Matt was… befuddled. Because, as he stood under the sunlight, questioning his own sanity, what was in front of him, licking its paws, was indeed… a cat.

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  It had sandy grey fur with lighter colored stripes across its body, making it look like a typical household cat, just slimmer and slightly bigger than your typical one, and if he was being honest, it looked incredibly adorable.

  The other figure was probably a cat too. His [Sense Mana] didn’t really show any detail, just a general outline, and both of theirs looked the same, so if one was a cat, it was safe to assume the other was too.

  He was wary of the odd position he found himself in. A cat was a cat, but it was also a predator, one of the deadliest on the planet, that’s why he chose to keep his gaze centered on the one in front of him. If the other cat was keen on watching, then so be it. He didn’t plan on letting it know of his ability nor that he was aware of its presence. He still had no idea why there were cats here, but even if they seemed nonthreatening, odds of an attack weren’t zero, so he was keeping his guard up, and his cards close to his chest, at least for now.

  The real question now was: what was he supposed to do?

  The notification indicated that the dungeon was over, and he really didn’t want to make any moves that could be interpreted as aggression on his part.

  His eyes widened as he remembered the prompt mentioning something about a guardian.

  He went back to the notification, rereading that part

  Trial guardian has been notified

  Between the evaluation, quest, and notification, there was too much to unpack that the message had completely slipped by him.

  He reexamined the feline, but no matter how hard he looked, it just appeared like a normal cat enjoying the sun, so he tried identifying it.

  [???] lv???

  Well, that’s new, he pondered as the identification gave him more questions than answers.

  Did that mean it was unidentifiable? Usually if something was, nothing would show up, so showing him question marks was definitely odd. It did also put him in a spot where he had no idea what to do next. He couldn’t just sit and do nothing, but at the same time there were only the two cats nearby, and one of them was still content with watching from a distance.

  In the end, he decided simply to ask. It was a reward room, so he would treat it as such and see how it goes. He would be courteous, since there was no need to offend the guardian, whoever he was, but his guard would remain up.

  “Excuse me, are you the guardian?” Matt asked in a calm tone. A cat didn’t really scare him, so there was no reason for him to… well, be a scaredy cat.

  The feline opened an eye, looked at him, then closed it and continued licking its paws, ignoring him completely.

  Matt’s eye twitched in annoyance. He didn’t know if the cat understood him or not, but getting no reaction whatsoever was incredibly annoying, especially when the feline made it a point to show that it was aware of his presence.

  “Hello? Can you understand me or do you only speak cat?” Matt asked again, snickering a little. He was nailing the cat jokes today.

  This seemed to finally grab its attention as the feline stopped licking its paws, narrowed its eyes, and looked directly at Matt.

  Matt stared back at the cat. Its reaction indicated that it had understood some, or all, of what he had said, or that it really didn’t like his voice. His intense focus was soon broken when a voice coming directly from behind startled him.

  “We understand you perfectly, human. And no, we do not speak… cat.”

  Matt immediately turned around, scepter in hand, his eyes falling on another cat, this time with orange fur with stripes of white throughout, slowly circling around him.

  He took a step backwards and identified the apparently talking creature.

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  [???] lv???

  Which told him absolutely nothing.

  He didn’t know whether this was the same cat that had been to his right or a different one entirely, and while he would’ve loved to know, he didn’t feel comfortable losing sight of the feline that was a foot away from him.

  While he had expected them to understand him, and imagined that there was a possibility where they were capable of intelligent speech themselves, it wasn’t any less surprising. If anything, it was slightly unnerving.

  Matt liked cats. Well, he liked animals in general, but cats were definitely up there. He'd never really had one, but he had entertained the thought of adopting once or twice before, in the end opting not to. He wasn’t really the most responsible, so caring for another living being when he could barely care for himself felt…unfair… for the cat.

  Nonetheless, he liked to think he was good with animals. But then again, how does one treat a talking cat? He wondered before deciding once again to just be courteous.

  “Hey there. I’m Matt,” he introduced himself, a polite smile on his face that failed to hide the tension in his body. His tightened grip around his scepter, his stiff legs, a posture that implied he was ready to run at any moment, and his slightly raised shoulders indicated he was anything but relaxed.

