After looking over the contract, nothing seemed out of place, “I need more defined details before I agree.”
She had an aggressive manner of following, if something is too good to be true. No matter how she looked at the contract, something seemed off. Or the reality was truly as it seemed. If that was the case, it added more reasons to be even more cautious. Overthinking was a flaw, and ignoring things that seemed too right for someone with mana that developed the sixth sense was a worse flaw.
“Of course.” As if already expecting this, a reply came instantly. Without waiting for her to ask, “I found a notebook of a follower of Izic.”
Without waiting for him to continue, she couldn’t help but blurted out, “Izic the Mad Blacksmith?!”
“Yes.”
“Does this notebook speak of a location to a laboratory?”
“Yes.”
“You want me to go because of the traps?” Without waiting for confirmation, she continued, “Because of my dragon blood…”
It isn’t a secret that a majority of those with traces of dragon blood often had the ability of premonitions. The level of these premonitions varied from person to person, unrelated to the amount of dragon blood they had. These premonitions often made it very hard to kill said person without knowing how their premonitions worked. While dragons had the ability to foresee all danger, their descendants had the ability to foresee life-threatening danger. While some could vaguely tell where the danger came from, others would just feel that a certain road would have a high chance of death.
“Yes. The two of us would go to the laboratory, once inside you’d be responsible for the traps. Once the laboratory is explored, I want the finished product.”
“Meaning, you’re graciously offering all the failed products… Even with that, you really think it is possible for us to finish exploring it? Every laboratory discovered has a mortality rate of eight out of ten that enter. This is just the average, with only the two of us, even with my dragon blood I highly doubt we would be able to do it.”
“Indeed, if I were to die the contract would be void so you could leave after that. So long as you’re not the one responsible for my death. Which would be my mistake if you really were that stupid.”
Uncomfortable with the backhanded compliment, “So you're forcing me to die with you.”
“With your dragon blood, there is a good chance that you will survive longer than me.”
“So, you’re forcing me to go to your funeral?”
With a smile, the middle-aged didn’t bite at her provocation. He pointed at the magic paper with the actual contract on it, “More or less, you could also say no.” After saying, so his smile turned even brighter, if one didn’t know any better they would think he was some father doting on his daughter instead of blackmailing her.
Taking the contract and looking over the contents of the rules again, she eventually agreed. Not having much choice otherwise. If she agreed with her premonitions, she would be given a high likelihood of surviving.
The first laboratory was discovered or undisclosed to the public 4,500 years ago. Since then, it wasn’t the first time someone brought a person with dragon blood with them. While they didn’t always survive, it was said that the death rate with someone like that was a little over six out of ten. Meaning, even with one, others will die. It sounded nice that the amount that survived was on average double, that still wasn’t a majority. But they could help more survive nonetheless. As premonitions weren't the same as actual dragons. They could only foresee vague danger to their own lives.
If two people walk through a tunnel, will both of them take the exact same steps? Of course not. While a person with dragon blood would walk down a tunnel, trip and fall. Causing scuffed knees, otherwise they would be fine. When another person walks down the tunnel because they had longer legs, they don’t step on the spot that was uneven and they don’t trip. Instead, they don’t miss the invisible wire at neck height that cuts their head off.
This was something that actually happened during an exploration of a laboratory. It was such a coincidence that such a thing could happen. Only, during the same exploration, could such a coincidence happen multiple times?
The reason for such a high mortality rate was because of such traps. While a large amount of them are normal, some of them might be natural. Uneven ground can happen a lot during long histories of time. But time and time again a coincidence would happen, where one with dragon blood did something or had something happen that changed something tiny like the distance of half an inch. That half an inch was the difference between life and death.
The laboratories have such intricate triggers that they’re easy to miss. What once seemed like sloppy work is the reason for such a high mortality rate and abysmal completion rates. You see if a person with dragon blood were to explore the laboratory alone it is believed that they have at least a five to seven out of ten chance to survive. This is gauged by the amount of those before that died in laboratories. And large amount of data that was supposedly collected. Yet, to explore the majority of these laboratories would take them up to dozens of years, if done in a safe and slow manner. They were just too big for a single person.
Could a single person stay fully alert for years on end? The answer is no. Even if they could, they would most likely die from the stress of the search or even the dragon blood, before they completed their search. One could say that if they took breaks, they would be fine. Yet don’t forget that unless they take the exact same steps and exact same actions, the trip would have different results. While not every trap will kill them, if one of the traps doesn't threaten the life, and only results in injury, then the person with dragon blood wouldn’t be able to sense much if anything at all.
After the agreement was signed, she was left in the room after a guard was assigned outside the door. Velma had assigned the job to Martin, who had no choice but to stand guard, waiting for the accuser to go see the captain. He knew why Velma had sent him, but his ability required a physical line of sight.
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It was only possible to get readings from the mana that naturally radiated off the body. Making matters worse was that she was likely expecting something when he had no way of providing anything from this situation. He could even feel a tingle travel down his back as he thought back to the fact the captain moved personally to detain the woman in the room.
Martin’s expression was a bit stiff and strained as he watched Velma and the accuser return with an obvious mana signature of a worker’s collar. He stealthily shook his head to Velma when the accuser moved into the room as he peeked through the opening of the door. He didn’t feel that sense of danger, in fact the mana was fairly calm making it hard to feel anything outside the feeling of a Grade F being. But her calm was too calm, and it made him question the suspicious situation.
Once the door was closed, John placed the contract on the table in front of her. He bit his finger and stamped his thumb laced with blood over his signature. “Make sure to read it and make sure nothing has been changed, then apply your seal. This copy will be left in New Beginning and will be destroyed on the voiding or completion of the contract.”
