CHAPTER 239: CHAPTER 238 - STRANGE CORRUPT BEAST.

The next morning came too soon and with too much Chicken noise.

"RISE AND RECONQUER, WARRIORS OF DESTINY!" Cluckles screeched from atop a boulder, wings spread wide like a self-important sunrise.

Raven sat up groaning, his hair a mess. "I literally told him not to do this."

"Technically," Clara yawned, "you told him not to wake you with rooster nonsense. That was sage nonsense."

Nibbles held up a sign. "Technicality Wins Again."

After some breakfast—mostly not involving eggs, out of respect—the group began their journey deeper into the Ashen Expanse.

The gray mists were thin this morning, and the eerie silence of the zone was unsettling.

Rufus walked ahead with his scanners sweeping. "You guys remember the spot?"

"Yeah," Jessy said. "It was somewhere near that broken cliff edge. Right after the screaming mushroom patch."

"I still don’t think mushrooms should scream," muttered Alex.

"Oh, the last one who should think that is you," Jessy snorted.

"We’re almost there," Lia added, glancing around nervously. "But still, it wasn’t like a normal beast. It... didn’t attack."

"It tried to say something," Siris confirmed. "Which was weird. We thought Nibbles could translate, but... squirrel diplomacy has limits."

Nibbles threw up his paws and pointed at himself with a ’What do you expect?’ expression.

They were talking about the corrupt beast they had seen when they came hunting yesterday.

It had appeared with a flash like an endgame boss, then, after trying to say something—which they didn’t understand—it vanished.

When they told Raven about it, he wanted to check it out since the Ashen Expanse was one of the places that was more unpredictable than the demons.

He didn’t want to go hunting demons, only to find out that the corrupted beasts in the Ashen Expanse had gone berserk and were now about to attack them from behind.

After all, the creatures here were just as dangerous as the demons when it came to power level.

It was then that Cluckles strutted confidently between them all. "Then let Cluckles handle this. For Cluckles speaks all languages of beast and bird—nay, even lizard and large mole!"

Raven blinked. "...You sure?"

Cluckles nodded gravely. "Cluckles is fluent in Pawinese."

"...That’s not a real language," Alex muttered.

Cluckles turned his head slowly and narrowed his chicken eyes. "Cluckles hears your heresy."

But then, the chicken saw Nibbles sitting above Alex’s head, staring at him with his eyes half-lidded like a bored emperor, and the chicken narrowed his eyes.

They exchanged a subtle nod before Cluckles turned away, muttering, "Cluckles is only sparing you because Cluckles respects your owner."

Alex could only scratch his head.

Just then, the wind shifted.

"Here we are," Clara whispered, pointing at a clearing near a stony ridge. "This is where we saw it."

The group halted.

But there was nothing.

"...Maybe it left?" Selena asked, glancing around.

"It’s possible," Rufus muttered. "After all, we saw the beast running away yesterday."

Lia, who was kneeling beside a plant that she had grown here yesterday, nodded. "I see."

She stood up, turning to Raven. "Leafy says that the beast was here a while ago, running around as if looking for someone."

"Leafy? She gave another plant a name?" Jessy muttered to herself.

"She’s going to run out of names if she keeps doing that," Clara added.

Cluckles, however, was surprised. "Cluckles has never seen a human talk to a plant."

Then, the chicken walked toward Lia, bowing its head slightly.

"Hear ye, beautiful maiden," Cluckles began. "Cluckles has decided to take you as his master. Please impart your knowledge about the plant language to Cluckles."

Lia merely tilted her head. "Sure."

She had seen a scene similar to this before, as almost everyone in the group had once behaved like that, only to give up, finding the language too hard to learn.

Even Siris, the fastest learner in the group, was the same.

Before Cluckles could reply—

Fwsh!

A flash of black fur shot across their vision.

Graye whirled. "THERE!"

Perched on the ridge just a few meters ahead, a sleek, panther-like beast stood proudly. Its body was long and graceful, muscles coiled like a coiled whip.

