2 Contractor (1)

'Hmm… not long ago did I meet Greetman seeing this kid's endurance I can say that this man is a real monster when it concerns body enhancement. It is quite strange that his unorthodox methods seem to work somehow, I need to give him his credit for it. This is amazing' Osfor thought.

Deep down within a darkened forest was a wooden cabin. In front of it was a bonfire, its fire was flickering throughout the vile of the night making the tree shadows dance in rhythm to it.

What would look like two men camping and spending time around the campfire to normal people, was quite far from it? Osfor who was sitting on a small wooden stool, reading from a book, yet sending occasional glares at the figure in front of him from time to time.

Osfor is a genius alchemist, a physicist and an incredible mage one of the seven heavenly demons of Alsa. Well known to the nobility and the four great clans.

His researches were sought after from all over the world.

"The four great countries Alsa, Astarte, Alikh, and Astora are the last seclusions and safe zones remaining on the Great Plains. They however only accounted for less than one-quarter of the entire domain that was once the lawful territory of man. After the Great War, a great deal of land was usurped and taken over by demonic existences. These demons were corrupted and tainted by the Abysmal Blight. Making them extremely dangerous and almost impossible to exterminate. The Blight that normally can corrupt any living being stealing away their sanity in a matter of seconds, merged fundamentally into the genes of these demons."

Osfor who was reading from the book in his hand while watching Asura -doing what seemed to be pushups, supporting his entire body with his thumbs- stated all of these facts concerning the history and basic knowledge over the origin of the current continent.

Asura interjected with a slight huff from the exercise saying

"Oh… huff… I mean I know most of this stuff. And why are you mentioning this, didn't you say you were going to train me…huff if it is a physical exercise I can manage myself with more exerting training than this… and where is your little bird isn't it always with you?"

Osfor who folded the book standing up answered the upside-down Asura while getting closer to him playfully twirling his Cain

"Oh it was not physical training I am trying to make you do, I need to see the flux of Magoi within your body. Usually, when a person is exerting themselves they unconsciously release spiritual energy to reinforce their muscles and a bit of mana to fuel them, this is the easiest way to localize your Magoi network. And that little bird is a sacred beast…and he is protecting my lab at school right now."

Asura was doubting his teacher over what he just said as he knew that it was not an easy feat to observe the Magoi flux within a body. The observation needed great focus and an unimaginable comprehension over the body's functions and quirks which seems absurd as this work was only possible via machines and takes normally very long times to deduce the results.

"Huff…I can't seem to understand what you are saying, sensei."

Seeing the dumb look on Asura's face made Osfor giggle creepily which sent shivers down Asura's spin or in this case they were sent up.

"It is quite easy actually… people now day complicate stuff with their fancy toys and machines, yet they could have the same result if they used their heads. I wonder sometimes if the weights some people hold over their shoulders are even full …"

He had the tip of his cane touch the torso of Asura's body. Within an instant the rubies on the cane handle shone dimly then a golden substance started spreading from the center of Asura's body, it had a faint glimmer. The spreading light made it look like a spider web, yet it started distorting a bit shaped like a nervous system's veins. These glowing veins condensed themselves primarily on the arms, legs, and abdomen with the biggest concentration on the torso area.

"Hmm, your spiritual network is quite advanced. The rigorous training you took from Ainz is indeed amazing. But what about your mana network?"

Once again Osfor tapped the tip of his Cane onto Asura's torso thus making the rubies dimly shin in an azure like color.

The spreading this time was a blue hue of veins similar to the golden ones.

The network started spreading again but unlike before, the veins were extremely low numbered compared to the golden ones. They condensed mainly around the heart area and a bit on the palms of Asura's hands but the most were focused on the back of his right eye it is certainly the effect of the Eye of The Wise.

The weirdest thing was that both the spiritual and mana based veins avoided completely the heart area.

Seeing this, Osfor had an extreme look of worry and shock. first, he taught it was weird that the golden veins were avoiding that part but both of them having the same reaction meant only one thing.

"… Asura-kun You…You…You are dying aren't you?"

