Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 582 - 49: The Magical Beast in the Crack_1

Chapter 582: Chapter 49: The Magical Beast in the Crack_1

"Hiss hiss hiss," sounds resembling a gentle afternoon breeze blowing through the treetops or a spring silkworm nibbling at mulberry leaves in a quiet night were heard. The tiny but clear noise uncontrollably drilled into the ears of six people. Although it wasn’t noisy, it became annoying after a while. It made them wish to rush towards the source of the sound and fiercely kick away whatever creature was creating the noise.

"We are in trouble." Guide Ike’s face became grave, as he held the handaxe hanging around his waist tightly, and spoke in a deep voice, "Prepare for battle, we might have encountered one of the most difficult creatures to deal with in Earth’s Scar."

"What creature?" Unable to curb curiosity, someone asked softly, "Is it more formidable than the predator we saw earlier? Or is it harder to handle than those mosquitoes?"

"Those giant magical beasts? They can only survive around the surface of Earth’s Scar, at most within the third layer. The beasts underground are much more powerful than them." Ike hummed scornfully, "Let’s put it this way, in Earth’s Scar, the further down, the more inhospitable the environment is for humans, and the stronger the creatures. They often regard the upper layers as their hunting grounds. When they can’t find food in their own layer, they go hunting in the upper levels. So the ones we saw earlier are like livestock kept by Beastmen, ultimately just food."

The girls paused, none of them said anything. It was hard to imagine that those giant and domineering magical beasts we saw earlier were simply food for the creatures underground in Earth’s Scar. However, they also knew that there was no reason for Ike to lie about this. Since he stated it so confidently, it was likely the truth.

"Let’s move." Pannis gestured to everyone, pointing at the slope they were heading towards, "The scent-masking powder has been spread, no matter what creature comes, it will be hard for it to track us by smell. So why don’t we deploy a few camp Concealment Arrays there, then it won’t be able to find us. The distance isn’t far, we will leave a few pieces of Light-attribute crystal shards here, so we can see this place from afar. For safety, Vivian, you should place a few more Eyes of the Mage, in case the visuals are disrupted, we will have a backup way to observe. We need to move quickly, listening to the sound, it’s nearly here, if we don’t move now, we might risk a head-on collision."

Everyone nodded and tried to silently move towards the platform on the slope. Everyone was an experienced adventurer, well aware that in such a dark environment, creatures’ vision is often poor. They rely on hearing and smelling to locate enemies, so everyone was paying attention and keeping their voice down, to prevent the unknown creature from detecting them. The distance to the platform was short. In less than three minutes, they reached the platform. Vivian took out several Mithril discs containing various Concealment Arrays, activated them, and the light shades of various colors flashed in the dim place, completely cutting off the team’s silhouette and sound from the outside world, as if they were in two different worlds.

"It’s done, we can talk now." After setting everything up,Vivian, still speaking softly, said: "The vibrations of sound waves have also been isolated, so we don’t have to worry about them sensing our position through vibrations. From what I heard, it should be almost here. What kind of creature will it be? Mr. Ike, do you know?"

"I’ve seen it." Lina’s voice sounded a bit hoarse, and looking over, her face seemed to be gloomy. She bit her lip tightly, paused for a moment, and then said, "It seems we didn’t choose wrongly. Even if the research institute is not here, we can be sure that the goblins have been here."

"Phew, I see it too." Pannis gave a bitter smile and shook her head, "I didn’t imagine that those creatures we met before, many of them must have been captured from here. But they really are capable of managing to keep those creatures alive when leaving Earth’s Scar."

"What are you talking about?" Catherine also saw the creature crawling out of the darkness. It was a bug that strongly resembled a centipede, with a thick and hard exoskeleton covering its body like steel. Its body was composed of dozens of sections, each section had a pair of powerful feet, its purple-black round head was shiny, it was nearly impossible to spot its eyes, but its two long antennae were eloquently moving in the air. Below its head, a pair of large jaws were extremely sharp, and the tips of the jaws were glowing dark red in the light of the crystal. This magical beast was probably more than eight meters long and half a person’s height when it lay flat on the ground. In battle, it could surpass two people’s height when it arched its front half, but it wasn’t standing up now. Instead, it was closely attached to the ground, and its nearly a hundred feet slid like flowing water, it made a hissing sound with every step while moving.

