Chapter 434: The Clue Above Their Heads

Richthofen looked as if he were staring down his nose at a corpse, an expression so disdainful even the crudest farmer wouldn’t make it. But when Victoria walked over and grabbed the wrist of the corpse that was clutching the infusion tube, she actually felt something hard—entirely different from its natural wooden structure!

"It’s made of fired clay!"

Heim’s Priest stared in surprise at the dusty, gray, ring-shaped object on the wrist. "It’s strange. It should just be an ordinary piece of pottery, right? How can it fit the corpse’s wrist so perfectly?"

"Did it wear this bracelet when it was alive? Its hand must have lost all circulation!"

"Victoria, they’re basically plants," Ron reminded her helplessly. "They don’t even have ’blood,’ nor do they have flesh and fat like humans. Even as a desiccated corpse, it wouldn’t have lost much volume."

"But this bracelet is definitely a rarity. The ones on the upper levels didn’t have little trinkets like this—they were, in a sense, completely naked."

"Oh, right, and there’s this little thing," Ron added, glancing at the gold Delaford was waving in his hand. "Leave it to you. Go look for more. Maybe the other pods have similar things!"

"Anything I find is mine!" Delaford yelled joyfully and immediately threw himself into his new profession as a Tomb Raider Captain. As it turned out, he had an extraordinary talent for it. In just a short while, a canvas was spread on the ground before Ron and the others. Delaford had scrounged up "spoils" ranging from head-rings to finger rings and piled them haphazardly on the canvas for everyone to inspect.

The only exception was a corpse the Goblin Hunter was dragging, one that was even smaller than himself. This corpse clearly hadn’t had its tube removed before death and had thus suffered a painful torment, its entire structure twisted into a ball. Clutched tightly within this knot of limbs was a crude object of gold and silver, its specific shape indiscernible, that Delaford couldn’t pry loose no matter how hard he tried.

"Damn, talk about greedy ’til the end!" the Goblin Hunter cursed, tossing the entire corpse onto the ground and casually wiping the sweat from his hands on his cloak. "That wore me out! I can’t believe this little thing took so much effort!"

"Ron, let’s just burn it! I want to see if the thing it’s holding is pure gold!"

"Of course it’s not! Didn’t you see all the silver on it?" Silvia frowned, pointing at the peculiar corpse. "But looking at this body... could it be a child?"

The Vampire Descendant’s words immediately drew surprised looks from the others. "Silvia, don’t be ridiculous. How could Spore People have children? They just pop out of corpses."

"But these might not be Spore People," Silvia said. "They don’t look like the ones we saw outside..."

"The ones outside are different from the ones I’ve seen, too, Miss Sylvia," the Elf Great Swordsman said, a bit gloomily. "So I’m more inclined to believe these are just a specially mutated type of Spore People."

"After all, look over there. Isn’t that big one a Thorny Beast?"

"Although Spore People and Thorny Beasts often appear together due to their common origin, I must regretfully inform you that these Plant People are most likely not Spore People."

Jilannis slowly descended from mid-air. She enjoyed this method of travel that didn’t require her feet, but flying underground only made her feel oppressed. The Moon Elf manipulated a series of simple pieces of lab equipment, making them hover before the group. In one of the petri dishes, Ron saw something familiar.

It was a type of fungus, or more specifically, Red Mould.

"I extracted this from the remains of the giant Thorny Beast," Jilannis explained. "These things are incredibly tenacious. Even after they had absorbed nearly all the surrounding nutrients, a scattered few managed to survive until now through hibernation or other means, and I have since reactivated them."

"Additionally, I found petrified and semi-petrified spore clusters. They were also gathered inside the Thorny Beast’s body, which is strong evidence of its connection to the Red Mould."

"However."

The Elf Grand Mage emphasized the turning point. "However, let me show you some interesting samples I extracted from the giant’s body—Ron, this is mainly for you. I don’t expect the others to understand."

A honeycomb-like structure was presented to Ron. Along with it were some scattered, gray-black particles that looked as if Jilannis had just dug them out of the structure.

"You guessed right, I did just dig these out," Jilannis said, seemingly having read Ron’s mind. "But before that, why don’t you try to guess who the original owner of these particles might be?"

Ron observed the particles as closely as he could. After connecting them with what he already knew and factoring in the honeycomb-like tissue, a bold guess formed in his mind. "Uh, is this... Red Mould?"

Jilannis nodded in approval. "Half a guess, or did you actually recognize it?"

"This is also Red Mould?" Anastina’s eyes went wide as she looked at Jilannis. "But you... you just said these Plant People aren’t Spore People—"

"Correct. Because after I analyzed it with Arcane Magic, my conclusion is that this Red Mould originated from the giant Thorny Beast’s body," the Sword-Singing Lion Armor said, stealing her line. But since they were, in fact, one and the same person, no one could tell their voices apart when there was no emotion involved. "And this honeycomb structure is a defense system the giant produced itself. When the giant was alive, it would have been sticky, using its surface area to adhere to large amounts of Red Mould and prevent them from harming the giant’s body."

"So, judging by how things are now, its defense failed?" Sera didn’t quite understand the details, but she understood the word "defense."

"Yes and no. The Red Mould did successfully invade its body. But given the giant’s scale, and the fact that it wasn’t a creature of flesh and blood, it would have taken the Red Mould an incredibly long time to consume it, even if it just stood still and let it happen. That would have been more than enough time for the giant to kill the giant Thorny Beast."

"But the result is as we see it: neither it nor the Thorny Beast dealt a fatal wound to the other. The giant’s weapon is even missing—I’m guessing it’s buried under the soil. In short, something else killed them."

Ron’s body swayed slightly. From beneath his and his companions’ feet, a gentle buoyant force slowly rose, lifting them into the air.

The Moon Elf controlled the entire process, ensuring no one would be harmed. "Come on, follow me up. The clue is above their heads."