Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 129: Beast Den

Vivi couldn't believe what she saw, in fact, it didn't make any sense. There was a hole towards the bottom of the well on the wall that could actually be called a cave, only a few inches above the water line. There was a dense white fog that covered the opening to the cave which restricted her vision. But from what she could see, there seemed to be several low level demon beasts crawling around just in side. The reason for her shock was that up until now, these demon beasts had been loner type creatures. Even in the event where she and Laz had come upon two of them at the same time, it was usually because they were fighting. But now it seems like things are changing.

She had to get back and get Laz. If this gathering of beasts were to grow and eventually leave the cave, they would cause havoc if they made it into populated areas. And as she and Laz had agreed, although they weren't trying to save the world, when they came across these things, they wouldn't ignore it either. This was Laz's resolve after everything that had happened in New York.

Running back quickly, she entered her "moe" mode as she crossed into the trailer park. Rushing into the camper, she saw Laz had fallen back asleep. Jumping up on the bed, she started yanking the blankets down to get his attention and wake him up, but Laz wasn't having it.

*Hey, wake up.*

*HUMAN, THIS IS IMPORTANT.*

*HUMAN, IF YOU DON'T GET UP, I'M GOING TO GET ANGRY*

*HHHUUUUUUMMMMMMAAAAAAAANNNNNNN*

Bite

"IIIIIEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHAHHHHHHH, DAMMIT VIVI," Laz yelled as she started rubbing his now throbing butt.

*I warned you. Now get up, I need to show you this.* Vivi started dragging Laz, afraid he was going to lay back down.

"Alright. Alright. I'm going..." Laz reluctantly stood up and began to dress. He quickly followed Vivi back to the old well and took a look inside. As his eyes shown a blood red color, he could see the signature motes of energy moving around just behind the fog curtain. Although he couldn't see as deep as Vivi, the difference wasn't by much. He finally understood why she would have the reaction she had.

"This... what is this?" Laz also tried using his spiritual sense, but it wasn't even able to penetrate the outer edge of the mist barrier. He could only look at his little treasure trove of knowledge and hope she could explain. He had found it to be very weird, the things that she just seemed to know. In fact, at first, he couldn't help but question it and her almost all the time. The only answer she could give was that it was like the knowledge was imprinted within her. But that knowledge was like reading a description in a book without a picture; she might be able to explain something, but that didn't mean she understood it. There were times she didn't even know is she was talking about the right thing. But after the time they had spent together, he was now a firm and trusted believer in her. Even if she made a mistake, it was still better than him working with nothing.

*It's... a collection of beasts, like a family... or a nest?* Vivi said, trying to voice it out.

"Since it's a cave, I would say it's a den. But why is it here? And what was that energy wave we felt?" Despite being shocked awake, Laz's brain wasn't working at one hundred percent just yet.

*I don't know. From what I can see, it looks like the cave wall was part of the well and collapsed into the well, freeing the things inside. The burst of energy we felt was probably from the mist blowing out. What do you want to do?* Vivi knew that Laz didn't want to be a hero, but he also didn't want to let normal people suffer. He couldn't stop all the strange things going on, but he wasn't going to ignore what was happening in his back yard either.

But this would be far more dangerous than anything they had faced before. Before, it had just been Vivi leading them to hunt demon beasts in whatever area they were in, fighting and killing them. Then Vivi would get the small core inside it while Laz could grasp the energy that escape. And they would always take away a portion of the meat on the ones that could be eaten as food. Vivi said it was good for their bodies as these types of beasts have natural energy that wouldn't pollute their bodies like regular food. This time though, they would be walking into an area with an unknown amount of beasts in a strange environment. The amount of danger they face would be many times greater than ever before.

"What are our choices?" Laz asked.

*Fight or ignore it.* Vivi responded back, rather bluntly. There was another option, which would be safer to everyone, but very dangerous to the two of them. They could report it to the government. There had been lines that had opened up in the past few years that people could call to report strange things they found. Although many times they ended up getting nut-jobs and crazies, there had been real incidents reported. Since it was a government line, they would also make sure to track all calls and as such, it was like shinning a spot light on yourself to use it. If you had nothing to hide, you were fine. If you did, you were in trouble. They couldn't take that route.

Although it was dangerous, Laz couldn't help but feel a bit excited. Actually, he knew that Vivi felt the same. They had been growing at a rate that was above most of what they encountered, so the danger outside the first few fights had grown slim. They couldn't grow like this, according to the wise Vivi. So seeing this strange, dangerous and yet slightly exciting challenge in front of them, they both knew they would give it a try.

But they had to prepare first.

You couldn't just go jumping into a cave with nothing but the clothes on your back and expect that everything would be ok. As Vivi liked to say, preparation is life. So they both went back to the camper and hopping on their somewhat old but perfectly good aptops, they did what anyone would do to look for information in the modern age, they googled it..

"Hey, so we need flashlights, rope, possibly some climbing spikes..."

*No need. My claws are super sharp. You just need to hang on.* Vivi said while quickly clicking the mouse as she browsed, her little paw moving quickly.

*Don't we need a bird or something? Like in a cage?* Vivi asked while reading.

"Isn't that for mines?" Laz asked, not really knowing the answer.

*This isn't a mine?* Vivi asked while looking over at Laz, a questioning look on her face.

"Good question.... Wait... oxygen sensor, even better. Hmm, small air tanks just in case." Laz said while ordering a few things.

*How long will it take?* Vivi asked once they finished their search.

