After the disappointment of the monster spawner, Nicholas gave up momentarily on the goal of collecting all the shiny rocks in the cave beyond their dungeon's entrance. Instead, he returned to his original goal: exploration.
He quickly returned to the awareness of the little champion salamander and left the cave. The salamander he spawned only half an hour before was left behind to guard the core while the champion made its way out. They didn't have the resources to make every monster a champion. Well, they did for now, but the three agreed to save up for a spawner room. Not having to sustain monsters with their maximum mana and having autonomous spawns was more than worth it.
So the little monster left the cave, even though Nicholas was deeply tempted to just pick up the crystals anyway and waste tons of time; the others agreed that they simply didn't have the time to do that. So he just set off in his little vessel salamander.
The first obstacle was immediate and obvious: grass. Even under the twilit sky of the Nightshade Forest, there was still grass. It hurt visibility for the squat lizard. Even trying to use aura sense in the grass wasn't very helpful since the aura of the little champion was tiny.
It also caused their first real stop of the journey, since Nicholas wanted some. He had the little salamander wrap its tail around a blade of grass and tug. The slimy skin of the lizard wasn't good at holding on, but after ten minutes of trying, it finally managed to grab the blade of grass.
Nicholas made it grab a couple of others as it entered the nearby treeline. Even the strange tall grass near the river was too big for the lizard, but the regular grass was fine.
Finally, the squat lizard entered the treeline, entering a shadowy world of twilight, even more so than the river. The trees and massive fungi here blocked out the sky even more than they did over the river.
But the lizard kept marching as Nicholas looked around with boundless curiosity. The trees looked so big from this close to the ground. The little lizard could see individual drops of water on the grass and the different tiny stones in the dirt under its feet.
As it kept moving, Nicholas eventually smelled something. Blood. He didn't know how he knew it was blood, but knew it was definitely blood. The salamander also twitched as it smelled the blood. Nicholas directed it towards the scent.
The squat lizard didn't move fast, but after a couple of hours of walking, it finally reached the source. Four corpses, and a squirrel munching on the face of what looked like an orc.
The little lizard avoided the substantially larger squirrel and instead began to wander around the site while Nicholas investigated. It climbed a tree so he could get a better look. Footprints, those of the orcs from what Nicholas guessed was east, judging by the sun, and those of six others from the south, who then hurriedly moved west.
There were some thrown rocks, some tiny thorns, and most importantly, several trees cut sharply in half by a cutting tool, likely the hatchet still in the hand of one of the orcs.
Nicholas knew loot when he saw it. Even if others considered it junk, who would he be to turn down an axe, some massive scraps of iron, fur, and whatever the third orc was wearing around his fists. So he made the little salamander climb back down the tree. While they had been accumulating astrum nuggets in their inventory, those still only reached about 60 in one slot. They could fit some corpses, or so Nicholas hoped.
Nicholas was able to open the inventory from within the salamander, so he hoped he could store from it as well. He made the salamander climb back down the tree towards the decapitated cat corpse. It would be a good test.
The salamander crawled onto the black fur of the giant cat.
[Would you like to loot: Nightshade Puma?]
Nicholas thought for a minute before selecting yes.
[Error: cannot loot target not slain by looter. Looting failed.]
Nicholas sighed internally and instead opened the inventory tab. During experiments while Azotreh was out of commission, they figured out that the inventory can only have things withdrawn through mental commands, but things could be put into the inventory either through a mental command and physical contact, or by pushing the object into the inventory window.
Nicholas used the first method, and the cat's body vanished, along with several pieces of brain matter. The salamander dropped from the suddenly empty air into the grass again. The big squirrel didn't seem to care about the cat corpse's absence.
Nicholas then moved quietly towards the corpse of the armored orc, cut in half on the ground across the battlefield. The little lizard finally reached the corpse, and Nicholas stored it. Each half unfortunately took up its own slot, but Nicholas had 14 to spare.
This time, the squirrel did notice the absence of one of the orc corpses, but it didn't bother the little mammal too much.
Nicholas watched the squirrel for a moment before subtly moving to the pugilist orc. The corpse was intact, though something pink and viscous was leaking from the eyes, ears, and nose of the head. It was creepy, but the salamander either didn't have a stomach or simply wasn't disgusted by such gore. Nicholas was willing to bet on the first one.
The squirrel finally really cared about the absence of a corpse and ran over to a nearby tree, accidentally trampling over the salamander with its claws. Nicholas felt pain shoot through the salamander as massive wounds opened in its side, though instead of blood, some black and green smoke slowly drifted upward.
It was greatly alarming to Nicholas as he quickly rushed over to the final orc corpse and stored it. Before he could try to rush back to the dungeon, he got a notification.
[Champion has taken extreme damage! Would you like to desummon and respawn this champion? Y/N]
Nicholas didn't like the idea of desummoning a monster, but was it truly better than just letting it die in the forest? No, it would apparently respawn.
He apologized to the confused monster before accepting the option to desummon it.
The moment he selected yes, he reappeared inside Azotreh's soul space.
[Champion has lost its stability and disintegrated. It will respawn in 06:23:59:59.]
Azotreh was jolted awake by a slight pain in their chest as the sun set on the third day of their time in the rabbit village. So far, it had really only been Atu and Ruby who stayed with them. They were starting to get the impression that Atu wasn't liked by the other rabbit people.
Atu was startled as well. Recently, she'd decided to tell Azotreh stories before they went to sleep, both to improve their understanding of Ilmabi and to soothe them.
When Azotreh winced, she moved to their side without hesitation. The child hadn't shown much pain recently and didn't have any scars besides the thick cluster of them around their eyes. So this sudden jolt and obvious sign of pain was disturbing to say the least.
