Chapter 116. Recruiting Village Residents #4
Under Solorb’s guidance, we had been riding the Giant Caterpillar for about 30 minutes.
[Nyaaa!]
[Nyaaa!!!]
[Nyaahak!]
We discovered a place where numerous Cat Crabs had gathered.
Their number was roughly around 200.
It was about twice the size of the Jellyfish horde.
“There sure are a lot of them.”
【Pururu】─ For real, seeing them gathered like this is a bit creepy.
【Mysticism】─😨
Perhaps it was just in their nature as an aggressive species.
As soon as the Cat Crabs saw us, they attacked without any hesitation.
Some rushed recklessly at us.
Others generated compressed liquid and hurled it our way.
Before we knew it, we were surrounded and under a group attack, but all their assaults were blocked by the Blood Shield cast by the Jellyfish Princess.
[Pihihihi! Not working!]
The charging Cat Crabs were repelled by the shield, and the compressed liquid thrown at us was absorbed and disappeared.
As the Cat Crabs’ attack ended in futility, our counterattack began.
[Son. As long as I don’t kill them, it’s fine, right?]
“Yeah. If possible, don’t even hurt them. It’ll just make the Medical Mushroom’s job harder.”
[Understood, my cute son.]
Nyara Nepenthis lightly swung her right arm.
A small black hole appeared in the air.
[Nyaaa!!]
[Nyaooaang!!!]
The Cat Crabs were sucked into the black hole.
Then, Nyara swung her left arm, creating a white hole in the air, and the Cat Crabs that had been absorbed by the black hole came pouring out from the white hole.
The sight of the Cat Crabs was bizarre.
It seemed that Nyara had distorted the space below the white hole, causing hundreds of Cat Crabs to overlap as if their graphics were glitched, yet still alive.
【Yumi】─What is that···?
【Mysticism】─😱
【Pururu】─Looks like they’re overlapping like in Starcraft.
【Bubble Bubble】─Did she distort space?
【Rizenova】─That seems likely. I assume those Cat Crabs are in different dimensions.
Nyara smiled and called for the Puppet Master.
[Necro? Come here, please.]
[Call me Master.]
[Oh, calling my son’s friend ‘Master’ feels a bit strange, don’t you think? It’s not right to look at your friend’s mother like that.]
[······.]
【Pururu】─That crazy woman is nuts.
【Mysticism】─Her mind is seriously twisted. 😟
[Anyway, Necro, I’ve gathered them all in one place to make it easier for you to use mind control.]
[Hmm… It seems the space the Cat Crabs are currently trapped in is slightly out of sync with the dimension we’re in… Can my ability still work like this?]
[Of course. That space is just a lower dimension I temporarily created, so you can interfere with it anytime from here, the higher dimension. They, on the other hand, can’t interfere with us. Hehe.]
[Got it. Well done.]
The Necro Puppet Master began using mind control on the Cat Crabs, who were trapped and overlapping in the lower dimension.
Normally, mind control could be used on multiple targets simultaneously.
According to the Puppet Master, he could control about three or four S-rank opponents at the same time.
However, he couldn’t do that now.
The Cat Crabs were each placed in slightly different dimensions, so he had to mind control them one by one.
Well, it wasn’t a big deal since it didn’t take much time anyway.
Kinogine Arachne was dropping threads on the bound Cat Crabs, neutralizing their strength, so the mind control was working instantly.
【Yumi】─Even with such large numbers, they’re no match for Geon’s monsters.
【Pururu】─For real, it feels like bullying the weak.
【Mysticism】─🤭
【Bubble Bubble】─The Gauntlet’s monsters are just too strong, which makes the Cat Crabs seem weak in comparison, but don’t forget, each one of them is S-rank.
【Bubble Bubble】─Think about what it’s like to face over 200 of them. Then you’ll get an idea of how insane this Cat Crab horde is.
【Mysticism】─🤔 I don’t get it.
【Pururu】─Elise, you’re such a noob. Lol
【Rizenova】─But Bubble is indeed the strongest among us Assistants.
Nyara began picking out the Cat Crabs on which mind control had succeeded from the lower dimension.
She then brought them one by one over to me.
[Here you go, son.]
“Thanks.”
The Cat Crabs, bound by threads and neutralized, had been stripped of their hostility by the mind control.
I received them one by one, flipping their bodies over and searching for spots as I began the taming process.
【Pururu】─Feels like I’m at a seafood market.
【Mysticism】─😋
【Rizenova】─Looks delicious.
One, two, three…
Each taming process took about 20 seconds on average.
