When I got up I realized I was the first to get up today, Ibuki and Érica are sleeping peacefully beside me.
I get up and get out of bed slowly so as not to wake the girls, then head out of the cabin to do some light martial arts training.
I decided to start training the Fist of Chaos and then the Blade of Chaos, I will start training these two skills every day in the morning.
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After three hours of training, I end training, I see Ibuki and Érica sitting on a tree trunk looking at me.
I don't know when they woke up or how long they've been seeing me, I head towards them.
"Good morning Érica." (I)
"Good morning, Ibuki." (I)
"Good morning Master." (Érica)
"Good morning Master." (Ibuki)
I extend them both and sit beside them to rest.
"How long have you two been awake?" (I)
"We woke up some time ago, master, we were watching your training, the movements that the master was doing seemed to be a martial art, but I've never seen one with such strange movements." (Érica)
"With the training, I'm improving little by little, but I still have a lot of useless moves and I'm very rigid with the punches." (I)
"Don't worry master, you are strong." (Ibuki)
"Thank you, Ibuki." (I)
After talking I take a tree branch, as straight as I can find it, and go outside the camp where there is a lot of tall grass.
I carry my daggers around my waist, when I get there I cut many blades of tall grass with one of my daggers and take them back to camp with me.
I want to try to make a broom, I take the bush and leave it together at one end of the branch so I use my lines to tie it well, with that I have a simple broom, it should be enough to clean the cabin.
As he finished his broom, Érica came running in with a smile on her face.
"Master, master, they came back, they came back." (Érica)
"Calm down Érica, breathe calmly then speak again." (I)
She breathes slowly to calm herself before continuing.
"Master, Diana, and Kira came back, I saw them coming and I came to warn you." (Érica)
"(Finally they came back, I already missed them, Kira has been away longer than with us since she joined the group.)" (I)
I'm running outside along with Érica, when I get outside I see Diana and Kira coming through the gate.
As soon as they both see me Diana starts running full speed towards me, she runs so fast I don't have time to react, as soon as she gets close she jumps on me hugging me, we both fly backward and I feel like had been run over by a car.
"Master, I missed you so much, did you get taller this week? I want Master to stay small and cute." (Diana)
"I missed you too Diana, now let go of me, if you keep squeezing me like that soon I won't be able to breathe anymore." (I)
"..." (Diana)
"Alright, sorry master, I'm very happy and I ended up losing control." (Diana)
Diana stopped squeezing me but didn't let go, she stood up with me still in her arms holding me like a child holding a doll.
"I missed you so much master." (Diana)
"I missed you too Diana, I'm glad you and Kira are okay." (I)
Suddenly I see a figure and feel a tug, the next thing I know I'm a little shorter, but I'm still being hugged and lifted from behind when I turn around I realize why I'm shorter, at some point, Kira robbed me of Diana's arms and is hugging me the same way.
"Master, I missed you too." (Kira)
"It's good to have you back, now you could let go of me Kira." (I)
"I do not want." (Kira)
"Kira returns the master to me." (Diana)
"No" (Kira)
As soon as Diana grabs one of my arms and starts trying to pull me out of Kira's arms, the two of them start a tug-of-war game where I'm the corporal.
Ahhhh!
"YOU BOTH STOP IT AND LET ME GO!" (I)
"..." (Kira)
"..." (Diana)
Finally, they release me and I fall to the ground.
"(For a moment I thought it would be ripped in half.)" (I)
After I had recovered from what had happened, the girls and I entered the cabin and sat in a circle on top of the wolfskin rugs.
"So how was your stay in town?" (I)
"We have completed all the tasks you have given us." (Diana)
"Some of the books the master asked for are considered banned or rare so it made it difficult for us to find them, but in the end, we got them all." (Kira)
"That's good, did anyone suspect you coming back alone, Diana?" (I)
"Everyone believed the story you told me to tell, after telling the guards at the gate and an employee of the Adventurers' Guild no one asked anymore." (Diana)
"Did you do it the way I asked?" (I)
"Yes, I gradually increased my bloodlust, closed my eyes, and thought about my favorite food in the part of the story where I killed the bad guys, spent the whole week drinking, and took a lot of subjugation missions yesterday before coming back." (Diana)
"Well done, it's fortunate that no one wanted to investigate further." (I)
"Master, I understand all the acting Diana did telling the story and drinking throughout the week, but why did she have to close her eyes and think about her favorite food during the story's climax?" (Kira)
"Maybe it's better for Érica to answer that, she was the one who gave me the idea after all." (I)
"All I did was tell Diana's bad habit to the master, it was you who perfectly implemented it into the plan." (Érica)
"What bad habit?" (Diana)
Sigh
Érica and I exchanged glances before looking at Diana and sighing at the same time.
