The staff lowered their heads in silence, unable to answer.
They really couldn't ensure the safety of the two summoners inside the arena.
The twins and the staff, blocked by the magic barrier that was malfunctioning, could only stare at the dim arena behind the iron rail while praying for the mages to fix the barrier soon.
Please! Please! Hold on, everyone!
At such a crucial moment, the people inside the arena...they were bickering.
"Hey, fake summoner! It's too dark here. I can't see the monsters. Let your natal spirit and summon spirits light up the torches."
Castra called out to Mario and even though the entire arena was noisy with the sound of monsters, Mario actually heard what Castra said.
"What?? My spirits are not a fire lighter!"
"If you don't want your spirits to become a fire lighter, then how about they become living torches?"
Castra pointed at Archie's entire body that was bursting with flame, so bright that the area around Mario was like day and night compared to Castra's place.
Mario also looked at his natal spirit and two summon spirits who were all emitting flame around their bodies...he suddenly felt that what Castra said is true.
His spirits are living torches— ah no! No! Don't be fooled by that bastard!
He must be envious because he doesn't have any lighting!
"Hehehe, just say that it's too dark around you and it's bright around me! I won't lend my spirits to you!"
Mario put his hands on his waist and laughed like a villain, not realizing that the mysterious monsters pouring out of the hole rushed towards his group with a clear goal.
"DUUUU!" The monsters shrieked as they pounced towards the only source of light in the dark place!
"Ah! The hell!!" Mario immediately ran around the arena with Archie and the two beast spirits guarding him from behind.
"Help! Help! Someone helpppp!!!" Mario screamed as he fled to Castra, intending to seek support.
It was at this moment that Castra and the others finally saw the true image of the monsters that suddenly attacked them.
Those cockroach-like legs, a pair of "tong tweezers", weird-shaped horns and a glistening "shell" resembling a cockroach...
"That's a cockroach monster— "
Slap!
"Meow!! Stupid, hooman! That's a type of beetle monster, meow! Cockroach monsters don't have tweezers or strange horns!"
Garfin slapped Castra's head and Castra felt as if his brain shook for a second.
"S-sorry, sorry, your majesty, I don't know much about monsters..."
After all, he had just transmigrated to this world a few months ago!
He had only seen a handful of monsters, okay?
It was at this moment that the gut feeling became restless again.
With a familiar churning in his stomach, the Spirit World's notification sounded.
BEEP. [Passive skill Gut Feeling is triggered.]
[Gut Feeling: Hmmm, these monsters…they're at the same level as the gym bro rat…]
[Hmmm, hmm, there are just too many. It's better to die and rest in peace.]
Castra twitched his lips and was about to curse his useless skill when Mario, who also recognized the monsters chasing after him suddenly screamed with a pale face.
"Ahhh! An insect-type monster! Disgustingggg!"
Mario ran even faster and in a blink of an eye, he hid behind Castra's body while pointing at the cloud of dust approaching them.
"Fake spirit! Do something!!"
...how shameless.
Castra wanted to kick Mario out, but Archie and the two beast spirits also gathered around with stern faces.
"Wild spirit. This is not the time for an internal fight. We have to work together!"
Oh. Really?
Castra would believe Archie's wise words if not for the archer's trembling legs.
Like master, like spirit.
Both of them were afraid of insects!
Well, it's not as if he didn't want to help..
Castra looked at the cloud of dust with beetle monsters approaching them when Cecily suddenly exclaimed,
"Ah! Evelyone! Look! Those monstels...they ale lolling something!"
All the spirits plus one human subconsciously looked at the direction that Cecily pointed at and they saw a shocking scene.
The beetles at the front...they rolled the sand with their tweezers and the sand ball was getting bigger and bigger!
Not only that, as the monsters came closer, Castra and the others could smell a strange stench.
For Castra, it was a familiar stench.
[Isn't this the smell of *beep*?] Poo poked out of Castra's system panel and stared at the incoming monster with wide eyes.
[How come I feel that these beetles are familiar...⊙.☉]
[Yeah, I feel that way too, Poo.]
Castra clenched Llyod tightly and an ominous feeling creeped into his heart.
Don't tell him...
Castra's bad premonition came true because the next second, the spirit world's notification popped up in front of Castra.
BEEP! [Detecting animal sh*t.]
[Passive skill Absolute Scooper is triggered!]
PS: [Clean sum sh*t!]
!
"Ahhhh!! I know it!! Those sand balls aren't sand— "
They're poops!!
These bastards are the famous dung beetles!
These beetles are at least between E-rank to D-rank, and they move in groups of twenty or thirty at once!
Before Castra's body moved on its own because of the passive skill, he immediately used sacrificed Llyod.
"Go, Llyod! Please survive!"
Llyod the shovel flew into the air while trembling as it approached the "sand balls" and...snatched them.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
Llyod moved as fast as lighting, scooping all the "sand balls" and storing it into the system space.
The moment the poops disappeared, the system's notification rang in Castra's mind.
DUNG! [You have acquired a Dung Beetle's *beep* ball × 1]
DUNG! [You have acquired a Dung Beetle's *beep* ball × 1]
....
....
Llyod collected 10 "sand balls" in a short period of time and the size of the balls differed.
These "balls" were all stored inside a giant box, proudly entering the Poop Museum as the third collection.
The moment the third collection was in place, the system immediately chimed in cheerfully,
DUNG! [You have collected 3 types of *beep*!]
[Unlocking the *beep* mall]
A new interface popped up and this time, it looked like an online shopping platform but the currency wasn't money.
It was *beep*-shaped coins— Fecal Coins.
DUNG! [You can convert non-rare *beep into Fecal Coins!]
[You have 10 non-rare flame rat's *beep*, do you want to convert it into 10 Fecal Coins?]
[You have 10 non-rare dung bettle's *beep*. Do you want to convert it into 30 Fecal Coins?]
[PS: the size and weight matters!]
Castra almost dropped his jaw to the floor.
What?? A Poop mall? What's there to buy??
But since it's a system mall, it should have a lot of good stuff, right?
To think that the poops could be converted into money…
This…this...
Just when Castra was having an intense inner conflict, Mario suddenly shouted in horror,
"Hey, hey, hey! Look at those beetles at the back!"
Castra immediately looked at the beetles in the second row and saw them creating "sand balls" three meters tall.
Even worse...
The dung beetle monsters lifted such a gigantic "sand ball" with their tweezers and...
Threw the balls towards them.
!!
"AHHHHHH— "