“Urghhh I never knew that trekking would be such a pain in the ass. Can’t we just use our cultivation? Or ask the System to teleport us someplace nearer?” Qiu Yue complained as she followed behind Lynn. If this were just an exploration mission to the Altar of Giants in the Giant World, Lynn would have personally beaten Qiu Yue for having such a talkative mouth.
The trek was not treacherous or anything of that sort. Still, it was obscenely long because of the number of kilometres they had to cover (If they had been giant size, this would not have been such a problem). There were a few Penguins accompanying them including Kido who was like a shadow following Lynn wherever she went.
He became a personal bodyguard after she found out that he was more well versed in Ninjutsu compared to the rest of the penguins. His cooking skills were also top notch, and as it turned out, he was also ranked as the best candidate to have been selected by the Sub System.
However, not all were as incredible as him. The rest of the penguins were only more competent in Ninjutsu rather than cooking. Hence, Lynn allowed them to focus more on the combat component and used them as servers.
“We should be reaching a checkpoint soon. There is sort of a cave…erm, I mean crevice between the walls.” One of the penguins told Lynn and Qiu Yue, which made the latter slightly relieved. The penguins were not slowing them a single bit. Instead, their ninjutsu training had made them even more agile than Qiu Yue. The cultivators who had been to the Restaurant Instance would know that each waddle they took could be equivalent to six of theirs.
“Remember that we are here for training while searching for clues to fulfil our mission to find the chieftain.” Lynn reminded the Red Panda Lady as she informed her about the Penguin Chieftain, Skitter and the rest of the elder penguin council having used the same track they were covering right now. If they had used cultivation to speed up their way to the Altar of Giants, they could have potentially missed any clues left behind.
Qiu Yue did argue a valid point that they should use their cultivation to move to the Altar of Giants as soon as possible since they might potentially be trapped there. Kido shook his head and denounced that particular plan because of a few things. One of it was that they had already missed the deadline to return from their pilgrimage.
Should anything have happened to them at the Altar of Giants, they would have been dead by now. Therefore, the penguins back at the village had already accepted the Council of Elders, including Chieftain Skitter, might have been killed or worse, eaten. Hence, what the penguins needed to find was actually a unique item that had been carried by Chieftain Skitter.
The Totem of Atem.
Kido mentioned that this particular small totem had allowed the penguins to survive and thrive because it shrunk them permanently into small sizes. In the Giant World, the largest always won and the original sized penguins had definitely not been among those who could become competitors in this cruel world, but a mere survivor in this giant eat giant world.
The area which they had established their village was deep within one of the crevices of the broken Cathedral that lead them to the main Altar of the Giants. Yes, they were located not too far off from the Altar itself because the Penguin Chieftain needed to periodically repower the totem of Atem to immunise the penguin hatchlings from the Giantification Genes.
“You mean Atom?” Qiu Yue figured that made more sense but Kido and the other Penguins simultaneously corrected her, that it was ‘Atem’ and even spelt it out for Qiu Yue. “Alright! Alright, no need to be so agitated about it.”
“Hahaha, it happened to me too. That totem to them is a sacred item like how a statue of Buddha is to a religious person.” Lynn giggled and consoled Qiu Yue as they were reaching a broken part of the wall that connected the room they were into another.
“Still, this is just crazy, do these Cathedral ruins have a history or something? A look at the stained glass windows, I can already imagine there must be some sort of civilisation that lived in this place.” Qiu Yue looked upwards and saw a gleam of light shone down through the giant piece of a cracked window. Qiu Yue realised that if she were standing at the spot where the sun had shone through the window, it would have felt like in a desert walking through that particular area.
“Surely there is some sort of history behind it all, but we do not have the luxury to find out at the moment,” Lynn answered as Qiu Yue could hear the penguins taking out their weapons. It was a Giant Boar Rat larger than the size of an Ogre staring at them in the intersection of the broken off wall. To the great vermin, it was staring at delicious looking food looking to be eaten up.
“Penguins ready?” Lynn asked as part of her habit. Even if it looked like a rat, the System would still categorise it as a consumable when it’s killed because the meat itself had nutritional value to it and most importantly all those who tried it could only describe it as such.
Absolutely Tasty.
Lynn had killed a few of the same Boar Rats before and even used them as part of the ingredients for her more top selling dishes. Yet the customers thought it was merely pork meat, since it was named as such in the menu. Even Jin assumed it was a gigantic boar when Lynn captured it back then. (At the time Jin had been looking through the porthole window, Lynn and the penguins were already slicing the boar rat up.)
Qiu Yue fumbled as she took her katana out, but by the time she did that, Lynn and the penguins had already charged in and blinded the Boar Rat by stabbing their kunai into the eyes of the Boar Rat. It caused the vermin to screech while stomping its feet and shaking its body to prevent the penguins and Lynn to perform any follow up attack.
“Qiu Yue, come and join in the fun!” Lynn offered as she stepped back to the direction of Qiu Yue. The cultivator of the ‘Radiant Red Panda in the Umbral Snow’ Style thanked Lynn for giving her a chance in the battle. She took a deep breath and stepped forth with her chi all gathered within her sword.
A cold breeze of air flowed through the intersection of the broken wall when Qiu Yue raised her sword to accommodate her offensive stance. “Katana Arts! Snowy Dance of the Red Panda. Act 1!” Qiu Yue shouted as her sword turned pristine white and dashed forth to release the chi in her sword. The energised slash released a wind of snowflakes, causing the Boar Rat movements to be slowed down significantly.
That was when the penguins took the opportunity to rush in and deal an all out attack by stabbing and slashing the Boar Rat’s legs and tail, causing it to stumble and eventually tumble to the ground for Lynn to deal the finishing blow. A straight cut under the neck released the Boar Rat’s suffering instantly, and the Boar Rat was immediately sent back to the System for cleaning.
