Pain was the only sensation left in Jason. "Struggling?" Vepar mocked, watching Jason deal with the corroding energy. "I think I'll be just fine," Jason replied, gritting his teeth as he slowly cleansed the corroding energy bit by bit. "You know that I could help, right?" Vepar said, yawning while stretching his ethereal limbs. "Striking another deal with a devil seems like my best solution here," Jason sarcastically remarked. "Two hours everyday in exchange for one simple favor," Vepar said, offering a deal he knew Jason couldn't pass up on. At first, Jason was going to refuse right away. But after some consideration, it didn't seem like a bad deal.

"What's the favor?" he asked, slightly intrigued. Grinning, Vepar knew that the fish had taken the bait. "I haven't thought about it," Vepar replied, shrugging. A malevolent flame erupted drop from his palm, a rustic-looking paper scroll appeared in his hand. "I have two limitations to the favor, no killing anyone I care for and nothing that would cause permanent damage to myself," Jason said, very careful when it came to making deals with devils. "Absolutely," Vepar replied, as two extra clauses magically appeared on the paper scroll. Cautiously reading through all the terms on the contract, Jason was pretty sure that the contract was genuine. "Deal," Jason said, imprinting his soul onto the contract.

The paper scroll burned, turning into ashes. "Pleasure doing business with you," Vepar said with a devilish grin, making a exaggerated bowing gesture. "Enjoy your two hours," Vepar said, a pulse of demonic energy slammed into the corrosive energy, temporarily stopping its advancement.

Hearing a large gasp, Zahra turned around to see Jason waking up. Her face lighting up, she quickly brought him a cup of water. Downing the whole cup with a couple gulps, Jason wiped the water dripping from his cracked lips. "How did you wake up?" Zahra said, still sensing the rampant energy inside Jason's body. "Struck a deal with that bastard," Jason replied, as he got up to stretch his sore limbs. Feeling the sliver of demonic energy that was undetectable by most people, Zahra furrowed her brows. The demon that was living inside of Jason always gave her a ominous feeling, but she was also glad that Jason had finally woke up. "Two hours a day for a random favor, seemed like a fair deal," Jason said, checking out his surroundings.

Zahra gave him a brief overview of the events that had happened ever since he passed out. "Not the only village attacked by wraiths, interesting to say in the least," Jason said, roughly calculating the odds of something like this happening naturally. "Something is definitely off, try not to get involved," he said, as he began to craft more runes for Zahra to defend herself with. Jason wasn't the most familiar when it came to the effects of his "newly" obtained flames, but he was pleasantly surprised to hear that they were potent against undead beings. With her proficiency in nature magic, Zahra provided Jason with a small heap of wooden pieces. Silently thanking Lycaon for bestowing him the knowledge of runes, Jason went to work.

The surrounding mana fluctuated as he began to seal spell after spell into the wood pieces. Zahra watched in awe as Jason skillfully carved several elaborate runes into the pieces, the mana contained inside was trembling with power. "Half a dozen flame runes, and a couple holy barriers, not a bad haul," Jason said with a smile. He always enjoyed these types of delicate ways of wielding mana. " Back up, I'm going to experiment something new," Jason said, roughly gauging his remaining mana.

Backing up to the far side of the tent, Zahra raised a couple sentient vines from the ground in case of an emergency. Using his abnormal canine teeth, he punctured a small hole on his finger. As mana-rich blood seeped out from the wound, he began his performance. Like a calligraphy master his fingers danced across the wood piece, forming complex runes. Sensing the energy radiating from the runes, Zahra knew that the normal runes weren't comparable with the blood-drawn ones. The surrounding mana fluctuated, as if it was announcing the birth of a masterpiece. Looking at Jason's sweat-drenched face that somehow was even paler than before, Zahra could tell that creating something of this caliber was not an easy task. "Tell Ela to carry this with her at all times," Jason said, hoping that he was overthinking. But the orc and wraith earlier really reminded him that he was far from his peak, they were still too weak to be fearless in their current state.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

With about an hour remaining, Jason seized the opportunity to teach Zahra more tricks on controlling and utilizing her mana effectively. "Times up," a voice rang in Jason's mind as the dams of demonic energy that blocked the corrosive energy cracked. "Seal," Jason instantly casted, crisom chains once again wrapped around his body. Seeing Jason suddenly go limp, Zahra caught him before he slammed into the ground. Tucking Jason back into bed, Zahra went back to practicing and experimenting with her mana.

Finding a job wasn't easy, especially if you were a widow with no talent in magic. But with Ela's persistence, she managed to secure a jobs as a waitress in one of the more busier restaurants in town. The owner of the small tavern was also a woman, who took pity of Ela's unfortunate turn of events. Looking at her tattered clothes that were stained with blood, the owner shook her head. Rummaging through her old clothes, she found some that would loosely fit Ela. "Go clean yourself up, you start tomorrow," she said, gifting the clothes to Ela for free. "Thank you so much," Ela said, with her eyes red. "Show that appreciation in the form of hardwork," the owner said, trying to hide her kindness.

Ela was ecstatic that she finally got a job after being rejected by multiple establishments. On her way "home" she was basically hopping with joy before she heard a sharp whistle. "Saw you looking around for jobs, want some quick cash?" said a man who was giving her dirty looks. Her face lit up red like a tomato, embarrassed but also disgusted by the man. Ignoring the man, Ela hastened her pace home.

Zahra was still practicing her magic when Ela returned. "I found a job! Soon we will be able to move out," she couldn't wait to break the news to her daughter. "Really?" Zahra replied with a big smile, genuine happy that their mother found a job. "Jason wanted you to have this. He said that keeping this on you would bring you luck," Zahra said, handing Ela the special wooden piece that was turned into a amulet by tying a piece of hemp rope to the wood.

Disregarding the weird necklace as another one of those weird things Jason crafted, Ela was more focused on the fact that Jason had woken up. "Can you now tell me what happened to him, dear?" Ela asked. She knew that the reason why Zahra refused to tell her earlier was to prevent her from being burdened by Jason's condition. Zahra was always a thoughtful and considerate child for as long as Ela could remember. "He was cursed by the wraith," Zahra said. Although Ela had her guesses, hearing that her son was cursed by a powerful undead still made her heart ache. "I'll take him to the church when I earn enough money," Ela said, attempting to comfort Zahra. But Ela knew that asking the church to cleasne a curse from a powerful being required more than the couple copper coins she could earn from her new job, there was no chance she could afford it.

Suddenly, selling her body for some extra cash didn't seem like such a crazy idea anymore. Seeing Ela's pained expression, Zahra gripped Ela's hand tightly. "He'll be fine, he was always strong," Zahra assured her worried mother. With a forced smile, Ela did not believe Zahra's words at all. Jason was always the weakest child, frail and always drowsy. If she knew about Jason's past, she'll probably laugh at how wrong she was. She wore the amulet from Jason as a reminder for her to work hard for her children.

"Let's go to bed early today, you have a big day tomorrow," Zahra said, nudging Ela out of her trance. Ela somehow felt like the roles were reversed, she felt like she was the little kid comforted by Zahra. "Thank you, I'm sorry that I couldn't give you two a better life," Ela said, her eyes swelling up. "Both Jason and I know how hard you are trying, we both love you," Zahra said, hugging Ela.

As Ela dozed off into dreamland, Zahra hopped off the bed. She had sensed several figures waiting outside the tent for quite a while. She had no idea why five men were waiting silently outside their tent, but she doubt that they had any goodwill. Putting out the lantern that was the tent's sole source of light, Zahra waited patiently for the men to make their first move.