Bear Cub knew he was at fault and wanted to carry Moses on the way home.
But Moses refused.
"No need to carry anyone this early in the morning. If you want to, you can carry me when we head out later."
Bear Cub thought for a moment and agreed.
Amid the snowstorm, a man and a bear set off on their way home.
Before long, Moses and Bear Cub arrived.
Breakfast was already prepared.
After the two humans and the bear happily finished their meal, Kureha took out a perforated insulated plastic container. "Take this with you later. If you find any salamanders, use this to carry them."
"Got it."
Moses agreed, and soon Bear Cub finished washing the dishes and came over.
With everything ready, the two humans and the bear set out.
For the first time in a while, Kureha put on a fluffy fur coat—the one Moses had given her before.
In the snowstorm, Bear Cub strode forward at a run, with Moses and Kureha seated on his back. Moses sat in front, with Kureha behind him.
It was a bit cramped.
But still manageable.
Following Kureha's directions,
they crossed the Drum Mountain to the east and arrived at the foot of a snow-covered mountain.
Here, jagged boulders covered in ice and snow were scattered everywhere.
"Alright, stop here."
Patting Bear Cub, Kureha jumped down from his back.
Before them was a narrow gap formed by two collapsed boulders, inside of which lay a dark cave.
Kureha said, "It's pretty dark inside. I'll go first—you two watch your step."
With that, she entered the cave with a flashlight. The passage was so narrow they had to sidle through.
At first, it was extremely tight—
a fissure leading underground, with very few footholds. Fortunately, they could brace themselves against the rock walls on either side as they descended.
The fissure sloped downward.
Kureha held the flashlight in her teeth, the beam illuminating her agile descent.
Moses followed closely behind.
Bear Cub, bringing up the rear, also braced his arms as he followed.
After descending about a hundred meters—
"We're almost at the bottom. Just jump down—it's only a meter or two, so don't worry," Kureha said.
A few seconds later, Kureha disappeared ahead, and then Moses felt empty air beneath his feet as he, too, dropped down.
The moment he landed, Moses instinctively leaped forward.
At the same time, a heavy mass crashed down behind him.
Moses turned to look, wiping nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
"Oof!" Bear Cub yelped in pain—clearly, he had landed on his rear.
Glancing around, Moses saw they were in a tunnel about two meters high and one meter wide, its length unknown. Kureha stood two meters ahead.
Seeing Kureha wave the flashlight at him,
Moses grinned and then followed. As he moved forward, Bear Cub hurriedly trotted after him.
The tunnel was difficult to traverse—some sections were high, others narrow, and the path sloped steadily downward. But as they went deeper, the humidity in the air became increasingly noticeable.
After walking nearly a kilometer,
they rounded a corner.
The two humans and the bear emerged from the treacherous tunnel.
The surroundings suddenly brightened.
A vast underground space opened before them.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
Water droplets fell continuously from above.
Moses looked up. Dozens of stalactites—some large, some small, all sharply pointed—hung from the cave ceiling over ten meters high. Meanwhile, sparse stone pillars rose from the damp ground around them.
The space around them abruptly grew even brighter.
A riot of colors.
Exceedingly beautiful and magnificent.
The smooth cave columns continuously reflected the natural light streaming in from multiple tiny ventilation openings above.
"A limestone cave?" Moses remarked, "I never expected Drum Island to have a place like this."
"Giggle~" Kureha laughed cheerfully, "I discovered this underground karst cave when I had nothing better to do before. Being underground, it's much warmer here than up above."
"Moreover, there's plenty of vegetation and small fish along the underground riverbank here. And unless I'm mistaken, there should be salamanders too."
"And these cave columns—"
Crunch crunch!
Crunch crunch!
Moses and Kureha turned to see Bear Cub gnawing voraciously on a stalagmite-shaped cave column.
He was "juicily" devouring it, sending stone fragments flying everywhere.
Moses facepalmed and sighed, "That's a cave column, a stalactite. Though it's also called a stone shoot, it's not bamboo shoot, you glutton."
"More like a bottomless pit," Kureha teased, then continued her earlier explanation, "Besides, these cave columns are actually medicinal ingredients with potent effects."
"Let him eat. It's not like it'll upset his stomach anyway. Consider it calcium supplements."
