[Oscar POV]
We entered a portal-type dungeon yesterday at <5:00 P.M>. The portal appeared 3 days ago in Earth's time, the time in other dimensions sometimes flows differently.
Anyway, my point is dungeon overflow usually emerge from portal-type dungeons after a week of it appearing, so we have 4 days in earth's time left to clear this dungeon.
As we are exploring the dungeon, we reached a meadow full of herbs, we got an appraiser so we confirmed that those are herbs.
"What do you think guildmaster?"
I asked Sir Clifford, we are in a forest type terrain so it's pretty normal seeing herbs here, but there are too many in one place that it's suspicious.
"I don't know, but let's not overthink. Herbs are valuable, that's all."
Sir Clifford said, what he's saying is correct, there's a huge amount of herbs in front of us, it will be stupid of us not to harvest it.
While thinking so, I remembered that there's something following us, I can't sense it anymore which made me frown.
'What is it doing?'
I asked inwardly.
"Let's get it all!"
Then our appraiser exclaimed happily, I still have some doubts about the situation but I didn't stop him from approaching the herbs.
But as he was reaching out one of the herbs.
Something landed in front of him.
Tap-
What appeared is a black cat, we all got alarmed of its sudden appearance so we took our fighting stances.
'Where did it came from?'
I asked myself frustratedly as my trait's effect, <High Senses>, didn't detect the cat approaching.
"You should all calm down if you don't want to get hurt."
It was then, the cat talked. My eyes widened, and as I was about to speak.
I felt a sudden majestic presence coming from the cat, it made me feel like I'm standing in front of someone superior.
Which made me have complicated thoughts. The same can be said to the others as it's all shown in their expressions.
Luckily for us, Sir Clifford walked forward, standing few centimeters away from the cat.
Sir Clifford looked down at it.
"What do you mean by your words?"
He asked as his presence became bigger and bigger.
'I still think guildmaster is awesome every time he's like that.'
Anyone subjected to such presence will have a problem at breathing. But contrary to what I and the others thought, we saw the cat casually looking at guildmaster in the eyes, it's not even showing a hint of fear.
'Unbelievable...'
Disbelief washed all over me, and as I was in daze...
"As I said, you'll get hurt fighting me."
The cat replied calmly to Sir Clifford.
"Why so?"
Sir Clifford asked again, but now in a more threatening tone.
The cat didn't answer immediately and looked at the members of our group one by one.
"If I was killed, my killer and their relatives will receive a curse, that's why."
The cat then said unenthusiastically.
Sir Clifford frowned at the cat's words, not just him, but also us who heard the cat's words put a complicated expression on our face.
"Doesn't that mean it's okay to attack you as long as we don't kill you?"
Sir Clifford said and emitted a more heavy pressure. It's strong enough to make me and the others slightly step back.
Though, the cat didn't even bat an eye. And that surprised the hell out of us.
'That cat have something more on it other than speaking human language!'
We all thought as we became wary of the cat.
"Are you sure that's the best choice? If you hurt me, a neutral being, you will just harbor negative impression to other non-hostile creatures here."
The cat stated casually, we can't deny what it said.
"So what do you want? That we should not take any herbs?"
Sir Clifford asked in a angry tone, he's unpleased by the thought of not taking the herbs.
Well, everyone in our group is disapointed by that.
But contrary to our expectations, the cat shook its head.
"You can take 3/4 of the herbs here."
Its words surprised us.
"Why would you give us that much?"
This time I asked, I didn't hide my doubt but who would decline such offer immediately?
The cat looked at me, it didn't talk immediately and just frowned.
But after a few seconds, it opened its mouth.
"As I said, I'm a neutral being. And all the evil beings are bothering me, so I want you guys to kill them for me."
Its cold monotonous voice made me frown.
"And why would we do that?"
Now Sir Clifford asked the cat with a prideful tone.
"Because it's the best choice for you guys."
The cat replied with a smirk.
"You might be thinking that the curse I said is just bullshit but..."
after a short pause.
"What if it's true?"
The cat said mischievously. Its words made our mind complicated, the cat is clearly playing psychological game with us.
"Also, evil beings will attack you guys the second they saw you without hesitation, so in the end, you guys will kill them either way, even if it's my request or not. So my offer is the best way of getting free herbs safely, right?"
The cat explained with a smug expression and tone.
It looked at us one by one. And in the end, its eyes went back to Sir Clifford. It's eyes shows no clear emotion, just boredom can be seen from the cat's face.
"Don't take unnecessary risk because of your greed."
The cat said as a warning to us. His tone and eyes are like testing us.
There's an uncomfortable silence for a while, all the guild members are tense and nervous, to be honest I'm fine accepting the cat's offer.
