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It was already evening when I'm back to the den. Looking at the pile of bloodied clothes and human corpses, or what seemed to be the remains of it, I could guess what happened.
"Humans came?" (MC)
"Un." (BF)
I knew it.
"Did you kill all of them?" (MC)
"One ran away." (BF)
"I see." (MC)
This was bad. Adventurer had found this place and many more would come. We needed to move away from here, ASAP. We just got here yesterday and we already had to move out. Those damn adventurers! A part of me wanted to stay and kill the adventurer that came, but while I could handle the low-level adventurer, if the high-level adventurer came it would be dangerous.
I and my pride were still weak, we needed to stay low and grew strong before we showed our might to the world. I quickly decided where to go, the goblin's cave.
"All of you, get ready! We'll leave in a moment!" (MC)
"Alpha, this one wounded." (???)
I felt anger in my heart when I saw the wounded wolf, he was a member of my pride and he was harmed. I went to my hole and took all my stuff in there. I walked back to the wounded wolf and looked at the arrow lodged in his shoulder. From what I saw on TV and the internet, I shouldn't pull out the head of the arrow since it could cause bleeding but thinking of the wolf robust body and the potion I had.
"It's gonna hurt, tough it out." (MC)
I quickly pulled out the arrow, blood gushed out of the wound. The wolf yelp loudly, I opened one of the potions and fed the wolf half of it, the other half I poured onto the wound. In a matter of minute, the wound closed.
The wolf stood up and said he could run albeit with a little pain. I nodded and ordered the wolves to move out. I looked at the bloodied clothes and wore one of the pants, other than the tears there was no problem with it. It fit comfortably. I kept the other clothes just in case.
"Anyone strong carried the cub with you, we need to cover a lot of ground." (MC)
I picked up two of the injured in each arm and the last one was on my shoulder like a bag of rice as I said that, the beautiful fox carried two cubs with her tails. Thankfully there were only five cubs that were still young, the other three were carried by the other wolves. While the three injured wolves could walk, they were too slow.
The den and the goblin's cave was not that far apart nor they were near, but I purposely took long and circling way to reach the cave. It may or may not help cover our tracks but it was better to try everything.
The trip was over six hours long, I hoped it help us a little. The wolves were truly tough, the old and pregnant could keep running for hours with small breaks in between. The combatant wolves could run longer without any breaks. The sky was completely dark, I conjured floating balls of fire to light the way. The dark cave looked like the mouth of a beast, intending to swallow us. Kind of funny the place seemed dangerous and used to now become a shelter. Surprisingly, the corpse of the goblins was less than I remember. I guess some monsters ate it. But there were still quite of it left and the smell was pretty bad, the wolves were having it the worst as they have a sharp nose.
I told the wolves to gather the corpse of the goblins to a big pile before burning it to ash. I thought of burying it but it was too much of a hassle to dig a hole big enough to contain all of the corpses. This way was easier and prevent diseases.
I told the non-fighter wolves to enter the room I first saw the women, it was a bit crowded but not a problem. I looked at the twenty-three fighter wolves, I wanted to divide them into groups according to their roles. The assault, guard, and scout group. I considered dividing them based on their stats but I thought of letting them choose on their own.
What led me to this was stats. I was curious about how the stats increased and what factor affecting it. Unlike me, others have their stats automatically improved on leveling up. Looking at the beautiful fox stats, despite it increased automatically, the stats matched what the beautiful fox needed although not one hundred percent.
That led me to two possibilities. One, it was decided from birth, specifically, according to the individual's potential. Two, it was affected by the individual's circumstance, like what they wanted to be and their environment.
Knowing this would let me manage my pride better. So, I would experiment with this first batch of wolves. I looked at the twenty-three wolves in front of me.
"Brothers and sisters, it's only been but a day since we met but I've thought of you as my family the moment I became your alpha.
