The imp looked down at me with a gleeful expression, which was not unexpected by any means, the creature no doubt felt it was in a good position to bargain from here. Which was not entirely wrong, but it seemed to have either forgotten or intended to gloss over some key elements of this situation.

"Now, get me out of this cage and we can negotiate about my information."

I raised my eyebrows and looked mockingly at the imp.

"I can let you down when you have told me what you know."

The imp blinked, seemingly trying to look innocent, though it did not pull off the expression well enough for me to be certain that was the goal.

"What I have is of far more worth than a mere displacement in the room, for sure. We should negotiate as equals and not with one of us looking down on the other!"

Having said that, it then looked me up and down, as if making certain I understood that I was being looked down on, both figuratively and literally.

"How about I assume you know nothing of interest and are just trying to get out of there? I could take my chances and leave here on my own."

The imp frowned at me, annoyance evident.

"Fine, a familiar contract then. Seeing how helpful I am, I only require ten percent of your Mana. In turn I will of course provide any and all assistance I am able!"

I noted that the creature had still not even hinted at any actual information. All that had been bantered back and forth was various ways I could help it out in one fashion or another, with only an offer of possible help in return. While it was amusing, I would not sign away ten percent of my Mana to have a familiar that might not even be useful, come to think of it, I would not sign away ten percent of my Mana, period.

"Why would I want you as a familiar? I do not even know if you are aligned or not. You might be of no use at all to me."

"Fire! I am aligned with fire, the most destructive of elements, I will help you lay waste to your enemies!"

I rolled my eyes. The little thing could no doubt over time help me become far better at fire aligned spells than I possibly could achieve without it. The problem was that an aligned familiar also changed the power-alignment of their master, making any spell outside of the alignment more expensive and harder to use. It could even become impossible to use opposing element completely.

My goal was enchanting, the idea of limiting what I could do just for an easier time casting some spells, which might not translate into anything beneficial for enchanting at all, was just ludicrous.

"I have no use for fire, I will barter the information on how to get out of here safely for letting you out of the cage."

The imp looked shocked, an expression it did very well.

"You... You don't want to align with fire? Why not? You have a combat class, why would you not want an easier time with such a powerful element. Are you daft? Stupid question, are you really that daft?!"

That tirade came out with such fury that spittle rained down on me, which was unpleasant and showed how little the creature thought of me. No doubt though, I was a bit cleaner afterward than I had been before. Not that I had no sympathy for the imp though, I had basically said that the creature was of no use. That was not something anyone liked to hear.

"I do not use offensive magic in such a direct way. While fire is indeed powerful, aligning with it would not help me enough to offset the obvious downsides. I can in fact see quite clearly how it could limit me and make me weaker."

The imp stared at me, mouth agape.

"Bloodline or Aberration?" The creature's eyes opened wide as it stared down at me, searchingly, as if afraid to miss even the tiniest detail.

"What?" The question did not make sense, I seemed to have missed the context of whatever the imp was talking about.

This made the creature pull back into the cage and from the sound of it, start laughing. Whatever was so amusing about my ignorance I decided to move on, try my luck with the path the imp had derided before, and get out of here.

I picked up an apple to take with me, but having eleven Fire Burst-enchanted objects in my pockets mean that while they were not full, carrying food in them would certainly make me less able to put up a fight. With a sigh I put the apple back.

I peered back out the door in the direction I had come earlier, making sure no one had showed up to investigate the missing guards, or been alerted by the sounds.

As far as I could see the hallway was empty and I slipped out of the door.

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"If you leave I will shout until someone comes to investigate, don't think I won't! If I am left here to rot, so will you!"

I froze, one foot in the air. If the imp was correct about there being people in the room just on the other side of the door in the opposite direction, then it shouting could indeed bring attention. I let my foot fall with a sigh and went back in to look up at the smugly smiling nuisance.

"See? You can be brought to heel." The imp sounded even less friendly than earlier, no doubt feeling that it had won now that I had come back.

I walked over to where the rope that held the cage was tied off, and the creature kept going.

"Good human, now I believe I want a contract for fifteen... no, twenty percent of your Mana. What do you say, hmm?"

I untied the rope and began to lower the cage carefully, my head down and shoulders hunched, until I heard it touch the floor. Keeping my face impassive as I walked back to the cage I looked at the imp with as pitiful an expression as I could manage, making my body language weak and subservient.

