Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Chapter 69: I Love Gimbap and Poor Man

The fire in the brazier felt hotter than usual today. Slowly, winter was leaving the forest. I'm quite tired of seeing piles of snow anyway, so of course I welcomed the change with a happy heart.

I ground some ignition stones I had into powder in preparation to make some flame cans. Meanwhile, Dingo, who was lying on his stomach, fell asleep.

"They should've returned by now..." Unlike usual, there were no scarabs in the shelter right now, so something felt different. They went out on a mission to secure as many ignition stones as possible. Actually, I didn't order them to do that. Scarabs always went outside daily to roam the forest, so I told them if they found an ignition stone, if it's possible, bring it to me. However, it looks like they took my words as some kind of command.

"Shall I go out to check them out..." Though, I knew it was dangerous to go at night. If by accident I was caught by surprise by a bone creeper, I would be gravely injured. But the forest was quiet these days, so it doesn't look like those guys will come out, as there should be no corpses for them to spawn with.

As I was about to stand up from my seat, I heard a squeak beyond the door. The guys are here. When I opened the door, I saw four scarabs carrying two ignition stones.

"Are you late because you need to dig this up? Next time, I'll go with you, so you won't have to come back late like this." The guys scrambled inside and warmed themselves up. Even though winter was slowly leaving, it's still freezing nonetheless, especially at night.

I took the ignition stone, placed it on the workbench, and gave them some honey. It's nothing but cheap honey, but it's a snack that they really like. It was said that if you give honey to an ordinary beetle, their tongue would harden, but it didn't happen to these guys.

"Their tongues are strong enough to reshape metals." The scarab filled their stomachs, and crawled into their bed. But at that moment, the scarab leader poked my leg. I think he has something to say.

"Hm? You found a cave? And it isn't a normal cave?" It seems that these guys went even further than the old goblin nest to find the ignition stone. And on their journey, they found a cave which they mined the ignition stone from. There were also quite a few glowstones and black coals, so it would be good to go back there again.

"Then let's go tomorrow." I was relaxed, but the scarab leader was quite hurried. He drew an arrow as well as the cave.

"You have to go right now? Why?" Then, he drew a round fruit as well as a large scarab who was hand picking it. It seems that some kind of fruit that he wanted has grown enough to be ripe.

This place was an enchanted forest, so even if weird things came out or happened, I didn't find it strange.

"If that's so, then let's go." The kobolds could be easily beaten down, so I just had to watch out for the bone creepers. If I ever see something white popping out, I have to open the portal and run away immediately.

As I was eating a shadow grape and packing my bags, Dingo stretched his body and followed me. Even though I had gotten used to the forest and my night vision had improved considerably compared to the time I first came here, there's still some sense of fear haunting me because of the darkness brought by the night. I'm not talking about ghosts, mind you, but a bone creeper that practically could one-shot me. If I find it even 1 second late, my life would be forfeited. Therefore, every step I took, I had no choice but to be very nervous. (E/n one-shot = gaming terms for when you only uses a single attack to kill something)

The scarab leader sat on my head and pointed out. Then we moved right away. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any monsters on the way. And when we finally passed the now-empty goblin's nest and passed unfamiliar terrain, an open space appeared. There, some unknown fruits and winter strawberries were waiting for me.