Blood Nemesis
Chapter 142: Culprit

Chapter 142: Culprit

Root returned after digging the hole.

Covered entirely in dirt and grime, he realized he would need another bath to clean himself.

Looking at the bundle of crabs, he wrinkled his nose in distaste, expressing his aversion as he scurried back into the boat.

But he suddenly paused.

His eyes darted around, focusing on the lower part of the bundle.

The net’s strings crisscrossed to form a small mesh. No crab they had captured should have been able to break free from it. And yet, he saw one of the crabs sticking out.

"Hm?"

"Did it break?"

He walked closer to the net for a better look.

"It really is broken."

A small portion of the mesh was missing, and the crab was attempting to escape through the gap.

The opening was still smaller than its body, leaving it stuck with half its body protruding.

"They can’t escape through it anyway, so it won’t be a problem," Root mused to himself, returning to the boat to shower.

A few minutes later, he bit into the tender dragon meat, coated in sweet and sour sauce. The delicious chunk of meat melted on his tongue, coating it with juicy fat and flavors.

Root felt his body sink into the foldable chair.

It was so good; his body relaxed, almost melting into the chair.

He glanced at Oliver, who was sinking his teeth into another portion, and asked,

"Boss, I never knew you were this good. Where did you learn to cook?"

Oliver looked up, fat and sauce sliding down his lips.

"Life teaches you many things when you are as old as I am," he replied.

His soft-spoken words and unfocused eyes made it seem as though he were uttering some fundamental truth about the world.

Root rolled his eyes at the reply.

’As old as me. You’re just a few months older,’ Root silently thought.

"I can give you the recipe if you want," Oliver added.

"No, thank you. Even with the recipe, I’d never be able to cook half as well as you."

Root rejected the offer instantly.

He saw a future where Oliver would force him to cook after making him do all the chores. From his perspective, it was not a desirable future at all.

So, to escape the clutches of this ’slave driver,’ he decided it would be better not to know the recipe.

That way, Oliver would at least continue to cook.

"Oh! I can see that. After all, I am the best."

Oliver smiled.

He took Root’s rejection as well-timed praise, and he liked it.

"But if you want to learn it, just ask me. It’s always good to learn cooking if you’re thinking about exploring Second Earth seriously. Good food motivates you when you have to work in isolation for years, roaming the wilderness."

Oliver reflected on his past as he spoke.

"Hm. Maybe next time," Root said, promptly returning to chewing the succulent meat.

The food was too delicious.

Soon, the evening sun descended in the sky and disappeared over the horizon.

Oliver spent the remaining time improving the hole Root had dug, cementing its sides and shaping it like a large bucket.

Then he filled it with water and placed the crabs inside.

For their food, he used the eel meat he had.

Afterward, he covered the top with a net and returned to the boat.

And so, the day ended.

For the next few days, Oliver did nothing but relax. Occasionally, he would also venture into the nearby forest to hunt some giant crabs and drain their blood.

The crab blood was grey with a tinge of blue, looking nothing like human blood. Still, Oliver could process it and store it in his blood sac.

It didn’t matter what color the blood was or the properties it held; once it entered the blood sac, it would become a part of him, willing to bend to his thoughts.

The hunted crab meat was used as food, and the remaining meat was fed to the silver crabs.

Like that, almost a week went by.

As time passed swiftly, one day, Oliver finally noticed something amiss.

Some of the silver crabs were missing.

The same had happened with the dragon meat.

Oliver was a little unnerved.

He never thought anything could steal from right under his nose. Yet, it had happened.

He informed Root.

However, Root was not shocked. He seemed to have noticed something similar.

"There was a dark shadow the size of a finger moving through our camp. It was small and stealthy," he informed Oliver about what he saw.

Initially, he thought it was just his imagination. But apparently, he too had noticed meat missing from the cargo hold. He was about to inform Oliver about it when Oliver returned after the hunt.

"..."

Oliver didn’t know how to respond. He walked around the campsite, thinking deeply.

He didn’t have to think hard to understand what was happening. He already knew what the most likely culprit was.

"I think I know what it is..." Oliver muttered.

Root, who was following him, stopped.

"Who?" He asked.

