Chapter 387: Silver Mercenary (4)
Deeper inside the cave, new bones were discovered. Far more than the humans who had attempted to trade with the merfolk and been devoured.
The bones were adolescent-sized, structurally human-like, and dark. A sight that might have caused a terrible misunderstanding, but Eugene and his subordinates identified the remains immediately.
“They’re goblins.”
“Goblins.”
They’d been storing the corpses of subjugated lower-tier monsters in the Moving Castle’s cold storage and putting them to various uses. Whether as special treats for warhounds and Vertigos, or as bait to lure other monsters, they’d seen plenty of remains down to just bone. At this point, they could identify most species from just a partial skeleton.
“Young ones are mixed in here too. Looks like goblins were the ones originally living in this cave.”
“They must have fought pretty fiercely.”
Signs of savage combat were scattered everywhere. Merfolk were creatures who neither accepted nor offered surrender—you had to fight to the death whether you liked it or not.
That meant this was a one-way tunnel with no side passages. Goblins weren’t the type to fight to the death when outmatched.
The advancing subjugation squad came to a fork. The left passage sloped downward and was submerged under seawater.
No one knew how long it was or what lurked inside. Diving in was absolutely not a wise decision.
The other passage was the same size as the ones they’d been traversing, but they couldn’t approach carelessly.
“Is this some kind of plant…?”
Cassandra studied the passage with a confused expression. Translucent stems hung from the ceiling like weeping willows, blocking their path.
“More like sea anemones, no—jellyfish. Like tentacles hanging down.”
“Now that you mention it, it does look like that. Another merfolk creation? They left their underwater passages alone but blocked every dry passage an intruder could use.”
“They’ve got the technology to modify clams into ankle traps—why not this? These are beings who’ve maintained their own civilization beneath the sea for as long as, or longer than, humanity.”
The intelligent aquatic races couldn’t develop diverse technologies due to environmental constraints. Fire and ink—essential elements—were inaccessible.
However, in fields that could be researched underwater, there were reports of technologies even surpassing humanity’s. Most of it remained shrouded in mystery, though.
Since they were dungeon-crawling, their equipment was limited. The subordinates had hastily rigged poles from lashed spears, but these wouldn’t provide much leverage.
“The part where it’s stuck to the ceiling looks incredibly hard.”
Cassandra frowned. Was it designed to resist being knocked loose from outside? The base of the mysterious tentacle clusters was protected by barnacle-like shells.
Ting!
An arrow fired by someone bounced off with barely a scratch. That meant they’d have to get close and crush it with hammers, but that looked far too dangerous.
“Fall back for now.”
“But Your Majesty. If we don’t clear this, we’ll have to go through underwater. I’ll handle it carefully, so please don’t worry.”
Cassandra was an outstanding guerrilla fighter who’d also received training as a witch. She sensed no mystic power in the tentacles guarding the passage. At the very least, it wasn’t a magical trap.
Since this was a sea-heavy cave, Alzhar and Valda hadn’t joined the operation. Removing obstacles like this was Cassandra’s responsibility.
But Eugene stopped the female warriors from taking up their tools.
“I can see it. When we first arrived, those things were blue, but they’re gradually turning yellow.”
“…What?”
“That means the temperature’s rising. Whatever those are, they’re reacting to us and warming up.”
“!!!”
Everyone knew that Eugene had absorbed mystical power when he slew the dragon. Among those abilities, the dragon’s heat-sensing eyes were well known.
The mysterious stems weren’t just blocking the passage entrance. They were scattered throughout the interior as well.
In a space that looked entirely blue and cold, only the passage ahead was slowly being stained yellow. He didn’t want to send his subordinates in there.
“I’ll handle it.”
That’s when Marbas stepped forward.
“Jellyfish or sea anemone stings are truly horrible. But they don’t work on those without blood or flesh.”
