The night past on like this without a hitch,hoboku stayed with me throughout the night and helped me build the shack it wasn't really necessary because the slimes were present for doing all the work for us,but she insisted on doing it anyways to keep me at home,it seems like hoboku has some small fears about me suddenly disappearing maybe she is thinking that I would go home one day and wanted to keep me by her side by building this home it was a cute thought and I could also probably even verify it by asking her,but I refrained and just enjoyed the small amount of fun we had making the shack.

The building process was quick we finished doing the brick wall and also glue the inside and outside of the wall with grass and finally cover it with some lumber to make it look good,the end result was quiet satisfying the slimes were making some finishing touches by cleaning the little roofless shack from any dirt or trash that may have fallen down.

Getting inside felt really good even though there was not roof the entrance and the feeling I got from it was more then anything,but comfortable I felt like immediately laying down and start sleeping,but unfortunately I didn't have time for that...

The sun was already out,I told hoboku to go and wake up the others to start preparing to go out,we were going to go and exterminate the cause of the taint that was happening in the forest.

Hoboku nodded and left on the spot I also told a few slimes to make a fire,I was going to start cooking and in our absence the slimes would also return to work and cut down the trees.

Without a further ado I quickly got up from wooden floor and left the shack preparing to make some quick lunch before we depart.

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-Did everyone finish preparing ?

I asked standing next to the entrance of the base looking at hobuha who nodded her head towards me,her eyes were glazing over my body and I could see that she was a bit distracted.

-Ye..yes,everyone is prepared !

She stuttered for a bit making me smile wryly while looking at her little figure that was going up and down cute,I gave her a small pat on the head which she liked and told her to get everyone here so we would start departing.

While waiting for the others to come by I looked out and saw the slimes working rigorously cutting the trees and transporting them towards another part where other slimes would cut off the branches and then move the finished log to a pile for me to later work on if needed,the branches would be also useful in the future maybe for the roof even.

Anyways I looked deeper into the field towards the forest to be precise thinking to myself of when we would find any proper civilization I was feeling sort of left out thinking like this I was eager to see the world without any more trees,but more of the line of roads and people it was like a dream really getting out of here takes at least a months time walking with red hawk maybe I could half the distance,but what I wanted was to go with everyone...

-Lord sorron !

Someone shouted out I looked behind me and saw the girls coming up wearing all kinds of armor and weapons ready to fight...

-Lets go !

I shouted back quickly going out of the entrance of the base behind me I could hear everyone else running after me as they finally caught up to me taking on the usual formation as we made our way towards the tainted area.

The walk was fast,on our way we encountered a few monsters,but they weren't anything problematic on the topic we also brought along the 5 crimson wolves they were much weaker then the girls,but they were still competent and were good enough to barely deal with half of the monsters we encountered gaining a lot of experience and a few level ups,red hawk was at home guarding the place,we didn't need him really so I let him play housekeeper until we returned back home.

after an hour of walking we finally got to the tainted area,but surprisingly enough it wasn't at the same area where we had found it before,rather it grown more and was spreading dangerously fast.

-Look out !

Someone shouted I turned my head to the side and watched as three of the nightmare logs appeared out of nowhere,I could also call these thigns treants,but the imagine I had regarding treants was rather more peaceful and nature loving then these horrifying creatures.

They were charing at us with their point wooden hands raised,no one was really nervous since everyone was capable enough to take care of these small fries.

Hobura who was standing on the front took a few steps forward to create a space between her allies and the enemy she held that oddly big buster cleaver in one hand finally raising it with both hands and waited for the 3 to come closer her hands didn't show any sign of shining up indicating that she wasn't using any skill at all as she suddenly swung her big sword horizontally cleanly cutting the 3 logs into two ending their artificial lives without an issue...

I stared into the 3 logs and thought...this was only the beginning...

I invoked both of my and ready for anything unexpected protecting the girls from the side while they dealt with the main force the 5 wolves were the weakest in this group and they were also standing at the front together with hobura they refused to go to the back because of they little proud attitude from being a wolf thats why I especially kept my eye on these 5 so they wouldn't get fatally injured.

-Move on we need to find a core inside this tainted avoid being injured if you can help it...

I ordered marching further into the tainted are...the taint itself wasn't anything dangerous that I knew from vulgan since he told me himself,what was dangerous was the risk of getting your vitality sucked away which was your life,all of the possessed creatures in this forest had one same ability which was they could suck away a small chunk of life from their opponent through injuries and make them tired that way,prolonged fights weren't in our favor and being surrounded was also dangerous thats why I kept the surroundings at check at all times so we wouldn't have to deal with anything unexpected.

-wait a minute....

While thinking like this I suddenly got an idea and rummaged through my infinite storage taking out the blue ball,the magic device we got from the orc village .I believed this item to be the perfect use in this kind of situation since we didn't know where that core was operating,it was also a good opportunity to use it since I forgot to test it when we were at base.

