Chapter 14: Mana Contract

Vaelorian barged into his mom's hut and fortunately, she was alone. Her back was against the door and she was caressing her pregnant belly.

"Why are you here Vaelorian?" She spoke without turning.

"You must really love the girl in your stomach. I have never seen you so attached." 

"Yes, she is going to be my last one."

Vaelorian was shocked when he heard her mom. For some reason he felt insecure and could sense her statement had several subtle meanings. 

"Don't think too much. You will know soon."

"I did what you asked of me." Vaelorian decided to listen to her and changed the topic. 

"What did I ask of you?"

"I finished everyone related to Remus." 

"How is Celia?"

"She should be fine. I heard her screams and saw many people rushing."

Victoria sighed and turned towards her son. "What do you want to ask?" 

"There are several things, for starters I have hit a patch. I cannot seem to fully extract the air element no matter what and I am very weak. How do I get stronger?"

"You can't." Victoria sighed, her fingers lightly drumming on her belly. "You are at your limit. You destroyed your meridians when you forcefully opened the gates." 

Vaelorian was speechless, he felt as if everything had collapsed. Hope left his body and a feeling of wanting started taking over. He could feel his eyes burning. "I- I- But you were the one who taught me?"

"I taught you circulation, you were the one who was not patient and wanted a faster way. I warned you but you were young and too dumb to listen." Victoria blew out dense smoke as if taunting him. "Crying won't get you anywhere my child."

Tears dripped down Vaelorian's cheek. When he wanted to grow, when he just had something interesting for once everything was taken away from him. NO! He cannot give up now! 

"I can use mana bullets." He showed his mom, concentrating the mana into bullets and shooting them on the wall, destroying the stone wall with several holes. 

"They are the weakest spell one could learn." His mother blew out black smoke as she spoke.

"I could do wind slash!" Vaelorian raised his voice and slashed his arm, the slash collided with the wall and the hut shook a little. 

"You can't even harm an animal with this joke." 

"I WON'T GIVE UP NOW!" He screamed loudly. 

"Blood," Victoria leaned back and spoke. "Since your meridians are destroyed, you won't live long because the impure mana is leaking and corrupting your blood. For starters you need blood. And because of the way you are now, you will soon die. You are using the breathing technique too much that's why your mana bullets are stronger despite being the weakest spell." 

Vaelorian's eyes widened as he heard his mom. He was indeed a little shocked by his progress with bullets, encouraging him to breathe more pure mana. He found the feeling addicting!

"Hang around your house for a day. Your whole life will change. Come back to me after that. I need to rest, and get out of here." Victoria got up and sat on the bed.

As Vaelorian turned to leave his mother spoke, "The child is not fatty's, It's your father's. She is your blood sibling Vaelorian. Your true sibling."

Vaelorian's heart started beating loudly for some reason and he left quickly. 'My blood sibling, my true sibling.' He thought and felt his heart was not slowing down. He didn't know how he felt but one feeling he could tell was fear. This was not a safe environment for her baby sister. 

He had also taught the wrong method to Celia. Vaelorian sighed as he walked back to his house. His whole life would change if he hung around his house for the time being, he never doubted his mom but her revelation was too much for him. He unconsciously blew out smoke and immediately stopped, in front of his house was a guy talking with his neighbors. 

Vaelorian moves towards him. "Hey," he nodded at his neighbors who started telling him about the attack on Celia. Vaelorian acted shocked and relieved that Celia was fine, he observed the guy who had a small smirk as if he could see through his act.

"Can we talk Vaelorian?" The guy acted all friendly in front of his neighbors and hugged him.

"Sure," Vaelorian spoke, and after bidding their goodbyes to the neighbors they both walked inside.

"You sure are something else," the guy snorted and casually sat on the bed as if he owned it. 

"Who are you?"

"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lan Liuyue. I am from Earth and I know that you were the one who murdered those people." He slowly smirked as he observed Vaelorian's reaction who was very shocked.

In reality, this was to be expected, more than hundreds of people were after him. He inwardly sighed as he observed Lan Liuyue. "What do you want?"

"Your help," Lan Liuyue spoke without beating around the bush. "You are from this planet and I am going to need an acquaintance here, I noticed that no one knows how to use magic properly except the Elders and King. But you killed with mana bullets! That means you can manipulate mana. We both can help each other, you can teach me about this world and how to manipulate mana, in return I will tell you what do you want to know and maybe help you get stronger!" 

"How can I trust you?" Vaelorian narrowed his eyes.

Lan Liuyue swiped his hands in the air and a scroll appeared in his hand. "This is a mana contract, we can both discuss the terms and then it will require our blood to bind us. If I break it then I will die and the same goes for you. This contract is for six months."

Vaelorian looked at the scroll, he had seen the mana contract before and he could tell that this was indeed a legit contract. "Alright, six months is fine by me. Let's discuss the terms." 

After an hour and a half, all the preparations were made and the conditions were as follows.

Mana Contract--

1.) Both parties cannot harm each other, directly or indirectly. 

2.) Both parties must cooperate fully with each other.

3.) If any party wants to keep a secret then they must say so directly. Only one secret could be kept by both parties.

4.) The party cannot lie to each other, directly or indirectly.

5.) Both parties cannot hinder the growth of the other in any way, directly or indirectly.

6.) Both parties should solve the internal dispute through mediation and if no agreement is reached then the contract will be nullified and both parties are going to suffer the consequences.

7.) Both parties must maintain the confidentiality of the contract.

8.) In the event of a breach of contract, the responsible will suffer the consequences.

9.) This contract will stay valid for the duration of six months. 

10.) The rules cannot be changed or manipulated in any way. The contract will disappear once signed. 

The consequences of breaking the contract are - bleeding of all internal organs, death, amputation of manhood, or extreme depletion of mana.

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Vaelorian reread it before nodding. "Looks good," he spoke and bit his finger, the droplets of blood fell down on the contract. 

Lan Liuyue did the same and the contract shone brightly before disappearing into thin air.

"Alright to show you my sincerity, I will let you ask the questions." Lan Liuyue smiled.

"Tell me everything you know about the system."