After a while, Sir Clifford looked at the cat seriously.
"You're a good talker, we'll take 3/4."
Sir Clifford stated.
The cat smiled and wings grew on its back.
"Just as I thought so."
It said and then flew away.
"What the fuck... A talking and flying cat."
One of our male members said, following his words. The others questioned themselves too what the fuck they had just seen.
***
[Raven's POV]
"Phew..."
I sighed as I saw Clifford and the others left, as we agreed on, they just took 3/4 of the herbs in the meadow.
"That pressure is on another level."
I frowned as I remember Clifford emitting a heavy pressure on me earlier.
If not for <Calm Thinker> and <Monarch's Presence>, I might have pass out that time.
[Wow, you just ripped off 1/4 of the herbs they supposed to get for free.]
The system said as I was calming my breath.
I transformed back into a human and started gathering the herbs left by Clifford and hjs group.
"Does the herbs have an owner? No right? They also just got it from the dungeon, like me, so I didn't steal anything from them."
I rebutted.
[You're great at sophistry.]
"They left satisfied so it's fine."
I casually said then continued to harvest the [Mellow Flowers].
***
I acquired 13 [Mellow Flowers] just for myself.
"So there's about 52 mellow flowers in the meadow, and Clifford and his group got about 39 of it."
After doing a rough calculation, a satisfied smile emerged on my face.
"I hit the jackpot."
I didn't plan to use them all immediately, I'll use about 3 of it back at Lunar then save the others for future use.
[You might want to follow them immediately, with your stats, it's hard for you to fight any being here.]
The system said. I transformed into a cat and started to follow Clifford and the others.
"Wait, it's hard for me to fight any being here? Don't you mean impossible?"
I asked curiously.
[I mean, it's not like your attacks will not do any damage to them.]
The system explained. I got curious if I can defeat an <A+> rank enemy but I removed the thought in my mind immediately as it was stupid just thinking about it.
Then I followed the others immediately while hiding my presence as much as possible.
***
The other 5 members of [Coldvale] are fighting 3 trolls, trolls are <A+> rank monsters, they have a crazy amount of strength and their regeneration is fast, but their senses are bad and they're slow.
I've been following Clifford and the others since the beginning but I didn't see Clifford fight yet.
He just stand on the back of the group and watches everything, and always beside him was Oscar that shot magics from time to time to support the 5 members.
'As I remember, Clifford uses dadao, it's a type of great sword. While Oscar is a mage that can cast up to 6th tier spells, his main attributes are wind and earth.'
"Attributes huh."
I muttered as I remember about attributes.
Attributes are the most compatible element with your mana.
Ruby explained it to me yesterday after the spar, I need explanation as I didn't put enough details in my novel about it.
Now that I'm inside my novel, I keep finding errors in the story, not that I can change it now.
Anyway, Ruby said that by gaining an attribute one will get stronger, by a lot. Ruby's main attributes are water and ice, that's why she can cast up to 5th tier of water magic.
I've tried asking her what attributes are compatible with me, and she answered; 'anything'.
Let me explain you in much easy way.
Ruby was born with a compatibility like this:
======
Water:20%
Ice:15%
Other attributes:0%
=====
And I was born like this:
=====
All attributes:0%
=====
Ruby said that my case is rare and interesting because even though I will improve my attributes slower than the others, I can choose any attribute I want to acquire and be good with.
Guess that's why my mana color changed after acquiring the [Ring of Gluttony], my mana got easy influenced by the artifact's dark energy.
Now I can't change it anymore, well I like color black so it's fine.
The point is my case have its own pros and cons.
"What attributes should I acquire?"
I asked myself. I can't just raise my compatibility with every attribute, that will make my growth stagnant.
I can't carelessly train attributes, let's say I acquired water attribute, learning fire attribute will be almost impossible to me.
Alec has fire attribute.
Curtis has water attribute.
Aoi and Eve has wind attribute.
While Adelle have wind and water attributes.
Those are the main characters's main attributes.
As I was contemplating about it, the last troll was killed by the members of [Coldvale].
And they started to move forward again.
"Let's think attributes later when I get out of here."
I mumbled and followed after Clifford and his group.
After a while of more travelling.
We reached another meadow, this time there's no herbs.
But what's here is a weird 3 feet tall, thick black rock in the middle of the meadow, and above the rock, there's something floating as big as my fist, it's something kinda white with a hint of blue.
It's like a shining start.
Clifford and the group noticed it too and so they approached it.
"System, what's that?"
I asked.
[It's an elemental spirit.]
"...Huh?"
I was dumbfounded for a moment at the system's answer.
I know what elemental spirits are, the protagonist, Alec, is destined to have a contract with a fire spirit resulting with his fire attribute growing stronger.
