Chapter 9: Contract Seal

Time left: 42 days + 23:12:05

"You use earth element without a Contract?" Dylas asked with a raised brow.

"I guess it's... uncommon?" Edard asked, gauging Dylas's reaction. After telling Dylas whole story, he had expected a more shocking reaction but Dylas just shrugged.

"There were elementalists before the Contract, it's not realistic to think the empires can wipe them out entirely. A year before I came to this place the empires signed a death sentence for anyone violating the Contract. I'm still surprise that someone as young as you are can use it..." Dylas fell silent as he contemplated something before he took two steps closer and gave Edard an inquisitive look. "...is the Contract nullified?"

There was something about his tone that confused Edard.

"Were you expecting it?" Edard said.

"No." Dylas shook his head. "But, it's not a secret Lesser Demons are against the Contract. Out of the six empires in the South we are the only ones who don't have it. And unfortunately that's our major drawback."

Edard sighed. "I'm sorry to break it to you but the Contract is still working. Probably, even better."

Dylas was physically deflated. "Whatever." He mumbled.

"That aside, when we first met you called me a Greater Demon, why?" Edard asked.

"I can smell your demonic aura, besides, only Greater Demons can shift into a perfect human appearance."

Note to self: turn off your scent with Spiritual Sense.

Now that he thought about it there was a semblance between his scent and Dylas's. After his Spiritual Sense had reached the second tier his sense of smell increased. He could also turn it off at will.

"Any difference now?" Edard asked after he turned off his scent.

Dylas took a step closer and sniffed. His facial expression changed from curiosity to shock. "What did you do? You are just like the corpse on your back. No scent."

"So this aura is the same as the normal body scent?" Edard asked.

Dylas shook his head. "No, you got it wrong. That's the common misconception young people like you have. Aura is not just the body's natural odor, it is the passive energy released from your body due to the interaction between your life energy and longevity. The more longevity and life energy you have the stronger your aura."

"So it did have the body's scent in it?" Edard asked thoughtfully.

Dylas nodded. "You can say that."

Edard internalise the information before he moved to the more important questions. "I will ask you some basic questions and I will really appreciate it if you answer them without asking the reason behind it."

Edard waited until Dylas motioned for him to continue.

"How do you get the requirements of a Class and how many Classes can a person have?"

"The requirements for the Classes are pretty diverse, ranging from just getting a deep understanding of the Class to extravagant rituals and sacrifices. But information about that is restricted because no one wants to share his class secrets. Almost everyone is born with one Class slot and you are free to get the requirements for any Class. Some have more than one slot and some inherit Classes specific to their race. I have seen a noble with four Classes." Dylas explained without frowning at the questions.

Four Classes were still one-less than Edard's.

"Where does the Contract comes in? And how many Awakenings can a person have?" Edard asked, ignoring Dylas's emphasis on the noble's four Classes.

"The Contract will give you an entirely new Class with all its benefits. That's why people can't turn the Contract away, no matter the risk. The maximum number of Awakenings recorded is five: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Sage and Renaissance. Although a few people have claimed to experience more." Dylas explained.

"And every time you Awaken you will get a new skill and a slot for Acquired skills?" Edard asked rhetorically.

Dylas nodded. "If you don't like the new skills you can always Upgrade your current skill to another level. Most specialist tend to do that to attend the maximum proficiency in their field, but a generalist cultivator like myself will find that a waste."

Dylas was right but from Edard's perspective it depended on the circumstances. He had chosen to Upgrade Clone Acceleration instead of choosing a better skill simply because he would die if he didn't. Maybe the proper thing to do was not to choose a skill in a hurry but life wasn't always colorful and stress-free. Some choices had to be made the hard way.

"We have just met but it would be better if we share our skills, at least the important ones, and form a teamwork." Dylas suggested.

Teamwork would be good but...

"I have no problem with that but I still have a few more questions."

Dylas frowned for the first time. "I know I have agreed not to say anything but I just want to point out that you sounded like an Outsider."

Of course, Edard wasn't going to respond to the concealed accusation, so he just went on to the next questions. "On average, how many 'bottlenecks' are there at every step?"

"Two at the Primary Awakening and four at the Secondary. I don't know the numbers beyond that." Dylas answered.

"Is it possible for a Class to have no bottleneck in both Primary and Secondary Awakenings?" Edard asked.

