Chapter 24 – Re-encounter (part 2)

We arrived at a cave and saw several ombra dogs standing guard around there. They noticed us approaching and immediately looked wary.

“ Woof! “

The ombra dog that was with us immediately walked ahead of us and saw that the other ombra dogs looked calmer, one of them approached the ombra dog accompanying us.

They seemed to communicate with each other and after that I seemed to be able to hear what the ombra dog who approached us was saying.

' What are we asking this weakling for?'

Seemingly wanting to intimidate me, the ombra dog said this to me. It was only natural that he would think of me like that considering what happened during our first meeting.

' In the past we only carried out orders, this time it's different! '

The ombra dog that was with us sternly reprimanded the pack, however, the ombra dog that was opposed to my presence still didn't budge and seemed to continue to antagonize and try to intimidate me.

' I'm already stronger, let me take care of our pack without this human's help!'

The body of the ombra dog that seemed to dislike me was instantly enlarged with a more oppressive aura than before.

Its size became twice as big as before, on the one hand people who saw it would obviously be intimidated, but on the other hand I was actually interested in what I saw.

"Can all ombra dogs be like this?"

My words were immediately greeted with a scratch that led directly to me, I avoided it but he responded again by trying to bite me.

"Haa... ", I sighed seeing what the ombra dog in front of me was doing.

The ombra dog jumped back and away from me after I let out an intimidating aura.

"Back then, I had just arrived in this world, so I preferred to avoid anything troublesome. But this time, it seems like I have to give you a scolding. ", still pressing my surroundings with intimidation, I stepped closer to the ombra dog. "I came here because I was asked for help, but you want to attack me instead?".

But what happened next surprised me. A small puppy lay down in front of me and showed me its belly.

' Forgive us, this stupid kid just got a skill that allows him to change his size. That's why he's become so big-headed. '

I've read that if animals show their bellies it can mean they surrender or trust the human in front of them.

"Stand up!", the dog immediately stood up and faced me. "Sit! Stand up! Sit! Hands!"

The ombra dog followed my command exactly, but the ombra dog who came with me slapped his hand on the little ombra dog's head.

'Stupid kid! You should be more careful with your actions. '

"Hmm? Wait a minute... Why is your conversation becoming clearer to me?"

Somehow I felt a very familiar feeling when I realized that. I took the courage to check it out and, "Ugh!!!"

And it happened again, some of the ombra dogs including the one who could change its size now became my Familiar, even the one-eyed ombra dog who accompanied us also became my Familiar.

"Why did you all become my Familiars?!!! "

They were surprised by what I said, they looked at each other and the response I got was..

'You're strong!'

' benefactor. '

' I've given up on you, naturally right? '

' I don't know why, but when you use intimidation like that, even I can't move. '

In other words, what they feel is also not a good explanation for this tamer skill. I also realized that even within the same species, their intelligence levels looked different.

Other than the two ombra dogs, the others showed almost the same response as my other Familiars, only the two of them could communicate quite well.

After that they led me to the cave where their pack was, while I asked my other Familiars to keep an eye on the area around this place.

There were about thirty-two ombra dogs both big and young, the one-eyed ombra dog was the leader of the pack, while the size-changing ombra dog was his younger brother.

To make things easier, I ended up naming the two ombra dogs since there were quite a few of them. For the ombra dog that could change size, I named it Pochi after a popular dog in my old world.

As for the boss of the ombra dogs, I had wanted to name him kuro, kuromaru, hachi, kiba, blacky and yes my naming sense looks really bad...

"Nacht... From today on I'll call you Nacht. "

When I said that, Pochi seemed to want to protest why his name sounded so much less cool than his brother's, and I said it was punishment for him for wanting to attack me and he could only regret his actions.

Hearing that, the other ombra dogs also seemed to want to be named by me, and at the same time it looked like my other Familiars knew this from telepathy and they also wanted to be named by me.

"Sorry... I'll think about your request later. For now... "

I told Nacht to bring his pack to the Secret base. I told them to use the place freely as long as they got along with everyone who had lived there before them.

