Chapter 121 - 117: New Pillow

Chapter 121: Chapter 117: New Pillow

"Whew... after countless hardships, I’ve finally made it here."

"The Giant Dragon is just ahead."

"I’m only one step away from rescuing the Prince..."

In the narrow passage, a Female Mage in a white robe wore a solemn expression. The tip of her Magic Staff shone with a brilliant Holy Light Magic, its sacred radiance as pure and flawless as her own skin.

A silent torrent of Magic Power swirled around her. Her waist-length hair was not of a common color, but a soft brown like the fallen leaves of late autumn. Starlight seemed to flow within her deep eyes, as if she could pierce through all appearances and gaze directly upon the world’s arcane essence.

And in stark contrast to her aura of wisdom, intellect, and grace was the massive figure in the center of the cave ahead—

The Strong Evil Dragon, a beast that struck fear into the hearts of countless Heroes.

It was like a living mountain, its body covered in dark, heavy scales, each one thicker than a Knight’s Shield. Huge Bone Spikes jutted out menacingly from its spine and joints, marking it as a truly evil existence.

At this moment, one of its sharp claws was buried deep in a pile of treasure, while the other was toying with a black-haired human whose hands were bound.

"It’s His Highness the Prince!"

The white-robed Mage cried out in alarm, immediately raising her Magic Staff high, the Mage Badge on her chest glowing brilliantly.

The Evil Dragon also turned its head, its massive chest heaving violently, letting out a low rumble like Rolling lava.

The two sides were on the verge of clashing, a fierce duel between the "Chief Grandmaster" and the "Evil Giant Dragon" was about to unfold!

However, at this very moment...

"Wake up! Hey, wake up!"

Suddenly, a voice called out like a sound from another realm, temporarily interrupting the duel.

"Mmmph..."

Bai Ya groggily opened her eyes, yawning as she asked:

"*Yawn*... Is it morning already...?"

"..."

’She has absolutely no sense of alertness!’

’If we were really being ambushed, is this how you’d react??’

Lu Wei shot her a glance. "No. We have an enemy."

"Huh? Where?!"

Bai Ya was instantly wide awake. She scrambled to get up, but forgot she was still in her sleeping bag.

As a result, she only made it halfway up before falling back with a THUMP.

She looked just like a broken roly-poly toy.

’I can’t believe this...’

Lu Wei stared at her, speechless. ’If we’re ever really ambushed,’ he thought, ’I should just let this one keep sleeping.’

Meanwhile, Bai Ya had finally managed to scramble out of her sleeping bag. Barefoot and holding her small Short Sword, she looked left and right with wide eyes.

"Where? Where’s the enemy?"

"Over there."

Lu Wei jutted his chin toward the spot next to the stew pot.

Bai Ya immediately turned her head and saw a fluffy white ball, which made her pause for a second.

"What is this?"

"That’s what I woke you up to ask."

Lu Wei walked over and kicked the ball toward her, casually explaining, "I was on watch just now when this thing suddenly appeared."

"It was black a moment ago, though."

"I was worried it was some powerful monster, so I used a Force Field on it. It got squashed flat immediately."

"I didn’t expect that after I released the Force Field, it would turn back into a ball, and its color changed to white."

"So, what in the world is this thing?"

Looking at the big white ball on the ground, Lu Wei had a puzzled look on his face.

Bai Ya, meanwhile, had come to her senses. She crouched down to observe it carefully—

She tugged at the big white ball’s fluff, then pinched the small, short legs hidden inside the fur, and finally came to a conclusion.

"It’s a Fur Ball, also called a Puru."

"A Fur Ball?"

"Mhm. Like a Tree-man, it’s one of the Elemental Creatures, but it’s very weak."

Bai Ya nodded. "You can find them in all sorts of Adventurer’s Lands. They’re the Lowest Level monsters, though, the kind that only ever get bullied."

"..."

’I get it! It’s like Kuriboh from Yu-Gi-Oh!, right?!’

Lu Wei confirmed, "So it’s no threat to us?"

"None at all. It has almost no combat ability. Even a child could kill it."

Bai Ya looked around, a little confused. "But they’re supposed to be really timid. I don’t know why it would show up here."

’If I had to guess, it was probably after that half-pot of soup.’

Lu Wei scoffed. "Whatever. It’s already dead, anyway. Just throw it out."

"Um... Wait, I don’t think it’s dead yet."

Bai Ya stuck her hand back into the fluff to feel it and mumbled, "It’s still warm. It probably just fainted."

"No way. It was squashed flat just now."

Lu Wei said in surprise, "You know, like a pancake? It was completely flat."

"Mmm, Fur Balls are Elemental Creatures. They don’t have internal organs or anything, so maybe getting squashed flat doesn’t hurt them."

Bai Ya thought for a moment. "The reason it turned into a pancake is probably because its body is soft enough."

"Is that so..."

Lu Wei’s mouth fell slightly agape. He hadn’t expected the thing’s Life Force to be so resilient.

’So...’

"Is it valuable?"

"That I don’t know."

Bai Ya shook her head. "But it probably isn’t valuable. After all, it’s just a Lowest Level monster."

"Right... Well, forget it then."

Hearing that, Lu Wei instantly lost interest. He picked up the Fur Ball and, with a powerful throw, tossed it into the woods.

This caught Bai Ya, who had been about to say something else, completely off guard.

"Huh? Why’d you just throw it away like that?"

"Hm? Isn’t it worthless?"

"It’s worthless, but it’s really soft. You could use it as a pillow."

"..."

