Is it wrong to hunt monsters in a dungeon and adventure outside it?

by krazyfelinelover

Fused/crossover worlds of Danmachi and Monster Hunter World with Gamer elements. Isekei/Self insert as Ais Wallenstein. Timeline will be before the 3 great quests of the Zeus & Hera famillias, so the distant past of the cannon story and just before the 5th fleet arrives and the start of Monster Hunter World. Will become massively AU from originals. Slow start, lots of set-up.

8. Chapter 7 An Event-full Journey

A./N: Finally my first review! Was in chapter 5. I realized my title is a bit misleading so I'll just mention to everyone that the Harem part will be a long time in the future. I was mostly playing with the title as a twist on the original title about picking up girls. If Ais picks up a harem it will probably not be until Chapter 30 or most likely even later and I'll try to make it believable as well as low key with other stuff going on even as the harem starts forming. I have at least 3 story arcs planned before that point and the harem may be the last arc so people can consider it an extended epilogue. Ais may not even join Bell's harem but build her own, or join a completely different harem, those plans of Feline's in the prologue were just that and events of the story may change them since my initial ideas are already changing as I write. I have already changed my outline once to something that was a bit more interesting since originally Ais would have done the boring thing and joined the Loki familia but I realized the Hermes famillia made a lot more sense for my story once I reached that point and did a bit more research.

A./N. 2 ; You will see a hint of some of the changes that a fused world has on Orario and its surroundings and the power creep due to stronger monsters being everywhere. I am using mainly character's from the Hermes famillia on the wiki, but keeping them at their listed level when known, even though this is 18 years before cannon start so they should all be level 1, 2 or 3 to only reach these levels in 18 years. It will be even more clear in later chapters. I may have people getting to level 2 faster since helping defeat a large monster is an easy way to impress a god. . . I am outright making up the fact that most of the races other than human or anyone with a falna stay in their prime longer rather than starting to slow down at 30-40 so most will still be alive and still active later and I do not have to create too many Ocs in the future. There will be many Ocs regardless since most famillias will need to be very large to both explore the dungeon and patrol the farmlands.

Ch 7: An event-full journey

As the sun started setting on their first day of travel the group finally stopped again and landed at some gestures from Falgar.

Falgar then called out. "Tabitha, Meryl, Pock or Robin find us a shelter, a large cave with only 1 entrance hopefully. Even if there is already a monster living there, we will just deal with the monster and use the cave after it has been cleared."

Everyone landed and started stretching the stiffness out of their legs and arms, as Tabitha, Meryl, Pock and Robin also landed and took off jogging in different directions.

Ais asked, "do you want me to retrieve anything yet?"

"Water to refill our flasks, we can eat more leisurely and maybe Pot can even cook up a quick meal once we are in shelter and don't have to be as wary of a monster ambushing us."

Ais nodded and checked her inventory, retrieving one large barrel of water.

Everyone left lined up to refill their flasks of water. Then took a few sips while waiting and watching their surroundings for monsters.

Then Pock came back, saying,

"no caves that I could find in easy running distance, looks like there might be some in around 5 or so kilometers past where I stopped but that will take a while of running. Hopefully the others find something."

Pock refilled his flask of water from the water-barrel when he saw it out and everyone standing around with their water flasks.

Meryl returned a bit later and said

"I found a cave, and as far as I could see there was only one entrance, but there is a Coral Pukei Pukei living in it that I dared not go near without aid, even though they are said to be non-hostile until attacked. I hope I can sketch the Coral Pukei if we decide to go that direction, the colors described by other Monster Hunters and what I could see make it seem pretty."

Falga replied

"If Robin or Tabitha do not find something better we will head toward that cave and kill the Coral Pukei Pukei, after all Ais still has 4 spots for large objects left. Meryl, you can sketch the Coral Pukei Pukei after it is dead and we are in shelter. Since that does seem like the most likely place we will go, start describing what you know of Coral Pukei Pukei"

"Coral Pukei Pukei have the water element. They are utterly immune to water, weakest to ice for some reason, and also weak to thunder/lightning. Poison will have some effect. With dragon and fire element needing to be overpowered to have any effect at all. The Coral Pukei Pukei spits high pressure water or water bombs from both it's mouth and tail. So those definitely need to be targeted first. Although the Coral Pukei Pukei can fly, since it is a bird wyvern after all it likely won't since we will be attacking in a cave so wings are not a huge priority, though they are vulnerable too."

A few minutes later Robin came back. Robin said

"I found caves, but I'm pretty sure they are interconnected so we would need to guard multiple entrances other than just the main one, there are also lots of small monster's living there that would be a pain to root out. Did anyone find something better?"

Falga replied,

"We're still waiting on Tabitha, but Meryl found a cave that will work, it just has a Coral Pukei Pukei living in it."

Tabitha arrived just then and reported

"Nya, the Coral Highlands has plenty of caves, but the ones I found are too tiny for our entire group to stay, and seem to have small monsters and lots of juvenile large monsters living there. I don't know this area well since we rarely made it this far in one day, but passed though it rather than stop on the 2nd day. Nya."

Falga replied

"Meryl found a cave that seems the best choice out of what you or Robin found, with Pock not finding caves at all. Meryl says a Coral Pukei Pukei is living in it, so we will have to deal with that, but that large monster likely kept other monsters away so we will only have to deal with one monster at least.

Meryl? Lead the way to the cave you found please. We can also plan out the attack on the way since for once we have the opportunity to prepare."

Ais quickly put the water barrel back in her inventory, and since they were not running took the opportunity to walk for herself, although she walked near the center of the formation since she had no illusions about her ability to defend herself right now. Although maybe this time her arrows could actually be useful since they would have the poison element and the Coral Pukei Pukei would not be flying erratically.

As they walked Falgar summarized Meryl's description and gave orders.

"Merly shared that Coral Pukei Pukei are weak to ice, thunder/lightning, and poison in that order. It has the water element and is immune to it. We might as well do things properly and give some of you some more experience with our time to prepare. So now is the time to use some of the weapons we have gathered from Monster Hunters over the years.

Dodon I think you have a hammer with the thunder/lightning element right? Use that.

Anyone have a weapon with the Ice element? If you do we'll bring it out if it is still in storage, since I know we decided to travel light now that we had the opportunity to do so."

Meryl reluctantly spoke up "I have some freeze daggers, but I can give them to someone else to use since I am not so sure about my abilities in direct combat against a large monster."

"Nonsense, with the rest of us backing you up you'll do fine. You have to learn sometime. This might even be enough to get you to level 3 finally since your stats have been high enough for a while." Falga responded.

Nelly spoke now, and said "I have an Ice sword, shield, and lance in storage. Pot can use the lance and I can just use the sword and shield."

Robin spoke up "I also have a thunder/lightning lance in storage. So I can use that."

"Sounds like a plan then. Just before we enter the cave with the Coral Pukei Pukei we'll have Ais retrieve some of the weapons we decided to store. Then Dodon, Nelly, Meryl, Robin and Pot will be our main attackers with the rest of us ready to rush in if they have too much trouble, though with both Nelly and Robin there should be no issues. Ais, if you want to try using your bow and arrows again you can try, but make sure to only shoot when you are sure you won't hit one of us."

By that time they had all reached the entrance of the cave Meryl had found, so Ais asked "Which box has all your stored weapons?"

Hermes piped up "One of the extra large boxes is half full of more boxes and tape, and the rest is the weapons we did not want to carry that belonged to our famillia and some of Dodon's extra tools. The other two extra large boxes has his portable smithy with most of the tools he needs and monster parts to practice making monster-themed weapons and armor. Since Dodon is training to be a field smith with abilities in both normal weapons and monster derived weapons he needs a lot of tools and oddly it is cheaper to buy them in Asteria than Orario. So just retrieve all the boxes and we'll check which one has what we need. We might combine the boxes and the flattened empty boxes into two extremely large boxes while we are at it since it is clear your inventory does not care about max size in large items or if it has one it is ridiculously large."

Ais retrieved the boxes as asked, and Dodon, Nelly and Robin all opened a box along one edge. Nelly found the one with weapons and extra boxes and carefully started digging though them. She found the ice weapons and thunder/lightning weapon swiftly, and handed the lightning lance to Robin, with the Ice lance to Pot.

