"Mm..."
With a quiet groan like distant thunder, Kaelen opened his bright pink eyes and he beheld a sky whose color was slowly fading.
He then took a deep breath to yawn, but he instantly regretted it as his mouth became filled with the foul stench of decay.
[Yuck...]
He gagged, it was honestly so putrid that he was surprised at the fact that he actually slept peacefully.
Narrowing his eyes to the source of the stench, he saw a mound of decapitated corpses buzzing with flies —a gourmet to the vultures and maggots that feasted on them.
[Oh... They've already done it?]
Right beside the mound, he saw a heap of lifeless heads, their soulless eyes glaring at him, as though the prey held a grudge against him in the afterlife.
[Haha... It's a good thing slept through it.]
He smiled cheerfully, he honestly wasn't looking forward to decapitating five hundred corpses.
"Kaelen... You're up..."
Said a girl who'd been sitting beside him ever since she woke up about thirty minutes ago.
She was the last to awaken before Kaelen and she too found the chore of decapitation having already been completed.
"Yeah, I'm up."
He calmly glanced at her, usually he would have been startled to find her there, but he had long gotten used to it. In fact, he knew she'd be there.
"How did you sleep Vey —"
[She took a bath?]
Kaelen noticed that she looked spotless and even appeared to have changed her clothes.
[Wait... Why am I dressed?]
His once exposed upper body was now fully clothed, and raising his hand to survey his face, he found that it was masked by dry blood no more.
"..."
He looked at her with a blank expression.
"... Worry not Captain. It was me who wiped you and changed your clothes, Veylith had an extra set."
Said Specimen 2555 as he approached them from the side.
[You think that makes it better you little bastard? Why are you stripping me naked while I'm sleeping?]
He gave Specimen 2555 the same look that he gave Veylith, but he didn't dwell on the matter for long.
[Looks like I've slept for about six hours?]
He assumed, seeing as it was already dusk and the sun had begun to hide itself behind distant mountains.
"Here you go Captain, you must be hungry."
Specimen 2555 offered Kaelen a wooden platter that looked to have been recently carved, and on it was a slab of grilled meat, steamed potatoes and salted peas.
Grumble~
Kaelen's mouth instantly salivated and he gracefully accepted it as he fought the feral urge to snatch it away.
[Looks like they cooked it down there...]
He glanced around.
[We'll run out of supplies soon, so it'd be best if we started hunting and foraging.]
He mused and took his first bite, the juices of the tender meat exploding in his mouth, prompting him to take a second bite.
"Ah. I hope you don't mind Captain, but I have already sent the others back to camp since they wanted to rest properly."
He briefed, looking for a spot so he could sit down since the immense fatigue still lingered in his body.
"Don't worry, you made the right choice."
Kaelen replied with his cheeks full.
"By the way, how is 2902 doing?"
He raised his brow curiosily.
"You'll be happy to hear that she can even walk by herself now, Captain."
Specimen 2555 answered with a bright smile, but somehow, Kaelen felt that it was fake.
But no matter, he understood that the Homonculi each struggled with specific emotions.
"That's great news! I can't wait to see it for myself."
He replied enthusiastically with a bright smile of his own, and his was actually genuine, as though he wanted to show 2555 what it actually looked like.
But this was not to say that Kaelen wasn't genuinely pleased that 2902 had recovered.
They then spent a few more minutes recalling the battle — what they could have done better and so forth.
This actually earned Kaelen 2555's respect even more, because to him, that was the best possible outcome —he simply couldn't fathom that things could have gone better than that.
"Alright... Let's pack these heads and join the others at camp."
[I also want to sleep properly on a hammock, these rocks messed up by back!]
He cracked his spine and the trio got to work, shoving the heads into their respective pocket spaces.
/
"Ah finally, we're done."
He wiped the blood that had accumulated on his hands on the dirt and gestured to Veylith and 2555 that they should leave as the sun had mostly set.
[It's getting super cold up here, I hope they made a big fire down there.]
Kaelen slightly shivered and led his subordinates.
