Tafel frowned as Kim Hajun walked away from her group. He was heading towards the cube where the jar distribution was taking place. Rather than a distribution center with a neat and orderly queue, the cube was surrounded by violence. People were fighting and shouting, clawing at each other to take their jars. “Should we get some jars before it’s too late?”
“We could always wait right here until everything’s over,” Lindyss said. “When someone else finishes harvesting the ant honey, we’ll take their jar and put it in the bin.”
“I like the sound of that plan,” Erin said, sticking her head out of Lindyss’ robes. “I have a question though. Do I need a jar of honey to pass too?”
“Yeah,” Sheryl said from the sunlike rune on Vur’s shoulder. “Do elementals need to turn in honey too? What about the spirit animals inside of you?”
Vur rubbed his chin. Those were good questions, and seeing as Gaegukja Yeol had disappeared herself, there was no one around to answer them. In that case, there was only one thing to do. Vur rolled his shoulders backwards and took in a deep breath as he warmed up his body. He walked towards the crowd of people, the brown rune on his forearm glowing. Tafel and Lindyss glanced at each other, and Lindyss took two steps backwards, ignoring the look Tafel gave her in the process.
“Hey, step a—wah!?”
People shouted, yelped, cursed, and fell over on top of each other as the upper layer of the ground split and shifted to the sides, parting the crowd of people. A straight path was created between Vur and the empty honey jars, and he strolled towards the storage cube while ignoring the struggling crowd around him. People got up and scrambled towards the jars, but the floor kept pulling them away by shifting around. When they jumped, puffs of wind would miraculously appear and knock them back down. Vur ended up in front of the cube where dozens of honey jars still remained. The cube wasn’t that large, just tall enough to make an average person stand on their tiptoes to grab the jars on the very top shelf.
Vur inspected the number of jars still inside the cube. There were about half of them remaining. The jars at the front were easily taken away, but the jars in the back required more time and effort to grab, requiring one to crawl in with half their torso. With half the jars still inside the cube, there’d be enough for him and every one of the creatures hanging around inside him. In fact, it seemed like there’d be jars left over, but if they were going to be filled with honey, then it didn’t hurt to have more. Vur closed the face of the cube that had swung open, and then, he squatted down and dug his fingers underneath the cube, his hands piercing the ground as if it were made of sand.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Vur grunted and stood up, lifting the cube in one smooth motion. He placed one edge against his right shoulder and supported the bottom of the cube with the palm of his right hand. It didn’t make any sense to the people around him, but those two points of contact were enough for Vur to carry the cube away without an issue. Vur went to the portal leading to the ant nest, and a frown appeared on his face. The cube was too large to pass through the entrance. His head turned to the side, and the made eye contact with Lindyss.
Lindyss sighed and raised her arm. Her shadow extended forward, stretching like taffy, until it reached Vur, creating a thin black line on the ground in the process. The shadow line split apart, darkness spreading on the ground like ink, and a pitch-black abyss formed between Lindyss and Vur. Vur leaned over, and the cube was unceremoniously dumped into the void. When the storage cube passed through, the shadow shrank and sped back towards Lindyss, returning to normal once more. Before Lindyss could say anything, Tafel grabbed the cursed elf’s hand and dragged her towards Vur. “Let’s go through the portal before anyone realizes what happened.”
“Their reactions aren’t that slow,” Lindyss said and rolled her eyes but let herself be pulled along. The people who had been fighting for a jar all stared at Vur. When they made motions to approach him, the ground and the air would keep them away. Lindyss swept her gaze over the crowd of people before shaking her head. “They’re unbelievably weak as well. They’re like sheltered humans who’ve never hunted a slime or goblin before in their lives.”
“Well, the strong people wouldn’t be fighting over jars,” Erin said. “I wasn’t really paying attention earlier. Was there someone impressive enough to catch your eye?”
“No,” Lindyss said. “There was something strange about Kim Hajun though. It’s like he’s been marked by something. If I had to take a guess, then I’d say something or someone strong is using him as a proxy.” She glanced at the diamond that Tafel still hadn’t put away. “If I were you, I’d hang on to that Heart of Fire.”
“Yeah,” Tafel said and nodded. How could she rely on a random stranger to identify an item for her—for free, no less? At the very least, the random stranger had to be a licensed appraiser with a stellar reputation backing them, not someone who had a vested interest in the item she wanted appraised. “But we can worry about that later. I’m a bit concerned about completing the quest we were given.”
“Really?” Lindyss asked and raised an eyebrow. “Harvesting honey from ants. How hard can it be?”
“That’s the thing,” Tafel said and furrowed her brow. “Do ants even make honey?”
“I’m sure they do,” Lindyss said. “If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have been given the task. And like I said before, we can always snatch someone else’s jar of honey, so even if we can’t figure it out, we’ll still be fine.”