Shadow of the Soul King

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Bonds and Severing

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Chapter 25: Chapter 25: New Skills

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Twin Dragons

Mila

Mila put down ‘A Devil’s Guide to Nefarious Deals’ and stood, glaring at Nana Xara. “I said I didn’t want to be under anyone and you’ve interpreted that as it would be a good idea to make me a slave?”

“Technically, you’re going to be reborn as a monster, and that will automatically change the nature of both these skills, so you will be a familiar, not a slave.”

Mila continued glaring at the smiling woman. “That would make me a pet. And that’s worse.”

Aalam spoke up at that point, sounding confused. “I don’t understand. You’re a shadow princess, so you could literally break the contract at any time. Do you not know that?” His voice then became cold as he seemed to realize something. “Or were you just using me again?”

“No. Aalam. I didn’t mean.” Mila stumbled for words. She hadn’t been aware Aalam knew about her uniqueness, but, as her mind flailed and tried to understand what was going on, it made sense. He had access to Nana Xara’s information and knew his own uniqueness, so it was only natural he’d come to the same conclusion the sage had. “Why would you want a contract knowing I could just break it?”

Aalam gave her a look she’d never received from him before but had seen targeted at others, a look which made it obvious he thought she was being an idiot. “It’s a magical bond, Mila, not just words. And you benefit more than I do. So what if you could break it, why would you want to?”

Mila looked from Aalam, who still seemed angry, to Nana Xara, who was grinning, then back. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“Of course you are, dear.” Nana Xara waved a hand, a chair appearing behind her. Then she sat down, all while looking at Mila. “A bond based on the Lord and Exemplary Servitor skills normally provides the benefits of long-distance telepathy, the ability for the master to see the servant’s status, and the ability to share resources when within a relatively short distance. With some slight modifications of the normal contract, though, the control of the bond can be made even, instead of sitting solely with the master, and you would be able to see Aalam’s status as well.

“Also, when I say long-distance telepathy, I don’t mean long-distance like your cell phone plan from before the integration of Earth, but true long-distance, like within the galaxy.

“These are all the lesser benefits, however. Servant bonds are one of the main sources of loopholes in System-hosted competitions. If you take that skill, for example, Aalam will be able to use any excess trial points he has after making his choices at the end of the tutorial on you. And your possible selections will be based on his achievements rather than your own.

“That’s about it for this type of bond normally, but you have the Fairy Law ability, increasing the effects. The distance limits on telepathy and resource sharing will be greatly lengthened, the max resource transfer rate will be increased, and, most importantly, the two of you will be able to transfer nascent energy between each other as well. And that includes the 342 free stat points Aalam has right now which will otherwise fade back into free energy.”

Mila stared at Nana Xara for a few seconds.

She’d wanted three main things: more power so she wouldn’t have to rely on institutions, not to be under an institution, and to protect those she cared about, especially Aalam. This type of servant contract, while on the surface putting Aalam above her, was actually exactly what she needed. Her biggest problem with keeping Aalam safe was keeping someone sensible, preferably herself, around him, and Aalam’s excitement for this contract meant it would likely allow her to more easily keep him from getting himself killed.

It was also nice how the side effects would directly make her more powerful.

“Okay.” She turned to Aalam and nodded. “Sorry. Nana Xara here deliberately didn’t explain things to me previously because it would be more entertaining for her.”

“Ah.” Aalam had a look of realization on his face and Mila felt like something bad was about to happen. Then it did. Aalam turned to look at Nana Xara and said, “That’s a good idea.”

“No. No. Aalam, it’s not.” Mila was quick to start speaking before Nana Xara could get the idea further into his mind. “What did Diana always say was the sign of a good leader?”

Aalam turned back to her, a somewhat thoughtful expression thankfully on his face. “Knowing when to delegate.”

“Right. And why would you want to form this kind of bond with me?”

Aalam again looked like he realized something. “So I can delegate things to you.”

“Yes.” Mila quickly nodded. “And how can I help you correctly if I don’t know what is going on?” Then she said the key words she was pretty sure would get Aalam to listen to her. “We’ve just wasted over a minute of time because no one explained to me the knowledge about a skill I was supposed to learn. That’s a pretty big loss of efficiency.”

“Yeah.” Aalam turned to glare at Nana Xara, then looked back at Mila. “Li Mila, will you agree to serve me as my chamberlain.”

Wandering Lord Aalam Alvaro has offered you a position as his chamberlain.

Will you accept?

Yes/No

“Again, Aalam, I’m not sure what a chamberlain means in this context.”

“Oh, right.” Aalam looked a bit guilty, which was a good sign he was no longer angry. “A chamberlain is like a chief servant. She can manage all of her lord’s wealth, but can’t knowingly waste it. If the lord gets any other servants, they would answer to her. And, should the lord be indisposed, she can make decisions for him. Also, as a hired servant, the contract is evenly held by both parties. And, so the chamberlain can correctly perform her job, she can see her lord’s status as well.”

