Chapter 347. Wuwa
Charles leaned against the colorful tree trunk with his eyes closed, arms folded, and brows knitted into a deep frown. The freakish Mudling's imitation of the Ropelings' behavior made him think of something—could there be a fearsome entity on the island forcing everyone to move like how the Ropelings did for them to survive?
Charles looked around and felt somewhat reassured upon seeing Lily's mice friends on the lookout. Even if there was such a fearsome entity, there was no way that entity could catch them off guard with the mice keeping tabs.
A few minutes later, Linda's voice echoed from the hollowed-out tree.
"Captain, you can come in," Linda said calmly, "He has regained some of his human instincts."
Charles went inside with the other crew members. The fire from their torches illuminated the surroundings, and they were astonished to find that the figure once covered in mud was now bare before them.
The Mudling with perfect facial features had unexpectedly turned out to be a male. However, the scene that astonished the crew wasn't the revelation of the Mudling's gender. It was the fact that he was in Linda's arms and had latched onto her breast as if he were an infant.
Linda remained unfazed even though everyone could see her breasts. She turned to Charles and calmly explained, "He has retained the basic survival instinct of rooting, all thanks to his memories of having been breastfed by his mother, but he has no language abilities. I conducted a simple test and discovered that his cognitive skills are similar to a three-year-old child."
"The cognitive skills of a three-year-old child? Can't humans communicate even at that age?" Charles asked.
Linda gently pushed the Mudling's head away and straightened her clothes. "It's not that simple. Dolphins exhibit the cognitive skills of a six-year-old child, but we still can't communicate with them."
"Wuwa..." For the first time, the Mudling moved despite being under everyone's line of sight. He ignored everyone's gaze and nudged Linda's chest desperately, seemingly looking for sustenance.
Linda walked briskly over to Planck and pulled a tin can out of the latter's backpack. Linda pried open the tin can with a dagger and handed it over to the Mudling. The Mudling grabbed the tin can and started sucking out the lard inside. Discover, Devour, Delight: N♡vεlB¡n.
Charles pondered over how he could extract information from the Mudling. The fact that he was still alive after such a long time meant that he had to have gone all over the island. At least, the Mudling had to be aware of which places were dangerous or safe.
Charles looked around, and an idea struck him the moment his gaze landed on the murals. He swiftly pulled out a pen and a piece of paper before sketching something on the paper. Soon, a sketched shipwreck appeared on the paper.
The moment Charles placed the paper before the Mudling, he seemed captivated by the drawing, and his eyes were unwittingly transfixed on the shipwreck. His lovely amber eyes seemed to exude a hint of confusion and bewilderment as he placed the tin can down.
"Let's see where he's going to take us," Charles said, and he walked outside with his crew in tow. The trek in the woods didn't last long. Half an hour later, they found themselves standing before a dirt mound.
"Wuwa~" the Mudling pointed at the dirt mound.
Charles sighed in resignation. He ought to have known that they had perished. If they were still alive, the Mudling would have been capable of speech. After all, there would have been adults to take care of him.
"Let's dig the corpses out and see how they died," Charles ordered. The crew started to get busy. Fortunately, the ground was wet and soft, which made the digging quite easy for everyone.
Charles started pondering over their next step while staring at his crew members working busily to dig out the corpses. They had explored only a fraction of the island, and a thorough search was bound to take ten days or more.
Charles also judged that they would have to make a minimum of two supply runs back to the ship before they could completely search the island.
Honestly, Charles didn't like the idea of thoroughly exploring this island. The entire island felt ominous, and Charles couldn't shake off the sense of foreboding that had gripped his heart.
He felt like something bad would happen anytime soon.
"C-captain! Come here, quick!" Weister's frightened yell jolted Charles.
Charles emerged from his thoughts and rushed over to Weister.
"What's wrong?" Charles asked and looked down; his pupils constricted to the size of fine needles in an instant. Rather than bones, they found more than a dozen severed brown jute ropes!
Charles was reminded of the murals inside the hollowed-out tree and realized that he had made a mistake. He had assumed that only humans had disembarked the ship and had come ashore. Unfortunately, those Ropelings had disembarked and had come ashore as well!
In other words, the Ropelings weren't native to this island; they had come from the shipwreck, and they had been stuck here since then!
"Wuwa~" The Mudling poked his head out of Linda's embrace and pointed at the ropes in the ground. Then, under everyone's gaze, he raised his finger slowly to point at the colorful forest around them.
"Wuwa~" The Mudling pointed to the left, and then he pointed to the right before letting out the same two-syllables cry, "Wuwa~"
And then, like a machine gun, the Mudling rapidly jabbed with his finger in every cardinal direction. "Wuwa, wuwa, wuwa~!