Since meeting that monster, he refused to go foraging deep in the forest, even making sure to enlist the help of Edel as his bodyguard. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind as much as he expected, which allowed him to act without worrying about monsters bothering him.
He spent almost two days foraging, picking mostly high-ether plants and making use of the little space his makeshift bag had. In the end he ended up with a small ginger-like plant, some brightly colored flowers that had surprising amounts of ether for where he found them, and another fruit he scavenged inside a quiet zone.
He was surprised the fruit even managed to survive inside the quiet zone, but the black berries had even higher ether density than the flowers he lost in the deeper parts of the forest. Getting those had been a delicate act between removing the berries without damaging them and keeping the space around him free of cracks.
After he finished, Edel approached him and smelled the berries. He didn't think they had any particular smell about them, though he would admit they looked tasty. If he knew they were safe to eat, he would have given her the entire batch, but unfortunately he didn't and they would serve a greater purpose.
Unexpectedly, the most difficult part of his endeavor was packing the plants with his paws. He needed to hold everything in a small circle and then pull the fabric of the makeshift bag up in order to catch it with his mouth.
The first few times he tried that he failed, spilling everything to the ground.
Edel in the meanwhile wondered if her friend had finally lost his marbles.
It was early morning when he left for the city, leaving Edel behind for the second time. If everything went well, however, it would be worth it.
On the way to the city he was attacked by hordes of weaker monsters, all of which he could easily avoid by teleporting away or jogging until they got tired. He wondered if it was the ether inside the plants that drew them to attack, because he'd never encountered such a reaction from the monsters of the forest before.
The worst encounter was with another large spider when it ambushed him from above and he barely had time to react. It wasn't that the spider would be able to hurt him. Rather, he was worried about the more likely possibility of spilling everything to the ground and spending another agonizing hour putting it all back together.
He didn't want to kill any of the monsters if possible, but if they caused him to spill anything, they would be greeting their ancestors in the afterlife.
It took him about four hours to reach the city this time; his pace was slowed down by the numerous monster attacks he met on the way, but in turn he had been getting better at finding his way around the forest without getting lost. He probably wouldn't become as good as Edel for a long while, but he was improving.
Edel on the meanwhile decided to stalk her friend. He tried very hard to get her to stay behind, and it was that very thing that sparked her curiosity. In the end she pretended to stay behind while she followed him in secret, relying mostly on her sense of smell to keep track of him. He was none the wiser, and this reminded her of when they were trying to find and hide from each other a few days ago. It was pretty fun, and she looked forward to it again.
Monsters really seemed to hate him, and it was more than once she almost blew her cover.
Finally, they reached a place with a much lower monster activity, and she remembered where this was. This was where they'd escorted those adventurers back then.
In the end she decided to wait in the forest after avoiding three other humans and seeing the city's wall. She was a hunter, she could wait for hours on end if need be. Her tail moved softly on top of dead leaves and grass, making a rustling sound as she sat down and rested till she could see him getting out of the city.
Perhaps she should surprise him for a change. Her tail moved faster at that idea, and a plan started to form in her mind.
Kiel on the other hand had just entered the city. Using his bond to find Melissa, he followed it to where her home was. Thankfully, they were inside the city. He hadn't considered he might have to wait for them to come back, or come back another day himself, and the idea of delaying his plans was maddening.
Before he fully reached the door, Melissa opened it for him and smiled. He was surprised for a moment, until he remembered what he just did with the bond to find her house only a few seconds ago, touché.
She gladly let him inside her house, but before she could ask him about the cloth he was biting so tightly, he casually walked towards her room, letting the bag lay on the floor and resting his head on the comfortable mattress. His jaw had started getting sore from holding the makeshift bag all this while.
She only needed to take one look at what he brought her before her mind went completely blank, 'What. Have yo- Brought?' She asked through their link in a more fluid manner than last time they communicated.
He was surprised at how fast she improved, but most of all, he wanted one for himself and Edel.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
'Plants!' He sent back with a proud look on his face. Because of the link, she could feel how proud he was for apparently doing a great job. Problem was, his great job involved one of the most poisonous fruits you could find in the wild.
She sent her worry towards him, and told him not to touch the black berries no matter what. She didn't know whether he was the luckiest cat she'd ever heard about, or the most reckless.
She examined the berries, looking for any sign of damage on the fruit. She looked for parts that may have been mushed together and leaked out into the rest of the plants. Thankfully, nothing of that sort was apparent, because otherwise she would have had to burn the plants Kiel had spent so much effort gathering for her.
Pointing to the black berries, she explained to him how dangerous they were. One of those he brought was enough to poison fifty high bronze humans, and that was not a small number. Frankly, anyone that ate this before low gold tier probably wouldn't survive its effects.
