Jordan studied the metal structure and watched for any potential movement. At this point, both of his drones were patrolling the area behind him and to his sides. If someone came out of the dome and looked up, he didn’t want them to spot the air drone flying directly overhead. But at least this way, he could have the confidence of knowing that nobody was currently sneaking up on him. So he lay there, still observing while now fully flat on his stomach.
Yet the question was… what was his plan here?
If it’s a Crab or a group of them… should I send my drone to attack while I go far away? Or should I at least try to talk to them first? I know that they’re sapient too, so attacking first while unprovoked would morally be the same as any other person. But when if they are aggressive and do some spiel of sacrificing myself to their Prince like the other one, then- Jordan felt his train of thought come to a sudden stop, go flying in the air, and then do a sick flip before landing on a new track.
Do I even need to let them know that I’m here in order to communicate? If the System allows for the translation of our spoken words, then what about reading? Because if they have screens with text on them like mine doesn’t, then they should be able to read, right? He asked himself with lips pursed in deep thought.
However, Jordan could already see a few alternative explanations. Like that they couldn’t read, and so the seemingly all-powerful System just did something other than text-based screens instead. Or that they could, but then the System didn’t actually do that form of translation. But luckily for him, this was one of those situations where it didn’t hurt to at least test something out. If he sent a note ahead and they couldn’t read it, then he lost nothing from it.
It only took a few more minutes until Jordan spotted movement. In the meantime, he’d already taken his notebook out of his pocket space, tore a page of paper from it, and then wrote out a message. The message itself was nothing too complicated, just an introduction using only his name and Species with nothing else about himself mentioned. And then an offer asking if their Kingdom would be open to friendly relations with him.
But from behind the dome, a single Crab stepped into view. Something which seemed to at least indicate that the entrance to the dome was on the opposite side from where he was currently looking.
From around the side so as not to give away the direction of his position, Jordan then ordered his drone to fly toward at a steady and hopefully non-threatening pace. Hanging directly from the barrel of its gun was the piece of paper, which hopefully would be recognized before the Crab tried to destroy the drone and the message along with it.
Thankfully, the method to deliver the note wasn’t a waste of time. Rather than immediately attack, the Crab definitely noticed the drone as it slowly approached. Without saying a word, it just stared before silently pulling off the piece of paper. Even when using a full page, the paper still looked like a tiny scrap in the single claw it was being held in. Jordan had at least taken that into consideration by making the text far larger than he usually would, but hopefully, that would be enough to make it eligible.
Seconds passed as the vertically long eyes of the Crab just stared at the message. Jordan wasn’t sure to fully make of the lack of a real reaction so far. But the fact that it was still looking at it was a sign that it was actually reading it, right? Or at least that’s what he was hoping. Finally, the Crab tossed the paper aside, which was already not the best of signs. Yet then it grabbed the drone in the grip of its giant claw, and immediately crushed it into a small ball of ruined scrap metal. After doing so, the Crab turned back toward where it’d come from.
“Oi! Lads! There’s another one of those Humans in the area! Who wants to hunt it down and take it away with the last ones to catch up with Emmeline? For the honor of aiding the gathering of more delicacies to be offered to the Golden Prince?!” The British-sounding Crab called out to what was confirmed to be definitely more Crabs inside the dome.
Last ones? Delicacies for their Prince? Jordan asked himself with narrowed eyes. But as the Crab was turned away, he cautiously moved backward. As far as intentions went, that was already more than enough for him to go ahead and make a decision about what to do next.
Then as soon as he was far enough down the hill that it wouldn’t see him if he stood up, he did so and hopped onto his land drone. The moment his hands were secured to it, he immediately had it drive away at top speed. It was fortunate that the Crab was a couple of hundred feet away and that his land drone drove with relatively little noise, so it shouldn’t notice the sound from afar as it just moved over dirt.
From the other side of the hill, Jordan heard more loud talking, now coming from multiple Crabs. But as he quickly drove away, making out their words was just as quickly hard to do. Yet from the first statement before, their intent was clear enough.
Jordan had given them the benefit of the doubt and gone with a friendly greeting, even if it meant losing his first chance for a sneak attack. But if they wanted to hunt him down with the intent to capture and take him away somewhere? Then fine, he could have no trouble with extending a similar policy.
