Chapter 73 - 73 : Hunt 2 (1/2)

The distance between the giant disgusting worms and the bound Jackob is shortening each second, until it was less than 5 meters, albeit their huge frame, the worm's speed is quite fast, which make it more troublesome to deal with it.

Jackob already gave up on escaping, there is no way he could free himself from the paralyzing saliva, so what is only left is just give up and accept his death, he closed his mouth and layed there, silent, his thoughts about his mother..

However, even after a couple of seconds passed, nothing happened, the first thought that crossed his mind is that perhaps it's done? Maybe he died painlessly? It was a happy thing yet depressing, happy because he didn't feel pain, yet sad and depressing because he died and can no longer help his mother, but if so, then where is he now? The afterlife?

With that absurd thought in mind, he opened his eyes only to see the disgusting body of the 3 worms around him, but what was even more surprising is that they were frozen in a big block of ice, each and every one of them.

Apart from them, two figures appeared a couple of meters away from him, because he still felt a bit weakened, and couldn't comprehend what just happened, he couldn't exactly see their appearances, but he was sure it was a man and a silver-haired woman next to him, both of them slowly walked toward him.

As for the giant worms, they didn't move since they were frozen, Jackob was relieved as he breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't die, so why not feel a bit delighted? Yet he also felt a mix of cautious and fear toward those mysterious individuals.

First, why did they save him? For someone like him who fought countless battles and grew in a harsh environment like this place, it's weird to save someone out of kindness, there surely must be a reason they saved him, so he raised his guard against them although they saved his life.

Arthur and Lucy finally found a living being, well to be more precise, it was a small party, but as they approached, it seemed 3 of the people in that party left the last one alone and fled, it was kind of expected and neither Arthur nor Lucy was surprised, such acts were very common in this world, especially on this continent.

First, they were going to go question the 3 fleeing people, but after some thought, they decided to save the other one and question him instead, he may give some honest answers because they saved him, and the others may spit some lies.

Arthur doesn't particularly care about that beastmen's life, he was kind, yes, but not to the point of saving everyone that was in danger, he would only help friend and relatives, probably helpless people that were kind of his acquaintances, but helping strangers was a no-no for him, but that seemed really ironic when he helped Lucy, a complete stranger to him right? And Saly? I guess his character may have changed a bit after all that happened, maybe he softened or became colder, whatever happened, it doesn't matter as long as he did was he thought was right.

..

Dealing with such weak worms was truthfully extremely easy, even Saly could slaughter hundreds of them, they didn't even seem strong, just disgusting.

With but a thought, all the 3 attacking worms were frozen with his Ice Magic, he didn't use it often or tried it, but against such weak creatures, this kind of magic is very effective against , furthermore, after possessing thousands of creatures, his Ice Magic is the most common amongst the special attributes, so he already got it in advanced, but what he really wanted to have is that strange ice the woman used in the tournament back then.

After having possessed a significant amount of corpses of numerous races, Arthur came to know that special attributes are really very rare, Ice is the most common, although I said common, it's just that it's the attribute that is commonly found amongst all the other attributes, from all those corpses, he never got the metal or wood or another attribute, which is a pity.

..

Lucy and Arthur walked toward the beastmen who appeared to be paralyzed and layed on the ground, he looked at them with fear and cautiousness, but Arthur wasn't going to hurt him anyway, he could only chuckle and speak loud enough for the beastmen to hear him.

”Hello there, no need to panic! We were just passing by, we're definitely not suspicious, I saw you were in danger, so I saved you...”

Hearing this, Lucy could only sigh and slowly shake her head while mumbling

”You... from all the things you could have said, why say that?”

Arthur just scratched the back of the head while smiling, now that he thought about it, what he said was a bit suspicious, plus with their sudden appearance, how could the other party not feel fearful and suspicious towards them? Anyways, he kept looking at the beastmen, expecting an answer.

As for Lucy, she didn't try to correct or do anything, talking to strangers was not something she excelled at, only when talking to Arthur can she express her feeling and talk about whatever she wants, as for others, it was not like with Arthur, for example when talking to Anastassia or Sonia, she wouldn't talk much, maybe Saly was an exception as she loved chatting with that little girl, but other than her, there was none.

Of course, that didn't necessarily mean she can't talk, she just didn't want to talk to strangers, she also found it useless, plus there was Arthur to do the talking.

..

Half a minute passed with no response, the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Jackob managed to sit up as the paralysis began to wear off bit by bit, plus his resistance to it was stronger than normal people because he had been exposed to it numerous times.

”W-who are you?..”

Jackob finally managed to utter those words, he escaped from calamity but he could not relax yet, maybe those two are even more dangerous than the worms, it's just that every person from here would feel suspicious and confused if they were saved like this.

”Ehh? I know that in this continent, everything is messy, but I think that most people know that if a person got saved by someone, they have to thank them first before asking anything else, or am I wrong perhaps?”

Arthur kept a distance of 5m or so between him and Jackob, he knew that his beastmen felt very cautious, so he didn't want to cause him more fear than he is already feeling, he just wanted to know the whereabouts of the closest city.

To be honest, with Lucy and Arthur's traveling speed, circling the continent a few time a day would be easy, crossing it all would not take a lot of time, it was possible, but what he needed was information, just going to random cities would not really help that much, if he just searched every village and city one by one, and inspecting its people and so on, then that would take a lot of time, so having someone provide necessary information for him is very crucial.

Jackob somehow managed to stand up, he cautiously stared at the couple while replying

”Y-yes, I apologize for my rudeness, thank you for saving my life.. uhh..”

After thanking him, he couldn't think of anything else to say, if they truly helped him out of kindness, then he would eternally feel grateful, but such thoughts never crossed his mind as events like this where people are saved by strangers without expecting anything is impossible to occur in this wasteland.

”Good, so you know how to appreciate kindness, well then, we saved your life, what have you got to repay us?”

'I fucking knew it!' Jackob gritted his teeth as he unconsciously backed away from Arthur, he obviously has nothing to give him, so he could only helplessly gaze at Arthur and hesitantly say

”I-I have a couple of gold coins back home, if you're willing to follow me, I can give them to you..”

Jackob did many contributions to his clan and village, so he was rewarded with money, and after more or less 5 years, he managed to save a couple of gold coins, it was not lot for rich people, but for the beastmen and the inhabitant in this continent, every coin, be it copper, silver or gold, it's worth a lot, after all, they were short on food, water and so on.

Unlike other continents, this one is very special, as recorded in the history books, this continent suffered from countless bloody wars, it was a battlefield for hundreds of years, it was not a place to live, no more grass or trees grow anymore, it's just 'rotten earth', there were canyons, cliffs, dungeons, but every single one of them didn't even have a single tree, it's a pity but that's to be expected after all these wars that happened here.

..

Arthur walked toward the restless beastmen, still smiling, hearing what Jackob said, his smile became wider, but to Jackob, it looked evil rather than appealing.