I also decided to report this hyena problem to the guild tomorrow, and Pochi was still in his little form looking at me with his puppy dog eyes.

I brought him home as a representative of the ombra dogs, Nacht agreed and told Pochi to serve me well.

Arriving at the village I reported this to Ricardo and Yui who had helped me, Pochi became the center of people's attention because his form was quite adorable.

Only Silvet commented differently, "considering it's Hyuga's Familiar, there must be something fishy about that dog. "

On the one hand, I was a little annoyed by his comment, but on the other hand, his hunch this time was quite right considering Pochi's size that could enlarge and intimidate people who saw it.

The next day I went to Rockaxe City and reported this to the Guildmaster, I also handed over 22 hyena wickets to be sold to the guild along with some other beast materials hunted by me and the Familiars.

The guild told me to come back in two days to get paid for my hunts since there were quite a lot of them and I needed time to take care of the report on the wicked hyenas that I reported just now.

Taking advantage of the time lag I had, I took Pochi and some of my other Familiars to check the origin of the hyenas that had suddenly appeared in this forest. The first location I wanted to visit was the third dungeon which was currently under the guard of knights and adventurers.

I spread my Familiars out far enough and as I was on my way towards the direction of the dungeon, I sensed some presence not far from where I was and tried to keep an eye on what was ahead of me. 

What I saw was a group of adventurers fighting with some hyenas.

'If I'm not mistaken they're a rank C party, Lightning. '

Their party leader was a magic swordman who channeled the element of lightning into his sword, he cut down one of the hyenas while the rest of the party dealt with the other two.

According to what I saw in the previous dungeon, their skills and cooperation were quite good and in no time they managed to finish the battle.

Their party leader suddenly disappeared from my sight and when I looked for him he was running quickly towards me, I who was hiding watching them, I quickly came out from behind the trees and raised my hand.

"It's me!"

Eru flinched when he saw me and sheathed his sword, "Hyuga?! What are you doing here? "

"I'm here following that... ", while pointing at the hyena lying on the ground.

"Ah! I heard about it, they appeared near your village. I was wondering how they came to be in this area, they should be in the north. "

"Do you know what kind of beast this is?"

"We have encountered them while in the northern areas on escort missions. They are usually at the foot of the mountains near the border in the north. "

"By any chance, are they from the dungeon?"

"We've been to the second floor, but haven't encountered that type yet. "

According to Eru's story, the adventurer's guild and the soldiers standing guard around the dungeon periodically hunt the beasts around the dungeon and occasionally enter the dungeon to reduce their numbers. This time, it was Lightning's party who had their turn to be on duty around here, so they took me to the guard post.

"Hyuga, I heard that you're in C rank now? Congratulations on your promotion. "

"You know, I got promoted because of circumstances. It feels like I'm completely overwhelmed by what's been going on. "

"Hahaha... I understand what you mean. Those of us who participated in the conquest quest before felt that it was only natural for you to rise in rank, especially after you received the troublesome task of taking care of the undead. "

"Really, that one is so troublesome... ", I wrapped my arms around Eru and tightened my grip around his neck. "I'd be very happy if you guys came along with us the other day!"

"Ack! I give up! We were ordered by the guild to escort the merchants before you left...", Eru patted my hand, motioning for me to let go.

"Haaaa! It turns out you guys are too. That old man really..."

Upon our arrival at the guard post, Walter and Bent approached me and directed me to the meeting tent. Irvin, one of Murdock's aides who had accompanied him the first time we met in the guild meeting room, stood up and greeted me.

"Welcome Hyuga. We've just received a report regarding an incident near Camellia village. "

"So, how have things been around here for the past two days? "

As Irvin explained to me, there was nothing unusual in this section until recently when the Lighting party encountered three wicked hyenas. After receiving orders not to enter the central part of the forest, the existing personnel were mostly on standby at this place and some were added to the squad guarding the village of Magnolia. While I was here, I offered weapon maintenance to all those on duty there.

After I finished, I left and walked towards the direction of Camellia village through the path that people usually use, however, when I was in a quiet area and no longer felt the presence of humans around, I re-entered the forest.