In turn, he asked what the bronze and gold rankings were. She looked at him with a stern expression, and he acquiesced a second later.
Seriously, he even brought five of them...
Still, she didn't hold the information from him for long. That was how he learned what the official rankings for levels 1 to level 50 were. Bronze, Silver and Gold... which in his opinion were a little unimaginative, but the more interesting bit was how the rankings changed at level 15, 30 and 50 respectively. Unfortunately, she didn't know what came after Gold, but even reaching that far was an incredible achievement.
As she took care to separate the berries from the rest of the plants, Cassandra walked into the room, seeing the berries and then Melissa who was now holding them with a napkin.
They were about to start arguing with each other, but he had no patience for an argument he couldn't understand. Besides, in his life he'd learnt that arguing was generally unproductive.
Instead he cut Melissa's response off by asking her about skill removal. She ignored Cassandra, turning to answer him. Cassandra wasn't amused, but she didn't continue yelling either.
'Difficult. Silver ranked- contract breaker.' She answered his question, turning back to her friend. At this point she didn't need help figuring out who was the culprit that brought the berries to their home. She wasn't about to argue with the cat though, so instead she let herself drop on the chair next to her.
The fact that the answer wasn't a no was all Kiel needed to hear. He was a low silver ranked monster now, and he was willing to bet that if it wasn't a high silver monster, he could win handedly.
His next question stumped her for a moment, 'Have. Glowy. Stone?' He asked, sending her the image of the stone she used a few days ago to form their contract.
She shook her head, 'I can buy, maybe?'
She'd never seen another cat get more excited by a simple sentence, though in all fairness Kiel was the only cat she knew. After that she sent him thoughts of the large building he'd seen them enter when he was in the city.
He hated how he had to cut his sentence on every word while she was getting more and more fluid with it. He didn't know how, but he would be practicing this skill.
In the end, Melissa spoke with the archer again, though he couldn't understand what they were saying. At least the conversation didn't get as heated as before. Melissa pointed at him, then at the flowers then said something about him or his request. That seemed to do the trick because her friend let herself sink even deeper in the chair.
Melissa spent about half an hour examining and organizing the various flowers and plants he brought with him, storing everything in suitable containers, even the black berries, and taking them with her.
They walked inside the large building, and he saw for the first time how the adventurer's guild actually looked from the inside. It was less overwhelming than he imagined. The building had quite a lot of space inside, a big portion of which was taken by tables and several boards full of papers.
Quite a few people were looking at what seemed to be a mission board or drinking and discussing with their buddies.
A few meters away from the tables was the receptionist, and further on the right was a large staircase leading to the second and third floors which were apparently where higher ranked business was dealt.
It was because Melissa explained that to him, that he wasn't surprised when the receptionist ran upstairs the moment she opened the boxes. That caught the attention of a few adventurers further away.
A few minutes later the receptionist came down with an older man. Kiel didn't even need to use his Ether Sense to feel how strong the man was. He felt like he could see right through him when his eyes passed over, and when he didn't say anything he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
When Melissa offered the plants to the older man, he didn't accept them straight away. Instead he inspected the plants even closer, before turning to her and asking about why she would need a stone of binding.
Trying to appear relaxed, she went with a plausible lie, falling closer to the truth than she knew, stating that her friend wanted to bind a monster to her will.
The man looked displeased at that, but in the end he lead them to the second floor.
The second floor looked far more polished than the ground floor. Expensive paintings hung on the walls, and for some unknown reason even the ether was denser here.
The man led them to his office, searching in a pile of papers as tall as himself and handing out two pieces of paper to them alongside a familiar looking stone.
Cassandra looked resigned as she picked up the mission paper and looked over it. In exchange for the stone of binding, they would have to investigate the anomalies in the east side of the forest. The mission's reward for relevant information also included several gold pieces, which she was doubtful they would be getting at the end of this quest.
The stone came up front, however, so she wasn't worried about that. That strange cat wanted it for some reason, and Melissa looked ready to kill for the little cat. Appearances can be deceiving though, and if she hadn't thought the cat was weird before, that had become certainty now.
In the end she accepted the request, under the hopeful eyes of Melissa. She only hoped she wasn't making a mistake.
A few minutes later they left the building, and the old man stared at them from his office window. That cat was a silver-ranked monster, and although it was bonded to the mage, their connection felt weird... weaker.
A sigil lit up on the side of his desk and he spoke in the empty room, "Call for someone to investigate the two adventurers that just left." before sitting back down and looking at the mountain of paperwork that'd gathered in the span of only a few days. He didn't need to worry whether his order had been heard or not. Instead, he had other things on his mind at the moment.
Even though he could maintain his focus for days on end in a fight, looking at the enormous pile he couldn't help but wish for an actual bed right about now.