“After that, you started to lose yourself in the blood magic. Fortunately for you, because you were intoxicated by the power, you didn’t notice that the man that went after the child was still alive. Hearing a groan, you snapped out of your daze when you saw the look of fear on the mother’s face. After that, you disappeared off the face of the earth with the mother and daughter. Tell me, did I miss anything?” The gentleman’s voice seemed to echo in the enclosed space.
Without saying a single thing, the woman tried to hide her fear, yet it was impossible to hide all of it. Those details could have only been acquired by three means. The first was the most impossible, a legendary figure at the rank of S. Those at that level show powers beyond mysterious, their powers reached the realm of mythical. Though, the chances of a Grade S being interested in this event was far too unlikely.
Secondly, was the man that was stabbed in the groan. Only she checked beforehand and only left him alive because he wasn’t going to survive, outside using massive amounts of resources. While the low level noble that sent them had the resources, it is nearly impossible he would use them on a Grade E. Meaning him surviving long enough to tell anyone was not very likely.
Finally, the most likely cause of this information was the fact she had the feeling someone was watching her. Usually, she would have killed the man that survived regardless. Yet after cleaning up the traces of the blood magic, having taken far too long already, she had no choice but to leave the person spying on her and the lone dying survivor. The possibility of that feeling being true now seemed extremely likely. Yet the consequences of being found to have used blood magic were far too drastic.
Unfortunately, the leader of the group from that night was not known well by name, but he was known for being ruthless in his dealings, by the rumors circulating the back alleys. The chances of allowing her to go were very unlikely. Therefore, instead of leaving her survival to chance, she decided to attack. At lower levels, it was possible to fight above your grade. Especially if the opponent has no experience outside a dungeon, which is more often than not true. Knowing the leader had such experience, she focused on him first.
Yet unknowingly, the two that tied her hands after that were also such people. Because of that, she was worn out by the terrible combination of a tank and swordsmen. There was no point in thinking anymore about the past. Nothing would change, only using up more precious time she currently had to find a way out. The only thing going for her now was that this man in front of her had set her up instead of turning her in.
After looking into the woman’s eyes a bit longer, the gentleman pulled out a recording crystal and placed it on the table. Even though the woman tried to keep her expression as natural as possible, it was impossible for her to hide all reactions. Seeing this, the gentleman smiled, “There is no point in denying it. Though, as you might imagine, I have no interest in turning you in for a reward. Instead, I wish to follow the normal customs in such a situation.”
With a slight pause, maybe seeing the confused expression on the woman’s face, he continued, “The name is Anderson, John Anderson. In a situation like this where a small theft has taken place, the usual solution is to have the thief work off the value of the item, twofold, since the item is imaginary it can’t be returned. Therefore, I wish to sign a worker’s contract with you. The entire purpose of this trip is to increase my lifespan. At the moment, time is extremely precious to me, so while you might not agree to my request. If you outright waste my time, I will simply leave and go with another plan.”
Taking out a piece of paper from his pocket, he placed it in front of the woman. Looking up at John before looking down at the paper. A worker’s contract was a type of slave contract. Using a binding collar, it would restrict some of the person’s actions depending on the contract. Binding, this contract is the Will of the World. Said to be the mother of life, nature and the being that watched over all life on the planet. Because of this, any attempts at dodging the agreed upon conditions, resulted in two outcomes.
The first is for the one wearing the collar, outside of equal sided contracts, the worker’s contract was used with people of different status. Almost exclusively used when one party is in the right and the other is in the wrong. Since both parties must agree to the conditions, it isn’t possible to force a party into it. Oftentimes used as a way to lower the prison population and lower the duties of those in charge of public safety. As in this situation, the thief would normally work off two times the value of the item being stolen to regain their freedom. In this way, leaving both parties satisfied.
An alternative of this is true if the wearer doesn’t do what they agreed to. Varies depending on the degree of dodging responsibility. If the agreed upon work is done sloppy, it can cause the agreed upon terms to become more restricting. Should this continue or if the conditions are completely disregarded, it will become a slave collar. At that point, freedom is only allowed when the opposite party allows for it.
On the other hand, should the other party try to play tricks by trying to force the worker to try and do things not in the contract or try to bypass some of the conditions as different things. This can result in the collar restricting even less of the worker's actions. Again, if conditions are ignored, the collar will release the worker entirely. Yet because the contract was designed in a situation where one party had the upper hand, the consequences of the actions of that upper hand were more serious than that of the worker.
A large portion of lands that humans occupy is not taken care of. Because of this, from time to time settlements will be made to allow easy travel between major cities that have started to show up in new land. The worker contract is used a lot for such expeditions. In this way, it is possible to open up new land and ensure that the workers don’t do anything they shouldn’t. As there are a few different powers that rule in the human lands.
In one such expedition, the party responsible for the settlement tried to get one of the workers to do things that weren’t agreed on. Repeatedly abusing the contract to try and take advantage of the worker. Finally, border lining on rape, yet before anything could happen the Grade A being that was in charge died on the spot. A seemingly random strike of lightning fell from the sky, ripping open the ceiling and striking the man without leaving any damage to anything outside the man and ceiling.
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Because of such events, worker contracts have undergone changes so that the terms are clear-cut for both parties. In this way, it allowed both parties a clear picture of what to expect. That was exactly what was on the paper in front of the woman at this moment. With furrowed brows the woman couldn’t help but speak up, “While the terms are very standard it is also a little vague, without cleaning up the language I won’t know what you want from me. And in the same way, I can't agree to the terms.”
