There are no names among shell people, because they don't need this kind of thing to distinguish each other. The pheromones secreted by each shell person will be subtly different in smell, which is more accurate than any designation. In the shell society, the shell people will consciously store pheromones of the same kind that they have communicated with, and release a small amount of this kind when they need to mention this kind in conversations with other people as a supplement. However, it is worth mentioning that the shell people never seem to be divided, because they do not need to worry about food, and their society has always been in a fairly primitive structure, so there is no concept like "we, you" in the original expression of the shell people. The concept came about after they met Fioni and Fettis. It wasn't until then, when the Shells first encountered other creatures they could communicate with, that they realized the need for a term to refer to their race. And "Shell Man" is not actually the name that comes to their mind, but just a name that Fioni gave them after learning about the message from the Shell people.

This means that perhaps one day in the future, when the shell people have more contact with other races, prompting them to change their language and way of thinking, they may choose another name for themselves. Just as elves don't call themselves elves, and dwarves never think they're short, so in the eyes of the shell people, humans and other races without shells may be weird. Only before that, there was a shell man who was lucky enough to be the first person in his race to have an individual name.

"Crown of Thorns, are you sure we're heading the right way?" Crown of Thorns is the name of the Shell Man who led the way for Lothar's group. The name was given by Peg on the grounds that the shell man's shell looked like a corolla of thorns, an association that no one but Peg himself could identify. However, considering that it was only a code name, everyone agreed to this naming method, and the crown of thorns himself was quite happy with the name, although he liked the name after the witch had explained to him for a long time what thorns were and what a flower crown was. In addition, after inquiry, it was found that there is no gender in the shell people, and the reproduction of the shell people is provided by two shell people who provide part of the raw materials for new life, that is, the shell people can be both mothers and fathers. In the words of witches, this phenomenon is not uncommon among marine animals, who call them hermaphrodites. So when the "he" is used to refer to the crown of thorns, it is only because there is no proper appellation in the language of gender-distinct races to refer to such a biological individual.

"Direction, no mistake. Front, big, food. The thought of the crown of thorns came back to Lothar's mind, and the Count nodded, in the Shell people's mind, the giant's skeleton was their food. The Shell Man grinds the huge bones, absorbs the nutrients that can be taken from them, and spits out the indigestible inorganics. And what kind of bone can be called "big" by the shell man? It must be at least half the size of the pelvic bone. A few people had seen a few scattered bones on the way before, but none of the crowns of thorns were big to describe those things.

"Ask that guy why he didn't see the shell man's corpse along the way, since there were a lot of small bones we just saw. Jia Lun said with a slight frown, she was right, within the safe area drawn by the salt line, there were a considerable number of shell human remains near almost every bone. And this is curious, because if the shells did feed on the bones of giants, they would have enough time to eat up this miraculous skeleton. But the fact is that the shell people don't seem to have really caused damage to each of the bones, and although the bones along the way have traces of being eaten, the general shape is completely abnormal, but the surrounding shell people have been dead for a long time.

It felt like the shell man on the bone was wiped out by some force, and then the bone slowly healed itself like a living thing. And when they asked the crown of thorns with this question, the latter also said that he did not know what happened to his compatriots on the bones. In addition to mending the salt line, shell people rarely leave the bones of their birth.

"His name is Crown Thorns, not that guy. The Count replied that he still liked the shell man, for from the message the latter had sent him, there was no complex emotion in the hearts of these creatures that Lothar was familiar with, only a simple and simple happiness. Garren pursed her lips and said that she would use the title Crown of Thorns next time, and Lothar conveyed the witch's question to the shell man on her shoulder. And the reason why Lothar is asked to convey it is also because the pheromones of the shell people cannot spread too far, especially when the team is keeping forward.

There was a rare hesitation in the crown of thorns' answer, due to the special way of communication, there was no room for concealment in the tone of the shell man when he spoke, "I don't know, communication, rare." Big food, edges. The implication of this is that the crown of thorns does not know exactly where it is going, because the team's destination is on the edge of the salt line protection zone. Judging from the route that Thorncrown had taken with the team before, he should have planned to go to several nearby shell settlements to inquire about the situation ahead, but since those settlements had disappeared for unknown reasons, there was naturally no one to provide information further afield.

Lothar frowned slightly, he had thought that the state of the first few settlements was just a normal phenomenon, after all, before the team set off, the old shell man in the pelvic settlement had asked them to investigate one thing, that is, the fact that the shell people could not reproduce. It stands to reason that the cause of this kind of thing should be the shell people themselves, but the old shell people stubbornly demanded that the team take over the commission. At that time, several people just thought that he was rushing to the hospital for a sudden illness, and the team really needed a guide, so Jia Lun agreed first. But now thinking about what happened to the previous settlements, the Count began to feel that there might be some connection between the two events. And the bad premonition brought about by this speculation appeared more than once during the rat-man plague.

Thorncrown said he didn't know what was going on. But I think it's better to be careful. Lothar's voice sank, and his companions, who had been with him for some time, knew that this was his performance when he was in danger. Fionny and Peg looked at each other, and the Siren nodded, his palm swinging close to the hilt of his sword, promising to pull it out at any moment. In such a slightly oppressive atmosphere, a huge object gradually faded from the shadow wrapped around it and appeared in front of everyone's eyes.