Even before we had returned to our camp, Kurama was following my command and had already captured three rabbits. Even after we arrived, he continued to capture the rabbits on my orders.
Capturing rabbits was already something Kurama did routinely and for his current state, capturing them has become even easier. The only difference is that this time I need them alive.
After reminding Rin that she couldn't eat the rabbits, I left her holding them in her arms and began preparations for my plan to deal with the wolves.
Due to my need for many rabbits, it was necessary to find a suitable location to shelter them. As I lacked the necessary tools to construct an intricate corral, I planned to make something quite simple.
I cut some long, ligneous branches, sharpened them, and stuck them in the ground next to each other. After about an hour of work, I made a circular corral about two meters in diameter with a height of half a meter.
After I threw the rabbits in, I covered it with some branches to make sure they didn't escape.
At the moment, with the other two that Kurama captured while I was making the corral, we have a total of five of them.
Kurama could have captured more, but since he had no way to keep them before the corral was finished, I ordered him to stop temporarily.
Standing across from me, Rin was looking at the rabbits with the eyes of one who was about to fall into temptation.
From the way her belly was rumbling, the boar meat we had eaten earlier was far from enough to satiate her.
"Don't even think about it," I scolded her, "Those rabbits are an important piece to our revenge against the wolves."
Taking a plate of cooked meat out of inventory, I placed it in front of Rin, "Want to eat?"
In response to my question, she tried to pick up the plate, but I pulled it away before she could.
Since Rin's presence is making the rabbits scared, I decided to take advantage of her hunger to drive her away.
Pointing to the shade of a tree in the distance, I continued, "Go eat over there."
Without hesitation, she took the plate from my hands, ran over to the tree and began to devour the meat.
After pushing Rin away, my gaze turned again to the rabbits. For the sake of my plan, I need to make friends with one of them and then train it. Even though this may seem like a difficult task, thanks to the passive skill, The One Who Understands Animals and the Calm Down sub-skill, this probably won't be too difficult.
"So, which among you will be the chosen one?"
As I stared intently at the rabbits, wondering which one to choose, I decided to put my skills to the test.
Holding a piece of bread, I entered the corral and squatted down while showing them the food.
Since the rabbits tried to stay as far away from me as possible, it was apparent that they were scared. However, this didn't last long, a few minutes later they began to accept my presence and became calm thanks to Calm Down skill.
Even though they didn't come to me immediately, they eventually came closer, but not close enough to take the piece of bread from my hand.
Why am I doing this instead of just picking one at random? Well, the answer is simple, I want to find out which is the friendliest among them.
In theory, Calm Down affects the target as long as it is within the area of effect for a certain amount of time. In the case of the rabbits, the dark-red one has been under the effect of the skill the longest, since it is the first one Kurama brought.
However, whenever I shook the bread in my hand, most of the rabbits took a distance and he was included in them. Among all of them, there was only one that didn't move away after approaching and just kept watching. That was the fourth one that Kurama brought.
Unlike all the others, which have various dark colors to camouflage themselves in the dry leaves on the ground, this one is completely white. The only parts of its body that are not white are its red eyes and reddish pink horn.
When I waited a little longer, the white rabbit finally came to me and started nibbling on the piece of bread. Seeing this, the first rabbit that Kurama brought was the second to make an approach, and then came the third, the second, and the fifth.
Although I can't be one hundred percent sure, it seems that the effectiveness of the skill is influenced by the animal in question. It is likely that the friendlier the target is, the faster the skill takes effect.
"Well, it looks like we have a chosen one," I took the white rabbit in my arms and stood.
"You're in luck, buddy," stepping out of the corral and covering it with branches again, I continued, "If all goes well, you may survive."
As I feared that the rabbit would escape if I let him go, I kept it in my arms and from then on began the process of making friends with the rabbit. As I was confident that the rabbit would begin to trust me given enough time, I decided to speed up the process and start training it.
Since I needed Kurama's help for this, I interrupted his search for more rabbits. After giving him instructions through our connection, I sat with my back against a tree and dropped the rabbit on the ground.
Although it stayed by my side for a while, the moment soon came when it pulled away from me. When that happened, Kurama went into action.