Dodon had been carefully dismantling half of the other box by removing two sides and the top without letting his tools fall out to the ground. Robin did the same for her box so there would be one very large box for Dodon's portable smithy and tools, and the other could have their extra weapons but be mostly empty for now.

Once the weapons had been handed out, Falgar asked/ordered

"Suicia while we are fighting please carefully finish dismantling the other boxes, then tape two together with the extra tape. Then make another box the same size from the spare boxes. We can store our weapons in it for now, but might stuff them into the top of Dodon's box and use that other box for monster corpses just in case we encounter more monsters than Ais has room for and we have to shove some of the corpses into the box for them to count as 1 item. I know it is frustrating that all of the monsters so far have a resistance to water, but in the Plains/Savannah you will get your chance, since most monsters there are closer to those found in the dungeon so won't have resistance to any element. Pock and Lulune, keep watch for any monsters coming after Suicia or our group. Pock can warn them away with stones from his slingshot if that won't make them more hostile.

Suicia nodded in resigned agreement.

Pock agreed as well with a happy "Aye Aye Vanguard Leader"

Lulune gave a lethargic nod of acknowledgment as well.

"Our loose formation will be Robin, Dodon, Meryl, Nelly, and Pot at the front. Hermes can either stay with Suicia, Lulune, or Pock or come with us but stay in the rear. Thane and Tabitha will guard Ais and Hermes if he comes, and provide ranged support or distraction if needed. I'll be ready to step in and help our group against the Coral Pukei Pukei or take the place of a guard so they can help with the monster if the attackers have too much trouble." Falgar continued

Everyone nodded in varying degrees of enthusiasm or lack of it in the case of Meryl and Pot, who had not had a chance to object but had wanted to.

Hermes simply said "It will be more interesting watching the Coral Pukei Pukei fight."

They arranged themselves in their loose formation, although all five attackers could not enter at the same time so Pot and Meryl hung back a bit. They all prepared their weapons. Robin had her thunder/lightning lance while Pot had the spare ice lance of Nelly, Dodon his thunder/lightning hammer, Meryl his freeze daggers, and Nelly her ice sword and shield.

Then Robin took the first steps into the cave, with the others following a step behind on the sides or behind her. Then they waited a few seconds and Falgar waved Thane, Tabitha, Ais, and Hermes forward even as he stepped forward himself, leading the 2nd group.

Behind them Suicia was figuring out how to put the boxes together, and ended up having to move everything in the box with weapons and boxes to the side to move the now empty half box next to the one with the portable forge. Since the tape was not strong enough to stand even the minor weight of being carried half-full with items in it.

Ais had unstrapped her bow again, and this time resolved to try to use her Avenger skill to help pierce the thick hide of the Coral Pukei Pukei, after all arrows were disposable anyway so it did not matter if they were damaged. Since the Coral Pukei Pukei was a wyvern, a dragon-like monster that simply had wings in the place of a 2nd set of limbs the Avenger skill should help her arrows do double or triple damage. That should be enough to actually work Ais hoped.

As Ais entered the cave she paid close attention to all of her senses as her eyes adjusted to the lesser amount of light. The cave smelled of water and mold. She could hear twittering cries from the Coral Pukei Pukei and the sound of fighting already. There was the clang, sizzle, and a sort of crunching sound from the various element weapons activating their element upon contact with monster flesh. Ais eyes adjusted quickly and she saw Meryl darting about stabbing at the tail or head while dual wielding two freeze blades.

Nelly stood right in front of the Coral Pukei holding her shield in front of her to block some of the massive amounts of water that were being shot out of the Coral Pukei Pukei's mouth and tail. Robin and Pot would lunge forward to stab with their lances/spears, then wrench the lances/spears out and dart back either behind Nelly or to the side to avoid yet more streams of high pressure water. Dodon was stubbornly hammering away at the tail, trying to endure the water with his shield up but being forced back on some occasions.

The fight was still very fast paced, but at least Ais could see all the movements this time and it was clear that the Coral Pukei Pukei was not going down in a few minutes like with the other monsters who had simply been overpowered brutally.

Ais checked the positions of the others around her, them primed all of her remaining arrows with poison by rubbing the tips along the bow as she waited and watched for an opportunity to get a clear shot. She was pretty sure saying Avenger would activate the skill like her other skills, although she thought there might be an emotion involved too given that Avenger came because of her hatred, so she tried to get herself angry.

That Coral Pukei Pukei is shooting water everywhere. There will be no place dry to sleep tonight.

Ais tried to think to become at least annoyed. It did not work well, since Ais knew the Coral Pukei Pukei was simply defending itself and its home.

This is a wyvern monster, one of the many that prowl everywhere and make it unsafe to travel alone or lightly armed. They are the reason I can't just walk to Ryumilua forest to try to find where Momma is probably lingering in her Wind Spirit form. Wyverns are related to dragons, and the one-eyed black dragon killed Papa, burned down most of the forest where I made my home, and might as well have killed Momma since I can't see or touch her anymore even if I find her in her wind spirit form.

This is a chance to actually hurt one of the monsters that have changed my life so much and caused me so much grief.

Ais thought, becoming increasingly more enraged as she waited for her chance to actually hurt a monster and fight back against one of the monsters that had forced her to abandon all thoughts of being a normal happy child.

Finally! A clear shot! Even Nelly had been forced back by a massive stream of water, and the others were forced to scatter to the sides to avoid the onslaught of water. But the water came nowhere near the group hanging back, and Ais had slowly moved to the right side to get a better angle to see around Nelly.

Ais had had one arrow loosely knocked to her bow, with the others in easy reach in her quiver still strapped to the bag on her left side. Now she swiftly pulled back the string, aimed for the right eye of the Coral Pukei Pukei and shouted

"Avenge!" As she loosed the arrow.

A white gold glow enveloped the arrow as it streaked through the air toward the Coral Pukei Pukei's eye. The monster moved a bit after the shot had been loosed, but the arrow still pierced into the side of it's snout near the eye Ais had been aiming for. Ais had reached for another arrow before the first hit, and now knocked that arrow, pulled the string, and loosed again, with another "Avenge!" still aiming for the right eye, just trying to adjust and account for the movement of the Coral Pukei Pukei.

The 2nd Arrow hit the left eye rather than the right I was aiming at, but at least it hit a vulnerable eye!

Ais thought in triumph when she saw where her 2nd arrow landed. She had reached for a third arrow, but the break and distraction of the Coral Pukei Pukei reacting to the 1st arrow and briefly stopping spitting water from its mouth to cry in pain had been enough for the others to recover, and now they lunged to take advantage of the weakness and Ais no longer had a clear shot since she did not trust that she could shoot past the fast moving people without hitting them.

Ais kept a close watch just in case she got another shot. But also mentally basked in her triumph and success.

I did it. I actually hit a monster with one of my poisoned arrows twice! I helped weaken and hurt a monster so others can kill it more easily!

All rage was gone now, replaced with her triumph and joy that she had finally actually hurt a monster. Ais also felt a fit tired now, but the skill Avenger apparently did not use magic but some other energy since her mind reserves had not taken a noticeable dip.

Maybe Avenger uses stamina somehow instead of magic since I am suddenly much more aware of how long this day has been and feel tired even though I have just been holding on to someone as they carried me most of the day...

Ais thought to herself.

The fight had continued as Ais had briefly been lost in thought. With the left eye blind now Meryl and Dodon took advantage to dart on the left side of the Coral Pukei and stab or hammer at the tail, finally managing to part crush and part sever it. Water and blood gushed out of the wound, but it was no longer a high pressure stream.

Robin and Pot now lunged to hit the already wounded head, and damaged it further, even driving the arrows tips that were all that remained of the arrows, with the shafts having shattered after Avenger finished, deeper into the flesh which was already becoming slightly discolored from the poison.

Nelly finally advanced and slashed at the neck with her sword, creating a deep cut that froze over and started spreading ice along the throat, blocking any streams of water from that direction as well.

It was clear that the Coral Pukei Pukei was finally dying so the group kept hitting it to finish it off quickly. Within a minute the Coral Pukei Pukei collapsed on the ground dead. Everyone, especially those who had been fighting, waited while taking deep breaths to be absolutely sure, with Robin poking the Coral Pukei Pukei to make sure it was not faking or just unconscious.

