Ch.357Burning Star (1)

The volcanic activity on Askha44 is matched by its unique history.

80 years ago, the Emperor of the Cult Empire suddenly began a reign of tyranny.

The Emperor purged capable ministers and shamans, insulting the providence that the Cults worshipped. Meanwhile, a new faction that worshipped the Emperor occupied the parliament, nearly causing the empire to split apart.

The already corruption-ridden empire declined rapidly due to the mad Emperor. Countless Cults left their disappointing homeland for Megacorps, and vast wealth flowed to other powers.

The mad Emperor’s rule lasted for five years before ending. While engaging in orgies with dozens of slaves daily in his private palace, the Emperor was assassinated by the empire’s last loyal subjects.

Interestingly, a Space Dog was among the assassins. Though his exact role in the assassination remains unknown, it was enough to spark curiosity in many.

The Cult fairy tale “The Legend of the Pirate King Who Assassinated the Tyrant” was based on this event.

So what does the story of the mad Emperor have to do with the extreme environment of Askha44?

It’s because Askha44 is where the Emperor’s secret funds were stored. Some of the treasures from the imperial palace and the Emperor’s personal wealth were hidden in a secret palace on Askha44.

After the Emperor’s assassination and the complete collapse of the imperial faction, the secret palace was abandoned for a long time. Until a young Cult came looking decades later.

In a luxuriously decorated room.

A Volf with a mastiff’s head was admiring the view outside the window.

This palace, embodying the pinnacle of Cult technology, was built not on land but in mid-air. A gravity control device powered by the heat from the magma flowing below kept the entire palace semi-permanently afloat.

The kingdom of fire viewed from the floating palace was truly magnificent, but no emotion could be found in the Volf’s gaze.

“Lord Salman. The new cargo is ready.”

When the servant at the doorway called, the mastiff-headed Volf, Salman, turned his head.

“Are the carriers also prepared?”

“Yes. We’ve prepared people whose disappearance wouldn’t raise suspicion.”

“Good.”

Salman left the room with the servant.

Passing through a corridor decorated with expensive paintings, they arrived at an extremely spacious area.

Unlike other facilities that felt luxurious beyond extravagance, this place had no decorations whatsoever. The only mechanical devices were the lights on the walls and a dome-shaped gate replacing the ceiling.

Structurally, it looked like a place where spaceships would dock. However, what occupied the center of the space was far from a spaceship. A massive rocky mountain, as if a volcano had been transported there, filled the space.

And in front of that rock mass lay a creature.

Named Elemental Hodger, this creature resembled a hedgehog but spewed lava instead of blood. It’s one of the apex creatures inhabiting this planet.

Salman took a long spear handed to him by the servant and approached the Elemental Hodger. The giant carnivorous hedgehog, measuring 13 meters in size, glared at the much smaller Volf with wide eyes.

Approaching the Elemental Hodger, Salman silently poked it lightly with the spear.

“Grrrr.”

The monster growled softly. Salman, undeterred, moved closer and placed his hand on its head.

Then a strange thing happened.

The Elemental Hodger, which had been showing hostility until just now, suddenly lay down and exposed its belly to Salman. Not only that, but it began making affectionate crying sounds. It resembled a pet dog seeing its owner return home.

But no one present was surprised by this fact.

“Good. Just treat its major injuries and send it to the ‘Empress’.”

“I’ll prepare it right away.”

“Has the Magmasaur been found?”

“Five currently active volcanoes are presumed to be due to the Magmasaur’s movements.”

“Good. Deploy all personnel to track the Magmasaur.”

“Understood.”

After entrusting the Elemental Hodger’s handling to the servant, Salman glanced at the rocky mountain.

“Ah. And don’t forget to feed him too.”

“Yes.”

With those words, Salman left the place.

Even as other servants came in to move the Elemental Hodger, the rocky mountain remained completely still.

–

“Delicious!”

“Taste” “Stimulating”

A feast was held on a planet with unfamiliar scenery after a long time.

No. 26, who had grown larger, extended its tentacles to scoop up Lava Raptors, while Adhigh Orr stuck the tentacle bundle attached in place of a mouth into the prey and sucked up blood.

