Chapter 38 Discovering the Magical Beast Layer
Author: M_W Cancer
Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral
Leo wasn't able to notice the hole before when he was killing all the Sewer Rats since it was chaotic and a lot of bodies were blocking the hole. But now that he had finished cleaning up the place, the hole was now clearly presented in his sight.
Leo quietly became excited looking at the hole, he was already expecting that this hole would lead him to another Magical Beast nest. If that were the case, then he would be earning a lot more points today.
Putting the net bag aside, Leo slowly and carefully moved inside the hole while the Earth Elemental was standing still on his shoulder. The Earth Elemental was in the form of a small toy soldier at this moment.
The reason for this was that Leo had thought of a plan where he wouldn't have to unsummoned his Earth Elemental anymore every time he didn't need it. It was already a known fact that every time he unsummoned his Earth Elemental it wouldn't go back to his consciousness, and would instead just vanish forever. That was a troublesome situation since he needed to look for another place with rich Earth Mana again in order for him to form another Earth Elemental in his consciousness. However, such a place wouldn't always be nearby or accessible to him. Hence, he needed to think of looking for a way to solve such a problem.
The method that he discovered was simply to reduce the Earth Elemental's size to as little as a toy soldier. In that way, he could easily carry the Earth Elemental around, whether in his pocket, or bag, or even just allow it to stand on his shoulder, while not bothering about summoning or unsummoning again.
Anyway, the Earth Elemental doesn't have any time limit for its summon. So such a plan was feasible.
At this moment, Leo was having a slight bit of a hard time moving inside the hole. It was so tight and small. Sometimes he even needed to crawl just to continue moving forward.
Finally, after a few minutes of walking and crawling inside the hole, he finally arrived at a giant open area.
Unexpectedly, it was actually a giant cave leading deeper underground.
Looking around, Leo could vaguely see stalagmites and stalactites around in front of him.
To be honest, he could only see a little in front of him due to the lack of any source of light.
Well, there were still sources of light, but they were just from the Light Stones, a common kind of magic ore that can provide light.
The Light Stones were also small in size, hence it was insufficient to brightly lit up the giant cave.
"What if..." Leo suddenly thought of an idea. Although the Light Stones were embedded into the rock, it wasn't a problem for him with his Earth Elemental around.
Making the Earth Elemental big again, Leo ordered it to carefully remove the Light stones embedded into some of the nearby rocks. After removing the Light Stones, he then attached the ores to the Earth Elemental's body.
Just like what Leo had expected, the Light Stones were easily merged into the Earth Elemental's chest, which then turned the Earth Elemental into something like a lamp. A lamp that's capable of killing and smashing.
Leo was amused as he couldn't help but think how convenient it would be if he used the Earth Elemental to go mining. Not only could it mine minerals easily, but it could also become a lamp after merging some Light Stones into its body.
After finishing with his Earth Elemental lamp, Leo then cautiously began moving deeper into the cave.
Along the way, he had spotted a few tiny bits of Mana Stones. So tiny that no one would even likely think of mining them. He was different though, since he was poor and every amount of resources was useful for him.
Not feeling embarrassed at all, Leo ordered the Earth Elemental to mine all the tiny bits of Mana Stones. Good thing he had bought a backpack with him, which contained his cleaning tools.
Back then, he had truly thought that he was literally going to clean the sewer since the mission had the cleaning word in it. But, since the 'cleaning' was actually 'killing' the Magical Beast in the west sewer, then the cleaning tools don't have any use anymore for him, and so he could just throw everything away.
After removing the cleaning tools inside his bag, he then easily has himself a bag to store the Mana Stones.
Along the way, Leo has also killed some other Magical Beasts, such as snakes, scorpions, bats, and other underground or cave-dwelling Magical Beasts that he doesn't know the name of. Though they were just too weak to even be called Magical Beast. In fact, they were even weaker than those Sewer Rats he had first met.
Leo realized something else, too. "This giant cave is the dwelling place of all the Magical Beasts hiding in the west sewer."
With the amount of Magical Beasts dwelling around the cave, it was an obvious fact that the cave was the Magical Beasts' layer.
Naturally, Leo didn't forget to cut all the heads every time he killed a Magical Beast since it was the most important thing to do to earn his points, and putting it inside a net bag soon after before leaving it somewhere safe.
Leo was planning to leave the net bags somewhere safe in the meantime since it would hinder him if he carried all of them with him while moving deeper underground.
The cave was unexpectedly bigger than he had initially expected. Even after traveling a few meters deep, he still wasn't able to see any signs of its end.
He continued moving deeper, but he noticed something unusual. The deeper he goes, the less Magical Beast appears in his path. He didn't mind it at first, since maybe the Magical Beast was just hiding around waiting for an opportunity to ambush him. But he soon noticed the unusual behavior of the Magical Beasts.
