CH 48

Poulperat gained the name from its peculiar nose. It looked like a mass of octopus tentacles, which was extremely disgusting. They lived underground with terrible vision; however, all the pyro elements were concentrated in those big red eyes.

That poulperat started to gnaw on the chopped ore crab. Its teeth were very sharp, and the hardness of the shell of this group of ore crab was no match to it. The little crabs were in chaos for a while. A few of them were eaten by the poulperat before they were all frightened, nestled aside, and played dead.

If an uninjured ore crab stayed still, its elemental activity had no different from ordinary dirt and stone. After the poulperat finished the ore crab, it crawled towards Grieve. It can smelt human blood, and those red eyes shone in the darkness, making it particularly penetrating.

Grieve held his sword tighter and stared into those eyes. Alex forged the sword he was holding, then Slair asked Rhett to engrave a new pyro pattern on the blade, which hadn’t been activated yet.

The poulperat was getting closer and closer. Something wet touched Grieve’s hand, it was a tentacle on the nose of the rat, and the strange touch made Grieve have goosebumps. With a twist of his wrist, the sharp sword swiped, cutting off the nose of the rat.

The stench of blood spurted out, and the poulperat screamed. Grieve held the sword horizontally in front of him. He knew things would only get more complicated from here. The eyes of the poulperat became brighter, 「Pop-Pop」, the eye membranes burst, and two flames came out of its eyes and flew towards Grieve.

The pyro pattern lit up and absorbed all the flame, turning the sword into a blade of flame. Under the light, Grieve got to look at the poulperat’s poor condition. It stood up in rage, opened its mouth wide, and tried to bite Grieve’s head.

The blond warrior wouldn’t give it a chance. He jumped up and neatly chopped the giant rat in two. The flame burned through the rat’s body, and the tunnel was filled with the smell of barbecue. All the ore crabs were stunned. They were a little photophobic in nature, and now under the scorching flames, they all shrank their bodies and wished they could bury themselves.

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「Hey, it’s blocked here. Could you dig it open?」 Grieve picked up one of the ore crabs and held it close to where they fell.

「Cuckoooo–CUCKOOOOOOOO！！！」 Ore crab screamed in horror, not understanding what Grieve was asking for.

「Forget it. While the flame is up, let’s try something else.」 Grieve pointed his sword towards the place and short out the only spell he knew，「Federir–」

With a big 「Bang」, a giant fireball smashed, and Grieve felt the surroundings shake around him. The ore crabs crawled forward with a cry of 「Cuckooo」s. The passage he expected did not appear before him, the vibration was getting more pronounced, and the clods and stones fell. Grieve realized something was off and ran wildly behind the ore crabs.

The corpse of the poulperat was buried by the collapsed dirt. Grieve followed the ore crabs to a rocky passage. After many turns, they arrived at a relatively open area with some fluorite on top. It was the place where the leader of the ore crabs stayed. At this time, the flames had disappeared from Grieve’s sword, but the ore crabs couldn’t bother by that. They circled around anxiously, and their cries were getting louder, but there was no response.

They were abandoned.

Realizing what happened, the tiny ore crabs gathered into a group and tapped their pincers to confirm each other’s existence. They had lost many friends during the encounter with poulperat. It was that human’s fault, but that human was mighty…

There were many tunnels connected to this place. Grieve picked up a branch and lit it as a torch. After checking the area, he found a mark next to the most extensive cave. It was a tiny arrow, probably drawn with fluorite, and when the torch moved away, it emitted a dim green light.

Those Geo-monster who lived underground couldn’t draw a mark like this. No doubt that was from Slair.

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So hungry.

Slair sat on the back of the ore crab and stared at the tree root in his hand. It was so dark that he couldn’t tell how long he had been kidnapped, but they must be far away from where they were. Although these crabs would share some food when they ate, he felt sleepy and tired, but what was he supposed to do with tree roots?

「Cuckoo！」 Slair protested. After getting alone with these creatures, he better understood their language.

「Cuckoo-Cuck？」 （What do you want to eat?）

「…」 All the food he wanted, he couldn’t put him in ore crabs’ language. The most accessible food source he could find is ore crabs, but he won’t dare to say it. So, the only opinion he left was to stare at the root. It isn’t that bad, Slair thought sadly. Although I can’t swallow it, I can at least stay hydrated by chewing on it. When will Grieve and daddies catch up and save me?

Suddenly, the ore crabs turned, and a bright light appeared, then the group started climbing. Slair closed his eye and opened them up slowly.

They carried him to a top of a hill overlooking the city below. Slair didn’t recognize the city, but the slow-moving golden house stood out on the streets. It was a beautiful and exquisite small golden house, followed by a group of servants. In the front, one of the servants was sprinkling something on the road, and a team of warriors was further ahead, leading the way.

If Grieve was here, he could tell what was going on– Thirteen years ago, the famous golden house was a gift from Robert to the King of Abby. A group of gold ore crabs was at the bottom of the golden house, and their back was melted with the house. Thus it was called 「The moving golden house」. The Queen of Abby loved it. After the Kingdom of Abby and the Kingdom of Klein were annexed together. The King and Queen of Abby both died; this golden house was changed several hands and eventually became a tool for the lady of the city to show off herself.

Those golden ore crabs were the most precious children of these ore crabs. It took them forever to find a gold ore vein to reproduce the so-called “strongest, most powerful” descendants. However, Robert caught all the gold ore crabs. He melted their carapaces with an instant high temperature so that the golden house was connected with them. In this way, the golden house became a part of their children’s shells, but it was too heavy for them to bear. Their body became weaker, food was restricted by humans, and no reliable living conditions. There was no way to gain freedom by shedding its shell. Over the past thirteen years, those gold ore crabs did not grow at all. Their elders had always believed that the humans took their kids, then they would take humans’ kids in exchange.

Past ten years, there have been many anecdotes about humans kidnapped by ore crabs and sent to the city where the golden house was located. These people more or less looked like the ones who made the golden house.

Today, the leader of the ore crab was confident. He stood on the top of the hill, raised his pincers up high, and made a bunch of 「Cuckcoo」sounds to cheer his subordinates up– This time, they would succeed because this time, the person they caught must be the offspring of the culprit.