Chapter 61: 61: Hunting wolves again and a house!?

*grrr*

’Still not giving up, huh?’

*grrr*

The poor wolf growled at me again while surveying the area for a possible escape path. The more I observed their behavior, the more impressed I became. 

’Appraisal’

Their status wasn't much. It was actually on the lower end compared with what I fought until now. What made this species impressive was their intelligence. 

It was also one of the rare species of low-level monsters that could use magic. It was true that it wasn't much but magic was still magic. Still impressive. 

The Night Wolf was smaller than the normal ones with pitch-black fur. Due to their high intelligence and the ability to sense mana and use it to blend with the shadows, they proved to be quite lethal despite their low status. 

But that made them the perfect targets for us. The fact that they were usually active at night would prove ineffective against someone with good senses and the [Night Vision] skill like Fiona.

I also had a good hearing and my senses were boosted from the forest environment. It was a strange feeling. It felt like my mind was at ease; that I could concentrate on things with a clearer mind...

*growl* 

The wolf growled again seeing that he had no path for escaping. His two teammates were already dead and he was trapped between me and Fiona.

We could kill it with ease but that wasn't our aim. We wanted him alive, but that was harder than it sounded. 

” Fio. ”

” I'm here. ” she said and started to circle behind the wolf while I was right in front of it, serving as the main distraction.

*RAWR*

Growing impatient, the wolf jumped at me sensing that his end would come if he didn't act. 

” Shit! ”

I jumped to the left and used my spear shaft to hit and deflect the wolf without stabbing it. My proficiency with the spear had grown quite a bit while sparing and hunting with Fiona in the forest. 

*Awooo—

*BANG*

Unfortunately for the wolf, he hadn't even been able to properly rise to its feet after he got thrown to the ground. Fiona darted at it in an instant and smashed her wooden training sword right on his head. 

” Pfiuuu... Good job, Fio! It's still alive, right? You didn't hit it too hard, right? ” I asked with concern while approaching.

Even with a wooden sword, a hit on the head wasn't to be treated lightly. Not when that hit came from Fiona. 

Fluffy and innocent as her image may suggest, she had some ridiculous strength in her tiny hands. I was already aware of that but it was at the moment we started our training/sparring sessions that I realized just how badly I underestimated her. 

Even when she was holding back, her swings were so powerful that my sword would vibrate at every clash. It got me two whole days to somehow get used to it and ignore the pain to some extent. 

” Mm, still breathing, the head is not bleeding either. ”

” Good... This is the last one. No more! ” I said and dramatically dropped on my back. I wasn't that tired or hurt anywhere, but the continuous hunt started to bore me. We left the city and lived in the forest for two weeks already. 

” Lizza, I finished. Let's go. ”

” Huh... already? Ehm, just... just a little bit... ”

” We need to put it in its cage before it wakes up. Remember that one? ”

” Yeah, I know but—

” No buts, Lizza. ”

” O-Okay... I get up, I get up... You bully. ” I said and peeked at her with the cutest expression I could muster but what I found was her staring at me with her poker face. 

” Not working? ”

” No. ”

’Why!? Whyyyy!? Give me my small and gullible fluff back!’

*sigh*

I reluctantly got up and stored the other two wolves in my ring while Fiona tied the unconscious wolf and put it in our little hand cart. 

After our request at the woodwork shop was finished, we started to prepare ourselves for the two weeks expedition of hunting/training. I was more than pleased with what they managed to make considering my poor instructions. 

We continued with the preparations. From stocking food and drinks to resupplying my special hand-made fire arrows, we spend quite a bit of money. Adding the price for the books we got from Albert at the beginning and the request for custom-made sets of armor which we would have to pay when we return to the city, our spending got through the roof. 

We were left with around 38 gold coins but spending more than 15 gold coins in the spawn of a single week was still a scary thought.

Unfortunately, the armors weren't finished before we left...

.

.

.

” Hiiiiaaaaahh! Beeeed! Finally! Bliss! ”

Or that would be the case if not for the continuous growls and noises from outside of our portable house.

Maybe the term portable house was a bit much since the whole structure was a cube around three meters in length and width, with a height of around two meters and a half. Almost a cube. 

It still had a decent amount of space and since the structure was made out of emberwood, the lightest type of wood they had at stock, it wasn't too hard to move it around, even for us. That was because the house was designed to be disassembled in five pieces, and we could easily do it and store the pieces in my ring. The dark red shades and nuances of the wood were a plus, which gave our little house a special charm. It had no floor though, but that wasn't too bad for the first attempt.

” Fio, close the door. I don't want to hear the howls anymore. Can't we just drug them with that thing of yours again? ”

”...”

” I know, I know... I was just joking... Just close the door. ” I said and buried my face in the soft bedsheets. 

” Lizza... No good. ” Fiona said and shook her head.

” Why? We worked quite hard these weeks. We deserve some rest. ” I said and buried myself further in the bedsheets. As to empathize with my point, I took another blanket and some pillows and patted the bed beside me for her to sit. 

She sat down, albeit with some reluctance but I didn't mind. With great speed and precision, I moved my head on her lap and took out the greatest invention ever made; the hairbrush. I didn't even know how I lived until that moment without long hair and another person to brush it. A complete mystery. 

”...”

” Please. ” I said while making the cute face again. Persistence was the key to success. 

” Mm. ”

’Yes! Mufufufu...’

It was so good. If up there was a heaven, I was sure that the hairbrush was their default tool for relaxation. Nothing could compete with it after all.

” But Lizza... umm... ” 

” Hmm!? What is it? Ahh... keep going, keep going... with the brushing... ”

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”...”

