“Actually, it isn’t impossible for you to learn my array building techniques. How about you become my disciple?” he suddenly called out.

“Hahaha!” At these words, the old man couldn’t stop himself from guffawing.

While out of breath, with mirth still in his eyes, he managed to force out some words. “Y-you want me to become your disciple and accept you as a master? You, a mage without a single star core?” After forcing these words out with great difficulty, he burst into laughter once again. He simply couldn’t help himself!

After a while, he had finally stopped laughing and once again turned to Simon.

“I don’t mean to be demeaning but… do you really have the capabilities to be my master? Even though these arrays are impressive, arrays aren’t everything. I myself have disciples too, you know!” he said with a chuckle.

He was not offended by Simon’s statement. After all, to him, Simon was just too insignificant to care about.

If an ant was trying to pick up a car, would one get angry at the ant? Or would one be amused? The answer was obvious.

Simon chuckled in turn, not at all fazed..

“Well then, what if I freed you from your curse, which would have caused your death within 5 years?” he asked with a knowing grin.

The old man suddenly stopped chuckling and froze, before turning to stare at Simon.

“What? You said that you can rid me of my curse?” he asked incredulously and solemnly, wondering if his hearing had gone bad.

After all, the curse that he had received was thoroughly hidden and extremely hard to detect. In fact, only when he had visited a renowned doctor whose name was known throughout all of Island Ascension Online did he find the source of his crisis - it was the curse cast upon him with the dying breath of his greatest enemy.

Unfortunately, even that renowned doctor had said that she was helpless in the face of this curse! Thus, he had already resigned himself to the clutches of mortality.

And now, this random mage in the Lowest Zone without a single star core... was claiming that he could cure him?

The odds of Simon's words being true were... practically non-existent! However, Sigurd had to admit that Simon was quite mysterious; he discovered the curse that even he couldn’t detect, after all.

And so, he decided to play along.

“Alright, young man. Then tell me, what needs to be done?” he said with an amused smile. He was certainly curious as to how Simon would ‘cure him’.

Simon nodded. “Actually, it's quite simple. All I need is a cubic centimeter of liquid mana and a Root of Affinity.”

Hearing this, the old man felt his vision darkening. After very nearly falling to the ground, he managed to steady himself.

“Are you playing games with me?! A cubic centimeter of liquid mana and a Root of Affinity?!?!” he finally exclaimed furiously.

Even though he was quite affluent himself, such a price was nothing to scoff at!

Hell, even 1 cubic millimeter of liquid mana was worth 50 gold. When considering that 1 cubic centimeter of liquid mana contained 1000 cubic millimeters of liquid mana… forget it! The cost of such a quantity of mana would be 50,000 gold!

But that wasn’t the worst part about it.

The worst part was the other material needed - the Root of Affinity!

The Root of Affinity was an incomparably rare herb that was capable of strengthening one’s flow of mana throughout their body. Not only was its value well above 100,000 gold, but it was also practically never sold on the market. Even if one wished to buy a Root of Affinity and had enough money, they still might not be able to do so...

“I understand that you may be hesitant.” Simon said with a laugh. “However, I can swear an oath on the spot that I have at least 80% confidence in doing so successfully, so long as I am provided with the materials.”

The old man’s expression was extremely solemn and stern when he listened to Simon’s proposal. And after a moment of deep contemplation, he finally nodded.

“Fine. First, swear. Then, we can negotiate. In the oath, refer to me as Sigurd, the Sentinel of Judgement.”

“Sure, no problem.” Simon nodded. Indeed, an oath was customary in negotiations.

“I swear to the system that if I am provided with a cubic centimeter of liquid mana and a Root of Affinity, I believe that I have at least an 80% chance of curing the curse which would otherwise have killed Sigurd, the Sentinel of Judgement. If I renege on my oath, then the system itself shall strike me down!” he swore unhesitatingly.

Ding!

[Your oath has been acknowledged. Failure to comply to a reasonable degree will result in being struck down.]

With the system governing this oath, Sigurd was now assured with Simon’s belief in his statement.

Though these oaths seemed quite lenient with many possible loopholes, they were not actually that simple…

For instance, if Simon organized for someone to “rob” him of the liquid mana and Root of Affinity, he would surely be struck down by the system. After all, the system governed these oaths intelligently; it would not be easy to swindle others when bound by an oath.

