Contract

Marcus walked along the dirt path in the town ever so slowly and tried to make certain nothing could sneak up on him. He did so by carefully and quickly taking glances at all the buildings and side streets he came across.

Granted, he was sure that if the creature was nearby then there was little he could do about it anyway. With its enhanced eyesight that could easily sense mana, he figured it'd be him to be the first to be spotted.

"Hey master, is there anything I can use to hide my mana from this thing? I mean, I'm a sitting duck if that thing looks over in my general direction."

Marcus continued to speak quietly if for nothing else but for peace of mind.

"There is one technique that could prove useful but you've yet to agree to the contract I spoke of previously."

Marcus recalled his master mentioning a 'contract' when he'd been brought back, but he'd forgotten about it as time passed. He decided he didn't have much of a choice in the matter though because either he accepted it or he'd most likely be eaten after being spotted by the prowling abomination. He just hoped the voice would conveniently forget this little fact, hopefully.

"Okay, well how exactly do I agree to this... contract."

"Well to begin, open up Terra."

Marcus was wary about opening said system again because he really didn't want to hear the obnoxious sound of the system's alarm going off again. However, against his own judgement, he followed his master's wishes and brought the system up.

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Str = 20

Mag = 5

Dex = 15

Spd = 20

Def = 10

Res = 5

Lck = 0

Health = 80/200

Class = Unavailable

Rank: Novice

Mage Arts: None

Elemental Affinity: Darkness

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As he looked through his Terra page, he noticed nothing really changed. All of his stats were the same aside from his health and elemental affinity. His health was lower for obvious reasons, but he didn't understand why his elemental affinity changed.

He decided to ask his master's opinion because he figured he could explain to him why it changed.

"Master, why has my elemental affinity changed from shadows to darkness," Marcus inquired. "Also what's the difference between the two anyway. I figured they were the same thing."

Marcus's master scoffed at him as if he felt it beneath him to have to explain such a thing.

"Darkness and shadows are not the same. For shadows to manifest, they require an object of some kind to impede a light source. Darkness however, requires no such thing, as it manifests on its own terms in the absence of light."

Marcus was confused by his master's explanation. To him, it sounded like they were the exact same thing, so he didn't bother pressing the matter forward.

Instead, he decided to inquire about the contract mentioned earlier.

"So... about this contract, how does it work?"

"It's simple. A prompt should appear on your screen soon enough. All you need to do is accept it."

As if to prove his master's credibility on the matter, a prompt instantly materialized in front of Marcus. The screen only asked whether or not he'd like to accept the contract or decline. It also seemed to usually display the other party's name, but in this scenario all Marcus could see were question marks where the name should have been.

Marcus frowned at this. He could see his name, as the contractee, but was unable to see the contractor's name. Marcus started to grow wary of this contract because not only was the contractor's name not visible, but he couldn't see the contents of said contract either.

"So let me get this straight, you want me to sign some contract that I'm not even able to see the contents of, and you're choosing not to show your name either? Suspicious don't ya think?"

To this, there was no reply so Marcus pushed forward. He refused to be betrayed a second time.

"Didn't you yourself say that nothing in this world is free," Marcus questioned as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Obviously reviving me cost you something more than just mana, so I'd like to know-"

"Enough."

Marcus was interrupted by the voice's firm tone. This time he wasn't silenced but instead chose to remain silent to see how the voice would explain itself.

"It seems you actually were listening when I spoke with you earlier," the voice spoke in a slightly surprised tone.

Marcus rolled his eyes at this.

"Of course I was listening. Now explain."

The voice let out a chuckle that caught Marcus off guard.

"You seem to have forgotten about the situation you're currently in."

Marcus stopped to look around. He had been walking through the town for a few minutes now and hadn't seen any sign of the creature from earlier.

As he looked around the eerily quiet town, he only grew more anxious by the minute. It was only a matter of time before he found the source of the scream or worse, what had made it scream in the first place.

"Hm.. it seems you understand your situation. With that being the case, I don't think you have much of a choice in the matter."

The voice spoke like a loan shark collecting a debt on a college student who was neck deep in student loans.

Marcus grit his teeth. On one side, there was his scheming 'master' who was trying to get him to sign some shady contract but on the other, there was some prowling abomination that would only take a matter of seconds before it stumbled upon him.

Marcus didn't know what to do and just as he was about to accept the contract, he heard someone running behind him.

When he turned around, he saw a middle-aged woman with chains around her ankles and wrist. She seemed to be another one of the slaves that had been apart of Marcus's group. She had come from a side street Marcus crossed earlier and she was headed in his direction.

Marcus squinted his eyes at the approaching woman to get a better look, and when their eyes met she yelled out to him.

"Help me! Please," the woman screamed and begged.

If this were the Marcus of the past, he'd have run to the woman and helped her, no questions asked. Although, now he'd thought twice about it and was instead wondering why the woman was running in the first place.

That's when he heard his master's voice in his head. It was low and calm but it also possessed a sense of urgency Marcus didn't fail to pick up on.

"Run, now."

Marcus was still curious about what the woman was running from but he wasn't about to die because of it. So he turned around to run, completely ignoring the woman's pleas behind him.

At first Marcus broke out into a brisk jog as he winced at the pain his body was still in. It had lessened considerably throughout his walk through the town but it wasn't completely gone just yet.

Then the brisk jog, turned into a restrained run and before long Marcus was full on sprinting, against the wishes of his aching stomach and wounded body.