-Vol 6: Dusk Of An Era-

-Renewing The Contract(10)-

“Who are you?” after jumping through the chasm created from the emergence of the guardian, Kenshin arrived at the mouth of a cave littered in shrubs that emerged purple smog. As soon as he landed safely, a woman’s voice floated from within the cave.

‘Indeed, a core.’ Thinking gleefully, Kenshin treaded inside the cave. His past experience with Core helped him a lot, and also due to Core’s secret help on how to make contracts, he was very confident of his chances.

After walking inside for a few minutes, he finally came across a tiny skeletal fairy inside a golden cage. The fairy didn’t have a single shred of flesh on its body. It's all bones. By appearance, it resembled a human skeleton, only a few centimeters long. A set of green fires burning on her eye sockets, making her seem ominous.

“Hello. I am Kenshin.” Kenshin made a formal bow. No matter if they were sealed or not, these guys were seriously strong, capable of nuking cities, and creating holes in space and time continuum. Besides, although he was filled with hatred for that kid from Sylph race and a little grudge at Core for duping him like that, he still didn’t let it cloud his emotions.

He was just too weak against them to hold a grudge for now.

“Who are you human… hmmm! That smell! A very familiar smell… have you met a Faceless Giant recently?” the bone fairy asked with some interest.

“You can tell?” Kenshin was flabbergasted at this, its already been many days and yet this skeleton could still sniff it out.

“Ha! I couldn't miss their disgusting smell, even if they stand on a pile of shit. So it's true then, those dungeons are indeed breaking one by one.” Despite being a skeleton, the voice of the fairy was strangely soothing. He had used his system to scan her, but like Core back then, he couldn’t see anything. It's like looking at a rock on the ground.

“I see…” Kenshin felt silent, unsure of what to say.

“Why are you here, human? Although I don’t dislike your race, your presence here is kind of annoying.” The small skeletal fairy voiced out in annoyance.

“Hmm. Oh! Yeah. I have indeed come here for a reason.” Kenshin narrowed his eyes. Adopting a serious persona, “I will be blunt. Let’s form a contract.”

There was a brief lapse of silence that prevailed on the cave before the skeletal fairy burst up laughing.

“Hahaha, ah! Here I am thinking what’s the matter, but this! Pfft! Hahaha!” the fairy continued to laugh for a good few minutes before going quiet. Her green flaming eyes glared at Kenshin, giving him a look of absolute disdain, “Hmph! What makes you think I will agree? Naïve human!!”

To her contemptuous words, Kenshin’s response was only a shrug of his shoulders.

“Are you sure? Let me tell you, forming a contract with me will be absolutely advantageous for you… in more ways than one.” Kenshin spoke with confidence that stemmed from his dealing with Core, be it in the past or after he showed his true form. Though he was despicable in Kenshin’s opinion, he still thanked him for teaching him the various ins and outs of this contract business.

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“Hmph! Trying to tempt me? You are too young human.” The skeletal fairy scoffed.

“Tempting you? Don’t be ridiculous. There is no reason for me to tempt you. What I want is an exchange. I will work for your freedom while you form a contract so that I could receive buffs. That’s all.” Kenshin retorted directly. There was no reason for him to beat around the bush here.

“Work for my freedom? Don’t be ridiculous. As if this prison could be broke by a mortal like you.” The fairy was furious upon hearing this. She was a very powerful undead back then, and still, she was captured here and couldn’t break out despite using all her power and even burning her essence. How could a mortal that couldn’t even compare to a tiny bone fragment on her body during her heydays set her free?

Her scorn was understandable, but Kenshin, who didn’t know this didn’t react to it violently either.

“Don’t you know, the jailbreak has become a trend these days. Don’t you want to break away from this place and be free again? And please don’t doubt my words, if I didn’t have the ability, I wouldn’t have dared to come here. I have already met two people, and their strength was no joke.” Kenshin shook his head in exasperation before flashing a paper from his inventory.

“What is that?” the little fairy(with skeletons as her body) curiously looked at the thing that floated above Kenshin’s hand.

“See for yourself…” saying so, he tossed it towards the fairy. Giving him a sidelong glance, the fairy extended her skeletal hands towards it and grasped it, although tentatively. When she first arrived in this prison, she didn’t think much. She thought she would break out of it soon enough, like how she had done many times before. But her dreams stayed a dream, and eventually, she gave up any thoughts of escaping and silently accepted her fate as a magic and Concept battery.

The fairy read through the writings on the paper before she looked at Kenshi, with a trembling voice she started “are you for real? Is this even possible?”

“It is, don’t worry. It’s a foolproof and accepted contract with no drawbacks. Of course, unless you adhere to everything written in there, you will face punishment.” Kenshin spoke cooly, before wiggling his brows at the skeletal fairy.

“What do you think?”

“Human, can I ask where do you get this contract scroll? I am sensing the handiwork of a faceless giant here.” The fairy quietly asked. Her tone sounded subdued, which Kenshin noticed but didn’t dwell on it.

“Yes, this is indeed given to me by a faceless giant… is that a problem?”

“Hmm! Do you know why they are called faceless giants?” the boney fairy suddenly asked back a question.

“Huh! Isn’t that because they don’t have a face? I have seen it, and it's all plain.” honestly, Kenshin replied, thinking what she was getting at. Curiously enough, after hearing his reply, the fairy snorted before laughing her ass off.

“That’s backward, human. Its because the name that they don’t have a face. Let me tell you this short story, these faceless giants once called Highland Giants, because they loved to build their homes in higher places…”

“What’s the point of the story? Can you accept it or not?” Kenshin asked, feeling irritated at this game cutscene like situation.

“Just listen to me first.” Instead of agreeing or getting angry, the fairy continued with her story tailing, “During those days, a member of this tribe struck a contract with a naïve goddess who was just recently born to the world.”

Kenshin now got curious about the story at the mention of God. There was always a conflicting point on the existence of God, even in this fantasy-filled world. Taking Kenshin’s silence as consent for her to continue, the fairy narrated, “They were friends, or that’s what the naïve goddess believed. Later something happened, which resulted in the giant breaking the contract and jeopardizing the goddess’s life. Although a naïve one, the goddess hated liers, and when she got betrayed like that, how could she take it lying down?

She cursed the whole race to forever lose their face. As a goddess, her curses activated on an origin level, making her tear-filled curse into reality. The Highland Giants all lost their faces, literally.

The other races later gave a name to this race, do you know what it is? The Deceiver…” the fairy stopped there, didn’t continue.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

“nice story. Really good backstory… but what the point of telling the story? I already knew these faceless giants weren’t any good apples either…” Kenshin was unimpressed, although the backstory was really interesting to him.

“You want to know?” the fairy suddenly sounded excited before she lightly touched the rolled-up paper. A small glow came from it, which enveloped both her small frame and Kenshin.

At that time, Kenshin’s eyes were filled with a string of notifications.

The skeletal fairy successfully formed a contract with Kenshin.