Epic of Caterpillar

As a summon summoned by her, I held a special connection with Elfina, whenever she was awake, I was able to automatically speak to her through telepathy.

And now, she was finally awake! Just what the hell happened to her until now?!

"Elfina is awake! I just sensed her waking up!" I said, Fiere and Luminous quickly felt shocked, while Ariant, Eriant, and their grandmother felt confused about who was Elfina.

"I\'ll speak to her right away!"

I quickly decided to talk with her and learn about what was just happening right now. I immediately decided to use Fartalk and talk with her through telepathy.

"E l f i n a! Are you there?!"

"…"

"Elfina? I know you\'re awake, don\'t act like you can\'t hear me!"

"…"

"E l f i n a!"

"…"

What\'s going on?

Elfina didn\'t answered me, no matter how much I tried to talk with her. I continued speaking to her for over an hour, but she never responded to my call. It felt as if she was completely ignoring me for some reason. And not only that but she was somehow able to still be awake with someone babbling into her head without problems.

There was something reaaally fishy about all of this! Without a sheer of a doubt! However, without knowing how she was, how else can I know she\'s okay? Or where she is? Or what is she doing?

God damn it…

At the end, I sighed with a defeated sigh, as I looked at everyone and explained to them I was completely unable to speak with Elfina through [Fartalk], no matter how hard I tried.

"Nothing works?" Asked Luminous.

"This is really fishy indeed…" Sighed Fiere.

"Hm, maybe your friend\'s still sleeping?" Wondered Eriant.

"No, no, that I can use Fartalk on her means she\'s awake… So she\'s just not answering at all, just ignoring me for over an hour. Elfina got very little patience, so I am sure she wouldn\'t be able to bear with a voice speaking to her mind every second… for over an hour." I said while rubbing my chin.

"Then there must be something happening with her…" Said Luminous. "We have to somehow track her, wherever she is!"

"I agree. This place is nice and all but we should really try to get her back. As soon as Sol wakes up, of course." Fiere said.

"I agree…" I sighed. "Thanks for all your hospitality so far." I thanked Ariant and Eriant alongside their grandmother.

"O-Oh, not at all! We are the ones thankful for all the things you\'ve done for us… We feel incredibly grateful, in fact…" Sighed their grandmother. "It is a pity you\'re planning to depart so soon, but now that the King had a sudden change of heart, I imagine that things will go alright for us for the moment."

"I really hope so." I said with a smile. "But for now… yeah, we should really go seek her."

"But how are you planning to do that?" Asked Fiere.

"Fiere do you have some sort of belonging from Elfina?" I wondered.

"A belonging of her…" Fiere quickly took out Elfina\'s little green ribbon she often used over her blonde hair. "This! I woke up in the desert with this in my hands… I think it is certainly from her."

"I see… It indeed has her smell." I said, taking it and smelling it.

Ouch, that looked a bit creepy, they were gazing at me weirdly.

"A-Anyways, haven\'t you seen how dogs can just try to find smells? I guess we can try to do the same here. This entire desert is almost odorless with just sand everywhere, so I will use my enhanced senses which I\'ve acquired through a special skill named [Supernatural Sense Perception] and find her!"

And just like that, I activated the Skill and in mere seconds, I felt my senses expanding across the entire surroundings! The more MP I poured, the farther I could see. This felt even better than my former Divine Senses and were of a higher and more well-rounded area of effect.

Suddenly, I finally sensed her odor over a kilometer away from here to the southwest of the desert! As I looked into the special magic item with a map incorporated on it by the Queen of Elves, I saw that reaching that place would make us cross an area in the desert known as the "Great Grave of the Gods" where several corpses of gods have been there for many years.

I quickly explained to everybody about it.

"Wait, the Great Grave of the Gods?! That\'s where the Giant Tribe lives!" Said Ariant.

"That\'s a dangerous place…" Eriant said.

"Y-You\'re sure you\'re going through there?" Asked their grandmother,

"There\'s no helping it. If we truly want to reach that place in time we gotta get to it as fast as possible. I\'ve got a really bad feeling about what might be happening to Elfina, and knowing that bastard Genie got away from us, he might be planning something fishy." I said. "I am also going to track his odor so we can reach him and kill him later."

"Y-You\'re planning to kill the Genie?!" Asked the three Desert Elves.

"I know you\'re shocked but it\'s not like we can do much about it." I said.

"Yeah, we MUST go, even if we have to fight those giants… Although we can always just fly over them." Said Luminous.

"Indeed, we have to go." Fiere said. "I can\'t imagine what troubles milady must be going through without all her daily massages, her cookies, her teatime, and her baths with soap!" Sighed the Maid. She was very addicted to serving her master, apparently.

"You hear them." I said. "I leave the tree for you guys to take care of. I\'ll leave you some guardians in the form of Fortress Golems to watch over you. But your safety from now on will all depend on you."

I was ready to depart.