"What the heck is that?"
"A spirit."
[See! I told you he noticed us]
[But he didn't notice before?]
[He got stronger!]
[He got weaker, too!]
[Shhh! He'd tell us to shut up again.]
The voices Evan had been hearing for a while now were the voices of the spirits.
His 'Loved by Nature' title had already taken effect, but he did not notice this due to being unable to sense or hear the spirits.
Now he had awakened his Mystic Eyes, he could sense, hear, see and interact with them.
"Ah! Your 'Loved by Nature' title. That means that you could be a potential Spirit Contractor!?"
Laurene, who finally understood the severity of the situation, shouted out loud. Luckily, Evan's room was soundproof, so the shout could not be heard outside.
"Yeah, I know."
Evan picked up the little spirit who was still growling at Laurene and placed it on his lap. It stopped and hopped around, visibly excited.
The spirit looked like a slime, the weakest monster you could find, yet it was actually a Mid-Rank spirit.
Spirits were classified into four ranks: Low-Ranks, Mid-Ranks, and High-Ranks. Above them were the Great Spirits, with only one of each existing per attribute.
At the top of the hierarchy was the Spirit King, an existence over Level 700. He was the most powerful spirit and was capable of wielding all available attributes.
Then there was the concept of Contracts.
Those who were able to form contracts with these spirits were called Spirit Contractors.
By default, spirits sadly had a below-average growth speed. However, when contracted with an individual, that drawback was eliminated, as the spirit's strength and growth rate accelerated nearly twice as fast, allowing them to reach their full potential much more quickly.
The benefits of entering a contract for a spirit included, but were not limited to the following:
The aforementioned accelerated growth rate in the form of increased levelling efficiency.
It also gave a boost to their Main Elemental Affinity, granting them a damage bonus, and improving their overall elemental efficiency. Moreover, depending on the nature of the contract and their relationship with the contractor, this increased efficiency could extend to their sub-elements.
One of the most significant benefits was the increase in their latent potential—essentially enhancing their natural talent.
For the contractor, the Spirit Contract granted them the spirit's elemental affinity. If they already shared that affinity, it would provide a damage bonus and an efficiency boost.
The contract also allowed the contractor to use some of the spirit's Skills and techniques almost as though they were their own.
While other benefits existed, these were the key points that made spirit contracts mutually beneficial, fostering growth for both the spirit and their contractor.
Being able to hear and interact with spirits was the first step toward becoming a Spirit Contractor.
However, just because one could hear the spirits' voices and form contracts with them didn't mean they could contract with any random spirit.
A Spirit Contractor could only form contracts with spirits whose souls resonated on the same wavelength as their own.
As the quality of the contractor's soul improved, they would be able to form contracts with more spirits.
For now, though, Evan could only contract with one—and he chose the one happily jumping in his arms.
|Name- Unknown
Race- Spirit
Level- 50
Existence Level - Bronze
Titles- Middle-Rank Spirit [], [].
Class - None
Health – E+
Energy - E+
Strength – E+
Agility – E+
Durability – E+
Intelligence - E+
Condition- Happy
Magic Tiers- Lightning Tier 1.
Skills- Lightning Magic (Extreme)
Unique Skills- Body Transformation. |
It was a lightning spirit with the ability to transform its body into any form it recognized.
While it was currently in the form of a slime, upon contracting with it, he could supply it with the necessary mana to transform into more forms.
There was something weird about its race and titles but Evan's existence was weird in itself, a few more weird things wouldn't cause any trouble.
"You know how Spirit Contractors are treated, right?"
"Like birds in cages. Trust me, you don't want to go telling your father about this. That wouldn't end well."
Evan's tone suddenly dropped a pitch lower, and his cold gaze gave Laurene chills. She instinctively knew he wasn't joking without having to use her Lie Detection.
'This guy...he's serious!'
The tapping of the crest on the back of his palm only deepened Laurene's unease.
Due to the situation with Evan suddenly collapsing, Laurene had momentarily forgotten about the fact that Evan had recently contracted a thousand-year-old demon.
A demon with the power to obliterate an entire country with ease. Even in her weakened state, Laurene expected that she should be able to take down a few dozen Level 300s without breaking a sweat.
She was a Peak RankedDemon, after all.
Of course, Laurene knew that the seal on Pride had weakening effects, but she never would have expected it to weaken Pride to the extent that she could barely take on an Upper-Low Rank Knight.
Evan purposely withheld this information from her so he could make the Princess do his bidding for a while.
However, he only made her think he was going to unleash the demon to 'clean up' loose ends, to give Laurene the wrong idea. He didn't dare kill a member of the Seven Heroes after all.
At most, he could only trick her into forming a magic contract with him. One where she was prohibited from disclosing that fact to anyone, nothing more, nothing less.
'But that's probably unnecessary.'
Evan was considering how he was going to exit the Ducal residence as after the events of the day, there would be a higher amount of security around him.
'I could use that guy sleeping in my shadow.'
There was a spirit of the darkness attribute that had been sleeping in Evan's shadow ever since he left the dungeon two days ago.
To be precise, it entered his shadow right after the lightning spirit in his lap started following him around.
He was ready to use its shadow travel, an ability he had seen it had when he appraised it to run away if need be.
'The Duke and Emperor aren't fools, when I leave, they are bound to consider all the potential methods I could have used, and they'd definitely consider spirits.
There's also the chance that the Empress knows about the one in my shadow, her earlier reaction is unsettling.
In the end, stopping Laurene from telling them about my affinity for spirits is pointless as they'd discover it eventually.'
As for why he said the contractors were kept like 'birds in cages', this was because of the role of spirits in Aidos.
The spirits were beings that were closely connected with and affected nature.
They were also wilful, carefree and playful existences, especially the lower-ranked ones.
As the number of spirits reduced as you went up the ranks, there were very few High-Ranked spirits to keep the hundreds of thousands of Lower-Ranked spirits that could reside in one country in check.
This meant that the spirits could cause disaster or blessing depending on their moods.
Lower-rank spirits were more susceptible to doing this.
As one 'Loved by Nature', a large number of spirits would gather around Evan, and this would also affect the surrounding area.
There could be blessings of nature like good crop yield, good weather, good health for the individuals there etc.
However, this only applied if Evan was in a good mood, if he was not, although not instantly, the spirits would eventually begin to feel the same emotions as him, and the surroundings would be affected based on that.
Just like a few minutes ago when Evan fell unconscious, the water spirits felt sad at this and that sadness was reflected in the weather.
However, now that he was awake the weather had returned to normal. This was because they had sensed him happy.
This was just one of the few reasons Spirit Contractors were excessively overprotected to the point it felt like they were kept birds in a cage.
There was once an ancient country that had a Spirit Contractor as the leader of its military. During a war with a nearby country, he and his contracted spirit wreaked havoc on the enemy.
This made the enemy have no other choice but to think of a way to remove him; assassination.
However, he had a High-Rank spirit at his side, it was almost impossible for them to succeed.
'Almost' being the keyword here.
They were able to create a barrier that prevented the entry of spirits, and this made them succeed in separating him from his contracted spirit.
Eventually, he was murdered after getting stabbed by multiple poisoned daggers, and naturally, his contracted spirit sensed his death.
At that, the spirit was enraged, and with the Authority of a High-Rank spirit, it commanded all lesser-ranked spirits in that country to do one thing.
Destruction.
Pure, absolute destruction.