Grasping Pincers

The Wind Step skill from the Pincers was passive. A gentle breeze would blow in non-combat situations to assist with movement speed. 'Not bad.' I was fairly satisfied with the effect. An active skill that helped in combat would have been ideal, of course, but increased movement speed was plenty useful in the current situation. After all, I would be spending a lot of time traveling while searching for and tracking artifacts.

“Everyone, line up.” I arranged the newly created zombies in a single file. Near a mid-tier artifact, there was a high chance more native creatures would be present. I intended to throw them straight into combat since a battle was imminent. However, the new monkeys shuffled along sluggishly. 'These guys…?'

I wasn't sure if monkeys were naturally lazy, but after zombification, they clearly needed a lesson. At my signal, Baengnae put on her red hat. She charged forward and drove her sword straight through the head of the rearmost monkey. Thud—

“Kii… Kieek!” The blade that entered through the back of its neck burst out through its mouth. The monkey thrashed wildly.

“First decree. Lazy ones become snacks. If anyone wants to be a snack, walk slowly.”

“Madda!”

Inhumane? So what. These things weren't alive, and they weren't human either. More importantly, the lazy-execution strategy worked extremely well. Natural selection automatically filtered out the lazy ones, leaving only the strong. The weak who were weeded out became food for the strong, and any who still complained or moved slowly simply disappeared.

“Alright, move out!”

The zombie horde advanced quickly in the direction the green snake indicated. About five minutes later, another fairly large group of monkeys had settled nearby.

“Looks like… around two hundred? At this scale, it’s not a village anymore—it’s a town.”

I summoned additional zombies to match their numbers. Slither— Slither— Zombies crawled out from the ground around me. I still didn't fully understand the principle, but the summoned zombies emerged from solid surfaces like earth or trees without damaging the target itself. As long as the zombie came out intact, the details didn't really matter.

“Charge!”

At my signal, the drooling zombies rushed toward the town. I grabbed Baengnae, who was about to follow.

“Wait. You’re not going.”

“Heh? Arada.”

From my experiments creating zombies, I had learned that a new zombie’s stats were determined by three factors: its abilities in life, the condition of the corpse, and the source. Of these, the source was the easiest to control. Managing corpse condition might seem simple, but that was a misconception—because of the second factor, abilities in life. Weak individuals were easy to catch but their corpses were easy to preserve. Strong individuals, however, were extremely difficult to kill without damaging their bodies. Ultimately, since the first two factors were linked, the third factor—the source or infection vector—became the most practical method of control.

For that reason, I planned to keep Baengnae on rear support unless absolutely necessary. Her role was post-battle infection and eating. I quietly observed the battlefield. The creatures Nareun-i had mentioned that shot long needles were mixed in here and there. They didn’t seem particularly powerful. Still, the fact that they actively used tools suggested they might have slightly higher intelligence.

Then, from the back, a monkey twice the size of the others stepped forward. It looked like an adult standing among children. 'Monkey king?' It felt much scrawnier than the descriptions on the community boards. 'Ah, no.'

Four more monkeys of the same size followed behind it. There wouldn’t be five monkey kings, so these were simply other unique specimens. Either way, it was good news.

“Baengnae’s going to nom-nom those.”

Baengnae declared that the large monkeys would be her snack for this battle. Her logic was that since they were twice as tall, it was automatically a profit. I agreed, thinking that investing in the source would benefit the zombie legion in the long run.

“Yeah. Eat as much as you want, Baengnae.”

“Hehe. Arada.”

The battle didn’t last long. The combat power gap between the monkeys and zombies wasn’t that large to begin with, but Nareun-i and Bangsil-i’s presence was overwhelming. They had become incredibly strong after evolving into beastkin—far exceeding the typical beastkin combat power mentioned on the community boards. If they had been entered into a Stage 3 tournament like this, the two of them could have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swept most leagues.

Boots, on the other hand, struggled. With three arms missing, he kept making meaningless mistakes. His strength was still considerable, but he accumulated many small wounds.

'Even though he’s supposed to be a high-ranking entity, feeding him only monkeys makes recovery too slow… The wounds keep piling up every fight.'

I left the meat distribution cleanup to the zombies and headed into the town to find the artifact. As expected, the mid-tier artifact was inside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the tent where the large monkeys had emerged. Five three-meter-tall pillars stood in a circle, reminiscent of dolmens.

'Growth…?'

The large monkeys weren’t unique specimens—they were simply the ones whose growth had been well accelerated. No wonder they had felt scrawnier than the rumored monkey kings. Without hesitation, I used the storage device. The gauge dropped sharply from 18% to 12%.

Vwoooom—

The pillars were pulled out and spun through the air. It was definitely flashier than the lower-tier artifacts that had simply cracked apart. The rocks collided and shattered, then began merging into a single mass. A single pebble dropped to the ground with a thud.

'Wait, damn it?'

I knew that pebble. When I raised the difficulty to Stage 4, the Cat God had given me two items. One was the snake bracelet I was currently using. The other was a pebble identical to the one before me. With a sinking feeling, I picked up the stone.