Marbas stood confidently, holding the crown. It was an ancient relic Eugene had recovered from the Hero’s Tomb. Ragnar, the legendary king of Midgard, had slain a dragon and crafted a crown from its bones.
“You’re planning to use the Dragon Tooth Soldiers?”
“I’ll show you the results of my research.”
Marbas had successfully raised Dragon Tooth Soldiers but struggled to control them—until this crown became the solution.
As Marbas hurled the dragon’s teeth and chanted incantations, bone warriors rose from them.
“…”
“…”
“…”
The summoned Dragon Tooth Soldiers stood with their heads bowed as if sleeping while standing.
They stood nearly 190cm tall with massive bone frames. On top of that, they wore bone armor—they were clearly extraordinary fighters.
They emitted none of the malevolent aura typical of undead. They were closer to spirits, animated through the dragon’s teeth as medium. A different version of the clay golems raised through earth, perhaps?
“Those things are blocking the path. Eliminate them all. Smash, uproot, and clear the way.”
As Marbas’s command rang out, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers lifted their heads in unison, as if power had been switched on. They picked up the blunt weapons Eugene’s subordinates had laid down and marched toward the passage.
Ssssssss.
As the Dragon Tooth Soldiers entered the passage, the hanging tentacles reacted instantly. Dozens to over a hundred venomous stems wrapped around each soldier’s body.
“Knew it.”
Eugene clicked his tongue. These weren’t spider webs passively obstructing passage. They were clearly aggressive, actively hunting prey.
Whatever the tentacles were made of, if they touched human skin, something truly terrible would happen.
But they posed no threat to the Dragon Tooth Soldiers. The soldiers didn’t even flinch when the venomous tentacles burrowed into their eye sockets.
Crack!
Crunch!
The tentacle clusters’ true bodies were struck by the blunt weapons. Shattered shell fragments cascaded down, revealing pink flesh resembling sea anemone stalks inside. That was likely the main body extending the tentacles.
Relentless axe blows crushed the flesh, spraying bodily fluids. When the main body died, the tentacles wrapped around the Dragon Tooth Soldiers went limp.
This was happening everywhere. The Dragon Tooth Soldiers cleared the passage with venomous tentacles draped over their entire bodies. Behind them lay heaps of crushed shells and flesh.
“Those… those… those barbaric fools.”
“But they’re reliable, aren’t they? No matter what freakish stuff throws at them, they just power through with their bodies.”
The subjugation squad couldn’t help but admire that macho breakthrough.
* * *
Thirty minutes passed after they cleared the passage guarded by the land jellyfish.
“The cave is deeper than expected. Any further and we’ll need to camp.”
“Camping in here is a bit…”
Even the dark elves, who feared nothing in the world, felt deeply uneasy about this cave. Despite standing on solid ground, the sensation of being on land was faint. Everything belonging to the sea was antithetical to them as horseback warriors.
But they didn’t need to worry about camping—they were almost there.
“Halt.”
Homi, who’d been clearing the path alongside the female warriors at the front, raised her fist. She could sense danger a beat before anyone else through smell.
“The fishy smell is intensifying rapidly. It seems like they’ve sent interceptors in response to our intrusion.”
Sure enough, shortly after Homi’s warning, armed merfolk appeared en masse before the subjugation squad.
“Ugly as hell.”
“The illustrations don’t do justice to how horrifying they really are.”
The subordinates hurled insults at creatures that no one but their parents could love.
The merfolk looked like a roughly 6:3:1 blend of amphibians, fish, and humans. If a monstrous piranha sprouted limbs and walked upright, this was what it would look like.
Their backs were hunched, but their muscles were so thick they never looked weak. Their hands and feet were far larger than humans’, with webbing between the digits.
“■■■. ■■.”
The merfolk raised clam-shell shields and pointed harpoon-like spears at the subjugation squad. Every piece of equipment was made entirely from sea materials—no metal anywhere.
The discipline of their formation was far beyond monster-level. It radiated the precision and order of a well-trained army.
