"She may only be in Qi Awakening, but her beast seems to be in mid Qi Manipulation." a short old man replies to the woman's question.

His words cause several people who were acting dismissive earlier to look in our direction.

A woman wearing tight-fitting clothes laughs, "Using a magical beast to do all of the work, I've always detested beast tamers."

"Taming a beast takes lots of work, it's a valid profession." a man with long hair counters her.

The woman just laughs again, "Didn't you hear what species it is? How hard can it be to tame a holy fox?"

"Enough. I will decide who I will hire." Trista looks at Mama Bloodcat, "I will not pay for you and your beast, you will be paid 800 spirit stones just like everyone else. Do you accept?"

Mama nods her head, "I accept."

"Good, then I will now explain the mission. There is a dungeon not far from here called Contraptionation, I am sure some of you have heard of it. Do not let the harmless sounding name fool you; it is extremely dangerous! There are thousands of deaths accounted to that single dungeon, many of which were Qi Manipulation experts such as us. Some of you may also know that the last room of Contraptionation has gone un-cleared for several years now, preventing it from resetting. My goal is to clear that last room. I will also be keeping any treasure acquired from the dungeon. If any of you have questions, please ask them now."

""What if the treasure is worth significantly more than what you are paying us?"" a man and woman, who have been silent until now, ask in complete unison.

'Creepy.'

"I am paying you to help me clear the dungeon, how much the treasure is worth is my problem. If you do not agree to my conditions, you can leave now."

The room is silent for about a minute, during which nobody leaves.

Trista nods her head, "Good. Are there any other questions?"

After nobody says anything for a while, she stands up, "That is all then. We will meet here again tomorrow morning, and then travel directly to the dungeon."

After she finishes talking, everyone starts dispersing. Mama stands up as well, and walks out of the room. After we're out of hearing distance of everyone else, I poke Mama on her cheek.

"Why didn't you tell them how strong you are? Couldn't we have gotten paid twice as much?"

"The fact that they think I am weak may prove advantageous to us. If they attempt to attack us, they will be unprepared for my strength, and will likely fail. If they know I am strong, they will be able to plan accordingly."

"I guess that makes sense. It kinda sucks that we get paid less, though."

"Better safe than sorry. That is how you use that term, yes?"

I laugh, "Yeah, that was a correct usage."

"Hey!"

Suddenly I hear a shout from behind us. As Mama turns around, I see Trista quickly approaching us. After catching up to us, she stops.

"Sorry, I wanted to talk to you more earlier, but I didn't want them to think I was playing favorites. They can't complain if I talk to you in my personal time, though! Oh right, do you mind if we hang out? Guess I should've asked that first."

"I assume to hang out is to spend time together? If so, I do not mind."

"Sweet! So I noticed your red hair earlier. If you don't mind my asking, are you part of the Byorand clan?"

"What is a 'clan'?"

"A clan is basically a huge family." "It's like a normal family, but bigger." Trista and I answer at almost the same time.

Mama giggles, "No, I am not part of any clan. Why do you ask?"

"Well, because they all have a fire affinity. Wait, you do have a fire affinity, don't you?"

Mama thinks for a second, then nods her head, "Yes, I believe I do. May I ask why you have green hair? Do you have an affinity?"

"Yep!" she beams proudly, "The Riddith clan has an affinity to nature."

"I see, and nature is... plants?"

"Mostly, yep. They say that nature qi is green, which is why my hair is green. I'm not sure why some people have attributes and some don't, though."

"So fire qi must be red. It makes sense. Are there other attributes?"

"For sure! Holy foxes, for instance, have the light attribute. Most high tier magical beasts are born with attributes, really; which attribute they posses can usually be judged by their fur or skin color. They're pretty rare in humans, though, which is why people with the same attribute will often group up in clans."

Mama and Trista continue talking, while I silently listen in. Nothing really mind blowing is said, but several things are cleared up for me. Apparently, all known qi has an elemental attribute, which must be why all of the fog that comes from dead creatures is colored. I always figured something similar was going on, but now I know for sure.