Bear Cub let out a soft "Ying~" and broke off a pointed tip of the cave column, offering it to Moses as if to say it was delicious.
Waving his hand, Moses declined, "I won't eat it. My teeth aren't up to it. Why don't you offer it to Doctorine instead?"
Kureha's face twitched as she glared at Moses, "How filial of you. Truly heartwarming."
"Heh heh!" Moses averted his gaze and scanned the surroundings. Within seconds, he walked over to a corner.
Observing large patches of dark red, vine-like stone formations oozing blood-like liquid, Moses scraped some "juice" with his right index finger and tasted it.
"Ugh, tastes like rust. Bleh! Bleh!"
"Bear Cub, come here~ There's something delicious here," Moses called to the cave column-munching cub.
Hearing this, Bear Cub immediately trotted over eagerly, his big head leaning in. Moses said:
"This is iron ore. You can eat this, but remember to extract the alloy for me. I need it."
Bear Cub froze, his bear eyes widening as he looked at Moses. With a disgruntled "Woo~", he took a step back.
He had no desire to go through the cycle of eating and vomiting again.
Moses grabbed Bear Cub's ear firmly, "No objections. If you produce high-quality alloy, I'll upgrade your equipment later. It'll also help train and develop your Devil Fruit abilities."
Seeing Bear Cub hesitate, Moses played his trump card: "Do well, and I'll take you out for a feast later. Otherwise, I definitely won't bring you along when I go out."
This made Bear Cub nervous. He nodded hurriedly, planted his paws on the ground, and took a big bite of the "vine".
Crunch crunch.
The "vine" fragments scattered everywhere.
Kureha glanced over, smiled without comment, and walked alone toward a cluster of vegetation by the underground riverbank nearby.
Moses took off the plastic storage box tied to his body, patted Bear Cub's head, and followed.
As the saying goes, beat the grass to startle the snakes.
Moses did the same,
gently kicking the vegetation at his feet while simultaneously activating his Observation Haki to sense the surrounding aura.
"Did you sense something?" Kureha asked, "Is the aura too dense?"
Moses nodded. "I didn't expect there to be so many small creatures in a place like this. Though most of them are in this river."
Before them lay a deep-blue underground lake, shaped like a crescent moon, its surface rippling faintly.
Along the shore grew patches of yellowish-brown moss and lush aquatic plants.
Every now and then, palm-sized silver fish would leap from the water, looking delicate and adorable.
No idea how they taste, though.
"Huh? What's this—"
Suddenly, Kureha's surprised voice rang out. Moses turned to see her lifting a large rock and peering beneath it.
"What's up?"
Moses walked over, took the rock from her hands, and tossed it aside.
Underneath the rock was a layer of bedrock, now exposed to the air, revealing a cluster of crystalline formations with a faint golden hue.
"Is this a gold deposit?"
"Most likely. Bear Cub, come here." Kureha beckoned to the cub, who was busy gnawing on an iron ore. "Eat this instead."
I'm just a brick—
Moved wherever needed.
If Bear Cub could talk, he'd probably be singing that right now.
Though he couldn't speak, he still obeyed Kureha's words.
Swallowing the ore in his mouth, he trotted over and took a look—more ore.
His bear face scrunched up, but he got to work anyway, lying down and chomping away.
"You've refined gold before, so you know the process. No need for me to teach you. Do your best."
Bear Cub didn't look up, just kept gnawing at the gold ore.
Meanwhile, Kureha and Moses continued their search for Salamanders.
After the gold deposit interlude, their luck seemed to improve.
Soon, Moses spotted five pinkish-white, lizard-like creatures in a small pond, each with six external gills—three on each side—resembling tiny red horns.
He swiftly caught them and placed them in a plastic container, filling it with water from the pond along with some small rocks and aquatic plants to mimic their natural habitat.
By the time he finished, Kureha had made a discovery of her own. Moses went over and saw three earth-brown Salamanders.
They were added to the container as well.
"Should we catch more?" Moses asked.
Kureha thought for a moment. "Let's get a few more. Since they're for experiments, we should prepare extra to account for variability."
The two continued their hunt.
Half an hour later, they had caught another eleven, bringing the total to nineteen. After that, they couldn't find any more—perhaps the rest had hidden deeper in the water.
