CH 176

The moment I close the treasure chest, it starts shining, and slowly floating.

It’s incredible, considering how firmly it was stuck to the ground.

The treasure chest begins to dye itself black and shrinking, and turns into a shape I remember seeing before.

Yes, it’s just like the black cube I saw in the mausoleum. It transformed into a box.

“Is this that box you talked about?”

Asks Ahri while taking some distance and looking at the box. She’s frowning and looks a little wary. It’s kind of cute.

“Yes, it’s what they call a box. Thank you, Ahri and Shellrule. I managed to find the third one thanks to you.”

I thank them and reach over to the box. Just like last time, the half-transparent plate appears, and ‘points’ start flowing from the box.

Symbols on the plate start being rewritten, and just as they stop, the time up message appears.

◇◆

We leave the underground ruins after climbing the ladder to the surface, and Seilook comes flying.

Seilook lands right on my face, and immediately starts pressing me to give it ‘points’.

“I know Seilook, calm down! You’re going to make me fall down the ladder.”

I can feel Ahri and Shellrule looking at me from below.

I somehow manage to get away from the ladder, tear Seilook off my face, and take out my usual knife to stop myself from being bitten again.

In the meantime, Shellrule and Ahri also come up the ladder. Shellrule in particular is really curious about what I’m doing.

After I finish preparing my knife and a potion, I ask Ahri and Shellrule to stand back, and cut my left arm with the knife.

Seilook files towards me, like it was tired of waiting, and extends its tongue towards the blood dripping from the knife and licks it as it falls.

“Kyuuu!”

Two half-transparent plates appear, and are operated like before.

I explain what’s going on to Ahri and Shellrule. Shellrule is moving her neck and squinting hard. As someone who has a passion for research too, I feel like I can really relate to this.

And then, Seilook is done receiving points.

At this point I’m getting used to this, so I pour some potion on my wound and watch Seilook.

The light of the ‘points’ surrounding Seilook starts to die down, and…

“…Huge!”

Seilook didn’t get more wings this time, but its body has gotten a lot bigger. It’s now big enough that a human can probably ride it while it flies.