Ais quietly put her bow away, then hesitated, but opened her bag and took out a basketful of vigor-wasps and said.

"That fight was tougher and longer, some of you are probably injured. I can use up to 10 vigor-wasps without having to worry much about establishing the hive in Orario since it is expected to lose vigor-wasps on a journey and I made sure to bring extra. So just point at the injury and I'll direct the vigor-wasps there then puncture their sac."

Robin smiled and said

"No worries, we have a few null-berries and potions with Meryl, Pot, Suicia, and Tabitha in their packs for cases such as this. Thanks for the offer though, if somehow we are running low on potions we will take you up on that offer."

Ais smiled back tentatively then started walking over to the dead Coral Pukei Pukei to store it, stopping when she remembered Meryl had wanted to sketch it, then with a glance at the mess said.

"Do you want to try sketching the dead Coral Pukei Pukei now Meryl or can it wait until later? Things don't rot in my inventory so the corpse should be as fresh as it is now" with a dubious glance at the Coral Pukei Pukei and its dismembered tail, and partially crushed, frozen, or burned body from all the attacks.

Before all the damage Ais had seen how the Coral Pukei Pukei could be pretty. It had small reddish pink feathers mixed with scales covering most of its body, with long golden feathers around its neck and behind the head. There were frills like a fish or lizard surrounding the eyes and extending past the head like a partial mask. There were also golden feathers at the joints of the long partially folded reddish pink leathery wings. The tail had been thick, long and pointed with an opening at the tip. The Coral Pukei had front talon arms and its tail and wings, but no back legs.

Now there were open wounds or bruised flesh on most of the body, with bits of ice or lightning burns as well. Many of the feathers had been torn off. One eye was a gaping bloody hole where her arrow had hit. The snout was also a bloody mess with a giant hole in the nostril area and a mix of blood and mucus leaking out. Ais noticed the arrows were now gone so they must have shattered due to the avenger skill. The tail was now a bloody stump with the partially crushed tip near the body. The wings were surprisingly mostly intact, just bent in an unnatural angle on one side where the Coral Pukei Pukei had fallen on them. The neck and chest area had a frozen over gaping wound with reddish ice where even the blood had frozen from Nelly's attack. Ais judged the Coral Pukei Pukei had been about the same size as the Paolumu, just with more length in the body, wings, and tail rather than width. So about 10 meters/yards long and maybe 6 meters high.

Meryl laughed, and said

"For once I don't feel like sketching, maybe I'll do a sketch partially by memory of what it looked like before the fight with the corpse as reference when we take it out to carve the monster parts and magic stone out."

Ais nodded and finished walking over, glancing at the dismembered tail and deciding to temporarily store it as a medium item. If Ais ran out of space there they could stuff the tail in a box like the Hermes famillia had planned.

"Inventory Coral Pukei Pukei" Ais stated while touching the corpse. There was that slight dip in her reserves of magic that was only noticeable when storing truly big items, but the golden glow enveloped the corpse and it disappeared into her inventory so it was a small price to pay. Then Ais simply said "inventory" while touching the tail tip and it glowed and vanished even faster with no noticeable dip. Looking at all the water Ais wondered if it was possible to store that, but felt that the water probably needed to be in a container for her to store more than 100 stacked droplets. Ais still decided to try, even if it would be slow storing 100 stacked droplets and then dumping them outside would help a bit, and maybe her inventory would store water in a different way such as 1 puddle of water.

Ais tried to store the water by crouching down and saying "inventory" while touching a fingertip to the largest puddle. There was a hesitation, then a golden glow enveloped the water puddle and some of the surrounding water puddles touching it. Ais smiled at that, but when Ais checked every single inventory spot was suddenly full, with all the spots stacked to the max with an image of a water droplet as the symbol for those spots. Ais hurried outside to dump that water, not liking the idea of all her inventory spots full of something relatively useless since she doubted that water was pure enough to drink, plus there were plenty of other water puddles if anyone in the Hermes famillia wanted to test that.

Ais walked outside, finding Suicia standing triumphantly next to 2 ridiculously large boxes, 4 meters (13 feet) tall and wide, made from 24 flattened large boxes taped together, 6 for each side, top and bottom. There were also a few piles of rocks and coral branches next to the boxes that Suicia had used as a makeshift stepladder to reach the tops in order to tape them up. Although Suicia had left one edge of the top and one side loosely taped to make it easier to open them to see what was inside.

Ais stared for a few seconds, then said "Great job with the boxes. The battle with the Coral Pukei Pukei is over, although everywhere is wet. I wanted to see if I could store some of the excess water so we could have a dry place to sleep. It worked sort-of, but storing one big puddle took every open spot I had left and stacked them to the max so I need to dump the water now. I think because there was no container my inventory stored the water as droplets rather than just a puddle, a drawback I just found out. It might have even been stored that way because I wondered before-hand if the inventory would store water that way, since I think somehow the inventory is linked to my mind.

To get the rest of the water maybe we can scoop the water up or absorb it in towels then wring them out. If we want to use the water we can try putting some of the water in the half-empty water barrel from earlier and purifying it, but last I checked Robin had me store 12 6 ft , 4 inch (2m) water barrels as a stacked medium item and 50 11 inch water flasks full of water as a stacked small item. Everyone is also still carrying at least 1 flask of water with them I think, so that should be plenty of water."

Then Ais walked a bit away from the boxes, dug out a small hole, and started retrieving the water from her inventory and placing it in the hole. Ais felt mildly embarrassed at the big rambling speech she had spoken to explain things. Ais felt that although she did not want to be entirely silent like the Louis man that was Eleanor's friend, or Lulune who had also not spoken a single word yet other than her brief response of mornings not being good. Ais also did not want to speak randomly just to break silence like Elaine often did. She did not want to speak when it was unnecessary, and preferred the idea of speaking just enough to make sure she was understood, but not rambling and revealing more than she wanted too like she had with that speech. Ais could have simply summarized, and said that Ais had tried to store water from some of the puddles, only to find that without a container the water was stored as the smallest unit and even stacked she could not store much since the spots each contained a single water droplet stacked to the max, maybe.

While Ais was mentally going over what she had said and trying to think of how she could have spoken better she had finished dumping out the un-contained water from her inventory. It overflowed the small hole she had dug, but not my much. Ais gave a sigh of relief, since Ais realized she liked having at least one spot open to store new things just in case and that likely contaminated water felt like a waste.

Ais then walked over to Suicia and said, "Might as well store these boxes now, then we can figure out how to dry enough of the rest of the cave to have a dry place to sleep. I think Falgar said that Pot would make a quick hot meal too which sounds very good."

Suicia and Pock nodded enthusiastically in agreement to Ais' statement. Lulune nodded as well, though more slowly.

Once the boxes were stored, Ais, Lulune and Suicia started walking into the cave with Pock reluctantly staying out to keep watch.

"Someone has to make sure no monsters enter the cave and endanger everyone else, but ask someone to take my place soon, it will be boring and uncomfortable out here and I want a hot meal too. Maybe we can set up a comfy place to sit right at the cave entrance rather than outside." Pock said.

Ais and Suicia nodded. Then they entered the cave and walked in a few steps while letting their eyes adjust, although the sun was almost entirely set so there was much less difference in light levels now. They found the group just finishing up tending to their wounds, mostly by using potions. Ais then asked. "So should I start retrieving towels and something to start a fire with? I hurried out to dump that water since it had been stored as individual water droplets I think, so every spot in my inventory was filled and stacked to the max, but the spots barely had anything in them. With towels at least we can absorb up most of the water, then wring them out outside or into a container if we want to actually use the water once it's purified."

"Yes, that is a good idea. Start retrieving some of the cooking equipment, firewood, and towels. I can boil some of the water once it's collected into a pot to make a quick soup or stew, and maybe tea or some other hot drink too. Since boiling water is the slow but cheap way to purify water as long as you have a fire." Pot said.

"Then we can boil more water and let it cool a bit to clean the dishes and ourselves, that should use up most of this water that is everywhere, we can discard the rest since we have plenty of drinking water stored, though I guess if we have enough firewood or we can burn the equivalent of coral-wood if someone gathers it up we can boil more water to replenish what little water we have used up, since I think we will want to keep a fire going through most of the night anyway for warmth and to make a warm breakfast in the morning" Pot continued.

