High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1158: Chapter 220: The Timid Cat

The witches had been performing basic detection tasks for over two hours now.

It was clear that they were doing it very earnestly and carefully, not only testing the basic effects of the Law Books, potions, Talismans, etc., but also measuring many basic constants—constants that few Hunters would bother to calculate in many of the formal Hunting Competitions.

Zheng Qing guessed that this might have something to do with their plans to set up an Array in this Secret Realm. When constructing an Array, any small mistake could lead to a major disaster, and the variation of the world’s basic constants was most likely to cause corresponding errors.

The Black Cat lay on a patch of grass, pondering aimlessly.

Although it seemed somewhat lazy, the Black Cat was still very dedicated to its responsibilities. Even while lying down on the ground, it kept its ears perked and whiskers touching the ground, ready to detect any abnormal movement around it at any time.

As a result of this alertness, not far behind the Black Cat, there were already ten dead rabbits lying in all directions.

”Come to think of it... why are there so many rabbits here?” the Black Cat mused, its thoughts drifting to those rabbits. It couldn’t help but speculate, ”Could it be that all the wolves in this Secret Realm are dead? Have rabbits become the most formidable creatures, and thus proliferated?”

Zheng Qing didn’t know if there were wolves in this area, but he vaguely remembered that this territory used to belong to those Mouse-Wolf-like ’Star Apes.’ And Fei Rui had taken all his disciples with him when he fled.

Perhaps these rabbits had originally been the animals bred by Fei Rui’s disciples as food, and after the harvesters left, the rabbits lost their natural predators and were finally able to proliferate in great numbers.

Feeling like he had deduced the truth behind the scenes, the Black Cat felt in high spirits and couldn’t help but curl the tip of its tail slightly, its gaze softening a bit as it looked at the dead rabbits.

Then its gaze fixed.

Just now, one of the dead rabbits seemed, perhaps, maybe, to have moved a little?

It could have been an illusion, as the Black Cat stared at that dead rabbit for quite a while but didn’t see it move again, so it let out a big sigh of relief in an exaggerated manner.

”It must have been a trick of the eye... I mean, how could a dead rabbit possibly move?” the Black Cat muttered to itself, turning its head away and looking back toward the edge of the temporary camp. However, unlike what it had said, as it turned its head, the Black Cat kept one eye obliquely on the dead rabbit, watching stealthily.

”What did you say?” Korma seemed to have heard the Black Cat’s muttering and raised his head to ask, ”What’s dead?”

”Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton Tail, and Peter, they’re all dead,” the Black Cat replied offhand: ”Because a Mike came from the south.”

”What?”

This time, not only Korma, but the Gypsy witches also looked up.

The Black Cat smacked its lips, finally realizing that its wizard friends not only hadn’t read ”Peter Rabbit,” but also weren’t into stand-up comedy, and didn’t get the humor in its answer, immediately feeling bored.

”It’s nothing, just a bad joke,” the Black Cat waved its paws at the witches, ending the topic.

Elena bent down again and began to fiddle with the stack of Tarot Cards in front of her. The exploration team had entered a new world, and there was so much information that needed to be gathered through divination; she was one of the busiest members of the entire team.

Korma also continued to bury his head in calculations, hoping to figure out this little world’s basic information a little earlier.

The Black Cat was multitasking, one ear erect, whiskers trembling, and with one eye it stood watch over the temporary camp; while still paying attention to those dead rabbits with the other eye.

It felt it had seen something before.

But after staring for a long time, to the point that its eyes began to sore, there was still no movement among the pile of rabbits. This had it wondering if it was seeing things.

Just as it was about to shift the gaze of its reserved eye elsewhere, the rabbit named ’Cotton Tail’ by Zheng Qing, twitched its tail without making a sound.

The Black Cat instantly leapt up.

”A resurrection hoax!”

It cried out, its body suddenly expanded, and with a cat paw as big as a pot lid, it slapped ’Cotton Tail’ into a mush, the now completely quiet dead rabbit offering no resistance at all.

Before the Black Cat could recover, a dozen or so palm-sized insects, resembling ’Mousewives’ but with duller carapaces as if covered in white fluff, burst out from the pile of dead rabbits.

Hearing the Black Cat’s scream, the two witches working diligently cast a pale blue shield around themselves in unison, protecting themselves, while both simultaneously brandished their Law Books and Spells, standing back-to-back, looking around vigilantly.

The face of the Black Cat turned green.

Even when those insects emerged, it didn’t feel as distressed as it did now.

”Why do you only care about yourselves?” it ranted, growing over a meter tall, with the aura of turning into a black panther: ”We are a team... a team! Why do you only care about yourselves?”

It was indignant at the absence of a protective shield around itself.

The Gypsy Witch apologetically explained one word: ”Distance.”

Meaning that the Black Cat was a little too far from them for a shield to be conjured in time. This explanation seemed reasonable, and the Black Cat immediately accepted it.

But team leader Korma had a much shorter temper.

”What’s all this screaming about? Where’s the hoax? Zombies or Ghouls? Which direction?!” She bellowed the last four words. This wasn’t to say she had a bad temper, but as the team leader in an unfamiliar environment, she naturally faced much more pressure than the others.

The Black Cat glanced somewhat guiltily at the pile of dead rabbits, and its size involuntarily shrank a little.

Because upon calming down, it realized that the insects that had emerged from underneath the rabbits were nothing but carrion beetles. While they were slightly bigger, they looked exactly like the ones Dr. Terry Duzem kept in the glass case of his study.

Even the fluff used for excreting phosphorescence on their backs was identical.

As to why these insects got that big, and why the carrion beetles appeared so soon after the rabbits’ death, with their blood still warm, these were hardly questions in The Magical World.

Perhaps because the rabbit furs were originally carrying the beetles’ eggs, which hatched from the stimulation of the death aura, and, given the abundant food, it was easy for the mutant beetles to grow. And so forth.

Similar conjectures could be listed on a foot-long piece of parchment.