The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 175

Chapter 175: Prince Ansu
“T-this much?” Reid stuttered out as he saw the notification on his watch.

Garrick had just transferred two hundred thousand credits to him.

“The military was too stingy to fork out more,” the old man grumbled, “but a Gold-rank Forged-Beast doesn’t show up every day. Especially with its ability to be evolved.”

“You sold the flame Hornet?” Reid asked in surprise.

Of course he had given the go ahead to sell it, but he hadn’t expected the old man to get a buyer this quickly.

“Yeah,” Garrick nodded before a frown appeared on his face, “although I should’ve asked for a bit higher.”

“No no,” Reid shook his head “this is more than enough Master, thank you.”

Two hundred thousand credits was more than enough for him. Heck, besides his basic necessities, there was hardly anything else he spent his credits on.

Garrick gave a short grunt, as if brushing off the thanks, but Reid caught the slight smirk at the edge of his master’s lips.

“Don’t get soft on me now,” the old man muttered, turning away to fiddle.. erm work with some tools on a nearby workbench. “You earned it.”

“Now leave me be, I have a lot more to work on,” Garrick shooed him away as he continued pretending to work.

“Ember asked me to try and get you out of the lab” Reid informed as the armor transformed back to his working overalls, “so I’ll be taking over for today.”

Garrick paused what he was doing and turned to Reid with a light frown on his face before asking, “how long have I been in here?”

{Two days,} Ember was the one who replied.

Garrick blinked in surprise. “Two days?”

“Yeah,” Reid nodded, “no wonder you were passed out when I walked in.”

“I see,” the old man muttered, “I guess I must’ve been so absorbed in the runes that I didn’t notice time passing.”

Garrick put down his tools and stretched before taking off his gloves.

“Alright, apprentice,” Garrick said, stretching his back with a grunt and pointed to a certain work desk”I’ll go grab something to eat. While I’m gone, just follow the instructions on those blueprints, make sure you don’t blow anything up.”

“Yes master,” Reid nodded and moved towards the work desk Garrick pointed to.

“Keep an eye on him, Ember”

{Yes master Garrick.}

Garrick wasn’t actually worried about Reid blowing up his lab, after all, the kid had proved himself capable of handling any type of forging.

But he had a grouchy appearance to keep up and he couldn’t let the kid know that he had actually developed a soft spot for him.

After Ember’s reply, Garrick walked out of the forge lab, leaving Reid and the watching Ember.

Reid scanned the blue prints, noting that they were for silver rank forged beasts and a couple were for weapons.

“Alright, let’s get started” Reid tapped on the compartment that revealed the materials needed, immediately starting the forging.

_____________

Meanwhile, in the isolated continent.

“Are you sure this is the place?” A brown skinned man, with multiple tribal markings on his skin asked.

They were the warriors dispatched by the king to hunt the three headed beast but when they arrived at the location where it was last seen, there was nothing here.

Neither the beast nor the bodies of their fellow warriors was in sight.

“I swear this is the location on the map.” The warrior who led them to this location said.

Just like the first man who spoke, this one also had tribal markings of the same kind, except there was a lot less on him.

“Then where is the beast?” The first warrior asked with a frown on his face, “or the corpses of our brothers.”

The forest they were in didn’t even seem to have been a ground of battle. There wasn’t even a drop of blood anywhere which was strange.

But before the second warrior could say anything in reply, a voice interrupted them.

“What is going on here?”

All the warriors immediately dropped to one knee, fists pressed to the ground and heads bowed.

The man who spoke earlier—the one with the most markings—was the first to raise his head slightly.

“My Prince,” he said, his tone reverent as he immediately recognized the voice. “We tracked the beast to this location, but… there’s nothing here. No trace of the creature. No signs of battle.”

The kneeling warriors made way for the speaker to pass through.

Walking through the way was a tall man with muscles that stood as a testament of his strength.

Like all the other warriors, he also had tribal markings on his body but unlike them, he even had some on his hand, almost making a sleeve.

In his hand was a spear and he wore clothes made from the skin of primals. Every step he took gave testament to the amount of power he held.

This was the first child of King Amsu, Prince Ansu.

Ansu walked towards the two warriors at the fore front before surveying the area around them with a frown.

He then turned to the the warriors with lesser markings and asked “Bolu, are you sure this is the place?”

“Yes my Prince,” the warrior identified as Bolu answered before proceeding to show a holographic map “this is the last place our warriors were.”

The prince nodded before and looked around once again, the frown on his face getting darker.

Thinking that the prince was displeased with Bolu, the warriors with more tribal markings, Sholu, spoke up

“Forgive him my Prince,” Sholu started “I think Bolu had one too many palm wine last night so his map reading skills are not at its best today.”

The prince said nothing, his eyes still darting around, as if searching for something.

Suddenly, he spotted what his was looking for and the spear in his hand started glowing gold before he hurled it towards a certain direction.

For a moment, all the warriors were confused as to the reason behind his action but it made sense a second later when the space around them started cracking before it shattered like glass.

“An illusion,” Prince Ansu said as the spear return back to his hand, “it’s been a while since I faced someone capable of using illusions.”

The true form of the forest was finally revealed and everywhere around them lay corpses of their fallen warriors.

Both Sholu and Bolu drew in cold breaths as they took in their the spectacle. Surrounding them were multiple primals but that’s not what gave them the chills.

The real reason they froze was standing right in front of them.

A ten feet, three headed dog with a tail that resembled a scorpion’s. One of its heads growled growled at them, the other drooled a venomous fluid that sizzled upon hitting the earth, and the one in the middle just stared calmly at prince Ansu with eerie intelligece.

Bolu took a cautious step back, instincts screaming at him to flee, but Sholu and the other warriors held firm, spear raised.

But what was even more terrifying was the being that sat atop the three headed dog.

It sat quite upright, like a human riding his steed would but that’s where any similarities with humans stopped.

It had black curved horns protruding out of its head, and an exoskeleton like red armor enveloping it. It also had a tail that swung behind it and lastly, its claws looked like they they tear through a human with the slightest bit of movement.

Just its presence was enough to make some of the weaker minded warriors almost kneel as their feet trembled in fear.

“I’m impressed that you could see through my illusion,” their fear factor immediately skyrocket when they heard the being spoke, “anyway, I was getting bored of dealing with just the ants.”

Its voice wasn’t grating or scary but something about it sent a chill down the spines of the warriors.

“But they only sent me a slightly bigger ant,” the being continued, sounding unsatisfied.

Prince Ansu gripped his spear tighter as he face this creature… whatever it was.

He was a bit scared too but more than scared, he was excited…. Yes, excited.

“It has been a while since I faced a strong creature,” He spun the spear in his hand “I hope you’re not just all talk.”