Today, humans came to our home. They came bearing ill will. They were not the first and definitely not the last. Thanks to beautiful fox quick response, none were killed but one of our brothers were harmed by them. This time they only hurt our brother but what about next time? They will come here and kill our family for our skins. They will pull out our fangs and claws. Our young will be their pets. Then they will clad themselves with armor made with our skins and hold weapon made from our fangs and claws. And they will use those weapons and armor to hunt more of our family. Are we going to let them do that?" (MC)
The wolves were burning with rage from imagining what I said. They clenched their fangs hard and the sound of their growling was like that of war drums.
"NO!!!!"
They shouted in unison.
"Then we need to grow stronger. Brothers and sisters, I am strong and I will keep growing stronger. But to protect our family I'm alone is insufficient, the pride needs you all. So grow strong with me, brothers and sisters. Let us protect our family together!" (MC)
I raised my fist high and all the wolves howled, the sound reverberated through the cave.
"Alpha, we follow you!"
"Me protect family!"
I looked at the determined wolves and nodded. I signaled them to quiet down and the commotion calmed down.
"Then, as the first step to strengthen our pride, I want all of you to divide into three groups. Assault group, Defender group, and Scout group. I'm sure all of you wondering what is that, so I will explain. The Assault group is a group focused on offense. They will be the spearhead on every attack and their duty is to kill any of our enemies. They will follow me when we go conquering. I want all that enter this group is fearless and the fiercest of wolves. I need ten members for this group.
We will need information about our enemy and surrounding in the future and the Scout group is the one that will provide that info for us. They will always be on the move, stealthily following our enemy, and gathering information for us. The Scout group will be our eyes and ears, the information they gather will help us tremendously. For this group I want smart and fast wolves, as for how they need to act and gather info, I will teach you. I want three wolves in this group for now.
Last but the most important group of all, Defender group. They are the armor and castle for our family. They one and only duty is to keep our family safe. Every assailant aiming for our family will be their enemies and prey. They will be the shield so that no harm will ever reach the one behind them. Be warned, any wolf that enters this group will take the brunt of attack the most. I want only the toughest wolves to enter this group, ten of them.
Now you know what the groups are and what's their duty. I want you all to decide which group you want to enter. Make sure to enter the group matches with you." (MC)
"Ooooh!" (Wolves)
The wolves began to talk with each other, I watched with the beautiful fox beside me as they choose which group to enter. Some even fought for the position but it was just a spar, no one was hurt.
After a while, the groups were filled and decided. The wolves divided into three groups. The wolves in the Assault group were lean and ferocious. Unbridled wildness we're evident in their eyes.
The Defender group was filled with big muscular wolves. Most of them had scars on their bodies, they stood firm like a wall. The Scout group had the least members but I could see the wisdom in their gaze. The way they lined orderly sets them apart from the other groups. I nodded as I looked at the three groups in front of me.
"Now that you guys are in groups, time to do your duty. Defender, form two teams of five, shift between the teams, and guard the entrance. Scout, help me gather all these corpses outside for now. I'll tell you what your scout duty later. Assault, form two teams, half go gather the corpses with scouts and half go with the beautiful fox. We'll explore this cave, search every corner for any threat or items. We'll clean the place at the same time, Move out!" (MC)
With a howl, the wolves moved. I looked at the beautiful fox.
"I'll go to the throne room and search for intruder, you take the wolves and search the room. I want to know every item in this cave, can you do that for me?" (MC)
"Leave it to me, husband." (BF)
The beautiful fox nodded. Smiling, I rubbed her cheek. She took off with five wolves, I also went my way. I heightened my senses so I didn't miss anything. Although we left the cave alone just for a day, there was a possibility that goblin or some monster to came inside. If there was, we had to kill it. Can't have a stranger living in our home.
The wolves began dragging corpses outside, looking at all the corpses, it might take a while to clean all of it. I searched every room I came across and took out any corpses from it if there was any. I didn't find any goblins but I did find forest rats and other scavenger monsters, I finished them off quickly and dumped the body on the hallway.
