We walked for a while in complete silence as Isa had calmed down her party members not too long ago. She was in the lead with me walking by her side and the rest of her team following us. The atmosphere was tense as everyone shot glances my way from time to time. I can't blame them, if anybody had contracted this curse they would be dead by now or at least in extreme pain.
Thinking about the curse the elf had said it forced the body to expel its life force, then how did my soul ability prevent that? What I know about my soul ability is that after activation it makes my body's cells go past their limit as for how it does that I have no idea. Then how does making my body's cells go past their limit prevent them from leaking life force? To begin with what is life force? This is really bothersome, too many questions and no answers.
I sighed as I came to a dead end. Anyway, for now, my life is not at risk so I can take my time and figure things out. The next thing that is in my mind is, how did that elf know I was cursed? What I know about him is that he is an elf mage and nothing more. With that amount of information, I can make two guesses, first, it's thanks to a spell, second, it has something to do with his soul ability. I might as well ask, they haven't introduced themselves either so now could be a good chance for that.
"Hey, Isa, could you introduce the rest of your party? I still don't know their names"
"Oh! right sorry. Ahem, The human is Eleonora she is like a sister to me. Next is the elf Isacc as you can see he is a mage. As for the dwarf, his name is Torbal and finally, the grumpy beast-kin is Mathew"
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you all"
I smiled at them and received multiple reactions. The beast-kin's gaze had hostility in it, nothing new there. The human archer had a wry expression as if she didn't know what to do. Mister mage elf face was filled with worry, obviously from my curse and the dwarf was uninterested as he picked his nose.
I began looking at the entire group in more detail. For starters, Isa is taller than me by a head so most probably around the meter and eighty centimetres. She has blond hair with a slight curliness to it, her skin has the lightest of tans giving her a healthy appearance, as for her body I don't know but it must be packed with muscles if she can move as she does with such heavy armour. Her eyes have a beautiful amber colour which I must admit fits her really well.
Next would be the other human. That has the same hight as me with light brown hair just like her eyes. She isn't too curvaceous but her body line is still good, as for her size I will only say they are larger than mine, damn you. Her skin is tanned to a latte colour which is a good fit for her. Her weapon of choice is obviously the bow she carries on her back while using a dagger by her waist as an emergency weapon from the looks of it.
The elf is the most colourful of the bunch with leaf green long hair and eye colour. He is taller than Isa but not by much, his skin pale to the point where its almost perfect white. His face is a bit girlish which makes him look handsome. As for his body his thin but not unsightly so, I will say that if he were to wear a dress I could never guess he is a man. He has a mage robe of brown colour alongside his staff giving him the image of a mage.
Mister grumpy cat is the beast-man and if you didn't guess from my remark he has cat ears and tail. His hair is black including his ears and tail, the tail's tip is white, and his eyes are a nice ocean blue colour. He is good looking too with a manly face and a body with a good amount of muscle, it is a shame that all of that goes to waste thanks to his hate-filled gaze and displeased expression. He uses a spear and that would be it.
Finally the dwarf. Honouring his race's name he is short, one head shorter than me so around one meter twenty forty centimetres? He has long braided brown hair just like his beard as for his eyes they are also brown. He has a large round nose and a just as round face. Despite his stature, he gives an imposing aura thanks to his muscular body alongside the hammer he carries which is a bit bigger than himself.
After I finished inspecting them I moved onto the topic that interested me.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"So, Isacc, how did you know I got cursed? some kind of spell, that picked my interest"
"um well that is"
He glanced at Isa as if asking for instructions. Isa gave him a simple nod and with it, Isacc relaxed.
"It has to do with my soul ability so how about you tell me yours and I will tell you mine"
"Sure, I don't see any problem with a fair exchange"
I gave him a smile accompanied by a slight quick nod. What I could gather from his explanation his soul ability was always active for him which at times made life difficult for him. The ability allows him to see through things such as illusions and other things, if he concentrates he can see the flow of mana of his surroundings and even its flow within living beings. Thankfully for me, using it to see mana seems to be very taxing so he usually doesn't do it. If he were to see the flow of mana within my body then my core would be exposed and things would become complicated.
After I explained my ability or at least what I know about it everybody once again was surprised and I could feel some jealousy from Isa and the beast-man. In the end, everybody else explained their abilities since otherwise I would be on the losing end of the deal.
In short, Isa can harden her body at the expense of making it rigid reducing her mobility. The beast-man is the complete opposite as he can make his body more flexible allowing him to move in ways normal humanoids can't. The dwarf can make himself heavier, no that is not right, he can increase his mass while keeping the same volume, therefore, increasing his density. An interesting ability, but it seems the effect is limited to twice his normal mass and at that point, it consumes too much mana. Finally, the human girl can control objects she has come into contact for a while, but the longer she holds control the more mana is needed.
Overall I say they have talent in their respective areas but they are still too weak in my eyes. I know I sound arrogant but that is the truth. If they were attacked by Lizz's surprise combo of invisibility plus explosion one or two would be killed before they could react, after that the other three would be killed in an instant by her.
Now that I think about it. Gaia said this is a battle planet where the different races created by the gods kill each other. Then why are this group of different races working together? It's odd, especially so since they are adventurers so the country should know about this. Thinking back on it, I do remember seeing one or two people of different races at ingracia, it was rare, but they were there. Now I remember! Dan did tell me about this but I had completely forgotten! Humans, elves, beast-kin, and dwarfs are allied against the demons, giants, hobgoblins, and dragonnwets. Thankfully I remembered, if I were to ask about this to this bunch I bet they would look at me as if I was crazy.
To think that this battle world would be divided like this. However, it is sad to think that if the demons and co were to be defeated then the humans and co would have to duke it out. Imagine having to fight with your friend just because your parents said to do so, that is just messed up. Well, there is nothing that can be done about it. If the gods have them fighting I don't want to imagine what could happen if they were to refuse.
I sighed, I have been thinking about a bunch of stuff lately and this silence and tension aren't helping either. I should try and chat with them for a bit but none of them looks approachable. Isa has a serious expression and I doubt she is fond of chit chat. The other human is obviously uncomfortable but I don't know if she is because of the silence or me. The beast-man is out of the question right way, I bet he would rather punch me than talk. The dwarf still has his uninterested expression and the elf keeps glancing at me with worry in his eyes. Now I feel like pranking him.
"Bugua!"
I deactivated overload on purpose and suffered internal damage. Next, a puked a bunch of blood as everyone panicked. I must admit it was painful but seeing them like that was too much fun so I don't regret it. I reactivated overload and wiped the blood off my chin with my sleeve while laughing maniacally. I couldn't help it since after their panic was done the next thing was an expression of anger that I couldn't take seriously especially so for the beast-man that started shouting profanities.
This bunch might be more entertaining than I initially thought and so after apologizing, I began chatting with Isa and the other human while the elf would enter the conversation from time to time. What did we chat about? Some times girl stuff like complaining about how blood was difficult to wash from the hair, especially so if it dried. At some point, menstruation became a topic to which I responded with a bright smile. Since coming to this world and discovering my overload menstruation became a problem of the past, thanks to it I only suffer one day a month and not even the entire day. I just have to use overload at full while sitting in the bathroom and it speeds up the process a lot! After learning that the other two shot daggers of jealousy from their eyes.
And like that, we kept on walking for a long time until finally a town could be spotted on the horizon. The town of Olandel.