First Dungeon (10)

"Where's my pack?" I asked the two boys while looking around.

"Ask your little pet. It swallowed it when it swallowed you." Julius replied.

I turned to look at the little shadow blob who squeaked happily at me.

"Spit it out." I coldly ordered it.

After squeaking sadly, it expanded itself and my pack appeared below it. Grabbing it, I began pulling out packs of steak, eggs, a large sack of potatoes, seasonings, and prep tools. Holding the bag of potatoes, I threw it at Solomon's face and he caught it with a bewildered expression.

"Go and wash and peel these."

"Well, well, well, aren't you prepared for our little island vacation." He replied mockingly.

"Shut up and go unless you don't want to eat? I'll just feed Julius and me and you can go eat shit for all I care."

"Fine, fine. I'm going. Such a potty mouth for such a little kid."

"Make sure you chop them up as well. Small even-sized cubes." 

"You're not going to give me a knife or cutting board?"

"Since you're so smart figure it out yourself. I'm not begging you to do it. You simply don't have to eat."

"Asshole," Solomon muttered as he unwillingly left.

Julius chuckled before turning to me, "You wanted to talk to me alone kid?"

"You knew?"

"It was obvious, what's up?" he put up a wall of flames to block the entrance of the cave and I heard a voice yelp before cursing.

Fucking Nova.

"Make yourself useful and start shopping these up. Don't smoke while you're doing it." I passed him a cutting board and knife filled with filled with shallots, garlic, and herbs.

"Do you need gloves?" I asked as just stared at me before reluctantly putting out his cigarette.

"Nah. I'm good." His hands flared with blue flames for a couple of seconds before disappearing. Sanitization via flame, how convenient.

"Handy skill there."

"I know." He grinned.

As he began cutting, I placed the pan on the fire and began drying the steak and salting it.

"About the mimic thing…" I began.

"Look. As long as you help deal with the problem, I don't really care to report it. You seem decent enough and clearly didn't know about the danger."

"I don't know if I can trust your words." I calmly replied.

"You don't really have a choice. I meant what I said. If you don't help, you're under suspicion, and I'll cripple you until we've finished dealing with the issue. You can get healed up back at the academy and explain yourself there." He coldly replied.

"Hmmmm fine. You don't snitch about the mimic to anyone at all who already doesn't know about it. And I properly help out with clearing the spiders.

"You'll help not only with the spiders, but with the mimic main body, heroes, and whatever nonnormal nonsense is happening on the island. You'll help save students and share all pertinent information regarding the issues I mentioned in a timely manner. And you'll do all of the above to the fullest extent of all your abilities. Otherwise, I'll sing like a bird."

"How thorough of you," I muttered.

"You have the look of someone who will preserve themself and sneak away if things get troublesome. Since Nova said you'll be useful, I have to make you work just as hard as I will be. Don't you agree, Asani?" he shot me a dark smile.

"…fine. You have to do your best to make sure I don't come to harm. I'm weak after all."

"Deal."

"Good good. To verify your words, let's sign a mana contract."

As I ripped my gloves up and pulled a contract out of my pack, he looked offended.

"You just carry those things around?"

"Of course. They're quite useful since I don't trust anybody to do as they say without dire consequences. I fully expect people to try and betray me when it's convenient for them. With this, I don't have to worry as much."

"What a horribly paranoid way to live."

"I prefer the term cautious. Sign here please." I smiled innocently at him as I held up the contract and a pen.

Giving me another judgemental glance, he burned his name into the contract and swiped some blood and it disappeared with a puff.

"Happy?"

"Very. Now control the flames please, I'm trying to cook."

Julius: "..."

As I began searing the steak, Solomon came in with perfectly diced potatoes floating in the air behind him.

"You both have a fun conversation without me?" he asked with a mischievous smile.

"Of course. It would be better if you disappeared forever."

"Too bad for you then. Where do you want these?"

"Pop it in the pan" I ordered with a sigh as I moved the steaks into four different plates.

After quickly cooking them down and frying an egg, I passed them out to each of them, placing a plate on the floor for the mimic. As we all ate, I watched as it curiously circled the plate before swallowing the entire thing whole, plate and all.

"Anyways. Black rank. While I appreciate the bribe of food. You still need to take the cuffs off." Solomon said as he stared at me.

"I already told you my terms for removing them. Shall we revisit them?"

"Ah, that was before you went and committed a big no-no." as he waggled his finger at me, I snorted.

"Both you and I know I'm not working with the mimics or heroes. But I'm happy to renegotiate considering the changes that happened recently."

"I thought you would see it my way." His eyes curved as he smiled, "What do you want?"

"You have to stop scanning me."

"Rejected." Solomon firmly denied it.

"Why?" 

"It's basically habit for me to use it. And it's quite useful so no."

"Then you have to help me out 10 times."