Personally, I felt I had overdone it, but the imp gave of a muffled shout of surprise as I crouched down and grabbed its mouth with one hand and its neck with the other. The imp immediately started to bite my hand, with some success. Of more concern were its claws raking down my arms, but the difference in size between us was enough that while I was being hurt, it would have to chew and claw for a long while to put my life in any danger and then that would be from blood loss rather than actual damage. I hoped.

I met the imps panicked eyes as it started to choke. Its threats might just have been bluster and empty words, but I would not bet my life on it. The attempt to get a skewed familiar contract just made me dislike the creature more.

That was when the imp's eyes started to turn crimson and I cursed under my breath, having so completely forgotten about the offensive parts of its alignment, my plan only considered the likelihood that my Stones of Fire Burst would do little other than tickle it. Whatever the creature could do was certain to be painful, but I was unsure if it could kill me or not. My Health was not at a comfortable level though and our messy fight had not helped, I moved my face closer to the imp's, keeping my expression as hard and cold as I could.

"Now, we can have a civil conversation without threats. Or we can see who can kill the other faster, would you prefer another shot at a conversation?"

The imp did its best to nod, being held as it was. I suppressed a sigh of relief, I hoped the creature did not realize just how afraid I had been of whatever fire Ability it was about to unleash.

I let the imp go but did not step back, prepared to continue the fighting.

"Yes, negotiate!" The imp croaked out the words, sounding like it had problems breathing properly, which I did not feel bad about in the least.

I took the creature in fully, now that it was more than just a head poking out of a cage. It was not very tall, only reaching to just below my waist. Its hands had three clawed fingers and a thumb, on its back sat two rather large bat-like wings. While it was thin it had a strong looking torso, no doubt needed for flight. Its legs were jointed a bit strangely, and ended in three clawed toes on each foot, its lack of external genitalia was obvious in its undressed state.

"Would you stop looking at me like I am some specimen you are analyzing!" Having regained its breath the imp expressed its discontent. I raised an eyebrow in response but stopped studying it further, it did have a point, it was a bit rude, on the other hand we had moved passed rude some time ago.

"I need twenty Mana per day to survive, anything beyond that would let me gain levels over time, each time I grow stronger the Mana I need per day will increase some. It is always better to take that from your Mana regeneration than from your pool at some point during the day. The things that would happen if you did not have enough Mana available are not pretty."

If that was true, asking for twenty or even ten percent was crazy, even five percent would be many times what it needed to survive. I was about to speak when the imp raised a clawed hand, indicating it wanted to continue.

"I am willing to disperse my Mana back to a neutral alignment, to have this contract. It will cost me three levels and the Mana I need per day will be as low as twelve afterward." The imp looked at me in what seemed far too pleading a fashion for the situation, and I felt an urge to scream which I fought down with effort. I hated negotiations, the other side always seemed to know more than I did.

I had heard stories about familiars, everyone had, they were a staple when speaking of any Mage of worth. But as life had shown me, stories had a tendency not to match up very well with reality. Even so, Mages seemed to summon and bind familiars all the time, it was obviously worth it for some reason. For the imp though, to sacrifice three levels rather than negotiate with me to just help it get out of here, meant the imp knew something that would be beneficial to it. It could just be running low on Mana and was far closer to dying than I knew, but not knowing was unsettling.

Asking would not really help, I would be skeptical of any answer I got. But the cost to me was, seemingly, low enough that I would hardly notice the difference.

"Disperse you aligned Mana, I will grant you a single percentage of my Mana regeneration."

The imp did not seem all that happy about the offer, but it did not contradict me, instead it waved a clawed hand in the air.

Do you wish to enter into a Contract with Zackary the Imp, for a single percentage of your Mana regeneration?

Zackary the Imp will disperse its aligned Mana and enter into a Familiar bond with you.

I gave an affirmative after making sure the offer was what we had agreed on, and immediately a wave of red light flashed out of the imp before fading away just as quickly. As the light dispersed, the imp had shrunk down to only being high enough to reach my knees and it had turned a soft blue color.

"Why are you blue?"

I felt the question was warranted, I did not actually know the color of an unaligned imp. But rather than answer me the creature stood with its eyes rolled back into its head, as it rocked back and forth on its heels.

Familiar, Imp

The imp Zackary is bound to your soul.

Effect: Your Mana regeneration is reduced by 1%.

Once more, the Order was just shy of being uninformative. I had a familiar, which thankfully did not cost me much. The question still was though, how useful would it be?

The creature seemed quite overwhelmed, perhaps recovering from dispersing ones Mana was difficult?