Village Resident Recruitment #4
Guided by Solorb, it had been thirty minutes since they set off on the Giant Caterpillar. They discovered a spot teeming with countless Cat Crabs.
NyaAaA!
NyaA!!!
Nyahak!
Roughly two hundred of them, by a quick estimate. A group about twice the size of the Jellyfish swarm.
"There's a lot of them."
Maybe the species itself was inherently aggressive. The Cat Crabs spotted them and unleashed attacks without a moment's hesitation.
Some charged blindly. Others generated compressed liquid and hurled it. Before long, they had them surrounded, attacking en masse—but every assault was blocked by the Blood Jellyfish Princess's blood shield.
Pihihihi! Doesn't work!
The charging Cat Crabs bounced off the shield. The flying compressed liquid was absorbed and vanished.
Once the Cat Crabs' attacks fizzled out harmlessly, their counterattack began immediately.
Son. As long as we don't kill them, it's fine, right?
"Yeah. Try not to injure them if possible. Makes extra work for Medical Mushroom."
Got it, my cute son.
Niara Nephensis casually swung her right arm. A small black hole materialized in the air.
NyaAaAa!!
NyaOaang!!!
Cat Crabs sucked into the black hole. Then Niara swung her left arm, spawning a white hole. The Cat Crabs absorbed by the black hole poured out of the white hole in a heap.
Their forms were grotesque. Niara had distorted the space beneath the white hole somehow—hundreds of Cat Crabs overlapped alive, like a graphical glitch.
Niara smiled and called for the Puppeteer.
Necro? Come here.
Call me Master.
Oh my, calling your son's friend 'Master'? That wouldn't do. You can't look at your friend's mom that way.
......
Anyway, Necro, I gathered them in one spot to make your mind control easier.
Hmm... The space they're bound in seems slightly offset from ours dimensionally... Does my power still work like this?
Of course. It's a temporary sub-dimension I created, so we in the superior dimension can interfere anytime. They can't interfere back, though. Hehe.
Got it. Good work.
The Necro Puppeteer cast mind control one by one on the overlapping Cat Crabs in the sub-space. Normally, mind control could target multiples at once. According to the Puppeteer, he could handle three or four S-grade foes simultaneously. But not here—the Cat Crabs were each in slightly shifted dimensions, so he had to do them individually.
No big deal; it wouldn't take long. With Kinogine Arachne dropping threads to nullify their strength, the mind control took effect instantly.
Niara selected the successfully mind-controlled Cat Crabs from the sub-dimension and pulled them out one by one, bringing them to Kang Geon.
Here you go, son.
"Thanks."
Bound by threads, neutralized, and mind-controlled—their hostility gone. Kang Geon took each Cat Crab, flipping them over to find the red spot and began taming.
One, two, three... Each taming took about twenty seconds on average. Faster than the Jellyfish swarm.
Counting them off, he tamed Cat Crab after Cat Crab. Before he knew it, he'd succeeded with every one. Exactly 219. Including the one from before, a total of 220 Cat Crabs tamed.
Nyaa~
Nyaang!
"Kinda cute now that they're tamed."
Kang Geon held one Cat Crab, flipping it over to inspect slowly. Cuter than Dog Spider. Adorably charming—no normal person would find it off-putting.
"Solorb. Wanna take one and raise it?"
That one?
"Yeah. You like cats, right?"
...That's not a cat.
He'd considered gifting one to Solorb's world out of generosity, but apparently its cat standards were strict.
Anyway, village recruitment wrapped for the day. The Cat Crabs headed to the desert village construction site. The search team returned to base.
Day 61 in the Labyrinth. After scarfing down Merino's breakfast, they crossed the warp device into the desert with the monsters. Lineup shuffled: No Blood Jellyfish Princess or Niara Nephensis; instead, Black Magma Slime and Azeras joined.
For this desert village recruitment op, Kinogine Arachne and Necro Puppeteer were fixed members—no swaps.
Aberarerar!
The Giant Caterpillar greeted them. Meeting them often lately thrilled it; its massive face beamed with satisfaction. Grinning ear-to-ear like a giant puppy—adorable.
Today's search: opposite yesterday's direction. Specifically, past—not around—the rock from the first Cat Crab encounter, heading the other way.
"Why's it so dim today?"
Not pitch-black, but dim like early evening. Curious, Kang Geon looked up.
Solorb, the sun-type monster that usually blazed fiercely, had subdued flames today.
As doubts swirled—
—Gauntlet. Ignore that. Solorb just manifested in its inner world, that's all~
Bastet Daong's voice flowed from Iris. Kang Geon turned to her immediately.
Iris's screen filled uncomfortably with Bastet's face.
"Oh. So it descended into its own inner world?"
—Yes~. Solorb sometimes visits its internal world to play with us. Outer flames die down then~
News to him. It could visit its own world directly. Made sense, though—its creation, its rule.
Riding the Caterpillar with the monsters, Kang Geon asked Bastet Daong again.
"Does Solorb look the same inside its world?"
—No~. Appears differently each time in our world. Mostly cat-like like me, though~
Maybe someday I'll ask to visit Solorb's world. Its manifested form there might have a red spot. If so, no need to scour a planet-sized monster's surface—easy tame.
'Gotta get closer first. Casually ask if I can drop by.'
Thinking that, he looked ahead for the search—
Kkaak! Kkeureuk!
A single crow stood ahead.