"Rejected. Those are the same terms as before. Shall I tell the academy about your mimic familiar? You want to become a lab rat?"

"I'll deny it and run away from the academy," I told him seriously.

"You think they can't find you with their resources? I can assure you many powerful individuals will hunt you down out of curiosity. Try again."

I pretended to consider his words before adding another clause.

"Instead of 10, help me out five times then."

"Three and nothing more than that. And I'm only agreeing to that much because I'm curious what you want me to do for you."

"Fine. Just once. Help me out just one time for 24 hours and… give me the cuffs after I remove them."

"Why?" Solomon asked me suspiciously.

"Souvenir. Getting to own an item created by the great Rainbow Mage who is the pinnacle of mana is an opportunity too good to pass up." I replied innocently while thinking about how I would immediately chain him up once I got the opportunity. Whether he liked it or not, Solomon Nova would be chained to my side to do my bidding. 

"You know it's useless to anybody else since it's keyed to me."

"That's fine. It's my treasure. And since I'm broke, I'll probably sell it as a collector item soon. You're annoying enough that I'm sure somebody will buy it and I need to pay tuition somehow."

"…you poor bastard. Life must be so hard for broke people." He mocked.

"It is." I shrugged while agreeing with him. Rather than enjoying a peaceful school life, I was out here slaving away making items to sell, and befriending every adult I could to secure discounts while making deals with brats.

"Oh also. You can't harm me while I'm on the island and you have to protect me if I'm in trouble."

"That's it?"

"Yep. Don't communicate in any form to those who don't already know about the mimic. Help me out once for 24 hours. And give me the cuffs. And I'll help out with the trouble on the island. Most importantly, you have to protect me and do me no harm. I don't want to die." I honestly told him.

"Tsk. I expected you to demand money or to help you come first in the exams for the year. What weak terms. Sure sure black rank. I'll protect your little weak self while we're here."

"Good." I gave him an innocent smile. "Let's get to signing."

After signing the contract, I reluctantly recreated the key and held it to the cuffs.

[Break restriction?]

[Warning: There is a small chance that the mana signature sent back to the creator will not match the original creator of the cuff]

"Break it," I said, crossing my fingers and hoping that the mana signature would match perfectly.

Unfortunately, it seemed that I was truly cursed.

[Creator Caerus Nova has been notified of your mana signature.]

Fuck.

"Sucks for you black rank. Thanks for taking a beating for me." Solomon smiled mischievously as he shook out his wrists and I saw mana flare out from his body before disappearing entirely.

"Fuck you, Nova," I grumbled as I collected the cuffs.

"Language language." Solomon laughed before turning to look at the boy who was now awake, his crystal eyes sparkling with evil intent. 

"Now you. Mimic boy. I have some questions for you. Crimson remove the flames."

As the flames went out, Julius stood up. "I'm out. I know how this is going to go. Kid you coming?"

Looking at him curiously, I shook my head. "I'll stay."

"Your loss. And your stomach. I'm taking a walk." He grumbled before lighting a cigarette and walking out.

As the boy stared at Solomon, his previously stoic expression began shaking.

"I-I have nothing to say to you."

"Barrier around the island. Lighthouse. Mimic. Corrupt heroes. What are you Darwinist plotting hmm?" he said as he slowly walked to the boy.

"I said I don't know anything." As the boy began trying to back away in panic, Solomon struck out and grabbed him by the throat, holding him and shaking him as if he were a rag doll. Laughing, Solomon threw him to the ground before stomping on his face, the force sending his glasses flying and breaking his nose. 

"You all have been freely causing trouble since I've been chained up, haven't you? Instead of a leisurely island vacation killing monsters, I've been running around and working hard like a dog." Solomon whispered as he ground his foot into the boy's face.

Ignoring his groans he turned to look at me.

"Oi black rank, open those eyes of yours and look well, I'll show you something good. Whenever you catch a Darwinist bastard, first you break their jaws. They like to scream 'For Survival' before biting down and blowing themselves up. It's very inconvenient and very messy. " He grabbed the jaw of the boy and viciously squeezed while pulling down.

With a 'crack,' the boy's jaw appeared to be dislocated and bleeding.

Shaking the blood off his fingers, Solomon continued.

"When that's done, you craft a mana blade like so and sink it into their body one by one." He created a small blade on his pointer finger and sunk it into the boy's cheek causing him to shriek in pain.

"Ever heard of death by a thousand cuts?" He turned to look at me.

At my blank expression, he smiled.

"You're good with mana so look well. What you need to do is create a thousand little mana blades like this." He waved his hands and numerous tiny blades of mana formed, hovering over his head.

"Then one by one, slash the body. Like so." One of the blades flew and slashed close to the boy's eye, causing him to scream as he flailed around.

