I walked through path seeing many villagers who are obviously already woke up and they seemed a bit cheerful at my pace.
"Good Morning Sir, I hope you have a wonderful day."
Said a person in armor as he greeted me, and I think he looked at Ivy with a certain curiosity in his eyes.
I think he's a solider who have seen yesterday displays. I just nodded and replied.
"Good Morning." I smiled lightly and I just continued my way to the village entrance.
I see a familiar face at one of the guards of the village, I also see a few of them also go out of the village.
(They might go kill some monsters to ensure the safety of the village.)
(Well, I had plans to go to the forest and farm for a bit of magic stone and make some experience with my psy power.)
I walked closer to the gates and headed for one of the two guards currently standing at the gates.
"Good morning, Sir. I think we don't met formally before, so allows me to introduce myself, Gerald Zard and accessory Lira's younger brother." Gerald now formally introduce himself as the guard who I thought had let me in the village 2 day ago.
He was a young man with fading orange hair and cyan eyes. He looked somewhat old, but there weren't many wrinkles on him. The rest of his body was hidden behind full-body leather armor.
"So, Good morning, Gerald." I waited to come closer to him before returning the greetings with a polite smile.
"So if it not indiscreet, you'r going in the forest right ?"
" Yes?, there something you want to tell me ?"
"Should we talk about this somewhere else please ?" Gerald looked at the scarce traffic in this morning. He turned around while also gesturing with his hand to follow him then started walking.
He led me some distance away from the gates, around the outer parameter. While walking behind him, I thought that maybe he was instructed to tell me some details they don't want everyone to know about?
Obviously already given the seriousness of the situation it would be strange if there was not more sensitive information which was generally hidden from the public. I mean, I don't think they were stupid enough to willingly plan to give me private or dangerous information about their village's circumstances, right?
Not to mention, the things I'll hear here might easily be a hidden test to see if I could be entrusted with secrets even if they were trivial.
.....
Why's Ivy seem really quiet actually? She normally always does something to avoid getting bored like play with my ears.
....Yes she plays with my ear, but only when I not attentive to her.
But now she was strangely quiet after we approached the gates, and was standing still at my feet especially after I started following Gerald to this place. I tilted my head back to look at her and found her looking back at me.
"Sni!"
After a little bit of staring at each other's eyes, she slapped my ass and pointed her vine behind me.
"HHEEEEEEEEEEE, what are you doing right now ?"
A little offended but rather curious about what she wants to show me, I look away to see very clearly a goblin looking in our direction.
"Hmmmm, Ivy use Magic Leaf."
I order Ivy to launch the attack while ignoring the deeply disinterested look she gives me before complying.
"Sir, your beast seems to be really powerful." Gerald said with an amazed face.
"Well i pride myself on her." I said as I patted her head gently. At my words, Gerald shook his head and looked at me with renewed grim attention.
"Luckily for us, Sir Lucas you seem to be are great powerhouse, so the village head had something he wants you to investigate during your stay if possible."
I show him that I'm considering it even if were are not really short of money right now, but it a terrible realization that make me really consider that task.
Well, given the current number of adventurers in the village and their reputation for being heavy spenders, I'm almost certain they'll cleverly raise prices to recoup at least some of their investment for the extermination.
And considering the battle brewing, we should make some reservation now to avoid any other surprises in addition to the price of Ivy's daily consumption which I will have to discover at some point.
Well I just while thinking about our current situation, i continued to pat my snake.
"I'll do my best if I could do it. What I can be possibly tasked for ?" I phrased my words in that trying to convey my intention of first weighing my options before committing to the quest. Depending on the task's requirement, I may not be able to do it currently.
"Ah,...well it just that recently an elder hunter from our village noticed a strange movement from the silver wolves in the region, they are the closest to our village among the wolf packs in the forest, so we are a little concerned about the situation."
"Well i don't know much about animal, but (National Geographic) thought me that the most likely outcome is that there faces a high risk of death which contribute to the rural exodus toward the village, the loss of their usual hunting grounds or, in short, the loss of their usual resources."
I'm think a little bit about the situation.
"Or, the most likely to have happen, the arrival of new, stronger or more dangerous predators."
"Yes, you might be right about that Sir, A year ago, you could easily count over a 100 of them, but now the size of their pack has been estimated to be around 25-40 wolves. They normally stayed closer to the center of their territory."