"....it's not entirely impossible but very rare. My Runemaster have no bottleneck at the Primary Awakening but it has one at the Secondary Awakening, but my Warrior has four bottlenecks even at the primary stage. It is a pretty annoying thing; you have the longevity and everything but you just can't progress. Even now, I am stuck with another bottleneck in the Secondary Awakening." He explained frustratingly.

He made a mental about all the information before he moved to another topic.

"So you know I'm a Greater Demon but why do you think it was strange to see me here?"

Dylas arched his brows in puzzlement, as if Edard had asked the stupidest question. "Why are you here? Since when does a Greater Demon live south of the Black Sea? You have some balls coming here, I believe you have skills but, trust me, you aren't skilled enough to be here. Don't let the humans catch you."

"Thanks for the heads up, it reminds me of something. What do you know about soul bond?" Edard asked.

"Besides it's a branch of soul magic, nothing. Eh... you aren't soul bonded, are you?" Dylas asked, curiously.

Edard hesitated. It was obvious Dylas didn't know much about it but he could still be useful.

"You wanted to check out the corpse, are you still interested?" Edard asked and without waiting for an answer he handed the corpse over to Dylas.

"You said it has been more than ten hours since you found it but it's still the same. No body changes whatsoever?" Dylas asked. Edard nodded.

"Even a preserved corpse would change after some time." Dylas said.

Edard sighed inwardly. A normal corpse should resign itself to a grave and silently decay without interfering with the lives of the mortals. He urgently needed to get rid of it before it's too late.

He told Dylas how the corpse had tracked him down and about the soul bond.

"A corpse doesn't have a soul so it doesn't make sense to have a soul bond with it. Unless if it's not a corpse.... " Dylas halted as he saw the urgent look in Edard's eyes. "What?"

"Let me show you something." Edard said. He buried the corpse and walked away in the opposite direction. Few steps away and the corpse teleported out of the grave to appear right above him, floating innocently with its hands folded around its chest. Dylas had never seen anything like this and he was starting to get nervous.

"The distance is ten meters." Edard added. He'd already tested it several times before.

"How long would it take before the bond becomes complete?" Dylas asked.

"Five days." Edard answered. He looked calm on the outside but his heart was pounding in his chest.

"Then we have to figure out how to get rid of it before then." Dylas said. Edard nodded his agreement. It was the plan in his mind and he already had an outline of how to accomplish it.

They spent the next few minutes exchanging ideas about the corpse and the mysterious raven, but nothing important turned out. They agreed to also actively search for information about soul magic by interrogating any person coming into the dungeon. Dylas had a few tricks about that but Edard needed something better. He needed... Mind Read.

"We have fifteen minutes before the safe zone expired and we need a team work." Dylas said and without a warning he punched the air in Edard's direction. A ball of amber colored light coalesced in the air and attacked Edard.

Edard slashed with Dragon-essense and absorbed the amber energy completely.

Dragon-essence has stored a warrior essence in the dragon dimension.

But that seemed to have triggered another attack as the entire area bursted into a sea of white light that transformed into four pillars of light around him. An ethereal net made of hundreds of tiny writings appeared just outside the pillars and formed a dome around him.

Runes..

Edard cursed internally.

"You know the enemy won't give you any notice." Dylas said.

"Yeah, I know that." Edard said slashing forward with Dragon-essense.

Dragon-essence has stored Runic essence in the dragon dimension.

10 elements have been added to the dragon dimension. You have completed the primary cycle of the Bang spectrum.

You have broken the bottleneck and can now step into the Secondary Awakening at any time for 100 hours.

His slash created a wide gap at the centre of the net but the edges just pulled in and closed the gap, thereby closing in on him. Edard slashed again but the edges drew closer and seal the gap. The wider the gap the tighter the net closed in on him. As they got closer he realized his strength was draining. He merged with his clone and tried to escape but he hit an invisible wall and bounced back. He tried punching lava through but it failed. He cast the violet glow but it simply shone on the net and bounced back.

"It's a force field and it will close in completely in the next fifteen seconds. The closer it gets the more energy you will lose. The only way to neutralize it is to overpower it by an insane strength or to disrupt the setup from outside by taking those out." Dylas announced, pointing to a group of four stone tablets arranged in a rectangular fashion. Each of the tablets shone with a blazing white light that projected to form the four pillars. Dylas had already prepared beforehand.

To disrupt the setup... Edard mused. He obviously didn't have enough strength to overpower the thing but he could send a clone to do it. That's if he had chosen the Clone Messenger. But he still had his psychomancy as the final line of defense. All he needed was to make an eye contact with Dylas. And luckily, Dylas was currently making a direct eye contact with him, at point-blank. Either Dylas didn't know about his psychomancy or he was overconfident in his mind shield.