Ais nodded and did as she was asked. One of the large spots in her inventory had actually been taken up with a few giant logs of wood, so now she knew why the Hermes famillia had wanted her to store that, it was firewood for the nights, Ais had no idea why they had wanted to store it as giant logs though, when it needed to be cut smaller for the fire anyway.

Once everything was retrieved from the inventory, Pot set up a tripod and a giant pot or cauldron. He then said, "Everyone please start wringing out towels over that cauldron. I'll start chopping up some of the stored meat and veggies. Someone also needs to cut a giant log into proper firewood, then we'll start the fire and move the cauldron over it."

Ais, Aisha, Lulune, Suicia, and Meryl all grabbed towels to start drying out the cave.

"Nya, I'll look for coral-wood and other burnable materials for the fire, then take over Pock's watch nya." Tabitha volunteered quickly.

"I'll go with Tabitha to protect against monster attacks and help carry the coral-wood." Falgar said.

Dodon volunteered to chop the fire-log if he could get out an axe.

"Since my great-axe is not really all that handy for battle it is stored away, with my forge and other tools, I usually need to chop a lot of fire-wood anyway to start up my forge so I'm good at it." Dodon said.

"I'll help Dodon, maybe we can chop up two or more great logs and store any wood not used in a medium spot. We can try to make the pieces of wood as identical as possible and burn any that are not matching." Nelly said.

Thane spoke up "I'll start the fire of course, and try to maintain and fix any of my broken arrows I managed to retrieve from the fights while we are waiting on the wood."

Hermes simply said,

"I'll try to ready a spot to update the status of anyone who wants it, though I hope you don't mind a verbal summary of any changes since there are not many flat places to write on and we're low on paper anyway since we used so much for the Monster Hunters and Palico's updates."

Everyone started moving to accomplish their goals.

Ais had not been sure if helping hurt the Legiana and Coral Pukei Pukei would give enough excella to make a difference in her status, but wanted to see what her actual strength, endurance, dexterity, and agility were anyway so hoped that it counted enough to update her stats. After retrieving all the items necessary and absorbing water and wringing out one of the towels 7 or so times she hesitantly walked over to where Hermes was sitting watching everything.

"Do you think that helping against the Legiana and Coral Pukei Pukei counts as enough excellia to update my status to my true stats? I know you told Elaine that usually at least one monster had to be killed for there to be some excellia" Ais asked.

"Well, why don't we find out," Hermes said.

Aid removed her armor again and sat in front of Hermes after pulling up her shirt to bare her back, and Hermes checked her status.

"hmm..." Hermes said.

"there is a difference now at least. Instead of all your stats being at I 0;

Strength is I 99,

Endurance at I 212,

Dexterity is actually at I 900,

Agility at I 805, and

Magic is at I 413

Since the numbers next to the stats can rise up to 999 before going up a letter that is rather impressive that your dexterity and agility are already that high Ais, they are almost to H. Your age and size probably prevents your strength and endurance from rising all that much without lots of excella to help push you beyond the limits your body can go normally."

Ais nodded happily. She was glad to know that all her training the previous month had some results already and that helping hurt monsters provided some excella.

After that Ais put her shirt down, but did not put her armor back on since she would be going to sleep in a few hours and was unlikely to leave the safety of the cave before that. Instead she briefly retrieved the bag of personal items she kept in storage, then put the armor there before temporarily storing it again. Ais then went back to using a towel to absorb water and then wringing it out over the large cauldron/pot or a large kettle that Pot had also set up.

Meryl took that chance to get his own status updated by Hermes. Ais had not been paying attention until she heard a cheer from Meryl.

"Level 3, finally! I've been stuck at 2 for over 4 years now, even Tabitha got to level 3 a year ago when we joined the famillia at near the same time."

Everyone who heard Meryl paused and stopped to congratulate Meryl.

Pot even said "we don't really have the supplies for much right now but I'll cook a special meal of all your favorites when we get back to the Traveler's Inn. Meryl. This is great news!"

The rest of the night did not have any more surprises. The others who had fought this day all got their status updated but did not bother to share any changes. The stew and tea were very welcome for their warmth, but not all that special. Ais fed the vigor-wasps again, then got out all the sleeping bags including one assigned to her and went to sleep.

Ais had volunteered to stand watch and keep company with someone else after she woke up, since she doubted she would sleep more than 4 hours and she could easily meditate while helping keep watch, even if she did not trust herself to keep watch alone and meditate at the same time.

Ais did get a chance to actually talk to Lulune, the cheinthrope who seemed half-asleep for most of the day. Lulune was keeping watch when Ais woke up. Ais learned that 'acquisitions' was an euphemism for Lulune being a thief.

Although as Lulune put it "I don't actually steal all that often, although I do 'borrow' without permission and return the item later. I'm an adventurer and help out the famillia however I can. I am also picky about who I steal from, it is always from those who can afford the loss or are criminals themselves.

I have almost never stolen from a Monster Hunter, since they need all their equipment in their hunts, even if not all at once. At most I try to con them into overpaying for some trinket that is not needed on hunts but a luxury item for when they are resting like scented soap and oil or hair accessories and dresses for the women Monster Hunters so they can feel pretty. Some of the men like scented products like deodorants and fancy clothes or skin-tight clothes that show off their muscles too.

I have stolen information more often, but it's not like that really hurts a person or could ruin their life.

I also steal more often in Orario, since a lot of people there get rich from farming the dungeon then waste their money away drinking and partying until they have to go back to the dungeon. I just speed up the process of using that money.

I use these trips to let the heat in Orario die down so the Ganesha or Astraea family does not go after me for any reported crimes. I try to make any steals irregular as well so there is less chance of them connecting lack of reports to the absence of this half of the Hermes famillia. There is another in the Hermes famillia who steals occasionally but spies more often who stays in Orario because he is still level 1, whenever he levels up we will switch who goes on this trip since we have different styles and types of targets we go after." Lulune said.

"So is everyone here is at least level 2?" Ais asked.

"Yes, Hermes made that a rule once we realized how dangerous the large monsters in these territories are. It might seem strange, but monsters in the dungeon are somewhat dependent on the dungeon for strength. The ones in the upper floors are quite weak and rely on the dungeon spawning them in massive amounts to take down adventurers if they can at all, and even when stronger monsters from the middle to lower floors escape to the surface they become weak. It seems to take a few generations before they grow and become strong in their own right here on the surface, but there is less limitations in space out here so once a few generations have passed the survivors seem to start growing larger and more deadly. Tabitha knows more details, when my watch is over if you are not tired yet ask her." Lulune replied.

Ais did so. When Tabitha came on watch Ais waited a bit while meditating, then asked Tabitha.

"Lulune started explaining a bit more the differences between monsters in the dungeon, recently escaped from the dungeon, and those who have mutated over time to bear little resemblance if any to the monsters of the dungeon. This was more of a tangent from explaining her occupation and that only those level 2 or above made this trip to Asteria though. She said you know more details? Can you explain it to me?" Ais asked.

"Nya, Sure, I'll explain using an example I have studied in relative depth and seen with my own eyes.

The lygerfang is a monster that is usually seen on floors 15-17 of the dungeon. It is a mostly solo tiger monster that is orange with dark brown almost black stripes and long fangs jutting out of its mouth. A few decades or so back a group escaped the dungeon and settled in the plains/ savannah area somehow. We think an evilus group smuggled them out or they escaped from the Ganesha's family tamers. Nya. At first the lygerfangs on the surface stayed similar although their fur became yellowish with brown stripes to better match their surroundings in camouflage. They are small monsters according to the monster hunter way of classifying them. They were about as long as a human, but low to the ground, striped for camouflage, and any large monster could easily defeat them. Nya. Then a few generations later they became lyonfangs, their coloration changed the most, becoming a solid tan yellow with some throwbacks having pale brown stripes and all with a mane of darker tougher fur around their neck. They did grow in size by a few feet. Now there are rumors of a great lyonfang leading packs of normal lyonfangs, similar to the great jagras leading smaller jagras. We don't know any details for sure yet though, since most people including us try to travel through the savannah as quickly as possible.

