Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Since he still wanted to perform a few tests with Fenrir, Eva ended up sticking to Vahn's back while he wasn't wearing a shirt and draining his blood while he conversed with Fenrir. Since she seemed interested in it, Vahn had to explain that Eva was allowed to suck his blood because she was a vampire. Other than that, Vahn discovered that Fenrir liked any food as long as it was 'hard' to chew. Other than bland things, she didn't seem to have a preference for anything else. Vahn had given her everything from metal ingots to pastries and she ate them all the same. If anything, her favorite 'foods' were adamantine and [Enkidu].

As time was approaching for them to exit the orb, Vahn stroked Fenrir's hair while she was nibbling on [Enkidu] intently. He asked in a soft tone, "Do you want to leave this place with me?" Since he was afraid she would resist returning to the magic core, Vahn wanted to get her to agree to leave before he brought it up. Hearing his words, Fenrir looked into his eyes with the spearhead of [Enkidu] in her mouth and remained silent for several seconds before nodding her head.

Vahn rubbed the edges of her ears with his thumbs and said, "That's good, but you'll have to return to your core if you want to be able to leave." His words made her frown deeply and Vahn could see a glow begin to rise from the interior of her scarlet eyes. Vahn whispered in a gentle, coaxing, tone, "It won't be for long, and I'll take you to a place where you can play and eat as much as you want." In response to his words, Fenrir thumped her tail once before trying to bite through [Enkidu] with maximum effort before finally letting it go. After she dropped it to the ground, she said, "Fenrir play, eat food, go now."

After praising her a bit, Vahn returned [Fenrir] to her core which had turned the same midnight blue as her hair. There was a gentle azure light glowing in the core intermixed with a bit of scarlet. When she turned back into a magic core, the tunic and panties he had purchased for her fell onto the ground. Vahn picked them up and noticed they were still a bit warm as he threw them into his inventory. Once she was away, Vahn tended to Eva for the remaining duration of time within the orb before returning to the real world.

Hestia was still using his body as a bed and Vahn stroked her hair a bit before rolling her off his body. Before she was able to cling to him again, Vahn dodged to the side before crawling out of bed. Seemingly dissatisfied, Hestia had a frown on her face as her brows furrowed but she didn't wake up. She fumbled around with her arms as if she was looking for something and Vahn felt a little guilty for a moment before shaking his head and whispering, "I'll be back soon, Hestia..."

Before he left, Vahn left a note on the table, door, wall, and the edge of the bed, just in case Hestia panicked when she woke up. Since he was worried she would overreact if she couldn't find him, Vahn left a proper explanation since he didn't want her to cause a scene and involve everyone else in the matter. On the table next to the bed, he even left a fresh breakfast for her and covered it with a silver top to preserve the heat.

After leaving the Manor, Vahn hung up their emblem and firmly fixed it into the hard surface of the gate. Since he had a lot of knowledge in regards to formations and knew the key to the current security of the manor, it wasn't a difficult matter for him to include the emblem into the network. Even if someone did manage to try and steal it, it had the [Durandal] attribute as well as buckler purchased from the system as the base. The moment anyone tried to touch it, it would break free from their grasp and potentially injure them if they kept trying.

Satisfied, Vahn transformed into his Báihǔ form before making his way toward Babel Tower. Fortunately, their Manor was actually very close to the City center, so Vahn was able to make the trip in only seven minutes. Stepping into the first floor of Babel, Vahn had a small smile on his face because it felt like it had been a long time since he entered the dungeon last. After registering in the logbook, Vahn went into the dungeon and made his way down to the fifth floor before deciding it was far enough.

Now that his domain reached 317m, Vahn could actually sense the majority of monsters and adventurers around, even those directly above and below him on different floors. Since the average distance between floors on the first through the eighteenth floor was only around 100m, Vahn could easily map three floors at the same time, even though he couldn't detect things as easily through the walls of the dungeon as he could on the surface. Since there weren't any presences nearby, Vahn pulled out Fenrir's orb and inserted his energy into it so he could summon her. Surprisingly, it actually didn't take much to summon her, perhaps because of her small size compared to the colossal Fafnir.

Since he had already been prepared, Vahn immediately passed the tunic and panties to Fenrir who reluctantly put them on with the help of Vahn. She tried to do it herself but kept cutting through the band of the panties with her claws until she had gone through four separate pairs. Vahn eventually gave up and helped her wear them properly before pulling the tunic over her head. He also wanted to give her pants, shoes, and gloves, but her hands and feet didn't facilitate their use. Vahn would have to forge her some equipment in the future or it might cause problems if anyone saw a humanoid 'monster'. Though he could pass his own transformation off as magic, it would be much harder for Fenrir since she wasn't very personable or patient.

Once she was fully clothed, Vahn stroked her head for a bit and said, "You did well to be patient Fenrir, here is something to snack on." In his hand, Vahn had a small bag full of magisteel ingots that she would be able to 'snack' on while he explained their purpose. Fenrir was annoyed after being forced to wear clothes, but she eased up a bit when Vahn handed her a 'treat'. She immediately began munching on one of the ingots slowly while waiting for Vahn to speak.

Fortunately, the link between them helped Fenrir understand his intentions, so Vahn didn't have to explain much other than laying out a few inviolable rules which were: Do not attack anything that looks like a human without his permission unless they attack her first. She can eat anything she hunts, but she cannot take food and items for other people unless she asks Vahn first. She had to listen to anyone Vahn told her to listen to unless it made her uncomfortable. If she was every frustrated or 'hungry', she should always look for him and he would do his best to appease her.

