Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Aura and Contracts

Mila

There was a reason Aura was generally considered the third most important stat.

Luck affected how the universe saw a cultivator. It wouldn’t send a bigger monster to take down a beast overpowering and trying to eat you. It wouldn’t get you out of a prison you stupidly got yourself thrown in. In fact, it generally didn’t have any affect on anything with a Mental Forge.

What it did do in practice was twofold. It gave a cultivator a danger sense like Spider-Man combined with passive treasure detection and it affected uncontrolled magic to more likely have favorable results.

A random teleport would be more likely to put you on a planet than in the middle of nowhere in space. A randomized magical trial was more likely to be one you were suited for. And, for something slightly randomized such as racial ability selection, the choices would be better.

Due to the existence of the System, a purely magical construct heavily affected by Luck, the stat was generally considered the most important, but the truth was it was overvalued as it was the most difficult stat to raise.

Attunement, the second most difficult stat to raise, wasn’t like that. From what Mila had learned from Nana Xara, it truly was the most useful stat, raising a cultivator’s connection to Laws and thus benefiting almost all parts of cultivation. Having higher laws was the biggest differentiator between normal and genius cultivators for a reason. Just look how easy it was for Mila to sneak around on Hira where her Law Egg of Obfuscation was higher grade than the Laws of any of the natives. And this wasn’t even mentioning how most bottlenecks in cultivation could be easily passed with higher grade Laws.

Aura, on the other hand, was just plain practical. Raising the Aura stat increased the power of a cultivator’s aura and that had multiple effects. A stronger aura meant a cultivator could more easily read the emotions of other sentients. Skills like Aalam’s Telekinesis, and most other area of effect skills, were almost as dependent on Aura as Magic or Spirit, Telekinesis for example relying on the Aura stat for increases in range and fine control while Spirit increased mainly strength. Finally, a strong aura could be used to suppress a weak one, making it nearly impossible to move resources outside of the cultivator’s body.

This wasn’t that useful in combat, as suppressing an aura when resources were in active motion was much harder. But for threatening a captive? So useful.

The leader hanging by his foot in front of her couldn’t extend any of his power outside of his body. For warriors this wouldn’t be a huge issue, but the leader was a mage, and not being able to use magic outside of his body effectively blocked all of his skills.

“What is it you want, Mr. Beastman Leader?” Mila removed the gag from the man’s mouth.

“Who are you?” The man was obviously extremely angry, but he was the original leader of the rebels in the area for a reason. He was only a Common grade beastman, so he’d been losing support lately, but he had serious presence and was able to keep his outward cool even in a situation like this.

“Who do you think?” Mila used Trickster’s Guise with mana to drop the illusion making her seem plain and substituted it with a different illusion which made her canines appear extra long. She still looked like a Hiran commoner due to her previous use of Trickster’s Guise with qi, but to him that would just make her look prettier.

“The Mistress of Oaths and Deception.” More fear entered into the man’s aura and Mila was able to confirm he’d at least heard her title.

“Correct.” Mila smiled, showing off her canines even more. “Though I do hate that epithet. Sure, my powers are contracts and illusions, but I don’t deceive anyone. I want food and I politely ask for it.”

The leader very obviously didn’t believe her, but that wasn’t the point. She’d deliberately made his distrust go in the wrong direction, having him believe he’d realized something about her, so he thought she actually wanted food, which would be helpful for the next steps.

“But you haven’t answered my question yet, Mr. Beastman Leader. What do you want?”

“To survive the night would be nice,” the man answered calmly. “Being right side up would also be highly appreciated.”

Mila laughed, exaggerating for effect. “So, not power, not control, just survival?”

The man looked at her more intently than before, and a lot of the fear in his aura started to fade. “You’re looking for some kind of exchange?”

“Two of your men have formed factions trying to take over your position, something they cannot do without your death. Don’t you need help?”

“I already have a way to handle that?”

Mila made her smile wider. “Yes, the prince’s head would help you stabilize your position for a while, wouldn’t it.”

The man’s aura suddenly had a lot more fear and Mila realized her guess about the situation was correct. As one of the weaker beastmen to come out of the tutorial, his position wasn’t secure and he was truly afraid he’d be killed soon. He still held a lot of sway with most of the rebels, though, and, with Roland’s head, he’d be able to secure his position until an external enemy became available to use as a uniting force.

“How do you—” he started to ask.

“Your men made the unfortunate mistake of trying to hunt the Heavenly Spark Soul King. I managed to convince him to leave one alive for a bit to answer questions in exchange for a nice clean decapitation. The rest I’m afraid were torn into a few too many pieces to properly bury.”

From his reaction, she was able to confirm a few things. One, Aalam’s title was also known by the man, either from the beastman who’d giving him the information about Roland or because her presence in the city spread the same quest as before. Two, the loss of those 26, the greatest combatants still loyal to him, greatly lowered his power and protection.

“You are allies with the prince?”

Mila laughed again. “No. We enslaved him. He had the ability to establish a Territory and the Heavenly Spark Soul King has the word king in his title for a reason. He benefits from Territory yet the System makes it difficult for him to claim one himself.”

“Oh.” Mila could almost see the gears turning inside the man’s mind. “So the reason you’re hanging me upside down is you want to make the same type of deal?”

“A little different.” Mila turned the man over, changing her telekinetic grip to hold him by the back of his neck instead. “He had a token to allow him to create a Territory and nothing else, but you actually have a large force. Admittedly, your grip on that force is extremely shallow, but that’s easy to fix.”