It was even faster than when I tamed the Jellyfish horde.
I kept taming the Cat Crabs one by one while counting them.
Before I knew it, all of the Cat Crabs had been successfully tamed.
The exact number was 219.
Including the one I had tamed before coming here, I had tamed a total of 220 Cat Crabs.
[Nyaaa~]
[Nyaaang!]
“They look cute once they’re tamed.”
【Mysticism】─😮 They’ve turned from feral cats to lapcats!
【Bubble Bubble】─They look like a different species now that they’re calm.
【Yumi】─They were cute even before, but now that they’re docile, they look even more lovable.
【Pururu】─Not cuter than our tiny race though.
I held up one of the Cat Crabs.
I flipped its body over, carefully observing its appearance.
It felt even cuter than the Dog Spider.
Its appearance was adorable enough that even ordinary people wouldn’t feel repulsed by it.
“Solorb. Do you want to take one and raise it?”
[That one?]
“Yeah. You like cats, don’t you?”
[···That’s not a cat.]
I had considered sending one to Solorb’s world as a generous gesture.
It seemed Solorb had pretty high standards when it came to cats.
Anyway.
Today’s village resident recruitment ended here.
We decided to send the Cat Crabs to the desert village construction site and have our search team return to our base.
***
Labyrinth, Day 61.
After having breakfast prepared by Merino.
Today again, I crossed the warp device into the desert with my monsters.
The team had changed slightly.
The Blood Jellyfish Princess and Nyara Nepenthis were no longer with us, replaced by the Black Magma Slime and Azeras.
Kinogine Arachne and Necro Puppet Master were still in the fixed lineup for this desert village recruitment mission, so they weren’t switched out.
[Aberrororl!]
The Giant Caterpillar came to greet us.
Lately, it seemed happy to see us more frequently, its large face full of satisfaction.
The way its mouth stretched from ear to ear was so cute, it reminded me of a huge puppy.
【Yumi】─Aww, so cute. Haha.
【Bubble Bubble】─What’s so cute about it?
【Mysticism】─🤔
Today, we planned to search in the opposite direction from yesterday.
To be precise, we intended to search without passing the rock we first encountered when we met the Cat Crabs, heading in the opposite direction instead.
“But why is it so dark today?”
It wasn’t pitch dark.
The desert was dim, like in the early evening.
Curious, I looked up at the sky.
Solorb, the sun-like monster that normally emitted intense light.
Today, the flames that usually blazed fiercely from its body were relatively calm.
【Pururu】─Didn’t it turn like that last time when it descended low to the ground?
【Yumi】─Yes, it was in a similar subdued state back then too.
【Rizenova】─It’s a little different this time. Last time, it subdued the flames but was still emitting light.
Could something have changed in its body?
Or could it be sleeping?
While I was pondering these questions.
─[Gauntlet. No need to worry about that. Solorb has just manifested in its inner world, which is why it looks like that.]
Bastet Daong’s voice came from Iris.
I immediately turned my gaze toward Iris.
The screen was filled with Bastet’s face, so close it was overwhelming.
“Oh. So, you’re saying it descended into its internal world?”
─[Exactly. Solorb occasionally visits the inner world it holds to play. I’ve heard that during those times, the external flames subside like that.]
This was the first time I had learned of this.
So it could actually descend into its own internal world.
Well, I guess it makes sense?
After all, it’s a world it created and rules over.
As we rode the Caterpillar, I asked Bastet Daong another question.
“Does Solorb look the same in that internal world?”
─[No. Solorb appears in different forms in our world. Most of the time, it manifests in a form similar to mine.]
【Yumi】─So, in the world it holds, Solorb can change its appearance as it pleases.
【Pururu】─Then maybe it could appear in human form too.
【Bubble Bubble】─If it wants to, probably.
【Mysticism】─😮
If I ever got the chance.
I thought it might be fun to visit the world Solorb held inside itself.
Maybe I could find the red spots on its manifested form in that world.
If that were the case, I wouldn’t have to search the vast surface of the planet-like Solorb, making the taming process much simpler.
‘I’ll ask Solorb about it casually once we get a little closer. Ask if I can visit.’
With that thought in mind.
When I looked ahead again for the search.
[Kaaak! Kwok!]
【Yumi】─Huh?
【Mysticism】─😱
【Pururu】─Another hideous creature just popped out. Damn.
【Rizenova】─To me, it looks rather cool.
【Bubble Bubble】─Oh? It’s the Demon King of Flames!
In front of us, I saw a single crow standing.