” Please? ”

” Mm. How to say it... I don't think this is how adventuring works... ” she said and pointed at the portable house walls and all the stuff around us. 

” Hmmm, but isn't it nice that we don't need for one to keep on watch while the other is sleeping? ” I said and pointed at the same walls she had pointed earlier. The second greatest invention for us, after the hairbrush.

Our house was not at the famous bear-shaped-house level but there was still room for improvement. It didn't have windows or other finer details but there was a simple door placed on one of the walls. Each one of the walls ends was ingeniously crafted as to easily join with the others like some sort of big pieces of lego. We barely need ten minutes to assemble the house. Since we had the opportunity to carry and use a portable home as easily as others do with a tent, why not?

” It is, but... ” she averaged her eyes and pointed at the rest of the stuff.

” What about it? It is true that it might feel odd to have all this stuff in the middle of the forest but this is just basic living necessities. We need a bed, a table, good food and so on... Don't see the problem. ”

” Lizza... ”

” Hmm? ”

” Just yesterday, we had a warm bath in THAT. ”

” Ahhh, yeah... As I said. Basic living necessities. ”

”...”

She was speaking about our new bathtub. It wasn't much. A one-meter and a half in length, a meter width and around half a meter in height bathtub. I didn't know exactly from what material was made though. It wasn't any kind of metal. The material looked more like some kind of a strange combination between glass and plastic while not being any of them.

I had to pay two gold coins for it so I assumed that the material wasn't that common. Still worth it. Was necessary for my fluff to be kept nice and clean.

” I actually plan to store a barrel or two of hot water too, for emergencies. ”

” Emergencies? ”

” Yup. Like if we want to take a quick bath. We waited for the weather to warm up half an hour after all. Unacceptable. ”

”...”

Fiona was starting to get accustomed to our new way of living, albeit with some difficulties here and there. I could not blame her. She was slowly getting used to it but that brought another unexpected problem.

She became stricter with me. My cute fluff that would just follow me around and agree with whatever I wanted to do started to no longer let me laze around... No, I wanted to say, to take well-deserved breaks. That was the right word. It was definitely not my previous complacent personality taking me over again. Definitely not. 

’Yes! Bad fluff... bullying me.’

Well, it wasn't that bad actually. The way things were right now felt more like what should have been. It felt like we were on equal grounds rather than me always taking the lead. 

” Me too. ”

” Hmm!? Oh, sure. Let's switch. ”

” Mm. ” she nodded her head and we switched the places. 

I slowly started to brush her hair, which wasn't as easy as one might expect. As cute as the fluffy ears might be, they were still somehow in the way of brushing. Mine weren't that small either. Maybe she had the same problem as me... Well, since she didn't complain about it, I would not do it either. 

And I could play with them while brushing her hair too. A win-win situation. 

’Status’

----------------------------

Racial skills:

Normal skills:

Passive skills:

----------------------------

I decided to take a quick look at my status while brushing her hair.

Even though we were in there for so long I barely leveled once. Hunting lower level monsters had shown its effects. I half expected something like that but what truly surprised me was that I somehow aged by a year. 

The status showed 18 years old. And I randomly noticed that the status had grown out of nowhere while I was checking a skill. I didn't even know when that happened. I somehow managed to miss my birthday. As a result, I made a mental note to check my status every day approximately a year from now and find out when my birthday was.

’But wasn't my birthday supposed to be on the day I got myself in this world?’ 

On second thought, that might not be the case. If that was true, then my age shouldn't have been seventeen. But that realization brought a lot of new questions as well. Questions for which I had no answers, at least not yet. 

Shaking my head and stopping thinking about the things I had no answer for, I focused instead on the second part of the status screen. The skills. 

This training camp was a big success. Everything except [Appraisal] and the blacksmith skill got at least one level up. I also got the skill for swords and trained it to a decent level. Even the damn [Water Manipulation] had to submit to my mighty genius, albeit it was still the lowest leveled one of all my magic skills. 

I didn't know why... I had no phobias regarding water. I was good at swimming too. Maybe I simply had a bad affinity with water...

As for skill advancements, there had been some of these as well. The [Apprentice Bow Technique] evolved to [Advanced Bow Technique] and the [Apprentice Enchanter] lost the apprentice condition and became simply [Enchanter]. Both at the level cap of five. 

Since Albert couldn't find me a book about skills I had to experiment and find these things myself. 

I still wanted some information about the magic skills though. While the rest of them evolved two times already from [Crude (x) Technique] to [Apprentice (x) Technique] and finally the [Advanced (x) Technique], the magic ones didn't evolve even once. 

The [Mana Manipulation] and [Fire Manipulation] managed to level up to nine and didn't seem to hit their level cap yet. 

” Mmmmm... Lizza... nooo... ”

” Hmmm!? What is it, Fio? Ohh... ”

’She's asleep... again...’ I wasn't surprised anymore since that wasn't the first time. She had the habit to fall asleep whenever I caressed her hair for too long. 

I didn't mind since that was one of her cute sides. She even had the habit of sleep-talking...

” Nooo... Lizza, not the tail... ”

”...”

’But what the hell are you dreaming about...’

Was she so unwilling to let me touch it to the point of protecting it even in her dreams? 

” Mmmm... j-just a little bit... ”

”...”

’Now I really want to touch it, goddamit...’ 

Fortunately, she gave me the approval. It didn't matter that it was a sleep-talking approval. Approval was approval. 

’Revenge time! Heheheeh...’ 

FDSIO

Hiatus! :(

I'll be back somewhere at the beginning of July... Sry... :(

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