For his own questions about the taken Humans, he only needed to capture one of the Crabs alive in return to interrogate it. The rest could be hunted down as they tried to hunt him. With that single thought, Jordan called his remaining land drones to him and summoned a new air drone. From how long it would take his other drones to gather together, it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes until they were all assembled.
And if the Crabs were away from the base to start searching for him in the meantime, then that would be all the better for what was about to come next.
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Benedict Knight was a proud Crab. Before the birth of the Eternal Golden Prince, he had hailed from what the people of Earth would consider to be an equivalent to a minor nobility in the system of a medieval kingdom. Though that had stopped mattering while Benedict himself was relatively young, since the moment the Golden Prince was born, all concepts of nobility and social structure were destroyed. Even before their glorious and divine ruler had spoken his very first words, the people had hailed him as a living god and promptly renamed their entire world to honor him.
Before their Prince, all were equally worthless and valuable at the same time. Worthless in how all their lives combined would be worth nothing if put on a scale next to his. Yet valuable at the same time, for any act that aided the Prince in what he asked of them would always be considered a holy one. There were no greater joys than when a chef felt when the Golden Prince ate their food, then what a craftsman felt when he used what they’d made, then what a painter felt when he admired their work for even just a moment.
And despite his nobility meaning nothing and his family becoming equal to the common masses, Benedict felt no different than anyone else. How could he? In the last few decades of the Golden Prince being alive, none had felt even a shred of ill will against him. Even their most vile and wretched criminals had turned into saints with the hope that they could contribute to society and become redeemed. The very concept of feeling anything other than zealous love for their Prince was a foreign one to them all.
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In fact, they didn’t even imagine such a thing to be possible. That was, however, until all the Crabs of their world were instantly and suddenly transported to this one. So it was that as Benedict searched for the mysterious Human who’d sent that note, just a single thought was on his mind.
How could these Humans not see the glory of offering their lives to the service of the Golden Prince? What could possibly have compelled the last group especially to go so far as to fight back and escape, rather than embrace the honor of being personally requested by his majesty himself? Are these Humans simply evil, or are these creatures simply born without the brains needed to understand the love of being wanted by the Prince? Benedict asked himself as his legs quickly moved along the beach.
That last idea would be particularly sad, if true. He didn’t even want to imagine what it must be like to not exist with a heart like that. Perhaps for such beings, death truly was a mercy.
Focusing back on the task at hand, Benedict took a look around. At this point, both he and the other had been searching for a little while now. Yet there were still no signs of the mysterious Human who’d sent the message. All they knew was that he had introduced himself as Jordan, something which did bring the Crab a moment of pause.
Could it be the same Jordan as the one listed so high up on the Mightiest Individual leaderboard? The one who would be at a higher Level than his entire group, including Florence? He was the Crab who was both their group’s leader and the one who had claimed the Mandate as per Prince’s instructions. All Kingdoms were to be claimed in his name until such time that all their Lords could reasonably meet the Prince at the same time. From there, he would claim all the Kingdoms in one fell swoop.
While all the Crabs already recognized these Kingdoms as being “his,” this would ensure that the Prince would become their sole ruler all at once and become the indisputable king of this entire planet. Benedict did not question this strategy. He simply believed that if it was the Prince’s plan, then there must be an infinite amount of wisdom behind it that he could never comprehend.
Not, it couldn’t him. Such a man would surely be out slaying higher Level prey, like those elementals to the East. It’s the only way he and the others up there could hope to compete for the number two spot. Naturally, the thought of anyone beating the Prince to take the top place did not even cross his mind as a possibility.
In any case, he had so far failed to find any signs of either the Human himself or any tracks his strange two legs might have left behind. Yet Benedict hadn’t been confident that he would be the one to find the Human anyway. That would most likely belong to another Crab in their group with the Tracker Class.
His responsibility was one of a different purpose. A purpose that many Crabs had felt would be needed when first brought to this world, even when frozen by the System without the means to share the idea. They had simply come to the same conclusion, knowing that it would be imperative to hear the orders of the Golden Prince so that they might obey.
Benedict was a Telepath. And with a Skill that scaled only with Will, he had invested every single point possible to increase the Stat as much as he could. Then with a bunch of other Crab Telepaths that had been spread out, it hadn’t taken them long until their ranges started to intersect, and a communication network was born.
