Chapter 6
I get down on my knees and put my hand out, “Hey cutie I’m not your mummy but I am another of your race. How about you come out and we can go find your mummy together moo?...” She cautiously nods and puts both hands out and grabs onto mine. As I try to lift her up she flinches and panics slightly looking down at her hooves. I see that one of them has a big cut on it. Pulling out a health potion I put it in front of her mouth to drink, she smells it and pulls away disgusted. “C'mon be a good girl for me, I know it tastes bad but it will help you get out of here with me. Can you do that for me moo?” She nods again with tears in her eyes and downs the drink. As she finishes it she drops it and looks like she’s about to hurl, I quickly rub her head between her horns and it seems to make her feel better.
Able to walk now I bring her out and introduce her to my partners in crime, she hides behind my thighs and waves from behind me, extremely shy, I can feel her shivering against me. The best thing to do now is just to get her the hell out of here. I grab her by the waist and gently pull her up and around my neck, the other babylings make room for her and she easily joins the pack. Soon after she falls asleep drooling on my head, holding onto my horns like Keeks only just recently. At least she’s not shivering now… poor thing… I hope she was unconscious for most of it…
I whisper to the girls as Keeks looks up at her sleeping spot with envy and Zelia is making wanting whining noises in the throat. I’ve heard her mumble about tiny pet LilMoo a few times, “Alright let's move out, Keeks I’m relying on you, please don't let any of the spiders attack me, I really can't move much moo!” In my mech suit of baby animals I can only walk as gently as possible as the girls move off further into the caves, I'm a walking talking protection machine!
Up ahead I hear the sounds of combat, the nye’s of secret attacks and wan’s of bone shot’s as we slowly make our way forwards, both of them rotating back every few minutes to make sure we were safe. I'm useless currently but in a good way? Protecting life, the thing I most want to do in the world, so I'm content to hang back with my trusty girls to guide our path.
After what feels like another hour we emerge from the cave into the light, the camp has been fully set up, the gentle snores of a sleeping shark woman, a fire burning with a delicious beefy smell from the cooking pot above it and her body languishing on a hammock between 2 trees. We walk over to her to her sleeping spot and tell her we are back temporarily, her eyes open sleepily as she yawns, then she greets us heartily with a “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!” Ahh yes the appropriate response, Zelia has to jump in front of me to stop her cutting me in half with her water laser beam as she points her finger towards me like a gun.
“It's okay we rescued some animals from the spiders wan!” It takes half a minute for her to stop freaking out and eventually puts her fun guns away, but not before giving me one more horrified look and shaking her head trying to get it out of her memory banks, truly nightmare fuel.
The fire looks inviting so I sit down by the fire and bring the young Minotaur off my neck, placing her gently in my lap as the rest of the furry critters surround me in a bubble of warmth. Zelia whines and so I make her a spot next to me and she gratefully cuddles into my side, the animals slowly creep back in and surround us both, Zel starts crying a little from happiness.
“W-wwaannn I’ve taken so many pictures I love this so so much wannnn~” She’s finally able to get some pets in without getting bitten, Keeks languishes at the other side of the fire throwing sticks in and reaching into the food pot to get a lick every so often as we rest up, the sun is still up so we should have plenty of time finish off the cave before we head back.
“Soo… did ya give birth while I was asleep?...” Mershi asks, astonished at the little me I’ve somehow produced. I shake my head sadly… At her situation, not at the not giving birth to a tiny cowgirl part.
“We found her in the cave, she must have been captured for food moo!” Mershi raises her eyebrow in suspicion.
“That’s super weird… The Arachne don't capture humanoid races, obviously you can see the amount of animals sure, but they stay away from anything else, unless she wandered in there. They are very territorial, obviously, who wouldn't be… they are usually pretty smart, but that really depends on the Arachne Queen she might be afflicted. It’s one of the reasons we got called out here, upper guild assignment to check this place out, missing people is bad for business! Didn’t hear anything about a minotaurus though, well good thing we made it in time! Eat up and then get your asses back in there, might have more people to rescue!”
Mershi pulls out a few wooden bowls and fills them up with food from the pot, a combination of different meats as well as some fish, it’s basically meat slop, but its fucking amazing! I hear sniffing as the little curled up girl in my lap's nose has discovered a source of yummy. “I-is it dinner time moo?...” She rubs her eyes and pulls herself up in my lap, opening her mouth for me to feed her, she's adorable so I oblige. One spoon at a time until it’s empty and I get Mershi to fill me up another bowl. As I finish it I put it aside and pull the little one up onto one of my thighs so I can look at her better and talk to her.
“Hey cutie what's your name moo?...” She sniffles and looks at me with her lip trembling.
