This wasn't in the plans.

Cassandra looked ready to jump in and stab the man, and Edel was seconds away from doing the same before he stopped her.

In all honesty, Kiel expected a reaction, just not that kind of reaction. The entire room had cracks in it and he could imagine the poor receptionist below wasn't having the best of times right now. He glared at the man in front of him, but the man wasn't looking at him. He sat in his chair unmoving, waiting for them to respond.

Problem was, Kiel started to get bored after a while. He wondered how strong the guild master was, and so he asked Melissa. She blinked in surprise, "No guild master is below gold," she answered, not realizing she said that out loud at the same time.

She looked, sheepish at that, "Sorry, he was curious."

Cassandra took that moment to speak, her tone with a little more heat in it, "We were going to regardless. You gave us the mission and then get all hissy when we return with results?" She took a deep breath and put her daggers away.

He hadn't even seen her get them out.

The man sighed in response, "You're right, I apologize." Looking at the tentacle lying on the floor now, he still couldn't help but clench his fist. "How about we start over."

The guild master stood up and picked up the tentacle from the ground, placing it carefully inside a small container. A container much smaller than the tentacle itself. Kiel's eyes widened at the object, but he kept himself silent.

"A few months ago an adventuring group noticed something weird near the dungeon in the east side of the endless forest. This dungeon is quite the distance from the city, so it's not a popular one." The man furrowed his eyebrows, "Lately, however, we noticed that the anomaly was becoming more prevalent."

As he was talking, Melissa was translating to him via their bond, and he was making a summary for Edel at the same time.

The man let out a sigh. "Do you know what the tentacle you found is?" he asked, to which he saw the two adventurers and the cat shake their heads.

He couldn't help but do a double take at the cat.

Shaking his head, he continued, "Out there, there are monsters beyond comprehension. One of which we call corrupted minds. This tentacle came from one such monster." Not getting the reaction he wanted, he couldn't help but add, "Corrupted minds are not native to our world."

That did the trick, and both Melissa and Cassandra stood with their mouths open. If Kiel hadn't been the reason for the monster's appearance, he would have been the same.

After calming down came their turn to explain their findings.

Melissa didn't hold anything back, from the unstable space to her being unable to cast magic inside the quiet zones, to finding the tentacle. "It's where we lost our previous party member."

The man didn't seem too interested at that and motioned for her to continue.

When the topic of the tentacle came up, of course, Kiel did the perfectly normal thing to do, he lied. For all he knew, the tentacle was laying there inside a quiet zone. The fact that he caused the rift resulting in its appearance was a detail he wasn't keen on sharing.

Even he wasn't slow enough to not realize the kind of problems that revelation would bring them.

The questioning continued for another half an hour as Melissa reported on what she'd found out about the quiet zones. The man likely knew most of what she was saying, but his interest was piqued when she showed him the samples she took from inside a quiet zone and the plant.

When they finished reporting, the man gave Melissa a small pouch. Kiel followed behind Melissa and Cassandra as they left, with Edel walking next to him.

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Garel never wished to retire more than he did at this moment.

The adventurers left, and despite the enhancements soundproofing his office, the silence this time felt heavier than what he was used to.

Two very suspicious adventurers, a cat with spatial affinity, and to top it all off, they came back with the tentacle of an alien monster in their hands.

Nothing made sense.

He put his hands on his head and screamed internally. This was unbecoming of him. The whole office was a mess and the neatly stacked paperwork was now scattered all over his office.

Activating the sigil underneath his desk, he requested for someone to fix the damage he caused. He only hoped the damage didn't reach into his room above. After a few minutes of silence, he took a pen out and began writing a letter.

The receptionist knocked on his door just as he finished writing. "Come in," he answered. The young woman looked frazzled. "How's the situation below?" he asked her.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She recovered her expression and answered quickly, "Everything is sorted out, sir." She hesitated for a moment, "We made up an excuse about a faulty enchantment, but I'm not sure how many believed it. Everyone stared at the two adventurers leaving the second floor, and with two monsters beside them, they weren't exactly inconspicuous."

Garel couldn't help but roll his eyes.

The young receptionist looked like she wanted to say more, so he nodded at her to go ahead, "Are they going to be okay? They seemed like good kids." He laughed at that, "You're a kid too, you know. Also, for some reason I think they're going to be fine."

Looking at the letter in his office, the smile left his face, "It's us that I'm not sure about."

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When they got home it was dark outside and they were all dead tired. The house felt too small for the four of them in the living room, but they had a spare bed for guests, and Kiel and Edel gladly used that one.

Jumping on the bed, Kiel relished in the comfort while Edel couldn't sit still.

It was Edel's first time resting on such a soft surface and she couldn't help but move every couple of seconds to make herself comfortable.

Kiel on the other hand was out like a candlelight.

