Chapter 7: Pet Teacher (4)

1.

I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about this breakfast.

I sat down at the dining table, the two men in suits bring out scrambled eggs and bacon, a pretty simple dish.

But Diana had a smile on her face the entire time, and her hair had not gone black for a second.

Showing that she was just weirdly enjoying watching me eat.

Yes, that's right. just watching me eat, she doesn't have any food herself.

Is it poisoned? I wouldn't put it past her, she seems to be a bit of a sadist.

The maid that always followed Diana wherever she went was nowhere to be found, which I also found confusing.

The eggs were good though, well I mean any cooked meal is good in my eyes after eating cooked rabbit with no seasoning for 18 years.

"You enjoying the meal teach?"

She smiles ear to ear.

"Yes….?"

It looks like she is studying me, looking for a sign of something.

I finish the meal.

"Thank you, Miss Abel,it was delicious."

"I'm glad!"

Her hair shines bright white like she was proud of the meal she didn't even make.

"Okay let's play now, where did my Emily run off to? I'll be right back!!"

She runs off skipping in her step, passing Immy as she runs up the entrance steps.

Wait so that's actually it? What was that about? I could swear something was off.

Immy walks down the entrance into the dining room, completely ignoring me.

"Hey Immy."

"Oh, right you're here."

Thanks for the warm greeting.

I actually had a request for what I could teach Diana today, so I decided to take a shot.

"Hey Immy, is there any way I can get some live rabbits and put on a little hunt in the garden for Diana?"

Immy's eyes shot up like she just remembered who I was.

"Oh that sounds like a wonderful idea!! I don't have any rabbits, but I do have a friend who has a farm in their backyard, just ask Emily for directions to Miss Baker’s estate in Emberpoint.

I'm sure she won't mind; she barely interacts with the outside world so she will accept the company."

Usually, people have a reason to not interact with the outside world, I really hope this person isn't dangerous in any way.

Doesn't matter because I have Diana who could probably kill anything.

She walks up to me and pats my head, "good boy taking your job seriously."

I think this time she is actually being affectionate.

She looks down at my plate and lets out a sigh.

"Slow acting poisons don't work huh, interesting, guess your body completely heals itself even without being damaged physically every 5 seconds."

Oh…

"You poisoned my food?" I say softly with a hint of anger.

"Uhmmm."

She says then turns her heel.

And just walks away into the living room to sit by the fireplace.

This place is full of actual sociopaths.

I mean I know this is what I signed up for but am I not allowed to even have a meal without it being some test?

2.

Emberpoint seemed to be in the far corner of this cave city, it was outside of the inner circle, so I got Emily to prepare us some casual clothes that won't scream 'I'm the upper class!!! target me!!'

I also didn't want Diana to go into rage mode and kill anyone who may try to attack us.

I'm not expecting people to try anything though, people are generally good I've found out, but it's still a risk I don't want to take.

"This is sooo exciting I've never been out of the inner circle before!!"

That is worrisome.

"Does Immy not let you leave?"

"No? I just haven't had a reason to go until this venture, I've been told the outer circle is dangerous and dirty."

It wasn't that bad from what I saw, there were some streets that were rough, I should try my best to avoid those.

Why am I even putting this much effort in? I don't really gain anything from this.

I'm probably trying to keep myself busy until I can mend the bridge between me and Amelia, I hope she is okay.

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We got to the gate that leads to the outer circle, the knight on this side was a lot kinder.

"Take these tickets and show them to the knight outside when you want to come back in."

It was kind of hard to understand him through the armor, but I got handed 3 tickets.

A cool system for sure, but I do worry about forgery on these tickets. They were red and had a pattern of swirling gold on them, and today's date.

The 17th of October.

Oh man it's almost Halloween, do they do that here?

We walk through the gate, me and Diana are side by side, but Emily is keeping her distance.

She keeps looking at me then looking away, I'm really worried that she hates me or something.

But why would she hate me? The piano song I played that was made by her dead mother? Or the fact that I might bean unholy creature?

Makes sense really. If I didn't have the ability to heal super quickly, I would be terrified of Diana, and any other people who had abilities similar to mine.

Emily’s hair was untied, it looked pretty nice, along with her casual clothes it made her seem approachable.

Diana is wearing something similar to what she wore yesterday, some baggy pants and a normal shirt.

I first wanted to make a stop at a shop, so we can get hunting gear that wasn't in Immy’s manor.

We stop at a gear store on the main road.

“Alright let's go in here.”

It was a fairly nice shop from the outside, made of wood and stone. It looked safe.

“Okay teach!”

She runs in without a care in the world.

Me and Emily exchange looks.

“Shall we go inside? We mustn’t keep Miss Abel waiting.” I say elegantly.

