Chapter 101: Sub- Contract

'But how?' this question plagued the young prince for 2 days until Dame Nora's knighting ceremony. 

Clad in luxurious royal garbs, Deon attended Nora's oath-taking with Sir Finn, several officials, and the king.

King Fredrich majestically descended from his throne and took the ceremonial sword offered by one of his officials. He towered over the kneeling Nora and placed the sword on both her shoulders in turn while reciting his lines.

"I, Fredrich Hensworth, the 19th ruler of the kingdom of spears hereby appoints Dame Nora as the third prince's knight. Together with Sir Finn, a Tier-1 Royal Almagi, the two shall form the Order of the Golden Dawn as the Prince's personal Order."

Ping!

<System Notification: Player Mikael has received 30 Karma points from Elysium-grade spirit Arthur.>

<Total Karma points: +30 KP>

"Ah… at last!" Mikael rejoiced at this highly anticipated notification that took more than a month to finish.

For one whole month, no other spirit posted a job on Mikael's Request Board which made him quite upset since he thought it was just a matter of time before he reached the required karma points for the Angelic Class and he wondered whether Alisha and Arthur were properly spreading his name in the Underworld.

Truly, humans are such contradictory creatures.

At first, he cursed Alisha for giving him the Apostle of Justice title, but now that he had tasted the benefits, he wanted them to work even harder in advertising his fame in the land of the dead.

Thankfully, Arthur was such a rich client that he posted one request after another for Nora's welfare—just like now.

Ping!

<System Notification: The Apostle of Justice, Mikael Lee, has received a request.>

Ping!

< Request Title: Help my sister (III)

Request Type: Chain request (last)

Request Details:

The Elysium-grade spirit, Arthur, still worries about his elder sister, Nora.

Arthur says he wants to be with his beloved sister in the afterlife paradise. However, he knows that his sister has accumulated too many sins in order to feed and raise him on her own.

So, to finally rest in peace, Arthur asks the Apostle of Justice to help his sister achieve redemption

Request reward: +50 Karma Points.>   

"Uwaahh… this sis-con is just…" after reading the contents of his request, Mikael could not help but hang his mouth open in disbelief, "Is he for real? Why not just tell me to marry his sister or adopt her as my second child? Like, seriously? What do they think I am? An orphanage?"

His sarcasm even found its way to the quiet Deon who was merely trying to maintain his royal demeanor in the solemn ceremony.

"Hey kid, can you believe this guy? Does he want us to make Nora a saintess or something?" Mikael grumbled, 'As if turning this kid into a hero wasn't hard enough.'

Or so he says, but Mikael's conscience simply could not allow an acquaintance-bordering-on-friend to be thrown in the deepest pits of hell when it could be avoided.

Somehow, Mikael saw his past self in Nora. Although he never killed anyone for money when he was alive, he knew of the hardships that came with being a destitute orphan. Of the ridicule, one receives from others and of the amount of hard work needed to feed oneself day after day.

He even sympathized with her helplessness to protect her brother from killer ants. Just as he did with Choco against loan sharks.

As a result, Mikael reluctantly accepted Arthur's request, thinking he might as well take Nora along in his quest for collecting good karma.

Ping!

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<System Notification: Player Mikael has received 50 Karma points from spirit Arthur.>

<Total Karma points: +80 KP>

But to Mikael's surprise, the notifications didn't end there!

Ping!

<System Notification: Player Mikael is attempting to designate the individual 'Nora' as a sub-contractor>

<Alert! Player Mikael has not yet achieved the required conditions needed to unlock the 'sub-contract' feature of the Ascension system>

<System Notification: The system has placed 'sub-contract' application with the individual 'Nora' to 'pending'>

"Whaa?? Sub-contract? What the heck is that?" Mikael guffawed.

As expected, his understanding of the Ascension system was severely lacking. He thought that there only existed one contract, the Universal Contract, to which he obtained his royal partner. After all, his fate was already tied to this one contractor so who would've guessed that he could make multiple contracts?

To shed light on his confusion, the system brought up another panel.

<Glossary>

<Sub Contract>

<A player who has attained the necessary conditions (i.e. unlocking either the Diabolic or Divinity stat) may form a sub-contract with any living being capable of free will (i.e. human, demi-human, intelligent monster, etc.)

The Sub- Contract allows the player (Party A) to bestow a skill to the sub-contractor (Party B) by spending karma points of equal value. In exchange, Party B's achievements will be partly credited to Party A as Divinity Stat Points and he/she shall pay for the skill by offering 10% of his/her Karma obtained through the skill usage.

Clause 1: In the event that Party B dies, the bestowed skill will disappear permanently, and the contract shall be automatically terminated.

Clause 2:  Party A has the option to add his own term in the sub-contract. If Party B fails to abide by this term, the system shall enforce a penalty to Party B.

Note: Players with Divinity Stat are allowed a maximum of 10 sub-contracts at a time while Players with Diabolic Stat are allowed a maximum of 7.>

"Huh? Isn't this waaaay better than the universal contract?" Mikael mused, his arms crossed on his chest.

But the more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became.

Unlike the universal contract that obviously favored the contractee, the Sub-contract offered more privileges to the contractor. For one, forming a sub-contract isn't as fatal to Mikael since his existence isn't tied to the sub-contractee's survival. He could also put his own term in the contract which would serve as a great backup to ensure that the other party does him no harm. Lastly, since their achievements are partly credited to him, the more sub-contracts he formed, the faster he could collect good karma.

"Oh? Oh, wait a minute…" Mikael's eyebrows creased as a sudden thought crossed his mind, "What if… What if the sub-contractor uses the skill to do bad deeds? Will I get 10% of their bad karma as well?"

Mikael read and reread the panel descriptions, poring over every line to take out the nuances of each term.

If there was anything that Mikael learned about the System, it was that it was extremely faithful to its words.

To him, the system was like a double-edged sword. Unless explicitly stated, the terms could either be twisted to his advantage or used against him. 

"D*mn… Can I really do this with Dame Nora? Or anyone else for that matter?" his expression soured as understanding dawned on him,

For Mikael, who was betrayed by people who called him brother as soon as life went to sh*t, trust was something he could never readily give out.

But now, the system was telling him to learn to trust people— Even Nora who had the blackest Aura he ever saw—to ascend to Elysium. Once again. As if to gouge out his festering emotional wounds and to let him heal. 

Disgustingly cruel but also kind -- that was the Ascension System.

It was both Mikael's worst enemy and his best ally.

--Chapter end--

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