Half an hour later Melissa came into the room to check on them. Kiel was sleeping peacefully under the blankets while Edel had gotten herself comfortable on the floor.

She was still awake, however, so she turned to look at the person who entered the room.

Melissa approached her slowly, sitting next to her. When she didn't react negatively to her presence, she couldn't resist and extended her arm to scratch her neck.

Her tail moving slowly, she lifted her head up, enjoying the moment. When Melissa moved to caressing her fur it felt like her hand was touching clouds, and she couldn't help but wonder how that was possible for a wild monster. Edel closed her eyes in contentment and soon fell asleep.

Morning came the same as every day, though Kiel woke up later than usual as the curtains blocked most of the light.

He stretched himself awake, Edel nowhere to be seen. He could feel she was close with his bond though, so he didn't worry too much about it.

In the end the smell coming from the kitchen caught his attention and he couldn't help but wander over. In the kitchen were Edel and Melissa, both of them busy eating.

Looking at Edel eating from a plate on the ground made him cough in surprise, still. When Melissa saw him, she beamed, getting up to prepare something for him as well.

Kiel watched Melissa for a moment as she danced in the kitchen like an expert chef preparing his dish. Well, he wasn't going to complain about the service.

The small plate of meat was too tasty not to lick the plate after, and soon it was spotless which helped on the cleaning after. It was times like these that made him feel like he was back on Earth living a normal life, a life he dreamt about but always seemed so far away.

Instead, now he was in another world having more fun than he ever imagined was possible for himself in his previous one. But it was enough reminiscing. It was Edel's first time inside a city, and he was going to make the most of it.

He mentioned as much to Melissa who seemed a bit too eager to agree. Looking at the two of them he wondered when they got so close.

Melissa got ready after finishing her own breakfast, and opened the door. Cassandra had left half an hour earlier, looking to buy a new bow and meet up with some friends. Melissa on the other hand was afraid of leaving the two monsters alone in their house. Instead a day out with Kiel and Edel sounded a lot more fun.

The two of them followed close behind her as she walked ahead.

Melissa took them through the streets, ignoring the heads turning to stare at them as they passed. They reached the local food market, and the sheer number of smells almost blinded him. They had quite a few people offering them free food, however, which was good, because he was still hungry. A fish for him, and some pieces of meat for Edel.

The flesh of the fish was soft and it melted on his tongue. It tasted somewhat sweet, and most surprisingly it wasn't salty like he expected. His mouth started watering, but he held himself back. They would eat later, now they were touring the city.

She took them to a tall building where they could see the entire city from above, and a large park that looked like a small forest inside the city itself. It felt less like he was walking inside a fantastical city and more like he was transported back in time. That said, he hadn't expected such a difference between seeing ancient cities from the comfort of his house and living in one.

The city was a lot more lively than he ever imagined. People walked everywhere and there was always something to catch your eye.

As for the city itself, it was huge. Although they spent half the day exploring and seeing new things, they couldn't have covered more than half of it. He even learned that there was another adventurer's guild in the other part of the city, which unfortunately they didn't go to see.

Kiel found the whole experience interesting, while when he asked how Edel felt about this, she seemed to prefer the forest, though the food was nice.

In that sense, he agreed. And looking back into it, forest or city didn't really matter so long as he was with Edel. If anything, living in the forest was quite pleasant. Food quality was an issue, but if he could find a way to make his own spatial pocket that was a problem easily solved.

And if he was being honest, he really wanted to explore what the guild master told them yesterday about the dungeon in their forest. Perhaps though a closer one would be a better idea for the time being. He asked Melissa if there was one nearby, and she scratched her head.

"There are a few dungeons an hour or two from the city, depending on how fast you walk. Most of them are high bronze to low silver in threat level. It's where most adventurers start their journey and why the city was built here actually." She explained.

Hearing her talk out loud and comparing the translation in his mind at the same time, he felt like he could recognize a few words here and there. He definitely needed to practice that, but for now the dungeon sounded interesting.

"Of course, there is a more important reason to go to dungeons as a new adventurer, and that's because after defeating a dungeon's strongest monster for the first time, the system rewards you with attribute points."

He couldn't help but meow loudly in response, 'Start with that next time!' He sent through the bond. He was ready to start heading over, but Melissa didn't agree.

"It's too dangerous, last time we completed a dungeon we were with a party of a full five hunters, one of whom was silver ranked. And that was for a bronze dungeon."

Needing extra support, he mentioned it to Edel who started howling in agreement.

Melissa, still looked hesitant, but he felt the need to remind her they were silver ranked monsters. Plus, he was certain he could convince Edel to carry her on her back, that had to be a bonus. If it was an hour away and they ran they should be able to cut the time to minutes.

Actually, that wasn't a bad idea.

And if Melissa was up for something more exciting, he had a few more ideas.