I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 108

“Don’t worry, Destiny,” I spoke close to her ear. “We’ll protect you with our lives.”

A slight blush went up her neck in reaction to my comment, and Shui shot me a look of fury. I could already guess what he was thinking. Who was the one protecting her here? He was at the entrance keeping the wolves back while I was taking every opportunity to flirt with his woman! I let out a cough, just barely managing to keep myself from chuckling as I imagined his thoughts.

“Don’t act so smug,” he finally broke. “You’re the reason we’re trapped here!”

I raised an eyebrow. “I think if you remember properly, you’ll realize that you’re the reason we are here at all.”

He took a step forward. “Did you want to fight?”

Destiny stepped between the pair of us, her hand touching my chest, and held up toward him who was still several steps away. When she felt my chest, Shui’s expression darkened and she pulled back her hand like it had been burned, her cheeks seeming to glow in the torchlight.

“Look, it doesn’t matter right now whose fault it is,” she declared. “We’re all here now. We need to escape.”

“Hmph,” Shui snorted. “There is nothing to worry about. This cave is protected. The wolves’ only strength is when they can hide and have room to maneuver. Neither of these advantages exists within this cave. We’ll simply take turns standing guard. Should any wolf attempt to come in, we’ll send them on their way. Come morning, we’ll leave quickly and be out of this valley before they even realize it… what are you doing?”

As he was giving his inspirational, riveting speech, I had started to dig through the piles of bones. As I found items, I pulled them out and put them to the side. The commotion I was making had caught Destiny’s interest, and when her eyes stopped looking toward Shui with hope, he finally turned and addressed me.

I picked up the skeleton I had taken out originally and began to strip it of the leather armor. “This was a D-rank adventuring group, right? I figured the items they had on them might be useful. We might need these things.”

I detached a wristband and then put it on my wrist. It seemed to be roughly my size, not that I couldn’t change my size if I found the dimensions of the armor uncomfortable. Like that, I started to dress myself in the armor of the dead man. Destiny looked a bit uneasy by my macabre actions, but Shui looked outright disgusted.

“You’re going to loot the graves of the dead?” he demanded.

“I mean, this is a bone pit, not a grave, and it’s not like they’re going to need any of this equipment anyway.”

“Hmph, a commoner with no morals at all. See, Destiny? People like him have no scruples.”

Some of the leather had some cuts and teeth marks on it, but for the most part, it was better than nothing. However, the weapon, a long one-sided blade that resembled a katana didn’t look bad at all. I had never used a weapon before, but if I was going to defend myself in this world, it seemed less conspicuous than depending on my tricks as a single-celled organism. The stuff in the best shape though was a bag which was filled with a variety of supplies. There was rope, bedding, flint and stone, and numerous other items that were smart to bring on an overnight trip. There had been rations too, but they were on the outer pocket which had been ripped off by a wolf. This was also what kept the rest of the pack intact.

That’s when I noticed a small box that was in the clutches of a skeleton deep within the pile. I reached down and pulled the box out of his tight grip and then put it on the edge of the hole. After a few moments of tinkering with it, I figured out how to hit the latch, and then the item opened with a snap. Immediately, a glow filled the room. No one could help but look down at the box, even those who were supposed to be watching the entrance carefully.

“What is it?” Destiny approached me, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

I reached in and pulled out an amulet. The chain was made of gold, and the jewel encased within was an emerald which gave off a greenish light. A tingling feeling told me that it had some kind of mana power, but it was anyone’s guess what it did.

“Um… it’s customary to divide the spoils of an expedition evenly,” Shui suddenly announced, his eyes shining with greed.

“I wouldn’t want a major family to lower themselves into unscrupulous behavior of grave robbery,” I responded, lifting the amulet out of the box carefully as everyone’s eyes followed it.

“I-it’s a bone pit… an animal’s pile of rubbish. It was left in a box waiting to be found. It would be a crime not to reclaim such an item. It would be a perfect payment for our services in saving you.”

“Services?” I snorted. “Didn’t you come along as a volunteer mentor? I seem to recall the contract stating that you cannot keep any of the spoils of this request.”

It was a method to keep things exactly like this from happening. If a higher-level team accompanied a lower-level team, they could just not help them and let them die so they could loot their equipment, or in the event the lower-level team found something they envied. All of the equipment they returned with would be repossessed by the city that managed the request board. Once the team returned without the other team, an inquiry would be put in and someone would be sent out to investigate what happened.

It was generally expected that a team recover the equipment and valuables of the other team unless they were in danger and couldn’t do so. At that point, another team’s investigation could determine if their story was valid. Before Shui could respond, there was a scream.

“Ahhh!” Everyone turned back to see a wolf had entered the cave and grabbed onto the nearest guard, who had fallen forward as the wolf held tightly onto his ankle. “Help…”

That was all he could say before the wolf pulled him right out the door. Shui let out a curse.

“Keep your eyes on the entrance, you morons!” Shui shouted at the remaining guards who had been watching the amulet in my hands just as fervently as Shui.

“Watch out.” I grabbed Destiny’s wrist and pulled her toward me as I got out of the pit.

The amulet had been tossed into my luminal space when no one was looking, and I had already put the backpack up on my back. With the leather armor, sword at my hip, and the bag on my back, I looked like I was properly attired for this request, even if the armor and bag were a bit beaten up.

“You…” Shui glared at me as he saw me once again taking liberties with Destiny, but before he could get out his complaint, there was a low growl.

His expression turned serious as he looked toward a dark corner of the cave. There was the sound of soft steps on rock, but they slowly manifested into a large creature on all fours that was nearly as tall as Destiny. It was naturally a wolf, but this one was nearly twice the size of the others. Its red fur seemed to take in the torchlight and reflect it, making the creature itself almost look like it was on fire too.

“The alpha! How did he get in here?”

Although I had already noticed, Shui didn’t realize that there was a small pathway hidden in the shadows. From the angle we entered, it was nearly impossible to tell, but my mana sense had already determined that this cave was just the entry to a massive network of caves that spread throughout the entire mountainside. It was very complex and went exceptionally deep, but the wolves had settled in the upper portions of it.

It made sense when they led us to this cave that they were only setting us up to fall. This was their meat pit, but why drag your meat all the way here when you could just trick them into entering on their own? The wolf let out a loud howl, and the cursing Shui pulled his weapon.

“Keep an eye on the exit, I’ll handle him!”  He raced at the leader.

The two slammed into each other. There was an earsplitting sound when the wolf’s claws met with the Shui’s sword. Both were forced to back up, but the force was also enough to push Destiny back. She grabbed onto me to keep me from being slammed into a nearby wall.

“Let’s go.” I grabbed her and pulled.

“Huh? Where?” She asked, but she allowed me to pull her through the crack.

I intended to just move her out of the way of the fight because it’d be too troublesome to protect her, but that’s when my danger sense triggered. I pulled her farther back as an explosion seemingly sounded out and a moment later there was a low moan.

“Destiny, watch out!” I heard Shui’s voice cry out.

But his warning was immediately muffled by a roar. rocks began to fall from the roof. There was a cave-in, with rocks and dust falling just behind us. I heard a whine which immediately got cut off as the alpha was caught in the downfall. We would have been crushed too, but I lifted my hand and caught a boulder that threatened to squash us before pushing it to the side. It landed in front of us with a loud thud.

That seemed to be the end of the cave-in. As the smoke cleared, we were trapped on the other side of the pathway.