Victoria stared at Chris utterly bewildered. First he cut a full grown tree down without any tools. Then he defeated an Ent in one blow while simultaneously surviving a fall from ridiculous height. Finally he crushed a sentient monster core with his bare hands. Victoria appraised him once more as he just looked around the battle area.
"Dragon huh."
She watched as he lowered his shield bug, which had been attached to his left arm the whole time, into the tangle of vines. Victoria heard a distant crunching noise coming from the mound of vines. Curious she called out to Chris.
"What are you doing? Let's go already."
"Oh just a sec. I'm not sure what Armonite eats except for cores so seeing as I don't know when I'll get another one."
The crunching continues from the vine until Armonite finishes off the last of the Ents core. Chris then looks around again until he spots the tree that started this mess.
"Ah ha!"
He runs over and picks up the tree, hefting it over his right shoulder. He then turns, somehow miraculously not hitting any other trees, and faces Victoria.
"Alright where do we take this."
Victoria looks at him again and shakes her head, a grin on her face.
"You're hopeless aren't you Leonidas. Come on, I'll show you the way."
...
They drop the whole tree off at the the villages lumber yard to be processed into materials for the new furniture. Victoria pays them for their service and they then take the processed materials to a carpenter. Who estimates the time to make a new bed frame and table to be around half a day. It was almost noon when they dropped off the materials so the carpenter said to pick them up tonight. With that done Chris was officially out of things to do. Abraxios said he'd get his first assignment soon but so far he'd seen and heard nothing from him. He started to wonder how long "soon" was for a being that was created at the beginning of creation. Chris pondered what he should do when he saw Victoria come out of the carpenters shop. She walked to where he was leaning against the shop and walked past him. Gesturing for him to follow her.
"Let's go, I've got someone I'd like to introduce you to."
"Maybe I shouldn't."
Victoria stops and looks back at him confused.
"Why not?"
"What if I end up owing you another table?"
Chris smiles at his incredible wit, while Victoria rolled her eyes.
"Then I'll have you fight another Ent. Stop being stupid let's go."
Chris quickly fell in step next to her. He couldn't stop his eyes from exploring every bit of the village as they walked by. The variety of Demi-humans and monsters astounded him. At one point he thought he saw a bear Demi-human. As they were walking a thought came to his mind.
"Do the humans know villages like this exist?"
Victoria looks at him an eyebrow raised.
"It hard to say, for the most part I'd say small villages like this one are roughly hidden. We have "human deterrents" set up all along the border of this area. In order to help this area stay secret."
"What kind of "human deterrents" are we talking about?"
"Sentient monsters mostly. Strong monsters are sometimes asked to patrol the outside area. Scaring away any humans that come to near, but if that doesn't work we ask them to kill them. Everyone's been a little worried recently though. The night before you appeared, the remains of two of our strongest patrol monsters were found, their cores gone. And the scariest part is that there wasn't much sign of a struggle. Whoever killed them did it quickly."
Chris hesitated at that, recalling the two bears that attacked him his first day on Sota. Had one of them spoke? He couldn't precisely recall.
"That's concerning."
Victoria nods grimly.
"Yeah."
The two continued walking in silence for a while.
"Do you know who'll replace the two missing monsters?"
"The village council will typically hold a meeting and ask any volunteers to step forward. But if no one does, it'll mean that the monsters already protecting the village will have more shifts. On top of that they'll have more ground to cover to."
Chris glances down at Armonite, who shrugs at him mentally.
'Whoops.'
"We're here."
They stopped in front of a what Chris would describe as a stereotypical old fashioned Eastern Asia temple. The arch was well over fifteen feet high and as elegant a arch as he'd ever seen. The two walked into the temple grounds and Chris could've sworn he was immediately cut off from the outside world. To his right was a small pond with a adorable little waterfall bubbling into it. To his left were beautiful tree with pink leaves, he guessed it was a cherry tree, he was no botanist. They entered the interior of the temple and walked into the center chamber. Sitting on a fluffy pillow pad in the center of the room was a young fox girl meditating. She appeared to be only a little younger than Chris and Victoria. As well the girl looked almost exactly like Victoria, except where Victoria's hair was dirty red the young girls hair was blond. Even the girls fox tail and ears were blond. The girl lifted her head a little and opened her eyes. Chris was surprised to see her eyes were completely grayed our. The girl was blind.
"Victoria you're back."
"Yes and I brought back a friend."
The girl furrowed her eyes in concentration.
"What do you mean? I don't see anybody with you."
"Allow me to introduce you two, Hala this is Leonidas, Leonidas this is Hala. She's my little sister, and the strongest magic user in the village. She's also an Awakened Nine Tail Fox."
Chris looked at Hala and back to Victoria.
"I'm sorry to insult your math, but I only count one tail."
Hala jumped a little at the sound of Chris's voice. She turned her grey eyes in the direction she'd heard his voice had come from. Looking more confused by the second. Meanwhile Victoria looked very perturbed with Chris. She looked over at her sister.
"Show him Hala."
Still surprised by the sudden appearance of Chris presence she was slow to hear her sister. But as her sisters request reached her she moved her tail. To Chris's astonishment more tails soon followed. But his skepticism was soon back as he counted the tails.
"I'm sorry to insult you're math skills but, I count only four tails."
Victoria started grinding her teeth angrily at Chris and Hala blushed slightly. As Victoria was about to let loose on Chris Hala held up a calming hand to her sister.
"A nine tailed fox doesn't start with nine tails. As they grow stronger a tail grows as well to symbolize its strength."
"Huh, congratulations, you're almost half way there."
He gave her a thumbs up, then realized he was touched in the head and lowered his thumb. As he did that he had a thought.
"How'd you know we were here?"
Hala smiled.
"Because one, Vic is as stealthy as a bull in a china shop. And because secondly I can see people by reading their magic auras. It's how I see even though I'm blind. As you've guessed."
"Huh, that's neat. Can you teach me magic? Victoria says you're good at it."
Hala looked surprised by the question and took on a thoughtful look.
"…"