[Guess who's back!!!! It's your friendly neighborhood Author. Although I wasn't gone for so long and this is more of a 'There's annoying pain in my mouth and I feel like jackshit with sleep deprivation' kinda chapter but I'm gonna write a lot of these chapters earlier in the story. It's kind of a preparation I'm having for a suprise I have for you guys but with my health it's gonna certainly take some time. Now off to the Metalhead protagonist.]
*Asura's POV*
"Okay everyone we gotta get back to work. We've already gone quite a great deal away from the exam entrance area so we need to return."
'How inefficient of a system is this? What about those guys stuck in the forest due to an injury waiting for a rescue after those 7 days? Since Demons here can survive for 50 years (According to the Hand Demon) there's no way that they clean this area of demons after the exams. The demon slayer corps can be pretty heartless,huh.' I thought while making plans on what to do next.
'I wonder why I didn't get a reward till now?' I thought and as if answering my question a message appeared from the system.
[*Ding*]
[ Hello Dumb teenager. I'm a system, I'm not God. Your reward is still being calculated by the system.]
'Wait! There's a system and calculations for my rewards? How do you measure it. How does it work?' I asked the system in vain.
Suddenly a voice appeared in my head that sounded ancient as hell.
'Will you shut up. You'll get your fucking reward.' The voice said while mumbling something about inconsiderate teenagers.
I tried to call out to it again but it didn't reply the only sound that returned was the sound of a low pitch laughter a laugh like that of a prankster or something but after a few seconds it went away.
'Wow. Did this just happen or am I going paranoid. Probably the first one.' I thought while deciding to ignore these thoughts and focusing more on the present for now.
"Cerberus,Fenris. I need you to do something for me. Go around the area and search for any injured people you find or any people about to die from Demons. I need you both to save those people and if they're heavily injured lead them towards other humans you find." I said, to which I got 2 barks of approval from the wolves.
They began to run into the forest and disappeared from our sight.
"That's nice of you. Why don't we also look around to help other people?" Said Tanjiro already ready to help completely unknown people.
"No. We need to get moving. As much as you like to help other people Tanjiro our lives still come first. I'm not gonna risk my neck for someone I don't know. Fenris and Cerberus are wolves. Even though me and Inosuke both grew up in the mountains they still have a superior level of agility in these forests than us. Also I'm not that good of a person Tanjiro, the only reason I sent them out there is because we're gonna need a lot of people. Any amount of Demon slayers that survive will be of help in our fights against the Demons." I said to which I only got a solemn nod from Tanjiro.
"Don't worry Monjiro it's not like we're gonna leave any injured person we find to die. Will we Nii san?" Inosuke asked while giving me a small glare.
'Oi, I'm supposed to be your elder brother and you're already switching sides? Well looks like my cute little brother developed a soft spot for Tanjiro, probably because he thinks that he also lost his mother. Tanjiro has a way with making friends doesn't he?' I thought while giving a nod which instantly uplifted Tanjiro's mood and got him to give another one of his sunshine smiles.
"We won't be saving anyone if we don't move, will we?" Said Haku.
"Well if it weren't for Mr Pig head here bantering non stop we would've already made our way half way through the forests." Said Zenitsu
"What did you say? You billboard brows." Shouted Inosuke and then both him and Zenitsu again got into an argument.
"Let's move." I said and we all started moving ignoring the two arguing friends behind us.
A smart move as they continued to argue for at least an hour more before Haku shouted at them which caused them to shut up.
We then travelled around the mountain trying to find our way back. Me and Tanjiro tried to use our sense of smell to find our way around the mountain but with the constant smell of blood making Tanjiro want to puke every 100 steps we take, We tacitly decided to keep our sense of smell to ourselves for now.
We did come across one or two injured people, why one or two? Well I had suggested everyone to move in groups but it looks like if a group was attacked they either all survived or all got decimated. Well i didn't expect people who just met to work in perfect coordination.
A group that works well together may be able to defeat enemies far stronger then their individual strength but that's the key point they must know how to work well together.
Also you can't have one extremely strong member and other members to be extremely weak,they just become a liability. Everyone has to at least carry their own weight in the group.
The power of friendship doesn't work on demons who would like nothing more then to rip off your legs and eat them in front of you while you bleed out. Emotions can help you but they can't carry you.
Those people we found were treated by Haku who knew a lot about healing and me and Inosuke who know a lot about various herbs and plants that grow on mountains. Inosuke surpasses me in knowledge about things like these. It was one of the few things he enjoyed doing except training and fighting and I never stopped him. Healing can help you a lot during battles and I'm not gonna stop my brother from taking some time off his training.
'This reminds me I need to get a gift for Inosuke for our birthday.' I thought.
We didn't know the exact date for our birthdays. So we decided to get a single day of the year for our birthdays as we were twins.
I tried to always do something for Inosuke on our birthdays but there aren't any free of cost gift shops on Mountains so the best I could do on most of our birthdays was cook a good meal for us and the rest of the animals on the mountain.
Our birthdays were one of the few days that no animal killed the other on the mountain. It was very hard to feed a mountain full of animals but I somehow used to manage.
I used to save a lot of meat from my share of meals and any other fruits or edible plants I could find. The herbivores on the mountain did give a lot of plants and other things to help.
I could've gone down the mountain and stolen some money to get a gift for Inosuke but I didn't want my gifts for my brother to be purchased from money I didn't own. The only things we had ever taken from human society were those given to us by Gramps or those that were thrown away by others.
Even though there weren't any humans singing happy birthday for us on our birthdays seeing all the animals just being there and the pack with us on our birthdays warmed my heart.
All in all it was a nice change from my bleak birthdays of my previous life. Also we used to hold a little tournament where any animal younglings can fight as long as they don't seriously injure the others and mostly those tournaments went smoothly. I didn't like to participate but Inosuke loved it.
'It was kinda funny to see the Pack looking at all the other animals with pride in their eyes as Inosuke used to fight with other animals in the tournament and absolutely demolish some of the other ones in his fights.' I thought while chuckling.
"Why are you laughing?" Asked the guy I was healing.
"Nothing, just some fond memories." I said while smiling.