There is a village near the edge closest to Orario, where it is more like normal plains than savannah who are the ones to claim to have seen a great lyonfang at a distance taking out a mutated Mammoth fool with a pack of lyonfangs.

Mammoth fools are large monsters that are found in the 19-24th floor of the dungeon normally. Again, mammoth fools here on the surface have mutated. They no longer have such long dark red fur, but short light red-brown fur with areas that are just the tough brown skin now. They live longer if they are not killed, up to a hundred years so it will take many more decades for us to see how they mutate further, but as of now they have become less hostile and have less fur than the mammoth fools of the dungeon. They eat both plants and meat, but plants are more common.

No one has re-named them yet since they are still recognizable. This is just what people have noticed in the last few decades though, since Orario went through a long period where we were very isolated, and barely interacted more then the minimum even with the farms just outside Orario that provided us food. The Hermes famillia is the one who re-named the lyonfangs from lygerfangs, and we might end up renaming other monsters in the plains/savannah as well, since we make that trip though it the most frequently out of any of the famillias in Orario.

The Ralka empire ventures to the plains/savannah as well, but since contact is so uneasy due to our bad history with Aries and fear of another invasion we don't talk about such matters if they even care about re-naming mutated monsters from the dungeon. We'll travel through the Ralka empire because it is convenient, but no one from Orario or most of the surrounding countries really trust the Ralka empire much." Tabitha lectured.

Ais nodded thoughtfully, glad to have learned more. This lecture reminded Ais of how the botanists had studied the monsters in the area the Monster Hunters roamed the most and gradually gained more knowledge of how the monsters interacted with each other, the predator/prey relationships and cycle of life. It seemed clear that Orario had started the process much later, but had knowledge of the area around them and native monsters that Monster Hunters were just starting to hunt in themselves so had little information yet. Ais hoped the Hermes faillia would not mind Ais writing that information down to share with the botanists and Monster Hunters in Asteria if the Hermes famillia had not already done so.

Maybe the Monster Hunters would name the various monsters in the savannah that the Hermes famillia had not re-named from the dungeon counterpart.

Ais liked the idea of acting as a bridge between the two different cultures, being free to travel between them and share knowledge so that both groups became better. Ais knew that she needed more in life than just getting stronger and fighting monsters, and Amber's words of Ais becoming a botanist when she got old enough that it would be too dangerous to constantly hunt monsters seemed like a good hobby to take up even now, since it would help in monster hunts and be interesting hopefully.

Eventually Ais tried to get a bit more sleep, but mostly meditated while continuing to think about the future. Then Pot rose and started breakfast, so Ais got up too to help, and to feed the vigor-wasps.

After everyone ate and packed up again, with Ais storing everything back into her inventory they prepared to set off. This time Falgar asked if Nelly minded carrying Ais, and moving a bit so she was not directly in the back of the formation, but closer the the middle back with Dodon taking up her spot in the rear. Nelly agreed, and they set off.

Most of the day was actually calm. They managed to reach the cliffs on the opposite side of the Coral Highlands around noon, and had a break for lunch, then leaped to the top and jumped out over the Savannah to glide over as much of it as possible. Eventually they could not glide anymore and started running with only a brief pause to put away the glider mantles. Ais moved to the back of Nelly instead of her front and enjoyed the better view.

A few hours before sunset Tabitha pointed out a herd of small monsters that Ais did not recognize and turned pleading eyes to Falgar.

"Nya. Those seem like a good prey. They seem to have mutated from needle rabbits to gain deer-like traits too. They are even bigger, and have longer legs. I can't see if they have hooves or rabbit feet but both can be useful. Nya. The meat is likely very good, with a nice looking fur pelt, likely medical properties to their horns, and who knows what else. Can we hunt some of them and come up with a new name for them? Nya. They look near identical with only one standing out with bigger horns so they will probably stack in Ais inventory space." Tabitha asked and pleaded.

Falgar sighed and said "Knowing our luck there is probably some predator that has been stalking them hiding in that long grass and will be upset if we just run in and take them out, still, we have made very good time, we're actually near the edge of the savannah and might reach the Ralka empire early tomorrow morning, so I guess even if we have to fight another large monster it won't set us back much. If we are doing this we should plan to take out as many as possible. Ais, Pot, Thane get your bows ready. Pock, your blowgun. Robin your throwing spear. Quietly communicate which targets you will aim for first. The rest of us will handle the inevitable predatory monster hiding nearby."

The herd had a good number of rabbit/deer monsters, 11 that had short horns sticking out forward that were the same size as their their ears. Their fur was a pale brown with light gray spots or a reversed light gray with pale brown spots, split almost evenly. There was one that had branching horns that went both forward and to the side that seemed like a stag almost, it was a good foot and a half taller than the others, the same size as Falgar or the other adults, but probably less than six feet tall if the ears and horns were not included. It had even longer stronger looking legs and kept a more careful watch of their surroundings rather than just eating the grass. It was pale brown with white spots, but still had long rabbit ears and the back legs were a lot thicker than the front.

Once they had carefully crept a bit closer, just barely within the range of Ais bow, Falgar made a sudden chopping gesture, and everyone loosed their ranged weapons. Thane. Pock, and Pot were fast and accurate, and took out two each in the first 3 seconds. Robin had targeted the leader. Ais managed to hit one cleanly through the neck in the first 3 seconds, then injured one that was starting to flee by hitting the back of one of its legs a second later. By then Thane had killed another and Pock and Pot each severely injured one each.

That left all but the 3 injured dead, and those three so maimed they would be easy to take down. Somehow they had taken out the entire herd. Thane mercy killed the ones Ais, Pock, and Pot injured before they reached outside the range of his bow. Again, everything happened very fast.

Ais heard a loud roar of rage a second after the last rabbit/deer was hit by Thane's arrow to mercy kill it. Then somehow a giant yellow cat-like monster with a thick mane of dark red and orange fur and long fangs jutting out from it's mouth rose from the grass, with 5 smaller but still big to Ais monsters rising a second later even as the giant one turned with a snarl and short roar to face their group, clearly trying to scare them away from all the dead deer/rabbits so his group could eat them. The smaller lyonfangs still had manes, but the hair was almost the same color as the rest of their fur, yellow orange and slightly thinner and shorter.

Ais had no idea of how a monster so large had hidden in that grass, even with as long as the grass was. It definitely qualified as a large monster to Ais, and was as big as the larger great Jagras were at close to 18 meters/yards. Ais felt that these were the Lyonfangs Tabitha had described, but even the smaller ones barely qualified as small monsters anymore, they were slightly bigger than the adults when you included their ears and a quite a bit longer than that, probably around 6 ft 9 inches tall if the head was included and definitely longer than 9 feet..

The five smaller lyonfangs started heading for the nearest rabbit/deer while the big one took a few menacing steps closer to their group with its mane somehow seeming to move by itself and look like flames. Ais hurried to step back into the safety of the group again and she heard Suicia begin chanting behind her, sounding like a prayer.

"Great Lord of Seas, Storms, and quakes, grant me a portion of your storm.

All life came from your great sea. I am a descendant from that sea life.

I am of the water, by my name Suicia I beg of you to help me.

As a great sea hunter and protector Lord Poseideon hear my prayer and

bring forth a rain-storm above my foes, bring forth

a deluge of water to wash away my foes!"

As Suicia was chanting, Falgar, Nelly, Dodon and Robin had stepped up to protect the rest of the group, blocking the way to them and attacking the great Lyonfang. Pock, Pot, and Thane had sent arrows or stones at the other lyonfangs to keep them from reaching the dead rabbit/deer and herd them closer together. When Suicia had reached the last stanza of her chant the four engaging the great Lyonfang leaped back.

A group of storm-clouds formed above each lyonfang and began pouring down high pressure water that pounded on them as hard as the Coral Pukei Pukei spat water, forcing them flat to the ground and ripping off great patches of their fur and skin leaving dark pink patches seeping blood over most of their backs and tops of their head. The pounding rain lasted for 10 seconds before becoming weaker and vanishing by the 15th second.

