Guild Assistant

We returned to town without any further incident. We planned to spend a few nights in town recovering before repeating the whole mission grab again. "That should get you two to D-rank," Lainie explained. "It's just kind of awkward to have two members below the rest of us in rank. I mean, not that that's your fault at all, but a lot of the time, you need to enter dungeons to get your evolution materials, and you can’t do that unless your entire party is at least D-rank."

She jabbed a thumb in Michael's direction. "Course, pretty soon, he’s gonna start being a problem in a different way. He's still enjoying being the first of us to get an evolved summon, but he'll start getting annoyed that he's not leveling before too long, and then we'll all have to put up with his whining. Just watch. It'll be super annoying, promise."

That sounded like something to avoid to me.

When I showed Nero my loot, he gave me a chiding look and said, "Luna, you're supposed to share loot evenly, not steal some for yourself." Which made me hang my head for all of two seconds before he rubbed between my ears with a laugh and added, "But you were the MVP, so I won't say anything to anyone. Besides, you need that bone to evolve, right?" I was so pleased, I licked his cheek, which made him laugh again.

Our next round of quests took us almost two months, because Lainie prioritized quests that would give them some of their less rare materials for evolution. Those quests happened to be farther away, so they took quite a while to get to and back from. However, Nero and Alicia didn’t seem to mind. I could understand. Lainie wasn’t just prioritizing the original members’ evolutions. She made sure we ended up near mines where we could kill monsters that dropped Jade and Darksteel Ore, materials Heather and I needed. By the time we returned, we’d completed enough quests to reach D-rank, so Crimson Rain threw a celebratory dinner.

"Mm, that sucks," Lainie said with a groan. "Luna needs a Skeleton King bone? Wish that’d dropped instead of just its teeth."

Nero and I carefully didn't look at each other. Nero added, "Well, it's not like we could have evolved her yet anyway. She still needs Hellhound teeth, too."

"And Heather needs Wind Fairy wings and a Pegasus rib," Alicia said with a groan. We had heard many times by now how hard of a time Fay'd been having collecting Wind Fairy mats, and now our party needed twice as many of them. We didn't know where to find a Pegasus, either. "No wonder people say evolution is the hardest part, even though leveling takes forever."

I wasn't the only one with an Inventory, it turned out. As she spoke, Richie smirked broadly and pulled out a bone. "Well, as it happens, I have a Pegusus rib from an old hunt."

"Woah, Richie, you have an Inventory?" Alicia burst out, eyes shining. "Are you sure you're willing to share that?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I'm holding onto people's evolution supplies in it, and I try to grab one or two things that someone might need when I can."

The main problem with evolution at later levels was that you didn’t know what you’d need to evolve until you reached the level cap. That was fine for the first evolution, since level 30 was so easy to reach, but it wasn’t unusual to hear about adventurers selling a rare drop only to later discover they needed it for their second evolution.

Alicia beamed at Richie and thanked him, while Fay and Lainie laughed at the way he started blushing at her attention. He was much older than her, so I didn't think that it was quite right, but then this was a fantasy world. I regularly saw couples with even larger age gaps. It was a 'me' problem, I supposed.

That night, Nero took me aside. "Do you think you could go look for a shop selling Hellhound teeth?" he asked quietly.

I raised my right paw, and he smiled. "Alright, take my money and get what you can. I want to have the option of evolving available to you as soon as possible."

I tilted my head curiously, and he blushed, shrugging awkwardly as he explained, "I dunno. It just feels like... I dunno. Don't worry about it too much, okay?"

If my Master wanted me to be ready to evolve, that's what I'd do. I grabbed his purse, stored it in my Inventory, and took off through the window. I spent the rest of the night darting about the city, checking shops for Hellhound teeth. Unfortunately, I only managed to find one, and buying it took up most of Nero’s money. It was also a huge pain to convey to the shopkeeper that I, a cat, wanted to buy something.

