If someone asked Luge now when his happiest moment had been, he would surely smile and say the moment before, at the previous intersection.
He was lost again.
After turning a corner, he realized something was wrong, but when he tried to turn back, sobbing like a heartbroken child echoed all around. This familiar sobbing—he had encountered it once when he first left Half-Man—and now, no matter how he walked, the weeping surrounded him in the passage, as if to while away his journey.
The other party seemed able to influence a person's judgment and might be the very culprit behind his getting lost.
And now, because he kept the Fetid Skin spell active, this unseen culprit, heard but not seen, seemed afraid to approach. The two sides were locked in a strange standoff—a moving standoff, at that—unheard of.
Winding back and forth, when the sobbing rose from behind once more, he suddenly strode forward, and for a moment the sobbing was left behind.
The spell in his temporary spell slot had already been replenished through meditation while he rested on the road. If the one who scared people with sobbing dared to show himself, he didn't recommend wasting another spell to give the fellow a sound thrashing.
The kind where you beat him with a stick until it breaks.
As he ran, the sobbing was flung farther and farther away until he couldn't hear it at all.
So the culprit wasn't so mighty after all, he thought.
"Smells good, big brother. Can you help me?"
At the same time as the slightly childish voice, a small figure emerged awkwardly from a corner of the cave wall in front of Luge.
Luge figured the other side was probably just playing around. But he had to stop, because every step he took forward, the little thing retreated a step—truly endless.
"You said I smell good?"
He plucked up his courage and examined the little thing closely.
Once he saw it clearly, he was less tense than when he had only heard its voice. It looked like an ordinary child, with two long, thin antennae on its head, simple plain-colored robes, and shell-node features on the shoulders and elbows. This reminded him of a rarely seen humanoid race called worm-people, which Aisjin had mentioned.
"Not this stinky spell—it's the mental power emanating from you that smells good."
The little worm-person explained earnestly, voice steady, tears flowing uncontrollably.
"You're a worm-person?"
He naturally wouldn't easily drop his spell. On the road, he had already thought about trying to control the spell when he saw Aisjin, to see if he could keep the spell running without hurting the kobold girl.
"I'm a chrysalis worm-person, of the chrysalis worm-person clan," the little worm-person said hesitantly, as if choosing words. "Some bad people are chasing me. Can I give you my little brother?"
The little worm-person held out a round object.
"Maybe you can tell me who's chasing you first? Lizardfolk?"
He looked at the egg-sized thing, about two fists in diameter, and could sense a life gestating inside.
The little worm-person shook its head, tears falling faster.
"Aunt One Hundred Seventy-five said it's a wizard, and I must never let them catch me," tears dripped down the little worm-person's face. "This is my favorite little brother, but he hasn't awakened spiritual wisdom. An insect egg that doesn't light up with the light of spiritual wisdom will eventually only be an insect beast, not a worm-person. And I can't carry him anymore."
So many aunts! Worm-people really are more prolific than kobolds and lizardfolk, he thought.
"Then you can give it to your aunt..."
"My aunts are dead. My mother's sisters are dead too."
The little worm-person cried harder.
"Fine! I agree! But I want to see what a wizard looks like. You have to tell me where the wizard is."
He was excited, but then suddenly thought of his own dog-faced appearance, and then of Kaliu, the owner of the diary in his hand, an apprentice wizard, and that mysterious Half-Man.
"Wizards are dead too. Well, several of them have been chasing me," the little worm-person said distressedly. "But I don't know where they are now. As soon as I fall asleep, they know where I am and find me. I'm so tired now. I haven't slept in a long time..."
The little fellow yawned as he spoke, looking like he was about to fall asleep.
"I was going to leave long ago, but I found you smelled good, so I stayed a few more days. I really should go now," the little worm-person said, holding the insect egg high above its head with both hands. "I can't carry it anymore. Aunt Seven Hundred Twenty-eight said I must get to the innermost city, so wizards won't find me anymore."
The little worm-person didn't point in any direction, but as Luge listened, he inexplicably thought of the journey he had once imagined to explore the end of this cave passage.
"But I can tell you where those wizards died. You want to see a wizard? You can look at their dead bodies. They smell bad, so underground beasts shouldn't eat them."
The little worm-person's tears seemed endless. Maybe his race should be called crybaby worms.
In the moment Luge hesitated, the little worm-person began nodding nonstop, eyes almost unable to stay open. The little fellow stubbornly waited quietly for his decision, occasionally tugging his own antennae to force himself awake.
"You put it down."
He chose not to drop his spell.
"There's a nurturing bag here. You can put it inside. It's very convenient, and it won't cause you trouble."
The little worm-person finally looked a little happy, but the tears never stopped.
Luge thought of a word: breached dam.
Maybe he was truly heartbroken to the point of a breached dam. Or maybe this was some special ability of the chrysalis worm-person clan. This was a wondrous world where spells existed.
The little fellow seemed truly anxious. He put the insect egg into the nurturing bag, set it down, and left. His tiny body drifted through the darkness as if swimming, and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Didn't those hundreds of aunts teach you to keep your word? You still haven't told me where the wizards are! he thought.
When Luge carefully picked up the nurturing bag,
a sound came from the darkness again. The little worm-person returned, apologizing repeatedly, tilting his head and pointing with an antenna.
"When I grow up a little, I'll come out to find you and play. You really smell good. My little brother will like you too." With these words, the little worm-person disappeared into the dark passage.
And at this moment, Luge felt a fluctuation in mental power. Briefly touching it, he read a crude map with his mental power.
He hung the nurturing bag under the beast hide at his waist and hurried away.
As he walked, he eagerly examined the map. The places marked as where wizards had met their end were more than one. He studied it for a long time, and among the many marked locations, there was no place he had guessed where Half-Man was.
But this was at least good news. Having news of wizards meant he didn't have to rely too much on Half-Man.
Also, judging by the worm-person's meaning, the fleeing ones hadn't looted anything from those wizards.
He returned to a familiar section of the passage and chose a new road to set out.
As the passage grew wider, he knew he had finally chosen right this time. Last time, under the effect of Bull's Strength, he had been like an unparalleled mighty man, but once the spell wore off, his whole body ached terribly, forcing him to find a secluded place to meditate and rest. So this spell also required a certain physical strength to support it, and could even complement each other for a stronger effect.
He had his heart set on the Holy Lord's fruit. Sneaking to the Great Cave, he found blood covering the ground.
Chapter 11