Its eyes shimmered silver—bright, intelligent, and bizarrely cheerful.

It was wagging its tail like a giant cat-dog hybrid, which was somewhat strange, and weird things were never a good sign in the Ashen Expanse.

The beast, on the other hand, hopped in its place.

Once.

Twice.

Then it flopped on its back and rolled with a grunt.

Nibbles squinted. ’Wut?’

"...It’s wagging," Clara noted. "Why is it wagging?"

It hadn’t done that last time.

All it did was wag its tail for some time before it vanished.

However, because of its unusual nature, the group had decided not to approach the beast, and perhaps it had sensed their alertness, so it had run away yesterday.

But then again, what was different today?

Was it because Raven was with them? Or was it something else? Perhaps it was because there was a beast among them who could understand it.

Speaking of the chicken—

Cluckles stepped forward.

"Because," he declared, flapping up onto a high rock, "BEHOLD!"

He struck a dramatic pose, chest puffed, wing outstretched toward the beast as if he were announcing a divine prophecy.

"This beast of twilight and fang... this panther of gloom and mystery... wishes to... play."

Everyone stared.

"...That’s it?" Asked Jessy.

Cluckles nodded solemnly. "Yes. It wishes to engage in joyous bonding via Zoomies (also known as frenetic random activity periods)."

The panther whined and did a twirl.

Rufus blinked. "This is the weirdest corrupt beast I’ve ever seen."

"Agreed," said Raven. "But... kinda cute?"

Jake nodded, his expression serious but his eyes gleaming.

The beast perked up at Raven’s voice and bounded over, pouncing low and giving a bark-grunt like a puppy seeing a new toy.

It circled him, tail wagging like a fan.

Selena giggled. "Oh, no. It’s imprinted on you."

"I already have one adorable, clingy murder creature." Raven gestured to Siris, who, unbothered, stepped closer to him and hugged him from the side.

"Yes, you have me," she purred.

Nibbles, however, raised a sign: ’Two’s a crowd. Three’s a riot.’

Alex bent closer to the panther. "Hey there, buddy... You corrupted? You evil? You want a treat?"

The beast pounced into a tree and clung upside down.

Then it fell.

Flat on its face.

Silence.

Then it got up and wagged again.

Cluckles raised a wing dramatically. "It wishes to play tag."

Graye cracked her knuckles. "I volunteer!"

Selena smiled. "Let’s all take a break and play. Just for a bit."

"...Is this really what we’re doing now?" Raven asked, watching as Jessy and Siris were already forming teams.

Cluckles puffed his chest. "To bond with a beast is to understand the wild soul!"

Nibbles pulled out a sign: ’Playtime or death.’

"...That escalated," Raven muttered.

But as the beast darted off, the group chased after it, laughing, joking, and flinging spells—just for show. For once, in the Ashen Expanse... they were simply kids again.

With a talking chicken. A shadow beast. A psychic squirrel. And zero common sense. It was perfect.

However, Raven knew that this fun was going to be short-lived, as Arietta would be sending a link soon.

It was already the next morning, and Arietta had said that she needed no more than one day to recover her divinity, so it was probably time for her to send a new link.

Thinking about Arietta, Raven, for once, couldn’t help but smile.

At first, she was someone Raven decided to play along with because he didn’t want trouble with a god, and she seemed to have no intention of harming anyone around him.

But soon, things changed.

He lived more than two hundred days in her domain, and as long as he stayed there, she—a beautiful goddess—had given all of her time to him.

Two hundred days was a long period for anyone, especially mortals.

So, after spending so much time with her, Raven had slowly started to feel that he could live with her. After all, despite being a yandere, she was still willing to lay her arms down before his other women.

She did say that she wouldn’t let anyone do anything to him while he stayed in the divine domain, but she didn’t stop the others when they kissed him or asked for cuddles.

Raven had realized that she was someone he could imagine his future with.

It was then—

Ding!

The sound of the system’s notification rang in Raven’s head, and without even opening it, he knew who it was.

[One New Message: Grandpa_Hot_Pot]

It was Arietta.