It was Ethan's turn on guard when his mind whizzed with a multitude of thoughts. The first of these was, obviously, to ensure the safety of both his and Elia's.
He could not really do this daily— live in fear and insecurity and doing things like taking turns and sleeping. He needed to become stronger and while he himself had the means to become monstrously strong, he needed more people, a large group to cooperate with or maybe serve under him. Even though he would have the undead army at his disposal in future, it would not entirely solve his problems.
But the problem was- how could he ensure their loyalty?
[Ensuring loyalty is very simple. Contracts can be used for this purpose.]
Nathan's mind snapped at this message as he almost jumped from the couch he was lying on.
"Contracts?" he whispered slowly. Although he could guess what those were, he still asked, "What are those?"
[Contracts are terms of agreements between two parties. As long as the agreements of the contract are mutually accepted, any terms of agreement could be fulfilled.]
"Can't these contracts be broken?" Nathan asked instinctively.
[They can be. But for a person to break any contract must be extremely strong than the other party. The contract, in a way binds the universe force crystal of both the parties and to breach this binding, one has to be immensely strong than the other party.]
[And even then, if a contract is broken, a very strong punishment is ensured by the world integration system for anyone who breaches the terms of contract.]
[And the moment the contract is breached, the world integration system notifies the other party of the breach.]
"It is a nice method," mumbled Nathan as he fell back on his thoughts and continue to contemplate about his future plans.
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Elia woke up in the morning and the sun was way above in the horizon when she woke.
"Nathan?" she asked as she stepped down from the bed in state of panic. "Why did you not wake me up? It is so late!"
"You were sleeping soundly," Nathan replied. "I thought it was better not to disturb you from a peaceful sleep."
"But," she mumbled, "we had to go to hunt the abarations."
"Yes," Nathan said, "but you would do better when you are fresh."
"Hmm!" Elia replied, "thanks."
"You were thinking something?" She inquired.
"Yes," he said.
"Last night, I learned of something," he replied. "I am going to try something."
The moment Nathan said this, a message flashed in front of Elia:
[Nathan Romantino wants to establish a contract with Elia Louise.]
[The terms of the contract are—1. Elia Louise will not harm Nathan Romantino in any manner. 2. Elia Louise will act as second in command of Nathan Romantino's legion. 3. Elia Louise will give 30% of all the force crystal she acquires. 4. Nathan, in return, will protect Elia at all costs. 5. Both parties can exit from the contract at any time.]
"What is this?" Elia mumbled in surprise as the information about contracts was displayed to her.
"No," she shook her head after taking a few moments to understand what was happening. "I do not agree."
Nathan raised his eyebrows as he had not expected Elia to deny to sign the agreement. A fearful thought emerged in his mind—is she worried about the 30% force crystals? He did not really want her crystals; he was just trying to check how could the contracts be utilised.
"Remove the 4th term," she added, much to Nathan's shock. "If such a time arises, I do not want you to risk your life to save me."
With this, another message flashed to Nathan. It was the same contract with the same terms; it was just that the 4th point had been removed and the 5th point had become the 4th point.
Nathan willed to accept the contract and both of them got the same message flashed:
[Contract established between Nathan and Elia.]
"What is the plan now?" Elia asked.
"We need to go on a hunt," Nathan stated the obvious. There would be many who might have been grinding from the first break of light. And they were already slightly late.
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[You killed a level 1 abaration]
The message was displayed as Nathan slashed one hunched back grotesque abaration. He ripped up its chest and pulled out the crystal.
Also, thankfully, he had found another weapon. This abaration was also carrying a dagger similar to the one he had been using.
It took him just few moments to absorb the crystal.
[You have levelled up.]
[You have reached level 2]
It was the 20th abaration that Nathan had killed and had absorbed its crystal.
"Levelling up is becoming difficult," he murmured to a closely following Elia behind as he handed her the other dagger.
As Nathan and Elia absorbed more crystals, the universe force required to level them up increasing. And the universe force crystal from the level 1 crystal of an abaration was proving to be insufficient for them.
"I think the abaration will also soon increase in strength," Elia commented. With the rise in level of the abarations, they could absorb more energy from a single crystal.
"Now, you should absorb the crystals," he said.
"Yes," she replied, "but it will be me who will kill them."
The duo continued to hunt till afternoon. If they encountered a single abaration, it would be Elia's responsibility to deal with them and if they came across a group, Ethan would dispose all of them except one, which would be Elia's responsibility.
By the afternoon, Elia had also reached level 2 but the time she required to absorb the crystal was more compared to Nathan.
"Should we take a rest?" Nathan asked as he could feel that Elia had been drained.
"Yes," Elia agreed. Even though she had just levelled up, she was feeling tired and a rest would be good for her.
"We should return," Nathan said and they started to walk towards the house they had intruded.
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