Edard cared less about any consequences as he battered Dylas with series Intimidation attacks. His attacks hit a literal iron wall and rebounded back.

What...

"It's a common sense to shield your mind whenever you are fighting an unknown opponent. It's just a three layer shield but I feel a lot safer." Dylas said.

"That thing around your mind, is it the mind shield?" Edard asked. It really sounded like a metal when he hit it.

Dylas nodded. There were hundreds of Mind Shields but each was classified based on its layers. The lowest being one-layer and the highest being a ten-layer shield.

"When did you plant the stone tablets?" Edard asked.

"Just before you came."

"So you can't use it in the middle of a fight and you need all the four tablets to work?"

Dylas nodded. This was the major drawback of the force field. You needed someone to cover you before you could set it up.

"I win." Edard said.

"Don't you think it's too early to celebrate... " Dylas was talking proudly when he suddenly realized he had been talking to an afterimage. The original had slashed through all the four stone tablets supporting the force field. The entire setup collapsed on itself and disappeared.

"I would suggest finding a way of hiding the stone tablets next time." Edard said.

"And I would suggest doing this afterimage trick earlier because I intentionally slowed down the force field." Dylas said.

The next few minutes were spent discussing battle tactics. After that Edard asked a few questions about his Lightning Classification before he turned to leave.

"One last thing," He said, turning around to face Dylas, "if you have to choose between an ability to create lightning Contracts, turn your body into a lightning, and the ability to turn nature energy into a lightning, which one will you choose?"

Edard found an isolated corner and opened his classification tab. It was time to activate the Lightning Elementalist Class.

After a short discussion with Dylas, he understood that although Lightning Ancestor and Thunderbird were both extremely rare and possibly never seen skills, they couldn't compare to the Lightning Contract. A Contract would give him followers who would do anything to protect him. Dylas was even shocked to find out Edard was hesitating to get it.

You have activated Lightning Contract.

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 1

+1 intelligence per level

+1 vitality per level

+10 Contract Seals per level

+1 slot for Acquired skills

Set rules and regulations for a Contract Seal? Y/N?

NB: each Seal can have its own terms but the Contract benefits will remain the same.

You have gained the title Seal Lord: you can freely communicate with anybody carrying your Seal, irrespective of the distance.

+10 willpower

Edard was happy to see the effect on vitality, and the new title. After talking to Dylas he had gotten a rudimentary understanding of the terms governing a Contract Seal and the classification carried a basic tutorial on how to set a Seal. The first follower always took the biggest risk and hence the greatest reward. Edard even lowered the price for the first Seal.

After setting the terms and making sure everything was intact he sent it to the first person he intended to recruit. Whether this person accepted the Contract would depend on fate.

Time to level up.

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 1

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 2

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 3

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 4

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 5

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 6

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 7

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 8

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 9

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 10

+9 intelligence

+9 vitality

+90 Contract Seals

Total Contract Seals: 100

Formed Seals: 0

Pending Seals: 1

He looked at his Timer and saw a new row, just above the current one, reading 41 days. And then below it he saw 05:59:59. It was static and would probably remain like that as long as he had the corpse. He might as well use that to his advantage and level up without the fear of running out.

You have Awakened Psychomancy for 100 hrs

Choose an awakening skill

1] Thought Implant: create a foreign thought and put it in the target's mind.

Nature of thought: three-dimensional.

Duration of thought: 10 seconds (+10/level)

Realism of thought: very real

Effectiveness depends on the difference of willpower between you and the target and the presence or absence of a mind shield.

Requirements: none

Cost: up to 180

2] Mind Read: ability to read other people's emotions and short-term memories. You can detect lies and read the target's long-term memories by making the target think about the targeted memory.

Mind Read comes with a memory pack that allows you to store the target's long-term memories for future scrutiny.

Effectiveness depends on the difference between your willpower and that of the target and the presence or absence of a mind shield.

Duration: 60 seconds

Memory Pack: 3 units (+3/level)

Cost: up to 250

Activate skill: Y/N

3] Telepathic Relay: ability to communicate mentally. You can send and receive mental messages from individuals, clones and even beast, irrespective of the distance. The target doesn't need to have psychomancy skills.

Requirement(s): none

Cost: up to 200

Activate skill: Y/N

4] Mind Shield: allows the user to form an invisible barrier around their mind. One layer per level.

Quality of a shield layer: ancient.

