The Human Giant



Feeling relieved of hosting a deadly demon in his body, Yoze was ready to collect the Leopard Demon's body. Just when he stood up he heard Jewel protest about the outcome.

"Nope, I'm not staying here." Jewel stepped in front of Yoze and crossed her arms in protest. 

There was no way she wanted to stay in the valley by herself with no protection when there was a possibility of running into demons. Without Yoze, Jewel knew she would die without even having a chance to scream for help if she ever ran into a newborn demon much less the demons on the same level as the Leopard demon.

"Alright," Since Jewel wanted to come along Yoze wasn't going to deny her. So he picked her up and headed back to the Grand Swamp while looking for any signs of any demons. 

He paid extra attention to the ground since he felt that there could be more demons that could swim in swamps or the underground. Once Yoze and Jewel arrived back to where the Leopard demon dug underground they saw that there was a wide hole that led straight into the ground. 

Since there was a higher probability that the Leopard demon kept its body underground than in any other location Yoze and Jewel looked at each before jumping right in.

[Grade 6 Swamp Diving has been added.]

As Yoze was falling inside the hole he felt as if he could sense the soft spots in the dirt. By the time they reached the bottom of the hole their surroundings were nearly pitch black.

"I can't see anything," Jewel spoke out.

"Same, but I can smell the Leopard demon's body around here." With his enhanced smell from his scent-tracking talent and the recently added Swamp Diving talent Yoze was able to pick up a slight hint of the Leopard demon's muddy scent and was able to distinguish it from the earthy smell of the ground.

There weren't any clear holes that could have hidden the leopard demon's massive body but Yoze could tell that the smell was coming from in front of him. Placing his hand on the wall he felt a small hole the size of his palm near the bottom.

"Jewel, I need you to wait here so I can crawl inside." 

"Fine, " Jewel gave in to Yoze's demand since she didn't want to help him expand the hole and crawl inside the small tunnel.

Since he didn't have any digging tool with him Yoze resorted to using his hands bit by bit to expand the hole until he could barely fit inside by crawling. Once he got it to a suitable size Yoze entered the small tunnel and could feel how little space he had to wiggle forward.

His big body frequently shifted the dirt occasionally triggering a mini cave-in on himself but never enough to stop him from moving forward. As Yoze continued wiggling his eyes began adapting to the low levels of light and allowing him to see a bit of the cave.

What made him happier was that as he continued in he got better at not shifting the dirt surrounding him as he moved, decreasing how frequently the tunnel caved in.

As Yoze crawled deeper inside the tunnel he could smell the Leopard demon's scent better and soon was able to find the source. It was a thick worm-looking creature that was at least 10 feet long, and it was wrapped around an underground boulder.

The worm-looking creature seemed to be slowly growing bigger, pushing the earth surrounding it outward. Sensing a foreign creature the worm-like creature shivered as it clumsily tried to run away but was quickly caught by its tail.

"You're coming with me," Grabbing the weird worm, Yoze could smell the scent of mud on it so he used his spiritual energy to suppress it before dragging it out.

The moment Yoze tried to drag out the worm he could feel how heavy the worm-like creature's body was and couldn't help but be surprised. Even though the Leopard demon's body was full of holes it was nearly 80 tons and it took him nearly half an hour to drag it back to the entrance where Jewel was.

"You found a worm?" Seeing Yoze crawling out with some thick string in his hand, Jewel couldn't draw a connection between the long worm-looking creature in Yoze's hand and the terrifying Leopard demon that was covered in holes.

"This is the Leopard demon but it's all squished up to look like a worm. But it should still be alive." Yoze said.

"Let's go, we should get out of here and meet up with Timothy and River." With a live demon in hand, Yoze was excited to get all the talents he could before selling it for a profit.

"Okay, carry me." Looking up at how they were tens of feet underground, Jewel jumped on Yoze's back and held on tight to make sure she didn't accidentally plummet to her death.

With the Leopard demon in hand, Yoze activated the full potential of his Mindless Legs and jumped out of the hole with the Leopard demon. Once they were out, Yoze and Jewel looked around to see if anything remotely similar to demons and monsters were near before making their way out of the Grand Swamp.

With the constant threat that more demons could be waiting to ambush them, Yoze and Jewel felt as if they were walking on eggshells. However, once they made it past the first geological barrier to get out of the Grand Swamp territory and were confident that they were not going to be ambushed by demons, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

They didn't know if the demons in the Grand Swamp didn't care for the death of their colleague or if the Leopard demon was telling the truth about it being the sole demon preparing the Grand Swamp for the demon summit. In any case, Yoze and Jewel looked at each and could see that they didn't care to find out the reason and they were just interested in having a good meal.

"Yoze, I have a question. Are you planning on keeping the Leopard demon alive for a few days as you did with the Serpent demon?" Suddenly being reminded that the Leopard demon was still alive Jewel couldn't help but ask Yoze if he planned to keep it alive.

"Just a few days so I can investigate its body and see if I can use it to further my martial arts training and ask Dreyer if we can use demon meat for witchcraft." 

"Just to investigate its body? Aren't you going to suck its blood or torture it for information? You demons are supposed to be cruel and crafty, why are you still pretending that you aren't."

"That's because I'm a human. Plus what kind of information would I be able to get when the leopard demon's mind is burned to a crisp." Yoze said calmly and interrupted Jewel when he saw that she was going to continue asking questions.

"But stop asking questions or I'm going to ask my dad to give you less demon meat." 

"Mr. Thunder would never be so cruel to me. Plus, you can't threaten me, I'm your employee." Jewel shook her head at Yoze's poor attempt to hide his secrets from her.