Fire Lizard looked at Richard, seemingly confused about what he was saying.
After a long while, Fire Lizard finally spoke in a daze, "My name is Pa Pa. Aren't you a Wizard? Why are you asking for my name?"
"I'm a bit different from them."
Richard looked at Pa Pa, and the reaction of this Fire Lizard gave him a strange feeling.
His response was not what one would expect from a normal creature.
When Pa Pa spoke, aside from a hint of confusion, there was no emotional fluctuation. Moreover, while answering Richard's questions, the metal piece in his hand continued to change shape.
This indicated that he did not care about Richard.
Yet he recognized Richard as a Wizard, and it goes without saying how notorious Wizards are among Fire Lizards—evil, brutal, demonic; these negative terms often appear in bulk when describing Wizards.
But this Fire Lizard showed no fear or disgust.
This was certainly worth studying.
"You're quite strange. In the past, I might have turned you into a specimen. But now, I want to make a deal with you."
"...A deal?"
This time, Pa Pa's response came much quicker than before.
"I don't quite understand what that means. Logar never taught me what a deal is."
"Logar? Is that the name of this Fire Lizard?"
"...Yes, can you save him? He's about to die."
Richard turned his gaze to the Fire Lizard behind him, whose life force was being continuously drained by the necromantic spell; his life was flickering like a candle in the wind.
"I can save him, but you must make a deal with me. That is the price you have to pay.
Pay a price, gain a reward; that is a deal."
Logar could still hear Richard's voice at this moment. He struggled to open and close his mouth, wanting to tell Pa Pa that Wizards are a bunch of demons and not to agree to this deal.
But despite his best efforts, no sound came out.
He was dying; his body could no longer support his speech.
"...Oh, so this is what a deal is. Then I'll make a deal with you. Can you save Logar?"
Pa Pa's response made Richard smile. He took out a Soul Contract from his pocket, made slight modifications to some terms, and handed it to Pa Pa.
"This is the contract; just sign your name on it."
Pa Pa took the feather pen and contract Richard offered, staring blankly at him.
"If I sign my name, can you save Logar? You're not lying to me, are you?"
Richard chuckled, "No, healing him is actually very simple. I have no reason to lie to you."
Pa Pa was silent for a long time, then awkwardly wrote "Pa Pa" in a wobbly manner on the contract.
"Wizard, you're really nice. If you had been here back then, my mother wouldn't have died."
As soon as the signature was completed, the Soul Contract transformed into a ball of flame and vanished without a trace.
Seeing this, Richard felt elated and immediately opened a rift to the Secret Realm, tossing Logar inside.
"World Mushroom, heal this Fire Lizard."
With that, Richard grabbed Pa Pa and entered the Secret Realm together.
...
Upon suddenly entering the Secret Realm, Pa Pa's eyes widened in amazement.
He had never seen such a peculiar sight in his life.
That oddly shaped big tree is enormous! What are those flying around it, bugs? There are so many flowers on the ground! Is that a statue of this Wizard over there? What is that thing standing on his shoulder? As Pa Pa looked at every blade of grass and tree in the Secret Realm, he felt as if he had entered another world.
And indeed, it was.
Logar, who had been thrown in, was now bound by the mycelium of the World Mushroom. The necromantic spell on him had been dispelled, and a continuous flow of life force was being delivered to his body through the mycelium.
In a short while, Logar's body recovered from its previous severe injuries, becoming as healthy as usual, if not healthier.
However, to prevent this Fire Lizard from acting out, the mycelium of the World Mushroom did not release him after healing.
"Pa Pa, go check on Logar, as you said."
Pa Pa walked over to Logar and examined him closely.
After looking, he stared at Richard in shock, "So amazing, he's really healed."
Richard smiled and then called over a few Holy Tree Sprites to take Pa Pa aside.
He then approached the Fire Lizard, who looked at him with a gaze that could kill. This Fire Lizard was wearing a robe stained with blood, but on the right chest of the robe, the emblem of a shield was still visible.
Richard recognized that mark; it was the emblem of the Shield of Morik.
Under Logar's murderous gaze, Richard casually searched Logar's body. Soon, he found a folded white piece of paper hidden beneath the scales.
The paper had golden patterns on it.
"Oh, an unexpected find."
Richard unfolded the paper, which had several lines of text written in cipher.
Logar glared at Richard, his eyes fierce like a beast.
"Don't think you can get anything from me!"
Richard glanced at this self-important Fire Lizard, and then a piece of information appeared before him.
[Material: Fire Lizard's cipher paper]
[Extractable Information: Fire Lizard's mission]
[Extraction Cost: 1 mental power]
"So, he's an executor." A faint smile appeared on Richard's lips as he chose to extract the information.