While walking, he couldn't help but think, "The cave is definitely a surprisingly large cave, but why are there only a few Magical Beasts around the deeper I go?"
It was simply impossible that there wouldn't be more Magical Beast along the way.
What was more important to ask was would the Magical Beast just stay near the entrance and not go any deeper underground.
Even he was tempted to go deeper since he could harvest more Mana Stones the deeper he went. However, the Magical Beast around doesn't actually dare to go deeper. They are all Magical Beasts, and one thing important for all the Magical Beasts is the instincts that constantly tell them to become strong.
"With more Mana Stones around, even though they were just mere bits, it was still a chance for them to be promoted to a Tier 1 Magical Beast. So, why were there only a few Magical Beasts the deeper I went...?"
Unless...
Leo suddenly remembered the same situation that had happened before when he was hunting in the forest near Heart City.
"If the place is silent, then something strong is around the area!"
Quickly, Leo became vigilant after thinking of such a thought. He started moving slowly. And he also doesn't dare to kill more Magical Beasts. The Magical Beast wasn't strong anyway, so he could just scare them with his Earth Elemental.
"If I am correct, then these Magical Beasts didn't dare to go deeper in the cave because something more powerful is keeping them away."
Leo can't help but inwardly laugh to himself, "I can't believe that I had thought before that those Magical Beasts decided to stay near the entrance because they were stupid, but it turns out that it was me who was stupid..."
Without him noticing, he had entered a lion's den.
He wanted to return as soon as possible, but something was telling him to go deeper underground.
Surprisingly though, he soon found out that it was the Earth Elemental telling him telepathically to go deeper. Although it wasn't talking in words, it was still trying to communicate with him and surprisingly he could understand it without any problem.
The Earth Elemental was seemingly making him feel that he should go deeper underground as if some kind of treasure was waiting over that place.
Since it was from Earth Elemental, a product of the Red Cube that was said to protect him from any harm, then surely it wouldn't bring him any harm, right?
Because of that, he chooses to believe the Earth Elemental once as he then keeps on walking deeper underground.
He was surprised as he learned of another ability of his Elementals. At first, he had thought that they could only be used in fighting. But now, it seems like the Elementals could also be used in mining, too.
Leo thought inwardly, "Maybe every different Elemental has this unique hidden ability like the Earth Elemental!"
Thinking about that, he can't help but feel excited at his discovery. Too bad though that he was currently busy trying to keep away from trouble and to find the treasure hidden deeper into the cave that the Earth Elemental was telling him to.
However, he swore to himself that he would try this idea after getting out of this giant cave.
After hours of walking deep underground, Leo finally arrived in an open space. But he didn't dare go any deeper inside as he saw that a Magical Beast Lizard was sleeping in the center.
He instantly realized that it was this Lizard that was keeping all of those Magical Beasts at the entrance of this large cave.
Looking at the Lizard, Leo unexpectedly discovered something shocking.
Along the way, Leo can't help becoming curious as to why the Lizard, which was keeping all those other Magical Beasts outside, didn't dare to attack him despite entering inside its territory. But now, he could finally see the reason why.
"The Magical Beast is seriously injured!"
That's right!
Looking closely, he could see blood flowing from the Lizard's stomach. A small pond made out entirely of blood was already formed at its side, and even a part of its intestine was showing out from its body. A lot of wounds could also be seen around its body, and blood continues to ooze out from those wounds, too.
"This Lizard would die sooner or later!"
Since the Lizard was already going to die, Leo took out his bow and decided to just end its suffering as soon as possible. With a sling from his bow, two arrows were released, flying straight towards the Lizard's eyes.
With how strong the Lizard looked, Leo was sure that his arrow wouldn't be able to do that much damage if he targeted its body. Moreover, he wanted to kill it as soon as possible to avoid any possible trouble, too. So, he specifically chooses to shoot at its eyes, since it would surely kill it that way. Though it was currently closed, he was sure that its eyelid wouldn't be able to block his arrow.
*Whoosh! *Whoosh!
*Pluck! *Pluck!
Just like what Leo had expected, his arrows were easily able to go through the Lizard's eyelids.
Soon after, the Lizard let out a silent sound before it finally stopped moving.
Of course, Leo still didn't feel assured and safe just because the Lizard had stopped moving.
He cautiously ordered his Earth Elemental to move closer to the Lizard to check whether it was dead or not.
Even after the Earth Elemental touched the Lizard's body multiple times and did not get any response, Leo still ordered the Earth Elemental to stab the Lizard's neck to surely kill it.
It was only after multiple stabs from the Earth Elemental that he finally breathed in relief, confident that the Lizard would surely die from those lethal stabs.