Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 208 Strange Monsters
A withered, enormous claw emerged from the shadows and reached for Katie. Before she could even react, the hand had seized Katie's shoulder and dragged her into the darkness…

This is how it should be.

Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The hand grabbed Katie's shoulder and tugged hard, but Katie remained rooted to the spot. Instead, she turned her head and glanced at her shoulder.

Then I was startled.

"Whoa, where did that hand come from?!"

Katie screamed in fright when she saw the hand suddenly appear on her shoulder. Then she reached out, grabbed the wrist of the hand, and pulled it forward forcefully!
The next moment, a huge black shadow was forcibly pulled out of the darkness by Katie and slammed heavily to the ground!
But it wasn't a human; it was some kind of monster!

Its appearance reminded Levi of the vampire in the vampire case who had reverted to his original form, except this monster had no hair on its body and thin wings growing from beneath its arms. It had a long head like a donkey and a body like a shaved monkey. Moreover, this monster seemed to be extremely afraid of sunlight; after Katie threw it out, it immediately covered its eyes and began to let out a piercing scream when exposed to direct sunlight.

"By the Holy Lord!"

"What the hell is this!"

The guards were clearly seeing this hideous monster for the first time, and they were terrified.

But just then, gunshots rang out.

"boom!"

A loud gunshot echoed through the canyon, startling a flock of birds in the distance. The bullet spun and pierced the monster's head, ending its life. The monster finally stopped struggling and collapsed to the ground. Moments later, under the sunlight, its body began to melt like a candle, emitting a foul stench that everyone wanted to avoid.

Moments later, in the sunlight, the monster vanished completely, leaving behind only a bizarre skeleton.

“What a waste.”

Annie walked over at that moment, holding a notebook in her hand. Her expression was as calm as ever, but her tone betrayed her regret.

"If I had known this would happen, I should have dissected it immediately. Maybe then I could have figured out what kind of animal it was..."

"Uh, are you sure it's an animal?"

Olivia looked at Anne with a puzzled expression.

"Those that are destroyed in the sunlight are usually demons and their minions. And it was in pain when it was exposed to the sunlight just now, wasn't it?"

"There are quite a few animals that suffer from sunlight; most nocturnal and subterranean creatures do not have resistance to sunlight."

As she spoke, Anne walked over to the skeleton, reached out and picked it up, examining it carefully.

"But didn't its body melt in the sunlight?"

"This is indeed a bit strange, but it's not entirely inexplicable by science. It's very possible that this creature's body under sunlight underwent some kind of chemical reaction... Hmm... Look here."

As Anne spoke, she picked up a piece of bone and showed it to everyone.

"Its bones are hollow."

"Uh...so?"

"Birds' bones are also hollow, because this would reduce their weight and make them more suitable for flying. As it stands, this monster does fit this description; its skeleton is large but very light, suggesting that it must be some kind of species capable of flying."

"But it doesn't look like a bird."

Li Wei also put away the Punisher and walked over to complain. He had the skill "photographic memory," and although the monster only existed for a moment, Li Wei was still able to remember its physical characteristics.

"With such a large body, can it really fly?"

"That is indeed a bit strange."

Anne nodded.

"Perhaps we need more physical evidence to determine exactly what this is."

"Whatever it is, I hate it."

Katie walked over angrily, patting her shoulder repeatedly, where a crack had been torn open by the monster's claws.

"This is my favorite coat, it's just too much!"

"Miss Katie, are you alright?"

Olivia looked at Katie with a strange expression. They had all seen what had just happened, but... this ending was truly unexpected.

"It's not good at all, my clothes are torn..."

Katie had a long face and looked very unhappy.

"Uh...you're not hurt, are you?"

Olivia looked at Katie's shoulder, where there were indeed several cuts torn by the monster's claws, but she didn't see any blood, so she breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is not."

"Let me fix it for you."

Just then, Lavinia from the archaeological team came over and looked at the crack on Katie's shoulder. "Is it alright? Thank you!"

"It's nothing. Our archaeological team often encounters similar situations when we're out in the field."

As she spoke, Lavinia took out her sewing kit from her bosom and began mending Katie's clothes.

