"Awiiiiii-" A normal sea wolf left its last cry at the moment when both Soren and Lavenza shot their water balls at the poor, unsuspecting, sleeping sea wolf. The beast itself, didn't even have a chance to fight back when it died and Soren gave it a quick prayer before he picked up the carcass.
"Let your soul rest in such a merciful way. Amen." Soren said with a benevolent voice.
"Kyuu~?" Lavenza was confused by the sentence that Soren said.
"Hey. That was number 31 on my bucket list. Give a prayer to a monster that didn't even know its death came for it on its sleep. Is it that weird?" Soren said defencively.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza threw a look of disappointment at Soren at that moment.
"Hey, is it really that weird to have a bucket list? Everyone has one." Soren said a bit nervously.
"... Kyuu~ Reny~..." At that moment, Lavenza gave up on the conversation and decided to ignore this weird side of his.
Soren felt like his impression hit rock bottom at that moment, so he decided to change the topic by asking something else.
"Anyways, don't you think that the only beasts that we have met until now are that ravaged wolf and at least half a dozen normal sea wolves? I was expecting more for tonight. I wanted a little a bit of variety, like a boar like monster, or a jellyfish type monster, maybe even a kelpie would be nice, just not a pile of dirty seaweeds that smell like toxic waste and excrement that have been marinated in bile and garbage." Soren said.
"Kyuu~." Lavenza didn't seem to mind the lack of variety.
"Oh well, I'll take the lack of variety, over getting my tail handed to me by another ravaged wolf. Now let's get moving, we need one more sea wolf and we should be able to finish the quest. If it counted the damned ravaged wolf, we would have left by now, but it is monster specific." Soren said annoyed.
He wanted a bit of a change from the usual sea wolves that they had encountered the past few days, but he didn't know where those monsters were and he also had to complete a quest, so he couldn't waste time looking for anything, other than a sea wolf. After giving up on that line of thought, he then put awat the corpse in the tiny bag and continued his hunt with Lavenza.
The forest was covered with a thick layer of darkness that wouldn't allow you to see far. The everglow gems gave some visibily during the daytime, but they provided only so much light, so whoever tried to hunt during this time, they had to stay extra vigilant since there were enemies that were night predators.
The duo swam for a little while towards a random direction. Suprisingly, they barely had any fatigue and aside of some minor would on Soren's arms, the duo was pretty much unscathed. The did see the occasional campfire with someone being always awake, but they decided to not make any contact with them since they didn't knew any of them.
Time went by and the duo still hadn't found the last sea wolf they required to finish the quest. Soren felt a bit annoyed with the fact that the last wolf was being a chore to find, but that was just his patience running out. Lavenza didn't seem to mind the fact the wolf hadn't appeared yet, since that gave her some relaxing time to herself.
That time was usually spent by training her magic, or just paying attention to the beautiful surroundings. Of course, due to the fact that daytime was nighttime for the merfolk, she couldn't see much, so her time now was spent training her magic. She was trying to break through her level 2 barrier in water magic, since she felt like it wouldn't be much of a problem to do that. However, it turned out that learning new spells weren't as easy to learn as she thought. The Water Shot spell was just a modified version of Water Ball spell that focuses more on speed rather than power, but it came at the cost of said power. Until now, she was trying to create different water forms of things that she had seen. Most of the time, she was able to replicate it pretty easily, but whenever she tried something complex, the shape would always turn out weird. Now though, she was starting to run out of things to replicate and she felt like she had hit a stump. She saw Soren being able to use magic, such as Water Ball and Mana Wall, but she doubted that Soren would have more knowledge in magic than him.
Soren saw that Lavenza was struggling wuth something, since she was pretty absent-minded and asked:
"Lavenza, do you need anything?"
"..." Lavenza didn't even notice him.
"Lavenza, yoohoo. Do you have any problems?" Soren asked a bit worried.
"..." She still didn't notice Soren speaking.
"Lavenza!" At that moment, Soren decided to shout to grab her attention.
"Kyuu~!" At that moment, Lavenza suddenly shot a Water Shot at Soren. The spell hit him on the gut, made him to drop on the ground while covering his belly area with his arms.
"Oooooowwwww..." Soren was in pain at that moment. That spell wasn't very strong, but it still packed quite a punch and he remembered the damage from the Water Ball spell.
"Kyuu~ Kyuu~ Reny~!" Lavenza was very worried and sad. She didn't want this to happen, so tried to help Soren in some way, but she had no idea. After a bit, Soren got up while still feeling pain and said:
"Honestly Lavenza. Ow! You should really pay attention. Owow! While we are out on the wild. Tsk." Soren was still in pain while he said that, but he wouldn't let the pain to affect him.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza was sorry about this mess.
"It's alright. Just don't forget this. Don't be absent-minded in the middle of the wild. You are bound to get yourself into a mess." Soren reprimanded Lavenza. He wasn't angry and truth be told, he didn't pick the best action to snap her out of her trance, hence the situation, but he wouldn't hold it out for her. As long as she learned her lesson, that was more than enough for Soren.
"You know what, let's sit somewhere for a bit. I need to rest for a bit." Soren decided to take a break. Although he didn't feel physical fatigue, his head still needed a bit of time of just enjoying the night view for a bit. The constant feeling of being on edge had his mental power drained out and it fully hit him some time after there was a lack of action.
The duo then sat on top of a big rock that happened to be nearby, the rock itself was covered in barnacles and moss, but they didn't mind that. After they spent a bit of time resting on the rock, they decided to continue their hunt until they were tired or until daytime was over.
*rustle* *rustle*
"Huh?" Soren noticed the noise that came right now and decided to look around, Lavenza did the same as well.
"Weird, I don't see anything around and my sixth sense isn't picking anything up. Could it be some stealth type monster?" Soren said to himself before he drew his sword out. This time he was fully on guard with his back on the big rock. He couldn't afford to be careless, just like with the ravaged sea wolf from before, so he decided to play safe and wait for the beast to appear.
5 minutes passed. Another 5 minutes passed. After another 5, then Soren decided to check around the area again to see if the thing that made the noise was there. There was nothing nearby. 'What was that noise from before? Could it be a monster, or maybe an adventurer? Whatever that was, it doesn't seem to be here anymore, but it's better to get away from here before it comes back.' Soren thought to himself.
"Let's leave this area right now Lavenza. I don't know about you, but I don't intend to stay and find out what that rustling sound was." Soren said a bit nervously.
"Kyuu~." Lavenza nodded as well while being worried.
*rustle* *rustle*
At that moment, Soren decided to use the sixth sense immidiately. He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, or anything that could be hiding nearby, but there was one minor change. The rock had a barnacle that was half-buried in the sand, but when the duo came, there was no half-buried barnacle. At that point, Soren decided to check the rock and the information that appeared in front of him, caused him to drop his haw from the shock.
[Geis Crab (Rare)
Race: Shellfish
LV: 23
HP: 1782
MP: 204
STR: 117
VIT: 162
AGL: 53
INT:68
WIS: 59
DEX: 53
LCK: 81
Skills (A): Water Ball, Water Shot, Water Wall, Water Cutter, Earth Ball, Earth Shot, Earth Wall, Crabhammer LV.7, Claw Grip LV.6
Skills (P): Water Magic LV.4, Earth Magic LV.3, Body over mind II, Mind over Body, Lesser Water Resistance, Lesser Earth Resistance, Lesser Physical Resistance, Hardshelled]
"There is no way you are serious, aren't you?"