C173: The Ability Contract Pages
"Hello, Mister Daviz! Night to meet you!"
“Uhh, errr…” Davis unconsciously stepped backward. He looked down at the girl’s bright, glassy green eyes—the same girl who, only a little while ago, had carried a sharp and mature aura, emotionlessly watching the battlefield and seemingly commanding Arnold to kill the Dhampir woman.
“N-nice to meet you, miss… Your Ladyship!”
"gihihi!" The little girl, Arriet, stifled a giggle behind her small hand. “Mister Davis! My name is Ari!”
“...Y-yes, Your Ladyship!” Davis bowed deeply in front of Arriet. He did not dare utter her name casually. The girl standing before him had, after all, managed to frighten even a Foundation Stage Dhampir until she soiled herself.
In Arriet's defense, the reaction had primarily resulted from Jack's cane, which had amplified the Dhampir's fear into overwhelming terror.
And the cane, it seemed, had amplified Davis's own emotions as well.
But Arriet chose to ignore the misunderstanding.
Arriet’s eyes lit up. Smiling brightly, she reached out and placed her hand on Davis’s head.
“!”
The moment Davis registered the hand touching his hair, his heart gave a violent lurch, and he immediately leaped backward several meters away!
Only after completing the jump did he fully comprehend what he had done. He looked up, saw the little girl's frown, and immediately dropped to his knees, pressing his forehead against the ground.
"My deepest apologies, Your Ladyship! Please forgive this grave transgression! It will never happen again!"
Davis slowly lifted his head, gazing fearfully at the little girl in the black dress.
Then, his gaze traveled past her small form to the black-haired woman in the maid's uniform standing at Arriet's side.
And further, to the muscular figure standing behind her. The figure still stood without a head, the blood at his severed neck long since dried to a dark crust.
The primary source of his fear... was this macabre tableau.
Arriet noticed the thin man's wandering gaze, and understanding finally dawned upon her features.
"Isa understands! So you are scared of this!" Arriet clapped her hands together with delight, and in that exact moment, Rudolph slumped lifelessly to the =ground like a marionette whose strings had been severed.
Davis's heart nearly leaped out of his chest as the corpse collapsed without warning, startling him.
“Or are you worried about her? Don’t fret, she is already dead!" Arriet flapped her arms excitedly, while pointing at Florence.
‘Died?’ Davis sweated profusely, staring at the familiar maid who was still standing gracefully beside the little girl, with immaculate posture and a serene expression.
In that instant, something fundamentally changed about the maid. Florence placed one hand against her chest, and her mouth slowly peeled open into an unnatural smile.
"That is correct," she said in a flat, hollow voice.
Then her eyes snapped wide open, rolling dramatically.
“I’m already dead! Gahhhh!” Florence suddenly screamed, raising her hands into claw-like shapes and baring her fangs toward Davis.
"Aghhh!" Davis jumped backward, every hair on his body standing on end.
It was not that the woman's appearance had become frightening in itself. Rather, it was the sight of the maid he remembered, the one who had always presented herself with such mature, serious gravity, now transformed into this parody of childishness, that proved so fundamentally uncanny to his mind.
Immediately, he turned away, scrambling across the dirt before breaking into a run. His mind screamed at him to escape, that there was no reason whatsoever to stay! Otherwise, he too might become like them, a corpse denied its rest even after death!
"Pfft, eheehehehe!"
"Come back here, join us!"
"Let us be together! Abahahaha!"
He could hear crude, mocking laughter echoing behind him, but he refused to think, refused to process, and simply continued sprinting forward with all his remaining strength.
To the point—
To the point that he failed to notice a tree standing directly in his path!
“!”
*Bang!*
Davis slammed his head into the trunk. His skull rang from the impact, nausea crawling up from his stomach. He struggled briefly to regain his footing, then collapsed onto his backside with stars dancing before his eyes.
From a distance, Arnold narrowed his eyes, watching the scene in silence.
‘What am I looking at? A circus?’
He sighed and shook his head.
‘This girl. Where did she learn this from?’
'So childish,' he commented inwardly.
It certainly was not from Izzy. Izzy did not have a habit of teasing people, after all.
Inside the mindscape, Isa leaned in closely beside Izzy's seat, narrowing her bright green eyes.
*Stare.*
“...”
*Stare.*
“...”
“Hmm…”
“...”
“Hmmmumu…”
“...”
"Hmph." Isa slumped back against her seat with a defeated pout, choosing not to pursue the matter any further. The girl returned her focus to Arriet's perspective.
Izzy, who genuinely, absolutely had not noticed Isa's prolonged, accusatory gaze directed at her the entire time, controlled Arnold and spoke aloud.
“Stop playing around. Mister Davis, please come here.”
Arriet and Florence immediately stopped teasing Davis.
"Oke!"
They put their hands on their head and saluted. Then they turned toward each other, playing hand-clapping games, while maintaining a respectful distance from Arnold.
“...”
Meanwhile, Davis, who had finally regained his composure, rubbed his aching head where it had collided with the oak. He let out a long sigh of relief.
The man, seemingly still skeptical about the little girl in the black dress, deliberately avoided her and walked cautiously toward Arnold's side.