As soon as the last storm-cloud vanished Falgar, Nelly, Robin, Dodon, Tabitha and Meryl each leaped to attack one of the lyonfangs, with Falgar taking on the great lyonfang and each of the others taking on one normal lyonfang.

The lyonfangs were still disoriented by that pounding water so the six were all able to inflict lethal wounds on vulnerable spots on the lyonfangs before they recovered. Most stabbed or sliced at the back of the neck, since with the mane of fur gone it was very vulnerable. Falgar stabbed his great sword into the great Lyonfangs mouth as it opened up to roar again, and pierced the roof of the mouth into the great lyonfang's brain. He somehow mostly avoided the two long fangs even as the mouth had begun closing and the great lyonfang tried to bite and stab him.

Once all the lyonfangs were dead everyone took stock of themselves to see if they were injured. Most had only scratches at most. Only Falgar was somewhat seriously injured, with his armor absorbing most of the blow from the half bite/half goring attack of the great Lyonfang, but with severe bruising underneath the armor as it dented into his skin. Falgar removed the damaged armor to be fixed later.

Suicia had sat down, having used up most of her mind reserves to control and make the water as intense and targeted as possible, while also maintaining it a bit longer than usual to actually do damage. Falgar received a potion from Meryl, and Suicia took out a blue potion from her own pack called a mind potion.

Ais carefully walked up to all the lyonfangs and rabbit/deer things, to store them in her inventory. Although the ground was now very muddy so it was slow. Ais found that all the rabbit/deer, even the big one qualified as medium sized, and they only took up 3 spots with two stacks of brown with gray spot or gray with brown spot. The smaller lyonfangs still took up a large spot, but also stacked. The biggest took up a spot for itself and Ais felt that noticeable dip which she was coming to associate with storing truly large things.

Now 9 of the slots for large items were full. 1 stacked for the remaining logs of fire-wood. 2 for the large swords, 1 stacked for the extra large boxes, and 1 carrying the Legiana, 1 carrying the Paolumu, 1 for the Coral Pukei. 1 stacked with the smaller but still large lyonfangs and the last for the great lyonfang.

Ais also only had 7 slots open for medium items now. Ais still had around 9 open slots for small items but rarely were items that small anyway. If the group chopped up all the remaining firewood logs that would open up another large slot but bring Ais down to 5 or 6 medium slots depending on how identical in size and shape the fire-wood became. They could also stuff the rabbit/deer and the tail of the Coral Pukei Pukei in the large box to free up 3 or 4 medium slots. Ais did not like the idea of wasting the valuable resource of an entire monster corpse, but since 4 different kinds of large monsters and 2 different kinds of small monsters had needed to be stored all in the first day she doubted that she would be able to keep storing the corpses of all the monsters they ended up killing on the rest of the journey.

Ais did quietly inform the Hermes famillia that

"All but 1 of my large spots are full now, but we could probably free up space by chopping all the firewood logs down to less than 2 meters. And either put it into the near empty extra large box Suicia constructed or store it as one of my remaining 7 open medium spots. The 5 smaller lyonfangs are still bigger than 6.5 feet so take up a stacked large spot. The great Lyonfang is bigger than the Coral Pukei and other large monsters. All the rabbit/ deer are less than 6 feet 6 inches, but do store as 2 stacks and 1 individual given their different coloring."

"Nya, we should call the rabbit/deer Jackalope Rabbits, since they also look sort of like small antelope monsters, and travel in leaps rather than running, but seem rare like the Jack bird since we have not seen any before this. Despite making the trip more than 30 times in the last few years. Nya." Tabitha spoke up.

"Agreed, though how you keep coming up with convoluted names that make little sense but seem to fit is a miracle to me. Such as the antelope monsters, who don't look like ants at all other than their reddish orange fur but do have a leaping stride and that we have no idea what they mutated from other than Kelbi. Or the original animal before the monsters came, but I don't think that kind of animal would survive or manage to mutate to become a small monster.." Meryl said.

"Well, we have also confirmed that the lyonfangs do now have a great lyonfang large monster form and travel in groups when there is a leader. The great lyonfang either has a special ability to hide itself or a fire element, maybe even both unfortunately. At least if it does have a fire element like it's mane seemed to become that makes the water element and Suicia's spell very effective against future attacks even if my fire arrows are less useful. It might be that lyonfang's in general have gained a camouflage magic ability since they do somehow manage to hide in yellow and green grass even to my own Elven keen eyesight despite being a tan yellow now. " Thane spoke up.

Falgar stated "Agreed with both points, now lets get out of here, travel as far as we can before setting up camp, and hope that we can avoid the rest of the large monsters."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Nelly scooped Ais up again and the group took off running.

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The group set up a camp a few kilometers away from that attack a few hours later. Despite many sounds of monsters that night, only 1 approached the group. It happened during Tabitha's watch with Ais keeping her company. A strange purplish Moth that was almost 6 feet long with it's wings extended tried to poison everyone. Tabitha asked Ais to pepper it with arrows to keep it away and leaped very high and long to shred the poisonous wings and then kill it. Tabitha needed an antidote to recover from the poison, but was otherwise fine. That monster corpse did take up another medium slot leaving Ais with only 6 now.

The next morning the group took off running but were ambushed by a horde of Killer Ants only 30 minutes in of their journey. There had been a small hill that was apparently full of them that they all streamed out of very fast. Some came out of holes surrounding the group as well. The group of Killer Ants that tried to swarm them were dealt with by the many ranged weapons with the stronger members holding off the swarm and killing many themselves. The killer ants actually stacked close to the max for medium slots, with 47 of them all in one medium slot. Even more dissolved other than the magic stone.

The magic stone's were tiny but after the battle Ais, Meryl, Tabitha, Suicia, and the others gathered them up along with all the arrows anyway. There were close to 40 magic stones, so that was a huge amount of Killer Ants they had killed.

Ais had completely ran out of arrows by this point, since they were frail and were too damaged to use when she tried to retrieve them. Ais wished she had bought more or bought arrows that were a bit sturdier so she could try repairing them. Thane's arrows were too large to be used comfortably by Ais even if he had been willing to give some to her. And Pot was almost out of arrows as well. So for the rest of the journey Ais would not even be able to injure the monsters unless they got close enough for her to use her swords, and she did not think the others would put her at that much risk.

The killer ants were a reddish orange color with long pincers and the size of a dog but very weak individually.

Tabitha mentioned "Nya, that purple moth from last night was a bit larger than the ones in the 7th floor of the dungeon. But these killer ants are not mutated at all, and they are about as weak as the ones on the 7th floor. The only difference is that they ambushed us in a large group and came in even larger numbers than usual for the dungeon rather than only a few calling others to them as they were injured like in the dungeon. Nya. Since I would expect insects to breed and mutate fast that might mean they recently escaped or were smuggled from the dungeon, which is very worrying. So many dissolving other than the magic stone proves they came out recently too.

We thought the Evilus groups were too disorganized and weakened from the last raids by the Astrea famillia to keep up with their smuggling activities and that the only dungeon entrance/exit other than the one that is guarded in Orario near here was the one underneath Lolog lake. There is no way these monsters from the 7th floor would have survived to reach the exit underneath the lake, since that one is near the 25-27th floor, they also wouldn't be able to swim out even if they were escorted by Evilus groups. This proves that we might be wrong with both of our assumptions. Clearly there has to be another exit from the dungeon, but we would have found it by now if the Evilus groups were not hiding it."

"Very concerning indeed, I will bring this up at the next Denatus, meeting of the gods, and tell Asfl so she can inform the guild of adventurer's and Astrea famillia." Hermes said.

"Lets get to the Ralka empire as fast as possible and run the roads fast as well. Hermes, please get on my back, you might be able to keep up with us for the short sprints but the magic in your shoes is probably close to exhausted and you won't be able to keep up without them." Falgar said.

Hermes sighed and agreed reluctantly "It is so embarrassing to be carried that I spend a lot of extra magic enchanting my shoes and even clothing so I can keep up, but you are right, the magic is nearly gone and I dare not use more of my Arcaneum to replenish the magic given how much I already used in those enchantments."

After that the group took off again even faster and in uneasy silence. Ais was carried on Nelly's back and the entire group ran as fast or even faster than they had when they had started out. Everything became a blur of yellow, brown, and green to Ais eye's.