Everyone seemed focused on feasting, perhaps because they hadn’t had a satisfying meal since leaving Adhigh’s homeland.

Even the Sky Mother, who was usually reluctant to prey on wild animals, was enjoying the Lava Raptor meat.

She first cut the Lava Raptor into pieces, then skewered pieces of meat on the Golden Spear of Shaman. She then held it over flowing lava, cooking the meat with the heat.

When the meat surface was well-done and the fat between the flesh melted and dripped, she withdrew the spear and ate the meat.

“What? Why?”

[Zzzzz zzzzz (It’s nothing)]

She noticed my gaze and primly wiped her beak, which was covered in grease. I was about to tell her it was good to see her eating well, but I stopped.

‘I’m the same anyway.’

I was quite hungry after continuous FTL travel without rest. I did eat a pirate ship along the way, but it was far from enough to fill my stomach. Even with the dragon’s heart, hunger wasn’t completely resolved.

‘In the game, I didn’t have to worry about this.’

“Middle child, is that tasty?”

“Hm? Want one?”

“Yes yes!”

“Here.”

The Sky Mother took out a piece of meat and handed it to No. 26’s tentacle. It pulled the tentacle toward its body and put it in along with the meat. Then its body glowed brightly.

“Even tastier!”

“That” “delicious?”

“Yes!”

“Friend” “me too”

“You just called me an ugly friend earlier.”

“Deny” “pretty friend”

“I won’t fall for that anymore. Go away.”

“Mean” “mean” “mean”

Watching everyone enjoy their meal, I also tossed a Lava Raptor carcass into my mouth. Hot blood with a unique flavor wet my tongue. Despite being unseasoned raw meat, it had a spicy taste. If I had to compare, it was like grilled lamb with a moderate amount of cumin powder.

‘How should I describe the chewing sensation? It’s much softer than lamb.’

The texture was actually closer to rare beef than lamb, so there was quite a difference. Of course, the taste itself was still good.

‘And I gained an additional trait.’

After eating dozens of Lava Raptors, I was able to acquire one trait.

One of their biological features was well-developed hind legs. One of the Lava Raptor’s strengths was absorbed into my body.

‘Enhanced Hind Legs.’

As the name suggests, it’s a trait that improves the performance of the hind legs.

With ‘Enhanced Hind Legs’ applied, the muscle mass in my legs increased significantly compared to before. And inside my legs, a new biological duct was added besides blood vessels. Whenever I run or jump upward, a special fluid flows through this duct, reducing the strain on leg muscles.

To match the changed internal structure, the thickness of my legs also increased. I could already stand on two feet before, but now I can stand more stably.

‘It’s not an extremely necessary trait, but it’s better to have it than not.’

Actually, the trait I want to acquire on this planet can be obtained from another creature.

The strongest apex creature found on volcanic planets, the ‘Magmasaur’.

It’s a gigantic monster that constantly spews magma and fire from its body, classified as one of the upper-tier apex creatures.

Interestingly, despite its mighty power, it doesn’t eat meat. More precisely, it feeds on lava and energy emitted from volcanoes. Not many apex creatures are non-carnivorous, and it’s one of them.

‘Of course, not eating meat doesn’t mean it’s weak at all.’

The Magmasaur only inhabits the depths of volcanoes, making it quite difficult to hunt. Additionally, it possesses unique abilities that make it extremely challenging to face. Even in the game, I struggled to defeat it alone.

‘Well, that’s in the game. It’s different here.’

Currently, I have much better conditions than in the game. I have many friends to help me.

‘The problem is that it’s not easy to find.’

Given its characteristic of rarely emerging from the depths of volcanoes, we need to go find it ourselves.

And there are many volcanoes here. It would take considerable time to go in and out of each one to find the Magmasaur.

‘I can’t waste time looking for it.’

There are many tasks to handle on this planet: capturing the Volf ranker, raiding the equipment storage of the Return Faction that he guards, and gathering materials for equipment I need to make for the Sky Mother, among others. There’s a lot to pay attention to.

‘For now, capturing the Volf ranker and acquiring necessary traits are the top priorities.’

Finding the Volf ranker and other apex creatures would be faster than searching for the Magmasaur. As I was reorganizing which goal to pursue first, PS-111 approached me.