Emerging from the forest like a wild animal, Kurama ferociously chased the rabbit and caught it among his fangs. But then, emerging as a savior, I appeared and began to scold Kurama as I pulled the rabbit safe and sound from his jaws.
This was part of the plan previously agreed upon with Kurama, and obviously, this little staging was far from enough to earn me the rabbit's full trust. But nothing that a few repetitions of the same staging couldn't solve.
Until nightfall, all I did was repeat the same scene over and over again. At first, it might seem that we were just intimidating the poor rabbit, but this was a necessary step in my plan.
After dinner, we went to bed, and to ensure the maximum effect of Calm Down, I slept with the rabbit in my arms. Although this generated Rin's jealousy, I managed to calm her down to some extent, but I couldn't save myself from her nightly harassment. Since it was within the acceptable range, it wasn't too much trouble, so I just ignored it.
The next day we continued with the plan to train the rabbit until nightfall again. But this time it was a little different, even though it is an irrational animal, the rabbit understood that staying close to me was the best option and didn't leave me anymore.
For the rabbit to have given in so quickly, I believe this is because I gave it food, drink, took care of its safety, and of course the most important factor, the Calm Down sub-skill.
Since this rabbit behavior was my intention from the start, we began phase two of the training. As the rabbit wouldn't leave my side, I started to throw it away while Kurama did his job of chasing it, and then I appeared to stop him from 'devouring' it.
This was the plan we executed during the whole day, and by the afternoon, Kurama's presence was no longer necessary. The rabbit was already running back towards me after being thrown. Unfortunately, as a consequence of my hasty plan, it trembled with fear every time it saw Kurama.
Since my plan to catch the wolves depended on team harmony, the next step was to make the rabbit's fear of Kurama disappear.
Initially, I tried to bring the two of them together slowly while keeping the rabbit in my hands, but it struggled uncontrollably in an attempt to escape. Because it had been chased by Kurama and had seen its furry compatriots continually being captured, this would be an arduous task.
Although I was in a hurry, if I forced too fast an approach, it might backfire and the rabbit might get scared of me. But since I was too eager to hunt the wolves, going slow was not an option, so I could only have faith in the effectiveness of Calm Down.
Like the night before, I took the rabbit to sleep with me, but this time I let him out into the cave after locking the only exit. With Kurama wandering around the small cave, the rabbit had no choice but to stay close to me. Even though it was shaking like a leaf when Kurama approached, it didn't try to get away from me.
That night, the rabbit wasn't the only one to be glued to me, Rin did the same. But since the harassment was going way beyond what was acceptable, I tried to use a countermeasure. I put Kurama sleeping between the two of us, but in the same way that the rabbit is afraid of Kurama, he is afraid of Rin and couldn't hold his position for long.
In the end, I had to sleep with my face turned to the cave wall while I covered my crotch and Rin hugged me from behind.
If I may say so, sleeping with a goblin's breath on the back of my neck isn't comforting at all.
***
The next day I managed to get us all to eat breakfast together. Even though the rabbit was still afraid of Kurama, who was eating next to him, the rabbit didn't try to escape from my lap.
Although I was happy with the progress of my plan, I still spent two days training the rabbit. Thanks to this, it already seemed ready and had learned what it should do at the right moment. Although the rabbit was not completely comfortable with Kurama, it was no longer so scared.
Of course, the rabbit wasn't the only one that was training, to improve our individual strength, I did several mock battles with Rin and Kurama. Since Kurama's reaction speed is faster than that of the wolves, he was a good opponent to train against, considering that we were preparing to fight the wolves.
Interestingly, during her training with Kurama, Rin seemed to take it seriously. She was even using her skills. Several times, Kurama almost got hit, but since she didn't aim at any vital points, I didn't stop them. In the worst case, I would have to use one of the potions I received from Shadow-san.
As for the numerous rabbits Kurama captured, most were killed and went into my inventory, of course, I did it all in secrecy, so the rabbit wouldn't see.
Besides the one I trained, only twenty rabbits were kept alive, since they were also essential for the plan of action against the wolves.
With everything ready, we set off at dawn and headed for the Wolf's Cave.
The time to hunt the wolves has finally come.