Pay Day

Coming back to the surface, Gerald went back to his team.

While they were celebrating the profits, he sat alone, with his back leaning on a tree, deep in thought. He recalled the scene he has just seen. The way that beast calmly ate its brethren...

Compared to that Minecrawler King, he was just an ant. Even if he used everything he had, Stone Body, Iron Heart, and Stone Armor, he would be crushed, there was no doubt about it.

Maybe if he was just smacked around he could survive one or two hits, but there was no way he would try it.

"Man… And just when I thought I became strong too! How can something like that even exist?!"

Gerald found it hard to believe his eyes. A beast that big should be slow and weak compared to its smaller versions. That's how nature worked, size goes up, relative strength and speed goes down.

As the strength of a material goes up squared, the mass goes up cubed. That means that there is a point at which the mass of an object grows faster than its structural strength, and it collapses under its own weight. But it appeared it was just the opposite!

The Minecrawler King was already so big and heavy, that it should logically be approaching that limit. It's exactly for that reason that bigger animals are relatively slow. If they move too fast, their bones would break, unable to withstand the extra force from their movements.

"Magic!" Gerald hissed, "It's reinforcing its body with magic!" He remembered how the Earth Dragon mocked him for not knowing how to use the true magic. He didn't think much about it back then, but now that he thought deeper about it…

It had to be some sort of passive enhancement, otherwise, these animals couldn't grow to such enormous sizes. Especially not Minecrawlers. They didn't have lungs to breathe, instead, they absorbed oxygen through small holes in their exoskeleton, like insects.

And they should be limited in size due to that fact. Unless the pressure and oxygen concentration in the air increased, they shouldn't be bigger than a palm of a hand. Being bigger than an elephant should be impossible.

And yet, they were real. Some sort of magic that acted as life support had to be in effect. Something that was always active, through the entire life of a monster.

"True magic, huh?" Gerald rubbed his chin, "Is that what makes the living beings in this world evolve? If that is the case, then it would make sense why people get stronger by eating the flesh of other strong beasts..."

It was simple, really. Since wild beasts were able to reform their own body with magic and enhance their biological functions, if someone consumed their flesh, a small part of their cells would probably also change and be replaced by the enhanced version. Maybe...

"Okay, that might not be completely correct, but I bet I'm not far from the truth." He took out a small pot of warm Warg broth and slowly drank it. The taste was heavenly and invigorating, perfect sustenance after a workout.

He then licked his lips and put the pot away. "I wonder how does that King taste like? Under all that chitin armor there can't be that much meat… It might be a perfect candidate for consumption!"

Although he did say that, he was not crazy enough to try and kill it.

Yawning, he found a comfortable position to sleep and closed his eyes.

***

The following two days went by quite well. They hunted for a bit and collected whatever they could get their hands on, before returning to the surface and selling the loot. Each person already gathered quite a few of those shiny gold and silver coins and some just couldn't stop smiling.

Gerald and his team gathered between ten and twenty kills each day, netting them almost one hundred gold each day.

Even being split between twenty people, it was still an amount nobody complained about receiving. It was the end of the week and today would be the reward distribution.

Around a thousand Minecrawlers were slaughtered during this time and the amount of wealth the merchants gathered made them quickly pack their stuff and leave.

Bandits were currently gathering all around the Fort, preying on lone warriors and travelers who were easy loot. For that reason, many decided to travel in big groups and stay safe.

Gerald was not quite yet ready to leave and neither were his friends. There was money to be made and nobody was going to stop them.

"Good! This is great!" Kerius laughed after they completed the last step and received the reward. "Each of us got more than twenty gold coins in total! For less than a week's worth of work, I'd say it's quite good!"

"I agree, opportunities like this don't happen that often!" Derrick was also in high spirits, and so were the rest of Silver Phantom.

The rest also loudly agreed and cheered for their first successful week. There was just one person missing… "Wait, where is Gerald? Didn't he get his money already? Where did he go?"

***

In the Black-Iron Forth

"Can I help you?" A guard stopped Gerald from going further in and said, "Outsiders can't be here, the place for rewards is over there." The man pointed with his finger in the opposite direction from where Gerald was going.

"I know," the latter answered calmly. "I need to speak with your superior."

The guard lifted his eyebrow, "What? Do you have a meeting with the Commander or the Bishop perhaps?"

Gerald shook his head and said, "I don't know who they are, but if they are in charge here, then I need to speak with them."

"Listen, kid..." The guard pinched his glabella, "Don't make my work harder than it needs to be and just leave. As I said, outsiders have nothing to do here. Just go, shoo!" The guard waved his hand at him as if he was trying to get rid of an annoying cat.

Gerald rolled his eyes and was just thinking if he should create a commotion to get some attention, when…

"Hey, what's going on here?"

Hearing the voice, the guard seemed to relax and his mood improved, "Oh, young master Trevor! You came at a perfect time! I was just telling this guy that he can't enter the Fort and that he should leave, but he doesn't seem to get it."

"Oh?" The young man was dressed in a light blue robe, with gold and silver all over. Extravagant jewelry was also a part of his attire.

"Hello there, little brother, what's wrong?" He gave an amicable smile, but his voice was one you would use for small children.

It ticked Gerald off, so he gave him a side-eye. "What's with that voice? Do I look like a kid? You appear to be even younger than me!"

"Oh, really?" The guy seemed to be happy with that and laughed, "Well, thank you! It might not appear so, but I'm twenty-five this year!"

'Oh! Now I remember this prick! He's the one that tried to skewer me with a piece of ice!' Gerald suddenly recognized the face after giving it a closer look. "I need to speak with your superior!" he stated with an emotionless voice.