I reached the throne room and went in. I light up the torches inside the room. The hall was unchanged and the six goblins corpses were still there but their armor and weapons were missing. I found dried blood that seemed to be goblin's footprint on the ground. Based on the footprint, it wasn't a lone goblin but a group of it.
Now that I thought about it, there should be some goblins running away here back then. But I didn't seem to recall seeing them in the hall except for those six leader goblins. Were they hiding?
I checked the room slowly and I found a door behind the throne. I opened it slowly and shed some light to the room, it was a long hall. Unlike the wide cave hallway, it was a small route. I guessed they were digging for an escape route.
The goblins that were running away hide here and waited for me to went away before they came out. They also took the weapons and armor with them. They probably went back to their headquarter. I should expect the goblins came attacking to take back this cave.
Fuck, not only adventurers, I needed to watch out for goblins too. Should we abandon this place? No, if we leave this place, I didn't know where to go. And considering how there's only one entry, even if they attacked us this place would let us defend easily. Though it was equally dangerous as the entrance was also the only exit.
I would think about it later, now that I confirmed there were no one in this cave beside us, I should go back. I looked at the corpse and made a sled with [Crystallokinesis], I dumped the six corpses onto the sled and dragged it out.
As I walked toward the entrance, I tossed any corpses I saw onto the sled. When I reached the entrance, the corpses already piling up like a small mountain. I dumped all of it onto an already piling up mountain of corpses outside the cave. Looking at it, it made me wonder. Did I really kill this many?
After admiring it a little, I burned the mountain of corpses to ash. Withstanding the foul smell, I tried burning it as quickly as possible. Although I doubt the adventurer would come this fast, a fire this big was quite eye-catching. The last thing I wanna do right now was standing out.
There were still many residues after burning the corpses, so I was forced to dig holes to bury it. With the wolves help, I managed to do it quickly. The wolves were an excellent digger.
Afterward, I listened to beautiful fox about what she found. Except for iron cages, bits of monster part, clothes, low-quality armor, and weapons, there was nothing valuable in this cave. But that was okay, I never expected there was something good. After all, this was a mere goblin's cave and I didn't see anything valuable the first time I was here anyway. I just wanted to make sure.
I began arranging the rooms, the non-combatant wolves which include the cubs, pregnant females, old and wounded were allocated to the biggest room, the round hall room on the end of the cave. The Defender, Assault, and Scout group's rooms were the first three rooms from the entrance. The order from first to last, Defender group, Assault, and Scout group.
Of course, I and the beautiful fox stayed together. Our room was next from the Scouts. Today was a long day, the beautiful fox curled up beside me as she quickly fell asleep. I wanted to sleep but I couldn't. Despite it was only been a day since I formed my pride, we already confronted with troubles with the adventurers and goblins. I couldn't help but think that there's an invisible hand pushing these circumstances toward me, forcing me to grow strong quickly.
I thought and thought but never reached an answer. It may be only me thinking things too deeply, I stopped thinking and slowly drifted to sleep. Unaware of the things happening far from me.
@@@
May stood outside a bar while wavering whether to enter or not, it was night and the street was completely desolate. She reminded of her dead comrades and the one she liked. The figure of that hateful fox flashed in her mind.
May clenched her teeth and her nails were digging into her palm, blood dripped out of her gripped hand but she didn't feel it. She was consumed by hatred. She entered the bar with vengeance filling her mind.
@@@
In a humongous hall inside a cave, a giant black goblin sitting on the throne. Goblins of all sizes and ranks sitting around him like a loyal subordinate. In front of him was a few rank 2 high goblins trembling while handing out weapon and armor of the six leader goblins.
They retold what happened and the giant black goblin mouth curled into a smile. Without warning, his cleaver slashed out and the heads of the goblins in front of him went flying.
"Interesting."