Chereads / Monster Haven / Chapter 16 - First treasure find

Chapter 16 - First treasure find

When I woke up the next morning I was excited, I have hunted for the first time. I didn't get anything from it, as it's part of the deal to let it become my partner, my first trained monster! There's also just two more days till my birthday, then I'll be 10 years old, that must mean something special. I hope I'll officially tame the hare today or tomorrow, a day before my birthday. It'll feel better to start my tenth year with greater strength and a new companion!

I stand up from my bed, my hay pile, and I feel a spring in my step like I've never had before, it's almost as if the power I normally use to stand up is enough to make me jump. Maybe I'm just getting that much stronger without realising it! I can't help but smile at that thought, even though it is impossible. It's been too short, especially since I'm just a human kid right now, maybe if I form a contract with a monster I'll be able to grow fast, but until then I won't be able to grow that fast yet. But even though I can't train my body that fast yet I can still train my skills, and to do that I need to train. So I step outside, as I do so stones and branches start flying towards me, I catch them and throw them upwards, juggling them so they don't touch the ground.

On this day I had my first minor succes with juggling two different things with two different hands. My first minor success with multithinking, Goba said it's called Active Dual Mind, a straight forward name that doesn't sound impressive, but it can be impressive in the long run.

After sparring with Goba, cleaning myself and making myself dirty again we enter the forest. This time we went to the hare's nest, there we see a massive pile of meat, but all the bones and shells are gone! He must have eaten a lot! But the thing I wonder about most is that there's way more meat than there was on the tortoises, did he hunt more or do I remember wrong?

Behind the pile of meat, in a shallow digged out pit lays the hare, on its back, resting. When he hears us he looks up and he just rolls around! We must go hunt again, we can't wait, I want to train it!

"Come hare, we must go and hunt! Don't just lay around!" I yell at him, he can't just stop halfway through our deal, we must finish it!

The hare just stands up and walks towards me, he disappears and reappears on my shoulder, his head on mine and then I sense it. The biggest urge to just do nothing and enjoy being full, even by just feeling it like this I want to lay down too! But I'm strong, I won't rest until I've hunted them all!

"Just lay on my shoulders and tell me where they are, I'll hunt them myself, I'll finish our deal today! I'll show you that I'll be a great master for you." I can't help myself but pet his head as I tell him this, and he actually pushes his head in my hand, enjoying the attention. After that he points in a direction, and I follow it, going to a stupid turtle! I'll hunt them down, they'll be a sacrifice for our strength, our future, and our food.

It doesn't take long to find the first tortoise, the hare must have studied their daily routines a lot to always know where they are. As I know where it is now the hare steps down from my shoulder and just lazily lays down on the ground, not even bothered to watch my fight.

I sneak towards to tortoise, it's searching for something, its head is close to the ground as if smelling it. I probably could take it out right now, but I could also follow it and see what it'll find. Taking it out now would be faster, but if I follow it and it finds what it's looking for it'll be even more distracted, so I'll have his head and the thing he's looking for! Maybe I can use it if the hare chooses not to form the contract as we said before! Or maybe Goba can use it to evolve, that'd be perfect too! And so I leave the hare behind, it'll take care of itself. Following the tortoise is pretty easy, it moves rather slow, even more so now that it's searching for something.

Only when the sun almost reaches its zenith did something happen, the tortoise uses its head to dig, that must mean that it's there right? So I move in silently, making sure that even though it's focused on digging it won't notice me coming. And then I cut it down! The tip of my blade going just behind its skull, if falls down right away.

I might have wanted to fight it head on if it wouldn't just hide in its shell if I tried that, I feel kind of bad just sneak attacking all of them, but it cannot be helped. But first things first, I continue digging where the tortoise stopped, let's see what's there.

After a few minutes digging in this soil that feels harder than I expected I notice something strange. It's as if the soil gives me a warm, but numbing sensation. It's like you wake up and you can't feel your arm anymore, but in a pleasant way, and I can still feel my arm. It's really weird, so I get excited, there must be something!

A few more minutes later I see a light, a light underground, as I start unearthing the source a luminous mist spreads in the air. A mist that gives a dark blue light with golden wisps through it. It smells really earthy and herby. I pick up the source and it is an egg shaped thing, it has a rough skin and it is a deep dark blue with golden spots, it looks like a clear night sky. It also could look like the hare, dark surrounded with sparkles, depending on how you look at it. Goba told me that tips like this give a good chance that it's beneficial to the monster! I definitely can buy the hare with this! Or I can eat it myself?