The Hermes famillia reached the border outpost of the Ralka empire within an hour after that, paid their fee while stating the purpose of traveling though Ralka along the roads and continued running. There was a brief break around noon to eat again, then yet more running. Due to the faster speeds they reached the border between the Ralka Empire and Meilstora counrty by the end of the night, even though from what Ais saw the Ralka empire was almost as large as the Savannah and they had glided over a quarter of the distance they had traveled in the savannah.

The group rented out 5 rooms with double twin beds for the night. There were not quite enough beds, since there were 12 people in the group so Ais volunteered to use one sleeping bag, in a room shared between Robin and Lulune. and Pot and Pock slept at both ends of another bed since as Pallums they were short enough that their legs barely reached each other. Ais might have been able to share with Meryl, since he was also short enough, but felt far too uncomfortable at the idea.

They still used their own stored food for dinner, since no one was willing to pay the outrageous prices for a meal at the inn but Pot borrowed the Inn's kitchen so it was a better quality than yet more stew. There was a white meat that might be chicken in a tomato sauce along with spaghetti noodles and bits of cut up cooked carrots, peas, and corn. There was also a thick bread served alongside the spaghetti and strawberries for a desert.

No one bothered to set a watch so when Ais woke up 4 or so hours after dropping off to sleep she was the only one awake. Ais had somewhat expected this to happen at least once so meditated and read a book she had also stored in her bag as well as spending a bit more time feeding the vigor-wasps.

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The next morning after a quick but filling breakfast of bacon and oatmeal they started out again. Robin carried Ais this time, after Nelly had carried Ais most of the previous day and Falga before that. Robin had only carried Ais for about 1 hour at the start of the journey so it was her turn again apparently. At least Ais did not have to avoid Robin's breasts since she could be carried on Robin's back. They reached the end of Meilstora very fast, and then had to travel the border between Seleo forest and some of the farms surrounding Orario.

They had to stop to deal with monsters 5 times that day.

Twice they were attacked by groups of 5 Kobolds that looked closer to large wolves than the man-like form with a wolf head Suicia had described, since they ran on four legs most of the time and only stood up occasionally to swipe their claws at people. Ais watched along with Hermes in the back since she was out of arrows. Fortunately all the kobold wolves stacked into one medium spot since they were just shorter than 6 ft 6 inches at 6 ft 5 inches or less.

Once a farmer walked up to them and said a large dungeon lizard had taken over one of his fields recently and killed some of his pigs and asked them to deal with it. When they followed the farmer to the edge of one of his fields they found a very large green lizard basking in the sun surrounded by the bloody remains of the farmer's pigs. That dungeon lizard had grown enough to be classified as a large monster, albeit barely. It was probably about 5 feet high or less, but close to 12 feet long if the tail was included.

Another time they saw tracks and bits of trash and stopped to follow the trail to find a group of 8 goblins that had raided a farm. They all carried burlap sacks bulging with their stolen goods. The goblins were as short as Ais, green, hairless, with large ears and pointed noses. They wore mis-matched clothing clearly stolen from the farms as well. The goblins had makeshift weapons from farming tools as well as a few crude bone knives and clubs.

Falgar even allowed Ais to fight one of the goblins to gain experience. He said

"these do not look much different from the goblins on the first few floors, although with the weapons they might be from the 8th or 9th floor of the dungeon. But a single goblin should be safe if you want to try fighting it Ais. We'll step in if it is too much but I doubt we'll need to."

Ais eagerly agreed "That sounds good to me!" Ais said as she walked forward while unsheathing her rathalos blades. One of the goblins was carefully herded away from the group by Robin and pointed in Ais direction. It was all too eager to attack since Ais looked like the weakest one in the group.

Ais found that the goblin was quick and tried to fight very ditty, snarling and feinting at Ais eyes then trying to stab her in the stomach, but even she could keep up and react to it fast enough to block the knife with one blade and kill it by stabbing within it her other rathalos blade in the chest within 1 minute. The goblin actually dissolved into light particles and dust and the clothing, knife, and bag it had been carrying dropped to the ground. Ais was the last one. All of the other goblins had probably been killed in the first 30 seconds. Once all the goblins were dead the few who had not dissolved were stripped of their clothing and bags, and stored in Ais inventory. There were only 4 goblins that had not dissolved. Tabitha then reversed direction to find which farm had been raided, with everyone carrying some of the items the goblins had stolen, although Meryl, Suicia, Tabitha, and Ais carried the most since they had large packs. There was plenty of space left in Ais great Jagras bag so she carried all the clothing.

They found the farm, and found the farmers huddled in their basement after running there to avoid the goblins. Some of them were injured with makeshift bandages so clearly they had tried to fight at first.

Hermes grandly announced "We, the Hermes famillia have killed the goblins that raided you and are kindly returning as much of the stolen items as we could find."

The farmers were grateful that the goblins were gone now and some of the things stolen were returned but resigned when they saw that most of the food had already been eaten by the goblins. Ais quietly asked Robin "should we offer potions or vigor-wasp spray for the injuries?" in the background. Robin quietly replied that "unless they asked and were willing to pay a small fee it was best to let the farmers deal with those injuries on their own. The injuries seem minor and the farmers likely have a few emergency potions that they have not used so it was likely a matter of pride."

One farmer mentioned "Since a good portion of our food is gone or destroyed expect less food coming from our farm this season while we try to recover."

Hemes agreed sympathetically "Yes, this is terrible luck. If you tell me the name of the farm or the head of the household I'll inform the guild to give leniency to you for this year due to the raid."

"I'm head of household Joe Wheaties, this is the Seleo-Wheatfields/Bean farm." The same farmer spoke up.

Hermes nodded with a small smile and said "I'll tell the guild, recover as best you can Mr. Wheaties. I hope things get better for you and your farm. We will definitely inform the guild to send some extra patrols this way to hopefully prevent another instance. Out of curiosity, how many goblins do you think were part of this bold raid?"

"About 17 or so probably, we managed to kill quite a few, they dissolved in death so they were newly from the dungeon. And as you see we were all injured. If we kept fighting we risked being maimed or crippled."

Once they were on the road again Hermes spoke up in anger.

"That is the second group of monsters from an upper floor of the dungeon that are weak enough and numerous enough to have only escaped recently. The fact that so many of them dissolved in death proves it as well. The Kobolds might have been the same for that matter and just adjusted faster to the changed scenery since other than running on all fours they were similar to normal Kobolds. There is definitely another dungeon exit other than the one under Lolog lake that we know about and try to monitor. This is clearly a widespread issue that has somehow been missed before this.

I'll have a lot to talk about this during the Denantus and some hard words to speak to the famillias that were supposed to be patrolling this area. Although the exit is clearly only newly opened or unsealed since we did not have to deal with these types of monsters the last time we took this route."

Falgar agreed with Hermes. "I agree. This should not have happened, most of the farmers in this area have a falna from Demeter even if she rarely updates them. The farmers are not generally cowardly, but 17 goblins or more at once is too much to handle for level 1s who don't train in the dungeon."

They continued to travel at a light jog instead of a full run. About 1 hour until sunset another farmer hailed them and asked for help. "My chickens and 1 of my pigs have been killed and eaten by a clever monster that has gotten past my traps and the door of the chicken coop. Can you search for it or lie in wait for it tonight? You can bed down in my barn for the night and if you provide some of the ingredients my wife can help cook up a good meal for you. I'm only 1 person and I work all day, I fell asleep trying to lie in wait for the monster last night." The farmer asked, bargained, and explained

Hermes sighed, then said "Might as well, we're close but would have to continue on for about 2 hours after nightfall to reach Orario. And traveling after dark is not a good idea even for our group."

With a kitchen to borrow and help with cooking Pot made up a slightly better than usual meal, not yet more stew but instead actual meat marinated in a basic sauce, with boiled vegetables and even a fruit and nut salad. The barn was not quite big enough for everyone, but that issue was solved when the farmer and his wife offered floor space in their house and with the fact that 2 people would be on watch the whole night rather than just the usual 1 to increase the chance of spotting whatever monster had been killing the farmer's animals.

