"Ugh, fine! I guess you are my little pogchamp, come here."

Ah... Should I have known this line?

Doesn't matter! She looks ridiculously cute!

I jump at her, dropping her on the bed and holding her hands up above her head.

"KYA! What are you doing!?"

"Taking what's mine." I say while moving down and kissing her mouth.

Her lips are soft and moist. Her mouth is tiny and very wet. The feeling of having her tongue inside my mouth is completely different from Mihara's. She's got a more desperate feel to it, while also being more uncertain. I like her inexperience.

As our kiss heats up, her chest begins moving up and down; her hands letting go of any resistance against being held up by mine.

"Fuaah~" She exhales as I part our mouths for a second, still restraining her hands with my own.

"How do you think of that?"

"I-I... I can't even..."

Tears start forming in the corners of her eyes.

"I didn't think... You'd want me... With this body of mine..."

Oh... So that's what it's about...

"What are you even saying?" I say while opening up her kigurumi with my free hand. I stick it inside it, caressing her minute cleavage and down her slim waist.

"This body of yours is more than perfect, isn't it?"

"Do you really think so?" She asked, bashfully.

"Of course, I do, you are very cute. Your body is just one of your charms." I let go of her hands and hold her face. she leans against my hand as tears roll down her cheeks.

She reaches for my face with both hands, and almost sobbing, manages to squeeze out the words.

"Thank you... So much... I love you~!"

Before, once more, covering my mouth with her lips, kissing me. Tears roll down from her eyes as our kiss becomes more and more gentle and I hug her tightly.

"It must've been tough right?"

"Yeah..."

She hugs me back, laying her head on my shoulder while I lay atop her.

We remained hugging for a while... It felt like an eternity, of which I never wanted to move past.

--------------------------------

30 men marched towards somewhere they only heard off.

Ahead of the group, an unfaltering leader; Setting the pace of the whole company with his steady footsteps.

At the back, 20-odd men, dragging their feet along the ground. Their swords being used as canes to allow them to move forward.

In between them, the elite; as unfaltering as their leader, slashing their way through the dense vegetation.

'It's been more than 4 hours already... Are these fuckers slowing us down? No... doesn't look like it, the men are opening the path as fast as they can...'

The leader looked behind at his exhausted men, realizing he had underestimated the speed in which Gabe's group moved.

'How the fuck did those three get so far, so fast, while fighting beasts... It beats me...'

"We must be getting close! We'll rest as soon as we arrive!"

""YES, SIR!""

Different kinds of answers could be heard, but the content was still the same. Gahan was very confident his plans would work flawlessly.

*RUMBLE*

A loud tremor resounded throughout the forest. Birds flew in flocks from the trees in the distance...

The noise had come from very far away.

'Something's off...'

"FASTER! WE NEED TO GET THERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"

Gahan yelled to his group. Something was happening in this forest, and he would very much appreciate if their job was done before finding out whatever the fuck it might be.

With a single yell, the energy from even the most tired of his men was restored. Gahan was a fearless brute. Him being aware of something he didn't want to confront was enough to make all his men understand the urgency of the situation. There was no such thing as fight-or flight when it came to Gahan, all he knew was to fight. If even that man wanted to avoid something, their only hope was to flee as fast as possible from whatever it was.

----------------

*RUMBLE*

A violent but silent tremor awoke 3 men who were finally sleeping after days of pursuit. Sounds of birds taking flight in the distance and falling trees could be heard by the attentive ears of Kyle.

"Gabe, something's happening. The birds are fleeing."

"How far was it?"

"Not really sure, at most a couple miles deeper into the forest."

"From where we came?"

"No, somewhere else."

"Oi! What the heck are the two of you talking about? What the heck was that earthquake?"

"Wait a bit Joe, that’s what he's trying to figure out."

"What does that mean? Does it have something to do with the small wolf thing you said earlier?"

"A-."

"Wait, Gabe! He has a point. What if the cause of this is the same was the one for the lack of monsters and such?"

"I'm afraid you can be right... But just what the fuck would be able to cause something like this? We slept at least 3 hours... We should get moving to reach the group before things get more complicated..."

"Gabe... I understand your sense of duty but... I think we should go back to where the Logistics group is... I really don't wanna stay is this forest..."

"I too have a bad feeling Kyle, but we have a job to fulfill. We're going to meet Gahan."

"EY! EY! Fuck you two, I'm still tired as fuck, I'mma sleep at least another hour. I'll be dead half way there if something happens along the way."

"I feel bad agreeing with him but... I can't hear anything coming in our direction and everything seems to have calmed down already... We should rest a little more before going, Gabe... Who knows what might have been that...? We better be prepared for the worst..."

"I guess you two are right... We leave in an hour or so. You two can sleep, I'll get myself some food and keep watch."

"Thanks..."

Joe was the last one to speak as he and Kyle laid back on the ground, asleep.

"Tsc... I went this far just to get back to my adventurer days..." Gabe grumbled to himself, moving a little away from the group, as he took his sword from its scabbard and a grindstone from his pocket. A bitter aftertaste was present in his mouth as he sat down a few meters away from the two, and started to sharpen his sword... An old, seasoned Adventurer was returning to his former self.

------------------

"GRUBLAHHHH! GRABLSKA BLORD SJKATF KHRAAAAAA!"

A muscular king yelled at his subjects. Their failure just costed him weeks of hard work and dozens of workers. This forest had too few humans for them to afford the luxury of losing workers. Their race had far too few females, and they often died during birth.

He angrily scowled at the sight of the crater in front of him. Hundreds of square meters of the cave system he'd been painstakingly digging with all the available manpower collapsed in front of his very eyes... He had explained to the workers that the caves needed supports in order to not collapse... But the Goblins under him were just too stupid to understand even basic commands.

A dozen goblins ran towards the rubble, slowly taking away material to reveal once more the entrance to the artificial cave they had dug into the layers of dirt and gravel. The king knew it wasn't ideal. But the stone tools he taught the Goblins how to produce were not nearly hard enough to mine through solid rock. This had to do.

"Garbl Rhowslt Skryts" He grumbled... It'd take many days to even return to the point they were before this incident, let alone do any significant progress... He had evolved for almost a month now, yet he was only able to achieve minor feats...