Encountering Barbarians

Leon's plan was to continue to hunt the rabbits when they went out in search of glowing crystals, but he would only take one at a time until his injury heals and his strength returns. He continued this plan for almost two weeks.

During that time, his shoulder had healed rapidly, which he attributed to his stronger and newer body. Although his body was probably like a piece of soggy cardboard compared to someone like Erik, it was nonetheless much better compared to people in the E-Tier.

As Leon walked down the now familiar tunnel towards the direction of the giant room full of rabbits, he did some test stretches with his right arm and found that his shoulder no longer experienced pain whenever he moved it. Although, it still felt slightly sore.

He smiled.

'I should be able to take on at least three to four rabbits now. No one in E-Tier should be my match either, after all my raw stats would put me at least somewhere in D-Tier.'

Promptly, a girl's voice started talking behind Leon.

"Big bro Leon! Teach me more!"

Turning around, Leon was met with a chubby-faced Aurora who was skipping along with him.

"Y'know you are already quite good. I don't think anyone your age could easily match your strength or practice with the dagger."

Lately, he had been teaching Aurora how to use a dagger by giving her half of Ensis as a dagger and instructing her on how to use it, after she found out about the rabbits. Although he didn't use daggers nearly as much as a sword nowadays with his previous experiences, it was still plenty enough to teach a greenhorn like Aurora.

Finally reaching the familiar grounds that he had been using to catch the lone rabbit, he waited for one of the rabbits to unluckily wander towards him, while searching for crystals. Meanwhile, Aurora had stationed herself quite far away for safety purposes.

Originally Leon didn't want to take Aurora with him, but after constant whining and begging; he caved in and allowed her to accompany him while he hunted rabbits since he had recovered a lot of his strength. However, they agreed that Aurora had to stay quite a bit away from where Leon fought.

They waited for about thirty minutes until a rabbit came slowly down the tunnel in the far distance. With Ensis already in dagger form, Leon clutched onto his daggers.

Right as the rabbit neared within dashing distance of Leon, it suddenly stopped and its ears pricked up and it suddenly started to hurriedly hop back towards the giant cave.

Once it disappeared far down the tunnel, Leon's eyebrows creased since the rabbit's actions were very abnormal and weird. For the two weeks he had been hunting the monsters, he learned that by themselves they were quite gullible and dumb.

This was the first time a rabbit had turned back suddenly. Leon looked in the distance where the rabbit had left.

'Did it sense me? No...the other rabbits haven't been able to and I was hidden well. What could it be?'

He was quite curious about why it had suddenly turned back. As he neared Aurora who had been trying to steal some glances at what was happening down the tunnel, the entire cave system suddenly trembled slightly and a rather loud shriek was heard in the distance.

Leon could only think back on that giant rabbit sitting atop a pile of glowing rocks to make such a noise. That combined with the previously weird action of the rabbits, he decided to check it out, but before he went he put his hands on the shoulders of Aurora and looked at her straight in the eyes.

"I'm just going to take a look at what that was, but I don't want you in danger."

Aurora looked a little apprehensive.

"Will you be gone for a long time? What if you get hurt?"

It had only been two weeks since the two of them had been spending time together. But through that time, they had gotten quite familiar and friendly with each other. Leon never had a little sister, but Aurora felt like a little sister to him.

Before Leon could say anything, Aurora ran up and hugged his thigh before she started looking sad.

"Don't go..."

Something that Leon had come to discover was that Aurora was afraid of being left alone or behind, which was also another reason why he had allowed her to come hunting with him.

Patting her head, Leon smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll be back in a couple of minutes. The room's only a minute or so down the tunnel and I'm only taking a look. So could you be a strong girl Rory and wait here for me?"

Aurora sniffled a little bit and crossed her arms a little bit.

"Fine, but come back right away!"

Smiling, Leon gave a salute and made his way over to the room. If he ran to the room, it would only take Leon a few seconds since his speed had become even greater after the body transformation, but he took it slow just in case any rabbits were nearby.

He finally made it back towards the giant cave and sat in the shadow as he poked his head out a tad bit to look around. But he instantly retracted his head and stood in the shadows not making a single noise.

Right after, a bunch of rabbits ran by the entrance of his tunnel and stopped at the tunnel that Leon had suspected of leading back towards the surface due to the fact it sloped upwards. But what really surprised Leon was the loud hopping of the giant rabbit as it followed its subordinates to face the tunnel.

Suddenly an explosion from the sloped tunnel shook the giant cave a little bit and the giant rabbit shrieked and the army of rabbits retreated slightly. Leon intently looked at what was coming from the tunnel. Sounds of rocks being crushed and pushed around came from the tunnel, then a group of five people stepped from the rather dark tunnel out into the illuminated giant cave.

The moment Leon saw the group, he almost gasped.

'Barbarians!'