“Alright then.” Mila took a deep breath, thinking she was very likely to regret this decision in the future, but going through with it anyway. “I’ll be your chamberlain.”

There were no super obvious effects, but, after looking for her new bond for a few seconds, she could sense a connection to Aalam. Then, at about the same time she sensed the bond, Aalam started glowing green and she realized he’d gained another Law Egg.

Slightly annoyed about how fast he was gaining new Laws, she then absorbed the Exemplary Servitor skill from the skill orb and took a look at her status.

Name: Li Mila

Level: 0

Race: Human Soulform (G-Common)

Bloodline: NA

Abilities

Omniglot Reader (Legendary)

Fairy Law (Legendary)

Class: Citizen (G-Common)

Skills

Artifact Enhancement (G-Legendary) 0% mastered

Devil’s Contract (G-Legendary) 0% mastered

Exemplary Servitor (G-Legendary) 0% mastered

Laws

Law Eggs:

Obfuscation - Middle

Hologram - Middle

Calm - Early

Rage - Early

The Healer - Early

Stats

Strength: 22

Agility: 30

Endurance: 24

Toughness: 24

Vitality: 24

Perception: 30

Magic: 42

Spirit: 46

Soul: 43

Aura: 21

Attunement: 21

Luck: 93

Free Stats: 0 [354]

Soulstructures:

Lower Dantian: 1 Huge Core Container

Middle Dantian: 3 Medium + 1 Large Mana Wells

Upper Dantian: 1 Large Mental Forge

Uniqueness:

Shadow Princess

“And it’s okay if I use those free stats?”

“They’ll disappear in four hours if you don’t.” Aalam didn’t sound like he cared much and was instead focusing on something else, likely analyzing their new bond. So, she used the now 354 free stats to maximize her Attunement stat, bringing all her stats other than Aura and Luck up to 66.

“Okay.” Nana Xara clapped from her seat. “Now start making and breaking bonds like crazy, but make sure the punishments are light and don’t break that primary bond. In a bit, we’ll have Mila start to use her uniqueness and I’ll hide its usage from the System so gods don’t eventually hunt you down and kill you.”

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They then started five hours of training. For the first ten minutes, they only made simple vows, things like ‘I will stand on one leg for twenty seconds’ with punishments like ‘if I don’t comply, I’ll have to say the word Gazebo’. Sometimes they complied. Sometimes they did the punishment. At Nana Xara’s direction, however, they never took a third choice as, even with the relatively weak vows they were making, it would damage the foundation of their soul—at least for Aalam.

Mila quickly realized, if she could sense a bond, she could break it with relative ease, but she held off doing so and they spent 50 minutes trying out contracts with the Devil’s Contract skill.

Then they made several simple vows and she started severing them with the power of her uniqueness. The first few times she did, however, Aalam no longer had to keep his part of the bargain either.

Aalam did gain the Law Egg of Severing, though, and Mila got slightly closer to advancing her Law Egg of Obfuscation as a result. She used the twelve new free stats to raise her Attunement by one again, and then they continued for another four hours.

By the time Aalam raised both his new Law Eggs to middle grade, Mila had gained both Law Eggs as well. Though it would have been hard not to with him using them on every new bond they created, so, even with him unable to break any of the bonds she made no matter how hard he tried, she didn’t feel much pride.

What she did feel better about was her new ability to break a bond’s effect on her with her uniqueness without the effects on Aalam changing. Aalam, even with a middle grade Law Egg of Bonds, couldn’t tell when she did it and, as she worked at it more, it was starting to take Nana Xara more effort to notice as well.

Excited after finally advancing his Law Egg of Severing to middle grade, Aalam sat on the ground and opened his status screen, and Mila, using one of the new effects of their master servant bond, forwarded the messages from his connection with the System to hers so she could watch.

You have chosen to upgrade your racial ability Amber Soul (Epic)

Please choose from the following three possible upgrades.

Silver Soul (Legendary): Increase the effectiveness of the Soul stat by 25%.
Pure Soul (Legendary): Increase the effectiveness of the Soul and Attunement stats by 12.5%.
Heavenly Spark Pure Soul (Legendary): Increase the effectiveness of the Soul and Attunement stats by 12.5% and raise affinity with all Laws by 25%.

Aalam chose the third option and a few more system messages appeared.

Congratulations!

You have upgraded Amber Soul (Epic) to Heavenly Spark Pure Soul (Legendary)

Congratulations!

You are the first in the history of System tutorials to gain the Heavenly Spark Pure Soul (Legendary) ability

All stats +12

Strength is already at maximum.