Chapter 51: 51 Black Eating Black?

"Xiao Hei, creatures with two hands and two feet aren't demons; you can't just kill them."

"Oh... but green ones are okay?"

Green ones?

Are you talking about the Flower Demons on the sixth floor?

After nearly clearing out the fifth-floor demons, whenever Seeing Xiao Hei wanted to vent her energy, Lin Jun would let her go play down there.

Lin Jun didn't know what she played at; only the first few times she got lost, requiring Lin Jun to go down and fetch her.

Once she knew the way, every time she went to play, she'd bring back one or two demon corpses; he remembered there had been green Flower Demons among them.

But Flower Demons don't have feet either; their lower halves are connected to flower buds.

If not Flower Demons, then what?

Never mind; in any case, green ones definitely aren't humans.

"Hmm... green ones are okay, but don't kill them next time like you did today."

Seeing Xiao Hei pouted and nodded, and only then did Lin Jun give her a special spicy strip named Pujiji imbued with only 【Acid LV3】—she had recently developed a taste for sour things.

Those two humans had already hurriedly left; they looked as if they were thoroughly terrified.

Although they were nearly finished off, they weren't dead yet!

Besides, Lin Jun had already provided compensation.

That long sword was enchanted; it was far better than the broken one.

So we're even!

However, this also served as a reminder to Lin Jun: if Seeing Xiao Hei frequently came into contact with different human adventurers, conflict was bound to arise.

Today Seeing Xiao Hei attacked proactively; tomorrow it might be some blind adventurer looking for death.

The likely outcome would be Seeing Xiao Hei slaughtering everyone indiscriminately, while Lin Jun himself would have to miserably clean up the mess.

That won't do!

He needed to think of a way; not to eliminate it entirely, but at least to reduce the chances of human adventurers encountering her.

Forcing her to stay put was definitely unrealistic.

With her energy overflowing day and night, the only reason she could stay quiet for two days was thanks to the affection bonus from the parasitic bond.

Unless he used force, long-term confinement of her was impossible.

As for using force?

Her bedrock backing made Lin Jun have not a single thought in that direction.

But then again, if he couldn't forbid Seeing Xiao Hei, he could restrict the adventurers!

It's never wrong to pick the soft persimmons to squeeze.

In the future, the forest... no, now it's the Mushroom Forest.

In the future, the Mushroom Forest will also be designated a no-entry zone; this way, at least no one will disturb her during her eating and sleeping periods.

As for other times...

Perhaps he should raise the level of his 【Disguise LV2】?

Although there were no demons in the nearby floors capable of producing this skill, skills could also be leveled up through training.

He relied on Pujiji to train, then transferred the experience back.

Although the experience transferred via this method was severely reduced, having more Pujiji, combined with Disguise currently being only level 2, made leveling up relatively easy.

Perhaps he could train it to LV4 in the short term; by then, he could see if this skill could conceal all of Seeing Xiao Hei's scales.

Of course, adding a skill to Seeing Xiao Hei required a massive amount of mana.

Recently, he could only live frugally.

With the plan set, a batch of Pujiji imbued with the 【Disguise】 skill began production.

On the other hand, what made Lin Jun slightly strange was: it seemed no other adventurers were entering the dungeon?

So were those two violating rules by sneaking in?

Anyway, this counted as good news; he had more time to prepare.

Speaking of which, due to the Demon Tide incident, since Dylan was sent out, he had been completely silent.

Lin Jun had told him last time not to get involved with the Demon Tide; if he listened, he shouldn't be in danger.

But it's been nearly a month.

He didn't know if Dylan had brought enough money for blue potion bottles...

He hoped his first human subordinate wouldn't starve to death outside.

—

"Hah... hah..."

Dylan fumbled for the arrow shaft behind his back and yanked it out violently.

The intense pain made him clench his teeth, and cold sweat instantly soaked his spine.

Throwing the arrow, still stuck with fungal threads and fresh blood, aside, Dylan took a long while to recover.

Praise the Boss!

As predicted, the fresh blood at the wound site gushed out in a few streams before gradually clotting.

Thanks to no longer being human, many vital points were no longer vital points.

However, on second thought, if he hadn't been trying to earn that mana potion money, he wouldn't have taken on this bitter task.

Leading this trip was the tavern owner's own man, a bald, burly man smelling entirely of fish, plus three workers like Dylan.

The group of four each carried a bulging deerskin cargo bag on their backs.

They needed to cross the forest on the west side of Silent Wind Town and transport the stolen goods to Fish Sail Port.

In Dylan's view, the most dangerous part of this trip was the certain probability that they would encounter monsters still wandering outside after the Demon Tide.

But he never expected that even this one-time, small-scale fencing and smuggling operation would run into a black-eats-black situation!

The attacker's first hidden arrow had aimed straight at him.

The dull thud of the arrowhead piercing his leather armor was quieter than he had anticipated; the arrow had struck his back with perfect precision.

After realizing what had happened, he deliberately snapped a few clusters of withered branches as he fell, letting his body roll down the slope into the bushes.

Soon, the sounds of clashing blades echoed around him.

At first, he was still guessing which of the other three was the traitor.

It turned out he had overthought it.

These black-robed attackers who ambushed them were clearly intent on wiping everyone out.

His "death" had given the other three time to react.

Those daring to do this couldn't be useless; seeing eight attackers, they knew they were no match, so they fought while retreating, and after running a certain distance, they split up to flee for their lives.

Yet the black-clad figures seemed unwilling to let anyone escape; even after dropping the bags, they did not stop.

Before the last black-robed man left, he did not forget to snatch the cargo bag beside Dylan.

"Ugh-aaah—"

Not long after everyone had left, a familiar scream came from ahead; it was the leader's voice.

It seemed they wouldn't last much longer either; he had to run away quickly.

Dylan would have liked to just lie there and wait for everything to end, but a half-burnt tree trunk nearby indicated that one of the black-robed figures was a fire mage!

If they ended up cremating the bodies to destroy the evidence, he would definitely be dead beyond recovery.

He pulled out the arrow and climbed out of the bushes; the pain in his back made Dylan grimace. It wasn't fatal, but that didn't mean he was fine.

So this is what heart pain feels like!

With no time to deal with the leaves and branches stuck to his body, Dylan clutched the notebook in his arms and ran in the opposite direction.

Hmm?

That's wrong; when did I...

Only now did the warm, strange object in his palm draw Dylan's attention.

The cover, made of some unknown material, was crumpled; running his fingertips over it, he could feel raised ridges, and holding it, he seemed to sense a trace of warmth.

Dylan had a vague impression of this notebook; it should have been one of the stolen goods in his bag.

But when exactly had he taken it out, and why had he held it specifically in his hand?

Could it have fallen into his arms when he collapsed?

He had no clue, and no time to sort out the clues.

Another scream, from someone unknown, echoed through the forest; those three might already be wiped out.

If the attackers intended to destroy the bodies and erase the evidence, they would surely discover he was still alive.

He had to run faster, and farther!

(End of this chapter)