Mila took off both of her earrings and placed them inside her cupped hands, transforming the Twin Dragons into its Seal of the Chamberlain form, a stamp with the image of a yin yang symbol on parchment with a quill next to it. Then she used Trickster’s Guise to disguise the identity of the artifact, making the seal on the bottom look like a roaring dragon, and Artifact Enhancement to boost its effects for the next day—even longer if she sent qi, mana, and psyforce over her inherent connection to it.

Then she tossed the artifact to the leader and he caught it and read its disguised information.

 

Monster’s Seal (F-Epic)

An artifact to empower contract category abilities of monsters, normally disguised as a pair of dragon-shaped earrings. This artifact can also store a reusable contract which can be used by the monster’s servants.

Possible forms: Twin Dragon earrings (weight greatly reduced), Seal of the Beast

Effects: Transformation, Conductivity, Contract Seal, Stored Contract

Requirements: The Heavenly Spark Soul King, the Mistress of Oaths and Deception, or one of their servants

 

The artifact’s true information was quite a bit different.

 

Twin Dragons of Life and Death (F-Heroic) [Growth]

A legacy artifact formed by a Reaper’s Token from the flesh of an Invincible Slime, Formless Silver, and the emotions of the Mistress of Oaths and Deception. Due to the mistress’s desires, the Twin Dragons can only be used by the Heavenly Spark Soul King or one of his servants and has multiple effects, including the ability to absorb the legacy information of other legacy artifacts, the ability to transform into multiple forms, and the ability to store unused nascent energy. It was later enhanced by a Healer’s Token and gained the further ability to act as a Seal of Contract for both the Heavenly Spark Soul King and his chamberlain.

Upon the Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s rise to F rank, it then further gained the ability to more strongly hold disguised information.

Current Legacies: The path of Illusions from a random D rank, the path of Shadows from a random D rank, the path of Passion from a random D rank, the path of Tranquility from a random D rank, the path of The Reaper from the Origin of Death, the path of The Healer from the Origin of Life, the art of crafting from an apprentice psychic

Possible forms: Twin Dragon earrings (weight greatly reduced), Twin Pistols, Longsword, Spear, Shield, Reaper’s Gown, Healer’s Raiment, Lord’s Seal, Seal of the Chamberlain

Effects: Legacy Eater, Transformation, Nascent Energy Storage, Conductivity, Contract Seal, Held Disguise

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Requirements: The Heavenly Spark Soul King or one of his servants

 

The artifact had advanced while she did, but she hadn’t immediately noticed on account of being unconscious when it happened, and she was slightly annoyed how the way she and Aalam were referred to in the artifact description had changed.

Its new ability allowed her to more easily change its information and even allowed her to slightly change its shape, such as making the seal form representing her instead look like the seal representing a dragon. But the best part was the strengthening of all its old abilities.

She could channel energy into it more easily. Its longsword and spear forms were far sharper. And the amount of nascent energy it could hold had increased by 12 times.

Her goal with giving it to the leader was simple. She made it look like she’d placed a built in reusable contract into the artifact.

 

Stored Contract

 

Terms:

1. You may not reveal any secrets about the initiator of this contract to anyone for any reason
2. You may not take any actions with the intention to harm the initiator of this contract
3. You must follow all the orders of the initiator of this contract

 

Punishment:

Death

 

Do you accept?

Yes/No

 

In truth, however, she didn’t have the ability to create stored contracts yet, let alone reusable ones, so she would be using her own power to create the contracts each time he tried to activate the ability, and this was an important distinction, as she would slightly change the wording on the contracts she actually sent over.

 

Terms:

1. You may not reveal any secrets about the initiators of this contract to anyone for any reason
2. You may not take any actions with the intention to harm the initiators of this contract
3. You must follow all the orders of the initiators of this contract

 

Punishment:

Death

 

Do you accept?

Yes/No

 

The Hiran language had two words for initiator, one which had a completely different word for its plural and one which didn’t. In the contract the leader could see by inspecting the artifact, the contract used the first word, while in the actual contract she’d send, it would use the second.

She could probably get away with larger changes, but one thing she’d learned in her training with her grandfather was that the simplest lies were the easiest to maintain, so it had almost become instinct to not add complexity when she didn’t need to.

“So,” the leader asked, his aura showing he was carefully looking for loopholes, “this says I need to be your servant to be able to use this artifact.”

“Correct.” Mila sent him over the servant contract she’d already thought up.

 

The Mistress of Oaths and Deception has sent you a contract request.

 

Terms:

1. You may not reveal any secrets about the Mistress of Oaths and Deception or the Heavenly Spark Soul King to anyone for any reason
2. You may not take any actions you believe might harm the Mistress of Oaths and Deception or the Heavenly Spark Soul King
3. You accept the role of servant to the Heavenly Spark Soul King until the Heavenly Spark Soul King leaves Hira
4. You must send 8 F rank humans to the Mistress of Oaths and Deception every 6 days for food, all limbs intact

 

Punishment:

Death

 

Do you accept?

Yes/No

 

The fourth clause was the key. The leader didn’t trust her, and rightfully so, and she didn’t need to go through the effort of making him think she wasn’t a monster for what she wanted from him.

With an obvious dark desire built into the contract, he wouldn’t think as much about the possibility of her true desires being something completely different.

The gears kept turning inside the man’s head, but then he decided and said the word which sealed his fate and the fate of thousands of others. “Yes.”

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