The ground beneath them shook, and the surroundings turned even darker than before.
Despite the darkness, the origin of the aftershocks and fierce evil fluctuations was visible to the team, albeit barely.
It would be harder to not see it due to its size. It's a giant standing a couple of tens of feet tall. It's difficult to see its actual features due to the darkness around them, but the giant's deep crimson eyes stood out the most, looking like a pair of blood moons in the sky.
Unlike others, though, Cedric's senses could see the creature clearly.
"It's a Titan Demon," Cedric whispered, his voice barely heard by his teammates.
Titan demons are creatures that boast immense size and durability. Their skins can only be damaged by specialized equipment, or at least, it would take a Planar Traveler Realm expert to do so. A creature of that size could obviously explode with sufficient strength to flatten cities in mere moments.
These demons are a rare sight, despite their size. Their numbers aren't many, and they can't reproduce that easily. Still, they are strong demons, and it is a pain to deal with them, purely because it would take a lot to bring them down.
"What's that thing doing all the way here?" Elric grumbled as he craned his neck to look up at the creature. "This is probably the first time I see one, by the way."
"That goes for all of us," Francis replied while doing the same. He then looked at Cedric and asked, "How'd you recognize it?"
"I took Demonology for my 2nd year course and did some advance reading," Cedric casually answered. "There aren't a lot of demons who could grow that large. What gave it away was the lack of horns."
Looking at the creature once more, the rest discovered that indeed, the Titan Demon lacked horns.
Demons are horned creatures, and they're rather proud of it. It's one of their defining traits as a race, but that doesn't mean that every demon out there has one. Some Demons lack horns to show for it but are still considered Demons due to the simple fact that they could utilize demonic corruption.
Titan Demons are the same, and amongst the demonic creatures who could grow that large, only their kind are hornless.
"It won't see us, right?" Erica asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm down to fight it. But Floyd and Darwin are at a very critical period at the moment. Plus, the commotion of the fight is bound to attract more demons towards us."
"If it did see us, it would've stared, throwing city-sized boulders towards us by now," Cedric replied. "As you can see, it isn't doing that just yet, so no, it doesn't see us. It probably won't either because we're too small. Unless we're barring its way, I don't think it'll ever see us."
"I suppose that it's true that they're narrow-sighted, then?" Elric responded.
"Should be... can't confirm that since we aren't fighting it. Additionally, despite its large size, it's only a Tier 9 equivalent. I said before that unless a Demon Lord comes, this base is practically invisible. Even if the base was on its way, I doubt that thing would be able to see us," Cedric answered.
Yes, despite the size of that thing, it's only as powerful as a Tier 9 superhuman. Of course, Cedric didn't say this to provoke the team into eliminating that titan. Because even though it is 'technically' weak, its physical defenses are extremely perverted. Cedric could imagine all of them spending days on end trying to put that thing down, only to barely make it happen.
"Okay, that's neat." Francis' eyes were sparkling after using it. So were the rest of the team.
"It is, but do remember that it has limited space inside. It can only store a total of 25 things inside, no more, no less. Don't use it beyond that, or else everything inside will burst out and the box itself will self-destruct."
"Noted. What do you need this for, though?"
"I've sensed some Dreaming Silkworms, Demon Hares, and Hens when I got here. I'm pretty sure I've seen some Stag, Doe, and Elks around, but I wasn't too sure. If you encounter some on the way, capture them. I'll see if I can do something with them," Cedric replied.
"Wait, you plan on experimenting to see if you can cleanse them of corruption so that we can eat them?" Erica exclaimed in surprise.
"Well, yeah." Cedric shrugged. "I mean, if we can secure a food source that way, then why not?"
"I approve of this," Elric suddenly said, making everybody look at him. "Though, why Dreaming Silkworms? I understand the rest, but why that?"
"I'm after the silk they produce," Cedric replied. "I make clothes, blankets, rugs, towels, etc. with those. They're also excellent materials for other things."
"I see." Elric nodded. "Are these included in the lessons you learned from your side professions? If so, why aren't they publicized yet? They sound extremely useful."
"Well, they're not," Cedric replied in a flat tone. "I think I'm the only one making these kinds of experiments and discoveries so far. As for how I learned them, well, I spent a lot of time in Purgatory. They work there, so I'm trying to see if I could replicate them in the real world."
This goes for most of the things that Cedric has displayed so far: the formations, cleansing corruption, returning materials from the original states, etc. All of it, Cedric tried on Purgatory to admit his battle against the Undead.
He did most of it when he's certain that he wasn't being spied on by the Demons (because he already developed a good sense whenever that happened), and again, most of them did work, so now he's just trying to see if it also works in the real world.
And so far, he hasn't failed yet.
"Meat...chicken, venison, hare...meat," Francis mumbled, seemingly enchanted. "I've also seen some pork and beef around. I'll try to capture some. Alright, I'm going!"
"Hey, don't be distracted by the meat! Don't forget about the transmission site!" Elric warned in annoyance.
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you. But...meat!! Bye~~!"
Just like that, Francis blended with his surroundings and left the base. Elric could only sigh at his antics. But deep down? Elric truly couldn't blame him.
Because if Cedric could truly cleanse those animals of corruption and make them edible, which he sincerely hoped that he could, then the team would no longer have to endure bland-tasting and cold MREs supplied by the army.