Olivia stood to the side, glanced at her, and then at Anne, who was still investigating beside the skeleton.

"When you say you frequently encounter similar situations, do you mean you encounter monsters? Or that your clothes are damaged?"

"All."

"I see..."

This unexpected situation forced everyone to reconsider their plans. It was clear that this place harbored terrifying monsters, and possibly more than one. The guards strongly urged Olivia to leave and return to the airship, offering to search in her place.

However, Olivia was very determined. Although she admitted that the appearance of this monster indicated that the members of the investigation team were likely dead, it was precisely because of this that she wanted to go in herself and find out what secrets were hidden in this evil building.

Katie was mending clothes, Olivia was arguing with her guards, and Anne was busy investigating the corpse. Levi, having nothing else to do, wandered around with his hands behind his back, then came to the main gate. There, the tall, imposing Joe was pressed against the stone gate, staring intently at the inscriptions and patterns carved on it like a nearsighted person without glasses.

"What's the catch?"

Li Wei strolled over to Qiao's side and asked him a question. The tall, burly man chuckled when he heard Li Wei's question.

"I'm looking at it right now... Mr. Li Wei, it's now certain that this is indeed a relic of the Golden Age, but the writing is too old and a bit blurry, so we can't make out anything yet..."

“Take a closer look. I don’t think they built this monastery here out of boredom. There might be some strange things inside.”

After all, this is how it is in many movies: archaeologists go down into a tomb, and there's a sign on the tomb gate that says whoever opens it will die a horrible death, but nobody pays attention, so the door opens and the person dies.

Of course, ultimately it comes down to the opponent's lack of firepower.

Look at Katie, tsk tsk tsk... Seriously, how heavy is this little girl? Even if that monster's bones were hollow, it couldn't budge Katie at all, that's just too exaggerated...

However, Li Wei dared not ask Katie this question. If the little girl got upset and punched him, he might end up lying there on the spot.

At this point, others also gave their conclusions.

Olivia ultimately decided, considering the seriousness of the situation, that she allowed the captain of the guard to return and mobilize more soldiers; after all, it was winter, and most soldiers had nothing to do except patrol. Since Olivia was the lord, she naturally had the right to lead an army deep into the monastery to investigate.

Li Wei did not object to this; if he could, he would even like to bring a bunch of mechs and steam-powered soldiers to charge in.

Of course, if we're going to do that, we might as well just raze this place to the ground.

By the way, Katie's coat was also repaired, and the little girl's pouty lips finally disappeared.

As for Anne, besides hoping to find a complete corpse for dissection, she even wanted to capture one alive.

Of course, in Li Wei's opinion, no matter what this thing is, only the dead are safe.

As for Big Joe, after much hard work, he finally obtained some clues.

"May the prisoner, eternally exiled, slumber here forever."

Li Wei stared at the line of words hidden under the vines, which Qiao had pieced together after tearing the vines apart.

"So what do you think? That this monastery is actually a prison, holding something inside?"

"If that's true, then that prisoner should be dead by now."

Anne spoke up.

"Of course, that's true... but isn't that monster still alive? How do you explain that?"

"It's also possible that they didn't come from the monastery, but from the forest. There don't seem to be any caves or other places nearby suitable for these monsters to live in, so they chose this place as their nest."

At this point, Anne added a sentence.

“It’s not surprising that some fish in the sea use shipwrecks as their nests.”

“Yes, that’s right, but you don’t seem to have noticed that outside the canyon, even horses and other animals didn’t want to come near here, and we didn’t see any animal footprints or tracks on the nearby snow.”

Levi dismissed Anne's guess, but she didn't seem to care.

“Animals all have territories. Perhaps there is a powerful animal here that keeps other animals away.”

"Yes, that's where the problem lies."

Li Wei took out the Punisher and examined it.

"If there are any powerful animals here, they will be difficult to deal with."

The group originally planned to wait outside for reinforcements, but things didn't go as planned. Shortly after, the sky suddenly darkened, and then a blizzard accompanied by howling winds swept in.

Under these circumstances, the group had no choice but to decide to first enter the mysterious monastery to escape the blizzard. As for what was inside... they would have to wait and see.

(End of this chapter)