330 The Plow Worms
“What’s the matter, Asher?” Kiana said upon hearing his words. To her eyes, it was clear that they’ve entered the Aisse territory as he had wanted.
“Do we venture forward, Lord Asher?” Gellor asked.
“No.” Lucius shook his head, his gaze not leaving the sight before him. “We’ll set up a small camp for now and set watch”
“Understood. You hear that everyone, it’s time to set a camp.” Gellor quickly set out to work with the members of his group as Kiana stepped closer to Asher.
“We’ve reached where we wanted to be, right, Asher?” Kiana asked.
“Yes. So, now, what do you see, Kiana?” Lucius asked.
“I see… the Aisse territory, the place where we’re supposed to find the Plow Worms.”
“That is correct.” Lucius said as he took in the view.
The mountains and hills of the Aisse territory were completely different from any other similar environments that Lucius has been to.
One could see that there were several large holes in various places that seemed to come out of nowhere, and there were also mounds of dirt that were piled up randomly without any reason or rhyme to it.
Even to Lucius, who had seen humans from another world completely split and tear open a mountain to attack an enemy, this was still a strange sight to him.
It was almost like a giant had decided to play with the ground and became bored with it halfway as Lucius eyed the ravines that went deep between the mountains.
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“Is there anything wrong with it?” Kiana asked. “You look a little unhappy still, Asher.”
Lucius shook his head vehemently and glanced at her.
“On the contrary, we might as well have just found what we’re looking for. Judging by the size of the holes within the area, it’s not a stretch to say that one of the Plow Worms here at are least four meters thick, possibly more.”
“That’s incredible—I mean, it really would be dangerous just going there recklessly, wouldn’t it?” Kiana murmured as she eyed the several heaps of mounds and holes.
If an unsuspecting individual were to wander to this area at night, the idea that they’d end up falling into one of the chasms was not entirely unlikely.
“Excuse me, it would be great to sit down here for a while.” Albus cleared his throat and gestured to one of the rocks.
It was not a comfortable chair, but it was positioned in such a way that Lucius easily overlooked the environment. Lucius thanked the mercenary and then took a seat.
“Since we’re not quite sure how long we’ll be staying here and waiting for the Plow Worms to surface, it’ll be best to sit down and wait.” Lucius told Kiana.
“That sounds like a good idea.” Kiana said, and joined him. After a minute, she cleared her throat and glanced in Asher’s way. “Do… do we not have any idea from reading books or Master Kain though? He might have discussed this before in one of his lectures?”
“No. On the contrary, it’ll be quite a favor to those in the Artificer’s Guild if we were able to record all the information that we’re about to receive.” Lucius said. “Since the laws had asked these Plow Worms to be considered as a protected species, majority of individuals have left them mostly untouched and thus also not many know about its habits and tricks.”
“I see. What do you know already, Asher?” Kiana asked.
“I know that we’re already seeing one right now.” Lucius bit back a look of amusement as a Plow Worm exited a mountain’s side and pushed out a mound of dirt along with it.
“That’s… actually not so bad.” Kiana said.
“Indeed, it’s not.” Lucius watched the Plow Worm’s movements carefully, although all it did was excrete on the surface before entering another mountain again.
“Did it just… loose its bowels here?” Kiana scrunched up her nose, almost as if she could smell the stench from all the way they were standing in and turned to Asher. “That’s disgusting, but there’s something in its excretion, Asher. Do you want to send any one of Gellor’s men to check it out?”
“There will be of no need for any of that.”
Lucius chose to employ the telescope artifact that he once retrieved from June’s cache of supplies and used it to inspect the excrement from afar.
There were a lot of several shining spots in the excretion that Lucius quickly came to realize was metal ore.
It was what miners were looking for when they heard a Plow Worm was in the area.
This explained why miners loved and protected the Plow Worms as they made the lives of miner extremely easier if someone else was going to collect the minerals for them.”
“What do you see, Asher?” Kiana asked.
“It’s the ores. Plow worms consume dirt, detritus, tree roots, insects and another variety of items including any other rocks and minerals they encounter before coming to the surface to defecate.”
“I see… that’s interesting, Asher.” Kiana looked far from happy and eyed the creature with disgust. If she had a chance, she would stop Asher from all together approaching the Plow Worm and tell him that it was dangerous.
But she couldn’t stop him, even if she tried.
“After some time, I expect that their defecation is what has made those hill-like structures.” Lucius said as he eyed them.
“It’s impressive, but I think Plow Worms only stay where they are until they’ve fully depleted its every bit of last source.” Kiana recalled.
“That’s right, once they’ve consumed everything and left, it’s our moment where we come in and step right in after to collect what they’ve left for us. I can see why people chose to protect them.” Lucius acknowledged. “But the reason why we aren’t rushing down to check on them in person is quite evident enough, isn’t it?”
Kiana stared at the area before her and cleared her throat. “It’s dangerous to go there.”