemed to relax and his mood improved, "Oh, young master Trevor! You came at a perfect time! I was just telling this guy that he can't enter the Fort and that he should leave, but he doesn't seem to get it."

"Oh?" The young man was dressed in a light blue robe, with gold and silver all over. Extravagant jewelry was also a part of his attire.

"Hello there, little brother, what's wrong?" He gave an amicable smile, but his voice was one you would use for small children.

It ticked Gerald off, so he gave him a side-eye. "What's with that voice? Do I look like a kid? You appear to be even younger than me!"

"Oh, really?" The guy seemed to be happy with that and laughed, "Well, thank you! It might not appear so, but I'm twenty-five this year!"

'Oh! Now I remember this prick! He's the one that tried to skewer me with a piece of ice!' Gerald suddenly recognized the face after giving it a closer look. "I need to speak with your superior!" he stated with an emotionless voice.