I’m practicing talking super formally, it’s easier to practice with Emily than with Diana because Emily can’t send me flying into the air like a rag doll.

She blinks a couple times then comes up with her reply.

“Yes.”

We both walk in, Diana is already trying to pick a fight with the shopkeeper, he is shaking.

I should just distract her, the shopkeeper looks terrified.

“Hey Miss Abel, can you help me gather some rope and arrows?”

“huh?? I was just having a chat with this guy! Isn't that right?”

She stares at the shopkeeper, who just nods while sweat falls from his forehead.

He speaks in a softish tone, “please take anything you want... its free... all of it.”

You clearly intimidated him.

Diana just runs up to me, waiting for me to praise her.

“Did I do good Teach?”

I should not encourage this behavior. But I also don't want this situation to get any worse by ridiculing her.

She leans her head downwards, so I can pet her head.

Why does she want me to do this?

I reach out and stroke her hair, “thanks Diana, but we should support small businesses, no? To keep the economy healthy.”

She moves her head into my hand, “Yes I suppose...”

Bomb defused.

Emily, while this was all happening, collected all the necessary equipment and paid in full completely behind our back.

The shopkeeper doesn't say a word, still shaking.

I guess people are really scared of blessed people here? Or is it just Diana they fear? I'm not sure if Diana has a bad reputation.

“Alright let's go.”

The walk was fairly nice, there was a park we could walk through that would lead to the Emberpoint town center.

It was a huge man-made forest.

Emberpoint was surrounded by manmade forest, it was very isolated, so people would go to live there to stay out of politics of the main city, its sort of a self-sufficient town with a lot of farms. Its also a big supplier of food exports, since its the only place in the city where you can have wild animals.

"So,Miss Abel, how many rabbits do you think you can catch?"

Small talk like this is crucial to make her like me.

"Hmph, more than you, how many can you catch?"

How many can I catch?

Well, considering I'm not in the snow, where I'm usually super slow and the rabbits have the advantage, I'm sure I could catch around 7-8 fairly quickly.

The hardest part in the wild was just finding the little critters, they always hid in the weirdest spaces.

So if I had access to as many as I wanted without having to walk great distances.

I could probably get 40 in an hour with my hands.

"My max is 40 I think"

"That's it? 40 in a day?"

"No in like an hour"

Her hair glowed white for a bit.

"I could still do better, watch and learn teach."

If I don't catch 40, I can just say it's an off day or I was too used to the snow biome.

But I'm sure I've gotten pretty good at it after 18 years of practice.

At least from the book I read, the evolved creatures are incredibly hard to manage and capture, rabbits especially.

Since the rabbits evolved to be faster and more cunning, even catching 1 in the wild without a bow is considered very very difficult.

But using a bow would kill it, I wanted to capture them.

So, I felt proud, I actually had a useful skill, even though it was very niche.

Emily is still behind us, just telling us to go left, right, or forwards, basically being our navigation system.

Such professionalism is something I need to learn. To keep out of trouble that is.

We arrive at the ends of the cave, the buildings were a lot less packed together here compared to the rest of the outer circle, it seemed like not a single soul was around.

All the buildings were made of wood, we were walking through the town hall area that leads to the field where the farms are.

Was this one of the first places built in the cave? That would make sense since this place looks at least 15 years old.

Old and decrepit.

"How many people live in this town Emily?"

I ask, finding it strange that every house seems empty.

"1400? I think?"

She looked just as confused as I was.

It was empty, carts full of nothing filled the streets, shops that sold jewels open with nobody at the front desk.

And not a single person was around walking the street, it's like they all disappeared. I had a really bad feeling.

I didn't want to disappoint Diana though, so we walked along the desolate streets.

Emberpoint was one of the only places where humans could live with wild animals, all domesticated of course.

In the rest of the city, it was strictly prohibited to bring any live animals into it. Unless you were a researcher like Immy.

There was a reason for this, I read about it in the documentation book on unholy creatures.

But I couldn't exactly remember what the reason was.

We arrive at the Bakers estate, it was a big farmhouse with a lot of green land around it, it was supposed to be full of animals, the grass was overgrown, and everything was unkempt.

Emily speaks up

"Miss Abel. I think we need to leave; something is very wrong here."

She looks scared.

I look at Diana, who seems to be shaking, her hair is black now, signaling a negative emotion.

"Oh please, it's fine, let's go in and greet Miss Baker"

We could not object.

The farmhouse was dusty, I was hoping Diana would realize this and make a quick exit.

The reason I was sticking by Diana was because I'm supposed to be the guardian here, besides Emily.

And if I were to be alone in this town, I feel like something would attack me. Kind of cowardly I know.

