238 A Second Contract Part 1 (1/2)

For the past few days when Daniel had been on the sixth story of the magic tower, he had not only been training, but also thinking about his relationship with Saleen.

In terms of offensive abilities, a grade-3 death mage was similar to that of a grade-4 elemental mage. Especially since Daniel had a winged skeleton, he did not believe that Saleen was any stronger than him.

Even a follower had their own pride. Daniel did not want to be bossed around by Saleen. So, the best solution would be for Daniel to quickly boost his abilities and advance to grade-4, so that even if Saleen advanced to grade-5 at the same time, they would still both be grand mages. By then, the advantages of a death mage would be more pronounced.

The rules of the contract were that Daniel could not harm Saleen and could not betray Saleen no matter what methods were used. However, so long as Daniel’s powers were strong enough, Saleen would also not be able to force him to do any unreasonable tasks.

Daniel continued studying the ghost fog monster which had been torn apart by Nailisi since he wanted to analyze it and find out which death creatures were being hidden on this island. When he finally thought of the death mage who had once stayed on this island, Daniel had then harbored the intentions of subduing the death creature all by himself.

Even though Saleen had tried to destroy the balance on the island, Daniel was not worried at all and had simply played along. In reality, Daniel was well aware that such a method would have to be repeated consecutively for about a month before the seals could be loosened and all the ghost fog monsters on this island would be killed. It was just that he had not expected Saleen, an elemental mage, to figure out that important death creatures were on this island.

Furthermore, Saleen’s attitude had caused Daniel to be aghast as Daniel had thought that he was very important to Saleen. Unexpectedly, Saleen had not hesitated and had not given Daniel any face. He had simply acted to discuss the issue of respect with Daniel right away.

Saleen ignored the look on Daniel’s face, before saying slowly, ”We, the people of Sikeqinya, only trust contracts. We don’t believe in anything else. By signing a contract with you, I am giving you my utmost respect already. Have you decided? Lex has been waiting outside for a long time. She will be impatient.”

If Daniel had still been in Tanggulasi, he would have scoffed at Saleen’s attitude, but his many years of being on the run had taught him many principles. Even if one was a death mage, they were not a big deal. Without a backer, it was simply too difficult for a mage to live a life of freedom.

Daniel’s assets had been confiscated. Half of them had gone to the Tanggulasi royal family while the other half had gone to the Holy See. His family members and servants had either been killed, captured, imprisoned, or banished. Everything Daniel had owned had disappeared into thin air, and the only thing left was his winged skeleton.

Now that Saleen had told Daniel that he was going to take away his winged skeleton, Daniel no longer harbored the thought of rebelling against Saleen.

Saleen was right. This was just a transaction, whether or not it was fair was entirely up to Daniel himself. If Daniel felt that it was unfair, then he should not have signed the contract. Since he had chosen to sign the contract, then he should not lament that Saleen had tempted him.

When one had no way of revolting, choosing to obey was not a very difficult thing to do. Most of the time, people resisted strongly because they had not yet grown accustomed to a life of obedience. For such matters, it was very easy for a second time to occur as long as there was a first.

When Saleen noticed that the bit of determination in Daniel’s eyes was slowly diminishing, he sighed in his heart. However, Saleen was not Lex. Lex’s ambitions were great while his were tiny. Saleen only wanted a group of people to work for him and Lex. He had given Daniel a chance to become his friend, but Daniel had not cherished that opportunity.

Daniel had repeatedly tried to deceive and hide things from Saleen. Saleen was not angry, as those were simply the instincts of a human. Since Daniel had chosen this path, Saleen could no longer regard him as a friend whom he could forgo his interests for.

Saleen had been fine with giving Aini a complete piece of black crystal while he had wanted Daniel to sign an unfair contract in exchange for that black crystal. This was because Aini had chosen to befriend Saleen and had not tried to deceive him. For a person like Aini, that was a rare event. Sometimes, one did not become friends with another person because they were good people, but because there was an intriguing affinity between the both of them.

Aini was definitely not a very good person. He could even be described as ruthless. But he had never done any harm to Saleen, ever. When the two of them had met, they had both been in dire situations, and perhaps that was fate. If Aini and Saleen had met with different timing, perhaps the two of them would have become sworn enemies by now.

In comparison, Daniel was a more peaceful person. It was just that he was a little selfish. On the contrary, it was a person like Daniel who could not become Saleen’s confidante. There were even many conflicts between them.

Daniel never tried to harm anyone. When he was unfairly treated, he did not exact revenge using his death magic. Instead, he had escaped from Tanggulasi in hopes of starting his life anew. Otherwise, had he laid low in the Tanggulasi Empire, he would have been able to slaughter the many noblemen and their underlings using his death magic.

All these events would have fulfilled a mage’s criteria for revenge, but Daniel had not done those things.

”This death creature… is extremely powerful. This is the first time I have seen an entire ghost fog island being used to seal a creature, so it must be a grade-8 death creature at minimum. Actually, this death creature should have returned to the death dimension after the death mage’s death, but it remained here because it is too powerful, so it is not able to pass through the narrow plane coordinates.”

”Then why do you want the winged skeleton to absorb the ghost fog? What benefits will the winged skeleton obtain?”

”There are no benefits. If that death creature is subdued, it will be worthwhile even if the winged skeleton cannot advance any further.”