“C-cali moo… a-are you going to take me back to the orphanage moo?...” I catch myself and breath out… fuck… fuck… fucking game… really?... is this fucking targeted game?! I try to calm myself down, breathing in and out.
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“No sweety we are going to figure something out… but you will have to stay with the nice lady until we get back from making sure there's no more bad things in the cave yeah?...” she nods her head sadly.
“I'm coming back Cali, I promise you, I’ll be right back.” She smiles weakly at my statement, maybe she was also told such a thing in the past… you don't end up at an orphanage for no reason… fucking shitass game!
I pull Cali off me and get her comfy by the fire, herding the little ones off me they gather around Cali becoming a big fur blanket, she has become one with the hoard! Mershi gets back in her hammock and pats a spot in it. “I don't bite! You can come and relax in the hammock with me!”
“Y-you dont bite nye?!...” Keeks looks actually shocked at such a disappointing thing, Marshi ignores her completely, still trying to look as motherly as possible without finger blasting Keeks into 2 pieces.
Cali shyly stays put by the fire under the rug of a new family, “Alright there's a spot here if you want it though darling, you remind me of my niece, cute little shy thing, I’ll take care of you while your protector is gone!”
Despite how tough she normally looks I think she really likes kids, considering she’s mentioned her little sister’s kids more than twice on the trip, gotta have something to care for in life. She shrugs and gets comfy in her hammock and soon starts to snore. Checking my stats I see that my mana and stamina is fully back so I think we should be good to go. Patting Cali on the head we set off back into the caves, Cali waves at us from behind and we wave back, something adorable to look forward to when we get back.
Since we cleared all the caves, and by we I mean Zel and Keeks while I stood around looking cool in my mech suit, it's an easy walk all the way through. Zel occasionally lights up my horn when the spell is about to run out, she tells me that you can put utility spells in little handbooks. It costs a little bit but means you don't fill up your proper spellbook, it also means she has to find them all each time which seems annoying, confirmed punching is just the all round best and easier, if only I could hit a big area with my fists like she can with her spells! One day…
We finally get closer to the room we did not clear before. My bodily changes are still on, thankfully so I don't have to apply any of them again, even though it was only really the knuckles this time. With my upgraded Ability it did not impair any hand movement which is amazing… I do have all my mana back…
< Anatomy Sense > < Bone Hardening > I use up 120 mana and see that each fist now has a base damage increase of 140%, I can't wait to test the limits of this thing! I look over to Keeks who just got out her weapon… her… BONE WEAPON!? I sneak over to Keeks as we get closer and nudge her, asking to borrow her sword for a second. She passes it over and I concentrate on it, using ‘Anatomy Sense’ while touching it, I can see its entire composition. I throw Hardening into it with 20 mana and then pass it back, she looks confused, then looks at her cutlass, the area lights up with happiness as she realised what I did, holy fuck this ability is amazing! It even says it in the new Ability, ‘Morph and change the bones in your body and those that you touch directly as you will it.’ I FUCKING LOVE BONE EQUIPMENT!!!
Enhanced Bone Fist main/offhand (140% hardened)
Damage:
10-10 blunt
10 defense all physical types
Effects:
50% increase damage to weak spots
Mana 48/188
Stamina 199/218
Zel looks at us both like we are crazy, miming to each other in excitement, close enough to the end of the cave that we can hear the chittering. Keeks passes over her cutlas to Zel and she looks at me in wonderment. Passing her scepter to me I go for it again, but to my dismay it only affects the physical characteristics of the thing. I shrug and pass it back, it was worth trying at least. Zel still gives me a kiss for at least giving it a shot which is the best reward I could get, Keeks mimics her and kisses me on the check in excitement making Zel giggle and quickly quieting herself before she gets heard. I can only go red and try to get back in the zone.
Before we hit the lip, Keeks gets Zel to put out the magical light on my horn, we are put into darkness. I feel 2 pairs of hands quickly grab onto me as the darkness really hits us. I don't think they realized how dark it can get, where all the sounds and life melts into one enormous void. I feel calm and safe, like it’s another home for me. After a few breaths I feel Keeks pull on me and subsequently Zel. She probably has a night vision Ability… or maybe it’s racial? Some kind of low light vision, if she has it Zel should have it too though… not that it's the time to have a discussion about it.
My hand gets put against the wall to help keep my balance as we trudge forwards further, the sounds of chittering in the dark seeming to come from everywhere, a light comes from up ahead and the darkness is revealed in the next cavern. Very low light, like we are doing some kinky mood lighting, is brightening up the cavern. It's a bit smaller than the other ones, although there are still a large amount of spiders around. The scene we see is breathtaking, nothing that would be possible in the real world. I feel Zelia tighten her grip in pain at what she sees, Keeks tightens her hand on me in anticipation, mine tighten in anger, as I feel the passive effect of Avenger of the Innocent activate, not anymore!