Though he knew she couldn't understand the words, Vahn had also conveyed his intentions through his thoughts and knew she would 'instinctively' follow his orders even if she didn't understand them. The downside to that would be a loss in Loyalty, but Vahn really didn't want to come across a situation where Fenrir was attacking or even eating, another person out of her anger and insatiable hunger. His explanation finished, Fenrir nodded her head before Vahn led the way deeper into the 5th floor.

After a few minutes, they cam across one of the 'rooms' of the 5th floor and Vahn found exactly what he had wanted to find. Within the room, there was a group of seven Killer Ants and that would be a benefit for their current predicament. Fenrir had noticed them as well and Vahn saw her hairs begin to stand on end as she dropped the bag of ingots onto the ground. Without him saying anything, Fenrir got down on all fours and haunched her back a bit before dashing forward in one of the most awkward displays he had ever seen.

Because she had only ever fought as a kobold, Fenrir was using the same style of combat and trying to 'increase her speed' by running on all fours. Unfortunately, because of the changes in her body, she wasn't built in the same way and was much slower on all fours than if she had run at them. The only thing she managed to accomplish was flashing her panties which made Vahn purchased a belt from the system so her tunic wouldn't constantly ride up her body in the future.

Even though she was somewhat awkward, Fenrir was still much stronger and faster than the Killer ants and easily cut through them with her claws. One of the unique things about Killer Ants was their tenacity and ability to survive even if their head had been separated from their body. This would allow Fenrir to eat her fill before she eventually devoured the magic cores as well. Not long after she began chomping away on one of the hard carapaces on the ground, Fenrir's ears began to twitch as she stood back on all fours and waited for the arrival of the Killer Ant horde that had been summoned by the seven she killed earlier.

Since it hadn't been that much time, there was only around twenty as part of the first wave and Fenrir immediately threw herself toward them before Vahn stepped in with Shundo and pulled her away before their pincers could swarm her. He could see that her eyes were glowing subtly and she had several cuts and abrasions on her body even though only a few seconds had passed. Because she hadn't expected to be grabbed, Fenrir tried to dig her claws into Vahn's arms before pausing just as they were about to penetrate his skin.

Landing further away, Vahn set Fenrir down before saying in a firm tone, "Stay." She looked up at him with a frustrated expression like she wanted to continue fighting but immediately became silent when Vahn increased the pressure of his domain. Compared to the past, when he could only pressure individual targets, Vahn could easily overwhelm the group of Level 1 Killer Ants and their frail minds. He could even feel the dungeon itself vibrating slightly before he heard several notifications sounding in his head that caused him to look back at Fenrir.

Perhaps remembering the past, Fenrir kneeled down onto the ground and placed her paws to the floor as she lowered her head toward Vahn. Vahn could hear the system telling him that her loyalty was steadily increasing and Vahn didn't know if he should be happy or sad that her 'fear' of him made her more loyal. Without losing his firm tone, Vahn spoke somewhat gently, "Fenrir, you are my companion from now on. You don't have to bow to me to show your loyalty."

Hearing his words, Fenrir's ears twitched as she looked up at him with dim red eyes before standing back on her feet. Vahn, while still using his domain to pressure the ants, stroked her hair a bit and explained, "Try fighting how I tell you for a bit...I will teach you everything you need to know and help you become stronger." Fenrir nodded her head as Vahn turned back to the Killer Ants and said, "You have a skill called [Lunar Cry], try activating it."

Fenrir hunched her body a bit and Vahn thought she was about to get on all fours again before she arched her head back and howled toward the ceiling. With his enhanced vision, Vahn could see the ripples in the void as a brilliant white moon appeared on Fenrir's forehead. Her eyes also took on a silvery color as she waited for Vahn's next command. Nodding his head, Vahn said, "You have two other active skills for combat. The first one is called [Freezing Roar] and can stun your enemies, while the other one is called [Huntress]. You should try to use them as often as possible and try to evolve your fighting style around them."

In response to his words, Fenrir's hair seemed to become sharper as her claws and teeth immediately transformed into a more lethal form. Vahn could see her scarlet eyes darting about as her ears twitched and her nose scrunched up a bit. He could determine this was her [Huntress] mode and marveled at the 'bloody' aura coming from her body as her senses were enhanced. The last thing she did was drop back onto all four before glaring at the Killer Ants and releasing a low roar that made even Vahn feel uncomfortable.

The last thing Vahn heard before a massacre began in front of him was the, "Gggrrraaaahhhh~!" of Fenrir before she leaped into the horde of Killer Ants and began to shred them apart with her deadly claws. [Huntress] seemed to influence her instincts along with the development of her senses and her attacks became progressively smoother over time while still having an animalistic quality to them. Vahn felt a little guilty because he thought the sight of her cutting through a mob of enemies was somewhat inspiring. The moonlight emblem on her head turned dark red over time and the scarlet light in her eyes constantly increased in intensity.

Nearly two hours later, Fenrir had killed more than three hundred Killer Ants before the ceased spawning and trying to reinforce. She now sat amongst several corpses because most of her attacks hadn't destroyed the magic cores. Even though she was covered in blood, and snacking away on a pile of cores she had bundled together with her tunic, Vahn still approached and praised her plentily for her efforts. He had noticed that, even though her eyes glowed during the fight, Fenrir didn't seem to become frustrated and actually looked to be enjoying herself. By the time everything was dead, the glow in her eyes had faded and she was now happily snacking on magic cores as she squinted her eyes and enjoyed his caress. For a brief moment, Vahn felt like it wouldn't be that difficult to raise her after all...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Sneaky sneaky dungeon desu~','Goddess of the Hunt','Happily Bathing in Blood')

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