"You have the bad habit of when you're remembering a food you like or when you're going to eat a food you like," you give a truly frightening smile like you're a predator looking at prey." (Érica)
"I do not do this." (Diana)
"Yes it does, I tested it myself to see if it could be used in the plan, if you don't remember I made you think of your favorite food days before you left." (I)
"I don't remember that, but it can't be that bad, can it?" (Diana)
"Right after the two of us met, about three days later, you and I were eating at a restaurant and you had this scary smile when you saw the food, the waitress who served the food started to shiver at the sight of her smile, not just that, you give the same smile when you're enjoying a fight." (Érica)
"..." (Diana)
"Let's get back to the topic." (I)
"Did you get the information from the third prince of Cartoza?" (I)
"Yes master, I got all the information the master asked for." (Kira)
"Good job Kira, is the information from a reliable source?" (I)
"Yes, they come from the Assassin Guild master himself." (Kira)
"How do you know the master of the Assassin Guild?" (Érica)
"I've known him since I came to Valen City, he was a great help to me and I did a lot of outsourced work for the Guild." (Kira)
"He asked me many times to join the Guild, but I refused every time." (Kira)
"Just to clarify, what does Assassin Guild do?" (I)
"The Assassins' Guild works the same as the Adventurers' Guild, but its subjugation targets are people and not monsters." (Kira)
"But contrary to what their name suggests, most of the Guild's missions are stealing and espionage, the Assassin's Guild are the biggest information sellers out there." (Kira)
"If you say so I will believe Kira." (I)
"We'll look at this information tomorrow, we have a lot to talk about first." (I)
"Do you have anything else to tell me?" (I)
Kira and Diana exchange looks and Kira nods at Diana.
"Master, during my choice of missions I may have run into a problem." (Diana)
"What kind of problem?" (I)
"There were two subjugation quests that don't often appear on the quest board, Guild receptionists and gate guards have reported problems with these monsters." (Diana)
"What monsters?" (I)
"Zombies and Skeletons, they've been appearing in the forest lately, master." (Diana)
"What are the Undead doing in the Valley of Blood?" (Érica)
"According to what Érica taught me they were supposed to be through underground caves in the mountain range, right?" (I)
"That would be exactly the case, but Diana and I have a theory, which members of the Adventurers' Guild also believe to be the cause." (Kira)
"What theory?" (I)
"We think one of the caves in the Valley of Blood must be connected with the caves in the mountain range." (Diana)
This theory is very plausible, if that is the case then it explains the Undead appearing, none of them have appeared here yet, but if they are already a problem for the city of Valen then they will soon appear here too.
"(Wait a minute, Érica mentioned that there may be much Undead and that there may be strong monster corpses among them, if this is true and a cave in this forest is connected to the mountain range, it can cause a big problem.)" (I)
With that zombie apocalypse thought, several scenes from horror movies started popping into my head and I started to break out in a cold sweat.
"Are you alright master?" (Kira)
"Tell me something, how many Undead do you think there are in the mountain range?" (I)
"A few thousand at the very least, there's speculation that there's an Undead Dungeon out there somewhere, but no one has been able to find it." (Érica)
"The Undead walk together don't they?" (I)
"Yes, they usually group." (Diana)
"And you guys think there's an underground passage that connects the mountain range to this forest, and they say they're using that passage, right?" (I)
"..." (Kira)
"That's speculation." (Diana)
"Oh no." (Érica)
"Do you understand Érica?" (I)
"Unfortunately yes master." (Érica)
"This can be a big problem, especially for us who aren't protected within Valen's city walls." (Kira)
"Looks like you understand Kira too." (I)
"What are you all talking about?" (Diana)
"The Master is talking about a possible wave of monsters." (Érica)
"Only one of the Undead." (Kira)
"..." (Diana)
"We have to find this passage and quickly if there is one we will close it if possible and if not we will give the location to the Adventurers Guild for them to close, understand." (I)
"Yes Master." (Érica/Kira/Diana)