"Em, ehem. What do you require of me, junior? I will help with anything, simply speak the word!"
Arnold pointed beneath his feet.
“Do you have any idea what those are?”
Beside the dead assassin Dhampir lay a small collection, including several coins, a pair of daggers, some colorful glass vials, a strange emblem, and four sheets of paper.
As Davis began his explanations, Arnold tapped his chin in deep thought.
‘So, in conclusion, we got:’
Two ordinary daggers. These were the main weapons Roson had used while fighting them. It was surprising that they did not possess any special power or poison.
Seven colored containers, including three empty ones, two violet vials, one yellow vial, and one crimson bottle.
According to Davis, the violet vial was called a Cold Yi Essence Vial, specifically used for corrosion, obscuring vision, while granting healing and strengthening to those who walked the Moon Path.
The yellow one was called a Harmony Yan Essence Vial, a healing agent.
And the red one was called a Violence Yan Essence Bottle, used to strengthen Stagefarers, granting them greater strength and vigor, enhanced physical power.
As for the four sheets of paper, Davis likewise provided an explanation.
"They are called Contract Pages, junior. I don’t know exactly how they’re made, but I am well acquainted with their usage. They are quite famous and exceedingly expensive throughout the underworld," Davis said, spreading all four pages carefully.
"Each Contract Page contains a different ability drawn from a specific Path. It depends on what Path and what Stage the contractee belongs to, for the arrangement permits the contractor to record one of their abilities upon the page, in exchange for whatever specific compensation the contractee demands."
Arnold looked down at the pages. They generally followed this format:
[Contract Page: Ice Bullets]
[According to the contract between ##, ## and ##, ## allows the ## to record their ability upon this Contract Page, in exchange for ##, and permits ## to sell it to ##.]
[To use this page, the ## party and the ## must swear they shall not employ this Contract Page to trace back to ##, nor perpetrate any harm upon ##. Should this covenant be breached, all violating parties shall be punished by any party, by any means.]
[Signed by ##]
[Signed by ##]
‘This is interesting.’ Arnold examined the page containing the [Ice Bullets] ability.
According to Davis, this ability originated from the Foundation stage of the Spy Path.
Arnold was aware that Davis had long since deduced Arnold's lie about his claimed Path, so the thin man did not appear particularly keen on dwelling upon the fact that Arnold needed to ask about the Spy Path, or even the violet-colored essence associated with it.
‘So basically, anyone can use abilities from different Paths if they get one of these Contract Pages?’
By the look of it, there existed a total of four parties involved in the contract: the maker, the provider, the seller, and the buyer.
The maker crafted the contract and performed the recording. The provider supplied the ability itself. The seller distributed those pages that the maker produced. And the buyer constituted the final consumer of the product.
Since Davis did not know about the manufacturing process, it meant the maker's identity and the production procedure remained closely guarded secrets.
And regardless of circumstances, no party, not even the maker himself, could betray the provider through the use of these ability pages.
"How much might one page cost?" Arnold asked, his eyes lighting up with interest.
Meanwhile, Davis scratched his cheek awkwardly, hesitating before his answer.
"For a single page, to the best of my knowledge, an ability recorded from the Apprentice stage typically ranges between 20 and 50 Alan coins."
'50?!' Arnold's eyes widened.
Extraordinary items were expensive, as he had fully expected. Yet Arnold could not help but marvel at how absurdly costly they were.
‘Wow. So this Dhampir was that wealthy?’ Throughout the fight, Arnold had counted that Roson had employed a total of four pages. And there remained four more in her coat as spoils. This meant she must have burned through a minimum of two hundred Alan coins in this encounter alone.
‘Damn, is this what inflation looks like in the underworld?’ Arnold grimaced inwardly, while simultaneously arriving at another realization.
'Are battles between higher Stages purely contests of wealth?' Arnold could not help but wonder about other battles between Stagefarers. The richer the combatant, the greater their probability of victory.
"For Foundation stage abilities, they typically range between 50 and 200 Alan coins," Davis continued. "The higher the Stage of the recorded ability, the higher the price."
His voice dropped into a colder, graver register. "I have even heard tell that certain pages have sold for thousands!"
"!"
That single declaration sent a cold sweat crawling down Arnold's spine.
'A thousand coins for one Contract Page. I wonder if the buyer would even dare to use it.’ Arnold grimaced at the thought. It also made him realize just how vast the Stagefarer world truly was.
Arnold returned his attention to the Contract Pages spread on the ground.
Upon close inspection, he noticed that the page containing the [Ice Bullets] ability had been written in violet ink.
'Interesting. Does this signify that the ability originates from the Moon Faction?'
He swept his gaze over all five pages. Each one was written with a different-colored ink.
[Contract Page: Ice Bullets] and [Contract Page: Masking] in violet ink.
[Contract Page: Combustion] in red ink.
The paper that Arriet had seized from Roson's hand, [Contract Page: Barrier], written in yellow ink.
And the final page.
Arnold narrowed his eyes. Because this particular page's ink emitted an unusual color that felt simultaneously familiar and foreign to his senses.
A familiar green hue.
[Contract Page: Unseen Hands]