Book 2: Chapter 32 (1/2)

“Clan master, look.” A boulder with stick-thin arms and legs pointed at a brightly lit wall in a cave. The boulder turned around, revealing two green, gemlike eyes and a thin indent for a mouth. On the wall, there was a projection of an alley. “There’s a fairy queen at one of our fairy traps.”

“A fairy queen?” A boulder with diamond eyes waddled over and stared at the screen. “I don’t recognize her, and I’ve seen pictures of all six fairy queens. Catch her.”

“Yes, clan master. Initiating transportation magic.” The green-eyed boulder touched the wall, poking the image of the fairy holding onto a candied apple. “Transporting the target and our trap stall. They will arrive in three, two—”

“W-wait!” the clan master said as a blue-armored man appeared by the fairy queen. “That’s”—“One.”—“the adventurer who destroyed our golem…” The clan master froze. His legs creaked as his round body rotated until his diamond eyes were facing the orange cage behind him. There was a flash of light, and the fairy queen, the man, the vendor, and the candied apple stall appeared inside.

“Wah,” Stella said as her head swiveled around. “A cage in a cave?” She hovered in the air while biting into her candied apple. “We’re trapped!”

Vur blinked and rubbed his eyes. Around him, he could make out faint cavern walls in the dim lighting. The projection screen had shut off when the teleportation succeeded. Vur sucked in his breath and exhaled, breathing out orange flames, illuminating the darkness. Dozens of boulders with gemstones embedded inside of them were lying around.

“Vendor, Mr. Vendor,” Stella said and tugged the vendor’s cloak off, revealing a rock with two sapphires for eyes. “Where are we? Huh?” Her head tilted to one side as she stared at the rock. She blinked twice before covering it with the cloak again. A second later, she yanked the cloak off. She pouted. “Still a rock?”

Vur stopped breathing fire and frowned at the cage. His fingers could barely slip through the gaps between the orange bars, but he managed to wrap his hand around one of them. His body tensed as he tugged on it, but it didn’t budge. Vur snorted and braced his feet, tugging on the cage bars even harder. They still didn’t break. “Orichalcum?”

The floor and the ceiling of the cage were also made of orange metal. Vur scratched his head before asking Stella, “Can you teleport?”

Stella shook her head.

“Can you get to the other side?”

“Only if you can,” Stella said. Her body froze and became transparent. Purple spots of light filled the space she occupied before flowing towards Vur’s chest, sinking through his armor and into his body. Stella’s voice asked inside of his head, “Can you?”

“If I use the skill I learned from the leviathan.” Vur inhaled as he pressed his hand against the bars of the cage. Then he exhaled. His hand, followed by his arm and the rest of his body, dissolved into a puddle of purple goop.

“Wah! Vur melted like ice cream!”

The purple goop oozed out of the cage before solidifying into Vur’s shape once again. His skin color returned to normal as his body turned back into a solid. He reached into the cage and pulled out his armor, which he had slipped out of, and wore it again.

“What was that?” Stella asked as her body appeared beside Vur.

“Poison form,” Vur said and dusted himself off. He frowned while looking around. “It feels like something’s watching me.” A few rocks on the ground seemed to twitch.

“Shiny rocks,” Stella said and flew beside a boulder. Her hands wrapped around two diamonds that were jutting out of it and she braced her feet against the surface of the rock. She grunted as she tugged upwards.

“Gah! Please, stop!”

Stella yelped as she released the boulderman’s eyes and flew behind Vur’s head. “The rock spoke!”

Vur grabbed the rock by one of its legs and flipped it to and fro, inspecting the boulder. “So weird.” He brought it to his face and sniffed it. His nose wrinkled as he tilted his head. “Maybe good for rock stew?”

“N-no,” the boulder said as he dangled upside down from his leg. “I’m not tasty. Please, don’t boil me. My name is Diamant. I’m the clan master of the Gemstone Merchants Clan.”