Root returned after digging the hole.
Covered entirely in dirt and gri, he realized he would need another bath to clean himself.
Looking at the bundle of crabs, he wrinkled his nose in distaste, expressing his aversion as he scurried back into the boat.
But he suddenly paused.
His eyes darted around, focusing on the lower part of the bundle.
The net’s strings crisscrossed to form a small sh. No crab they had captured should have been able to break free from it. And yet, he saw one of the crabs sticking out.
"Hm?"
"Did it break?"
He walked closer to the net for a better look.
"It really is broken."
A small portion of the sh was missing, and the crab was attempting to escape through the gap.
The opening was still smaller than its body, leaving it stuck with half its body protruding.
"They can’t escape through it anyway, so it won’t be a problem," Root mused to himself, returning to the boat to shower.
A few minutes later, he bit into the tender dragon at, coated in sweet and sour sauce. The delicious chunk of at lted on his tongue, coating it with juicy fat and flavors.
Root felt his body sink into the foldable chair.
It was so good; his body relaxed, almost lting into the chair.
He glanced at Oliver, who was sinking his teeth into another portion, and asked,
"Boss, I never knew you were this good. Where did you learn to cook?"
Oliver looked up, fat and sauce sliding down his lips.
"Life teaches you many things when you are as old as I am," he replied.
His soft-spoken words and unfocused eyes made it seem as though he were uttering so fundantal truth about the world.
Root rolled his eyes at the reply.
’As old as . You’re just a few months older,’ Root silently thought.
"I can give you the recipe if you want," Oliver added.
"No, thank you. Even with the recipe, I’d never be able to cook half as well as you."
Root rejected the offer instantly.
He saw a future where Oliver would force him to cook after making him do all the chores. From his perspective, it was not a desirable future at all.
So, to escape the clutches of this ’slave driver,’ he decided it would be better not to know the recipe.
That way, Oliver would at least continue to cook.
"Oh! I can see that. After all, I am the best."
Oliver smiled.
He took Root’s rejection as well-tid praise, and he liked it.
"But if you want to learn it, just ask . It’s always good to learn cooking if you’re thinking about exploring Second Earth seriously. Good food motivates you when you have to work in isolation for years, roaming the wilderness."
Oliver reflected on his past as he spoke.
"Hm. Maybe next ti," Root said, promptly returning to chewing the succulent at.
The food was too delicious.
Soon, the evening sun descended in the sky and disappeared over the horizon.
Oliver spent the remaining ti improving the hole Root had dug, centing its sides and shaping it like a large bucket.
Then he filled it with water and placed the crabs inside.
For their food, he used the eel at he had.
Afterward, he covered the top with a net and returned to the boat.
And so, the day ended.
For the next few days, Oliver did nothing but relax. Occasionally, he would also venture into the nearby forest to hunt so giant crabs and drain their blood.
The crab blood was grey with a tinge of blue, looking nothing like human blood. Still, Oliver could process it and store it in his blood sac.
It didn’t matter what color the blood was or the properties it held; once it entered the blood sac, it would beco a part of him, willing to bend to his thoughts.
The hunted crab at was used as food, and the remaining at was fed to the silver crabs.
Like that, almost a week went by.
As ti passed swiftly, one day, Oliver finally noticed sothing amiss.
So of the silver crabs were missing.
The sa had happened with the dragon at.
Oliver was a little unnerved.
He never thought anything could steal from right under his nose. Yet, it had happened.
He inford Root.
However, Root was not shocked. He seed to have noticed sothing similar.
"There was a dark shadow the size of a finger moving through our camp. It was small and stealthy," he inford Oliver about what he saw.
Initially, he thought it was just his imagination. But apparently, he too had noticed at missing from the cargo hold. He was about to inform Oliver about it when Oliver returned after the hunt.
"..."
Oliver didn’t know how to respond. He walked around the campsite, thinking deeply.
He didn’t have to think hard to understand what was happening. He already knew what the most likely culprit was.
"I think I know what it is..." Oliver muttered.
Root, who was following him, stopped.
"Who?" He asked.
"It’s the thing I was planning to catch."
