These Familiars Are Strange

This was a voice that I recognized right away since she had already made a big impression on me.

It was just that I didn't expect to hear this voice.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, I turned around to see the face that I was expecting to see.

It was Leaf and the World Tree Team.

She was looking at me with a bright smile, but the others behind her didn't seem to be as friendly. The ones behind her looked at me in a way that made it very clear what they were thinking.

"Why is she talking to him?"

That was the same question that I was thinking when I saw Leaf standing behind me like this.

There was no reason for her to suddenly approach me like this since I hadn't done anything during this time. I made sure to stay in the back and watch over everything without standing out, so there was no reason for me to attract her attention.

For her to suddenly approach me like this really didn't make any sense at all.

But seeing that I didn't say anything, she said, "Do you not want to talk to me? Are you busy right now?"

She even tilted her head as if she was truly confused why I didn't want to talk to her.

She was a beautiful girl in the first place and when she acted this way, even I couldn't help thinking…

"Cute."

But then I felt a chill coming from behind me.

I didn't need to guess to know where that was coming from, so with a cough, I said, "Aren't we all busy? I think that we're competitors, so it's best if we make the best use of our own time."

As I was about to leave, she suddenly said, "Then how about this? I'll pay you to have a talk with me."

Without hesitation, she suddenly took out something and held it up in front of me.

The moment that this thing appeared, my appraisal ability went off and I saw what this thing was.

Kijin Mask

A mask filled with the spirit of the Kijin. Creates a special set of armour that boosts the user's strength when activated. Time limit is dependent on the amount of mana the user possesses.

The moment that I saw the description of this item, I was completely caught off guard.

It wasn't because of the ability of this item, but rather the identity of this item.

This was the drop from the Kijin that she must have picked up earlier. Your journey continues at My Virtual Library Empire

This was one of the things that was needed to report one's kills later when we all left the dungeon. For her to actually give this thing to me, it was basically her way of saying that she was giving me this Elite Monster.

Seeing that I just looked at the mask without saying anything, Leaf said, "It's not just this thing that's needed to report in. The little things that they gave us record traces of mana, which also helps them keep track of things in this dungeon. It's not that I'm giving you full credit, but at least we can share that credit."

The same smile was on her face, but I could see that there was something different in her eyes.

Even if she had an innocent look to her, it wasn't as if she was actually that innocent.

The look in her eyes was more than enough to prove that.

If she was going to go this far, there really was nothing to lose from hearing her out.

It wasn't as if she would suddenly attack us for no reason and even if she did, it wasn't as if we didn't have a way to escape.

So I couldn't help feeling curious why she was calling me out to talk like this.

After taking the mask from her, I gave a nod without saying anything, but that was more than enough for her to understand my intentions.

Leaf led the way to the side with the World Tree Team following her and I led my team to follow her.

When we arrived in an empty corridor, she suddenly turned around to look at me. However, she didn't start talking right away as she suddenly summoned out the same tree familiar as before.

As soon as that tree familiar appeared, there was this layer of green light that appeared around us.

Both Wang Rong and Iris immediately looked like they were ready to fight their way out of this, but I stopped them by raising my hand. I didn't even look at them as I stopped them, my eyes were on Leaf the whole time.

I knew that she wouldn't call us here just to do something like trapping us.

There was nothing to gain from this if she were to actually do all of this, all that would happen is that she would lose the mask that she gave me.

After creating this barrier of faint green light, Leaf said, "It's just a precaution to make sure that no one eavesdrops on us."

I gave a simple nod, but I didn't say anything as I continued looking at her with narrowed eyes and waited for her to speak.

Leaf didn't seem to mind the way that I was looking at her as she calmly said, "I'm sure that you're trying to figure out what I want, so I'll just tell you. I want to form an alliance between our teams."

"Huh?"

It wasn't just me that was confused, even the other members of the World Tree Team seemed confused when they heard this.

These were the members of her team that should have known her for a long time and had a good understanding of Leaf, but they were completely taken aback by what she said.@@novelbin@@

She didn't seem to mind any of this at all as she just continued looking at me with the same smile on her face, waiting for my answer.