Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Those arms reached out in all directions as if moving unconsciously, but the sea urchin locked onto Ash.

The moment it discovered Ash, it charged straight at her.

Its speed wasn’t fast, even Hughes could clearly see its movement trajectory.

This was completely different from the reports of the Sirens.

Was it because of the difference between being in the sea and on land?

Hughes didn’t dare to disturb Ash during her battle, so he opened a private chat to ask Nini.

『It wasn’t like this before, right?』

『No, in the sea, its speed was incredibly fast, crushing everything in its path. Why has it suddenly become like this now?』

Nini was also shocked.

And those arms… why did they look so much like human arms?

Whether it was the pollution beasts of the Abyss, the polluted serpent, the sea urchin monster, or the murlocs, none of them had any connection to humans.

Why did this sea urchin suddenly grow human arms after coming ashore?

This was simply too strange.

Ash easily lured the arm-covered monster around in circles.

Without its terrifying speed, it was merely an ordinary enemy with little threat, at most, just a grotesque-looking one.

Ash tried slashing at it with her blade and managed to cut off a few arms.

From the severed limbs, a dark liquid oozed out, thick and viscous, like crude oil.

After roughly testing it, Ash led the monster into the ambush point.

Soon, explosions rang out, and the monster’s flesh was blasted everywhere.

The blast left only half of its body remaining, its mangled, twisted arms twitching weakly on the ground.

Yet, it was still alive, even recovering rapidly.

Frowning, Ash threw in another bomb to finish it off completely.

The explosion was not as effective on land as it was in water, but at least it made things much safer for the user.

『Its vitality is extremely strong, and its regenerative ability is impressive. Other than that, there’s nothing remarkable about it.』

It had neither the high speed nor the unstoppable power of a sea urchin.

It didn’t even have any new abilities, those arms seemed to be frightening in appearance only.

The Sirens emerged from their hiding spots, looking at the scattered remains on the ground with bewilderment.

They had spent so much effort preparing for this, yet the enemy was defeated just like that?

Even the slowest among them could tell that something was off.

Whether it was the murlocs or the sea urchin monster, they all seemed to have undergone some inexplicable distortion.

But this distortion hadn’t made them stronger.

Instead, all these enemies had become pitifully weak, only their appearances had turned uglier.

The sea was calm once more, with no more monsters appearing.

After observing for a while, Hughes also stepped out from the Network Path.

The crowd parted to make way as he slowly approached the monster’s corpse.

The changes in the sea urchin were too strange.

He planned to examine it himself.

Hughes picked up a severed hand, one that Ash had cut off with her long blade.

The cut was clean.

Taking out a handkerchief, he wiped away the dark liquid, revealing the cross-section.

There was bone inside, and it looked quite similar to that of a human.

As for the muscles and blood vessels, Hughes didn’t know much about their structure, but at a glance, they seemed normal.

The skin on the hand was covered in twisted patterns, which had already begun to fade.

After some thought, he flipped the severed hand over and examined the palm closely.

This time, he observed for much longer than before, and his expression gradually turned strange.

Standing beside him, Richard was puzzled.

He was right next to Hughes and had also seen the severed hand.

With his years of experience in human dissection, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

Besides, for a monster like this, wouldn’t it be normal for it to grow all sorts of strange limbs?

“Lord Hughes, did you discover something?”

“Yes.”

Hughes’ face was grim as he lifted the severed hand to show Richard and the Sirens.

“Take a look at the fingerprints on this hand.”

Richard, of course, knew about fingerprints.

Everyone’s fingerprints were unique, and experienced detectives could even use them to solve cases.

But what was so strange about them?

He took the severed hand from Hughes and examined it closely.

After a while, sweat began to bead on his forehead.

This hand had fingerprints, but only on three fingers.

Two fingers had none.

Even the palm had only partial palm prints, while the rest was completely blank.

It was as if a master sculptor had created half of it with meticulous detail, then handed it over to a sloppy apprentice to finish the rest.

Like an artist painting a beautifully detailed horse head but leaving the body and limbs as crude childlike sketches.

Half of the hand was lifelike, showcasing the natural beauty of the human form.

The other half was hastily done, as if merely going through the motions.

A chilling sense of eeriness gripped Richard’s heart.

It felt like a cold, slimy hand had wrapped around his chest, making him shudder involuntarily.

After handing the severed hand to Richard, Hughes turned to examine the other arms on the ground.

The Sirens also gathered around to help with the inspection.

Soon, the arm-covered monster had been thoroughly examined.

“Some hands have fingerprints, some don’t. Some bones are completely normal, while others only appear ‘normal’ but have an utterly chaotic structure inside.”

“This monster…”

Strange.

Chaotic.

Twisted.

Madness.

Many words surfaced in Hughes’ mind, but in the end, he simply shook his head and said, “This battle was a success. Everyone, go rest for now. The monster’s corpse should be dissected, Richard, I’ll leave that to you.”

Richard nodded.

“No problem, Lord Hughes. I can also handle the interrogation of the murlocs, Moth Chasing Fire is quite adept in that area.”

The Sirens began cleaning up the battlefield.

Richard hurriedly took the corpses and murloc prisoners away.

Hughes, deep in thought, returned to the main cathedral, where a separate room had been designated as his office.

The room had no decorations or furniture, just a simple table.

Hughes had many matters to handle, and he expected this place to become as busy as the manor in the future.

But he hadn’t expected it to be packed with people already.

Standing at the doorway, he looked inside in surprise.

Inside, Connor, Alexei, Chloe, Una, and others were all present.

Almost the entire upper echelon of Castel was here.

Considering how busy they had been since the war started, Hughes wouldn’t have been able to gather them all even if he wanted to.

His heart sank with an ominous feeling.

What kind of major event could have brought everyone together?

After all, even when the murlocs and sea urchins attacked, only he and Ash had gone to the scene.

“What trouble are we facing? Just tell me directly.”

He took a deep breath, walked slowly to the desk, and looked at the crowd.

But the people in the room exchanged glances, their expressions turning peculiar.

They hesitated, as if struggling to speak.

“Lord Hughes… it’s actually good news.”

“I have good news as well.”

“And so do I.”

Hughes blinked, utterly confused.