"Captain, so that thing we were discussing..."
"... Would that have actually happened if you hunted two hundred more Goblins or Kobolds on your own during that battle?"
He inquired, his eyes slightly sparkling with curiosity.
What he was referring to was a special event where if a player hunts more than three hundred monsters of a specific race in one go, then a "Lord" of that race would be summoned to prevent the extinction of its people.
This is a special event he coined... Nemesis Accord.
He made it so that players would not go overboard in abusing their titles and overly farm Exp.
[Haha... Did I share too much of the game's mechanics with him?]
[I like that he's curious though...]
"Yeah, so be careful in the future."
[I set the Lord's as extremely powerful, they rival even the Bosses of the Lesser Towers.]
He smiled bitterly, because he wanted to challenge of the Lords one day, just not now since he's not even at level 10 yet.
"Hm? What's wrong Veylith?"
They both turned around, noticing that Veylith was extremely quiet, her gaze planted on the rotting corpses.
"..."
"Do you hear something, Kaelen?"
She asked that question through a whisper.
"Hm? Hear what?"
Kaelen ears perked up, but he heard nothing.
"..."
Veylith's eyes remained on the pile of corpses, adamant that she could hear something.
[...]
Kaelen's concern grew, he knew that Veylith was not one to make jokes, so this must have been serious.
A part of him hoped that what she heard was merely the howling wind or the rustling of leaves in the distance.
However...
He could feel it, his intuition was screaming at him that...
"... We should go."
He too now whispered as he grabbed Veylith's wrist and they slowly retreated.
Thud...
A sound demanded they turn their attention back to the corpses, and as soon as they did...
...They saw movement.
[How is that possible?]
He wondered, his nose beginning to perspire as he beheld in bewilderment, the pile of corpses that should have been inanimate, twitch as though they were alive.
[Did one of them survive and was buried under those corpses?]
Of course not, they made sure every single corpse was dead and decapitated.
[...Ah, maybe it's gravity that's causing that...]
No... Had it been gravity, the movement would have been prominent at the top of the pile, not the center.
Crunch... Crunch...
A secondary, muffled sound sank Kaelen's heart into his stomach.
He couldn't quite make it out, but it sounded a lot like bones being crushed.
"Captain, we should really go. I have a bad feeling about this."
For some reason, 2555 felt his skin crawl and his bladder loosen, his knee caps rubbing against one another.
"Yes, let's go —"
Crunch! Crunch!
[!!],[!!]
The sound became even louder, but this time it was accompanied by a different sound:
The wet, sticky sounds of chewing filled the air, each smack and squelch grating against the trio's nerves.
Was it curiosity or fear that froze them in place?
Despite knowing that they should escape, their eyes simply refused to avert from the now vigorously moving corpses.
And then finally...
[Oh... Shit.]
... They saw a large snout pierce through the pile, followed by a large creature that was munching on a Goblin's torso.
[Why is there an Orc here?]
[No, rather... When did he get here?]
His eyes trembled.
"Oink. Who put this food here to waste?"
"Why only eat the heads, Oink?"
"I will tell Boss about this."
The Orc muttered to itself, scratching its bloated belly.
"Hm? Ohh! Oink! There is more food over there, the tasty one from Basement Floor!"
The Orc's eyes gleamed with excitement as he finally noticed the three Homonculi standing a distance away.
"Go, go, go!"
Ta! Ta!
Prompted by Kaelen's order, they turned around and began to sprint, adrenaline coursing through their veins.
But...
Ta!
[!!]
... In a fluid motion unbefitting its size, the Orc caught up to them and stood in front of their path.
"Oink, where are you go, food?"
"Me is still hungry, Oink!!"
The Orc salivated and spat out the Goblin's intestines, his eyes now set on Kaelen's group.
[This is really bad!!]
He screamed inwardly, and he also noticed that the Orc was riddled with injuries.
It had a puncture wound on its abdomen as well as a deep cut on the left side of its temple which allowed blood to gush forth from it.