With funds depleted and only one tooth in my Inventory, I snuck into the Guild's resource library. There, I looked into Hellhounds. They were level 30 fire-aspected monsters located far to the south. I wrinkled my nose at that. It looked like it would take us about a week to reach anywhere with even a chance of encountering Hellhounds.

Defeated, I returned to Nero, planted his coin purse back on him, and curled up beside him to sleep for another hour or two before it was time to head out.

Nero found the same information that day. He sighed. "Man, why're Hellhounds such a pain to get to?" he asked out loud, speaking to himself, I assumed, since it wasn't like I would respond.

To our surprise, though, we got a reply. "They only live in hot areas, like deserts or volcanic biomes," one of the guild assistants said, coming out from behind a shelf. He adjusted his glasses and peered at me. "A demon?" he asked, surprise coloring his voice.

Immediately, Nero rose and stood between us. "She's not evil," he said firmly.

The guild assistant looked taken aback for a second, but then he smiled slightly. "Of course she isn't. She's your summon, after all, right?" He retreated into the shelves, still speaking. "You occasionally hear about summons with demonic or holy traits, though they're quite rare. I'm surprised no one's made a fuss over her yet, though. An SSR appearing is usually a big deal."

Nero shifted guiltily. "Well, they thought she was a Shadow Cat at the church, and, well, after seeing how people reacted to her dark magic, I thought it might be better not to tell anyone."

The assistant came back holding a book. He opened it and handed it to Nero. "I see. That's an easy mistake, but it'll be obvious once she evolves. Shadow Cats get larger, but see? This is the evolution of a Demon Cat."

I jumped onto Nero's shoulder to look and immediately had my hopes for my evolution crushed. I'd thought, given how Dragon had gone from a lizard to a humanoid Dragonnewt, that I'd also get a somewhat human form. Instead, it looked like I'd just be growing a pair of bat wings. I growled at the page. How dare it ruin my hopes for human speech!

"Will she be able to communicate properly when she evolves then?" Nero asked. I wanted to praise him for being on the same page as me.

The assistant smiled. "Yes, she should be able to telepathically communicate. It's one of her evolved form's inherent skills." He cleared his throat and gave us a somewhat charming boyish grin. "I'm Mathew, by the way. Feel free to come to me for anything regarding Luna. I have a great deal of interest in demons and their evolutionary paths."

"How'd you know her name?" Nero asked suspiciously.

Mathew's smile didn't waver. "I have the Assess skill."

"Really?" Nero exclaimed. Apparently, the skill was even rarer than I'd thought.

"Mhm. You can ask your cat. She's got it too, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"I can't say I've ever heard of a summon with Assess before. It's a strange choice to make when your summon can't speak yet," Mathew noted.

Nero flushed, and I ducked my head. After a moment, perhaps deciding Mathew was trustworthy, Nero said, "She chose it for herself. I haven't chosen any of her skills for her."

"Oh," Mathew breathed, sounding absolutely enthralled. He leaned even closer to study me. Frankly, the look he was giving me creeped me out. If I'd still been human, I'd have thought he was checking me out. "I’ve heard legends of summons with the ability to do so, but this is my first time encountering such a thing in person."

Nero, apparently, wasn't feeling the creepy vibe at all. "Yeah!" he exclaimed, puffing his chest out like my ability had anything to do with him, "Luna's super smart, too. She understands everything I say, and even if she can't talk, she can answer yes/no questions."

"Is that true?" Mathew asked me directly.

I reluctantly raised my right paw.

Nero, unable to see me, said, "If she raises her right paw, it means yes, her left paw is no, and both means maybe, or she doesn't know."

"Fascinating," Mathew said. I scratched the air in front of his glasses, tail swishing agitatedly. Back off. He jerked backwards, then shook his head and laughed.

Our conversation got cut short by Michael coming in looking for Nero. "Hey, we're picking quests, so come on."