Monster Taming Broadcast

30 minutes had passed since we started moving on a giant caterpillar, guided by Solorb.

Meow!

Meow!!!

Meeooow!

We discovered a location swarming with cat crabs.

The estimated number was about two hundred.

It was a mass larger than the group of jellyfish, at least twice the size.

“That’s a lot.”

[Pururu] — For real, it’s kind of creepy with that many around.

[Mysticism] —

Is their race inherently aggressive?

As soon as the cat crabs spotted us, they launched an attack without a hint of hesitation.

Some charged recklessly.

Others threw compressed liquid.

Before we knew it, we were surrounded, but all their attacks were blocked by the blood shield deployed by the Jellyfish Princess.

Hahaha! Not gonna work!

The charging cat crab bounced off the shield, and the flying compressed liquid was absorbed and vanished.

With their attacks futilely ending, our counterattack began immediately.

Son. It’s fine as long as you don’t kill them, right?

“Yeah. Try not to injure them too much. The Medical Mushroom is having a tough time.”

Got it, my cute son.

Niarah Nepensys lightly swung her right arm.

In response, a small black hole formed in the air.

Meow!

Meooow!!!

The cat crabs were being sucked into the black hole.

Then Niarah swung her left arm, and a white hole appeared, causing the cat crabs absorbed by the black hole to pour out from the white hole.

The sight of the spilled cat crabs was bizarre.

It seemed Niarah distorted the space below the white hole, as hundreds of cat crabs were overlapping like a graphic glitch, alive and squishing together.

[Yumi] — What even is that…?

[Mysticism] —

[Pururu] — It looks like they’re overlapping in a star.

[Boglebogle] — Did she distort space?

[Rize Nova] — Seems like it. Those cat crabs might be perceived as being in varying dimensions.

Niarah smiled and called the Puppetmaster.

Hey, Necro? Come over here.

Call me Master.

Oh my, isn’t it a bit awkward for my son’s friend to call me Master? If you see your friend’s mother that way, it can’t be good.

….

[Pururu] — That crazy lady is losing it.

[Mysticism] — Seriously, she’s gone off the deep end.

Anyway, I’ve gathered them all in one spot for you to mind control easily.

Hmm… it seems the space where the cat crabs are bound is in a dimension slightly misaligned with ours… Can I use my ability even in this state?

Of course. That area is a temporary sub-dimension, so we can intervene from this higher dimension anytime. However, we can’t interfere from there into our current dimension. Hehe.

Got it. Thanks for your help.

The Necro Puppetmaster began to use mind control on the cat crabs entangled in the sub-space.

Mind control can usually be used on multiple targets at once.

According to the Puppetmaster, they could control about three or four targets simultaneously if they were S-Class.

But that wasn’t the case now.

Because the cat crabs were slightly misaligned in their dimensions, she had to use mind control one by one.

Well, it didn’t really matter since it wouldn’t take long anyway.

As Kinogine Aracne dropped threads onto the bound cat crabs to incapacitate them, mind control was working immediately.

[Yumi] — Yet it seems no matter how many there are, these are not a match for the monsters from Gun.

[Pururu] — For real, it feels like a slaughter.

[Mysticism] —

[Boglebogle] — The monsters from Gauntlet are just way too strong, making the cat crabs look weak in comparison. But don’t forget each of them is S-Class.

[Boglebogle] — Imagine if there were over 200 of them. You really get how insane that group of cat crabs is, right?

[Mysticism] — Not getting it.

[Pururu] — Hey, Alice, you’re hopeless. Haha.

[Rize Nova] — The Boglebogle’s the strongest among our assistants.

Niarah picked out the successfully mind-controlled cat crabs from the sub-dimension.

Then she took one at a time and moved them in front of me.

Here, take this, son.

“Thanks.”

Having been bound and lost their aggression due to mind control, I started the taming operation, flipping them around and looking for spots.

[Pururu] — Feels like a fish market.

[Mysticism] —

[Rize Nova] — Looks delicious.

One, two, three…

It took on average about 20 seconds to tame each.

I was even faster than when taming the jellyfish group.

