Chapter 238 - Hunting For Stones "A map... true," Gustav’s face shown realization as he remembered that he had a backpack strapped to his back all this time. ’I didn’t even remember to check,’ Gustav said internally as he unhooked the bag from his back. He opened up the backpack and checked the contents within. There were fast foods that could be eaten on the go. Some night kit to make a campfire. Also, a makeshift cube that had a retractable house inside. Gustav could see some more materials for survival inside, which made him surprised since he didn’t expect the MBO to do this. After a few seconds more of checking, he finally noticed a small, pocket-sized device underneath, strapped to the left side of the backpack. Gustav grabbed hold of it and took it out of the bag. Tap! Troiiin! A holographic map of the underground ruins was revealed right before his eyes. He could see the route that led back to the stairways that brought them here. He could also see passageways that connected to one another, leading to every place underground. The only problem was that the locations weren’t marked. "Can you mark out the territories of these creatures you mentioned?" Gustav asked Guuara. --- About thirty minutes later, Gustav was traveling through another passageway. He had a small, maniacal smile on his face as he stared at the device in his hand. The device displayed a map that had red spots in different areas. Only Gustav understood what the red spots meant. ’The next one should be right behind this passageway,’ Gustav said internally. ’I’m going to gather as many as I can before the day runs out... After that, the next step will be to find a good place to rest for the night,’ Gustav decided internally. Archinades had told him they would have come with him if not for the fact that their sentences might be increased if they assist him. Even if their sentences were not increased, Gustav would still have preferred that they didn’t follow him all around. But he did promise that when they were out, he would find a way to repay their help. So, this might not be the last time that they will be meeting. Gustav was still surprised that these inmates had made territories for themselves underneath the Caskia Ruins. The participants were mostly put in a tight spot because they had to look out for mixedbreeds, Aliens and mixedbloods. The likes of which might no longer be sane. Zwoooshh! Gustav dashed out of the passageway and arrived in an area with hundreds of icicle-like rocks buried into the ground. The icicle-like rocks were pointing towards the ceiling, but they weren’t tall enough to reach there. Surprisingly when Gustav looked up, hundreds of feet above, a large creature was sleeping on the pointed tips of these icicle-like rocks. It looked like a round ball covered in greenish fur, but if one looked closely, one would see small legs and two heads protruding from the top and bottom of the creature. However, its heads and legs were not easily noticed compared to its massive size and ball-like shape. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎 [Host has made contact with a Kilapisole] ’That must be it. It’s also an alien... Maybe I could get the grandstones without waking it,’ Gustav said internally and activated Sprint along with silent steps. [Sprint has been activated] [Silent Steps have been activated] Zwoooshh! Gustav silently darted across the place, going from corner to corner to search for grandstones. The walls in this area were coated with icicle-like fragments. Looking from afar, it was like they were clothed by the thin fabric of icicle-like fragments. After searching for several minutes, Gustav still hadn’t found anything. Since he was making use of Sprint, he was almost at his fastest, so he had checked every part of the walls in these areas more than fifteen times. Still, he found nothing. ’Could they have been mistaken?’ Gustav wondered but immediately banished the thought. Sscrrrooowwlll! The creature above made a loud sound which was a bit similar to snoring, and flipped over to the side. Gustav raised his head up to stare at it. It had been lying on its back the entire time, so due to its size, it was covering a large portion of the ceiling from Gustav’s point of view. However, the moment it flipped to the side, Gustav saw the part of the ceiling that had been blocked. On that part, small, shiny orange objects were embedded into it. ’So, that’s where they were all this time... The MBO is pretty cunning. They must have known where the creature likes to sleep. So, they put it in a place where you’d wake the creature if you tried taking it,’ Gustav smirked while analyzing. He stared at the icicle-like rock in front of him and traced it to its tip. Every icicle-like rock around him happened to be among the ones the large creature was currently sleeping on. Gustav moved to the far edge of the space and found an icicle-like rock that wasn’t connected to the body of the creature above. It looked thin from afar, but it was the size of two human adults’ bodies on a closer look. Only the top was pointed. Clasp! Gustav grabbed hold of it and tried climbing. However, his hands slipped the moment he tried to pull himself up. Ggrrhhh! Gggrhh! Both Gustav’s arms instantly enlarged in size, and dark red fur covered them as long sharp claws protruded out of the tip of his fingers. Prriuuikh! Prriuuikh! Both Gustav’s claws dug into the icicle-like rock, and he started climbing. Prriuuikh! Prriuuikh! Prriuuikh! Small sounds were made each time his claws pierced the icicle-like rock. This made him move slower than normal because he didn’t want to wake the creature. After about a minute, Gustav was finally close to reaching the tip of the icicle-like rock. From his position, he could see the body of the large creature, which happened to be facing Gustav’s direction. It was only about fifteen feet away because its body covered a large portion of the tip of the icicle-like rocks. Gustav’s claws pierced into a part of the icicle-like rock that was only three feet away from the tip and pulled himself up with force. Zwoooshh! His body travelled upwards with speed. Then, in mid-air, his right foot landed on the tip of the icicle-like rock. Gustav smirked as he stood on the icicle-like rock with one leg and looked around the place. Flicker! Flicker! "Hmm?" Gustav heard the flickering sounds and stared at the creature ahead. Swooon! The creature opened its four small green eyes and stared in the direction of Gustav with animosity. Sigh! ’I thought I was silent enough,’ Gustav said internally while staring back into the eyes of the huge creature. He figured, his claws piercing into the icicle like rock repeatedly had slowly brought the creature out of it’s slumber. Guuurrruuuuu! The creature made a weird noise as it flipped its body over on the tip of the icicle-like rocks. ’Oh well, I still wanna find out if I can take on the ability of aliens. So, this might not be so bad after all,’ Gustav said internally as he prepared to engage the creature.