Part Sixteen

“Kuu! Ku?”

“Yes, yes. Stay quiet and follow me. There’s danger afoot.”

“Kuu. Ku ku.”

“Haaaah, what a weird creature. Why the heck can it understand me?”

For whatever reason, this fox seemed obsessed with me. It would freak out any time I spent more than five seconds out of its sight. I’d tried to go to behind some bushes to empty my bladder earlier, but the damn thing had begun crying and wouldn’t stop clinging to my leg. And that was just one of the ways it kept bothering me.

Okay, just ignore it for now. Let’s see what kind of monsters I can find.

My goal for today was to train Dual Sword Aura. Specifically, to see if it would be possible to maintain the concentrated Aura state for an extended period of time. I didn’t expect to get it today, but I was instead focusing on refining my production of Aura itself, which would lower the mana cost for every technique, including the enhanced slashes.

To that end, I’d switched out the Twin Swords for weaker weapons, and had forbidden myself from using any of my other Skills, barring an emergency. There was no point in practicing Aura if my other abilities made it too easy to fight. Though I was still using the rest of my equipment, so my battle strength wasn’t reduced that much.

Alright, first I’m going to try and maintain Aura while also staying vigilant for monster attacks. That should be a good start. If I manage that by the end of the day, then I’ll move on to the next step. Which I’m not actually sure of yet, but what else is new. Oh, and I guess I can still use Skanda and Bloodthirst as well. I’m starting to just believe neither of them will ever Rank up again.

“Ku? Kuu. Sniff, sniff. Kuu!”

“Hah? What are you barking about over there?”

The fox was sniffing over at a bush and barking repeatedly while trying to dig into it. Just as it managed to break a few branches to get in, something else darted out through the other side, though it didn’t get far. I’d reflexively thrown a knife at it, impaling whatever it was to the ground.

Huh? Oh, I recognize this. It’s an F-Rank monster called a Vormouse. These names I tell ya, who the fuck comes up with them? Why not just call it a giant rat and call it a day? Okay, back to….business?

“Kuu? Kuuu~? Kuuu~?”

“Uh…. Do you want this?”

“Kuu!”

I’d turned around to find the fox's eyes trained on me, or rather, the rat still stuck to my knife. A little string of drool dripped from its mouth, and its tail was wagging a mile a minute.

Are you a dog now? What the heck is going on here? ……Actually, I might be able to use this to my advantage. Hehehehe. Its smart enough to understand me, so let’s see just how smart it is.

“If you want it, you’re gonna have to earn it.”

“Ku? Kuuuu….”

“Don’t pout, it’ll be easy. Just find its nest for me, and you’ll have a whole bunch of rats.”

“Ku? Ku ku ku. Ku! Kyuuu~.”

After barking a few times, the little fox tilted its head before making that weird little cooing sound and running back into the bush. It sniffed around in there, before darting off towards one of the nearby houses. And I followed behind it, thinking to myself “what the hell am I doing?”

Soon, the fox tracked down where the mouse came from. It stood beside a house and barked at me, as if telling me to hurry up. Once I got there, I spotted a fist sized hole in the siding, which probably lead to a crawlspace of some sort. But just to be sure, I got my flashlight out and took a look in, then promptly jumped back up. There must’ve been a hundred or so of them under there, and the sight of so many had sent shivers down my spine.

Vormice weren’t very dangerous on their own, but like regular rats, were absolutely horrific in large numbers. I’d seen more than a few skeletons that had been picked clean by swarms of them over the months, and I had no desire to end up like them.

I rolled a Combustion Bomb under there and booked it away before the mice could react. It was pretty damp here, so odds were the town wouldn’t burn down from me doing this. But even if it did, we could just leave early. Arson wasn’t a crime if there was no one to enforce the law.

“Ku Ku?”

“Huh? Oh, right. Here ya go. And uh, we can go back for the others later. They, uh, they might be a bit burnt though.”

“Kuuuu~!”

I handed the rat over as promised, though I quickly wished I hadn’t. The pup tore its head off before splitting the stomach open and eating the rat's guts, at which point I turned away. While I’d at least confirmed something, the aftermath was pretty dang gruesome. Still, this would definitely help. Maybe.

***

“Sniff sniff. Ku ku!”

“In there you say?”

“Ku!”

“Aight. Hide out here for a sec.”

“Kuuuu….”