Though that had just been the starting point. As far as Benedict was aware, a more reliable means of communication had already been established. One that was not between individual Crabs, but between their entire Guild. And since all Crabs could receive the request from afar, the current network still had its use in spreading out the invitations to have everyone join.
But as a Telepath, he needed to be the one to establish the connection. Once it was started, then it could be a two-way street between him and the one on the other side. Yet maintaining had a resource upkeep, which meant that it couldn’t be done indefinitely. Yet getting his resource regeneration up to that point was his most immediate goal.
He decided to go ahead and use the Skill in question to check on his fellow Crabs. Starting with the Tracker, perhaps one of them had found better luck in finding and capturing the Human yet. Benedict then used the Skill, focusing on the person that he knew for sure would still be somewhere within its maximum range.
And he found… nothing. The Skill didn’t work, as if the targeted Crab simply wasn’t there for it to lock onto. Now a bit confused, Benedict stopped moving and stood still by the calm waters of the beach. He tried again, now focusing on a different member of their group. Once more, the Skill failed to find the intended target.
One by one, Benedict continued to fail to use his Skill. He looked around with a mix of both confusion of weariness. While a bit of time had passed, he didn’t think any of them had gone outside the range of his Skill. Not when its maximum range was quite large, and all of them should have kept it in mind while moving around.
There were only two members of his group that he had yet to contact. The first was Emmeline, who had left with the captured Humans from before. She was still in range despite the time that had passed, which seemed to indicate the Humans themselves must have been slowing her down with their inferior number of legs. Then there was the on-paper leader of their Kingdom, Florence. Now feeling quite worried, Benedict tried to contact him.
However, yet again, there was no response from the Skill.
“Bloody… what is going on?” Benedict muttered out loud. He turned back toward the direction of their Kingdom.
Should he go back? Benedict wished he had a way to make use of the shared pocket space for the Guild to express his concerns through it. Yet their group didn’t have writing tools. He was certain that some Crabs were likely crafting some to spread around, and just haven’t shared some with them yet. Not that he would complain, since the prioritization of supplies would surely be a decision made by the Golden Prince.
From behind him, there was the sound of something quickly moving through the air. Benedict only noticed it at the last second, which was already a second too late. An unknown projectile then shot into the back of his body, and burning pain was as immediate as it was fierce.
“Gah!” Benedict cried out. He looked down to see that there was even more pain, but also coming from the front. It took just a moment for the Crab to glance down and see the hole that had been pierced all the out through the frontside of his large body. Yet at that exact same moment, a whole set of projectiles were piercing into him next.
Waves of agony reverberated throughout his very being. Some of the attacks were aimed at his legs, cutting clean through them and causing the giant Crab to fall. Benedict tried to reach for his pocket space, but then another attack came. One that he now saw as a bolt that moved so quickly that it’d almost just been a blur. Before he could interact with the pocket space, however, this bolt cut off his claw with perfect precision. Precision that was just as quickly matched by another bolt that also aimed at the relatively thin piece that attached the large claw to the rest of his body.
More bolts then pierced through him. With an Endurance that was only supported by his natural starting point, it barely made a difference. If there was one saving grace for the Crab, it was that the pain quickly grew so great that his body started to become totally numb.
Yet in a surprise attack that had taken all of just a few seconds, all of his limbs had been severed. No blood poured out, for better or worse, as the wounds had been cauterized by the same bolts that created them. Now only weakly breathing while on his back, Benedict was staring up at the blue sky above.
A cold shiver then went across him as he felt someone use Appraise on him. Yet rather than try to look for the source, Benedict could only try to channel his Skill one more time. The pain, even when numbed, would make focusing on it difficult. But if he could just warn Emmeline-
Like the harbinger of death, a small object moved in front of the sun. With aim adjusted straight for where the Crab’s brain would be, it shot out one last bolt. Before he could even finish channeling the Skill, Benedict fell limp, already dead.
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Initial Merger Slain!
Doubled Experience Earned!
+78 EXP
Jordan briefly glanced at the notification as he looked at the corpse of the Crab riddled with holes. His initial intention had been to interrogate it first, even if it ended up being like the last couple he decided to question. Even when on death’s door, the only words they’d answered with was a refusal to betray their Golden Prince. Yet the moment he had used Appraise, killing the Crab as soon as possible had instead become his immediate priority.
No way was he going to risk letting a Telepath poke around his mind.