Natural Is Not an Option
It was clear that this clever hatchling had already planned to deceive Christina and aid the Water Clan from that very moment.
‘How incredibly smart for such a young one. Of course, his guidance was sincere, and watching him work diligently was endearing too.’
Christina smiled softly to herself, thinking these thoughts.
Then she simply distributed the neatly portioned crab to each person’s plate without a word.
She had occasionally eaten fish or shrimp before, but the flavor of the salted crab stirred genuine surprise.
“Hwaaang. It’s delicious!”
“Eat up!”
Heungmi chattered excitedly while peeling away the meat and even prepared the crispy tempura crab legs.
Perdikion demonstrated his nimble hands in dismantling the crab and sliced away the flesh.
“Rune. You worked hard. Have some too.”
“I’ll eat it all, big brother.”
With his small fingers, Rune accepted the crab pieces that Perdikion had prepared without complaint.
He grabbed a claw and pulled, and a plump, moist piece of crab meat emerged.
The first bite burst with the deep sea aroma and salty richness; the moisture retained made the flesh tender and melt perfectly on his tongue, leaving a lingering savor.
‘This crab meat is finally edible after purification.’
The deeper into the sea the flavor went.
At that moment, Christina suddenly spoke as if recalling something.
“Oh, the one thing you asked for is waiting in the kitchen. Luckily the Water Clan children helped, so I managed to gather only good items.”
“Thank you. But what exactly was missing?”
“It’s something infused with mana. It seems there isn’t any in the Water Region field. There was more that was strange.”
“Strange?”
“Yes. Normally, the Water Lair should have many fierce and giant monsters. Even a single one the size of a ship would be a Giant Kraken, Jellyfish, or Giant Hydra. Devil Shark, Killer Horn Whale, the sea’s butcher Leviathan……”
Midway through the list, Rune gave a slight start when Christina mentioned the Leviathan, but he kept his composure and nodded.
‘Now that I think about it, they were all sleeping due to the curse, not dead. The Water Lair and surrounding fields were all purified. So where are the others?’
He felt a strong premonition.
Something had to be there. After all, there are no results without causes.
‘The only place we’ve never been is one spot. We’d better prepare anyway.’
He decided that there was quite a high chance the missing monsters were there.
Rune listened to every monster Christina named and nodded.
“Okay. I’ll prepare just in case.”
‘It’s the perfect chance to use Jed.’
After a hearty meal, he moved with Heungmi to the kitchen.
“Rune-nim, why are you here?”
“I have a favor to ask you to run an errand for me.”
His gaze drifted toward a corner where piles of pristine, beautiful white pearls were neatly stacked.
Not only that, but pearls of varying colors—golden yellow, silver, and others—filled glass bottles by hue.
“Wow! They’re so white and pretty!”
Heungmi’s eyes sparkled as she gazed longingly at the bottles of pearls. The pearls were round, some as large as a fist.
‘They’re bigger and more numerous than I expected. Jed would go crazy.’
Pearls infused with mana were essential materials for alchemy elixirs, healing, purification, magical research, temple medicines, or superior potions—items that no other mana stone could replace.
The problem was acquisition.
They could only be obtained from giant clam monsters in the sea with low probability, or from marine creatures that had eaten them. The most realistic method was slaying any marine monster encountered while sailing and hoping for drops.
Rewards from the Wave Dungeon were also possible, but the dungeon lay in the Blue Dragon’s lair, so that option was out.
Considering dwarven inability to see the sea, pearls were practically legendary tales.
Among them, pearls extracted from the ‘King Clam Monster’ that devoured marine creatures and even humans were rare across the entire continent.
“Can I take these? They’re so pretty, I want to show Jed-ssi right away!”
Rune handed Heungmi a bundle of the colorful pearls.
He then divided the pearls for Jed, filled each bottle with ten, and began sealing them.
The quality varied as much as the colors.
The difference came from the growth conditions and environments of the giant clams.
“With items like these, I should be able to make what I want.”
As Rune muttered this to himself, Heungmi perked up her ears and tilted her head curiously.
“What is it?”
Rune thought for a moment and then offered a brief answer.
“A tool that can capture a boss monster in one blow.”
Hearing this, Heungmi’s eyes widened in surprise.
“In one blow?”
“That’s right. You’ll see when you come back. Take this and hurry. I have lessons with your brother tomorrow, so I’ll be late.”
“Yes!”
After Heungmi left, Rune stepped into the newly formed inner hall.
‘As expected of Christina. She read my mind perfectly.’
It looked as if she had brought the vast blue ocean with her; a large aquarium filled with salt was set up.