Seemingly startled, John replied, “Oh, forgive me for that.” While the apology seemed genuine, John didn’t seem sorry at all. “What I want you to do for me is very simple. Yet, I need to make sure of one thing. So long as you don’t lie to me, I will not only tell you everything, I will even remove some of the clauses to make it more fair. Now, do you have dragon blood?”
Being pleasantly surprised, the woman’s expression eased until she heard the question. To which her pupils shank into pins before taking a deep breath and hiding her surprise. At the same time, many thoughts opened new doors to the possibility of what was to come. The surprise quickly dwindled as she turned to look at the crystal that was off to the side of the table. When she first found out she could use blood magic, it was a slight surprise. Only, the first time she tested it, it became clear why she was a blood magic user.
While being extremely corrosive to the mind, as well as being dangerous to use just because of the consequences. It was clear that outside of certain situations and the threat of death, no normal person would wish to use blood magic. It is said that people that are drowning will oftentimes panic to the point they will often cause those that try to save them to drown alongside them. This just goes to show how desperate people will cling to life. For this reason, just because it has extreme consequences doesn’t mean people won’t use it to cling to life.
Because of this, she had studied what happened when she used blood magic. In this way, she could hide it to the best of her ability. The changes brought to her were slitted eyes, like that of a reptile. Her hair would turn partially red, while at the time she already knew she had dragon blood in her. It was still surprising to see the massive change in appearance. As for why it happened, it wasn’t too surprising. Dragon blood was a major factor on the eyes and hair. The reason her hair and eyes were blue was because she had the blood of a water dragon in her.
Another specific benefit was premonitions. Dragons were creatures that were born as Grade B beings. The senses to danger were extraordinary, that even those with less than a single percent of dragon blood would receive premonitions of their death. Yet what isn't affected by the dragon blood was the strength of premonitions. For her, should she choose to concentrate, making it possible to enter a meditative state to allow her to go through the motions of the dangers of death. In a way, it was a way to sense and encounter absolute death to a degree.
Outside of entering a meditative state, she would only get a vague sense of danger from a certain direction. While her normal premonitions weren’t powerful, the fact she could enter a meditative state that allowed her to view the danger to a realistic degree was amazing. The most powerful passive premonition that a person had, had been recorded in history. In the book, he was referred to as General Ivon. He was able to get a vague sense of danger three hours in advance of the moment of his possible death. It was also General Ivon that allowed the world to learn about the premonitions of death brought by the dragon blood.
The reason for this was that General Ivon was seen as one of the best generals of his time. He was a skilled fighter and tactician that allowed him to fight on the front lines with his men while protecting them at the same time. As any attacks on the front lines would be an attack on him, so to a certain degree he could keep his men alive from devastating surprise attacks. Yet it was his death that allowed people to learn that the premonitions had limits. The general that killed him used a large variety of tests to figure out the limits.
After exploring the limits, the general engaged Ivon in combat before escaping in a loss. Because of the number of their troops, it was unlikely that Ivon would lose to begin with. The enemy was in small numbers and were elites, so the number of troops lost was very small. With a chance to eliminate an elite troop, Ivon gave chase. Because of his near invincibility from premonitions, he had no fear. This led Ivon and his army into an extraordinarily set up, an ingenuous cascading pitfall that captured the majority of his army. Those that didn’t fall into the trap were eliminated in the chaos.
With a pitfall trap made using creative use of magic, the damage was very minimal and there was no danger to Ivon’s life. Along with the fact that the enemy didn’t know themselves about the trap. Therefore, they couldn’t possibly kill Ivon. Those that did know would only take action five hours later. This meant Ivon would only receive premonitions after he fell into the trap, by then countermeasures were taken to ensure he couldn’t escape.
There was also one more famous attribute to dragon blood, premonitions. Only this one didn’t show the greatness of those with dragon blood. It only served to raise the status of another person, Mad Blacksmith Izic. The creator of a series of cursed weapons and the man that was responsible for the most deaths on the continent. Without combining the second and third most cause of death, there was no equal to the number of deaths Mad Blacksmith Izic was responsible for. Yet the man had been dead for an estimated ten thousand years.
Coming to this conclusion, the woman looked at the paper before turning pale before looking up at John, “You can’t possibly want me to go into a laboratory?! Even if I have dragon blood, the chances of us making it to the deepest regions to find the finished product is nearly nonexistent.” Wanting to say more, the woman was interrupted by John.
With a look of praise, “Yes, indeed. I wish to go into a secret Laboratory. Still, before you completely disagree, look over the terms of the contract again, knowing that.” With a look of doubt, the woman reread the contract one more time. It had simple and standard contract terms that were commonly used to make a settlement.
The Worker was responsible for the main portion of the exploration. Anything about the exploration and what was found before or during was to be kept a secret unless specifically agreed otherwise. Before and during the exploration, the contract holder is responsible for keeping the worker’s well-being to the best of their abilities. Once the operation was finished, any crimes or evidence against the other party would be forgiven and/or destroyed.
Yet when the second contract was taken out she found nearly all the same terms besides more clarifications and a few terms removed. At the end was something different for the worker, anything found halfway through the exploration would be property of the worker. It was a strange condition that didn’t make sense outside of knowing the specifics. That was to say that the failed products that were worth a large bulk of money would belong to her. The contract would become void under three conditions. First was the completion of the work. Second was the violation of the contract to a large degree that voids it. Third was the most important, the death of one party.
This offer not only allowed for her to receive or have the evidence against her destroyed. It was also a way to make a hefty sum of money. In a laboratory it wasn’t just the finished product, the failed products were products that could rival dwarves' workmanship. All of these would belong to her should they survive that long. Lastly, for someone with dragon blood, it wasn’t impossible to survive until they made it to the failed products. And in all likelihood, John would die before her. Just the information about the entrance was more than enough to make this deal worth wild for her.