Counting up, I kept taming the cat crabs, and before long, I had successfully tamed them all.

The exact number was 219.

Adding the one I tamed before coming here, I’d tamed a total of 220 cat crabs.

Meow~

Meow!

“I guess they’re cute after taming.”

[Mysticism] — From savage cats to sweet kitties!

[Boglebogle] — They look like a totally different race once they calm down.

[Yumi] — They were cute before taming, but they became even more adorable now.

[Pururu] — Not cuter than our little race.

Holding one cat crab, I flipped it over and observed its appearance slowly.

It felt cuter than a dog spider.

It was adorably charming enough for even regular people to find appealing.

“Solorb, do you want to take one and raise it?”

[That one?]

“Yeah. You love cats.”

[…That’s not a cat.]

I thought of generously sending a little creature to Solorb’s world, but it seems they have pretty high standards for cats.

Anyway.

Today’s gathering of town residents ends here.

We decided to put the cat crabs to work at the desert town construction site and have our search team return to the hideout.

*

61st day in the labyrinth.

After having breakfast prepared by Merino.

We crossed the warp device into the desert once more with the monsters.

The members had slightly changed.

The Blood Jellyfish Princess and Niarah Nepensys were gone, and Black Magma Slime and Azelas came along.

For this desert town recruitment operation, Kinogine Aracne and Necro Puppetmaster were fixed members.

Everrelarel!

The giant caterpillar came out to greet us.

Maybe it was happy to see us frequently now, as its big face was full of satisfaction.

Its mouth was grinning so wide, it was reminiscent of a giant puppy.

[Yumi] — So cute. Haha.

[Boglebogle] — Where exactly?

[Mysticism] —

Today, we planned to search in the opposite direction from yesterday.

Specifically, we intended to survey the area without passing any rocks from where we first encountered the cat crabs, searching in the direction opposite from those rocks.

“But why is it so dark today?”

It wasn’t pitch black.

But the desert was shrouded in a dim light like dusk.

Curious, I looked up at the sky.

The solar-type monster Solorb, known for its intense light.

Today, the flames that were usually blazing from its body were relatively subdued.

[Pururu] — Didn’t it change when it descended low to the ground last time too?

[Yumi] — That’s right. It was in a subdued state then too.

[Rize Nova] — It’s slightly different from last time. Back then, it became subdued, but it was still emitting light.

Did something happen to its body?

Or is it perhaps sleeping?

Just as a question crossed my mind…

— [Gauntlet. You don’t need to worry about that. Solorb is just manifesting in its inner world.]

I heard the voice of Bastet Daong from Iris.

I immediately turned my gaze toward Iris.

Bastet’s face was filling the screen, giving me a slightly burdensome view.

“Oh. So you mean it descended into its inner world, right?”

— [Exactly. Solorb often ventures into the world within itself to play with us. When it does, the external flames subside.]

This was another new bit of knowledge for me.

It can directly venture into its own world.

Well, I guess it’s only natural, considering it’s the one that created and governs that world.

I rode on the caterpillar with the monsters and asked Bastet Daong again.

“In that inner world, is Solorb the same as now?”

— [No. In our world, Solorb appears in different forms each time. Mostly it looks similar to me, though.]

[Yumi] — So it can change its appearance as it wishes in the world it contains.

[Pururu] — I wonder if it can take on a human form.

[Boglebogle] — It would probably be possible if it wanted to.

[Mysticism] —

If I ever get the chance…

I started to think about visiting the world Solorb holds.

Maybe the form it manifests there would also have red spots.

If that’s the case, taming it would be simple without needing to search the vast surface of the planet-class monster Solorb.

‘Once we get a bit closer, I’ll have to ask casually if I can come to visit.’

With those thoughts in mind.

When I looked ahead again to search, I spotted something.

Caw! Caw!

[Yumi] — Huh?

[Mysticism] —

[Pururu] — Another hideously looking one showed up. Damn.

[Rize Nova] — It looks cool to me.

[Boglebogle] — Oh? It’s the Flame Demon Lord!

A single crow appeared in front of us.

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