"Awwwwwooooooooo- kiii-"
That was the last thing this Sea Wolf ever said moments before its head got detached again from the body.
"And that should make the 4th wolf for the day. Lavenza, have you finished yours?" The one who said that was the one who cut the Sea Wolf's head off, Soren. At that moment, another wolf left out a dying howl.
"Kiiii-" The wolf's throat was completely torn off at that point and died without making anymore sounds.
"Kaaah~ Bleeh~" Then Lavenza wiped the blood she had on her mouth. The wolf that died from Lavenza's attacks had a couple of big bite marks, on the front left claw and on its throat and had a few bumps as well.
"Now that makes wolf number 5. Nice job Lavenza." Then Soren gave her a thumbs up.
"Kyuu~! Kyuu~!" Lavenza seemed excited for some reason.
"Hey calm down little girl. What is it?"
...
After the duo escaped the meeting with the Geis Crab, they continued their hunt in the forest, while avoiding that shellfish creature. While doing so, the had a bit of luck and found a few more wolves to hunt.
...
"Kyuu~!" She seemed excited and happy.
"Wait, don't tell me!" Then a thought went through Soren's mind and decided to check her.
Name: Lavenza
Race: Leviathan
LV: 4
HP: 78 (+18)
MP: 90 (+14)
STR: 14 (+3)
VIT: 13 (+3)
AGL: 27 (+4)
INT: 45 (+7)
WIS: 36 (+5)
RFL: 26 (+4)
LCK: 30 (+5)
Skills (A): Magic Ball, Water Ball, Water Shot, Bite LV.3(!)
Skills (P):Mana Manipulation LV.1, Water Magic LV.2, Water Booster(!), Soft-Scaled, Partnership
Titles: Life-Bound Companions (Soren), Daughter of the Arch-Priestess Laventhign
"Level Up little girl. Not bad and with a new skill to boot. Let's see this now." Soren said proudly.
[Water Booster: Increases Water Magic Damage. This ability can only be obtained by either the user having high water affinity or by external factors. +25% Increased WTDMG]
"External factors? Hmmm... Could it be my blessing is included into those factors or not?" This posed to be some decent food for thought but right now they were in the middle of the wild and being absent-minded in this place, is a recipe for disaster.
"Uhhh... Guess I'll have to ask Rohan whenever I get a chance." Soren then decided to give up on that thought for now.
"Kyuu~! Kyuu~!" Lavenza seemed like she wanted something.
"What is it?" Soren was confused.
"KYUU~!" Lavenza screamed angrily.
"You want something else aside just words?" Soren asked while being confused. He had no idea what was Lavenza talking about until it suddenly hit him.
"Wait, you want something else, aside from words of praise?" After Soren said that, Lavenza nodded.
'So she wanted a reward of sort. Problem is, I don't have anything like that with me right now and I have no clue about what she would truly want.' Soren was brainstorming to try and figure out what Lavenza wanted. 'She is an infant so for starters, i don't anything material or expensive. Then maybe affection?' The moment that thought went through his head, he had an idea.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza was starting to feel dejected to the fact that her caretaker was as
dense as a rock, when suddenly a hand was rubbing her head. The feeling caught her completely by suprise and yet, she felt warm and fuzzy inside her.
"Kyuuuuuuu~... Kyu~ Kyu~" She felt happy and satisfied.
Soren himself felt a bit weird since this was his first time headpatting someone else, but it didn't feel bad for him either. He had this to the neighbours' pets, but never to a person since he never had a reason to do it.
"Better?"
"Kyuuhuhu~..." Lavenza was still enjoying the feeling.
After Soren stopped the headpatting, the two of them countinued their hunt in the forest.
...
In the meantime, a woman who was holding a paper bag full of salty snacks, was watching the duo from afar, while having an angry and slightly desperate expression face.
"Uhhh... Why do you have to take my little girl's first times? I wanted to headpat her first. URRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! MOLESTER! LECHER! DISCUSTING PIECE OF SCUM! JUST BE GLAD THAT I CAN'T REVEAL MY DAUGHTER'S EXISTANCE TO THE WORLD, OTHERWISE I WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU ALREADY! UUUUUUURRRGGGHHH!!! WAAAAAAAHH!!!"
A wolf who was also swimming nearby, decided to check the mysterious cry and saw a woman with blue hair crying while holding a bag on her hands and feeling sorry for her, it decided to give her its tail to wipe her tears. The woman wiped her tears with the wolf's tail and then she thanked the wolf before she made her way towards stalking the duo. As for the wolf itself, it looked upwards to make sure the end of world wouldn't be coming right now and continued on its merry way.
...
After they two of them collected the corpses and wiped themselves off the blood the had on them, they continued towards another random direction since they had to continue the hunt. While they were swimming, a couple of adventurers were swimming nearby. The moment the two adventurers locked their eyes on Soren and Lavenza, they decided to check on the young boy and his sea serpent, just out of curiosity.
While Soren and Lavenza were swimming towards their next monster, they noticed the two adventurers who were coming towards them. The two of them were guys with black hair, gray tails and blue eyes and were wearing similar armor with Soren, with the one on the left holding a sword and shield, while the one on the right was holding a bow and a quiver with arrows on his back.