Cost: 5/sec

Activate skill? Y/N?

Alternatively, you can Upgrade psychomancy to Intimidation Class.

Intimidation Class: create an Intimidation field of up to 5m radius. You can condense psychomancer energy inside the field and blast the target's mind with it. This is commonly used to break a mind shield but can also be used to temporarily stop brain activity.

You can Intimidate anybody within range even without making an eye contact. Affected targets will be stunned for a minimum of thirty seconds.

Cost: up to 350

At first instant Edard wanted the Thought Implant. Imagine putting different thoughts in the minds of your enemies. He could scheme his way to victory, trap enemies in a state of illusion and even destroy control his enemies.

On the other hand, upgrading Intimidation provided three great benefits: no more eye contact, he can knock his opponents unconscious and he can even fight against mind shields like Dylas's. Refusing to upgrade would be a massive waste on that part. However, Dylas had reassured him that Upgrades were constant and always popped up during an Awakening. But any skill that appeared two times would likely disappear forever. This was the second time Mind Read has appeared and in all likelihood it may be the last time he would have the opportunity to take it. Of course, Thought Implant was slightly better but that was what made it likely to reappear again.

There was also Telepathic Relay which didn't seem all that competitive on its own. But when you joined it with the Clone Messenger it could provide excellent results. Imagine sending a clone to a distant land and being able to communicate with it at anytime. The Clone Messenger could only bring results when it came back or after it died, but this skill completely negate that restriction, making the clones nearly as good as the original.

Finally, Mind Shield. Now that he knew how dangerous psychomancy skills were he needed to protect himself from other psychomancers. Especially, after seeing Dylas's three-layer shield. But since Dylas wasn't a psychomancer and he had a mind shield then there must be other ways of getting the skill without wasting his precious slot. He would just ask Dylas to help him with it later.

Ugh. It was always difficult when it came to psychomancy. He closed his eyes and chose... Mind Read.

Psychomancy has reached level 1/10 secondary (200 hours).

You have activated Mind Read.

+2 intelligence per level

+2 willpower per level

+2 free points per level

+1 slot for Acquired skills.

Having done with psychomancy he turned to Dragonbreath.

You have Awakened Dragonbreath for 100 hours.

Choose an Awakening skills

1] Spatial Creation: expand the internal space of solid objects by pumping Dragon-essense into them to create a spatial storage.

Capacity: 10 (10/level)

Cost: up to 50

2] Open Annihilation: absorb your opponent's life energy with Dragon-essense and obtain ten percent of their total life energy when you killed them.

By activating this Class Dragon-essence would have a dual function and the color would turn into a coral blue.

Cost: up to 55

Alternatively, you can upgrade Dragonbreath to Dimensional Annihilation class.

Dimensional Annihilation Class: create a permanent blade from Dragon-essence. You will get the ability to use two more elements stored in the dimension.

+250% increase in suction power.

Cost: 10

No adventurer would turn down a spatial storage, besides, Edard's spatial storage would be different. He could create as many storage devices as he wanted, probably sell them to become the richest man (dragon) alive. The space would also increase every time he leveled up.

But, he just couldn't take his eyes off the Open Annihilation. His skills, especially lightning and psychomancy, needed an absurd amount of life energy. Without Open Annihilation to give him life energy he would never hope to use them.

The upgrade was even better but he decided to save it for later.

You have activated Open Annihilation.

Dragonbreath has reached level 1/10 secondary (200 hours)

+2 intelligence per level

+2 willpower per level

+2 free points per level

+1 slot for Acquired skills

He moved to the Violet Rose Class.

You have Awakened Violet Rose for 100 hours.

Choose an Awakening skill

1] Violet Push: create a gravity dome (360 degrees) around yourself to repel both physical and elemental attacks.

Cost: 200/sec

Interval between usage: 14 secs (-1/level)

2] Flight: imbue solid objects with gravity essence and use them to fly. It can be used continuously as long as you have life energy.

Cost: 2/second

3] Barrier: ability to create a gravity wall that blocks both physical and elemental attacks; 10% of the total attacking force will rebound and hit the attacker.

Range: one meter wide

Cost: 200/second

Alternatively, you can upgrade Violet Rose to Crush Class.

Crush Class: gravity effect will automatically rise to 15x; you can also transfer 10 units of gravity to any bladed weapon to be used later.

(1 unit equivalent to a Crush)

Cost: 40

Flying was enticing but he felt it was the least essential of all the options. What would flying add to his battle prowess? Maybe a better chance to escape but it couldn't compare to a gravity dome that could repel almost any attack. Or to a powerful barrier that could block attacks and even send a portion of the attacking force back to the sender.