"Couple of days, everything is in stock." Laz replied and closed the aptop.

"But we do have another problem." Laz said while frowning.

*Hmm?*

"Money is running out, just food and rent alone will wipe us out in about two months." Laz had saved a bit from working with Kennedy and there had been a tucked away in the camper that had been left by Bill. It had lasted for a while, but travelling and living wasn't cheap.

*Oh...* Vivi's tail dropped. She knew that she had spent money on things she didn't need, like some clothes and organic shampoos, but Laz had never said anything. He always just joked that she was a high maintenance girl. He had warned her in the past several times that it would be really bad if they ran out of money one day, but he never told her no either. So hearing him say this after ordering the things they needed for the cave meant that they were really going to be broke soon. She couldn't help but feel like she caused it. After all, Laz never really bought things for himself. His clothes were always discount specials and even the stuff they had was mostly collected junk that other people got rid of despite being usable.

"Hey. None of that now." Knowing what she was thinking, Laz sat next to her and started to brush her silky black fur.

"It was bound to happen, I just need to find a way to make more," Laz said as a matter of fact.

*But how? It's not like you can just go get a job...* Vivi responded while laying down on his legs to get into a better position for the brushing. He had explained the hardships of this problem to her before.

"There is a way, I just didn't want to go back to that. But hey, beggars can't be choosers." Laz said to reassure her. She knew what he meant. Although it was somewhat dangerous, it also paid pretty well.

*Sigh. But you never used it before. You don't even know if it's possible down here,* Vivi said, voicing the concerns that he had originally expressed.

"Won't know unless we try." Laz knew it was a long shot, but he didn't think he was told wrong. After all, this information was given to him from Kennedy's cousin Tony. They were talking about dealing. It wasn't like it was a real job and most people would hate those types of people. But Laz's view on it had changed since he started traveling. If you knew where to look, those types of people were everywhere. And it wasn't like they forced others to buy from them either. Customers came looking for them, they just had to have the channels to get it. Not selling didn't mean that people would stop using, it just meant they would find other sources. The dark side of the world wouldn't disappear just because the world frowned on it. Everything had it's place after all.

Although Laz didn't want to be that type of person, survival wasn't something you judged with a moral code. That just meant you had never been there before.

*Alright.* Vivi agreed. She would always go with what Laz decided since he always had their best interests at heart.

"Anyway, we will worry about that after the cave dive. Deal?" Laz said as he put his hand out, palm up. As always, Vivi put her paw on his palm and responded back,

*Deal.*

After that, they both turned in to sleep. Despite the danger of the cave, they weren't dumb enough to risk themselves in their haste, so it would have to wait.

For the next two weeks, Laz continued on like normal, exercising, cultivating and hunting. Every afternoon, just after school normally ended, Leona, Dee and Reggie would show up. Everyone would go up the mountain and practice. Besides regular body training, Reggie would work on using his Rune skill while learning what he could do with them. Based on Vivi's suggestion, he started with only two, one for each available rune stone. He would then spend time on using them by themselves, and using them together. Each rune could only effect one person at one time. That meant that in a group of four, he could boost two people at once. Vivi had mentioned that when he became skilled enough, he could layer runes on someone. This would allow one person to have two runes.

Reggie was excited when Laz told him that, but soon figured out why it was bad to try it when you weren't ready. For example, the two runes Vivi made them both learn at first was Ehwaz, movement, and Eihwaz, or defense. The reason for this was so that movement could be used on Leona and defense could be used on Dee. Seeing as how Dee was a super strong girl, the best thing that could be done for her was to have a strong defense too. This way, she could be like their teams tank. These was also key runes for Reggie. If he ever got attack, these things would save his life. Sure, he could learn some sort of attack rune, but he already had two women with him that were perfectly suited for fights, so why not start with what made the most sense?

But if he tried to layer both movement and defense on himself, the end result could be something like him running faster than the defense rune could keep up and knocking himself out. The defense that was formed from the defense rune appeared like a skin tight layer of protection around the body so hitting it would be like squashing yourself into a wall. As he tried it with everyone so they would get a feel for it, Laz would then hit them with a rather large log that would send them flying. But even after being sent flying and hitting into things, it didn't hurt in the slightest. The key here was that Reggie had enough energy to keep it up. Otherwise, it would fail along with any other runes he was using.

When it came to Dee and Leona, he just fought them one on one. For melee types of fighters, experience was the best. It took some prodding to get Dee into it since she didn't think she was that type of girl. But after using her strength for a period of time in her slightly larger body, she started to really get into the fights. The only negative moment was when they first started, she had worn stretchy clothes but had neglected Laz's well meaning but slightly perverted suggestion. He warned her not to wear underwear. Having never gone all out, she didn't know how big her body would get and the end result was one hell of an incredibly painful situation. After that, everyone listened to Laz's suggestions no matter how weird they seemed.

As for Leona, she would train with them in a group environment, but later at night some days, she would sneak out to see Laz for more personal training, but nothing like what had happened the first night. Instead, it was more like violent clashes in which Laz encouraged her to hurt him as much as possible. In return, Laz would control his strength to a degree which caused her massive bruising, but no permanent injuries. And he would do it all over her body, to the point where even her most delicate places weren't spared. But the repeated training sessions allowed her battle sense to jump several layers while her ability to handle pain increased just as much. It was crude, but effective.

When the packages finally arrive and their gear was set, it was time for Laz and Vivi to explore the cave.