"...And that is why I will never mix sweet and salty food ever again. After all, I don't want food that could easily send into a trip to lavatory, no matter how tasty it is. It's jist not worth it." Soren said that with a slightly dejected expression.
"Honestly, now that you said all that, I'm glad that I have never tried that." Crus said relieved.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza said in a similar fashion as Crus.
Right now, the trio were making their way towards the marked area with Crus leading the way and Soren and Lavenza being on the lookout of other camps. Thankfully, for them, they hadn't seen any other camps aside from Gore's camp but they still kept their vigilance up in case anything happened. During this time, Soren and Lavenza were feeling a bit tired, due to the fact that they hunted throught the entire day, but they weren't aware of that yet.
"Now, next question. What would be heaviest thing for you to lift?" Soren asked casually.
"Hmmm... maybe a big statue at most? I mean, as long as it isn't too big, it is still managable." Crus answered casually as well.
"Let me change that, how long would the statue have to be, before you start to have major trouble with lifting the statue?"
"Hmmm... Probably around this long." At that moment, Crus then opened his arms as much as he could.
"So around 4 to 5 meters?"
"Somewhere around that."
That gave Soren a good idea of its level of strength, but never said anything about the diameter, the shape or even the material of which the statue was made out of and thinking any further about it, would bring unnecesarry headaches, so in the end he stopped that line of questioning.
"Anyways, so how far we from the marked area? Because I think we have been moving for at least half an hoir at this point, but I don't see any marks or anything that would indicate something out of the ordinary." Soren asked seriously this time.
"We should be getting there any minute now." Crus answered back.
"So how did you mark the area in the first place? Did you scratch a rock, break a tree or anything similar of the sorts?"
"Nothing that fancy, just left a mark with a magic marker spell."
At that moment, Soren suddenly thought about a scene that required a power saw. After getting that thought out of his head, he asked:
"Do you know where that mark is then?"
"As long as it exits, I will always know where that mark is."
"Makes sense, so-"
*rustle* *rustle*
At that moment, the three of them stopped and looked towards the direction of the rustling sound. Soren instantly took out his sword off the sheath and got ready for anything that might happen.
"Stay frosty guys." Soren was the one to speak with a serious and quiet voice. Both Crus and Lavenza also got ready for battle and were waiting for the thing to come out of the shadows. After a couple of minutes, more rustling was heard before a single sea wolf came out running towards them. In that instant, Soren brandished his sword towards the wolf's neck and instatly cut it down. Once the neck was cut down, the headless body of the wolf fell down on the sand and Soren picked it up instantly.
"Well that takes care of the quest, but stay frosty guys, in case something else comes." Soren said seriously. He felt like he should keep his guard up since in these kinds of situations, something was always bound to happen. Soren used his sixth sense to see if there we hidden enemies, but he didn't see or feel anything out of place.
Nothing was heard for the next few minutes while the three of them were expecting for sonething to come. At that moment, Soren spoke:
"I guess there is nothing out there anymore. Let's keep moving guys."
"Let's do t-that." Crus said a bit nervously.
"Kyuu~." Lavenza also agreed.
After they left the area, they decided to move a bit faster, just in case anything else appeared. After around ten more minutes, Crus suddenly stopped and said:
"Wait!"
"What happened?" Soren asked curiously.
"We are here. Yeah, we are here. This is the marked area. I can feel it. This is the place." Crus said happily.
"Wait, what? Did we reach the marked area?" Soren asked anxiously.
"Yes, we did. Finally I can go home without anyone noticing that I had left in the first place." Crus said a bit loudly.
"You know... You could have said that with your inner voice instead of your normal voice." Soren said with an annoyed expression on his face. He felt like another migraine was coming for him, when he siddenly heard noises.
*rustle* *rustle* *rustle*
"Tsk. Loudmouth." Soren said angrily while he unsheathed his sword."
"Sorry, I didn't expect this to happen." Crus said apologetically.
"We will talk about that later. Now we have company." Just as Soren said that, more rustling noises came from the forest.
*rustle* *rustle* *rustle*
"Get ready." Once Soren said that, both Lavenza and Crus got themselves ready for battle. The sounds were becoming louder and louder as the seconds passed and just as a few more seconds passed, someone came out of the trees in a huge rush. That person who was in a rush, was actually Matt and he looked like he was out of breath.
"Mr.Matt!" Soren was the one to speak once he saw Matt like that.
"What happened?" He asked with a suprised and worried look on his face.
"Trouble happened. And if you value your lives, you better get out of here before he comes." Matt explained quickly.
