Chapter 59 : Shizuku Recovers the Loot!!

"But we should gather some 'loot' first."

Shizuku materialized the "Blinky" again and aimed its open mouth at the bones scattered on the ground. She pressed the button on the "Blinky" with her thumb.

"Blinky, swallow these bones."

The "Blinky" stuck out its large tongue, made a joyful, strange noise, and generated a strong suction force. The bones on the ground trembled before flying into its mouth.

The mouth swallowed tirelessly, and the large skeletons quickly shrank and twisted like soft chewing gum upon contact with its tongue, teeth, and lips.

The bones were compressed into tight balls and disappeared into the endless space within the "Blinky."

"Are you planning to sell them to bone collectors?" Bisky asked, suddenly hitting her left palm with her right fist in realization. "Some collectors can be quite generous. Shizuku, you're really smart."

"Huh?" Shizuku looked puzzled as she absorbed the bones. "I almost forgot I could sell them."

"Then what was your way to make money from this?" Bisky asked, surprised.

"Isn't our Meteor City a junkyard?" Shizuku explained. "It's not unusual to find bags of bones and limbs there. There's a market for everything in Meteor City."

She pointed at Bisky again.

"But your idea is better. These beast bones might be rare. If collectors like them, they should fetch a good price."

Bisky shook her head and looked at Germain, who was standing guard nearby, seemingly indifferent to the conversation.

"You're really cautious, Germain, but I'm not letting my guard down either," Bisky said, crossing her arms and examining Germain's profile. "Hmm, this angle is good."

After clearing the bones on the ground, Shizuku walked to the muddy area and placed the big mouth of the "Blinky" on the mud.

"Swallow all the bones in the mud," Shizuku commanded greedily.

The "Blinky" sucked out the bones from the mud one by one like a water pump, swallowing them into its belly.

Among them was the skeleton of the white-bone crow that had just sunk.

"Shizuku's ability is unexpectedly convenient," Bisky commented with her hands on her hips, watching. "I see why Germain wanted you on the team first."

At that moment, the remaining multi-eyed crows attempted to attack Shizuku.

Before they could get any closer, Germain materialized a flamethrower, unleashing a blaze that incinerated the approaching beasts into charred remains.

"This counts as total annihilation," Germain said, staring at the blackened meat. Despite the roasted aroma, he had no appetite. "But this area will soon be claimed by new beasts."

"What do you mean?" Bisky asked.

Germain replied, "From our previous three observations, even though the 'Dark Continent' is vast, large territories are basically controlled by stronger beasts."

"Just like a small group of humans controlling most of the wealth," Bisky nodded, her ponytail bobbing. "I get it now."

She looked at the scorched reed forest. "A few days after we leave, there will be a bloody battle for territory here, and eventually, new monsters will take over."

"Exactly," Germain agreed, then turned to Shizuku. "Can your 'Blinky' successfully spit out the bones it absorbed?"

"Yeah," Shizuku said, adjusting her black-framed glasses which constantly slid down her nose. "No big problem."

"I still don't know the upper limit of what the 'Blinky' can absorb or where it all goes, but I've figured out the rules for how it spits things out through experiments."

"What it swallows isn't based on the number of pieces but in batches. Each time it spits out, it's the most recently absorbed batch, then the one before that, and so on."

"The bones it just absorbed from the ground and the bones in the mud are two separate batches. It will spit out the ones from the mud first, and they won't mix."

Germain nodded in understanding. "So, it automatically sorts what it absorbs, with each batch in its own space."

"That's right," Shizuku pointed at Germain but addressed Bisky.

Bisky immediately grasped the significance of Shizuku's explanation, giving her a thumbs-up. "Impressive, Shizuku!"

Shizuku nodded at Bisky, though her face remained unchanged. Unless someone knew her well, they wouldn't catch her good mood.

"In the past, I often retrieved things from the 'Blinky' when I worked in the Meteor City garbage dump."

"But I lost count of what the 'Blinky' swallowed. Even now, it still spits out stuff from years ago."

After a while, the swamp's water level dropped, and Shizuku stopped the 'Blinky' from swallowing more.

She pulled the fish's big mouth out of the swamp and deactivated her Nen ability.

"The 'Blinky' has taken in all it can, and many skeletons have sunk too deep for it to reach. We'll have to leave them."

"That's enough. Our journey isn't over yet." Germain checked the cooldown time of the teleportation lantern on his 'Hunter Badge' projection.

"Bisky, Shizuku, we have less than half an hour before the lantern cools down."

"Half an hour... alright." Bisky put away her phone, removed her gloves, and tapped the screen with her agile fingers. "I'll record what just happened."

She paused occasionally to take photos.

Germain had been on guard duty before; now it was Shizuku's turn to keep watch.

The next step was waiting.

Half an hour later, Germain reminded the others, "Time to go."

"Okay," Bisky and Shizuku replied.

They all had their backpacks slung over their shoulders, skirting around the muddy terrain from afar. Climbing over a small hill, they pressed on further into the north.

The trio ventured into a dense mountain forest, keeping a triangular formation as they moved forward. Germain led the way, with Bisky and Shizuku walking side by side.

********

Support me on my patreon and read upto 15 early chapters.

https://www.patreon.com/Unique_Writer