"Ah. Make sure you pin them to the ground first. If they move around, it spoils the fun." He grinned while wiping a splatter of blood from his face. Four of the mana blades turned into nails before shooting at the boy, piercing his hands and legs into the ground.

As the boy screamed again, Solomon turned back to him. With a wave of his hand, blade after blade flew at the boy. Slashing his face, slashing, his arms, his legs, his chest. No part of his body was untouched. Eventually, the boy stopped screaming, the only sound coming from him were whimpers of pain as he pleaded.

"Kill me..... Please. I'm sorry. Please…" The boy pleaded in garbled words as he lay bleeding, his clothing in shreds. There wasn't an untouched part of his body and the smell of piss and blood saturated the room.

"To be honest, I don't really need any information from you. You're a grunt. Trash really. I already know where you all are and won't I learn the truth by squeezing those heroes to death? You just need to suffer for fucking around with my school trip and making me work." Solomon replied coldly.

Seeing that he was going to continue and didn't plan on getting anything out of the boy, I sighed before getting up.

"There's no need for this. You already said you don't need information from him. Just end it." I got up and walked over to the boy. Seeing him bleeding everywhere while breathing roughly. I quickly crafted a gun and shot him in the head, putting him out of his misery.

As soon as the body became still, Solomon immediately grabbed me by the shoulder and slammed me into the wall, his crystal eyes blazing as he glared at me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing black rank?" 

"Stopping a stupid act. Death should have a reason behind it. So should torture. If he's useless, don't waste time and just kill him. Torturing him when you don't want any information is a waste of everyone's time. I could be sleeping instead of listening to that bullshit" I calmly told him as I looked into his irate eyes.

"Don't ever mess with my business again black rank. Contract or not, I'll fuck you up and deal with the consequences later."

"Sure sure. Thanks for the lesson. Anything else?" I arched my brow at him while keeping my finger ready on the trigger."

"Tch. I'm leaving. Make sure you deal with the mimic when it comes out or ask Julius to when he gets back. You don't want to cause another accident, do you? And black rank, make sure you're truly clean and not with those Darwinists. If I find out that you are, what I did to that boy will just be the tip of the iceberg for what I'll do to you." 

Without waiting for a response, he turned and left the cave after kicking the boy's body once more.

Psychos. All these 9 clan kids were fucking psychos. Not a single one of them was normal.

Sighing, I went to stand by the boy's body, waiting for the mimic to come out of it.

As it slowly pooled out, my mimic fell from my shoulder and rolled over to the body. It formed a mouth, and I felt a sense of hunger coming from the bond.

"Eat?" it asked with the weird blend of voices.

"You want to eat it?"

"Yes."

"Will it make you stronger?" I asked curiously.

"Yes."

"Eat up I guess," I told it. As if it had been waiting, it grew in size, swallowing up the entire body in one gulp. It looked as if its body was exploding from the inside as it kept expanding and contracting but after a couple of minutes, it shrank down to a small size and squeaked happily.

Looking around the cave, and smelling the distinct scent of blood and piss, I sighed, "You might as well eat the other body as well. Who the hell splatters blood where they sleep? Fucking animal."

Thinking about Solomon Nova's crazed eyes as he threatened to break the contract, I vowed to myself.

Somehow, I would chain that bastard up as soon as I was done with this fucking mess. He was too dangerous to leave free and at full power.

****

"Why are you carrying me like this?" I grumbled as my body bounced around.

Julius currently had me slung over his shoulder in a fireman's carry as he sped through the forest.

"Because you're slow and can't use mana reinforcement." He replied calmly, not out of breath in the slightest as he ran at an unbelievable speed.

"I asked you to teach me how."

"And I told you, my version can't be used unless you're innately immune to flames. You can try but I assure you, you'll be burnt to charcoal if you do. Now shut up and let me concentrate. Your job is to keep an eye out. Make sure you don't throw up on me again. I only have this pair of pants."

Staying silent, I calmly focused on observing the surroundings as we ran by. 

After Solomon had left, Julius and I had mutually pretended nothing had happened. We both slept outside of the cave as it was drenched in the scent of piss and blood despite the mimic and Julius's best efforts to remove it.

After a quick breakfast, we headed out to the spiders. After calling me horribly slow, Julius had thrown me over his shoulders and began sprinting. His pants had been burned into shorts and his legs were covered in flames that lightly brushed my body. Despite their appearance, it was quite cool to the touch.

While I battled with nausea from being upside down and bounced all around, the mimic was enjoying itself as it clung to his hair. The little traitor.

Spotting a familiar figure far into the distance, I poked his leg.

"I told you to stop doing that kid. Do you want me to fall?"

"Go to the right. I've spotted our allies." I choked out before covering my mouth again.

"Don't throw up until we stop. If you do, I'm dropping you on your head." Julius warned.

Not responding, I covered my face while trying not to puke.