“I confirm that the structure of your hind legs has changed to a form similar to the ‘Lava Raptor’. I request a dissection experiment to examine the internal structure.”

[Zzz (No)]

It had been staring intently at my legs with its red camera lens. I refused since I had no intention of cutting my perfectly fine legs.

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Of course I’d object to cutting a perfectly good leg.”

Despite expressing disappointment, PS-111 narrowed its eyes while looking at my legs. Seeing this, Isabelle shook her head.

[Zzz zzz (How does it taste?)]

“To be honest, it’s more delicious than any food I’ve ever eaten in my life.”

As if she found it strange herself, she extended an arm near her head to wipe her mouth. Then she poked a Lava Raptor on the ground with her tail, which had Gallergorn’s claws. She held the meat close to the lava to cook it.

“Pretty child” “me” “one” “give”

“You want some? Wait a moment, I need to cook it.”

“Pretty child” “nice” “ugly friend” “bad”

“…Look at that nasty lizard. Sheesh.”

‘I’m glad they’re eating well.’

I also extended my combat arm to eat another Lava Raptor. Just as I was about to eat, my auxiliary organ sensed subtle vibrations in the air.

‘What’s that?’

I stopped eating and raised my head. In the dark sky obscured by volcanic ash, a small light was visible.

That’s not a star.

“AMorph?”

“Why suddenly… huh? An aircraft?”

[Zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz (It’s coming this way)]

A mysterious aircraft is approaching us.

There were no other carrier-based aircraft or patrol ships visible nearby. It would take just a few minutes to deal with that one.

‘No. Rather than that….’

This planet, with no terraforming whatsoever, is not conducive to human habitation. So that aircraft likely came from one of the few artificial habitats on this planet.

‘And that habitat probably contains the Volf ranker and equipment storage I’m looking for.’

If I follow that aircraft, I won’t have to search for habitats one by one.

Having made up my mind, I struck the ground forcefully with my wing arm. The ground cracked, creating a large hole.

[Zzz zzz (Everyone hide)]

I put the others in the hole and used the membrane of my wings to cover it with soil and rock fragments. Then I jumped into nearby lava.

The depth of the stagnant lava wasn’t enough to completely hide my large body, but I have traits.

‘Dark Veil,’ which can evade electronic detection, and ‘Camouflage,’ which activates when staying still in one place for several minutes. By using these two concealment traits together, I could avoid being detected by that aircraft.

As I hid my body, the aircraft passed over our heads. They were heading toward the volcano I had used when entering the planet.

‘Do they have business at the volcano?’

I thought they would just pass by, but suddenly they changed course and landed near where we were. Then two people wearing thick reinforcement suits resembling spacesuits disembarked from the aircraft.

“Why did these Lava Raptors die en masse?”

“Maybe they got caught in a volcanic eruption?”

“This isn’t their territory. There’s no reason for them to come here and die.”

“Let’s collect samples first.”

Based on their conversation, they seemed to be researchers. One took out tools from a kit attached to their abdomen to collect samples from the corpses, while the other used a lantern to examine traces like footprints in the surroundings.

Then the researcher following footprints with the lantern shouted loudly.

“Hey! Look at these footprints!”

“What now… Whoa?! What is this?”

“…This isn’t Dread Song’s territory, right?”

“Of course not. No one can enter there.”

“Damn, then what is this? Is there a creature we don’t know about?”

“Could these be traces of a Magmasaur?”

At that moment, I heard familiar creature names in their conversation.

‘Dread Song and Magmasaur?’

“That’s absurd. Would Lava Raptors be crazy enough to attack it? They’d just run away.”

“Then what are these footprints?”

“If I knew that, would I be here… huh?”

“What? Did you figure it out?”

“No, it’s not that. These footprints, why do they end here?”

“Huh?”

The researchers following my footprints stopped in front of the lava where I was hiding. I could feel their gaze on me.

‘This works out well.’

I had only thought about secretly following the aircraft, but I got a better idea.

I rose from my position.

“Uh? That thing is moving?”

“Earthquake….”

When I raised my body, their conversation stopped abruptly.

I licked the lava dripping from my snout with my tongue and asked them:

“Magmasaur and Dread Song. How much do you know?”

These people might make useful guides.