The upgrade was good but he needed to be proficient with a blade first before he could use it. If he ever became proficient with a sword he could come back and take it.

This narrowed the race down to Push and Barrier. Push was good but it had a fifteen seconds interval every time he used it. But Barrier could be used continuously if he had the life energy. What made him chose Push was the range the 360 degrees dome. It would cover him completely such that it wouldn't matter where the attack was coming. Unlike the Barrier which only covered a range of one meter. The fifteen seconds interval would also come down by one second every time he leveled up.

You have activated Violet Push.

Violet Rose has reached level 1/10 secondary (200 hours)

+5 strength per level

+2 willpower per level

+1 slot for Acquired skills

He turned to the last class, Lightning Elementalist.

You have Awakened Lightning Elementalist for 100 hours.

Choose an Awakening skill

1] Lightning Ancestor: transform your entire body into a lightning for 15 seconds. Duration of use will upgrade with leveling.

Transformed parts will be indestructible to any physical and elemental attacks.

Cost: 500

2] Thunderbird: the thunderbird is an ancient beast that creates its own lightning. By activating this skill you can convert 5 units of nature energy to a lightning bolt every second.

The more units of nature energy converted the more potent the lightning becomes. Giving appropriate time you can virtually create the most powerful lightning element ever seen.

Cost: 0

Alternatively you can choose to upgrade Lightning Elementalist to Lightning Contract Class.

Lightning Contract Class: You will gain 200 Seals per level and a superior control over your followers.

You can even shut down your follower's ability to control life energy if they break a Contract rule.

Cost: 500

Dylas had said nobody could determine the exact skills that would appear during an Awakening and Edard found it to be exactly true. All the five classes turned out to be significantly different. Unlike the other classes, Lightning Elementalist brought the exact same skills from Primary Awakening with some improvements. Thunderbird could now transform five units instead of one. Lightning Ancestor could now block both physical and elemental attacks unlike before it was only physical. The initial duration of transformation had also raised from ten seconds to fifteen. And most importantly, the cost had reduced by half.

He currently didn't need the upgrade, so the race was between Thunderbird and Lightning Ancestor. One was defense and the other was attack. After a minute of debating he chose Thunderbird. Of course, that doesn't mean it was better than the Ancestor. He chose it because Violet Push was also a defensive skill and he didn't want to choose two defensive skills at the same time while he could go for an offensive.

You have activated the Thunderbird.

Lightning Elementalist has reached level 1/10 secondary (200 hours)

+2 vitality per level

+2 intelligence per level

+1 slot for Acquired skills

Dylas

You have been chosen by a Seal Lord to receive a lightning Contract.

Accept Contract? Y/N?

Check Contract terms? Y/N?

Dylas didn't expect it, at least not now. He opened the Contract terms.

The Contract terms are as follows:

1] 1,200 hours for the Contract Seal.

2] 150 hours for every Awakening.

3] You will not intentionally harm your Seal Lord (Edard), directly or indirectly.

4] Seal Lord can asks for your help at any time but you can reject. However, if the Seal Lord dies you will instantly lose your ability to wield lightning element and your cultivation level would drop by half, permanently.

5] You can give longevity to the Seal Lord at anytime but you can't receive any in return.

6] Seal Lord can negotiate the terms of the Contract at anytime but he can't increase the cost or difficulty.

Compared to the fifty-page long terms of the fire Contract from the Djinn empire this was ridiculously cheaper and simple.

Edard had chosen Lightning Contract and he had given him the first Contract Seal. This would immediately give him an additional Class and a whole new possibilities. It would enable him to reach heights he could only have dreamt of before. But in exchange he would have to be an underling. Not really an underling but that was what a Contract was: you gained something and you gave something in return. After all, Dylas had wanted to take a fire Contract from House Djinn a long time ago. Now he had a second chance with lightning.

Taking the Contract would definitely help him in countless ways but there was a risk. If Edard died he would permanently lose half of his cultivation level and suffered from other long term consequences. Taking Contract from the empires didn't have this risk because no one could kill an emperor, unlike Edard. But Edard's Contract was insanely cheaper compared to that of the empires. People often described the expensiveness of the empires' Contracts as daylight robbery. Despite that, he was willing to sign up for it.

He thought about the soul bond Edard had on him and his fears escalated.

He knew he had one chance so he closed his eyes and deeply thought about it.