When it reached the place where the people had been, the magical beast seemed to be confused. The agile antennas moved around in all directions, but it was unable to find any traces of the prey that was here earlier. But obviously, its mind was too simple to contemplate such a complex problem. After searching for a while and finding no target, it was immediately attracted by the exceedingly lively and noisy ancestors of Terror Beasts at the entrance of the crevice, turning the target towards the entrance.

After the giant bug moved away, Lina took a deep breath and said in a more relaxed manner, "Remember the goblin relics we found in Angus Village? Didn’t Pannis say that he guessed it could be part of a research institute? At that time, we encountered a few dozen magical beasts. I remember saying there was a giant centipede among them. Well, it’s not really a centipede, should we call it a relative of the centipede? Whatever. Anyway, it was a millipede and, of course, back then it only had the strength of Gold Rank, but it was still very difficult to deal with. Its shell was like a stone. If Pannis hadn’t exploded two crystals in its mouth using synthetic crystals, who knows how long we would have to contend with it."

"That’s a millipede, dummy." Vivian scolded, but there was anticipation in her voice, she said: "Do you think the goblins captured those creatures from within Earth’s Scar? At least some of them were captured from here?"

"I’m a fool, I don’t know." Lina hugged herself and turned her face away, huffing, "I didn’t even know it was a millipede, how would I know if the goblins from over ten thousand years ago captured those creatures from here?"

"Hey, weren’t you the gentle and elegant chief priestess of Catheria just a moment ago?" Vivian widened her round eyes: "How did you change so quickly? What did you look at this time?"

"Humph, you don’t know either." Lina proudly lifted her head and flicked her long silver hair, "I did some research outside and changed the book, heh, scared you, huh?"

"I suspect that the creatures in that ruin, or at least that giant millipede, likely come from here." Pannis coughed and broke up the meaningless squabble between the two childish girls, "Firstly, if a giant insect like this could be seen in the outside world, it would surely have been recorded in the goblin’s notes, but two centuries have passed and nobody knows of their existence, which indicates that they probably don’t reside in the outside world. Secondly, Lina do you remember? Among the modified life forms we saw in the ruins, every insect was significantly larger than any we have ever encountered. As a friend told me, insects have a unique body structure compared to other magical beasts. They find it difficult to grow into giants. For instance, the Mist Mantis and the spiders we encountered in the Shining Forest were barely as big as humans, which is their limit. Any bigger, and they’d be unable to bear their own weight. It seems only such a special contained environment could support their lives."

"But, there is no difference between here and the outside." Catherine asked with confusion, "Apart from the humidity and heat, I haven’t noticed any difference."

"Hasn’t Ike said before?" Pannis nodded towards Ike, "The air here has a problem. Stay too long and you’ll feel uncomfortable, might even drive someone crazy. I reckon it’s probably related to this difference, but whether this speculation is true or not should be left for future scholars to research."

"Alright, if what you said is correct, then it’s very likely that the goblins have been here before." Catherine clenched her fist, suppressing her excitement, "This means our target’s chances of being here significantly increased. Thankfully, I was scared we would have wasted so much time searching only to find our target does not exist at all. Now, I can relax a bit."

"Big sis, it’ll be fine." Vivian held Catherine’s hand, "I’ve thought it through. You all have done your best, and so have I. That’s enough. We have resisted fate together. Whether we succeed or fail in the end, I will accept it. I won’t be afraid of the potential death anymore."

"You won’t fail." Freya pressed Vivian’s soft hat from behind and said softly, "Death and failure are like stray dogs. If you fear them, they will chase you day and night, constantly nagging you. However, when you stop fearing them, they will whimper and flee, never daring to appear before you again."

"Haha." Catherine chuckled and shook her head, "Poor Axus, you even memorized the last part of the opera’s finale, how bored were you back then?"

"Eh, you recognize it even though it’s so obscure?" Freya embarrassedly laughed, and rubbed Vivian’s head, "No matter the source, the principle is correct. I believe, we definitely won’t fail, we’ll surely find a cure for you."

"Mhm." Vivian nodded firmly, "With your support, I have nothing to fear."

"Shh." Pannis suddenly raised a hand, "That bug is back, and it appears there are other magical beasts nearby, not too far from us. Be very careful." (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)