68 Stolen!

-Would you like to make a contract with the creature? -

Without even thinking about it, Leo read the words on the screen out loud before looking at the panther who was now in a very sorry state. It confused Leo on why the screen would pop up this question, until he realized that the panther gave up trying to stand and remained with its body on the ground, completely exhausted.

"Oh, so you want to live by making a contract with me?" now walking towards the panther that had given up its struggle, Leo started to talk to it in a respectable tone. For a creature to give up just like this, meant that it valued living over anything else in this moment.

Watching the panther, Leo went down on one knee so it could lock eyes with the panther a little easier as he released his skill. The fog that covered the panther's body started to disperse and the panther was able to breathe easier as it looked at Leo with a confused look on its face.

"Normally I would just kill something like you so that I could have a chance at becoming stronger, but you remind me of someone." Now speaking to the panther, Leo sat down cross legged with a smile on his face. His friend Jack's personality seemed just like this panther, and it caused Leo to recall some older memories.

"Since that is the case, I will accept a contract with you. To be honest with you, this would be my first contract, so I hope that for both of our sake, that this ends up going smoothly." Leo told the panther as he clicked the open button on the screen to see the specifics of the contract.

"Oh?" looking at all the contract options made Leo a little surprised as he read through all of them. There were different types of contracts, but the one that stuck out to Leo the most was the Contract of Equals. The Contract of Equals was like Leo accepting a new member of his squad, except, it left room for the stronger signee to break the contract at any given time.

"Please accept this contract. If you can surpass me in strength, I will gladly allow you to break this contract between us. I offer you this out of respect for the survival instincts you have showed today." Leo told the panther as he sent over the contract to the panther to read over for itself.

However, the screen did not give the panther one, and it only notified Leo that the panther had accepted the contract right away. Pondering over this for a moment, Leo could only think that the reason for this was because the screen gave Leo all the contracts that the panther would accept so that he could choose the most suitable for this situation.

Closing the screen, Leo helped the panther with its recovery using a drop of one of the potions in his possession and led the panther back to his residence right outside of the village. Due to the panther not being a spider or one of the bandits, Leo felt that the villagers would not give him any trouble.

"Leo what in the world are you doing!?" Once he arrived back to his residence, Maria came outside hearing his footsteps and cried out in shock as Leo had a vicious looking panther following behind him.

"Oh, I went exploring a little bit today and came across this little guy. Do not worry, if you are nice to him, I am sure that he will not give you-"as Leo was explaining the situation to Maria, she flew up and sat on the panther as she rode it around the area before he could even finish.

"Uh, Maria?" not sure how to react to Maria's sudden action, Leo just sat down as he held up his head with one of his hands as he watched Maria and the panther. In a weird way, Leo felt deep down that Maria and the panther seemed like they got along much better than he and the panther did.

"I will name you Shadow!" Maria said as she got off the panther's back. "Just remember that only I can ride you though, ok?" she told the panther as she patted its head.

"Oh, come on! If you are going to name it and give it rules against me, I might as well just allow you to keep it as a mount!" feeling like the whole situation got out of hand, Leo called out to the two as he walked up to them.

"If you want to join her, I will give you permission, but do not expect me to be very happy about this." As if the panther he originally was going to kill was stolen from him, Leo started to pester the panther before finally taking a deep breath and calming down.

"Since I can keep it, I will have to thank you kindly." Chuckling from seeing Leo enraged and the panther's eyes shining with hope, Maria quickly jumped up onto the panther again before riding it into the village, leaving Leo by himself.

"Well, at least this way, Maria might have even more of a chance to change the politics of the village." Leo thought as another idea popped into his head. Unlike Maria, he still had the little tiger cub that was full of potential. Thinking about riding it into battle, made Leo feel more content about losing the panther as he went inside to cook himself some dinner.