"What trouble? Who will come-" Just as Soren was going to finish his sentence, a sudden loud noise was heard.
*bang*
*bang* *crash*
"Crap, he's here." Matt said a bit angrily.
"Matt, what is going on right now?" Soren asked forcefully this time.
"King Geius is roaming through the forest and right now this entire place is a code red area with very few people having access to it right now." Matt explained seriously.
"King Geius? Who is that?"
"Wait you said Geius?" Crus asked this time.
"You know King Geius, Crus?" Soren asked this time.
"Well, this can't get worse, can it?" Crus said dejectedly.
"Can someone explain who-" Just as Soren was going to ask that question, another loud noise came and this time, a big shadow with shiny red eyes loomed the four of them.
*bang* *crash*
"Welp- Little lady and gentelmen, meet the leader of the shellfish race, King Geius the IV and my grandpa." Crus said this time but he looked like he was trembling with every inch of his existance.
"Wait, this your...?" Just as Soren was going to complete his question, he was suddenly interupted by a deep and loud voice.
"THERE YOU ARE GRUS! WHY DID YOU SNEAK AWAY FROM HOME AGAIN!? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE AMOUNT OF TROUBLE THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT ME! GET HERE RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN!"
That voice was so loud that Soren felt like covering his ears with his hands didn't do anything. Matt took out his sword to fight, but just as he was getting ready to fight, Soren suddenly stopped him and said:
"Wait, I'll handle the old man."
"Old man?" Matt was astonished by those words.
At that moment, Soren decided to swim forward and look at the red eyes of the shadow with courage and said:
"So you are Grus' grandpa, aren't you?"
"Hmmm... Did a bug just speak right now? I thought I must have heard-" The voice wasn't loud but it still had that deep voice.
"Down here you oversized barnacle carrier." Soren spoke loudly.
"Oh? Didn't expect one of your race to be able to speak with our race. You are an interesting young man, aren't you?" The king was intrigued from Soren. He didn't expect to see a merman speaking his language or the amount of courage on a merman's eyes.
"So, you said you were looking for your grandson, weren't you?" Soren asked bravely.
"And what does it have to do with you? After all you don't even know who he is or how he looks like. So, what is it in for me to tell you?" The king asked without a care to Soren's words.
"Well, haven't you found him already? After all, you literally screamed the fact that you found him?" Soren answered back seriously.
"So you heard that. I was hoping to bluff it out." The king said a bit dejectedly.
"I don't think I needed to hear that." Soren commented.
"Anyways, what do you wish to say?" The king said seriously.
"If you have already found him, can't you just leave with him?" Soren asked back.
"Soren." Crus said that with an annoyed voice.
"Look Crus, if it wasn't for the fact that you had sneaked out, no one would be in this mess right now. And besides don't you have something to say to your grandpa for causing this entire mess?" Soren said angrily as he thought back on this entire situation.
"And what should I say?" Crus asked seriously.
"It starts with an S and it has the meaning of an apology." Soren said seriously.
"What? No way I'm saying that. I'd rather be caught by the other mermen than having to to say "sorry"." Crus said angrily.
"Look Crus, if it wasn't for me, you would have either be found by other mermen at some point, or your grandpa would have already flattened the forest and everyone else in it, just to find you. And do you really think it would be worth all of that, just because you wanted to sneak out for a bit? Don't forget, it all takes one moment to disappear and never to be seen again. Now, do you really think that it is still worth it?" Soren reprimanded Crus. He wanted to teach him a lesson thatdoing stuff like this would get him in some really nasty messes.
"... No, it's not worth it in the end." Crus said with a low voice as if he sounded defeated.
"Then you know what is the right to do." Soren said calmly.
"Fine." After Crus said that, he walked forward although he still felt like his feet were going to faint and said loudly:
"I'm sorry grandpa Geius. I'm sorry for sneaking out and causing so much trouble for you."
For a moment, there was only silence. No could make a noise. Matt couldn't understand much so he stayed silent and Lavenza also couldn't join the conversation since she had no idea what to say. As for Geius, he didn't make a noise for a few seconds and after those few seconds, something unexpected happened.
"Proud. I'm so proud for my little boy. He learmed how to apologise. Such a big day, I have to record it somewhere." Geius said that when he suddenly picked Crus and started hugging him and he could be seen without the shadow and the red eyes. Now he looked like a bigger version of Crus with barnacles on his shell.
The only think that Soren could think at this situation was: 'Do all the powerful sea creatures have some kind of parenting complex?'