I hadn’t been able to ask the Cat God for details since it had left to eat snacks, but I could roughly guess the effect. It was probably the ability to turn arms into pincers. I could think of it as a lower-tier version of Olivia’s [Swallowing Predator]. I stared blankly at the pebble, then took out the other pebble the Cat God had given me and held both in my hands. They were completely identical.

'Two pieces of trash…'

They weren’t exactly trash, but they were definitely the definition of a white elephant. [Grasping Pincers] could only be granted to three entities per individual, and giving it to the beastkin felt like a waste. Giving it to monkeys also felt like squandering a Soul Engraving.

'Hmm…'

At that moment, a new window ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠appeared before me.

'Oh…? It can be synthesized?'

Maybe having two identical items made synthesis possible. I wasn’t sure. This was the first time I had possessed two Soul Engravings at once, so there was no way to know.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

'Either way, this is definitely worth synthesizing!'

When I pressed [Yes], the pebbles pulled toward each other and merged. Glop-glop. A new pebble was created.

'Are you kidding me?'

The only difference was that the word “Pincers” now had a plural marker. Other than becoming plural, the effect seemed exactly the same. I couldn’t tell if it was a success or a failure.

'If it’s plural, does that mean multiple arms can transform…?'

Since I had no other options anyway, I decided to test it. There happened to be someone who needed arms, didn’t there? I went outside and called for Boots.

“Boots! Boots!”

Boots came running in a panic at my voice, his gait awkward due to his unbalanced body.

“M-Master called. I came.”

“Take this.”

“Pebble. Master gave pebble. Will treasure it.”

'It’ll be gone soon…'

The [Grant] window appeared in front of Boots. When activated, the pebble on his hand melted away. Boots looked around in panic.

“Huh? Huh! The pebble disappeared! There’s a thief! Boots lost the precious pebble. A thief took it!”

I calmed him down.

“It went into your body. You should be able to summon pincers now, so try making some pincer claws.”

“My body? I’m the thief? Ah, I understand.”

Crack-crack— Crack-crack—

With a grotesque sound, all six of Boots’ arms transformed into massive red pincers. They were covered in a hard, crustacean-like shell and were enormous in size. They looked powerful enough to crush a monkey’s head in one blow.

'Oh…? Better than I expected. Well, it is a Soul Engraving after all. I was too harsh calling it trash.'

Boots excitedly waved his pincers around. Thump-thump. From a distance, he looked like a giant red cockroach with a human head. I’d heard somewhere that shrimp were the cockroaches of the sea—this felt exactly like that.

“Whoa! Whoa! Look at this! Hahaha! Pincers! I’m pincers!”

“Boots, stay still for a second.”

I tapped the pincers to check their hardness. They were quite solid. I handed Boots a monkey corpse.

“Grab this tightly.”

Crunch—

When the pincers clamped around the monkey’s waist, a series of cracking sounds followed as its ribs broke. Grip strength passed the test. Just because the name sounded weird didn’t mean it should be dismissed. Zombies gathered to watch Boots’ strength demonstration. Boots grew even more excited and began performing various acts with his pincers—smashing rocks, cutting monkeys into easy-to-eat pieces. Then, as if the time limit had ended, his arms returned to normal.

“Ah… They’re gone.”

Boots’ excited face turned gloomy. The expression was oddly childlike for his size, like a kid who had lost a toy. I reassured him.

“Don’t be too disappointed. You’ll be able to use them again. If you feel like you can use them, come tell me. Got it?”

“I will!”

After Boots’ strength show ended, the zombies returned to their meal. Baengnae approached me, peering curiously.

“What?”

“Baengnae wants to do it too.”

'There aren’t any left.'

Even if there were more, giving the pincers to Baengnae would be inefficient. From what I had just seen, the pincers scaled with the recipient’s body size, and the number of arms mattered. But if I said that outright, she would sulk, so I phrased it differently.

“I’m saving something better for Baengnae.”

“Mm. Arada.”

“Instead, eat a few more monkeys.”

“Arada!”

After sending Baengnae away, Bangsil-i and Nareun-i were now staring at me. They also seemed to want Soul Engravings. It felt like I suddenly had a bunch of kids.

“Soul Engravings aren’t given out based on who asks first—they go to whoever can use them most efficiently. If something suitable comes up for you two, I’ll give it to you, so just wait.”

“No… That’s not what I meant…”

“Bangsil-i is happy with whatever Master gives.”

I patted the dogs’ heads. Both sat down and wagged their tails.

'Come to think of it, there was a reason everyone kept calling Stage 4 a honey pot. This is basically a reward party.'

Stats, skills, and even Soul Engravings. All of this had been obtained in just half a day after getting the snake bracelet. While Stage 4 being a honey pot played a part, none of it would have been possible without the Cat God’s support. While resting, I noticed something strange in the opposite sky. Abnormally dense storm clouds had gathered. This wasn’t normal weather.

'Was it nearby?'

The first event of Stage 4: [Maze Beast]. It always traveled with rough storm clouds. Users speculated that the phenomenon itself was a corruption caused by the [Maze Beast].

'I finished faster than expected.'

Artifact searching could wait. It was time to deal with the beast wandering the maze.