Chapter 88: Griffin arrives
In the middle of the forest, the Dandelions were working tirelessly on dismantling the various monster corpses stacked on top of each other in neat piles.
They were fast and efficient, watchful not to waste anything that could be sold for profit.
After all, one-sixth of the money all of the materials would be sold for would be going to their own pockets.
It might seem a bit too little to bust their butts off for, but one needs to be mindful that during the lull the prices of the monster parts had skyrocketed in value and still hadn't gone down.
Considering that even with the ability to use the skills back the beasts were still much stronger than in the past, making hunting them more dangerous, the prices weren't going to fall anytime soon.
Far from it.
With adventuring becoming a viable option for employment again, hundreds of newbies were enlisting and therefore were in need of proper equipment, in turn giving more work to the craftsmen and driving up the demand for the monster materials higher than it has ever been before.
Honestly, these past few days of work the Dandelions have earned more money than they received for completing all of the odd jobs during the entire lull put together.
With that in mind, none of the four adventurers had the time to spare to look at the red-haired girl and her corpse puppet sitting on a nearby rock.
They were lookouts, but at the first didn't seem particularly diligent about it, although the red-haired girl was using a skill that was augmenting her hearing.
"Why does it have to be so hot...?"
Cranberry complained wiping the sweat off her forehead, twisting and turning in Zombie's lap.
At the moment, the blue undead was serving as the cooling chair for his overheated master.
The girl was sitting in a rather defenseless and compromising position while the eternal servant was doing his best so that she wouldn't fall off of him.
"...haa... Zombie... do something..."
Truth to be told Cranberry was someone who complained a lot about the heat, at least for someone who had the fire immunity skill, but apparently, the heat and fire were two completely separate things for the system.
"Graough... (I-I'll try, how about this?)"
Zombie groaned, honestly worried, and wrapped his right - barely functional - arm around Cranberry's torso while putting his left hand on her forehead and gently pressing her head against his chest.
"...nnn...! ...fhua...?! ...haa..."
Cranberry let out a series of rather questionable sounding gasps and then breathed out with a very satisfied expression.
"...haa... I could stay like this forever..."
She mumbled while nuzzling against the blue undead.
Suddenly her glowing ear twitched and she frowned and opened her eyes just a tiny bit - just enough to send a death glare to Rotte and Lairs, the two of the Dandelions who stopped working and we're staring at the Master-Servant pair dumbfounded.
"What? You want to complain about something?"
She asked provocatively while turning a bit and hugging Zombie's right arm protectively.
"No, no, everything's fine."
"Y-yeah, it's just that the fucking humidity and heat are fucking awful."
Both the warrior and the mage quickly denied everything and got back to work.
"Fuck me... even an undead gets more action than me... and he doesn't even fucking realize it!"
Lairs growled while skillfully cutting open yet another white wolf and skinning it in a matter of seconds.
"Tell me about it..."
Rotte nodded and sighed, plucking the feathers from the griffin's wing.
The time was passing in tranquility, no new monster appeared either so the master and the servant had nothing else to do.
"...Zombie... use that detection skill of yours just in case..."
Cranberry muttered sleepily, tapping Zombie's side.
"Graough! (Alright!)"
The blue undead groaned and his eyes started glowing.
"Graough, graough. (Two signatures approaching from the ground, and one coming from the air, all three are coming from the same direction.)"
He growled, removing his hand from Cranberry's forehead and pointing in the direction from where he saw the signatures.
"Do they look strong?"
The girl asked already reaching for her baseball bat beside Zombie's leg.
"Graough. (The two on the ground, no.) Graough... (But the one in the air...)"
The blue undead tilted his head and furrowed his brows.
"Graough. (It's like a griffin, but stronger.) Graough. (A lot stronger.)"
He groaned with confusion.
"Ha! Did a griffin lord or king actually spawned around here?"
Cranberry stood up excited, clenching her fist on the baseball bat so hard that her knuckles turned white.
"Wait, did you just said a griffin lord or king?! We need to run!"
Shanks was the only one who picked up on what Cranberry said and instantly dropped the tools for disassembling the monsters.
"Ah, right, you all go hide or something. Don't get killed."
The red-haired girl shrugged and shooed the shocked Dandelions away.
...the adventurers listened without hesitation...
"Zombie, as soon as the flying one shows up, down it."
Cranberry ordered while her body began shining with multiple active skills.
"Graough. (Will do.)"
Zombie nodded and he got enveloped by the purple light.
They waited for only a few seconds when the presence Zombie spotted approaching from the air, appeared between the trees.
"Graough...?! (What the...?!)"
Zombie gasped, having a hard time believing his eyes.
The beast that showed up could be classified as a griffin only if someone never saw a normal griffin before.
It was at least two or even three times larger than any of the griffins that Cranberry and Zombie faced before.
But just the size wasn't the only thing that differed.
The giant griffin that showed up was mostly black with its dark feathers and mane shining purplish in the sunlight.
It also had something akin to a crown of feathers on its massive head, and pure violet eyes staring right at the Master-Servant pair below.
"Emperor griffin! Extremely rare! Nothing changes, go!"
Cranberry shouted grabbing Zombie's shirt and threw him at the approaching monster.
"Graough! (Yes!)"
Using the force of Cranberry's throw and adding his own kick, that crushed the rock he was sitting on into dust, Zombie got to the emperor griffin so fast that he could as well telleport.
"SKWEEE! (DADDY!)"
The beast's deafening screech shook pierced through the air.
"G-graough?! (D-daddy?!) Graough...! (Don't tell me that you're...!)"
A moment of hesitation was enough for the griffin to get the first attack in, and it bodyslammed the shocked Zombie right into the ground, breaking a tree or two in the process.
*CRUSH*
Not to mention creating a massive crater in the forest soil.
"LEAVE MY ZOMBIE ALONE!"
Cranberry roared and charged at the monster trying to crush the blue undead with its massive body.
"Skwee?! (And mommy is here too?!)"
The griffin turned its head toward her and screeched aggressively.
...or that how it sounded like for someone who couldn't understand her.
"Graough! (Master! Stop!)"
Zombie's hand appeared from beneath the griffin's feathers and waved at the furious red-haired girl.
"Graough! (It's our Blueberry!)"
Zombie muffled growled was barely audible.
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