I inspected the ball once more and found the button on the bottom of the ball I didn't know how to operate it,But I tried anyways and pushed the button...as I did so I could mana draining from my finger tips and going towards the blue ball in my hand which was lightly shining up in my hand...

-uhhh...?

Hoboku and some of the others seeing the strange blue ball suddenly light up in my hand became surprised for a few moments included me since I didn't know what would happen next, waiting expectingly.

(Shua !)

The ball beeped and as it did so a big light came out of it forming into a shape as if it was a hologram I looked at it a bit clueless,but after observing it properly I figured out that it was a map with 3D visuals showing me the area we were in currently from a birds eye view the length of this was as it said in the description a one kilometer radius.

The map on itself was very detailed and when moving around the map would change accordingly on my movement focusing me the user as the center I was highlighted in a green dot while the girls and everything else living was indicate as a red dot,I couldn't imagine how this thing operate really or how it showed this amount of land so detailed without even being there,but that wasn't important.In the I needed to find that core as fast as possible and this map here would help me a lot.

For the moment the map didn't show me anything odd there were a lot of live beings scattered in this area what I was searching for was a spot where a lot of monsters were concentrated at,it was most likely that,that spot would be the place where the core was being kept at guarded by the monsters it controlled,currently the map didn't show such a place so we had no other choice,but to go forward and pick off a few batches of monster trying to see if they were guarding the core or not.

On our search we found a lot of monsters that weren't native to this area or rather belonged to this particular area like giant spiders,red striped bears and a few beetles that had all undergone major cosmetic changes sometimes looking as if they turned into zombies...this core was really something being able to control such high level beasts,the attack power and speed of these monsters didn't even change from their original.I also picked up the corpses just because I could,who knows maybe they would be use to me.

-......

I casted my spell aiming at the yellow monkey that was about to hit hobura to the back my spell immediately got invoked and hit the monkey to the hand making it fall to the ground because of the knock back.

Hobura had only now noticed that she was about to get hit defeated the opponent on her front she immediately changed targets and was about to kill the fallen monkey,but didn't need to as she saw that the head of the monkey sudden exploded into red shards of ice.

She jumped back for a moment holding onto her big sword giving me a small glance and a appreciating nod which I returned.

-Ha !

Hoboku yelled casting her own spell and hitting more then one beast with one shot of her spear the fight was intense,but we were still domineering our injuries were small no,one got cut or anything,but small blunt hits were inevitable even those hits drained some amount of vitality from the girls making some a bit tired,but not enough to cause someone to stop and take a rest they were still full of energy...so they say at least I also kept a sharp eye on their status window to make sure that they aren't overworking themselves.

It had been an hour and a half since we got inside the tainted area the magic device the explorer helped us a lot,but we still couldn't find that core anywhere it was a infuriating since we had probably seen half of the area or even more without any results.

After another hour I was thinking of taking everyone away from here already staying here for too long could be dangerous and we were far too few to take on everything this place had to offer,but I was confident that after everyone reaches level 10 and evolves further we would be able to destroy everything with ease.

Thinking like this I was about to call everyone and tell them go back now,but just as I was about to do I looked at the map again...there was something odd.

The enemies that were showing on the map were slowly coming up to us forming a ring locking us inside it made me feel slightly dreadful,but it didn't make me panic just yet.

-Girls we have to leave...

I told everyone through the transmission link hearing my sudden order a lot of the girls were suddenly disappointed in themselves,they knew why we came here they probably thought that I was calling them away because they weren't strong enough,but that really wasn't the case.

(BOOM)

A loud stomping noise could be heard from a small distance it almost shook the ground even making all of the girls looking towards the direction where the sound came from...on the other hand I looked at the map and realized that a enemy was approaching us slowly the other monsters weren't coming close and just held their circle around us to keep us from running this was a single enemy how bad could it be?

(BOOM)

Another stomping noise this it was louder followed by sound of crashing trees that could be seen falling down not far away.I also stopped looking at the map anymore and rather focused on what was going to happen now...it seemed to be bad.

The girls took on formation and the spellcaster's kept their spells active ready to blast of what was about to come I too put the map away and raised both of my hands ready to cast my own spells.

The enemy was getting closer every second until finally it came out of the thick tainted forest wildly pushing away two big trees from its path meeting us...it was a giant tree ? I used my on it to identify what it was.

A long aged piece of bark evolved from the treant species through a matter of time its huge size gives it enormous power,but in return it is quite slow...

-A elder tree...

I muttered to myself still staring at the giant tree monster as if nailed to the place the others were as evenly rooted like I was,but while observing the giant tree I noticed something...a purple faint glow came out of its chest looking at it a bit more closer I realized that a orb was inside the elder treant it made me smile for a moment just as I realized what it meant.

-The boss came to us instead ?

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