  He knew all that, but there was a reason they were easy tells—because they worked. When it was time to go into action, ‘those tells’ could be the difference between being able to react in time or not, so even if the cat could tell, he didn’t care, he was being respectful enough with his words, and that should be all that mattered.

  The feline creature, for its part, completely ignored Matt as it kept walking away from him for a few more seconds, before jumping onto a raised stone platform of some kind, that resembled a podium, lying on it.

  “Yes, you are the new trial taker. We have watched your run. You did… adequately,” the orange furred cat responded in a mature, calm, and cold feminine voice. He also didn’t miss the hint that he had been under watch the entire time.

  “If you already know that much, then you have me at a disadvantage. I think it’s only fair for you to introduce yourself,” Matt replied with the same polite smile. While years of kissing ass had trained him for situations like this, being respectful towards someone who hadn’t shown any animosity was only right. If the cat changed her tone, so would he. “Also, have you been watching me since the day I entered?” he asked, trying to get the cat to tell him more about that part. Being watched during those life and death battles definitely didn’t sit well with him.

  “Of course. Do excuse the lack of manners. It has been a while since we’ve had any… guests,” the cat replied with reserved politeness, as if unaccustomed to it.

  “My name is Tara. The one over by the oasis is my sister, Lara. We are the guardians of the Trial of the Pharaoh,” Tara introduced herself and the other cat that was still ignoring him, revealing that they were, indeed, the guardians that the system message had mentioned, before adding, “And to answer your question, yes we’ve been watching you since the day you entered. It is part of our responsibilities after all.”

  “Part of it, huh? Sounds like being a guardian is very demanding. What else do you guys do?” Matt asked shamelessly, an interested tone in his voice, trying to glean more information from the one guardian willing to talk.

  Tara flashed her fangs at him in what Matt interpreted as a grin. “I might’ve said it’s been a while, but it doesn’t mean we are idiots.”

  “Fair enough,” Matt chuckled, relaxing slightly on hearing the cat shift into a more… playful tone. “I’m guessing there are things you can and can’t tell me, so why not cut to the chase and skip all the back and forth. You probably know what I should be asking more than I do anyway,” he continued, taking on a friendly tone of his own. Being too formal was just too damn tiring.

  Tara rested her head on her paws, looking at Matt with an amused glint in her eyes. “While I could ‘cut to the chase’, tell you what you need to know, and let you be on your way, I did also mention that it had been a while, so why ruin the fun.”

  “Who said the fun had to stop? We’d just be getting the business out of the way,” Matt shrugged, trying to argue his point.

  “That would be true if your attempts at finding the right questions weren’t half the fun. You wouldn’t want to deprive me of that joy now, would you?” Tara asked amusedly.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Matt answered. He was trying to be political with the cat, but inwardly, he was sighing.

  He wanted to close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose, but he also didn’t want to show his frustration. It had been a tiring few days, and all the games and riddles to come were just gonna make it all the more exhausting.

  Fucking cats, man. Why couldn’t it just have been dogs? Definitely would’ve been less of a pain in the ass to deal with, he said inwardly, making sure to keep those thoughts to himself lest he unleashed something he shouldn’t, but just as he finished the thought, suddenly, the other cat, Lara, was standing right in front of him, less than a foot separating the two, staring at him with absolute disgust.

  “I don’t like you, human,” Lara hissed. “You look appalling, you smell nauseating, you have some very dangerous thoughts, and frankly, the only place you should be welcomed in is a swamp, not the sacred temple of Bastet. Now, let’s try this again,” the angry cat said in a dangerously low voice, making Matt wonder if someone had pissed in her soup.

  The angry cat, to his dismay, continued on, declaring in a holier-than-thou voice, “I am Lara. A guardian of the temple of Bastet. Entrusted by Pharaoh Arjun with the protection of the sanctity of his sacred trials, and to ensure the competence of those who dare enter his domain.”

  Matt was audibly grimacing at this point, and yet, she kept going.

  “Now prostrate yourself in front of me and beg to be smote down for your insolence,” Lara ordered, pointing a paw at him expectantly.

  Matt kicked at the rude cat trying to scare her off. “Shoo. Go back to not talking. I liked you better that way.”

  “Aaaaah!” the cat jumped back screaming with surprise, before looking at Tara with absolute shock and horror.

  To which, Tara’s response was… to burst out in unrestrained laughter.