“Your levels aren’t high enough, and your strengths not high enough as well. Forcing yourselves would only hinder our progress instead.” Sinmosa shook her head and flatly stated as such: “If you guys really want to help out, just stand there quietly.”
“…”
‘Who knew…Sinmosa actually had such a direct side to her as well…’
Since we were basically labelled as deadweight, we now had the honor of being audience members instead.
With Sinmosa’s participation, the entire digging process proceeded much faster. Sinmosa’s digging method was quite different from the two devils who were basically bashing a hole into the ground…she was actually digging!
Condensing a layer of mana around her claws, she then strengthened them and started digging into the ground like a normal doggy would. Because of how fast she dug, she alone was more efficient than No.3 and Big 4 combined.
‘I guess all that talk about cats something something wall and dogs something something holes was true after all…’
While waiting for the digging to complete, there really wasn’t much to do so I approached the salamander, partly out of boredom, and partly out of concern. She wasn’t looking too good. Her eyes were shut as if she was in a comatose state. Thankfully, I could still faintly see the rise and falls of her chest meaning that she was at least breathing and alive.
Standing around wasn’t going to accomplish anything however and it so happened that Cinderl’s little tummy decided to growl then. Roughly taking stock of the time, I found that it was about mealtime anyway. Thus, I decided to take Cinderel and Mo Na with me on a little excursion to that lava lake, in order to find some food. Normally, this work would have been done by No.3 and Big 4 but since they were clearly busy today, I did it instead.
Sharing this plan of mine with Mo Na, I was met with her delighted squeals after which she started tugging at me to go, clearly happy about this whole arrangement. Cinderel on the other hand, was more excited about the prospect of food as she happily scamped after us.
However, the moment I reached that lava lake in question, which was roughly ten meters in width, I had a change of heart. The reason was because I found a normally sized Two-stars Demon Fire Salamander duking it out with a Two-stars Fire Devouring Fish.
Such occurrences weren’t rare between the two races but this time was different, at least it was to me…
“Mama, they are fighting over there, should we help?”
While Mo Na might not have understood why I did the things I did, she clearly understood my inclinations and did her best to suit them. Had this been the past, she would have probably just waited quietly by my side for the two sides to tire themselves out before swooping in for the final kill. Now however…perhaps it was because I decided to help that Six-stars salamander, but it seemed like she had placed the salamanders as a whole on the Do-Not-Hunt List.
Whether that was a good or bad thing, that I didn’t know. At the very least however, I knew that my words and actions were affecting her. In that sense, this whole affair was a good thing.
“Kill that fish, and capture the salamander.”
“Are we eating it then?” Mo Na gave me a quizzical look then.
“Not to eat, we’re going to communicate with it.”
“How?”
Mo Na was still slightly confused but she chose not to continue asking any further, because I had already started attacking. A whip, wrought of pure flames, burst to life from my left hands, swiftly snaking towards that fish and ensnaring it just as it was about to take a bite out of that salamander. I tossed the fish high into the air with a flick of my wrist and with my other free hand, I drew Shadowfang in a blinding arc, bifurcating the fish which had barely spent a second in the air. For the Epic-grade blade, its mighty scales might as well have just been paper —completely worthless.
As for that slightly dazed salamander, I coiled my Flame Whip around it. With one quick flick and flourish, I brought it over to my side.
“Grr…” The salamander tumbled about a couple of times before promptly springing to its feet. It cautiously retreated backwards while giving me a sharp, apprehensive glare.
“Get back here.” I sheathed Shadowfang and then tugged at my whip gently, forcing him closer towards me
“GRR!!” It knew that running away was impossible now thus all it could do was to warn me even louder. In truth, its growls seemed a little comical to me.