’A pillow?’

’Come to think of it, it did feel pretty soft.’

’And it’s the right size.’

’At least, it’d be way more comfortable than the pillow that comes with the sleeping bag.’

Lu Wei froze for a second, then immediately dove into the woods and quickly returned, carrying the Fur Ball again.

Meanwhile, his and Bai Ya’s conversation woke up Furen and Mirana.

"Lu Wei, what’s that in your hand?"

Staring blankly at him, both of them looked utterly bewildered.

"Oh. My new pillow."

Lu Wei said with a straight face, giving the Fur Ball in his hand a little shake.

...

...

"Roo..."

「The next day」

As the pale light of dawn appeared on the horizon and Bai Ya got up to make breakfast, the "white pillow" behind Lu Wei’s head dazedly opened its eyes.

The last thing it remembered was that heart-stopping "stare-down."

After that, it knew nothing.

’Roo-roo... I’m not dead...’

Looking at the woods before it, its big eyes were filled with Fear, along with a little bit of relief.

’I don’t know why I wasn’t killed, but it’s always good to be alive.’

’I have to hurry and get farther away...’

Blinking its eyes, the Fur Ball squirmed, trying to stand up.

But the next second, it realized it was seemingly pinned down by something heavy!

’I can’t move at all!’

"Puru!"

Its eyes instantly filled with panic, and it began to struggle desperately.

’But no matter how hard I try, I can’t escape this heavy pressure!’

Then, something even more terrifying happened!

Accompanied by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, a golden-haired male human soon appeared in its field of vision!

Under the Fur Ball’s terrified gaze, the man bent down, sized it up with great curiosity for a few moments, and then spoke:

"Hey, Lu Wei, I think your pillow’s awake."

"..."

"PURU-RU!!"

"PURU-RU-RU!!!"

「Half an hour later」

A ball-shaped object about the color of dirt was scurrying around the camp.

But every time it tried to run, it wouldn’t get far before the rope tied to its foot pulled it taut, causing it to take a miserable tumble.

After this happened several times, it finally ran out of energy. As if resigning itself to its fate, it flopped onto the ground. Its color even changed back to white as it let out a series of desperate, soft whimpers.

"Puru-ru..."

"Roo-roo..."

It sounded like it was muttering its last words.

’Stop your damn whining!’

By the campfire, Lu Wei, who was eating breakfast, shot it an impatient glance before turning to ask Bai Ya:

"Can you still use this thing as a pillow after it’s dead?"

"Uh, I don’t know."

Bai Ya paused, her heart softening a little. "Are you really going to kill it?"

"What else can we do? It’s not willing to be a pillow."

"But it looks so pitiful..."

’Pitiful?’

’More like because it’s cute!’

Lu Wei gave Bai Ya a sidelong glance, thinking, ’I didn’t see you showing any mercy when you were killing goblins.’

’Still, I can understand that sentiment.’

’After all, humans always have more sympathy for cute little animals.’

’And this thing really is pretty adorable.’

"Fine, just let it go then."

Muttering to himself, Lu Wei stuffed the last piece of bread into his mouth, then stood up and walked over to untie the knot on the Fur Ball’s foot.

He expected it to flee immediately.

But it didn’t move at all.

"Hey, stop pretending." Lu Wei gave it a light kick.

"Roo..."

The Fur Ball continued to stare motionlessly at the sky.

"It must be hungry."

Bai Ya walked over and translated, "The books say that Fur Balls are obsessed with food. If they really can’t find anything to eat, they lose the will to live."

"To put it simply, their entire ’ball life’ revolves around eating."

"..."

’’Ball life?’’

’You’ve got a sense of humor, don’t you?’

"Then it can just wait here to die."

Lu Wei rolled his eyes, no longer bothering with such a trivial matter, and walked over to find Mirana.

It was almost nightfall when they arrived yesterday, so the visibility was poor, and they didn’t have time to draw a map.

Now that the sun had risen and the forest mist had dissipated, it was the perfect time to draw the map.

"How’s it going?"

Standing next to Mirana, he casually asked, "Can you see anything?"

"Yeah, more or less."

Mirana was sitting beside a relatively flat rock. As she spoke, she used an ink pen to carefully draw a river on a blank area of the map.

Even though she was just drawing simple lines, her hand was very steady, showing she clearly had some artistic skill.

After a few strokes, she would pick up the Monocular Telescope to take a look, then lower her head and continue drawing.

Seeing this, Lu Wei didn’t disturb her further. He just gazed silently into the distance, his eyes sweeping over the surging, verdant ocean of trees before finally settling on a low-hanging bank of clouds at its edge.

’If I’m not mistaken, that should be the edge of the Lost Basin.’

’Feels like it’s only a dozen or so kilometers away.’

’So where are the Elves?’

’And what’s happening over at the Dome Pillar?’

’It’s been an hour since sunrise, but the progress bar hasn’t gone up. Are Zovir and Anna slacking off?!’

At this thought, Lu Wei’s brows furrowed, displaying the profound distrust of his employees befitting a proper Crafty Merchant.

He was completely oblivious to the "grand tapestry of life’s imagery" spread out before him.

Until Mirana, who was beside him, suddenly handed over the telescope.

"Take a look over there."

"What is it?"

"There are signs of a campfire."

"Oh? Really?"

Lu Wei took the telescope and followed the direction she was pointing. After searching for a good while, he finally spotted a small campfire pit in a clearing by the river where the trees were sparse.

It was only about a mile away from their position—very close.

Most importantly, the campfire seemed to be still burning.