The dark elves’ arrows bounced harmlessly off the clam shields. Even the female warriors’ sling attacks merely kicked up a bit of white powder without causing any problems.
“We’re at a terrain disadvantage.”
“Your Majesty, perhaps you should fall back for now.”
As the knights stepped forward to block, the merfolk slowly closed the distance.
Eugene’s choice here wasn’t retreat. Instead, he swung Blackout’s hammer end backward, smashing the base of a nearby rock formation.
Boom!
Countless stone fragments flew as the thunderous echo reverberated through the cave. The approaching merfolk flinched and froze.
As Eugene lifted the dislodged rock, some of the advancing enemies began retreating.
CRASH!
The seemingly impenetrable shield wall was instantly shattered. Shell fragments and merfolk flew in every direction.
“Hold position.”
Boom!
Eugene held back his emboldened subordinates and tore loose another rock.
CRASH!
The shield wall crumbled again, and the merfolk were reduced to pulp.
“■■■?!”
After two bombardments, the merfolk formation was in shambles. They stood amid scattered corpses and wounded with dazed expressions.
Boom!
When Eugene ripped free a third rock, all will to fight evaporated. Most turned their backs and began fleeing.
“Attack!”
The knights charged after them. A few brave souls remained among the fleeing merfolk, trying to stand their ground.
But the dark elves’ arrows found those merfolk with uncanny precision, threading between allies. With the shield wall collapsed, exploiting gaps was easy.
Though merfolk could operate on both land and water, they were still slower on land than humans. Those who couldn’t escape properly fell one by one with spears and blades embedded in their backs.
Splash!
Some merfolk leaped into nearby waterways—another passage connecting the interior to the outside.
“Chase them!”
At Marbas’s command, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers entered the waterway. They sank to the bottom, killed two merfolk trying to escape with their spears, and then sealed the passage.
Now on their home ground in the water, the merfolk gained confidence and attacked with renewed vigor—but it was reckless.
The harpoons they thrust were blocked by the bone armor, causing no damage, while the Dragon Tooth Soldiers’ spears pierced straight through the merfolk.
Occasionally, the spear tips that breached the water’s surface before plunging back in each carried merfolk blood and flesh. As red spread through the clear waterway, even the merfolk inside gave up fighting and fled inward.
Eugene’s subjugation squad pushed the merfolk on both land and water routes, advancing deeper. There were even moments when merfolk rallied with cries of “We can’t retreat any further!” and counterattacked.
CRASH!
Those who did were invariably sent flying by Eugene’s hurled rocks.
Continuing the pursuit, the air changed. The cave’s characteristic chill disappeared, replaced by a warmth like entering a greenhouse.
“This must be the spawning ground.”
The dead-end chamber was a massive cavern. From floor to wall, everything was covered in moss—no matter where you looked, it was green.
But to Eugene, who saw through thermal vision, the space was filled with yellows and oranges. The heat and humidity radiating from the moss were warming the entire chamber.
Countless eggs were scattered everywhere, with merfolk standing guard in front of them with desperate resolve.
Cassandra waved her ungloved palm through the air several times. Her hand was filled with warmth and humidity.
“A perfect place for hatching. The monster compendium says many merfolk species bury their eggs like turtles or snakes, but that would result in abysmal survival rates.”
The more advanced a creature’s biology, the more difficult reproduction became. Oviparous merfolk didn’t suffer through painful pregnancies and births like humans, but they had to devote tremendous effort to hatching their delicate eggs.
Burying them in the ground was simple but left everything to chance. Unstable temperatures and humidity meant many eggs failed to hatch, and since merfolk couldn’t guard them constantly, they were exposed to various predators.
But a spawning ground like this—where moss was cultivated to control temperature and humidity, and fiercely protected?
Vast numbers of eggs could be hatched without dying or being eaten. It was a strategy that guaranteed enormous reproduction in exchange for tremendous effort.
