"My dear, are you alright!?"
Mina rushed up to Colt as he fell to his butt. She runs up to him and quickly heals him, three times in a row to ensure nothing was wrong.
Colt felt his body lighten from her healing. And as she looked at her anxious filled eyes, he smiled, saying, "I am alright, Mina. I simply got a new tattoo without my knowledge!"
Showing Mina his left hand, he laughed. But Mina took his hand and observed it with great intensity. She glared at it for a while before nodding her head as she came with a conclusion, "Yep, this is not a curse, no amputation is necessary."
'What?'
'Nya?'
Colt and Fluff abruptly turned their heads towards Mina in shock. With the master and pet still shocked at her words, Colt was assisted by Mina out of the ruins. She no longer had any interest in the book as Colt's safety became her priority.
Lighting up the way with fire, Mina, Colt, and the forgotten Fluff got of the ruins.
While they were walking, Colt regained his sense of strength and walked by himself. It didn't take a while for the three of them to leave the ruins altogether.
Colt took in a deep breath and calmed himself down. All the while he was walking down the pathway, Colt had been on constant edge. The black smoke on his left hand was too mysterious for him to understand.
'This is not mentioned in the novel.'
In the novel, when the MC picked up the book, it stayed as a book. However, it's different now. The book had disappeared and transformed into a cloud of smoke and is now stuck on his left hand. He doesn't even know if this is the World Devouring Book anymore.
Colt wishes to access the information that is stuck in his head. But try as he might, he is getting barred from accessing it. As if a wall is blocking his memory from accessing the information he inherited from the book.
It was weird because just earlier, the book was trying to flood his mind with information and now it's trying to bar him from learning the truth. It was a mystifying thing he could not understand.
'I'll just think about it later.' Colt thought to himself as face a different kind of problem for the time being…getting the bags of shards down the mountain will be the peak of his troubles.
Thankfully, he realized something as he got to see the light of the situation. The answer to his prayers had come down from the heavens and lighted his path! And with such a brilliant realization, Colt had to share it to the world!
The brilliant tactic had come to light.
"Mina, let's just hand the Lightning Absorbing Orbs to the Vice-Captain and let him pick it up."
The aged old tradition of the Edgeworths instinctively surfaced on Colt's psyche and that's letting someone do the hard work for you.
Of course, Colt did not know if this was his true intention of if it was the Edgeworth bloodline rearing its lazy head! But it was good that Colt didn't know this bloodline ability of laziness for if this came to be known to him, gods know he���ll abuse this fact.
Mina was not lazy, but she was concerned about Colt's conditions so she nodded her head and agreed to his idea. The three went down the mountain with their goals more or less achieved.
Mina got her ores and will later be harvested by the guards and she also got to spend some quality time with her beloved so that's an additional win.
Colt got to earn more of Mina's trust and he also got the book that turned to smoke that then later turned to a tattoo. The World Devouring Book…rather, the World Devouring Mark is now at his possession, if he learns how it is used, then he'll be able to have some degree of protection with him.
Fluff also got to do what it wanted. The Lord got to observe the Thunder Tiger Mountain and enjoyed the flashes of purple lightning spectacle here and there. The added bonus of Colt discovering a ruin was also something it very much enjoyed that it was willing to let the fact that Colt forgot its majestic presence.
Its vigilance also went down so it was pretty calm right now!
The only thing it had to do now was to sleep.
It yawned and then jumped up Colt's head. It wanted to sleep there, but Fluff felt like it was unpleasant so it once again changed location to Colt's right shoulder. But it once again felt uncomfortable so it moved around some more.
Fluff now sat on Colt's left shoulder and as it did, the Lord was not amused about the situation. It yawned but it didn't fell asleep…its instincts knew that something was wrong and telling it not to sleep.
"Hey, isn't that one of your Generals?"
Colt looked in front and saw the running cat.
"Is it training at this hour? The sun's about to set, that's really impressive."
Colt saw the cat widely opening its mouth. But he couldn't hear what it was saying. Which was a shame because Colt could not understand the Generals as much as he understood Fluff's words.
He wondered what the cat would be screaming about while running.
However, unlike him, Fluff's ears are so much stronger. And as it heard the words of its appointed General, Fluff's face changed. It abruptly raised its head and saw what its warning was talking about!
Fluff acted fast, its instincts kicked in and kicked Colt's face and send him flying away! Mina was also caught on this sudden attack by Fluff!
Boom!
The pair crashed to the ground, but not one of them said complained to Fluff because as they turned to where they originally stood, there was now a man who bore a bloodstained dagger.
"I missed?"
The man said!
But Colt could attest that he didn't!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Colt screamed in pain as he saw his left arm beside the man's feet.