Mary's visit - the new wolves

Deep into the forest, there was a small cave where a couple of weaker wolves resided taking refuge from the other monsters.

The cave was well hidden and all the wolves inside knew how to hide their trail so the stronger ones from other dens wouldn't find and bully them.

But at the moment the strong wolves were the last thing the weak wolves gathered inside had to worry about.

"Haa... Good thing we came here first. To think that the wolf king would send the scouts here..."

Cranberry breathed out in relief and wiped the blood off of her baseball bat.

"Those...! Those were just the scouts...?!"

Mary beside her bent in half gasping for air.

She wiped the blood off of her face with her shaking hand but only smudged it even more.

"Graough. (You know, Mary, you should really use your whip more instead of your teeth.)"

Zombie took out a handkerchief and started polishing his boots with great attention.

As for the rest, Arion was sitting on attention staring right at the hidden entrance to the cave, and Blueberry was curiously poking a carcass of a large gray wolf with her talon.

"Say, what level is your job?"

Cranberry turned to Mary and asked.

"Oh, um, f-four, level 4, I guess...?"

The brown-haired girl responded with a bit of a stutter, surprised by the question.

"Ha. So you can have up to four tamed monsters at the same time..."

Cranberry nodded to herself and squinted her eyes looking at the hidden entrance.

"Well, yes, but... I would really prefer to keep the spots open for what's to come... I-I mean you never know what kind of monster I could encounter in the future...!"

Mary flinched and quickly lowered her head so that no one would be able to notice how her eyes darted towards Zombie.

"Yes, yes. Of course, that's a correct decision."

Cranberry nodded without paying Mary much attention.

Instead, she turned towards Arion.

"You, mutt, do you poses a skill called leadership?"

She asked in a cold voice.

"Raor...? Raor!"

At first, the tamed wolf monster flinched and yelped but after a moment of hesitation, and only when Mary nodded towards him, he let out a decisive confirming bark.

"It's only level one though."

Mary quickly added.

"Ha! If we'll play it right it will level up quickly."

Cranberry smirked and pointed at the hidden entrance with her chin.

"The wolves in there may be the weakest of their respective packs, but they were smart enough to run away and even learned how to erase their trail. According to what Tomato Gluttony wrote in her book, the wolves like that have the highest chance to rank up and evolve into shadow fangs, the rarest subspecies of wolf monsters."

She explained.

"Garough? (Wait, Tomato?) Graough? (Tomato's a fruit?)"

Zombie growled confused and looked at Mary.

"Um, apparently..."

Mary shrugged her shoulders making an apologetic face.

"...Anyway..."

Cranberry frowned and glared at the two.

"Although her research is often doubted, she was a tamer that was confirmed to have a whole pack of shadow fangs at her command."

Cranberry continued talking after others stopped interrupting her.

"That's why I think the mutt should become the leader of the mutts hiding in there."

She declared.

"Or we should kill them all as soon as possible, I don't mind either way."

She added with a shrug.

"Become a leader...?"

Mary's eyes widened.

"Right. Wolf monsters are convenient like that, if you tamed the leader you get the whole pack."

Cranberry grinned and her eyes shone dangerously.

"And because those weaklings are smart, they should realize what's good for them and surrender in no time, willingly. It will work even if Arion's leadership level is low."

"But what about Arion's low... oh... um... I see."

Mary wanted to interrupt Cranberry's explanation, but Cranberry cleared the doubts before Mary could even voice them out loud.

There was really nothing to lose in this situation.

If the plan would work, Mary would get herself a whole pack of wolves.

If it failed, the wolves would become her experience points and a stepping stone towards earning a title.

"Mutt, prepare. Look imposing, it doesn't matter if they'll see through you later."

Cranberry smirked at Arion.

"Raor?!"

"Hey! What was that supposed to mean?!"

Both the tamer and her monster became agitated but it only earned them more mocking smirks.

"My Zombie will destroy the entrance, the rest is up to Arion. If the wolves inside will attack, just kill them."

Cranberry commanded and pointed at the cave.

"Go."

In the next moment, Zombie's whole body was shining with a powerful light.

