The others weren't the only ones thinking that they had heard something wrong. The couple who invited Krune thought of the same thing. First of all, they only tried to ask Krune out of curiosity. Not even for a second did they expect Krune to accept their offer.

"Are you... for real?"

Krune nodded as he replied.

"You two should do it. You're not a team yet, right? You need three members to make a group, or you can't get registered as one. That being said, I might as well join you and form a team."

Someone else couldn't help but intervene, asking.

"Wait, wait, wait! I don't understand. Why would you select them instead of us here? With your strength, you could choose much better options."

Sure enough, the couple and everyone else were curious about Krune's reason.

However, Krune looked at them with a puzzled expression, saying.

"Isn't that obvious? You guys have already formed your teams. Even if I don't join, your team won't cease to exist. However, this couple still needs one more member. If I don't join, they can't create a group. I'm obviously more needed on their side."

Immediately, everyone had the same thought.

'What kind of bullshit reason is that? You ignored many benefits just because you wanted to help them? Who the hell does that with a talent like yours?'

In fact, even the couple felt like Krune was doing something idiotic. After Krune was finished explaining his reasons, Yulian sent him a Divine Sense Message.

'You will only be a Rank F Team if you do that.'

Krune nodded as he responded back.

'That's fine. I don't mind starting from the bottom. Besides, they were the only ones who didn't seem to care about going to the Four Sectors' Borders.'

Krune then laughed.

"Hahaha! Come on, guys. You don't need to treat them like that just because their cultivation is low. Who knows? They might become some big shots in the future. In any case, have you not heard? They are the only ones who seem to want to go to the Four Sectors' Borders. How about you guys? You seem to be too afraid of it to accept my idea."

Everyone's expressions were definitely that of puzzlement. They still found Krune's reasoning way too naive.

The man then scratched the back of his head as he said.

"Errr... That's great, brother. By the way, my name is Vardin. I'm... a Silver Winged Mouse."

The woman also introduced herself.

"You can call me Diana. I'm... a Silver Winged Mouse as well."

Everyone felt even more helpless now. Silver Winged Mouses! In their eyes, Krune's choice couldn't have become worse. They could be found almost everywhere in the nearby empires, and probably far beyond that as well. Even though they had the phrase 'Silver Winged' in the name of their species, the fact was that they couldn't fly. They do have Silver Wings, but they're way too small to lift their body weight. If they wanted to fly, they would need to reach the Semi-God Realm. Simply put, this was a very weak demon beast race.

Besides...

"I can't believe he joined such an ugly couple of Silver Winged Mouses."

"Krune's also a Demon Beast. Could it be that he's a Silver Winged Mouse as well?"

"Of course not! No Silver Winged Mouse could hope to have such talent. Not only are they ugly as hell, but their abilities are also just as bad."

These kinds of comments began to come from everywhere, not minding that Vardin and Diana could hear them at all. However, Vardin and Diana didn't seem to be surprised by that, nor did they seem to have the need to retort them either. It was as if they also agreed with what the others were saying about them.

Krune then looked at Yulian before asking through a Divine Sense Message. Naturally, he found that reaction weird... and quite familiar.

'Is there something wrong with Silver Winged Mouses?'

Yulian pondered over the question for a bit before answering.

'It's not that there's something wrong about them. However, this isn't exactly a race that others think highly of. They have very high fertility, so they reproduce really fast. In a certain way, people and other beasts don't like them because there are just too many. Well, there's also their appearance. Those two are in their human forms, so you can't see them. However, I have to admit that their race is quite ugly.'

Yulian then continued.

'It's a weird, wrong mix of mammals and birds that doesn't make that much sense. Personally, I don't really care whether a race looks good or not. But as you can see, most still don't like it. I guess the only reason they told you their race straight away was that you wouldn't feel like you were fooled into creating a team with them. Otherwise, I doubt they would have told what race they were from to avoid such scenes.'

Krune's expression became ugly as he asked something else right after.

'So it's not like that they're some evil race or anything like that, right?'

Yulian nodded.

'You can put it like that. If you look deep into their race's role in the demon beast regions, they aren't as bad as the humans and other demon beasts put them. For example, demon beast regions are ruled by the law of the jungle. There, it is common to hunt other demon beasts for food. Thanks to their stupidly high fertility, other races prey on the Silver Winged Mouses a lot. It's not wrong to say that the Silver Winged Mouses help keep the balance between other races with their own lives. When you look at them like that, their existence is quite good in many places.'

'Well, the thing is that the majority didn't care about these things, so...'

Krune nodded. He was a Spiritual Chef, so he wouldn't say something like it was wrong to hunt demon beasts for eating. Krune himself has cooked many types of beasts in the past, including humans, for his Spiritual Chef Test. He always adhered to the rule that if you can eat others, others can eat you as well. Simple as that. Silver Winged Mouses needed to eat as well, so there's no doubt that they killed and ate their own share of living beings to survive in demon beast regions.

'If that's the case, why are they being treated like that? They do play a very important role even if they're preyed on. Can't they see how significant Silver Winged Mouses are?'

Yulian shrugged his shoulders.

'Don't say that to me. It's just as I told you before. I don't care whether they're ugly or not. I couldn't care less whether the Silver Winged Mouse race can keep their role as prey, hunters, balancers, or whatever. As long as they don't bother me or continue to do their work, I'm fine with it. If you want to complain, go ahead and complain to the people and beasts around you.'

After that, Yulian gave Krune a piece of advice, though it was more of his opinion.

'I would advise you to not form a team with them, though. Also, I'm not saying it because I have some bias against them. However, one thing is undeniable about the Silver Winged Mouses, they're a very weak race. Any of the other teams around you are several times better in case you can convince them to go to the Four Sectors' Region.'

However, Krune's eyes narrowed. How could he not understand how they felt? He definitely didn't choose Diana and Vardin because of their races. It was just that they didn't mind heading to the Four Sectors' Border Region. Besides, he wasn't lying when he said that he just wanted to help them complete a team since they had the cultivation necessary for his needs. First of all, he didn't even know what a Silver Winged Mouse was since it wasn't a race from the realms below. Still, he knew way too well how bad it was to be treated like that because of your race.

However, Diana and Vardin had gotten the wrong idea. They saw how Krune's expression turned dark after hearing that they were Silver Winged Mouses. In their eyes, Krune was disappointed with their race, so they decided to leave without causing more trouble.

Of course, the last thing Krune cared about was that. His dark expression was because of how the others treated the couple. Krune then noticed the couple leaving and quickly caught up with them.

"Wait, where are you going?"

Vardin scratched the back of his head with a bitter smile before saying.

"It's fine, brother. I can tell that you don't seem very pleased, so we're just leaving. In any case, thank you for accepting the offer a moment back. It was fun to hear that. Hahaha!"

Everyone nodded.

"At least they know what's good for them."

"Well, Krune showing that annoying expression was to be expected."

"Hahaha! They had no other choice but to tell what race they were from."

"Exactly. If Krune found about it later and felt like he was fooled by them, they would be dead since he was several times stronger."

"Why did they even offer Krune to create a team with them?"

"Isn't that obvious? Silver Winged Mouses always cause trouble. This is just one more of those incidents."

Krune showed a puzzled expression after hearing Vardin's words, though.

"What are you talking about? Indeed, I'm not pleased. Why the hell would these idiots judge your potential because of your race? That makes me sick!"

Krune then put his arms around Diana and Vardin's shoulders before dragging them along.

"Come, let's create our team. Hahaha!"