Of course, that was when things went well. When things went badly wrong, as they had now, you lost everything.
“There aren’t any usable rocks here.”
A significant number of merfolk still remained. They steeled themselves for a fight to the death, unwilling to retreat while their unborn young were at stake.
Dense shield walls and harpoon spears formed a final phalanx. They could win fighting like this, but as always, Eugene preferred to gain every advantage possible.
“How about this?”
Cassandra, sensing her lord’s intentions, fired an arrow. She wasn’t aiming at the tightly packed merfolk.
Crack!
An egg shattered. As yolk oozed from the broken shell, the merfolk’s heads snapped toward it. Eugene nodded at the excellent idea.
“You all saw that, right?”
Before he even finished speaking, the dark elves were already targeting eggs. Cheerful sounds rang out as eggs shattered everywhere.
Cassandra’s improvised firebottles also flew through the sling. They wouldn’t be very effective against wet merfolk carrying large clam shields, but the eggs huddled together for warmth were instantly set ablaze.
“■■! ■■!”
In the end, the merfolk went berserk, breaking formation and charging wildly.
The knights held their own formation and, with arrow and sling support, swept aside the charging merfolk. With a monster knight wielding a massive axe at the forefront, there was no contest.
When hundreds of merfolk were annihilated, all that remained were countless eggs.
“Smash them all. Set aside mercy and leave not a single egg intact.”
“We don’t know what mercy means!”
This was precisely the kind of job the dark elves loved.
What followed was less a battle and more sabotage. Warriors struck down with weapons, shattering eggs everywhere. Spilled liquids streamed down, filling the air with a rich, savory smell.
The first commission of the Silver Mercenary Company was a resounding success. And the reward wasn’t limited to the silver coins from the guild.
The subordinates salvaged equipment and ornaments from the dead merfolk, but what drew the most interest was the shields.
“This is much lighter than it looks! Light enough to carry on a march and still fight… Waaah!”
A warrior testing a clam shield in his hand was startled and dropped it. Inside the overturned shield, near the handle, something resembling an abalone was writhing.
“Th-this was a living shield?”
“Traps and this—they really have everything, these bastards.”
Eugene picked up the fallen shield with his gauntleted hand after studying it carefully.
“My lord!”
“It’s fine. Unlike the floor traps, there are no teeth or anything growing on it.”
Shhhh.
The abalone inside the shell curled softly around his wrist. Its movement held no malice. It was a restraint designed to stabilize the user’s arm and absorb impact.
“The Spardia delegation warriors were carrying shields that were just dead shells—was this the true form?”
When he loosened his grip on the handle, the abalone released itself and curled back inside.
“A species like this couldn’t have evolved naturally… This must be something the merfolk created as well.”
“Probably. Similar to how humans breed crop varieties and livestock.”
As Cassandra and Eugene examined the living shield, the subordinates discovered something at the end of the waterway.
“What is all this?”
“My lord! Please look at this!”
Hundreds of shields lay submerged beneath the water’s surface. From inside each shell, the siphon of a mollusk was emerging to feed on the moss the merfolk had stored in their shields.
Sizes ranged from palm-sized to full combat scale, with many damaged in various places.
‘They’re cultivating equipment?’
Eugene couldn’t help but feel awe at this mysterious technology.
The efficiency was on another level entirely from human shields, which required felling trees, shaping wood, and binding iron rims—a tedious process. From crafting to repair, everything was remarkably simple.
This was another reason the peninsula’s mercenary companies had avoided this subjugation. Being forced into an unfavorable fight in an unfavorable location was one thing, but the merfolk themselves were a group with technology that couldn’t be ignored.
Humans regularly faced monsters stronger than themselves and were accustomed to overcoming them through combat.
But fighting merfolk sometimes made them feel that their own civilization was inferior. The discomfort that came with that realization was more unsettling than fighting a medium-class monster.