While asking a random human for such help would obviously be met with some kind of demands, Pengu didn"t show even the slightest hesitation while jumping down from my chest, pointing his fin at a distance before starting to walk in its innate funny manner.
With his entire body wiggling to the sides of his step, Pengu was surprisingly fast in guiding us through the area. While it looked quite comically, I couldn"t deny that it still managed to reach a speed suitable for both me and Eve.
Speaking of her, I could feel her amazing look that she keep throwing at my back. For her, establis.h.i.+ng a good relations.h.i.+p with such a powerful monster was something insane. By simply avoiding a clash with him, we managed to save more than a week of journeying through the vast forest expanses!
But just as I thought that everything was going as I dreamed it would go, I saw a ma.s.sive body protruding from the ground in the distance!
While it looked almost the same as the former gigantic form of Pengu, the slightly difrent colouring of its fur allowed me to differentiate between my old pal Pengu and this new specimen of a tyrannical poetic penguin! But why did it guide us there? Can it possibly be planning on taking us on with the help of his brethren?
In that single instant, I set up my mind to a fighting stance. In this single moment, grabbing the windslord hidden in my storage ring would take me less than a fraction of the second, so would initiating the attack.
Noticing the change of my att.i.tude, both Eve and the penguin stopped in their track. While Eve instantly followed my steps without even asking what caused this kind of reaction, the Pengu backed out a few steps and started gesticulating to me.
At first, it pointed at this big penguin back in the area with its fin, only to point its freshly healed fin and at its own belly, make a slicing motion and poke this seemingly cut place with its own pointy fin only to point with it at me in the end.
"Do you want me to do the same thing that I did to you to that penguin as well?"
Trying to understand, I just ask the simplest question I can think of. As soon as my words leave my mouth, this cute penguin starts to nod its head strongly, as if worried that even the slightest hesitation will prevent me from agreeing to its request.
"While I don"t have any problem with it, I fed you a lot of energetical meat from the forest right after we duked it out between ourselves. I don"t want to just make him weaker. If you want my help, I need to hunt some monsters in the area we are heading to first!"
This time, this little pengu almost danced around for a while! I guess that penguin is connected to it somehow. Maybe it is its brother? I don"t know, but since I can greatly benefit from it, there is no reason to refuse!
If I"m looking at my own profit, why I"m concerned about that penguin well being then? Isn"t this obvious? Why risk making new enemies and losing your existing friends, if you can just make more friends? Since the Pengu I"m acquaintances with really wants me to help his brethren, I think it"s better to do so properly!
While Pengu"s small shoulders initially drop, it picks up its act back to the cheerful att.i.tude he presented previously. Probably coming to terms with the reality that I presented him, our new route deviates only slightly from the one that was supposed to take us to his friend.
"That would explain things. A lot of people were wondering why this particular forbidden area is so big."
With our steps finally guided towards the destination that we want to train in, Eve suddenly said something that I didn"t expect at all!
"What do you mean by that? Do the areas have an estimated size?"
While I know where is she coming from, I never knew calculating such a thing was possible. For someone coming from the earth, attempting to rationalize and simply everything into math formulas is a habit born out of the civilisational progress. To think that some people might"ve attempted the same in this d.a.m.n cultivation world as well!
"Each area is supposed to be able to sustain either a sizeable herd of a certain type of demonic beasts or a single powerful monster. While the first type of place is considered a normal training ground, the ones populated with so-called "Bosses" are known as forbidden areas. Because of the immense strength of those special beasts, more often than not, even the strength of an entire sect isn"t enough to deal with it!"
As I hear her explanations, I can see where her reasoning is going. If the Pengu isn"t the only representative of his species in the close proximity, that only can mean that he belongs to a greater group. That would automatically force the area that they inhabit to be much larger than it would be normally believed to be.
"Does that mean that this location was never explored deeper? I mean, this kind of great mistake means that no one was actually brave or strong enough to venture into those locations to check the information. That would also mean that those penguins are either foreign to this place or are the highest cla.s.sed monsters to train on!"
While I"m saying those words, I made sure to infuse my last sentence with a fair bit of disgust. I already know that Pengu is able to comprehend human speech, so I would like to avoid raising his guard against me if it understood that it might turn into my enemy at some point.
In the end, I can only count on its still underdeveloped animal brain to stop him from realising the meaning behind my words. I do not intend to raise my levels by fighting with him anyway! It"s simply too cute!