Hearing that Asura came crashing down. He was startled by the teacher's revelation and couldn't hold his balance. After making the contact with the ground the colored veins started dimming and completely disappeared.

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(Asura Pov)

'Huh, what a sharp teacher I never knew that I would be found out that fast you gotta hand it to him, someone of this caliber should have found out about this eventually but I never thought that it would be this fast.'

Grinning, I stood up dusting myself I was not mad that Osfor was on to my little secret but the look on his face was that of respect.

"How did you find out?"

A simple question that holds a lot of weight. Not denial nor an attempt to hide the truth but a question that made it obvious that I had no intention of hiding my illness from this specific teacher.

"…sigh… you sure are taking life easy. The Death Curse is by no means simple. An average man would have gone mad from the pain, yet you are not even affected. Or is it possible that you have a high tolerance for pain? no, I doubt that you have an enhanced body but the pain from that wretched curse is at the spiritual level, it's not as simple as a physical one…"

Osfor turned around walking slowly toward the opened door of the wooden cabin yet before he entered he stopped adding to his speech

"What I did was a basic tracing. I imbued my mana and spiritual energy which I changed its color into your system, it then followed the flux of Magoi and showed me your current circulation. I'd say you have a base of S class warrior spiritual energy which is a ridiculous result considering your age. That stage would take people decades upon decades of dedication to reach. Yet a 16-year-old boy is already there…

this would make a couple of guys I know cry. Last time I saw Ainz he was a SS warrior. To have a disciple reaching this stage is truly marvelous yet at the same time truly sad…

On the other hand, your mana distribution is horrible, it's really bad. I mean seriously I saw some bad mana circuits but yours is by far the worst. If you don't take for account the charting to your left eye section that is. I would give you an F for mana and magic control."

He then entered the cabin, taking a couple of minutes he walked out holding a stone in his hand.

"You know what Asura-kun. I saw the fight you had with Migado that man was known as the grey iron demon he was an S class magician. One of very few metal controlling mages. He should have normally killed your entire group of friends, but he underestimated you guys and that led to his demise… give me your hand."

I complied placing my hand forward. Osfor-sensei placed the jade-colored stone onto my palm. I was thinking that it felt quite cold as it latched onto my hand.

He added.

"But what I find strange is that you did not show the power of an S class warrior when you fought him. No, I don't think you even showed half of your power. Not because you were holding back…no you were trashed around…

So I must say you were not able to… I know that you can use magic, so can you imbue that stone with a bit of mana please?"

Listening to his analysis, I started to understand what sort of a man Osfor-sensei is. He is the type to look at the situation from all angles deducting and deducing this was his way of reasoning

. The stone started glowing a bit then shone as bright as a sun. This gleam almost caused me to go blind. On the other hand, Osfor didn't seem to be affected in the least by it.

My body started heating up a bit… nothing that I can't tolerate yet I felt a little bit of tingling under my skin and overall of my body it wasn't uncomfortable per se it was even refreshing. The stone cracked after that and turned to dust.

"So tell me why you were unable to use your full power? and why on earth are you still alive even though you have the Death curse on you?

That nasty curse feeds on mana. It should activate after 30 days of the administration, yet I am sure that Ainz is not an idiot he must have known that you had that thing within you. As for why I know that that curse is older than 10 years is the visible distribution of your mana circuit.

This circuit is like the aging signs of a tree after some time the natural mana veins strengthen themselves to make the body cast more powerful magic adapting to the age of the body but yours are still very young.

This curse usually after activation makes the affected victim's body, Implodes then transform into a tree-like a figure. Anything within a radius of 200 meters will be infected with the same curse the instant the carrier passes away… back in my days, this thing was a bitch to deal with."

Sighing dejectedly as if he had remembered an awful past Osfor adds.

"Your current circuit is that of a 5-year-old… it is extremely fragile and has a low density, except for the eye part. Your mana circuit did not evolve the least in 10 years so how come you stopped the evolvement or rather the aging of your circuit?

