Contracting the beast.

[Anna POV],

Looking at Ace and Emma's backs, I couldn't help but feel nervous.

According to Chris, Emma is also strong, and not much weaker than Ace.

Chris is also stronger than me.

Despite coming in first, I am the weakest member of the team.

I also asked Chris about what happened in the dungeon because I was curious how Ace could come out barely complete and in such a sorry state, and when I found out that it was due to a battle between them and a rank 1 monster, I was stunned.

Fortunately, Ace was not alone.

But this only fueled my desire to get stronger.

Aside from that, I need to get stronger for myself, since at this rate, I'll just end up being a burden, which I don't want.

As I was thinking about these things, I took a look at the crow on my shoulder and had an idea for how I could increase my strength by a notch.

Crow was summoned by me using an epic skill, and we have yet to be contracted.

The epic grade skill's main purpose is to summon a beast with darkness and shadow attributes from the shadow world that could have a contract with the summoner.

According to the skill, the beast will be able to grow alongside the summoner after both parties have made a contract with each other.

Since the crow was summoned from the shadow world or wherever he came from, it came as a level 4 existence, and I haven't revealed its true power due to its low level and uncontracted status.

In a sense, I haven't used the full strength of the epic grade skill till now, only a portion of it.

But if I want to contract crow, I'll need some materials and a safe location.

I should share my thoughts with Ace first.

As I thought of this, I turned to Ace and called his name.

...

[Ace POV],

"You want to make a contract with your summon?" I asked Anna for confirmation again when she said she wanted to make a contract with the black crow.

"Yes," she said in response.

"What do you need?" I questioned.

Because I had a lot on my mind, I subconsciously forgot about Anna's epic skill. I was going to talk to her about it before, but she did so first.

I could tell from what she told me about the epic-grade skill that its strength lies in contracting the beast summoned.

And, while the crow has many uses, I could tell that the ones I'd seen from the black crow were not the end.

Aside from the fact that it had a low level, I also took into account that it came from an epic-grade skill.

I once attempted to find the cost of an epic-grade item in the store by scrolling down the list on the general sub-option in the store, and even though I was still in the section of ranked items and had not yet reached the side of the epic grade items, I could tell that things related to epic by the primordial chronicle were not simple.

And, yes, I said ranked items. Even before I got to the side of epic grade items, I saw rare grade rank 1 item, rare grade rank 2 items, rare grade rank 3 items, and so on, and the zeros behind the gold coins required to buy ranked items told me I needed to stop.

Checking the price of an epic-grade item will only make reality clearer to me as a poor person to the primordial chronicle.

That's not the point; the point is that even if I were to purchase the same epic-grade skill as Anna, the tens of thousands of gold coins required to do so would be prohibitively expensive.

This could indicate how valuable an epic-grade item is.

Even the goblin Lord did not dare to take a direct hit from the unranked twin blades in my hand, which were only worth a few tens of gold coins. Even though the zombified mutated human was an outlier, it perished. It's fairly simple to estimate how valuable and special an epic-grade item would be.

After Anna heard my question and told me what she needed, I thought for a moment and told her to send a crow clone to scout and see if there was a suitable place to initiate the contract because she said she needed a place where she wouldn't be distracted when she wanted to contract the crow as it was one of the things she needed.

She also stated that she required materials. Fortunately, all that was required was monster blood and a crystal core. The higher the monster's level, the better.

"Ace, I have some news," Anna stated as she called my name.

"What did you find?" I questioned.

"Monsters, and a lot of them. There are 3 different groups. One ahead, one to the left, and one to the right ", she explained.

"Are those all the monsters?" I said and wondered when I heard this.

"No. There are a few lone monsters strewn about ", she said.

When I heard this, I asked another question. What I had in mind as an ideal location for the team to level up was a place with a reasonable number of monsters of various levels that we could kill.

"How many monsters does each group have?" I inquired.

"The front group has 14 monsters, the left group has 11, and the right group has 17 monsters, their levels unknown," she replied.

"Are there any anomalies in any of the three groups?" I asked as I didn't want to encounter any more rank 1 monsters by accident. It would be a strange sight if I came across one stronger than the goblin lord.

"No anomalies," she said.

When I heard this, I nodded and said;

"Then lead us to the one on the right. When we arrive, we'll have the materials you require and will look for a secure location for you to begin the contract ", I said to Anna, who responded with a nod.

"Send another crow to scout the area to the right as well. It would be better to look for places with monsters or places that appear strange ", I said to Anna again as she led the way.

"OK, no problem," she replied simply.historical

With this, as we followed Anna's lead, my team and I maintained our caution to prevent any mishaps.

'I wonder what will happen when Anna contracts the crow,' I thought as I observed my surroundings while making my way forward.