But if it were actual enemies that stole it despite his best efforts, he would be exempt from punishment as it would be in no way his fault. Likewise, if Sigurd, the Sentinel of Judgement hid away, refusing to get the cure, Simon would not be struck down either, even though he was not able to ‘fulfill’ the oath.

Such was the method of judgement of the system. What it deemed to be “underhanded” by the oath swearer would be counted as not following through on an oath. Thus, one had to be careful to uphold the justice of their oaths.

“Mm. Now, becoming your disciple won’t do. How about this? I will work under you for a month if you manage to cure me. What do you say?” Sigurd asked with a solemn expression. Now, he was no longer treating Simon like a fool speaking nonsense, and more like an associate.

Simon shook his head. “I can make concessions, but that is too much. I doubt that there is another person below the high zone who could cure you, after all.”

After a bit of contemplation, he continued, “I will offer you two other options, and will take nothing less.”

“One is to look over my island for six months, and to provide me with intel equivalent to what an island owner in the middle zone would have.”

“With the other option, you can choose to provide me with enough funding and resources to directly reach the eighth island core, or something of equivalent value.”

“So what do you say?” Simon finished calmly.

Hearing this, Sigurd frowned. Both of these options were still considerably expensive; if he were the rash type, he might have already exploded in anger and forced Simon to cure him. Thankfully, he was a man with morals - a rare sight in the world. And so he remained civil.

After just a moment of consideration, he grit his teeth. “Fine. I choose the second option. That's just 15,000 gold, correct?’

“Indeed, 15,000 gold would be enough to bring someone from the fifth island core to the eighth island core.” Simon affirmed. “Shall we now swear our oaths?”

“Of course.”

...

After a short while, the two were done swearing their respective oaths.

‘Hahaha! I’m rich!’ Simon thought, ecstatic after the deal was sealed.

After all, he had essentially gained a connection with an influential figure, received 15,000 golds worth of remuneration, and would even be given the opportunity to consume a Root of Affinity, which was something that would be hard to get even in his past life… All in one deal.

It was akin to hitting three birds with one stone!

Only, his success wasn’t assured, so he couldn’t celebrate just yet.

Simon was not exaggerating when he said that he had at least an 80% chance of curing Sigurd. In fact, it was more like 95%. After all, such curses were relatively well known in his previous world. As a result, he had been taught the proper method of dealing with such curses by his old master in his previous life, and had even carried out the technique more than once.

However, on the off chance that something went wrong, he would regret his decision forever! After all, if a player reneges on their oath, not only would they lose a profile, but they would also be permanently banned from Island Ascension Online as a whole if they reneged on even one more oath...

Simon then thought back to the procedure itself.

Such a curse was actually quite powerful. From what he could see, it was likely cast by a Grandmaster or Supreme Mage with their dying breath... Thus, even if Simon was ten times as strong, he would be unable to rid the man of his curse on his own.

Thankfully, he could utilize a certain method of dispelling magic; so long as he was given enough mana and a Root of Affinity, which would allow him to use said mana at an increased rate, he could definitely get rid of the affliction.

As for how he recognized the curse? It was rather simple.

He had seen such a situation before, after all!

Those who were hit by such curses omitted a unique aura, and Simon picked up on such an aura when Sigurd was stupefied over his arrays, as the old man had lost his composure in that moment which let a hint of his aura seep out.

“Alright.” Sigurd nodded after the completion of the contracts, before turning towards Simon with a hint of expectancy. “Are you prepared now?”

‘Eh?’ Simon was quite startled, but he hurriedly nodded. “Of course, so long as you provide the resources, I can do so at any time.”

With a sigh, Sigurd waved a hand, and a vial containing a roiling cloudy liquid appeared in one hand, and a well adorned box made of a special red mineral appeared in the other.

‘It can’t be…’ Simon thought incredulously, and he almost couldn’t believe his eyes.

But sure enough, he handed them to Simon without hesitation.

“Here are the items that you have requested. Can you do so now?” he asked, staring at Simon with a heavy, yet hopeful gaze.

“...”

After collecting himself and the two items, he nodded, saying, “Of course, please come into my Island Core to receive the treatment. Removing the curse will cause quite a disturbance, after all.”

But inwardly, Simon was astonished beyond compare.

‘Who the hell is this guy?! I knew he was powerful but... To have all of that crap on hand? His wealth probably surpasses my wealth in my past life!’

However, though he was astonished, it was still a good thing. For his customer to be rich was always a good thing!

Only, if he had known that his customer was so rich, he would have asked for a much steeper price…