Before he had met Edard, Dylas could be considered the loneliest person in the world ever since he was trapped in the dungeon dimension. The outside world had become nonexistent to him. He was separated from his parents, his friends, his girlfriend, and everything he once knew. In the beginning he had found comfort in the thought that everything would be short lived. Maybe a week or two, he had thought. All he had to do was to withstand the hunger and the silence by meditating. He inscribed a rune on the ground to monitor the flow of time. He wouldn't need it in a week or two, he had thought.

Even though, his mom would say nothing when he returned home, his father would surely scold him. He could take that. Everything was his fault. This wasn't the first time he had ran off alone despite the warnings of his father. As a level 1 Warrior, he had ventured into the mountains and beat a dwarven child. The child's parents came for him, if not for the intervention of the First Ranger of the village he would have ended in a grave.

Later when his father was tired of him being a Warrior he decided to teach Dylas runology. Reaching the requirements for such a Class was almost impossible. But his father got help from an old friend and Dylas was able to cultivate the Class. Dylas showed an amazing talent toward the Class. His mother was so proud, but knowing Dylas's nature the father sensed an impending doom.

Without the father knowing, Dylas learned the mental-runes. Runes that were so dangerous they had been classified as a Forbidden Art. Using the skill, Dylas inscribed the runes on his forehead. There was no knowing how the runes would affect a person's mind and in ninety-nine percent of cases it resulted in a wide range of mental disabilities, ranging from insomnia to madness. This was the reason it was classified as Forbidden.

Dylas had read in a book that the mental-runes could change someone's talent from ordinary to legendary. There were true life stories of certain leaders of the rebel forces who had used it. These people became so powerful they could compete with the empires despite not receiving the blessings of the immortal dais. Dylas wanted to give it a try. If he could become someone of importance he could take the risk.

Surprisingly, even after three-days of inscribing the runes, nothing had happened. But then he started to feel different, mentally different. He couldn't understand it at first but his mind had changed. He became resistant to a wide range of mental attacks.

Dylas debated telling his father but finally decided against it. The only person who knew of this was his girlfriend, Nardia. A month later, the dreams came and he ended up in the dungeon.

Meeting Edard was a tremendous relief. It might just be the loneliness effect but he wasn't ready to forsake him and go back to that solitude.

Dylas snapped out of the thought with a sigh. He had nobody to blame but himself. If he didn't use the mental-runes on himself he wouldn't be there. Currently, he needed to make a choice that would forever changed his life. He needed the Contract, especially now that his classes couldn't progress to the Tertiary Awakening due to a bottleneck. He just have to keep Edard alive and all the risk would go away. His instincts also told him Edard would be difficult to kill.

Are you sure you want to enter a soul Contract with Edard? Y/N?

He pressed yes.

You have activated a lightning Contract, you have received the Class Lightning Elementalist.

Class: Lightning elementalist

This allows the user to convert life energy into a lightning element.

•Status: active

Level: 1/10 (1 hour)

Bottleneck: an obstacle that must be overcome before crossing a level. No bottleneck at this stage.

"What the hell... No bottleneck!?!?" Dylas shouted, not being able to contain his excitement. One major drawback of all Contracts was the ridiculous amount of bottlenecks which slowed down growth significantly. If the inhabitants of Màsar heard about this they would undoubtedly go into a frenzy. Edard's Contract could be described as a rare Contract, for the lack of a better term. Even nobles would line up to receive it....

As soon as he thought about 'nobles' he remembered how they usually reacted to any breach of their Contract. Not only had Edard successfully breached the earth element Contract he was now a Seal Lord for lightning element. His Contract was far superior than that of the empires. Of course, the empires wouldn't take a threat like this lightly. If something happened to Edard he would lose both his ability to use lightning element and half of his cultivation, plus other long term effects of unstable cultivation. Suddenly, hundreds of scenarios where Edard died flashed in his mind and he instinctively focused on saving Edard.

The first thing he did was level up his new lightning element to the peak of the Secondary Awakening, stat. He wasn't afraid of running out because his Timer hadn't ticked in a thousand years. He then pushed his remaining longevity to Edard through the Contract Seal.

Edard

You have received a sum of 1,857 hours from Follower 1

Dylas had accepted the Contract.

Edard had a clear plan for the Contract and Dylas was the first stepping stone. The next step was to get the Clone Messenger and then send it out of the dungeon for various purposes.

Note to self: watch out for family of Dé, Báyir empire and Déniz empire.

It was time to head into the next dungeon.