Chương 61: The river sends an appetizing gift

Vincent inspected his stats and was surprised yet not at the same time. The progress became sixty percent. The amount he expected the Dimensional Storage to raise.

[Name] Vincent Agius

[Condition] Healthy

[Soul Power] 20sp

[Class] Soul Hero

[Class] Soul Mutation

[Class Soul Hero]

*Soul Retainer Bond (Blessed)

*Inspection(Basic)

*Soul Spells - Minor Heal

*Dimensional Storage (Unable to use until 100% understanding. Current progress is 60%)

[It's great and all, but I'm finding it hard to think how it can work. It would be easier if we had a Bag Of Holding to study. But it's not like luck will give us one soon.]

'I might be stuck at twenty percent if I tried to form the ability by myself. Kazumi is a miracle worker, but I can't praise her, or she will start a series of annoying boasting about how hopeless he is without her.' He thought with a frown.

In the meantime, Ester and Lupa boiled a pot of river water to drink. It was after Vincent told them how it could make the water less dangerous to drink and save on potential sickness. He wanted to save his Soul Power as much as possible.

Ester and Lupa approached Vincent, who was in deep thought about the Dimensional Storage ability. He seemed in a world of his own, so they gave him some time to notice them.

Talking with Kazumi required concentration to transform his thoughts into telepathic voice messages. But it had its ups and downs to do this.

Vincent couldn't telepathically communicate with Kazumi in a fight until he trained his focus as emotions wouldn't allow him to transform his thoughts into a message.

He also would stop to look at random places when communicating with Kazumi since he would be talking with an invisible person, making others think he is in constant deep thought.

"There is no fish here. " Lupa spoke first with a sad expression pulling Vincent's attention since it seemed a long deep thought this time.

It seemed she wanted to eat fish as Vincent noticed her ears bent down and her tail looking quite lifeless. Unfortunately, like the previous rivers, none could be seen.

"Let's play a game. Who finds the most food gets to eat the most." Vincent decided to raise their spirits by making finding fresh food a small competition. He wanted to bring the cheerful face of the sad wolf back as usual.

Lupa stared with a frown and said, "Don't you think we already searched everywhere?"

"I helped in the search but found no fish. " Ester added.

"Did you search under the rocks? Fish isn't the only thing you can eat." His idea made Lupa energetically excited, and Ester blush from forgetting to search for other food than fish.

The energetic Lupa made Ester forget such a simple thing she did in the last ten years. As their will sparked aflame, both nodded at each other and ran to the river.

Rock by rock; they started searching. Vincent joined their search as the game he proposed was accepted in a heartbeat. The three kept searching until Lupa groaned, "Ouch."

Lupa raised her hand. On her thumb was a small red crab stuck with a firm pinch. She started panicking while waving her hand sideways. The fearful wolf became afraid. She seemed to be more afraid of critters than deadly monsters.

"The trick is to let it pinch something else. " Ester uttered like a veteran crab hunter.

Ester skillfully helped remove the crab by holding a pebble in front of its opposite claw. The crab noticed the pebble and pinched it. When it felt the thumb offer less resistance than the wolf beastman about to cry, it released its hold to pressure the new formidable opponent, the hard pebble.

As this happened, Ester quickly grabbed the crab from its legs and lifted it with a proud smirk. Lupa gazed at Ester thinking how cool and reliable her sister was.

"Great teamwork. I told you fish isn't the only food source, right?" Vincent clapped to congratulate the success of their teamwork.

This situation made him feel relaxed that the two girls, the one wiping her tears and the other smirking, would trust each other and work together to survive.

As the full moon graced them with light, time to stop scouring for food and call it a day arrived. They managed to find a total of five small crabs and a clam.

Ester won the contest as she found two crabs and a large pink clam. Lupa took the second place with two crabs while Vincent took the third place with one strange crab.

Ester and Lupa took their game over to the prepared campfire. With a bit of Mutated Ash, the fire was easily lit.

Ironically, the result of Overheat ending was currently more useful than what it was intended for. It also meant Vincent didn't need to use Overheat for fighting or protecting.

[Name] Infant Freshwater Mudcrab

[Condition] Healthy, Terrified

[Detail]

A type of territorial crab that grows a hard carapace on their back resembling a rock. The older the mudcrab, the larger and more hardened the carapace is.

Vincent knew the small looking crab he found was different from the four red crab's Ester and Lupa found.

