Chapter 20:

Chocobo

The Noble Demon King


On the bulletin board in the Town, there would usually be notices about who needed help at home and how much they would pay.

This was also a way for these people to support each other.

Now that monsters were running rampant everywhere, they didn't care if you were human or demon; they would attack without hesitation.

Because of this, the bulletin board now had many requests for monster subjugation, including descriptions of the monsters' appearance and their locations.

Many of the notices were written by the same person, probably because not everyone could write and had to ask others for help.

Most of the people posting notices were lumberjacks, fishermen, or miners who needed to go out of the Town for work, and it was indeed very dangerous if they were ambushed by monsters while working.

Caelan's gaze swept across the bulletin board; although his literacy was still a bit lacking, he could generally understand by combining the context and the simple diagrams drawn.

After reading all of them, Caelan first picked out two requests.

One was posted by a miner from a nearby iron mine, who had discovered a Skeleton Crawler in the mine, and the other was from a lumberjack, who had been attacked by a group of Chocobos while cutting trees.

First, the Skeleton Crawler—as the name suggests, it's a type of Undead, usually formed from a mixture of corpses from multiple races; its body is much larger than a typical Skeleton Soldier, and it moves on all fours, sometimes with a tail, and its head may not necessarily be a human head or a beast's head.

Depending on the materials that make up its body, the Skeleton Crawler's combat effectiveness can vary significantly.

Furthermore, because they retain a certain degree of their bestial nature from when they were alive, these Undead will also attack chaotic races—in fact, this is the normal state for Undead; Skeleton Soldiers, with their less aggressive nature, are actually the minority.

For Caelan, Undead don't need to eat and are essentially immortal, which is very cost-effective.

Then there were the Chocobos… these are giant, ostrich-like birds with very developed lower limbs but no ability to fly; in some places, they are trained as mounts, and while their stamina is not as good as horses, their off-road capability is much stronger, and they are also more agile.

Caelan's main purpose in catching Chocobos was for breeding; these birds can grow to four or five hundred jin when adult, making them very suitable for training cavalry later or for eating.

As for whether he could raise them… that would be a problem for later; he had to try first.

Besides these, there were a few other things on the bulletin board that Caelan paid attention to, such as Sword-tailed Flying Lizards and Trolls… but those either had unclear locations or Caelan currently had no means to deal with them, so he could only leave them for now.

“Are you leaving now?”

Seeing Caelan, who was about to leave the Town with the request forms, Gregg was also puzzled.

Just now, he was at the entrance insisting on coming in, and now he'd only been inside for half a turn, hadn't even rested, and was already leaving again; these master mages' thoughts were truly incomprehensible.

However, he had nothing to say; wherever the master mage wanted to go, he would go.

Caelan, on his part, acted swiftly; after asking Gregg about the locations on the requests, he immediately left the Town, called for Stone, who was hiding and sleeping in the nearby bushes, and headed into the forest.

The first thing to do was to catch that group of Chocobos.

One reason was that the location seemed a bit closer, and another was that Chocobos are quite active, so the later he went, the farther they would run.

As for the Undead… as long as no one bothered them, they would still be in the same place even after a hundred years, so there was no rush.

“…This lumberjack said he saw the Chocobo flock heading west when he returned to the Town yesterday evening… Chocobos don't have strong stamina and move in groups, so they shouldn't have gone too far…”

Sitting on Stone's back, Caelan held a spike on Stone's back with one hand and the map sketch drawn by Gregg with the other, seemingly contemplating his next move, but in reality, he was wondering if he should add a cushion for Stone.

Dragon scales were indeed a bit poky; no wonder Dragon Riders all wore full plate armor…

The lumberjack's activity range was not far, and after a short while, Caelan saw clearly cut wood ahead, indicating he had arrived at the location.

“Stop here.”

Caelan patted Stone's back and then dismounted.

“You stay here; don't move around.”

Stone immediately stood still obediently.

A group of Chocobos moving together would surely leave large footprints; as long as he followed the footprints, finding them would not be difficult.

But if Stone ran around and rolled everywhere, no amount of footprints would be useful.

“It says here… on the way back, when he reached a slope, he saw a group of Chocobos walking past below the slope…”

Caelan followed the description on the request, found the lumberjack's previous location, and looked down—

A line of deep, huge bird claw prints was clearly imprinted in the mud.

“…Haha, found them.”

Caelan smiled contentedly, then gestured to the Beast Dragon behind him.

“Stone, follow!”

“Roar!”

The Noble Demon King