With the fox's tracking capabilities, I’d unexpectedly solved one of my bigger problems. Monster concentration was never equal. Some areas would only have weak groups, most of which were the run off from bigger ones, while other areas would have large, powerful monster tribes which utterly dominated their territory. This led to very different encounter rates for just about everywhere. Sometimes a trip of about a hundred yards would net you five or more encounters, other times you’d find nothing.

I’d mentioned it before, but there weren’t a lot of monsters in this town. Aside from the Kovis nest I’d taken care of and the Kobolds, most of the other groups were either very small or very weak. You actually had to hunt for them here, which hadn’t been the case elsewhere. The insect forest had basically been an all-you-can-eat buffet of monsters, though that was an extreme. Monsters didn’t seem to like being in such close proximity to other tribes, so weaker groups would often have to migrate or face destruction.

But with the fox around, it was easy for me to find groups of monsters. All I had to do was ask it to sniff me something out, and it would do so. How it understood me so well I wasn’t yet sure of, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Though I did need to feed this one.

I’d already hunted two groups of Goblins and a pack of Claw Monkeys, so this was paying off well for me. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t mind taking care of the fox after this. Looking for monsters always took up the majority of my time when hunting solo.

Okay, time to focus. Since the fox led me to the front door, which was closed, I’m probably dealing with some Demi-Humans here. Most likely Goblins or something similar. Minotaurs don’t seem to like buildings, and Orcs prefer making their own shelters. By stripping down other buildings, but you know. Uh, what else do I know?

Considering the amount of time I spent hunting them, it was only obvious I’d pick up a few tips on how to handle different types of monster. Granted, I couldn’t always use those tips, as we’d get ambushed sometimes, but in cases like this, it was nice to have an idea about what might appear.

Hm, ground floor's clear. They must be upstairs then. Ah wait! What was that?

“Mashka teka! Mucha shasha!”

That…doesn’t sound like any monsters I know. I could hear something yelling upstairs as I sneaked around. It wasn’t the weird ‘gyaa’s Goblins constantly said, so it couldn’t be them. Nor was it any of the animal sounds I associated with the other Demi-Human monsters I knew of. So it was either a kind I hadn’t encountered yet, or….

Wait, wasn’t there a kind that talked in a weird, broken language?.........oh, shit.

I ran out of the room just seconds before stalactites burst through the ceiling and plunged into the basement. I’d sensed the surge in mana just in time, otherwise that probably would’ve killed me.

…Mivians. That’s probably what’s up there. I hadn’t had any close encounters with the spell-casting monsters, but had heard enough from Cameron and Alicia to at least identify them when they attacked me. That, and I couldn’t really think of many monsters that actively used magic to attack. Baculth sort of did so, but only as extensions of themselves. I hadn’t seen any of any of launch a single projectile back in the Siege Dungeon.

Shit, I’ll need to get up there to deal with them. Tch, makes me wish I still had that ring of Mana Reflection. Ah well. Just gotta get around them somehow.

Unfortunately, the quickest path upstairs had been completely mangled by the salvo of stalactites. I’d need to find another way to the stairs.

“Mashasha! Kountza!” Uh oh.

Instead of stalactites, this time the ceiling simply crumbled away, giving the Mivians a clear line of sight to me. Unfortunately for them, it also gave me a clear shot at them, and I’d already declared this as an emergency and switched back to the Twin Swords.

“Kanjaja! Kan-. Kagh…”

“Kaza! Shakara!”

A [Rot] sphere immediately slammed into one of the Mivians' faces as soon as the hole opened up. I’d gotten pretty good at casting them quickly, though I couldn’t yet do more than one at a time. Multi-casting was apparently one of the hardest things to do with magic, at least according to Kalia and her weird Authority that I wasn’t at all jealous of. The day when I could launch a wall of death at monsters was still far off in the distance.

The Mivian I’d hit fell backwards clutching its face as the others all started screaming at me. I took that opening to chuck a knife at them, though it shattered when that Mivian blocked it with a spell. However, it also gave me the opening I needed to Analyze them, though the results made my breath catch.

Mivian Sorcerer

Rank: C

Description: An experienced Mivian caster who has yet to choose a specialization. Mivians value freedom of choice within their society, so most individuals are free to choose what they please. However, there are those rare individuals that never choose to specialize. These Mivians thus have the opportunity to become Arch-Sorcerers, and then Grand-Sorcerers, the Mivian equivalents to Lords and Kings.

***

Mivian Magi

Rank: D

Description: An unspecialized Mivian caster. While weaker than equally ranked specialists, Magi have rather odd roles in Mivian society. They act as attendants and assistants to Mivian Sorcerers, and have the potential to undergo rare Evolutions should the Sorcerer they serve become an Arch-Sorcerer.

