"No, he didn't send me," Matthew said.
"Did the zombies break the restriction?" the Elf woman asked.
"Something like that," Matthew replied, after all he was relatively an evolved zombie.
"Why do you want to kill that spirit beast?" the Elf woman did not let her guard down.
"I'm only hunting strong beings. This beast was prey from my perspective," Matthew answered truthfully since he had nothing to lose.
"If hunting strong beings is what you want, in that direction you will find many of them as you continue advancing," the Elf woman pointed just in the direction in which the D+ rank zombie dog had found that cave.
The Elves looked at Matthew with caution and distrust, for them he was just another monster, and a dangerous one.
"Please! If you mean no harm! Don't ruin our home!" said the golden-haired Elf woman.
Matthew nodded and turned his back, his zombie dogs following him as they walked towards the wooded slope they had come down.
"How difficult it is to control the impulse to eat living beings," thought Matthew as he climbed the slope.
The elves, still confused by the almost chilling scene, just watched as the three zombies disappeared among the trees on that slope.
...
Matthew arrived at the stream in which the fish were, he threw a bone dagger hitting its target.
As he picked up the still flailing fish, Matthew asked:
"Why have you followed me?"
The beautiful golden-haired "Elf woman" jumped from the top of a tree and fell to the ground gently.
Matthew watched her, but that didn't stop him from taking a bite of the fish while it was still fresh.
"I wanted to make sure you weren't a threat to my people."
Matthew continued devouring the fish, its entrails, bones, blood.
"I still wasn't sure you weren't a vessel for that "evil wizard."
Matthew wiped the blood from his mouth and said:
"Before I came here, I saw a city with simple brown houses and gray roofs. Who lives there?"
After that question, he continued devouring the remains of the fish.
The "Elf woman" sat on a rock and answered:
"They are livestock. Destined for pleasure or as food for the most powerful beings that inhabit this world. Some of those beings gave us help when we crossed "the energy gate"; but it was not free"
Matthew wiped the blood from his hands and mouth with the stream water.
"The humanoid beings hanged with chains hanging from those iron posts?"
She looked at Matthew after hearing that question, a few seconds later, she said:
"Yes, that was just the beginning of what we had to pay. Being weaker, we were at the mercy, and to say that we were slaves is quite encouraging compared to what it was, that's why my clan escaped to this wild forest, it is a place that adapts to our management of spiritual energy, you could say that we were lucky unlike other humanoid beings"
Matthew thought about those words and felt that the continent that could be seen from the shores must have even greater power when until today the powerful beings of this dimension had not decided to wipe out the zombies.
Matthew had no more questions, so he crossed the stream with his back to the "Elf woman." Since he still had the "monster" pill in his mouth, he wasn't too worried.
After he crossed the stream he followed the footsteps of the two zombie dogs that were walking towards the cave.
The "Elf woman" stood up and followed him silently.
"Unless you guys attack me, I'm not planning on attacking you," Matthew told him in a calm tone.
Since he was not in a hurry, he walked calmly and an hour and minutes later he arrived at the entrance of the cave, the two zombie dogs were lying on the spot.
"That place is very dangerous. When I told you the area where you could hunt, I was referring to what is beyond this cave, towards where the trees are larger and the spiritual energy is denser"
Matthew looked at her and asked:
"Do you know what inhabits this cave?"
She shook her head and replied:
"No, but I can sense dangerous spiritual energy coming from inside"
"Is something more powerful than you?"
She nodded, however Matthew's question seemed like a warning with which he told her, "I can kill you if I want."
Until he asked that question, she had considered them both to be of the same rank in power.
"How strong can what inhabits this cave be? Right now I only have two pills. I think I should go deeper into the forest on the horizon, after strengthening I will have more options," after wandering a little in his mind, Matthew asked her:
"Did you know about this cave?"
"That's right, but we have avoided approaching the danger that has been hidden in this cave since we arrived in this forest almost two centuries ago."
Upon hearing the "Elf woman's" response, Matthew ruled out sending one of his dogs into the cave because he remembered what happened when one of his dogs came down the stairs that led to the enclosure beneath the Gothic-style water fountain.
"Maybe there is some kind of restriction in that cave too"
Matthew who had already decided to go deeper into the forest had the zombie dogs lead the way and before walking away he asked the "elf woman":
"You said that there are powerful beings in this dimension. If you compared them to what inhabits this cave, are they stronger?"