An awkward silence is engulfing the area.
In front of me are the members of [Coldvale], including Clifford.
-’Hey! What’s with the mood?’
Then I heard a voice inside my head, asking me that.
I replied telepathically.
-’You’re rude, but that makes you cute too!’
It’s Levina talking to me in my mind.
She was now in her former small spirit appearance. And upon having a contract with her, we can now talk to each other telepathically.
’There’s the system, now this.’
I became annoyed just thinking about another one being able to talk to me in my head.
[Well, you got stronger, isn’t that good?]
The system said. Its timing is too good—it’s trying to annoy me.
I was exhausted, so I just ignored the system and Levina.
Then instead—I checked my stats.
I ranked up and my skills also leveled up. I have a new trait, , it gives me a huge boost in my electric attribute.
It also makes it easier for me to do things connected to electricity—like electric and lightning magics, etc.
Also, most electric-type attacks won’t work on me now.
It’s the effect of being Levina’s master. She made a fuss asking what I did to reverse our roles in the contract, but I said I didn’t know.
She can determine if someone is lying, so she know too that I have nothing to do with what happened.
The contract is a soul-binding one, so it can’t be undone.
So Levina is now my servant for life...
With that, she gave up grumbling and just went with me quietly. But after a while, like she forgot all that happened—she became too noisy and friendly.
Anyway, now it’s decided that one of my main attributes is electricity.
I plan to acquire at least two attributes.
And I want the other one to be a wind attribute.
-’It will be easy, as electricity is pretty connected to wind.’
Levina’s voice was heard in my mind again.
She’s right. At least my new attribute is not against wind, so it’s a good thing.
Looking at my stat again... My mana control and agility drastically increased.
It’s normal, as I focused on training my agility and mana control since before.
Every time you jump to a higher rank, there’s a chance that one or two of your stats will drastically increase.
Guess my luck worked this time and the two of them ranked up.
’So this is what they meant by and is not near each other.’
My body feels many times stronger than when I was rank. Feels like I ranked up a lot of times, to be honest.
As I was happily celebrating on my own, I heard a voice in front of me.
I closed my status and looked at the source of it.
It was Clifford. He’s sitting opposite of me.
"Want to tell us something?"
Clifford said. Behind him were his group members looking at me curiously.
And at his question, I nodded my head.
Then I told them almost everything—my name, my age, my rank, and how I followed them into the dungeon.
Of course, I didn’t tell them about my [Cat Transformation]. They might notice that I just snatched a quarter of their herbs.
It took quite some time to tell them, so I cooked food with their permission... I told them it was my thanks for not shooing me even though I sneaked in here.
They healed me too just now. I also saw them attempting to save me earlier with my fight against Levina at the end.
So that’s why I cooked with my best ability for them.
And if you’re wondering why I honestly told them almost everything... it’s because I just felt like doing it. I was too lazy at the time to lie.
"You just reached rank at the end of your fight earlier?!"
"You’re only seventeen?!"
"And what’s with these foods, they’re fucking delicious!"
I was bombarded with praises and words after telling them everything I could.
Clifford and Oscar were looking at me with shocked expressions.
"Why did you here? Nom...nom... Your food is awesome...nom...nom."
A member of [Coldvale] named Alina asked while eating.
"Because I want to get stronger."
Clifford and the others stopped eating and looked at me weirdly.
"So you thought of fighting monsters here?"
I turned to him and frowned.
Oscar’s brows creased, same with Clifford.
So to make things clear, I spoke again.
"I just planned to acquire a material that can be used to make my weapon."
I said, scratching my cheek.
"You know you could die fighting just a single monster here, right?"
"That’s why I followed you guys—so you can deal with monsters. And you guys are having trouble detecting my presence, so did the monsters. They might never even sense me—well, except for Levina and maybe the boss monster."
Then I casually replied.
His face became complicated, as what I said all had a point.
-You want a material for your weapon? Why don’t you use that then?
Levina said, pointing at the black stone still standing tall in the middle of the meadow.
It’s where she was flying above when we first saw her.
-It’s sturdy and compatible with any attributes. It’s my favorite toy when I was alone here. It’s a meteor, so it doesn’t exist in this world too, so I don’t know much about it.
I looked at Clifford with a complicated, sorry, and pleading expression.
Clifford looked at his group members and smiled at me.
"It’s fine, you can take it. It’s your spirit’s property anyway."
"I’m satisfied with my weapon. This thing saved my life a lot of times now."
"I’m a mage. I’m curious, but don’t need it."
"This spear is from my father, no need to change weapons."
They said to reassure me and let me take the black rock for myself.
-You human, don’t address me casually.
Levina said, pointing at Clifford.
She looked at Clifford for a moment, then looked at me.
Soon, she flew quietly and stayed on top of my head.
"Why don’t you get that black rock then eat with us?"
Clifford said to break the awkwardness.
"Sure, thanks again."
Then I stood up and approached the black rock.
"System, can you appraise it?"
[Not to brag, but when the Higher Being upgraded me, they said that I can now appraise anything.]
You can tell it’s actually bragging contrary to what it said, the system was being all proud.
"That’s cool. Now appraise it."
I’m so tired that I can’t even argue with it right now.
Then the black rock’s information appeared in front of me.
-A sturdy and mysterious meteor rock that is compatible with any attributes. It is one of the strongest materials that exist in this universe.
"Those transcend beings..."
I didn’t write anything in the novel.
So it’s most likely invented by them.
Levina also, who probably killed the three women [Coldvale] members in the story, was made by them.
But with her on my side now, it’s most likely that the deaths of the women will not happen anymore. But I still need to be cautious just in case.
I opened my status and looked at a certain trait.
It’s the ’’ trait. I still have no idea what it is. I tried pressing it again and again, but no description about it appeared like usual.
But one thing is for sure.
"This helped me break through rank."
It’s the light that covered me when I was trying to block Levina’s magic, the .
This trait increased my stats that time and healed some of my burns, then it helped me rank up.
It also did something when Levina was trying to make me her servant, resulting in her being my servant instead.
After racking my brain for a few minutes...
I closed my status window and decided to think about it later. I didn’t ask the system, as I know it’s not gonna answer me because the Higher Being said so.
I put the [Phantom Meteor] in my spatial storage and headed back to where Clifford and the others were.
We ate food together and talked. They mostly asked things about me.
My thoughts are a mess.
But one thing is for sure.
Today, I became much stronger than before.