Uh-oh. There were five Mivians all together, one Sorcerer and four Magi, though one of them was dead or dying, and it sounded like they could become a real threat if left unattended. I didn’t really understand what the description meant when it said Lords and Kings, but killing them had just jumped to the top of my to-do list, mostly cause of the items they had. Loooooooot…..

The Sorcerer was the first to react, and it did so by launching a ball of fire at me. I dove out of the way, only for the Magi to launch their own balls of fire, though these were half the size of the Sorcerer’s. Sensing that this wasn’t an ideal situation for me, I darted across the room and dove out a window, before making my way around the house. Since the stairway was close to the front door, I figured that I’d be able to ambush them if I came back around.

“Chacha! Shana toka!”

Or not.

Perhaps they’d expected me to come this way, or maybe they just hadn’t wanted to jump down the hole they’d made, but the Mivians were approaching the front door in a hurry. If I knew where they were heading, I could’ve just set up an ambush there and probably killed one or two before they could react, but that wouldn’t work if they went a different way.

Given that I didn’t know where they were going, but that I knew where they weren’t, I decided to head back into the house through the window I’d jumped through and outflank them that way. Granted, that way was now a dead-end due to the floor in the first room I’d been in being destroyed, but I had a plan. Well, I had a grappling hook.

I climbed up through the damaged floor, checking that all the Mivians had left, before making my way toward the stairs. Looking out a window, I saw that two of the Magi were standing in the front yard, probably keeping lookout. They were standing out in the open, with no obstacles I could use to get closer to them. They also had barriers up to protect themselves from projectiles.

Uh-oh. Are they going to try and flush me out? This isn’t good. If the other two come at me together, I’ll have trouble killing them both without letting these two know. Hm, hit-and-run it is.

I ran to the back of the house and looked outside. The Sorcerer and final Magi were checking the backyard, looking anywhere I could be hiding. It was only a matter of time until they came to search the house again, so I needed to act fast or I’d get caught between them.

I was at least somewhat lucky though. If the Mivians had had some sort of search magic, I probably would’ve been doomed. Still, since they didn’t, I had ample ways to ambush and kill them. And they’d helped provide one.

Once the Sorcerer came back into the house, all I had to do was wait until they came into the room below the one they’d broke the floor of. Once they did, I activated Beast of the Nightmare and Sonic Burst, and hurled myself off of the second floor at the Sorcerer, knocking the diminutive caster off its feet while simultaneously driving a sword into its chest. I then turned around and launched a [Rot] at the Magi before it managed to react, striking it in the face and killing it.

I honestly couldn’t tell if they’d just been stupid or overconfident. An unprotected caster should never go somewhere with easy ambush spots. That’s just asking to get assassinated. Granted, its barrier would’ve protected it, but my guess was that moving barriers were beyond its skill in magic, if that was even a thing.

With those two dead, all that was left were the two in the front yard. Dealing with them would be difficult, but this was a good chance to try out [Energy Drain]. The spell was supposed to damage manifested spells.

“Concha! Katcha ka!”

Well that was my goal, but I wouldn’t be able to attempt it. One of the Mivians was lying dead on the ground, twitching in a pool of its own blood, while the other was running around screaming as something was gnawing at its arm. Something small, black and furry. The Mivian was so distracted by the creature, that it didn’t even notice me until I was right beside it, but that was far too late. My sword lashed out, taking the Demi-Human’s head.

“Ku? Kuu~!”

Sensing that the Mivian was dead, the little animal gnawing on it let go before looking around and giving a cute little bark when it saw me. It then began to clean all of the blood that had soaked into its fur by licking itself, much like a cat. Are you a fox, a dog or a cat!? Make up your damn mind!

Since it was fairly obvious that the fox was responsible for killing those two Mivians, I was flabbergasted by its nonchalant behavior. Especially when it then looked up at me and began begging again.

“Kuu? Kuuuuuuuu….…?”

“……….Are you sure you’re not a monster?”

“Kuuuu?”

“Because….that was pretty vicious, even by my standards.”

“Kuuuuuuuu?”

“Oh fine. Here.”

“Kuuuu~!”

I gave into the cute pressure the damn thing gave off and gave it another piece of jerky. This blasted fox seemed to eat its body weight every other hour. Haaaah, whatever. I’ll stop worrying about it for the moment. After all, it’s loot time!