Soon, Richard learned of this Fire Lizard's mission.
"Assist Alchemy Master Kalyon in evacuation."
Richard read the contents of the paper aloud in front of Logar. Although Logar concealed it well, a hint of shock still escaped Richard's notice.
"Ha, it seems to be true."
Richard looked at Logar and calmly said, "Listen, Fire Lizard. You are worth less than that little guy. I have a contract here; you'd better sign it.
It's good for both of us.
Of course, you can choose not to sign, provided you can withstand what I'm about to do."
Logar's gaze burned fiercely at Richard, the flames of anger seemingly shooting from his eyes, ready to turn Richard to ashes.
"Wizard, you'd better kill me immediately. Otherwise, once I escape, I will definitely…"
Before Logar could finish his threat, he was interrupted by a wave of excruciating pain. Thin white mycelium began to burrow into his body through the gaps between his scales, rubbing against his nerves like countless brushes.
The sensation was akin to countless steel needles repeatedly thrusting into his flesh, the intense pain instantly robbing Logar of his ability to speak.
Richard looked at him calmly, "I'm not interested in your threats; you can't do what you say."
He gestured, and the World Mushroom controlled the mycelium to send Logar into the mushroom stalk.
In fact, even if Logar could endure this torment, Richard still had ways to make him work for him.
The World Mushroom could produce a type of zombie fungus that could invade the nerves and even the brain of a living being. Once the invasion was complete, the original creature would naturally die, but its shell would become something akin to a zombie or a spirit puppet under the influence of the zombie fungus.
Moreover, the World Mushroom could manipulate these zombie fungus-created shells.
Although this fungus takes a long time to achieve this, and a creature with an energy cycle could easily counter it.
But Logar clearly lacked the ability to resist in the hands of the World Mushroom.
If Logar remained unwilling, this would be his fate.
Richard walked over to Pa Pa, who was now carefully communicating with the Holy Tree Sprites. It seemed that because they were on the same intellectual level, Pa Pa's communication with the Holy Tree Sprites was surprisingly smooth.
Pa Pa gestured to the Holy Tree Sprites, and they released a shower of glowing magical dust, seemingly demonstrating their abilities to Pa Pa.
"World Mushroom, check if there's anything wrong with this Fire Lizard's brain."
"Yes, Master."
Mycelium began to emerge from the ground, attaching to Pa Pa's scales and burrowing into the gaps between them.
Pa Pa felt an itch on his back and reached to scratch it, but Richard stopped him.
Richard said kindly, "Pa Pa, don't move. I'm going to do another check on you."
"...Oh."
In a moment, the mycelium was extracted from Pa Pa's body.
"Master, there is an abnormal growth in this Fire Lizard's thinking organ. This growth is pressing on his thinking organ, causing it to be somewhat underdeveloped."
Richard nodded, understanding, "No wonder this Fire Lizard behaves so strangely; it turns out he has a tumor in his brain."
"Can this tumor be removed?"
"It can. But his thinking organ has been compressed by this growth for a long time, and it has become somewhat deformed. Removing this growth may cause issues with his mental state."
"Will he die?"
"No."
"Will it affect his talent?"
"It might."
Richard frowned. If it could potentially affect his talent, then there was no need to remove the tumor.
He had signed a contract with Pa Pa for his alchemical talent.
"Can this tumor continue to grow?"
"It grows very slowly."
"Then we won't remove it." Richard said with a nonchalant expression.
As long as the tumor remains benign for now, there's no need for change.
Richard's attitude towards these Fire Lizards was somewhat better than towards other Wizards. But deep down, these lizard-like creatures covered in scales were still considered outsiders.
"Those not of my kind must have different hearts." Although this saying is somewhat absolute, it indeed reflects a common phenomenon in many cases.
Two groups from different races and living environments will certainly have significant cultural and customary differences. Coupled with certain physical traits caused by different structures, trusting another race becomes a rare occurrence.
"Pa Pa, you can stay here for a while. If you need anything, just have the Holy Tree Sprites relay it to the World Mushroom."
Saying this, Richard took out a piece of armor plate covered in golden patterns from his Magic Pocket and handed it to Pa Pa.
"If you get bored during this time, you can take a look at this."
Pa Pa's eyes widened in astonishment upon seeing the armor plate.
"Wizard, is this for me? This thing is even better looking than Master Haye's work!" Pa Pa racked his brain and finally found a fitting adjective.
"Even more beautiful!"
Richard smiled, set down the armor plate, and left the Secret Realm.
The paper contained not only the mission but also a coordinate, which likely indicated the location of Master Kalyon.
Richard wanted to try and see if he could sign a contract with this Master Kalyon as well.
With so many Fire Lizards around, there must be a few soft-hearted ones.
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