I am Sumila, a proud member of azure war cat tribe. I never knew my parents but tribesmen told me that they both were powerful warriors and adventurers and got killed in line of duty when they encountered a powerful drake in an escort request. The tribe taught me well and raised me to be an honorable and adaptive warrior.

I was considered a prodigy among my peers, reaching a level of over 100 before my twentieth cycle, Level 112 to be precise. I registered as an adventurer on my twentieth birthday so that I could go out to explore the continent and leave the safety of the tribe. I love my tribe but I couldn't allow them to always protect me if I wanted to grow strong. So after registering as adventurer I left the tribe along with another tribesman Galin. He was little older than me, probably 25 cycles I think. 

We demi humans are not proficient with magic except for few tribes but we excel at internal mana manipulation and body strengthening so we are pretty good close combat fighters. After two years of our adventuring , even though I only gained 10 more levels, we made it to rank 3 adventurers . Galin showed interest in me but I made it clear that I'm not interested in finding a mate just yet.

 But the truth however is that I don't want a mate from cat tribe because if what tribeswoman have told me is true then our males share one more feature with cats other than the obvious ear and tail. And I'm no masochist so yeah, no cat-guys for me. Sorry Galin.

Ahem, back to the the point. One needs to be atleast over the level of 100 and have enough quest point to become a rank 3 adventurer. For rank 2 one has to be over level 200 and almost 10 times quest points of rank 3. Rank one needs one to be atleast over 350. There are very few people on the continent who are rank 1, even the kings have to be respectful to them. Rank 2 adventurer are rare too and usually are prominent figures. At the age of twenty two becoming rank 3 is already noteworthy achievement, if I do say so myself.

We were planning to visit the tribe after this last escort mission. We were escorting a small caravan along with some human adventurers. Everything was going well till one party of human adventurers managed to drug rest of the caravan. By the time I became aware of my surrounding they had already killed most of the males, poor Galin. They chained the rest, most of which were females, I even got the special handcuffs which prevent me from using mana, how thoughtful of them. I guessed we will be sold as slaves in black market, fucking slave traders.

Barely a day had passed when we were ambushed by a band of goblins. They managed to overpower the human adventurers turned slavers and killed them all, well karma is a bitch and it bites you in the ass when you least expect it. The goblins even killed the remaining chained males and brought us to the caves, nothing much changed, instead of becoming slaves we would now be goblin breeding machines. 

We spent the next two days in the humid cave with only some glowing rocks as the light source. Goblins haven't touched us as of yet, probably waiting something or maybe just fighting over who gets to go first. That's when some hobogoblins walked in. I guess Now I know why the goblins didn't touch us, their bigger versions get to go at it first. If it wasn't for these accursed handcuff I would have made mincemeat of these ugly creatures. I cursed my self and hoped they wouldn't pick me. As I was contemplating my misfortune a person walked in the cave, no, calling it a blood fiend would be better description. It was covered in head to toe in blood, this only served to make his strange apparel stranger and he wasn't even wearing anything under his feet.

The blood fiend scanned the cave with his eyes once and proceeded to beheading hobogoblins with an old and worn out short sword. He moved way too fast for me to see anything but a blur, a Rank 2!!! Why is such a person here and what's with all that blood? There is even more of it now. 

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Once it ended he removed our chains and said something in a language I knew nothing about. And after that he just stood there like he was thinking about something. I decided to thank him for saving me like a proper warrior should and walked forward.

"Thank you my lord for saving us. This one is Sumila a rank 3 adventurer. May I inquire my lord's noble name?" 

I don't usually speak like that but who knows what kind of person this is. Better be safe. But the person in question simply stared at me like I was talking in gibberish. Why is he staring me like that? no one had any problem with my common in last two years. Then suddenly his eyes widen with surprise and shortly after he walked close to be. I try to remain calm as it would be rude to be scared of your savior. 

He suddenly starts touching my ear . What?! doesn't he know that it's rude to touch the ear of someone you have just met? Sumi, stay calm. Maybe it's some sort of greeting in their culture. He is kind of cute though. Maybe 16? 17 at best. Sumi, control. He is too young for you. Wait...how is he that strong at that age? His eyes suddenly go wide while looking at something. I follow his gaze and find him looking at my tail and thinking something. Oh no, You don't.My tail is not public property. 

"My lord can you please look for the key of this? I would be grateful if you can help me take these off."

I showed him my handcuffs as a way to distract him from my tail.  I asked for a key because breaking them is not an option. Forget a rank 2, even a rank 1 will have to spend quite a bit off effort to break an enchanted handcuff by brute force. He looks for a bit but looks like he understood some of it. He reaches out with my hand and touches my handcuff. You idiot! I am not asking you to touch them. go and find... My mental outburst is cut short when the hand cuffs just simply break apart in his hold. Just...how strong is this blood fiend..maybe the handcuffs were faulty..that must be it. He can't possibly be a rank 1 at that age and it didn't even look like he used his force for the cuffs. Yeah, the cuffs were damaged or something.

He doesn't seem to understand common though. Hmm...I still have that unbonded elven artifact of communication cause I never had a need of it. Maybe it's still in my bag. I ran to the corner where goblins piled up our stuff and after bit of searching I find the necklace and get back to the blood fiend. For some reason he looks bit displeased. I give him the necklace and motion him to put it on but he seems to hesitate. This ungrateful bastard. I am giving him such an expensive artifact and he is hesitating like I just gave him a slave collar.  These kind of artifacts aren't unique but they are very pricey and they become normal trinket to others once they are bonded to someone. I only had one and it was a gift from tribe in case I end up in an  area where common isn't well know. The necklace allows it's owner to communicate with anyone.

After a bit of contemplation he puts the necklace on and it glows a bit, bonding with him. So I speak again to see if it's working.

"Can..you understand me?"

And his eyes widen with surprise, proving that necklace is working. I smile, satisfied with his reaction to it.