Because the only way you can hinder the advance of that curse is if you either never use mana which is impossible… due to mana being linked to every activity the body can make subconsciously…

or have a third party to fuel you with mana while holding the advancement of the curse at the same time. This seems the most logical way…yet I don't quite get how did you do it… mind explaining?"

'Heheh what a fearsome fella… I don't suppose trying to cover this is going to work on this guy he will probably find out… let's just come clean'

"To tell you the truth I don't know perfectly how that process is working but it was thanks to Master Greetman's weapon. The Devourer that is… can I have it back please?"

The look on Osfor right now was of a disturbed person, he found it rather hard to believe that a weapon can cause such happenings yet he conceded the weapon to its rightful owner hoping that an explanation would follow.

Osfor stretched his left arm to the side and made a grabbing gesture. what followed was a slight distortion in space. The hilt of a sinister-looking sword was slowly being pulled from space. The entire sword was grabbed from thin air. What would look like a magic trick to anyone was a dimensional storage area being accessed.

To Osfor's surprise, he noticed a small gathering of mana around Asura's eye yet he didn't want to mention it because he was still unsure of what he just saw.

Handing the blade over to Asura, the teacher made a face as if asking for a viable answer to satisfy his curiosity.

"Alright, thanks … Warriors Blade Arts… Second form, Desert Scorpion."

A surge of spiritual energy enveloped Asura, where a golden glow emitted from his body. The sword started shifting and changing as a result.

The shape of the sword before changing was that of a thin scimitar with the hilt looking like a dragon's snout. It was a hilt without a guard, making the weapon seem that it prefers speed over defense and parrying over-blocking.

The sword transformed into a 1meter long sword but instead of smooth blades on the sides was what looked like saw teeth spreading on both sides. The sword tip, however, was a vicious sharp needle, it was quite long almost 25 centimeters.

A demonstration of a blade that has two forms was probably not what Osfor was expecting as an answer but all his worries faded when he noticed what soon happened after that.

A sinister aura started spreading from the blade… origin is demonic… black like the abyss the aura enveloped Asura and started emitting mana… the mana began to induce itself and charge Asura's body as if it was a living battery. The formerly dim mana veins started to overflow after Osfor flicked his finger to make the blue veins visible again as his mana was still inside Asura's body.

What happened was that not only the foreign mana was pumping itself onto his body but the same black mist was swirling inside and twirling around his heart area. Now Osfor changed his face to a completely serious one.

"… A Contractor…."

I must have grinned as I was expecting him to figure it out instantly but that did not stop a cold sweat running down my spine.

The secret I was desperately trying to hide was discovered in this short exchange. My promise to Master was broken in few days after my enrollment and right now I am seriously thinking of a way to leave the school… as everyone knows Contractors are hated by the masses and that is not a hidden fact, because they are people who made pacts with demons in exchange for their life force.

Gaining unsurmountable amounts of mana at the cost of a great reduction of life force. That is not all the real reason why they were hated, but it was the fulfillment of the contract that results in the death of the human party letting the demonic part possess the body and giving them the ability to freely walk in the territory of humans.

If that is not all, These possessors can fully hide their presence from even family members. As the demon comes in and takes full advantage of the past experiences and memories of the former host, he can infiltrate anywhere. Leaving corpses in their wakes. These contractors are considered even more frightening than Gores.

I know this very well as Ainz Greetman was the person who drilled this information in me, he made it fully clear to me to not ever let anyone find out I was a contractor, and if by chance anyone ever did… killing them is a must.

However, I think that Osfor is not the kind to rattle about stuff like this and if Ainz sent me to him then he must have had a reason but even so I am still nervous and couldn't fully hide my restlessness.

Catching up on my anxiety Osfor added to his words.

"Wonderful!!!"

The look on Osfor turned had a 180-degree change he was no like a little kid who just got a new toy. This look is creeping me out.

Taking two steps back I told to him with nervously

"W-what do you mean by that S-sensei…"

Scratching his chin Osfor explained

"I mean I knew that you were an odd existence but to be a Contractor is a sent from heaven. I always wanted to expire… euh…I mean to talk with one"