"But they started appearing closer to our village than desirable. That why we want you sir to investigate why they changed their hunting grounds." Gerald filled me on the task's details and it may be quite dangerous.
I begin to seriously think about the information I take with no much interest in that time.
(Wolves are always where their prey is. If I can tail their prey animals, I may stumble upon their tracks by chance. I should also remember the tracks of other canines, just in case I saw the tracks of foxes, coyotes or some other canine species.) I think it really all I can remember for now but it already great.
So, I quickly went with a plan for the days :
1- Going in the forests and experience the current move set of Ivy.
2- Exercise my powers and judge my current personal capacity.
3- Do some research in the environment.
4- Track the wolves if I see there trace.
5- Gather a huge amount of magic stone for the egg.
"Then I'll go on my way, Gerald" I murmured my goodbyes as Gerald wished me a safe return then returned to his post at the gate.
"Ivy, now that we are going to be a hunter for the days, we need to be prepared to avoid monsters as well as hunt them."
"Sni!" (︶︿︶)
(Well she seems of the same opinion so we move on to the more important explanations.)
"Now, the major shot an interest for the wolves. There might be extremely vulnerable during those times. The river appeared to be a safe bet because it wasn't entirely within the forest, where monsters roamed."
(Of course, I'm not sure what traces monsters leave behind. So we really can't avoid them. But if all we faced were goblins and kobolds in groups of the same size as the previous two days, we'd be OK.)
After a short walk we arrived at the river, I scaled the river for anything. There were no animals drinking right now. However, after exhaustively searching the riverside, a few signs of hooves were discovered.
(Given the shape, size, and spacing between front and hind legs, this appears to be a deer species. The quantity of hooves, differentiated by size, form, and the distance between the front and hind legs, leads me to believe I have discovered a herd of at least...34 deer ?
(Whose traces lead back to the forest.)
How can I be an expert in tracking and identification of feet?
National Geographic man.
...
And also some perk of be a elf?
I paused my jesting inner monologue and focused on the hoof tracks. As they approached the river, they maintained order. However, for some reason, they were more chaotic and disorganized upon leaving.
I got a feeling and I see Ivy very serious rights now. I gazed around on the surrounding ground and at the forest's edge. I discovered big canine traces. They were, thankfully, four-legged, judging by their tracks. A huge canine, may be another unknown monster.
I investigated the area further with my psychic power to scan if there are monsters in the zone.
( And it seems that there are...5-6 in the area.)
(Well how close they are, we need to be more cautious within the forest, but fortunately they don't seem to be very close for now.)
With the physic energy flow in my body and with the effects of Medidate, i made a quick plan in my head.
---------------------------------------------[Status]--------------------------------------------
Species Name: Snivy
Surname: Ivy
Level: ??? / ???
Type: Plant / Fairy
Items: Chroma Drop Charm
Gender: Female
Talent: Royal Contest, Queenly Majesty, Immunity, Max Overgrow.
Nature: Perfect (+Atk/+Def/+Spa/+Spd/+Spe)
Movement: Sweet Scent, Calm Mind, Sunny Day, Taunt, Solar Beam, Aerial Ace, Leaf Blade, Sword Dance, Energy Ball, Gastro Acid, Rest, Synthesis, Iron Tail, Captivate, Charm, Vine Whip, Fairy Wind, Disarming Voice, Mean Look, Glare, Moonblast, Magic Leaf, Grassy Terrain, Nature Madness, Leech seed, Baby-Doll Eyes, Strength Sap, Spore, Aromantic Mist, Confusion, Double Team, Heal Pulse, Reflect, Light Screen, Cut, Swager, Punishment, Guillotine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(I really need to be able to remember the core of these abilities later.) After finalizing my plan in my mind, I share it with my partner.
"Ivy, it seems we have some unwanted guests, but at least we'll make them useful to us right now with their bodies, so we'll go sneaky right now, so maximum discretion."
"At my signal, or as soon as you think we've been spotted, you cast Double Team to first create confusion in their ranks regarding the number of enemies, then you immediately follow up with Disarming Voice to:
1- In the best-case scenario, they all drop dead instantly, rendering them practically deaf for an extended period, and at that moment you unleash a flurry of Magic Leaf attacks.
or
2- Distract them for at least a few seconds, which will give us time to choose between retreating or pursuing." Without even catching my breath.
Okay, I'll continue explaining the plan right away.