“Another cooking material to be used!” Lynn wiped her one handed sword with a cloth which was hanging at the side of her waist before sheathing it back into the scabbard. “Hehe, It’s a habit. I am a bit particular about cleanliness, even with my sword.” Lynn explained a bit embarrassed as she saw Qiu Yue giving her a strange look.
“Yea, I think both Jin, and I learned that the hard way after the last time we went into your kitchen to share with you some snacks we bought from Tiangong district. You’ve been shouting at us as if there was no tomorrow.” Qiu Yue easily accepted Lynn’s apology.
“The Penguins also gave us a death stare. Only afterwards did we realise that you were in the process of washing the kitchen up for the day. ” Qiu Yue giggled, and Lynn automatically apologised for her Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour when it comes to cleanliness.
“Sub System User Lynn, Sub System has found a piece of possible evidence when processing the Boar Rat for freezing purposes. Sub System was able to retrieve a particular piece of accessory that was stuck in the fur of the Boar Rat.” The Cooking Sub System stated and teleported an amulet necklace accessory into Lynn’s hands.
She quickly passed it to the penguins for verification and Kido noticed that it belonged to Colwaski, one of the Council Elders that followed Chieftain Skitter for the pilgrimage. “He is basically the overall genius in the Penguin Village. Without him, we would not have survived this long. All the items he managed to salvage or create are vital for our survival.” Kido explained.
“So do you think it’s a coincidence that he left it with a Boar Rat or was there some purpose to it? Sub System, any conclusive evidence that Elder Colwaski could have been eaten by the Boar Rat?” Lynn asked, and the Sub System conclusion came out negative. Even if there were any signs, it could have long been digested.
“We are far from over. We have yet to reach the Altar of Giants as you guys stated. At least we know there are some physical remnants of him lying around which meant we are on the right track.” Qiu Yue tried to encourage Lynn and the penguins beside her.
“You are right. We should rest up and continue on later. Sub System, please analyse this to check if there is any possible hidden message in there.” Lynn requested since Kido did state that Colwaski was the Overmind in the village, he might have left some valuable clue behind. However, the Sub System informed her that it would take a few minutes since the System was currently running at near full capacity.
“How come?” Qiu Yue asked as she opened her Sub System via her phone and checked that everything was fine at her end.
“Jin is currently fighting against a Demon Cultivator or as they call themselves the Demon Exorcist Trainees. System is currently analysing the information being collected in real time.” The Sub System answered, but the Sub System users were unaware that the System was at full capacity because of Kraft. He was pushing the System to the max into working something valuable after he was done hacking with the aid of Rex boosting his abilities.
“Shall we watch Jin’s fight while we take a breather?” Qiu Yue asked Lynn, and she agreed wholeheartedly.
“We hardly see Jin fight earnestly, maybe we too will get an idea on how he performs so we can perhaps train collectively in the future too,” Lynn suggested, but in actual fact, she just wanted to fight side by side with Jin. Even though it had been a brief experience, she missed the adrenaline rush when Jin had been by her side fighting against the Orcs in that make believe goblin capital they had created.
The Sub System obliged to their request since it would occupy them for a while as it could delay the process to identify the object which required the main System’s aid.
“Oh my god, it’s true. An Ox looking Demon silhouette above that guy’s head. I don’t recognise that demon though.” Qiu Yue commented but neither did Lynn could comprehend since she was only acquainted with Japanese Mythology and Lore.
“Ao Ye. A demon that seemingly originated from the folktales of China’s western regions. The System does not currently have much information on it either. Only that Ao Ye is rumoured to consume humans and collect their bones for keepsake.” The Empire Building Sub System revealed to Qiu Yue, and they saw how aggressive that Ox Demon Cultivator’s attacks were. The attacks had immense strength behind them, and his footwork was precise, but for some reason, Jin just kept dodging without any retaliation.
“What is that fellow doing? Tiring that guy out?” Qiu Yue seemed frustrated watching the match, and Lynn begged to differ.
“If I am not wrong, you should look closer at Jin’s eyes. He seems to be actually trying to learn the footwork of that demon cultivator while avoiding the steps.”
“What for? Jin could just blast him out in the sky if he wanted to…pretty sure he could.” Qiu Yue replied back, though she whispered the last more. Still, that was the moment when Jin finally did something to break out of the monotony. He used his shoe to pick some sand up and threw it at the Ox Demon Cultivator to distract him.
After which, Jin lowered himself as he aimed for the legs instead and suddenly from under the shadow of the Ox Demon Cultivator, a silhouette of Ao Ye appeared from Rong’s legs as if to try and bite Jin off.
However, Jin was able to evade the silhouette and stood up properly with no loss of balance. It was Rong’s fighting technique that allowed him to concentrate his chi into his legs, making them fight independently in case Rong’s upper body got immobilised.
“I see, so the rumours of the Royal Zodiac Ox cultivators taking pride in their legs more than the Royal Zodiac Horses were true. For you to able to gather enough chi to summon a silhouette above your leg, it is truly a wonder.” Jin praised his opponent as he took a step back.
“Hmph, you should be proud to have made it appear. That is why no matter how much you dodge, you won’t be able to pass through my impenetrable defences of the Ox Demon Leg Techniques. Similar to how Ao Ye hides his legs in his large fur like body hair, you will not see my leg attacks coming!! And that includes my hammer attacks.” Rong announced with pride as he had mastered the foundation techniques of the Royal Zodiac Ox clan before becoming a Demon Exorcist trainee.
“Then it’s all the more interesting.” Jin beckoned Rong to attack him.
