Chapter 11: Worms and Dogs

If someone asked Luge right now when his happiest moment was, he would surely smile and say it was the second before, at the last intersection.

He had actually gotten lost again.

After turning a corner, he sensed something was wrong, but when he tried to turn back, sobs like a child heartbroken rang out all around; this familiar sobbing, which he had encountered once when he first left the Half-Man, and now this situation—no matter how he walked, the sobbing surrounded him in the passage, as if relieving his boredom on the journey.

The other party seemed able to influence people's judgment, and was likely the culprit causing him to keep getting lost.

And now, because he kept maintaining the Stinking Skin Spell, that culprit who could be heard but not seen seemed not to dare approach, and both sides fell into a strange standoff, a mobile standoff at that, simply unheard of.

After circling around, when the sobbing sounded from behind, he suddenly strode forward and ran, and for a moment the sobbing was actually thrown behind him.

The spell in the Temporary Spell Slot had already been replenished through meditation while resting on the road earlier; if the fellow who scared people with crying dared to show himself, he didn't mind wasting another spell to give the other party a good beating.

The kind where a stick breaks.

As he ran, the sobbing was thrown farther and farther away, until it could no longer be heard at all.

Seems like that fellow isn't so incredibly powerful, he thought.

"Good-smelling brother, can you help me?"

At the same time a slightly childish voice appeared, a small figure clumsily walked out from the corner of the cave wall in front of Luge.

Luge knew the other party was probably just bored. But he had to stop, because every time he took a step forward, the little thing retreated a step, truly with no end.

"Didn't you say I smell good?"

He plucked up his courage and carefully sized up the little thing in front of him.

After seeing clearly, he was instead not as nervous as when he only heard the voice; he saw the other party had the appearance of an ordinary child, two long thin antennae on top of his head, simple and plain monochrome robe clothes, and shell-node features at the details of his shoulders and elbows. This made him think of a humanoid race rarely seen here, only heard Aijin speak of, called Chong Ren.

"Not this stinking spell, but the breath emitted by spiritual power smells good."

The little Chong Ren explained with all his might, his voice very steady, but tears flowed uncontrollably.

"You are a Chong Ren?"

He naturally wouldn't easily stop the spell; on the road he had thought about trying to control the spell when he saw Aijin, to see if he could maintain the spell's operation without hurting the Kobold girl.

"I am a Chong Pu Ren, of the Chong Pu Ren Zu," the little Chong Ren looked hesitant, as if weighing his words, "some bad people are chasing me, can I give my little brother to you?"

The little Chong Ren said while holding out a round thing.

"Maybe you can first say who is chasing you? Are they Lizardmen?"

He looked at the egg-sized thing the size of two fists, and could feel a life gestating inside.

The little Chong Ren shook his head, tears falling even faster.

"Aunt One Hundred Seventy-Five said that is a Wizard, said never to let them catch me," the little Chong Ren's tears fell drop by drop, "this is my favorite little brother, but it hasn't awakened Spiritual Wisdom; a Worm Egg that doesn't light up the Spiritual Wisdom Light will ultimately only be a Bug Beast, not a Chong Ren, and I can't carry him anymore."

So many aunts! Chong Ren indeed can reproduce more than Kobolds and Lizardmen, he thought.

"Then you can give it to your aunt..."

"The aunts are all dead, the aunts are all dead too."

The little Chong Ren cried more and more sadly.

"Fine! I promise you! But I want to see what a Wizard looks like; you have to tell me where the Wizard is."

He was somewhat excited, but suddenly thought of his own dog-headed dog-faced appearance, then thought of the owner of the diary in his hand, Apprentice Wizard Kalu, and the mysterious Half-Man.

"The Wizard is also dead, uh, there are several, always chasing me," the little Chong Ren said vexedly, "but I also don't know where they are now; as soon as I sleep, they can know where I am and will find me; I am already very sleepy now, haven't slept for a long time..."

The little fellow said while yawning again, looking like he was about to fall asleep.

"I was going to leave long ago, just found you smell good, so stayed a few more days; I really should leave now," the little Chong Ren held the Worm Egg above his head with both hands, "I can't carry it anymore; Aunt Seven Hundred Twenty-Eight said I must enter the innermost city, then I won't be afraid of Wizards finding me."

The little Chong Ren didn't point in any direction, but Luge, hearing his words, inexplicably thought of the journey he had once imagined to explore the end of this cave passage.

"But I can tell you the place where those Wizards died; you want to see Wizards, you can look at their dead bodies; they smell bad, probably won't be eaten by Underground Beasts."

The little Chong Ren's tears seemed like they would never run dry; maybe his race should be called Crybaby Chong.

Just in the moment Luge hesitated, the little Chong Ren had already started nodding incessantly, his eyes could barely stay open; the little fellow insisted on waiting quietly for his decision, occasionally tugging his own antennae to force himself to stay awake a little.

"You put it down."

He did not choose to stop his spell.

"There is a Cultivation Bag; you can put it inside, very convenient; it won't cause you trouble."

The little Chong Ren finally showed a happy look on his face, but his tears still did not stop for a moment.

This made Luge think of a word: breach.

Maybe he was truly sad to the point of breach, or maybe this was some special ability of their Chong Pu Ren Zu. This is indeed a miraculous world where spells exist.

The little fellow seemed really anxious; he put the Worm Egg into the Cultivation Bag, set it down, and left; his small body could float like swimming through the darkness, and in the blink of an eye he was gone.

Didn't those several hundred aunts tell you to keep your word? You still haven't told me the location of the Wizard! he thought.

When Luge carefully picked up the Cultivation Bag.

Sounds came from the darkness again; the little Chong Ren returned, and he apologized repeatedly, tilting his head and pointing with his antennae from afar.

"When I grow up a bit later, I will still come out to find you to play; you really smell good, my little brother will like you too." With these words, the little Chong Ren disappeared into the darkness of the passage.

And at this moment Luge also felt a fluctuation of Spiritual Power; after a slight contact, a crude map was read by him through Spiritual Power.

He hung the Cultivation Bag under the animal skin at his waist, then lifted his foot and quickly left this place.

He looked at the map impatiently while walking; on the map there was more than one place where Wizards had met their end; he looked carefully for a long time, and among the many marked places there was no location of the Half-Man he had guessed.

But this is after all a good thing; having news of Wizards means he doesn't need to rely too much on the Half-Man.

And judging by the Chong Ren's meaning, those fleeing ones had not scavenged the things on those Wizards.

He returned to the familiar road section and chose a new road to set out.

As the passage became more spacious, he knew that this time he had finally chosen correctly. Last time under the effect of Bull Strength he was like an unparalleled fierce man, but once the spell effect wore off, his whole body immediately ached abnormally, so he had to find a secluded place to meditate and rest; thus this kind of spell also requires a certain physical strength to support, and can even complement each other to achieve stronger effects.

He had the Saint Lord's Fruit on his mind all along, and sneaked to the front of the Big Cave, only to see blood all over the ground.

(Chapter End)