Chapter 129 Problems On The Way

"For Kayla's sake, can you not tell Undine where she is?"

[For Lady Kayla?]

[For Lady Kayla!!]

[Okay!]

[I dunno!]

[I can try?]

Their answers were all over the place but Evan was able to understand that the spirits were not going to willingly go over to undine and spill his location, at least for now.

'Meanwhile, I have to think of possible countermeasures for what would happen when Undine eventually finds us.

In the game, she wasn't really friendly with other races, especially those on the alpha continent because of the disappearance of Great Fire Spirit Ifrit.'

Evan heaved a sigh as he thought about the random boss battle he had accidentally triggered when he tried to utilize his high favourability stat to recruit the Great Water Spirit during the game.

'She was screaming something along the likes of 'You guys are the reason my sister is gone!', or something similar.

I don't want a situation where she thinks I'm restricting Kayla, but the problem is that she won't even bother to listen to my opinion.

Although Artemisia seems to have some sort of control over the spirit king, getting her to intervene would not be wise.'

[The 'Eternal of Time and Destruction' says that if you try to gain Artemisia's help on this matter, he would personally see to it that the goddess does not make a move.]

'The heck?!'

[The 'Eternal of Time and Destruction' says you should not rely on the goddess' help as she would not always have time for you.

He says you should take the situation where she was not present in Geto City to warn you about the demon and give you time to prepare as an example.]

Reading the notice, Evan's body went cold as he involuntarily trembled in fear. Although he seemed like he had gotten over it, it was not easy for the young hero to forget his close encounter with death.

He shook his head multiple times as if trying to get rid of his fear before standing up and deciding to go back to the inn.

'I'm calling it a day, we are also going to the dungeon tomorrow, so it should be alright for me to rest now so I'd be at my best condition tomorrow.'

As he thought that to himself, he casually bought a few cans of strawberry juice that he finished by the time he reached the inn.

◇ ◇ ◇

Abe's Guest House

City State of Magic, Kasteblum

December 19th

Year 1051

Evan felt something brushing against his face while he was asleep. It felt like some sort of soft cushion coated in fur.

He pushed it away first but it kept coming back and eventually became a nuisance to the young hero.

'Is someone trying to mess with me?'

He opened his eyes with those thoughts and was met with two pairs of eyes staring back at him.

The eyes belonged to two cats that closely resembled a breed of cats from his original world.

'I think they were called 'Van' cats, right?'

One of the two cats that were staring at him was relatively large and had a chalky back coat with black eyes.

Its tail was swaying from side to side as it stared at him silently.

Beside it was another cat that had gold-coloured fur and eyes that shone noble gold. The cat also stared at him silently with its tail swaying and occasionally poking its forehead.

'That's quite long...NO, HOLD ON A SEC!'

It was then that the remnants of sleep left his eyes as he shot up and took a proper look at the two cats who were staring at him in silence.

"Kuro? Kayla?"

[Hmph! Took you long enough!]

[Was there any point in this, lady Kayla?]

Evan heard two familiar voices that he hadn't heard in so long and could not resist picking up the two cats and giving them a tight hug.

[I must say, this is quite embarrassing.]

A voice that sounded like that of a little boy's, testament to the speaker's young age rang out as the black cat in Evan's embrace squirmed around.

[Hug! Hug! Hug!!!!!]

Meanwhile, the gold-coloured cat seemed to be enjoying the hug, as opposed to its black coloured counterpart.

[Lady Kayla seems like she's having fun.]

[I know, right?]

[Now I want a hug too]

[Who the heck would hug you?]

[Shut up all of you!]

As usual, the spirits around Evan were noisily chattering about.

◇ ◇ ◇

In the end, it was only when Pride entered the room after sensing the increased concentration of magic power, courtesy of the dozes of spirits flying around in the room, did Evan release the two cats, or rather, spirits.

Kayla had transformed back into her humanoid form and was sitting on Evan's shoulder while chatting with the other spirits who were telling her about Undine's inquiry.

[Aunty Water is coming?]

The young spirit tilted her head to the side as she asked the fish-shaped water spirit that was swimming in the air.

[Soon, when she knows exactly where you are.]

Evan watched the two spirits interact with each other until something that Kayla said shook him to his core.

"Kayla..."

[Master?]

"What did you call Undine just now?"

[Aunty Water?]

Hearing her say it again made Evan remember the last time she addressed someone with that kind of title.

"How many uncles and aunts do you have?"

Kayla smiled widely as she rose her hand and started counting on her tiny fingers.

[There's Aunty Wind, Aunty Water, Aunty Fire and Uncle Earth, Uncle Light and Aunty Dark so six!]

The moment she finished speaking, Evan's face turned pale. Pride noticed his reaction and asked him what was wrong but the young hero was lost in his thoughts.

"So that's how Undine knew I was in Geto City!"

[It is exactly as you think.]

Perhaps understanding what he was talking about, Kuro spoke up as he jumped down from the bed and walked towards the window of the room.

"Just what are the two of you talking about?"

Feeling annoyed that she had been left out of the loop, Pride grabbed Evan's shoulder and asked him to explain the situation to her.

It was only then that Evan explained to her how they encountered the Great Earth Spirit who Kayla called 'Uncle Earth', right before they entered the 'Spider Nest' dungeon.

"So, you mean the Earth spirit told the Water spirit who was looking for Kayla about your location?"

"That is most likely the case."

Evan replied to Pride while his gaze went over to a small fire spirit that was resting on her head and playing with her hair.

"Normally, these guys would be scared of you but this little one seems to like you quite a bit."

The fire spirit had even materialized its physical body in front of the demon much to the shock of the other spirits in the room who didn't even want Pride to know what they looked like.

"That's not important right now, what is important is that there is a Great Spirit after her."

Pride dismissed Evan's words as she spoke of the more serious matter while gesturing towards Kayla.

"Yeah, but she doesn't know where we are for now.

Going into the dungeon would also throw her off for a while as she would not be able to sense us inside there."

Pride nodded in affirmation to Evan's words but she couldn't help but feel that the Great Spirit on Evan's shoulder really brought more than just a few problems.

'Then again, to the other spirits, she's like the young child they have to protect. How did she even get away from the spirit's domain in the first place?'

Coincidentally, Kayla was thinking about the answer to Pride's question.

'It has been a while since I saw Aunty Wind, I should tell master so we can go see her soon. Maybe she would have gone back to the other continent...'

While the young great spirit was lost in her thoughts, Pride had gone to wake Eliza who was sleeping like a log while Evan was reinforcing his contract with Kuro.

After becoming a Master Level Existence, Evan's soul was now capable of forming multiple spirit contracts.

As the limit he had was now Three spirits, adding Kuro to the mix was no more a problem.

Just Like with Kayla, some of Kuro's hidden titles and skills were revealed after the contract succeeded.

Evan had half expected this, so he was not all that surprised when the spirit in the form of a cat started twirling around a ring of black light on its tail.

'Light Shadow magic, huh?

Would this perhaps give him some resistance to the light element that is one of the weaknesses of his shadow element?

While he was deliberating this, Eliza came into the room and attempted to hug the two spirits, only to find herself held down by her own shadow before a bolt of lightning hit her in the forehead.

She then spent the next few minutes in some sort of staring contest with the fire spirit on Pride's head.

Seeing this, Evan couldn't help but heave a sigh of exasperation as he prepared himself for the dungeon dive.