When he kicked off the ground, even Mary felt the earth trembling.

*BOOOM*

Zombie's kick didn't just uncover the hidden entrance but straight up blew off half of the cave, sending a massive amount of debris everywhere around.

"Mutt! Go! Simple but powerful!"

"R-raor!"

Cranberry ordered and Arion jumped into action.

"...d-don't order around my monster..."

Mary pouted and looked to the side.

A lot of panicked yelps and pained whimpers came from the inside but every one of them when silent when Arion showed up on the biggest pile of rocks.

"Raor! Raor!"

He barked threateningly.

"What did he said?"

Cranberry glanced at Mary.

"Become my underlings or die."

Mary murmured still pouting.

"Too dramatic, but to the point."

The red-haired girl nodded benevolently.

"Ra-raou...?"

"Raor! Raor! Raor!"

"R-raou..."

After a short exchange of barks, it seemed that the wolves came to a mutual understanding and six small dark-gray wolves left the cave.

"It worked...! I can see their status and all!"

Mary's eyes widened and she gasped.

"D-does that mean that if I tame a wolf king...!"

She trembled from the excitement.

"You can try. If you want to be tamed by him, that is."

"...!"

Cranberry shrugged making Mary flinch.

"Any monster that has a title of a king and above is completely impossible to tame. The benefit of the title. They are natural enemies of tamers like you."

"..."

"The only exception for that would be if you had the title of the avatar of sin. It's not officially confirmed but there are some legends about someone from my family taming a monster with the title of a god a couple of hundreds of years ago."

Cranberry was talking while critically looking at the scared weak brown wolves that started trembling when she approached them.

"Lady Pride and the flame god...?"

For a moment Mary forgot all about her excitement and her eyes were glued to Cranberry.

"That's the story."

The red-haired girl nodded.

"Apparently that's the reason all Prides are immune to fire."

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Haa... Anyway."

Cranberry clapped her hands making everyone flinch.

"Mary, how their status looks?"

She asked.

"Oh! Umm... as you've said, they have some unusual skills for frenzy wolves, like dig, and hide presence, but aside from that their status points don't look good. They're level four to seven and they're really weak. Like REALLY weak. Good MP though."

Mary reported looking a bit disheartened.

"No titles?"

"Everyone has the outcast title."

Cranberry squinted her eyes at the wolves and then turned to her servant.

"Zombie, you will take those mutts and go hunt frenzy rabbits. Make sure they'll all survive."

"Graough! (As you wish!)"

The blue boy jumped down from the top of the pile of rocks that once was the cave and approached the trembling wolves.

"Graough. (You've heard my master, we're going hunting.)"

Even though Zombie looked like an eleven years old boy wearing a simple white shirt, short pants, and knee-high boots on high heels, the wolves instantly recognized the aura surrounding him and obediently started following his lead.

Even without looking at their new leader, Arion.

Although Arion himself didn't look as if he was bothered.

Even more, he was the first one to start walking behind Zombie!

And Blueberry joined them too!

"H-hey...!"

Mary protested weakly seeing her tamed beast walk away without her permission.

"Zombie, take only the new wolves."

It was Cranberry to stop the pilgrimage.

"Skwee?!"

"Raor!"

Blueberry and Arion protested loudly but they went silent with one glare from Cranberry.

"Make sure that they'll be stealthy while hunting. The title and level-ups are secondary objectives, they must upgrade their skills to stealth and gain the assassination skill so start training them in that direction."

She instructed him.

"Oh, and..."

Cranberry put out her hand expectantly.

"Graough. (Here you are.)"

Zombie smiled and untied his right hand, detached his forearm, and gave it to Cranberry.

"Have fun."

"Graough! (You too, master!)"

They said their farewells and Zombie left with the weak wolves.

"Cranberry... what would you need his hand for...?"

Mary couldn't help herself and ask with a little bit of suspicion mixed in her voice.

"If I use it instead of my bat, Zombie will still get a portion of the experience."

Cranberry waved Zombie's stiff arm.

"If he kills something I automatically get a share, but in his case, we have to do stuff like this."

She explained grabbing Zombie's detached hand quite intimately.