“I know you can’t speak in the devil’s tongue, but you should at least be able to understand what I’m saying.” I flatly stated as such, ignoring its obvious show of bravado. Not caring at all whether it believed me, I went straight to the point: “There’s a high level salamander over there who is seriously injured. She’s pregnant and is about to give birth. Because she’s too big, we can’t move her, and that’s why I hope that you can help us summon the Demon Fire Worms over to feed her. In fact, it would best if you can help us dig as well, our digging speed is rather slow…”
“Moouuu!!”
Even though I still couldn’t understand it, I roughly knew that it didn’t trust me at all. To be honest…this whole communication thing was something I thought of on the spur of the moment.
Not too long ago, when I had Big 4 and No.3 capture a salamander back to experiment on, I learnt it had the ability to summon worms to aid in its self-regeneration. Back then, that salamander we caught was in a similar situation as well and it was this similarity between the two salamanders that suddenly made me remember about its unique ability.
In my opinion, that was probably an innate ability of theirs. The reason why she didn’t summon the worms to her side was probably because they were too far away from her and even if she managed to, those worms probably wouldn’t help all that much either, given how small they were compared to her relative size. More than likely, they would just be snacks for her…a final meal of sorts.
Going back to the salamander before me, it was probably suspicious of words because of this fact as well. All salamanders had the ability to summon worms so why would we need its help? That other salamander could have just summoned the worms herself.
“So you’re saying you don’t trust us then?”
“Mouu!!” The salamander nodded its head, clearly stating its meaning despite the language barrier.
“Mama, since it doesn’t believe us, what should we do then?”
“It doesn’t matter whether or not it believes us, I’ll make it believe.” I kept my whip coiled tightly around the salamander. “Sweetie, I want you and Cinderel to head back first and call for Big 4.”
“Got it, Mama.” While she still didn’t know what I was planning, Mo Na obediently flew off anyway.
A while later, Big 4 came flying towards me alone.
“Master, I’ve come.”
“Mhm, bring this fellow back with you.”
I flicked my wrist, withdrew my whip and tossed the salamander, who was giving me a dirty look right now, right at Big 4’s feet.
“Master, that’s the food you caught?” Big 4 asked as he firmly caught the struggling salamander, and snuggly kept it by his waist. With his other hand, he scratched his head slightly: “There doesn’t seem to be enough food.”
“Did I ever say that it is food?” I raised an eyebrow. “Just go back first.”
“Kay.” Seeing that I wasn’t exactly in the best of moods, he gingerly lowered his head and averted his eyes from me.
Probably triggered by the word ‘food’, the salamander, realizing that its days were numbered. immediately started struggling for its life. That however, merely annoyed Big 4. He tightened his grip on the salamander and by applying a tad more force on it, smashed the salamander against his waist. It writhed about in pain but at least it stopped struggling.
Having subdued the unruly salamander, Big 4 gave a satisfied harrumph, proving his own dominance in the process.
“Be careful, I don’t want it hurt. I still need it to go take a look at that pregnant salamander. If it dies on me now, I would have to find another one, and that, I have no time for. Go bring it back, quick.”
“Understood, Master.”
With a flap of his fleshy wings, Big 4 flew off with the salamander while I sprinted behind him like a speeding car.
By the time I returned to the salamander, I stumbled upon the sight of that Two-stars salamander anxiously mooing towards that pregnant salamander. From its frantic actions, I could tell that it was completely at a loss as to what to do.
Seeing me return, it no longer showed any sign of enmity as it stared at me.
“Stop crying about like that, go summon your kin, quick. It might give birth anytime, or it might just die before that, either way, we have no time to lose.”
“Mou.” The salamander furiously nodded its head before sprinting off towards the lake in the east.
However, its speed was simply too slow and its wagging tail and body just seemed to annoy me.
‘Too slow… at this rate, that salamander will turn into a popsicle before it returns.’ Thus I turned to Big 4 and said: “Big 4, give it a lift, and be quick about it.”
“Understood, Master.” Just like that, Big 4 became a taxi driver…for an unpaid two-way trip no less.
