Moving towards the tree trunk, I slowly sat on it before a piece of bread was brought to me by the man in the bronze armor. He was a human with a strange aura around him.
Taking a proper look at him, he seemed to be under a curse of some sorts and a bunch of scars were present all over his body. Some of them even reached up to his face, near his left eye, blinding him from one of it.
Eating the piece of bread, I felt the sour taste of mud and bread mixed in, chugging the bread down my throat as I changed its taste and nutrient content with my [Energy]. I kept observing the other members of the group.
"For you to travel from the east, you must have traveled quite a distance young man," the man with the scars spoke with a rather curious look on his face.
"Yeah. The spirits told me that I should travel in this direction if I wanted to survive," I answered him with another lie, to which his eyes widened as he asked again,
"Spirits? You can see them?"
I chuckled as I answered,"sense them would be more appropriate. Even though I cannot see, I can see a hazy aura around everyone. Like that fiery lady over there with red aura, that golden silver aura around that lady there. You too have a mixture of auras as well."
They were all surprised as they heard my words, some of them even moved closer to me.
A young boy, who was probably the porter here, spoke out excitedly as he asked,"me! Me! What about me?!!"
Looking at the hazy dull gray aura, I answered the truth. His excitement died pretty much fast, as he spoke 'ah. Is that so?' Before he stepped away from me.
"You shouldn't have said that," the final member, another girl, this time a demihuman with the rabbit ears, white tiger paws and a tail of a lizard spoke out. She had a mix of three or four energies upon her, as she looked at me with a rather annoyed look.
"I shouldn't lie to a young kid, should I?" I answered as I took another bite before gulping the bread down again.
"You are an odd one, kiddo. My name is Favius. The fiery one is Rika. That kid was Aman," Favius, the scarred one, spoke energetically as he introduced the three of them. As for the chimera like girl,
"I am… Re. And that is our leader, Quintellia. We are the Cursed Children."
'The Cursed Children, huh? Quite a fitting name,' I smiled as I spoke," Well. Even though I have already said it, let me say it again. I am Crow, a spiritseer."
"Is there anything you are good at, Spirit Seer?" Quintellia, the girl whom I gave the contract to, spoke as she looked at me. Her long white hair fluttered in the air, as she turned to analyze me. Though I simply smiled before answering,
"I dabble a little bit in a little bit of everything."
"Like what?" She pressed a bit more, while I kept my poker smile as I continued.
"I think I can act as a scout for the group. After all, I can see what the others can't, I should be able to warn of you any unexpected danger through the spirits,"
"Scout?" She scoffed. To be led by a blind person would be ironic, wouldn't it? Though…
"Yeah. Like those men with a dirty aura about 200 meters behind you. They aren't really trying to hide their nature, are they?" I spoke as I kept sitting there, while the others grew cautious.
The party of 5 prepared for a fight as they looked in the direction I pointed to. Even though they couldn't see the enemy, they still believed my words clearly and armed themselves. Even the young frail boy with no sort of strong point took out a short dagger and prepared for a fight.
'There are 14 of them. Their power is around… a B-Grade monster each, with the leader almost reaching an A-Grade's worth,' I sought out their power level as I analyzed the enemy through the map.
By the way, the average monsters here were B-Grade with the strong ones reaching as much as SS-Grade or above. And even though the party wasn't exactly strong, they weren't weak either. The weakest one, the young kid, should be around C-Grade himself, while Quintellia, the strongest among the party, was an A-Grade herself.
The rest of the party was B-Grade each, with some reaching mid tier, and Favius reaching peak B-Grade.
Anyways, it was a bad match up. 14 against 5 wasn't exactly their best bet to win this one.
"Should we run?" Re spoke as she realized that winning would be difficult. Though Quintellia shook her head as she spoke,
"We need to move forward. There is no more place for us back in that city anymore."
A few minutes passed as those 14 bandit-like adventurers appeared near the camp. Even though Rika shot an arrow at the leader, it was easily repelled by a barrier, making Rika narrow her eyes at the enemy.
If they charged blindly, they would die. That's what the Cursed Children thought as they looked at the 14 men in front of them.
"Ain't these cursed children? Haha! Seems we are in luck! We can get a lot from selling them as slaves! Just thinking about the prices… hehe…"
"Hey! I want to play with them for a few days before selling them. Don't you dare sell them before that!!"
"No way! You always break the product before we can sell them!"
"I like that white haired one's eyes! She will be fun to break!"
The situation seemed to be tense as the party gulped before they prepared their weapon. Based on the [Gift] that Quientellia had, hmmm… nope. She won't be able to make it out of here. At least not until she unlocks her hidden potential.
I wanted to intervene, but I decided to wait a little. Let's see how this entire thing plays out for now.