Without looking up at him, she took the contact paper and read over the contents another time. As he had previously mentioned, there were a few places that were censored to protect the parties involved. While suspicious, if both parties agreed, it was very unlikely for a small settlement like this to get involved with such deals. Seeing nothing had changed, she bit her thumb and placed her thumbprint over her name. Or the name she put on the contract.
As was expected with the dealings with a secret laboratory that hadn’t been discovered yet. While the man in front of her introduced himself as John Anderson, John Smith was written on the contract. Without needing to ask, she didn’t write her real name and made one up on the spot. This contract was made, swearing to the Will of the World.
Names were just a formality, if one wanted to be careful they could add a clause stating something along the lines of, by signing they are stating the information on the contract was true without a single word of falsehood or deception. The real importance was the wills involved. Regardless of who or what you were, your will was your own. A name could be abandoned, but nobody could abandon their will or otherwise implied soul.
After putting her thumbprint on the paper, she stood up to leave. After receiving the collar, she hesitated slightly before taking the contract and putting the two together. The collar was just a “U” shaped small black band. It wasn’t large or heavy and was simply a binding agent used to empower the contract. Once the collar made contact with her neck, it quickly faded from sight.
All that was left in her hand was the contract. The contract itself felt different. There was mana infused into the contract. Very quickly it disappeared. Almost like it didn’t exist in the first place. She knew this wasn’t the case as the contract still felt slightly different. Until the completion of the agreement, the contract would be indestructible. Nobody knew why, other than the obvious, the Will of the World.
After leaving the room, they were led back to the office where the man named Arthur was sitting behind the desk, twirling a pen in his hand. Without looking up, the woman that showed them the way in, put the contract on the desk. With a slight frown, he checked the signatures before injecting mana into the contract.
There was backlash as the mana couldn’t be felt by anyone but Velma. But a loud pop was heard as the mana that was injected exploded, causing him to shake his hand a bit before picking up the contract. With one last look at the two parties involved, he didn’t receive any objections, so he put the contract into the safe behind the desk. With that, the contract was complete, and they were escorted by the woman out of the building.
The air outside was lighter and easier to breathe. She wasn’t accustomed to the stiff air in the prison. Maybe a by-product of the extreme safety and protection formations applied to the prison. Staying in the prison cell, even when nothing was done to you, would feel like someone was constantly monitoring you. This caused every action and even breath to be harder to take. Most probably done purposely.
Turning back, John could see her touching her neck with an uncomfortable expression, “What do you think our next step should be?”
“Have you ever been to the destination before?”
“No.”
“Do you know its exact location?”
“Not its exact location, but the general location along with markers once the general area has been found.”
“Then we need a black market supplier.”
With a frown, John couldn’t help but ask, “Where can we find one of those.”
With a bit of hesitation, she couldn’t help but scoff slightly. “Obviously, here, settlements aren’t just random villages that sprout after people gather. Every new settlement is a strategic location between two important points. In this case, between Fort George and The Union. Plus, to the east and west of here are both very large forests. Tyr’s Forest even borders the end of the human territories.”
Seeing the suspicious look he was getting, he could only laugh while scratching his cheek. With a bit of goodwill he spoke, “I used to be a mercenary and while I had a decent reputation I was only ever able to make it to three copper stars. Normally, only three-star silver or gold mercenaries get involved in that sort of stuff. Therefore, I will need to depend on you for this, as your regular profession deals a lot with this kind of stuff. I was really lucky to run into you.”
Seeing his stare, she tried hard but couldn’t stop her cheek from twitching slightly. If he knew what she normally did, then he did a fairly comprehensive background check on her. Meaning he knew far more about her than he was letting on. It also meant he had connections and wasn’t as simple as he led others to believe. It was already suspicious for a Grade E to become a three-star copper mercenary.
“It will be easier if I do this on my own. While I am sure you can handle yourself, if I approach a supplier alone, it will be easier to come to a deal. But it will cost money. I will also need to know where we are going. The supplies will need to be delivered to a throwaway location. It should be in a busy place with high foot traffic that is a trading hub.”
With a bit of thought, John replied absentmindedly, “A place it will not be abnormal for someone to buy supplies or a place someone with a large rucksack will not draw attention… The best places that fit the bill would be Florence or on the other side of Tyr’s Forest. I am not too familiar with the areas there…”
“I will deal with it. From your explanation, we will be searching in Tyr’s Forest. What will you do in the case we cannot find it?”
With a gentle smile he held out a bag as he reassured her, “I will stick to the contract, I only have two years. If we cannot find anything, the contract will be complete, and I won’t try to go back on the deal. Once you’re done we will meet up, until then I look forward to working with you.”
She didn’t immediately shake the hand that was stretched out towards her, but even if she didn’t want to she didn’t have much of a choice, the contract had already been signed. She shook his hand rather reluctantly. After receiving the bag in his other hand, John walked off without looking back. After opening the bag, she saw a large assortment of currency. Along with a piece of paper that gave her directions of where to go after she met up with a supplier.
With one last glance around, she walked into the slums. It wasn’t exactly like a normal slum and was just the area designed for the workers that were responsible for constructing and maintaining the settlement. These weren’t the artisans and were only those with the lowest requirements that were usually criminals and lazy, so the area became what one might expect of the slums.
A black robed individual was standing in the middle of the slums, spinning around. With a heavy sigh, the suspected man had no choice but to return empty-handed and report what he saw and the disappearance of the woman in the slums. He already objected, but was still sent on this annoying task. He had been exposed to her two times already; it would be a wonder if she couldn’t spot him, even though he was wearing a black cloak to hide his identity.