His was a bit larger and rock-like colored. At the back was an extra pair of strange legs, but no pincers in the front. It hid its head like a sea snail inside its rock-like carapace.

[I wonder how large it could grow. Imagine a mudcrab with a boulder-like carapace on its back. ]

-Please don't set any death flags. These few peaceful days were nice.-

[My bad. But this time I will have your back. I can give guidance to things you can't see or notice, a pair of eyes that can recognize things you might have missed.]

-So I would become like an action movie protagonist. To act and move as if I knew the enemy was launching a precise punch at me.-

[Why don't we call it the Overpowered Kazumi GPS Guiding Movement Tactical System ability? It has a nice ring to it, hehe.]

-Are you writing a novel with that clickbait title? Let's keep it simple. Kevin always said that phrase. How about Guidance Tactic? It sounds cool, and no one will know how the actual mastermind is a cute wisp.-

[Fine, then Guidance Tactic it is.]

Kazumi got easily bribed by the complement. She felt happy when the word "Cute" telepathically entered her mind. Her body wobbled from the excitement of this simple word.

"You can cook this too." Vincent handed the infant mudcrab to Lupa. However, she was still hunted by the idea of losing a finger. She shapeshifted her arms and struck the mudcrab rock-like carapace.

*Clang

The clash made the sound of a scratch against a hard object. Unlike its rock appearance, it was hard like steel.

The carapace that started to look like a rock shell was harder than her sharp claws. It only left a few scratch lines, as if it was an iron shell instead of the rock it appeared to be.

The mudcrab felt danger. It immediately retreated its head and legs inside like a seasnail. If Vincent, Ester, and Lupa didn't see this, they would've thought it was an ordinary rock held by his hand.

Lupa took advantage of this. She swiftly pierced the mudcrab in the hole where the head resided. She wanted to be done with crabs because she started to hate them.

*Shriek

The mudcrab let out a Shriek before its death. It made Ester frown as the strange crab felt a bit familiar to a rumor she heard. With a frown, she asked, "Vincent, did you inspect this strange crab?"

"Umm... yes, it's an Infant Freshwater Mudcrab. Does it taste bad?" Vincent asked, feeling like it was better to leave it alone.

"Sometimes I scoured for fish or food near the river. I would occasionally stumble upon a crab. But I have never seen a mudcrab. I've only heard about them." Ester recalled her hardships of living with the drunkard Trek.

"Freshwater Mudcrabs are dangerous. They are territorial and think they are the rulers of the river location they reside in." Ester grabbed the mudcrab. She was astonished by how similar it was to rocks. Its camouflage was top notch.

"Mudcrabs grow a shell-like carapace on their backs. They imitate rocks, and because of their similar colors, they ambush unsuspecting prey. Anything is on their menu for adults. Their strong jaws can rip out limbs easily." Ester became a bit scared, as she explained.

"Ohh. I heard a rumor about how a D Rank adventurer lost a limb before he was saved. I heard the soldiers say how an adult mudcrab would follow its prey for hours or until the prey runs away too far. However, it can eat its re-growable limbs to gain an energy boost." Ester recalled what the guards had once said a year ago. The rumor of a freshwater mudcrab attack. She became cautious of rivers after that and only searched for food in the day.

This rumor made Vincent shiver at the thought. A river was the first thing he found after climbing the hill, and he walked alongside it. It would've been game over in a few minutes if he met one.

Lupa suddenly raised her ear's full attention. They twitched and tilted along with the faint sound of violently splashing water approaching them.

She looked at its direction and focused on observing in the distance. Her eyesight in the night was better than normal humans. The full moon graced them with enough light to see in the night as well.

"Fish! There's fish in the water heading our way!" Lupa noticed how a school of fish was heading to their direction. The fish might past them if they don't hurry.

"I want to eat fish!" Lupa rushed to the cart and brought with her the two buckets they had. She tossed one to Vincent while the other one remained in her hands.

"Really? Here Ester, take this. I will find a way to catch fish." Vincent smirked at the competitive wolf.

She might have intentionally given the bucket to Vincent instead of Ester. She greatly wanted to win the fish hunting game, receive more food and praise as well. The previous loss made her sour enough not to want another loss.

"Thank you." Ester accepted the bucket while shyly averting her gaze. Then she ran after Lupa with a frown. It seemed Lupa was in for a long lecture on sisterhood interaction.

'I hope they can catch some fish. Ester can preserve them with Frost Sigil.' Vincent thought while staring the girls in the water, ready to dip the bucket for a good catch.