Diana opens the door; it makes a loud creaking sound.

"Miss Baker!! It's me Diana!! We've come to kill some of your rabbits!!"

We weren't going to kill any rabbits but okay.

We walk into the building, it was incredibly dusty and dark.

No response.

But there was a stench of death coming from upstairs.

We need to get out of here.

"Miss Abel, we need to go now, there is something incredibly strange going on."

Diana still shaking, nods slightly.

Thank God.

Emily is super close to me now, holding onto my arm, recognizing the danger as well.

We walk towards the open door to leave, outside we see a small rabbit, hopping on the now overgrown grass.

It's one eye spots us, it begins to hop towards us, jerking as it moves, this is very weird behavior for a rabbit.

Its jumps become more manic as it reaches the front porch, stumbling over itself a bit.

We are all frozen now, we know what this is.

This is actually a nightmare scenario.

I slowly step forward, and as my shaking hand touches the handle of the door to close it.

I'm hoping my slow movements make the creature docile enough.

the rabbits face twitches and pulsates, the eye almost coming out of its socket.

An awful guttural noise comes from its mouth and its face opens up.

The loudest screech I have ever heard comes from the rabbit as it trembles and moves unnaturally.

Hundreds of black stringy like worm creatures shoot out of its face and grab my hand, digging into my skin trying to find their way into my nervous system.

This was the ONE unholy creature I was very worried about in this scenario.

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Nervous System Walkers.

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Class: C to B+

These creatures take on a black stringy worm like appearance, they are usually found under the snow, planting themselves in the ground as a sort of land mine.

If a creature like a rabbit, wolf or even a human step on it.

It will quickly shoot up into the nervous system of the victim, replicating itself by using the spare tissue and organs, hollowing out the body.

The victim will then be controlled like a marionette, becoming a host.

As the host travels, it will drop more worms out of its body that will dig into the snow and become traps.

But if the host comes across another living creature, it will become aggressive and forcefully shoot out worms to turn the living creature into a host.

It is considered a C level threat if it is only 1 host,

B level threat if its numbers increase to 10.

And a B+ level threat if it exceeds 100.

And so on. Highest number of one colony of hosts documented is 160, which is known as the Horse Head Massacre.

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The worms dig into my hand to my arm, they completely disconnected themselves from the rabbit.

This is bad, this is very VERY bad.

I quickly slam the door so the rabbit can't make any more moves and look back at Emily and Diana.

Diana is frozen in shock, but Emily is beside me applying a tourniquet to my hand... wait why? Ohhhh. shit she is going to cut my hand off.

She takes the knife out of my pocket and begins to cut before the worms can reach any further.

I pull back in pain, this is the most excruciating experience I've ever been in.

The worms make it past the tourniquet, burying into my arm.

Emily taking full control of the situation screams at Diana.

"DIANA, I NEED YOU TO RIP OFF Z'S ARM, RIGHT NOW."

It was strange to see Emily giving orders and using Diana’s first name.

Diana jumps a bit, and quickly runs over to me, hair bright white.

"Okay! 1… 2..."

She quickly rips it off, breaking the bone as well, and then stomps on the arm killing all the worms.

"3!"

I fall backwards in pain, those worms would've kept feeding on me, I would've become an infinite feeding machine for infinite worms if Emily hadn't stepped in and helped.

“That was sooo fun, look at it!!!”

She pokes at my detached arm while laughing manically.

My arm begins to grow back, slowly this time, I wasn't sure if it would but luckily my healing surpasses even what I thought was possible.

Now wasn't the time to be on the ground in pain so I stood up and decided to find an escape route.

The most important part of this was telling someone what was going on here, 1400 people supposedly lived here, so that meant at-least 1400 hosts.

This whole place would need to be burnt to the ground.

This was a catastrophe on a scale not really seen before in this cave city, somehow nobody realized that a whole town went missing.

Most likely because this place is in the far outskirts and far away from any other town in the area.

now that my arm is fully healed I clap my hands together, "okay so this is a nightmare, our one goal should be to tell some higher authority what is going on here."

They both nod.

"Diana, you're strong right?"

"Uhhhh… not… not really?"

What.

"I'm stronger than an average person but in the world of blessed humans I'm one of the weakest, I can't kill any of these creatures."

She bows down in shame, her hair pitch black.

"Sorry."

I felt bad.

Great, I was hoping Diana could find a way out of here due to her overwhelming strength.

Turns out the easy option is a no go.

Second plan.

Only someone like me could pull this one off.

"I need a fire starter, or two sticks, anything"

I say calmly, my plan is one that is incredibly dangerous and stupid, for me at-least.

Emily stares at me angry, seemingly figuring out my plan.

She orders me.

"No. Don't."

End of Chapter 7.