"It’s the thing I was planning to catch."

A dark shadow.

Sudden appearance and disappearance.

Ghost-like movement.

There was only one creature on the entire crab island that could do that.

’It certainly is the mythical beast,’ he thought.

’The only one that likes silver crabs enough to invade human territory is that creature.’

He thought and glanced at the distant pit.

"Did you check the cameras? Was there anything on them?"

Root shook his head.

"No."

"Can you check again? There should be ripples in the air, bending light unnaturally."

"If you want, I can go through it again," Root said, sitting down on a nearby chair.

Immediately, his eyes became unfocused as he connected to the boat’s computer.

The security cam feeds began to play quickly in his mind.

He focused on the time he saw the dark, shadowy figure.

"The camera didn’t catch it, but I’m pretty sure I saw it there. Maybe it was my mana sense responding," Root spoke as he watched the video. "The thing must have come in when we opened the door. It’s stealthy."

Then his mind focused on the camera, observing the cargo hold.

"I can’t see any..." He paused mid-sentence.

"Wait a minute. One of the packages disappeared."

He was talking about a piece of dragon meat. A five-kilogram chunk instantly vanished from his vision.

He played the video back and forth multiple times to make sure.

"Yes, it disappeared."

"I couldn’t see the creature. Did it use stealth to camouflage the meat?" He asked Oliver.

Oliver shook his head. "It’s spatial manipulation."

"Spatial manipulation! Like teleportation or something?" Root was shocked.

What kind of mana beast was his boss hunting?

Spatial manipulation abilities were extremely rare. In the history of exploring Second Earth, they had encountered them only a handful of times.

"Not teleportation. It swallowed the meat pack."

"The finger-sized creature!"

"Yes, it can do that. Bending and deforming space is its ability. We can’t see it because it bends light around itself," Oliver sighed.

"I asked you to find any distortion in light because of that," he added while sitting down on a nearby chair.

"Bending space! And you’re trying to catch it?"

Root couldn’t believe what he heard.

"Of course. While its ability is an awesome one, it’s not infallible. If I can trap it just right, I can catch it."

Oliver smiled.

While the task might seem daunting, it truly wasn’t.

The mana beast was young. It couldn’t fully utilize the ability. Thus, trapping it would be relatively easy.

That’s why Oliver searched for the silver crab, the mythical creature’s favorite food.

"So, can you see the light distortions in the video?" Oliver asked.

"Wait a minute. Let me look at it again." Root used his full brain power to examine the video footage pixel by pixel.

Finally, he noticed the changes. This time, he knew what to expect, so he was better at finding it.

His eyes scanned the video footage, revealing a small distortion of light, moving like a fish in the water.

The creature’s movement was slow.

It seemed that maintaining camouflage while moving was not easy.

Root returned to the time he saw the black shadow and checked the footage again.

This time, he noticed the small distortion in light that flickered on the screen.

"It’s standing still. When it’s not moving, the camouflage is perfect. We won’t be able to detect it," Root said.

Oliver nodded. He expected as much.

However, before he could say anything, Root continued to speak.

"The light distortion disappears when the creature is moving extremely slowly or standing still. I can measure the maximum speed at which it can move with near-perfect camouflage."

Root checked the camera and glanced around the area where the distortion appeared, and the time it took between each appearance.

He roughly calculated it to be about 1 cm per second.

"If the creature is moving 1 cm per second, we won’t be able to see it. But if it’s moving any faster, I can design an algorithm to detect it," Root said, opening his eyes.

"That’s great," Oliver said. "Can you also attach more cameras around the area to increase the surveillance range?"

"I can do one better," Root said with a smile.

He glanced at the bag he had brought along on the trip. "It doesn’t matter how stealthy it is; I will find the worm," he added.

"It’s not a worm. It’s a fish."

"Oh! Okay. It doesn’t matter how stealthy it is; I will catch the fish," he said with a knowing smile.

Oliver nodded from the side. He appreciated Root’s help.

While Root was cooking up a plan, Oliver was also making one of his own.

He hadn’t thought the creature would come to him. So, he was thrilled beyond words.

Not showing his excitement outwardly, he went into the boat.

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