When she felt their hands wrap around her instinctively, she at least had confirmation that they were recovering well. It wasn't like she expected them to just become better, but she was seeing them grow to trust her, which is what mattered.
She shushed them as they trembled in her arms, slowly petting their head. Their hair was soft and still beautifully multicolored.
She felt the tattoo on their face heat up as she brought her face close as Ruby emerged to wrap herself around the pair. The fox had grown a little as she fed it, and with her help in grooming its fur and tail, the fox was much softer.
She slowly moved and climbed into the small bed beside Azotreh, wrapping her arms protectively around the child in her arms. The fox around their neck let out something akin to a purr. It was warm, as was their house. They slowly fell asleep like that, aware that none of them was alone anymore.
The next day, the three awoke to a heavy knocking on the door. While Azotreh went on guard, Atu gently lifted them out of the bed to go answer the door. She didn't have many visitors, and of those she did get, none should be kept waiting.
She approached the door, Azotreh following close behind. When she opened it to reveal Asergia on the other side, Azotreh shrank a little bit further behind Atu. The older rabbit-kin chuckled under his breath before speaking to Atu.
"The kid seems to have warmed up to you." He chuckled.
"Love and care go a long way towards trust. What do you want, Asergia?" She replied. She was a little cranky herself. It was barely dawn.
"The lord wanted me to send a message to you and the kid, along with a gift."
Asergia pulled a small box from his inventory before handing it to Atu. He then said, "The Lord Rabbit understands that trust is hard-earned. He also understands that after great events in a person's life, there must be time to recover. However, he wishes to begin training the child."
"Training? Is my fath- The Lord Rabbit serious? Azotreh just started warming up to me. How am I supposed to hand them over to the Lord Rabbit already?"
"He never said his own personal training. The Lord is far too busy to personally train every new child of the clans. You were an exception due to your status. The child is also an exception, but the Lord Rabbit will not separate you.
Simply see that the child begins training in their aura and mana for now. They will accompany you on all hunts as well. Otherwise, you need not train them. Once they are ready, you can begin in physical combat and the like, but for now, simply keep advancing their fundamentals. Once they reach Apprentice 25 in both Mana Manipulation and Aura Manipulation, we'll give them the Leg Affinity and their choice of the common Class Stones we have available."
With mentions of new items, Chief Asergia left the house at the edge of the village and returned to his own. Atu instead began to prepare a mix of vegetables and meats for a sort of breakfast. She was never much of a chef, but still enjoyed the calming time in a kitchen.
As she worked, she felt a little tug on her leg. Azotreh was looking up at the counter with interest. The child seemed to be actively looking away from the flames, but was very interested in her hands as they cut apart a root vegetable.
She didn't want them touching something sharp, but knew they could handle it. At least, she assumed they could. They may be eight, but they carried the weight of generations.
So she handed them the knife while she continued to toss the vegetables and other goodies in the pan. She knew that even a tin rank like Azotreh didn't need to eat normal food anymore, but she'd learned through her own trials that a home-cooked meal can heal many wounds. It was why she decided to start cooking again.
Their hands weren't steady with the knife, but at least they weren't cutting themselves. She gently moved her aura to guide their hands through the slicing motions.
After ten successful cuts, Azotreh jumped. She chuckled. She did much the same as a little girl when she gained the cutting skill. The System's casual notifications were common, but not something she'd ever get used to.
She kept guiding them through the motions. Even apprentice-rarity skills could grow difficult to advance, so she hoped to guide them through the early advancement.
She smiled as she helped the small child cut.
[You have gained the skill: Cutting (A-1)]
[Due to the assistance of Atu Nightshade and her skill: Cutting (J-33), you have gained additional proficiency.]
[For gaining 20 Skills at the Apprentice level, you have gained the title: Skillful IV]
[Warning: ERROR]
Nicholas looked at the system windows with confusion, but didn't second-guess it too much. He was currently attempting to get the second little salamander, their non-champion salamander, to start depositing small amounts of the Nightshade Puma's body into the eye… mouth… thing.
The salamander was having a really hard time cutting through its fur with its little teeth, and it kept trying to swallow the chunks instead of depositing them into the core. Nicholas sighed as he began to spawn a second salamander. The champion salamander was still out of commission for a week, so there was no help there.
[You have created a new monster! +1DP]
It felt so boring to make another salamander, but Nicholas knew he had to. There were two corpses that they had to dismantle and add as blueprints to their dungeon. Nicholas liked the puma, as did both Fuzem and Errazorrus, while the orc would finally give Nicholas hands. Oh, how he wanted hands again.
Still, this was boring. Just watching the little monsters bite through the puma's fur and deposit samples into the core. Each little chunk only added less than 1% to the total completion of the blueprint. So Nicholas began to expedite the workload.
[You have created a new monster! +1DP] x10
Soon enough, there were twelve little salamanders slowly dismantling the corpse. He couldn't even elevate one of them to a champion because they were saving for the spawner!
At least the couple of notifications he got after the tenth salamander was spawned were nice.
[You have spawned ten of the same kind of monster! All Lesser Black Salamanders have improved power.]
[Your harvesting attempts have granted you another skill: Summon's Harvest (A-1)]
[Your simultaneous control of ten conjured entities has granted you the new skill: Subordinate Control (A-1)]
[For maintaining a subordinate for one hour without pause, you have gained a new ability: Summoner's Reservoir (1)]
[For maintaining multiple subordinates for ten minutes without pause, you have gained skill: Summoner's Efficiency (A-1)]
[For attaining three skills related to summoning, you have gained title: Skilled Summoner I]
Even with twelve salamanders working at the same time, it still took over an hour to finally get the puma's blueprint.
[You have obtained Dungeon Monster Blueprint: Nightshade Puma through unconventional means! +100DP]
[You have gained a new title: Peculiar Dungeon]