A dark shadow.
Sudden appearance and disappearance.
Ghost-like movent.
There was only one creature on the entire crab island that could do that.
’It certainly is the mythical beast,’ he thought.
’The only one that likes silver crabs enough to invade human territory is that creature.’
He thought and glanced at the distant pit.
"Did you check the caras? Was there anything on them?"
Root shook his head.
"No."
"Can you check again? There should be ripples in the air, bending light unnaturally."
"If you want, I can go through it again," Root said, sitting down on a nearby chair.
Imdiately, his eyes beca unfocused as he connected to the boat’s computer.
The security cam feeds began to play quickly in his mind.
He focused on the ti he saw the dark, shadowy figure.
"The cara didn’t catch it, but I’m pretty sure I saw it there. Maybe it was my mana sense responding," Root spoke as he watched the video. "The thing must have co in when we opened the door. It’s stealthy."
Then his mind focused on the cara, observing the cargo hold.
"I can’t see any..." He paused mid-sentence.
"Wait a minute. One of the packages disappeared."
He was talking about a piece of dragon at. A five-kilogram chunk instantly vanished from his vision.
He played the video back and forth multiple tis to make sure.
"Yes, it disappeared."
"I couldn’t see the creature. Did it use stealth to camouflage the at?" He asked Oliver.
Oliver shook his head. "It’s spatial manipulation."
"Spatial manipulation! Like teleportation or sothing?" Root was shocked.
What kind of mana beast was his boss hunting?
Spatial manipulation abilities were extrely rare. In the history of exploring Second Earth, they had encountered them only a handful of tis.
"Not teleportation. It swallowed the at pack."
"The finger-sized creature!"
"Yes, it can do that. Bending and deforming space is its ability. We can’t see it because it bends light around itself," Oliver sighed.
"I asked you to find any distortion in light because of that," he added while sitting down on a nearby chair.
"Bending space! And you’re trying to catch it?"
Root couldn’t believe what he heard.
"Of course. While its ability is an aweso one, it’s not infallible. If I can trap it just right, I can catch it."
Oliver smiled.
While the task might seem daunting, it truly wasn’t.
The mana beast was young. It couldn’t fully utilize the ability. Thus, trapping it would be relatively easy.
That’s why Oliver searched for the silver crab, the mythical creature’s favorite food.
"So, can you see the light distortions in the video?" Oliver asked.
"Wait a minute. Let look at it again." Root used his full brain power to examine the video footage pixel by pixel.
Finally, he noticed the changes. This ti, he knew what to expect, so he was better at finding it.
His eyes scanned the video footage, revealing a small distortion of light, moving like a fish in the water.
The creature’s movent was slow.
It seed that maintaining camouflage while moving was not easy.
Root returned to the ti he saw the black shadow and checked the footage again.
This ti, he noticed the small distortion in light that flickered on the screen.
"It’s standing still. When it’s not moving, the camouflage is perfect. We won’t be able to detect it," Root said.
Oliver nodded. He expected as much.
However, before he could say anything, Root continued to speak.
"The light distortion disappears when the creature is moving extrely slowly or standing still. I can asure the maximum speed at which it can move with near-perfect camouflage."
Root checked the cara and glanced around the area where the distortion appeared, and the ti it took between each appearance.
He roughly calculated it to be about 1 cm per second.
"If the creature is moving 1 cm per second, we won’t be able to see it. But if it’s moving any faster, I can design an algorithm to detect it," Root said, opening his eyes.
"That’s great," Oliver said. "Can you also attach more caras around the area to increase the surveillance range?"
"I can do one better," Root said with a smile.
He glanced at the bag he had brought along on the trip. "It doesn’t matter how stealthy it is; I will find the worm," he added.
"It’s not a worm. It’s a fish."
"Oh! Okay. It doesn’t matter how stealthy it is; I will catch the fish," he said with a knowing smile.
Oliver nodded from the side. He appreciated Root’s help.
While Root was cooking up a plan, Oliver was also making one of his own.
He hadn’t thought the creature would co to him. So, he was thrilled beyond words.
Not showing his excitent outwardly, he went into the boat.
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