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It has been a whole week since we left the goblin village, and I already miss them all… *Sigh*… We crossed the grasslands on our loyal steed, Kuro, and after around four days, we reached a dense forest named the Evergreen Forest, which is surrounded by two mountains. The duchy where we are moving towards is in between these two mountains.
It seems that there are big mining agencies extracting magical metals from it, such as mithril and the like, which is the primary source of income for the duchy of Benettina. This forest seems to be a mildly dangerous one. But, It has a road where merchants cross, which are often aided by adventurers or mercenaries.
And this forest is mildly dangerous because, although deadly monsters roam around, it is often cleansed by the adventurers themselves, who come here to slay monsters for their magic crystals and corpses to sell.
I mean, that's what adventurers do; they're glorified hunters. In addition to the Mithril Mines and the Spirit Stones Mines, Benettina has two dungeons on each side of the forest, separated by the road I mentioned earlier. Both dungeons are around D-Rank, nothing too special, and we won't get much EXP out of them either, so I am not interested in dungeon-diving especially because it becomes boring after the first experience unless it is a very high-level dungeon where it is a better challenge.
We have been traveling for about three days without stopping. Although we Undead didn't feel physically tired, we needed to take a break to calm our minds as we have exhaustion and stress from time to time. Plus, Emeraldine was barely hanging out. I thought she would resist it better, but not sleeping for three days made her look exhausted… Which she most likely was. Before moving forward into the deeper parts of the forest, we decided to make a camp and pass the night there.
"Hahh… What a relief…." Sighed Emeraldine as she rested on my shoulder.
"You should go sleep after we finish eating. We can't have you falling asleep as we advance through the forest, alright?" I asked.
"Yesshh… Zzzz…"
And she fell asleep. She had already finished her plate of boar stew, so I guess she was good to go. I held her with my arms and put her in the tent, covering her with bedsheets, turning her into a cute burrito. She was sleeping with a relaxed look…
"Master, I want more!"
Partner quickly averts my attention from Emeraldine as she asks for more stew.
"Alright… Though, don't you need blood?" I asked her.
"Monster blood is fine," She said while nodding.
"I guess? What do you think, Lucifer?"
"My blood is rotten, so I can't give her fresh dragon blood… Ummmm… You don't have blood, to begin with… but Emeraldine could become our source of blood for Partner," Said Lucifer, as he smiled maliciously at the innocent elf sleeping in the tent.
"Eh?!"
"Hmmm… Fresh elf blood…." Partner had begun to look at Emeraldine differently.
"She's too holy for that. She'll burn your tongue!" I said, stopping her and grabbing her from the belly.
"Gehh… I want some blood now…." She said teasingly.
"Come on, don't assault her, or I'll get mad,"
"Buhh…"
Partner pouted as she sat down again.
"I want you two to get along, alright? You and Lucifer are already good friends, so Emeraldine has to get along with you too. In fact, Lucifer has already accepted her!" I said.
"I just don't care," Said Lucifer.
"See? …Wait, what?"
"I don't care," Lucifer repeated himself.
"You don't care about anything? What are you? A Nihilist?" I sighed.
"You could say that," Said Lucifer pridefully.
Being a nihilist is nothing to be proud of!
"Right, right, whatever you say, guardian of the goblins-san," I laughed.
"T-That title is false! I am no such thing," Lucifer tried to refute.
We ignored Lucifer's ramblings and enjoyed a wild boar steak.
Monsters had barely appeared through our travel as the grass plains are mostly freed from them. They're often quite rare around there due to there being such open spaces. Monsters prefer places where they can hide and not reveal themselves as easily.
However, now that we are in this accursed forest, we must expect monsters at any time! So we can't lower our guards. Kuro is watching most of the time, but I decided to make some extra backup Undead to watch our backs an additional time.
I made two Netherworld Beasts with the materials of the Necromancer, which were both at C-Rank. Of course, they were weaker than us but combined, they made up for two decent extra fighters. Additionally, I raised a scouting Undead through a method named Contract Summon. I summoned an Undead Crow Familiar by using a crow we hunted by accident, thinking it was a fattier and tastier bird, and some of the scriptures, rune incantations, and a magic circle I made up on the go thanks to the knowledge I acquired by eating the soul of the necromancer.
These three new friends have yet to get any name, but I'll keep it simple for now. I'll call them Bone Beast Alpha and Omega, and the Crow shall be named Raven. Oh my, I am such a good, fantastic user of naming! I was thinking that with enough preparations I could raise a bigger army of Undead, but I don't see any point in slaughtering a whole city. I guess there's the EXP, but I would feel bad by killing innocents that had nothing to do with all of this.
At most, I could strategically use my Undead by summoning them in certain areas with soldiers to distract them or outright kill them… But… soldiers are different, they're ready to fight and are paid to protect a place, so they're willing to die fighting.
However, I intend my work to be stealthy, so I will sneak into the duchy whenever we reach there and then look for clues as to where I could find the pigs I must kill. With that said and done, the night flew by, and the morning quickly came.
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