"Well..."
"Wait, what was this guy just saying again...?"
"Eat that? Raw, no less...?"
Liya Norandil stared at the Stone-Armored Beast as if it were an idiot. While she hadn't initially suspected it was intelligent, it certainly wasn't this clever! How could it be...?
Shen Heng looked at the Stone, his eyes flickered, and then his gaze shifted slightly to the corpse of the Calamity Beast lying beside him.
Could someone be gambling on increasing their strength by exploiting the rule within this palace that consuming other Calamity Beasts would cause them to Distortion?
To be honest, he hadn't really thought of this plan.
After all, he wouldn't want some random limbs of monstrous Calamity Beasts growing on his body, so his subconscious would eliminate that option for him.
But if it's placed on Stone...
Shen Heng looked at the Stone again.
Is it feasible?
Perhaps it's feasible.
But judging from the fact that they haven't encountered a single rational Calamity Beast in the past few days, the probability of failure is probably much higher, no, it should be said to be extremely high, and it's even possible that there is absolutely no chance of success!
To gamble for this is, frankly, not worth it at all.
But...
Shen Heng's gaze suddenly paused, and he looked at the Stone.
The gaze that met hers trembled slightly, revealing a sense of fear, but she didn't seem to have any intention of changing her mind.
A voice sounded in my ear.
"To become stronger... to be by Lady Han Ling's side..."
Shen Heng remained silent without responding immediately.
He just stared at the Stone.
After a long while, he said,
"You'll die!"
A brief silence fell over the surroundings, followed by a sudden increase in the volume of the voice.
"Quick, Xiaoyu, your captain's gone mad! Make him... wait, he can hear me!"
"Hey, what are you doing?! It's fine if you don't try to stop it, but why did you have to say 'it'll die' to it?"
"Don't you know the weight your words carry in their hearts? If you say that, they really would dare to eat it..."
Shen Heng ignored the Stone and stared at it.
Clearly frightened, Stone nodded almost without hesitation.
"Yes, I know, Lord Shen Heng!"
"In that case, let's eat." Shen Heng said, letting out a soft breath.
Having made the decision, I actually felt relieved.
Stone was also relaxed.
It nodded vigorously.
"Um!"
However, it was only they who relaxed.
A sound that was almost screaming rang in my ears.
"Hey, hey, hey, are these two crazy? Xiaoyu, stop them!!"
Whether those two were crazy or not, Liya Nolandir didn't know, but she felt herself on the verge of going insane.
This time, Qin Yu finally showed some reaction.
Unfortunately, it wasn't as she had imagined; she wasn't there to stop them.
"Captain, is this... alright?" Qin Yu looked at the captain with some hesitation.
"Hey, hey, hey, this isn't just a matter of whether there's a problem or not, this is a matter of people dying... and beasts dying!!" Liya Nolandir shouted.
Shen Heng looked at Qin Yu, "If Stone wants to eat, let it eat. Otherwise, it might have to leave our group later."
Qin Yu opened her mouth, paused, and as if realizing something, slowly closed her mouth and nodded.
However, not everyone understands.
"Hey, hey, wait, Xiaoyu, what's this guy saying?!" Liya Nolandir asked.
"The Stone-Armored Beast is rated B-Class. B-Class isn't weak, but it's really not enough compared to the enemies we'll face in the future," Qin Yu explained in his mind.
"Moreover, it's only at the Mid Fourth Tier now. Although it's not far from breaking through, even if it does, it will only reach the Late Fourth Tier."
"If things continue to develop like this, the Stone will only get further and further away from us."
Finally, it reached the point where it was completely useless.
At this point, Qin Yu paused, her gaze fixed on the Stone.
"Actually, the Stone wasn't very useful before; it mostly just followed along, then left when a fight broke out to help elsewhere."
"But as the strength of the enemies we encounter increases, this situation will only become more and more frequent."
"In the end, it might get to the point where we can't even keep up anymore!"
"At that time, even without a formal departure, there will be a situation where the player actually leaves the team."
"Well..."
Liya Nolandir opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.
This is indeed an unavoidable problem.
If it's a distance on a map, then we can find a way to shorten it, but this kind of thing...
Unless the Stone-Armored Beasts can keep up with their pace on their own, the distance between them is destined to grow ever greater.
After all, the missions they are carrying out are different, and the enemies they are facing are different.
Everything will pull the two sides apart.
If you insist on bringing it along, you will not only harm the Stone-Armored Beast, but also become a burden to the person carrying it.
Well, it's not that there's absolutely no way to solve it.
If they get stuck at the Sixth Tier and can't break through, then this little guy still has a chance to catch up!
But...
With a shift in her gaze, Liya Nolandir looked at the figure beside Qin Yu in his mind.
Based on what they said, reaching the Ninth Tier might be difficult, but reaching the Eighth Tier should be no problem, right?!
Ignoring the conversation between the two people beside him, Shen Heng looked at the Stone.
Upon seeing that he had agreed, Stone's face lit up with a happy expression.
Although this might mean great danger to it, it also means it has a chance to be by the side of Lord Han Ling and Lord Shen Heng, right?!
Thinking this, it looked at the Calamity Beast lying quietly on the ground beside it and walked over.
"Etc!"
A voice came from the side to stop them.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Lord Shen Heng?" Stone stopped, somewhat puzzled.
Beside them, Qin Yu also looked over with some confusion.
"Even if you want to eat it, you can't just eat this," Shen Heng said.
Upon hearing this, both the man and the beast looked even more puzzled.
"When we came here, we did see the Distortion Calamity Beast, but the Distortion were in different locations, right?" Shen Heng asked.
"Uh, um." Stone nodded.
"Specifically?" Shen Heng asked.
"There are Calamity Beasts with two tails, Calamity Beasts with limbs extending from various parts of their bodies, and Calamity Beasts with various extra parts, such as tumors, mouths, and eyes," Qin Yu said.
Shen Heng nodded, "Have you ever thought about why this is happening?"
Upon hearing this, both the human and the beast fell silent.
"Uh, wasn't the Distortion caused by eating the corpses of those Calamity Beasts?" Stone, somewhat uncertainly.