Chapter 85-86

Chapter 85 – I found a nest!

"How is it? Comfortable enough?"

I asked while looking at the large box that had been set up at the top of the World Tree.

It was a hexagonal box with holes in it that was about the size of a house.

And then the giant bee stuck its head out of one of the holes.

Heath's mouth opened happily.

"Ah! I don't need any more honey! But you can share some with us later if you have some you don't need."

I said, and then Heath's mouth closed again.

Apparently, the bee was laying something like eggs inside of the box.

So that's why its stomach had been swollen.

Rienna looked quite pleased as she stood next to me.

"Miss Heath seems to be very content with the new house."

"It looks like it. Thank you, Rienna."

"No, no. It's just that I've seen many beehives in the forest! I wasn't quite sure, but it seems that making it in the same shape was fine after all."

Rienna had also been the first to notice the reason that Heath seemed heavy.

And since it would have been hard for a bee to build a nest by itself, she had suggested that one be built for her.

The monsters had made it out of the wood of the World Tree.

"Still, there are so many eggs… There will be lots of babies then."

Heath was laying eggs in each of the holes.

There were already more than ten of them, and her stomach was still big.

If the bees grew to be full size, they might share their honey with us.

I had been observing Heath for a while now, and it seemed like she licked the World Tree instead of nectar from flowers.

The sap from the World Tree was sweeter, and the golden powder from it also had a sweet scent.

During a previous incident, we had learned that this powder had the ability to make us lose our minds a little.

The sweet smell did something to raise your spirits.

Nothing like that had happened since then, as there was much less of the powder. But it was true that when you were up on the World Tree, you did feel a little strange.

Perhaps it was this powder that had blown away in the wind, and lured the bee to this island.

In any case, I was quite happy at the possibility of getting honey.

Having honey meant more variety with food. And perhaps we could make candles with some of the wax from the nest.

Such thoughts filled me with excitement.

"How nice…to have so many children."

Rienna was looking at Heath with a longing expression.

Her cheeks seemed a little red. Could it be…

"Uh, ah…yes. I must return to digging soon."

"Huh? Oh, of course! Goodbye!"

Rienna was back to her normal self and sent me away cheerfully.

I didn't know what would happen if I stayed here.

Especially since Rienna was nearby and looking so beautiful.

She had also been behaving a little strangely.

And so I rushed back to the caves.

It was decided that the monsters would take care of the smaller details regarding the walls.

Now we just needed to construct the buildings in each district.

Which meant that I needed more stone materials.

While my main goal was to reach the control device, digging up building materials was also an important part of my job.

And so I went to the bottom with the trolley, and found Fule, Taran, and the monsters chatting together.

Wait a minute…Taran can talk?

No, she was just using gestures to make her will known.

As they all laughed, Fule noticed me.

"Oh, there he is. How are things with the nest?"

"Yes, it's finished. She's laying eggs now, so that probably means she likes it."

"I see. Well, we better work on this nest too."

"This nest? Oh, because it looks like an ants nest…"

I had once seen an ants nest from the side of a glass box, during an exhibition in the city.

Ants nests were intricately made in the ground. It really was similar to a cave or mine.

They dug every day and expanded the nest.

"Right? I was just thinking about how we are like ants. That's what we were talking about earlier."

So, Fule and the monsters knew about ants nests as well.

"Alright then. Let's give those ants a run for their money and dig! Though, I've never actually seen any ants here."

Fule said. And so we started digging.

Ants, huh…

Taran and the cave spiders had been living below the cave.

I didn't know if there were any ant monsters, but it wouldn't be surprising if there were giant ants somewhere down here, building a nest…

We had just seen a giant bee, after all. Such things seemed quite normal around this island.

Well, I could only hope that they would not be hostile, like Taran and Heath…

It was with such thoughts that I dug for about an hour. And then Taran suddenly stopped swinging her pickaxes.

"Huh? What is it, Taran?"

Taran's eyes were moving around as if searching for something in the area.

"…Is there something there?"

I tried searching for any signs of magic energy.

And then I detected that there was something faint moving below us.

"What…something is moving down there?"

Taran moved her body up and down as if to nod.

Did spiders have a unique ability to be able to detect things?

However, Fule pressed her ear against the wall. It seemed like she felt it too..

"This…it's the sound of digging, isn't it?"

Taran nodded once again.

I tried putting my own ear to the wall, but could not hear anything.

"Digging? Do you mean like with a pickaxe?"

"Yes, I think so… I can hear the metallic ringing. It's definitely hitting something."

"Someone…some creature is down there, then. I think we should try digging towards it then."

Judging by the amount of energy, it likely wasn't dangerous.

And so I decided to try and make contact.

And with that, we started to dig towards it.

Eventually, even I could hear the ringing.

Someone was down here, alone…who could it be…?

Just then, I heard the echo of a stone wall breaking away.

And at the same time, a pitch black space appeared right in front of us.

"Yes! We found another room… What?"

The place we had dug into was filled with countless red lights.

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Chapter 86 – They were familiar!!

"Aaaaaah!! …Huh, they're slimes?"

Fule had raised her voice in surprise at the red lights in front of us. But she quickly realized what they were.

The things on the other side of the hole, were very familiar, round, liquid-like creatures… Slimes.

They had the same blue and jiggly bodies that Shiel…no, they didn't. These looked more gray and hard.

Their movements also seemed sluggish. All they did was look up at us.

"So there are slimes even here…"

I had dug up other slimes after taming Shiel.

But up until now, all the slimes I had encountered looked just like her…

I turned around and looked at Shiel, who was following us.

And then Shiel approached the gray slimes and started to move as if she was talking to them.

However, the slimes were slow to respond.

It did not look like they understood her.

And I didn't detect much magic energy from them at all.

Eventually, Shiel started to look around the room as if troubled.

And then she stopped and turned in the direction that the sound had echoed from.

There was one magic signal that was actively moving…and so I turned my eyes to it as well.

What I saw was a gray slime that was swinging a pickaxe that had fancy runes carved on it.

The slime seemed quite absorbed in its work, however, what came away with every strike, were little fragments that were smaller than a pebble.

Shiel began to poke at the gray slime's body.

And so the gray slime turned around as if it had no choice.

Shiel tried to tell it something.

However, the pickaxe-wielding slime took one look at us and jumped in the air.

Was it surprised to see a human…? Well, it may have been a long time since it saw one. So it could not be helped.

In any case, compared to the other slimes, this pickaxe-wielder seemed a little sharper.

According to Shiel, there were people sleeping underground, and their souls were kept inside of slimes.

Because of this, their intelligence became similar to that of slimes.

Perhaps this one alone was smart, and had been trying to dig them out…

On further inspections, the other slimes were taking in the crushed rock into their bodies.

Were they eating it…? Perhaps that was why their bodies were so gray.

After a while, the gray slime hit the rock wall again, and turned to look at me.

Apparently, there was something on the other side.

Fule tilted her head.

"I wonder what it could be?"

"I don't know…but it doesn't seem like…"

I couldn't detect any magic.

"Well…I suppose I should just dig then."

And so I stood next to the gray slime and tried digging at the wall.

In a flash, the rocks fell away.

Once again, the gray slime jumped in surprise.

However, it froze once they saw what was on the other side.

What we saw were bones.

"Bones…? But what kind of bones… No, wait…"

I had seen bones like this before… They looked human, but the head was very big.

Just like a certain person's skull I had once seen by the entrance of the cave.

This…

The slimes around me suddenly seemed restless.

When I turned my head to see what they were looking at, I saw that it was the half-naked man, Mappa.