At that moment, my heart ached as if it were being squeezed.

It all boiled down to two feelings – anger and confusion.

Part of me was upset at my decision to let them go because I didn't know if it would bring me more troubles later on, but I was also not so keen on hunting them down as I still had attachments to my human side.

And then there was a devious side of me, that kept thinking I should have rounded the mortals and offered them to the tree spirits as a peace offering to salvage our shaky relationship.

Just thinking about it made me chuckle sinisterly and Sylrin who was resting nearby gave me a confused look.

And if I could exploit the spirits and their love of mortals, this could become a peace offering to salvage our shaky relationship

What an ingeniously foul idea! Perhaps my monster side was finally kicking in?

This time there would be no sympathy on my part!

«Stop laughing like a manic.» Sensei sighed at me. «Whatever you're thinking won't work, because they're already long gone.»

Ah shoot!

"I can still catch them!" I insisted, getting up beside Sylrin to stretch my wings.

The mortals were still somewhere in the forest, and I hoped they hadn't gone far. My alliance with the Nymph would benefit much from their sacrifice!

«You're angry.» Sensei sighed. «But I doubt you could really kill a mortal just yet.»

Had he become soft after lecturing me about not feeling guilty?

«It's best to focus on what's important at this moment, which is building your Pit.»

Ah yes, my handy flamethrower needed to be protected.

And I also needed to return before those other brats burnt the cave down.

But for once, Sensei was right.

Sylrin tilted his head to the side, likely wondering why I was staring at him like he was a tasty snack.

We then returned to the cave which was much cooler than outside, now that the flames were out, and as Sylrin lazed around, I attempted to convince him to return to my cave with me.

It was likely this would not be the end of his encounter with those mortals.

He was strong, but they were slippery and full of tricks.

Another thing I was worried about was them returning with more members of their party. I had no idea how strong the others would be compared to the commander.

However, Sylrin shook his head, and set the ground around ablaze before huddling down comfortably with no intention to leave.

This brat!

I'd never had trouble telling my pit members what to do as Typhon and Ophelia were so well behaved! But compared to them, Sylrin was always so difficult!

Could it be that he was now a higher level than me?

No way! I refused to believe it.

Maybe I'd spent too long eating and lazing around.

As Sylrin turned his back to me for the second time, I leapt on him and constricted with all my might. Eventually, after many roars of complaint, he couldn't take my harassment any longer and tapped out in defeat.

And as soon as I released him he stormed out of the cave.

Finally, now we were getting somewhere!

I took off after him, chasing after his winged figure as he rose up in the air.

Initially, I thought he had finally agreed to return with me, but after following him for a while, I realized he was going somewhere else.

My cave was definitely not in that direction!

I sped up to catch him and circled around him in the air, but Sylrin ignored me and kept flying straight.

It was then, it occurred to me that he may be going after the mortals again and I immediately commanded him to stop.

However, once again Sylrin continued to fly through the forest, seemingly unaffected by [Commander] and not far below I saw two heat traces light up in red.

This stubborn fool!

If it was the two mortals, we would have to kill them quickly before they reached their group.

However, Sylrin flew over the two heat traces, without stopping, and when I flew close enough to inspect them, the heat traces turned out to be two monsters instead of the mortals.

Part of me was relieved.

It seemed Sylrin wasn't chasing after the mortals and we continued to fly for a while until the landscape changed to a steep hill with the trees growing in a lush covering.

Sylrin began to fly lower before landing at the foot of the hill where he crouched and stared around suspiciously, even sniffing the air, seemingly on the offensive.

What was he up to by bringing me here?

I followed his example and activated [Shadow Shroud], as I landed to be just as stealthy, wondering what exactly got him so spooked.

Sylrin went up the hill without pause and no matter how much I signalled for him to stop, he continued with the stealthy prowess of one who was familiar with this route. And I wondered why he didn't just fly over it like normal.

But as we neared the top, he suddenly stopped, and I began to feel nauseated.

I stared at Sylrin who gave me a rather sheepish grin. I wasn't sure if there was something nearby causing it, but it seemed to get worse the higher we climbed.

Nevertheless, we continued going, and at the top of the hill, our surroundings that once looked like thick forest opened into a wide clearing.

I was taken aback, but not long after, I began to hear voices.

It was in a garbled tongue, but the tone was unmistakably that of people talking and I scanned around to find the source.

But wait a minute…this uncomfortable feeling seemed familiar.

Wasn't this similar to the elf party's illusion barrier?

I glared at Sylrin from where I was hiding and he looked at me with excitement, his spiked tail swishing away behind him.

This troublesome fool!

Did he really just bring me to their main camp?

Here, I was worried about the other party members coming to attack him, and he saved them the effort and brought us straight to them instead!

The elf party was camped further down in the clearing, and from what I could see, their camp overlooked a steep descent in a cliff where the hill stopped. Below this was a wide chasm that formed a valley, filled to the brim with mist that made them look like floating clouds.

I couldn't see past this because in my penalty state, I was truly feeling the effect of the illusion barrier unlike before when I simply rushed in. I wasn't sure if Sylrin felt the same because he didn't seem bothered and his excitement hadn't changed.

However, this wasn't the only thing odd about the place.

As I looked around there were scattered bits of rubble in what looked like the foundations of an old, dilapidated building. There was even a wall with vacant arched windows similar to that of a church, with walls that were overgrown with ivy, although most of the stone had long crumbled away.

The hunting party had set up their tents on what was left of the altar, and they were walking about inside, seemingly in the midst of a heated discussion.

I didn't pay much attention to them and was simply aghast at the discovery of what was once a building. If there used to be one here, I wondered if there were several in the past.

And what had they been used for?

The trees around their camp were mostly spaced apart, but there was plenty of foliage to provide our camouflage, so we still managed to avoid detection.

But how did Sylrin know they were here?

From his behaviour I could tell he had come here many times before.

However, before I could grill him about his past activities, I detected some movement on the far end of the camp and soon, a pale haired girl with pointy ears appeared from one of the tents.

As her robed figure breathed in the fresh air, Sylrin quickly backed away – seemingly in a panic.

What the?

I did the same as the elf girl began walking in our direction, only for her to stop several meters away from where we were.

And after looking around for a while, she quickly returned to her tent.

With her gone, Sylrin then resumed his stealthy vigil, all the while keeping an eye on the tent.

What the hell just happened?

I stared at Sylrin who was intently focused. Had he figured out some sort of secret, or perhaps her detection range?

He seemed to be shadowing the female elf, making sure to remain out of the periphery of her vision rather effortlessly.

This also made me rethink Sylrin's skills.

At one point during the battle with the mortal commander, he had been able to pinpoint exactly where the mortals were inside my shadows. He shouldn't have been able to see them since they were fully covered, yet he was able to target them accurately.

Did he have some skill that made his eyesight so much better?

Once again, I anxiously missed having [Appraisal].

I couldn't wait to decipher his skill list!

As we watched the tents, the voices I heard earlier reappeared in the form of a bedraggled pair of mortals who were discussing something rather heatedly as they approached their tent.

Sylrin on seeing them let out a low growl, and I wondered why he was irritated when these mortals were different from the ones that had attacked us.

However, before I could figure it out, the system dinged.

[New Quest: Retrieve and destroy Grandmaster Lothrein's prized Journal.]

[Reward: 500XP]

[Accept | Reject]

A new quest!

I stared at the system alert with excitement.

But after reading it, the quest screamed of suspicious activity.

Why was the reward so high for a simple retrieval?