"How nice, I should try to form a contract to one of elemental spirits in the future."
I said nodding my head and conforming one action I'll take in the future.
Looking at the elemental spirit for a bit, I shook my head. I contemplated if I should try to form a contract with it.
But I'm in an <A+> rank dungeon, so it's most likely that the elemental spirit that I'm seeing right now is around that rank too or stronger, why would it form a contract with me an <F+> rank?
"It's color white with a hint of blue, maybe it's an water type elemental spirit."
I assumed.
"Well, Clifford is also a water attribute, so he can form a contract with it right? What's the worst thing that can happen? Hahahah–"
BOOOM!
As I was laughing, a powerful lightning from the spirit struck the [Coldvale]'s members.
"Huh? Lightning? Electricity?"
I mumbled as I frown deeper and deeper.
Then I remembered that Clifford doesn't have a contract with any elemental spirit in the story.
So right now, there's no contracting that will happen.
As I was analyzing every side of the situation.
"!"
The spirit faced my direction.
"This fucking mouth of mine and my shitty luck!"
Then I saw the spirit flew to my direction.
"I was suppose to have a high luck!"
***
[Oscar's POV]
It's been a while since we entered this dungeon.
We collected a lot of materials and cores from monsters we killed while travelling to find the boss monster.
We also got a lot amount of herbs in a meadow.
We saw a weird talking cat but I'd rather forget about that part.
And not long after that, we reached another meadow.
There's no monster near it, there's no being near it to be exact, there's also no herb or anything note worthy in the meadow.
That is until we saw an elemental spirit, it's color white with a bit of blueish.
Spirits are rare and you can form contracts with them, but only 5 person successful done it, and it's all elves who have high compatibility with nature.
And on top of that, those elves are all in the royal lineage.
'What's with the meadows in this dungeon.'
I asked inwardly.
'We always get the jackpot in meadows!'
I thought happily. I'll curse myself for thinking such thing in the near future.
"What should we do guildmaster?"
I asked Sir Clifford beside me.
"This is a rare opportunity, let's not waste it."
He said and started to walk toward the spirit confidently.
Me and the other members are nervous, but we followed our guildmaster.
When we are near the spirit, it talked.
-How bold of you humans to approach me so casually. Kneel.
Its voice was distinct, it's hard to know if it's a voice of a male or female, but it's a beautiful and holy voice.
We can just see the spirit's eyes and mouth, the rest of its face details are just too hard to see because of the light its body's emitting.
And as we are admiring its existence, a heavy pressure bore down on us, resulting for the others to be sluggish.
Even my knees was slowly losing strength.
The spirit was forcing us to kneel.
Swoosh–
Then Sir Clifford emitted an aura rivalling the spirit's aura. No, even stronger.
Then he protected us from the heavy pressure, we all looked at guildmaster gratefully.
-Hmm, you're strong.
The spirit said with a hint of interest looking at Sir Clifford.
"Of course I am."
Sir Clifford replied confidently.
"So why not form a contract with me? I'm also a water attribute user you see."
He added.
But it was then we sensed a change of mood from the spirit.
-You got it wrong human, we're not compatible.
The spirit said, and blueish sparkle appeared from it.
Crackle-
"Huh?"
We sensed that something is wrong but it's already late.
BOOOM!
A powerful lightning struck us immediately.
-I'm not a water element spirit, in fact I'm your attribute's weakness.
"Urgh."
Sir Clifford groaned and held the side of his body that was struck by the lightning, he shielded us from the lightning resulting him receiving damage while we are unharmed.
"Guildmaster!"
"Sir Clifford!"
The other members shouted upon seeing guildmaster's condition, it's not that fatal damage but it paralyzed guildmaster's body.
-What a noble thing to do, but how would you protect the one in that direction?
The spirit said and looked at the trees behind us.
"What are you talking about? This is our whole group!"
I exclaimed as I supported Sir Clifford, the other members guarded us. The spirit then looked at me for a while.
-Hmm, it doesn't look like you're lying, so that human is not with you huh.
It said with curiosity.
"What person are you talking about?!"
I exclaimed, frustrated.
"T..the one...following us."
Sir Clifford mumbled weakly, my eyes widened as I heard his words.
'Yeah! There's something following us since yesterday!'
I looked at the spirit to say something but it already flew at the direction it's looking at earlier.
"Wait!"
I shouted but the spirit ignored me.
BOOOM!
Then another lightning was shot, now it's toward the trees.
Crash!
As the trees were falling down. A figure appeared and jumped to another tree.
The figure was a boy that have black shiny hair and sharp black eyes, he looks pretty normal but his eyes are hella cool!
He was crouching from a tree branch while frowning really hard.
"The fuck do you think you're doing?!"
He shouted, glaring at the spirit.