Also, black eyes are apparently a sign of a magical beast reaching Qi Awakening or higher, though some types of beasts such as sitchles are born with black eyes. Bloodcats are also probably born with black eyes, since the cubs' eyes were black ever since I can remember.

After walking and talking until the sun sets, Trista finally bids us farewell. Mama, still holding me, walks to one of the inns that Poisonclaw introduced us to and rents a room, after which she directly enters it. I start thinking that she's acting a bit more solemn than usual, when...

"We were being followed."

"Really? I didn't even notice... do you know who was following us?"

Mama shakes her head, "No, but they should have been an early Qi Manipulation cultivator."

"Was it one of the people we met earlier?"

"No. We must be cautious, somebody may have plans for us."

"We could just leave and go to the next city."

"I doubt that would help." she scowls, "Besides, I will not be intimidated by them. If they feel we are scared, it will not be good for us. Should it turn out they have the intent to harm us, I will simply harm them first."

"Sounds like a good plan to me, I guess. I mean, I really have no idea what you're supposed to do in this sort of situation."

And so, with a plan set up, we go to bed. Well, I go to bed; Mama just meditates like she usually does at night.

The next morning, we go down and eat some of the inn's 'delicious food' that Poisonclaw was going on about. It's pretty tasty, honestly. After we finish eating, we head to the meeting point.

It turns out that the two Riddith siblings, the long haired man, and the creepy couple are already there. The creepy couple completely ignores us, and the Riddith siblings seem to be preoccupied with arguing. The only person that greets us as we near is the long haired man.

He smiles, "I already got your name, let me introduce myself in turn. You can call me Green Horn, nice to meet you."

After hearing his name, I'm barely able to hold back my snickering, in fear of being scolded.

Mama smiles and nods, "Nice to meet you."

Green Horn seems somehow offended by her response, as he frowns and turns his head away.

Mama shakes her head, "Cultivators confuse me."

"You and me both, what's he even mad about?"

Within an hour, everyone but the tight-fit clothes lady has arrived.

For some reason, the middle aged woman who commented on Mama only being in Qi Awakening keeps glancing this way. Eventually, she awkwardly walks over and stands stiffly in front of us.

"I'm... sorry. I didn't realize your magical beast was so strong. I don't want my... rude words to get in the way of us working together."

Mama smiles, "Please do not say sorry, there is nothing to apologize for."

The woman clearly relaxes and smiles a bit awkwardly, as if smiling is something new to her.

"My name is Ruth. A piece of advice, be careful about those two over there," she points at the creepy couple, "they have a bad reputation. Both of them are named Lei, and supposedly they practice a sinister dual cultivation method. I don't know much more about them, except that they're very strong."

Mama gives a small bow, "Thank you for the advice."

Ruth nods and walks away. Soon tight-fit clothes lady arrives, and we all follow Trista to Contraptionation.

Shortly after our journey starts, Mama whispers to me in her arms, "We were being followed again, but they seem to have stopped as soon as we left the city."

I nod my head, "They're still following us, just farther back."

Mama furrows her brows at my words.

Just before the sun sets, Trista slows down and stops, an action that prompts everyone else to do the same.

"You're pretty fast for a Qi Awakening kid."

Once we catch up, the short old man makes an offhand comment directed at Mama Bloodcat.

Mama chuckles, "Thank you."

She then leans down and whispers to me, still chuckling, "He called me a kid. What would he think if he knew how old I am?"

I laugh, "I think he'd be more worried about how strong you are."

"Why would he be worried? I will not attack him unless-"

"No, it's a figure of speech. I mean that he would care more about how strong you are."

Mama gives an 'ah' as she nods her head.

"Alright everybody, here we are. Please follow me, the entrance is over there."

Trista points, but all I see in that direction is a huge rock.

'Wait a minute...'

At first glance it didn't look like much, but after observing it for a couple seconds, I realize that its shape is far too deliberate to be a mere rock. The object looks like a giant gray dome with an extremely smooth, even slightly shiny, surface.