In three more days, we have planned to go into the swamp to hunt down the last beast.
I wanted to finish the mission when we kill the remaining unknown beast, but in two days I have to train the new recruits so now I'm fully focused on finding the chihuahua and finish him tomorrow the latest, that way I could take my time in the swamp and even explore it a little.
Behind me, Sophie looked around with a mix of curiosity and fear. This was the first time that she leaves the shelter since all this happened, so it was expected for her to be nervous.
At her side Hayley was encouraging her, I asked her not to use her ability to calm her down since I want her to face this on her own and using an ability for it might be counterproductive in the long run.
Besides Hayley and Sophie in the team was Mark, Rose, and a guy I haven't talked to before and already forgot his name again… he uses a shotgun.
Since this was a mission against time I decided to take the secret weapon with us, so Dante was scouting around looking for the chihuahua.
Besides hunting the chihuahua, I also want to use this chance to let Sophie get some real experience battling beasts. If everything works well, I plan on taking her with us during the campaign to take down the last corrupted beast in the swamp. In a way despite this being a short time is a test to see if she should join the Aes Sidhe.
Since we aren't sure about the chihuahua's power (He managed to sneak on us after all), besides Dante Rose is also scouting around in her Astral form. Dante's presence wasn't a foolproof plan, so we put some special traps in areas that the chihuahua has been seen.
One of the communication technologies that have been recovered was radio waves, so with a special transmitter, we were able to know when one of the traps was activated. I could have gotten something better from the system, but I was supposed to test these devices for the R&D department, so there was no way around it.
I have a receptor on my hand and a bunch of transmitters to connect to the traps. When a trap activates, the transmitter sends a unique sequence similar to the Morse code to know from which transmitter it came.
On the second trap, Sophie came and asked me to teach her how to make them, so she had to set the next ones, but there were no signs of the chihuahua.
As the only thing that was keeping my mind busy was taken away, I watched at Rose floating around and Hayley talking with the rest of the team. It was nice seeing her getting along with other people, but I couldn't help but remember my previous conversation with Rose.
"Is it right like this?"
I looked at the trap that Sophie just finished and checked it.
"This knot has to be tighter, so it doesn't get undone when the trap activates."
She followed my instruction and tied the knot again.
With a nod, I approved the trap, and we moved to the next spot. We continued doing it, and Sophie became more and more proficient as we set them. I could see the experience bar on the mentor's proficiency getting filled.
In the meantime, Rose kept looking for the chihuahua and Dante was in constant communication with Pinky who was also trying to pinpoint his location. We already know the area in which the chihuahua usually appears.
As we moved to put down the seventh trap, Dante noticed the appearance of a goat, probably one that blacky (the new farmlands leader) couldn't control. As it was in our territory, it was okay to hunt it, and it was a good chance for Sophie to practice.
I changed the route and told the others to not attack the goat, Mark had to stay near her in the case that something happens, and I was going to attract its attention. After trying the three weapons that I gave her, Sophie ended liking the bow, but unfortunately, she still can't infuse the iron arrows yet, so she was using a crossbow with metal bolts.
As we tried the purple infuse more and more, we noticed that the effect was that of a homing projectile, it would change the direction to the nearest body once it left the crossbow so it might also end in friendly fire if we are careless.
As I moved forward to intercept the goat, Sophie was encouraged by Hayley.
The Goat was probably an E-Rank with an unusual power, I tried to remember where I have seen that aura before. Just as I recalled the goat stomped the floor, a soft vibration came from underground, and I jumped to avoid the earth spike.
Sophie fired her first shot, if it were normal bolts it would have passed about half meter to my left, but it curved in my direction as it got near and it was about 20cm from my arm when it moved by me. As it got near the goat, it's trajectory bent for a second time, and it hit it on the side. Unfortunately, the goat was covered in a stone layer, and the bolt was deflected, chipping away a part of the shield.
By the time it hit the aura was gone, but the homing effect was amazing. If it was a direct shot, thanks to the attraction effect, the bolt would speed up and hit even harder instead of changing its direction.
I modified my movement and went to the side to stay out of her line of fire and tried to go for the beast flank. The space around changed, the beast was slowed down, and the next bolt went directly into the stone skin. Thanks to the added speed up from the aura this time it hit hard and was able to pass the stone skin, and some blood started to come from the wound.
I toyed around with the beast and let Sophie shoot two more times. A normal beast would have already gone down by now, but the shield did its job and prevented the bolts from going too deep.
After getting a good grasp of her current ability I was quite satisfied with the training results, it should take her about two to three more shots to kill it, but at that time the receptor started vibrating letting me know that trap number four was activated.
"A trap was activated! Mark tank it, Hayley you are in charge."
I noticed that Sophie suddenly felt pressured to finish it fast and made a mistake in her aiming. Because of the homing effect, the bolt hit but was deflected.
"Sophie, aim carefully, take your time. I'll go to see what happened."
I was ready to use space shrink, and I felt Dante getting on my shoulder. If it weren't because of my resistance skills his claws would have hurt a lot more.
I gave a step, and everything around me was distorted. Dante jumped off my shoulder when we arrived and started to look around.
I went to check the trap. It was indeed activated, and the piece of meat that acted as bait was gone.
'As I thought~…'
"What?"
'Chihuahuas are the most stupid kind of dog in existence because they are actually a hybrid that came from a dog that was so stupid that mated with a mouse~. As you can expect of interspecies mating, they are flawed and born without a brain. He might be near, but I can't find any sentient being around.'
I wasn't sure if he was joking with the explanation or he just wanted to badmouth dogs, but the fact that he couldn't find the dog near was bad. Leaving the option that chihuahuas really lacked sentience apart this meant that the dog has some kind of mental shield, a spatial type ability, or he might even be able to change planes like Rose.
I enhanced all my senses and used my tracking skill and view to look for clues. The fact that the bait was gone and that there were no other beast or animal around made highly possible for the chihuahua to be the one that activated the trap.
The beast that activated the trap appeared in the place took the meat and disappeared, I don't think is likely for the chihuahua to have a mental shield and with my current level if the beast blinked or teleported away from here I would be able to feel or see something, unless it was over my level.
"Astral Realm?"
'Rose would have noticed~.'
I thought about other options…
"Do you think it can go to the underworld or something like that?"
If the Soul Realm exists why wouldn't other realms exist? Maybe the reason we can't find it is because it comes from another place.
'It might be… Hey, it appeared… maybe it got a brain from the meteor shower~.'
I shut my mouth for a second and waited for him to explore the chihuahua's mind… it didn't take long.