It was clear that this monster going after the farmer's animals was a small monster, probably even smaller than a human given it's choice of food to go after, after all chickens would not be a very filling meal for something big. Ais was allowed to be the 2nd person on watch for 2 watches after she got a few hours of sleep, since her elven eyesight was just as good at spotting movement at night as Pot, Pock, Meryl Tabitha, Suicia, and Lulune. She had volunteered for 2 watches because she knew she did not need much sleep, and would not need to be well rested just to be carried when they started out again in the morning. In order for everyone to get some sleep and not get too bored on watch there were 4 watches set up. The first watch was Lulune and Meryl. The 2nd watch would be Pock and Suicia. The 3rd watch would be Ais and Lulune. And the fourth watch would be Tabitha and Ais. They would wake up Pot 1 hour before sunrise to start cooking so he could have a good meal ready by the time the sun rose and they could get an early start on the final leg of their journey.

Everything went according to plan, although it was very quiet and the monster might have been aware that there was something unusual going on since it did not try to sneak in to get at a chicken or pig for most of the night. Finally a bit before Tabitha would have sent Ais to wake up Pot they noticed very slow and cautious movement. Tabitha sneaked toward that movement and eventually pounced, but surprisingly did not immediately kill the monster. Instead she asked Ais " Can you get rope or a net and help me capture the 'monster"'.

Although very confused, Ais obeyed. There was some rope in her inventory stored coiled up as a small item.

Once Ais had retrieved the rope she cautiously approached and found that the 'monster' was not a monster at all, but an actual gray fox, a bit on the large side but not a monster at all. It had struggled a bit to to escape, but Tabitha was easily restraining it and its seemed to have mostly given up by the time Ais approached. Ais was able to wind the rope around it's snout and front paws with Tabitha holding it still. Then Ais retrieved another rope, since the Hermes famillia had her store rope that was coiled up to fit a small space then stacked 20 identical ropes for some reason. Ais then tied up the hind legs and connected the rope to the front legs to prevent the fox from hopping off. Then Ais got out yet another rope and made a basic leash by tying the rope around the neck and leaving a lot hanging.

Tabitha explained.

"Foxes are animals that lived before all the monsters came, they used to be very commonplace nuisances, and lived both in towns and in the wild. They actually were well known for being bold enough to go after small domesticated animals so people frequently hunted them to keep their population down, according to the records we have. But now even foxes are rare to see in the wild and probably endangered since normal animals cannot compete very well with even small monsters. So it seemed a shame to just kill this fox. Instead we can give the farmer the option of selling the fox to a zoo or private collector, that way the fox gets a chance to live and maybe continue it's species, and the farmer gets some vali to recoup his losses. The farmer might decide to kill the fox to sell its fur, since gray foxes have very pretty fur, but if he is smart he'll sell the fox alive since that is worth more than even the fox fur."

Ais nodded in understanding and a bit of pleased surprise. She had known that very few normal animals survived the hordes of monsters unchanged, but had not known that people were actively trying to preserve them when possible. According to Feline's memories people in her world had tried to do the same, but because most animals were endangered due to humans taking over and destroying their habitats it had seemed appropriate and the right thing to do for the humans to try to help those endangered by their own actions. In this case Ais was surprised that people were devoting any resources to similar efforts, after all while things were now stable for a long time even humanity had seemed in danger of going extinct due to the hordes of monsters.

Maybe these preservation efforts were some human's way of showing that they had not given up hope that things would become even better and monster populations would be controlled enough to try to re-introduce animals to the wild some-time in the future.

Once the fox was clearly secure Ais went to wake up Pot to start on breakfast since the moon had gone low enough that sunrise seemed close. Pot started on breakfast, and asked "Did that monster ever show up? Or was is clever and alert enough to avoid going after the chickens and pigs with people on watch for it?"

"It did show up, less than 30 minutes ago in fact, but it was not an actual monster, it was a large but normal gray fox, an animal. Tabitha asked me to tie it up so that the farmer can have the option of selling the fox to a zoo or private collector apparently."

"Ha ha ha! An actual fox! If that farmer was not so lazy he did not need our help at all! It is very amusing to me we were asked to deal with a normal animal. Hermes and Falgar might not like the idea of traveling at night, but if we had we could have slept in our own beds last night even if we would have arrived very late. Instead we slept in a barn or on the floor of this house, many lost sleep keeping watch, and it was just a simple animal! Ha ha ha! I wonder if Falgar or Hermes will ask for a small fee for wasting out time." Pot chucked and spoke as he started cooking. The farmers wife had also woken up to help make a breakfast for her husband and had quietly listened to the conversation, she also giggled quietly when she heard Pot's comment, though she frowned when she heard that there might be a fee.

She then quietly spoke up,

"I'll admit my husband could have easily dealt with an actual fox, but we did not know that when we asked for help. The clever and smart monsters are often more dangerous. Plus, you are using our kitchen and used some of my spices and food to make that meal last night. We did not charge you because it was basic hospitality. But even if we make up most of the losses from the dead chickens and pig when we sell the fox, that will take time to arrange and we'll have to feed the fox before some one comes to pick it up or we have enough time to make the trip to deliver it ourselves. So at best we'll break even. It would not be right to charge us a fee!" She said with slight anger and worry.

"Falgar and Hermes will likely decide the same, but at the same time let them at least pretend they are considering charging a fee. This was not the Hermes famillia's turn to patrol, we were on our way back from a long and tiring trade journey where we got some exotic food as well as other items. We dealt with many other actual monsters on our way back when technically we did not have too. Yes it is the duty of Orario famillia's to help protect you farmers from monsters in exchange for a discount on a large portion of the produce you grow or livestock you tend too, but we are only supposed to handle what you cannot do yourselves.

If your husband had not 'fallen asleep' the night before we came he might very well have caught the fox himself, he could have made more of an effort to stay awake, or even asked you to help keep watch part of the night as well. Instead he asked for our aid, and did not even bother to add himself to the watch rotation.

A farm this close to Seleo forest should have at least one other permanent worker to help defend it as well. I'm guessing that due to being so close to Orario your husband saves money by hiring temporary workers during harvest season and relies on his 'traps' and the regular patrols of famillias to deal with monsters. That is very dangerous and would fail at some point, so your husband needs to realize he needs to make a few changes, fear of a fee for wasting our time on something he should have been able to handle should hopefully help push him in that direction.

This is for your own safety as well.

A farm a few hours away got raided by a large group of goblins. Even with 2 permanent workers and the farmer and his wife all fighting they were forced to retreat to a safe location and let the goblins rampage after they were injured. That could have been your farm, you would have died if you faced that many goblins.

Famillias will step up their patrols once we inform the guild what happened, and we dealt with all those goblins and returned what we could of the stolen goods, but that farm lost a lot of their food to the goblins and it was only their own numbers that let them survive long enough to retreat. This is not a safe location, it is too dangerous to take risks like your husband has been doing." Pock lectured the woman.

She sighed and nodded in resigned acceptance.

Ais had listened to that lecture in quiet fascination and a vague unfocused anger and determination. It was clear that even with both Monster Hunters and these famillias life was still very tough and dangerous for most people due to the monsters. Ais quietly resolved to herself to do her part in trying to reduce the monster population not just to get stronger, and avenge the previous deaths, but to make it safer for others in the future.

Maybe that could be a minor goal once she had helped kill the One-eyed Black Elder Dragon.

Ais thought to herself, since she was determined and fully believed that eventually she would accomplish her main goal.

The rest of the morning proceeded as normal. When the farmer, Falgar, Hermes and the rest of the famillia woke up Tabitha showed off the fox. Falgar did make a show of seriously considering charging the farmer a fee for wasting their time like Pot had expected, but eventually let it go, as long as the farmer either paid for the rope that was being used to tie the fox up or replaced the rope with his own. The farmer found some of his own rope since the rope from Asteria was a special kind that was supposedly stronger than normal rope, made from a mix of monster sinew, fur from endemic life and the few monsters that had fur, and especially fibers from the vines in the ancient forest so it was actually a bit expensive.

Then after a quick but large and good breakfast the group took off again at a fast jog since they did not want to be interrupted yet again before they reached the gates.

Robin was carrying Ais this time, on her back again. When the walls of Orario came within their sight around mid-morning Robin gave a sigh of relief and joy and said

"Welcome to Orario Ais, we're finally here!"