Inside the tank, large king clams with mouths open rested at a suitable distance.
Since he had shown interest in alchemy during cooking lessons, Christina had probably assumed he wanted to use pearls for alchemy or similar purposes.
Of course, he had considered that too, but his true goal was something else.
‘Bringing monster souls every time I made dolls was inconvenient, but this turned out well.’
The first doll he crafted with the Curse Tool Crafting Kit used the soul extracted from the boss monster Leviathan.
But obtaining such high-level souls every time would be both tedious and require constant hunting.
His current doll-making ability was at best intermediate level.
For future training, he didn’t need to insist on expensive, high-effort souls as materials.
‘If natural pearls won’t do, we’ll cultivate them instead. With the Water Clan insignia, management will be simple.’
It was obvious, but using readily available substitutes was far more convenient.
‘With mana-infused pearls, some substitution should be possible. If we can set up the right environment, we’ll keep getting pearls. That means I can make more dolls more easily and in larger quantities.’
Even if substitution wasn’t perfect, pearls were in high demand, and he could always give some to Jed if needed.
Of course, if an ordinary person heard this, they would argue that capturing a king clam monster’s condensed life force was easier than hunting a boss monster.
Rune had gained an unexpected benefit from rescuing the Amelias earlier that day.
‘By the way… there are some that don’t look good.’
They should be eating other animals or plankton in the sea, but after the environment changed, a few king clams appeared thin and emaciated.
One by one he examined the clams, then reached toward a dying one.
LT__Revive!>
With a flash, the shells of the revived clams became particularly glossy.
‘That should do for emergency care.’
The revived clams were lively and squirming, looking quite active.
Rune decided to ask Christina to refrain from using the fresh king clams for cooking.
***
“Kyuuhuu……”
Rune lay sprawled on the bed in his hatchling form, breathing heavily with drooping shoulders.
‘How many days has it been now?’
Repetition had made him adapt.
After dawn lessons with Christina, Rune had gained new tips for resisting impacts and recovered quickly.
He was dying quietly on the bed right now, but deep inside he felt a quiet sense of accomplishment.
‘Still, it’s nothing compared to when I twitched from the womb.’
Recently, Christina had been subtly hinting to rest his body by suggesting he delay dungeon exploration whenever she saw him injured.
Of course, he had no intention of following her advice.
Besides, Christina’s combat styles were always varied, which he found stimulating and encouraged his competitive spirit.
She would block every move he tried with ease, which sometimes frustrated him, but when he was at his weakest, she would offer light hints to help him find solutions—making the process quite enjoyable.
‘Mentally, it’s been rough, but recovery is always taken care of.’
Thanks to this, he had become bolder in charging forward and found the variety of magic far more fun.
“Kyuuuk!”
He gave a light shout and rose from the bed, rolling his stiff arms to check his condition.
Instead of lunch, he grabbed the packed bento and headed to the Black Room.
They usually ate together, but today was too precious a time to waste on anything but leisurely meals.
Clank! Clank!
Dullahan came to greet him, and Rune waved.
“Kyuuwu.”
“Sit. Today, let’s eat and then do something else.”
Rune pulled out the aroma box artifact and placed an apple pie inside.
The fragrant, savory pie filled the air with the sweet-tart scent of apple jam. Dullahan’s eyes glazed over with delight.
Dullahan had been waiting for these moments so much lately that his emotions had grown far more noticeable.
While Dullahan savored the apple pie aroma, Rune unwrapped his bento, ate, and replenished the black rose scales that would absorb mana stones and his own mana.
Then he took out the pearls and scroll paper from his spatial pouch and spread them on one side.
Clank!
After fully immersing in the aroma, Dullahan approached and stood with perfect posture beside the transformed Rune.
“You came just in time. Help with this.”
Rune handed him the pearl container, mortar, and pestle.
“Pick it up like this, put in the pearls, and grind. Make superfine powder.”
“……”
Although he didn’t quite understand the intention, the Black Knight began fulfilling the vassal’s duty without a word.
He settled down near Rune and took hold of the mortar and pestle crafted from Christina’s scales.
After placing one pearl in the mortar, he began grinding with steady “bean, bean” sounds.
The ground pearl powder accumulated in one bowl after repeated “bean, bean” strokes.
Leaving Dullahan to work diligently, Rune arranged dye bowls and brushes beside the spread paper.
Violet, chocolate, orange, black—colors enough to tempt even a painting child.
Rune sprinkled the fine pearl powder from Dullahan onto the dyes.
The colors came alive, shimmering with beauty and luster.