Chapter 26 :

Episode 6 : Hidden Quest (4)

The eyes of the cat were revealed in a reddish shine of light, opening its eyelids in the laziest manner and before long, it was standing with its humongous legs.

It laid its ruby red eyes upon the unexpected guest that appeared out of nowhere. Then it tilted its head to the right, puzzled to see a human. "Meow?" → ‘A human?’ 

"Mrow?!" The cat leapt back in shock. ‘Master!?’

For some reason, I could understand what it said. "No, you're mistaken. I'm not your master." 

The cat swayed its tail in excitement. "Meow meow! Mrow!" → ‘Master! Stop joking!’

"I'm not though." I stepped a bit further back as I responded.

"Mrow! Mew.. Mrrow!" → ‘Then why did you call my name?’

"I don't even know your name." 

"Mew.. Meow mrow! Mrrowow!" → ‘If that's the case, let's play!’

"Play..?" I blinked twice in confusion, not only because of that, I also received a message. 

[You got a ‘Hidden quest’ from L̷̡̨̧͍͍̘͕̞͑̃̋̋̐̈́̕͠ư̸̬̭͚͖͙͈̺̈́́͐͊̀̏ͅc̶̱̾͒͘͝i̵̡̱̱̜̩̤̗̝̊̽̂̿͌̊̈́͑͘͝f̸̱̭̝͈̪͕͐̌͆ę̵͙͖̐͊͐̈̍͊̾̏͘͠r̴̢̜͇̰͚̣̋̾͛̓̚.]

‘Huh? What is with this glitch text?’ 

The quest's information appeared right in front of me while I cautiously watched the cat.

[Hidden Quest : Tame The Cat.]

+

Task: Play with the cat.

Time Limit: 60 hours.

Reward: 300 coins, earn the right to know the Katana's name, ???

Failure: ???

+

I was reading the description but got interrupted by an incoming tail. 

Noticing the tail coming at me in the last second, I jumped up to avoid it. 

"Hey! Can you see I was busy?" I grumbled at the cat.

"Meow! Meow mew!" → ‘Play with me first!’

Not letting me have the chance to reply, it slammed its tail on top of me. 

‘Damn.. Guess I have to give this a try.’ I exhaled to relax my breathing and activated my new skill.

[You activated the skill, ‘Discharge’ Lv. 2.]

In that split second, electricity gathered in my feet, allowing me to release all of that electrical force to sprint away from the spot where I was standing. 

The area where I just stood, was crushed by the cat's giant tail. 

"Meow? Mrow..mew mew." → ‘Master? Don't use the same trick again.’

"I'm not your master!" I shouted while running in a zigzag pattern on the cat's tail. 

The cat became furious, as a result, it smacked me with its paw. 

‘This isn't going to be easy.’ I pondered.

As the cat's paw slowly descended on me, I concentrated for the black katana to materialize in the palm of my right hand. 

In this situation, I gripped my sword to activate my hidden skill.

[You activated the hidden skill, ‘Skill Imitation’ Lv. 1.]

[What do you want to imitate?]

I remembered HwanGi's skill and thought. ‘Divine Flame’.

[The Hidden Skill, ‘Divine Flame’ has been selected.] 

[Imitation level is Lv. 1.]

[Imitation of ‘Divine Flame’ Lv. 1 has activated.]

[You have 5 minutes before the imitation ends.]

A burst of white flame surrounded my position, burning the cat's fur in the process. 

"Meow!! Nroww!!" → "Ouch!! Not that fire!" 

As the cat was distracted, I jumped off its tail to get near the wall. And as I was sliding down the wall, I stabbed my katana into it to stop my fall.

Pant..pant.. huff..

The cat swayed its tail crazily to stop the flame, patting the burning part, rolling on the ground to extinguish the fire which caused the ground to rumble a lot.

And yet, the flame kept going on without dying down.

"Meowww!!! Nrow!" → ‘Master!!! Please stop!’

The cat groaned in pain with its tail being engulfed with divine flame. 

I would feel sorry if I harm a normal cat. On the other hand, this wasn't a normal cat, so I didn't feel pitiful toward the giant cat at all.

..I said that, but what is this weird feeling I'm having?

Strangely, I wanted to deactivate the skill, not to further damage the cat.

During when I deactivated the flame, the cat was glaring at me with its anguish eyes. 

[‘Behemoth’ has activated the hidden skill, ‘Explosive Furball’ Lv. ???.]

It vomited a large hairball out of its mouth and as the hair ball dropped, the cat whacked the furball with its tail, to launch it in my direction.

Judging from the skill name, it might explode when it hits the target, hence why I instantly let go of my katana. 

When I was falling off the wall, the furball came into contact with the katana which caused it to blow up into a tremendous explosion.

I, on the other hand, wasn't in the safe zone, so I was caught inside the explosion while in the middle of falling.

[Hidden Skill, ‘Simulation’ Lv. 1 has offset the pain.]

———

Stones, bricks, torches, everything was descending from the cloud of dust, left by the explosion.

A giant cat observed the surrounding with eyes full of worry when it realized what it had done. 

"Meow..? Meow?" → ‘Master..? Did I go too far?’ The cat lowered its head with Its tail dropped down as if to show how sad it was.

Noise of falling debris decreased as time went on. And soon, it was quiet without a single sound. 

Until a voice resounded in the dust cloud. 

"This is really something." 

The cat moved its head up to find where that voice came from. As soon as its eyes discovered the man walking toward it, the cat's eyes sparkled greatly.

I mumbled. "A transforming weapon.." 

If it weren't for me wishing to have shortswords to protect myself when I was in that explosion, I might have died from being crushed by the debris. 

"Everything just keeps getting more confusing.." I spoke in a piss off tone.

[You activated the skill, ‘Discharge’ Lv. 2.]

The cat could sense the atmosphere undergoing a slight change as it stared at the human, terrified.

"Why don't you get some catnap? Behemoth."

Behemoth had his eyes on me but when he blinked. I disappeared in an instance.

Due to the place being surrounded in a circle of walls, I easily bounced off from one wall to another in a flash, making sure that the cat couldn't pinpoint my attack. 

‘Bow.’ The black katana that I used quite a bit, transformed into a black bow.

The moment when I bounced off the wall, I was behind the cat. 

Following this, I used my bow to pull back the bowstring, even though it didn't have an arrow.

For the most part.. I had a strong feeling that an arrow will appear no matter what. And as I predicted, an arrow materialized when I let go of the bowstring. 

Because I had been practicing with my bow, my accuracy was good already. Otherwise, the arrow wouldn't be in the cat's anus as of this moment.