The first one to speak was the one with the bow and said:
"Well, well, well. Would you look at that? New face around here?"
The man's tone was confident and arrogant with a small hint of sarcasm. Once Soren heard that voice, his first thought was: 'This is pretty bad. Stay calm for now.'
"Vik, are you still going to be doing this everytime you meet a new face?" The man with sword said with an annoyed look on his face.
"Come on Charles, don't be a stick in the mud. You know the way to meet a new face is by giving a look of confidence while still having that "casual" voice and mannerism, y'know?" The man named Vik said while looking clearly a bit annoyed with his companion's preaching.
"The way that sounded was like that of an arrogant pr*ck who doesn't know his place in world and is litterally courting death. If you want to have a casual look, at least try to leave that serious look of yours, lest you want to continue creating more misunderstandings."
"Well, I think..." The two adventurers started bickering like a couple of kids fighting for the last piece of cake and it wouldn't take long for them to draw their weapons.
Soren was thinking about the best course of action. Leave or stay. On the one hand, he could stay and maybe even try to dissolve tge fight. On the other hand though, he could leave them in the dust, but that could cause misunderstandings. So in the end, Soren decided to wait and see how things play out and in case things went south, he still had one of the lures to bring everything to a stop.
After around 10 minutes of constant bickering later, Soren and Lavenza were sitting down on a big rock that happened to be close. Soren himself was doing a bit of maintenance on his equipment, while Lavenza was trying to practise with her magic spells.
"... and the reason why you smell like a rotten pufferfish is-" Vik was the one speaking when Charles suddenly said:
"Hey, hold up, where did the kid go?"
The two of them looked around and saw the duo sitting on a rock, completely ignoring the loud duo.
"Hey what's ya sitting there for, guys?" The one who asked was Vik.
"Waiting for the Marmots's day to end." Soren said sarcastically, while not even giving them a look.
"Marmots's day? What is that supposed to be?" Vik asked curiously.
*sigh* "Vik, he was waiting for us, to end our stupid shenanigans." Charles said while holding his head.
"Hey, what is that supposed to mean? We weren't doing shenanigans, right?" Vik asked nervously.
"You did." Soren said with an expressionless face.
"Kyu~." Lavenza nodded in the same manner.
"Yup." Even Charles agreed with the same expression as the others.
.
..
...
A moment of silence, passed like a bird that was litterally flying over their heads.
"Well... That was anti-climactic." Vik said in an awkward manner.
The moment itself couldn't get anymore awkward, yet Vik somehow did it with that last sentence of his.
"Can we have some introductions to break the ice with?" Soren said, while having a headache.
"Name's Charles and I'm the leader of the team "Double Trouble". Charles said.
" And I'm Viktor. But everyone just calls me Vik. The other member of "Double Trouble" and younger brother of Charles. Same father, different mother."
"Vik, don't say everything on your head, you idiot." Then Charles smacked him with a metal fan that he took out of nowhere.
"OW! Charles, you know that hurts, pretty badly, so why are you taking it out?" Vik asked with an annoyed expression on his face.
"To beat fools like you!" Charles answered back angrily.
*ahem* "My name is Soren and this is my partner and friend, Lavenza." Soren said, clearly, full of anymore shenanigans.
"Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you." Charles answered a bit nervously.
"So, did you need us for a reason?" Soren asked.
"Uhhmmm... Yeah, about that..." Both of them were in an awkward situation, since they only wanted to a hi, they clearly caused him trouble and wasted his time, so they were trying to think of something. Thankfully Vik thought up something and spoke first.
"Actually... There was this big monster that was roaming the nearby area... So you should be careful and stuff..." Vik said nervously, while praying that he bought the lie.
"Are you talking about the giant crab that was roaming nearby?" Soren asked curiously.
"Yeah...? Yeah. We are actually on a mission to investigate the monster and to warn anyone near the area to leave it, immidiately." Vik couldn't believe his bluff actually worked and the fact that an actual big monster was near the area.
"I'll heed your advice then. Thank you for the warning. Take care." After saying that, Soren then waved at the "Double Trouble" duo and then left with Lavenza.
The DT duo though, now had another problem. A giant crab as actually in the vicinity of the forest.
"Take care kid." Vik said while Soren and Lavenza were leaving.
"We should bail out of here brother, immidiately." Vik said while getting himself ready to leave, but just as he was about to leave, Charles grabbed him by the collar and said:
"And where do you think you are going, mister?"
"Anywhere, but here?"
"No, you don't. Your big mouth got us into this mess and now we have to clean it up. Now get yourself ready, cause we are hunting a big crab now." Charles said seriously.
"Come on, bro. I don't want to fight that. Besides we are Rank D only. We can't fight anything of that caliber."
"Then, at least, we have to locate it. We can't afford having this beast, so close to Crystalia City. Now, get ready."
"Uhhh... Fine. But if we die because of your "sense of duty", I will be cursing you from the depths of hell." Vik said angrily.
"You can thank your big mouth for that." Vharles said expressionlessly.