They sealed the container with a breathable plastic lid.
When they returned to Bear Cub, the sight left them speechless. The cub had dug a massive pit, at least ten meters in diameter, with a small pile of irregular gold nuggets beside it.
Judging by their color and texture, they had already been refined—and to an impressively high purity.
As the two approached, Bear Cub climbed out of the pit and spat out one last irregular gold nugget, about half the size of a fist.
Then, he pointed downward and shook his head at Moses, signaling that there was no more gold ore below.
Moses ruffled Bear Cub's head. "Good job. If we manage to hunt anything on the way back, I'll treat you to some roasted meat."
He stacked the gold nuggets into a pile and roughly estimated their quantity.
After the final calculation, the pile of gold weighed approximately 77,280 grams, which converted to Belly.
Moses looked at Kureha with a smile and said, "Doctorine, I did the math. At the recent gold price of 10,000 Belly per gram, this amounts to about 770 million Belly."
Kureha narrowed her eyes, mentally calculating for a few seconds before nodding. "772.8 million Belly."
Moses blinked and gave Kureha a thumbs-up. "Impressive."
"With this income, I suppose Doctorine won't lack research funding for a while, right?"
"Hmph, if I really went all out with my research, no amount of Belly would ever be enough."
Patting Moses on the shoulder, Kureha chuckled, "Kid, your tasks are far from over. This is just the beginning."
"Alright, since we've finished everything here, let's head out. This place isn't going anywhere. If you need iron ore, come back for it whenever you have time."
"Got it."
Without needing Moses' instruction, Bear Cub immediately opened its mouth and swallowed all the gold, storing it in its belly. Practice makes perfect.
They retraced their steps along the path they had come.
...
Half an hour later.
As the temperature dropped further, the two humans and the bear emerged from the rocky crevice.
Back in the open.
With all the busyness, it was almost noon. Moses glanced at the sky and said to Kureha, "You two head back first. I'll look around and hunt some game."
Kureha smiled, taking the plastic box containing the salamander from Moses. "Alright, be careful. But remember—don't provoke the Lapahns. You might not be strong enough to take them on yet, and you could get hurt. Those creatures can even trigger avalanches by manipulating the environment. Stay alert. Now scram."
"Got it. Take care."
Kureha rolled her eyes at Moses, then cheerfully mounted Bear Cub and went their separate ways.
Walking alone through the snow, buffeted by wind and snowflakes, Moses suddenly felt the urge to sing amidst the solitude. A catchy tune popped into his head.
"What was it called again? Hmm, let's call it 'Two Cows.' How did it go? Oh yeah, like this..."
On~ the eastern hillside~ there are two cows~ ah.
The~ bull says to the cow~ I love you.
The~ cow says to the bull~ Aren't you ashamed?
The~ bull says no no~ I love you!
...
Amid the swirling snowstorm.
Moses hummed the bizarre melody, clad in a fluffy white Lapahn fur coat, his figure flickering in and out of view among the snowflakes.
Unconsciously, he arrived at the entrance of a shallow valley. At his feet, faint hoofprints and scattered, fresh, rock-hard black pellets were visible.
Extending his Observation Haki, Moses sensed numerous varying auras deeper in the valley.
His interest piqued.
He dashed toward the source, slowing his pace after a few minutes. Ahead, he spotted a herd of deer—over a hundred strong.
With each Breath, he entered the State of Oneness, merging his presence with the snowstorm.
Moving swiftly yet stealthily, he approached like a snow leopard lying in wait.
Danger crept closer unnoticed.
Twenty meters away.
Moses took a deep breath, gripping a scalpel in each hand. His eyes quickly scanned the herd, finally settling on two particularly robust stags.
The next moment, Moses sprang into action.
He dashed forward swiftly, hurling the surgical knives in both hands one after another as he moved.
Thud! Thud!
Two muffled sounds occurred in quick succession.
As Moses made his sudden move, the deer herd panicked into chaos.
They scattered in all directions to flee.
Yet two deer remained behind permanently.
[Obtained F+ grade Soul Crystals*2]
Moses carefully stored away the two rice-grain-sized Soul Crystals.
Walking over, he lifted the two deer by their antlers and disappeared into the snowstorm with his prey.