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Chapter 80: Contracts and Stipulations
🕑 Added 2023-02-09 03:31:22 +0000 UTCFor several more minutes Drake let loose his own version of hell on the forest in the distance, surprising everyone by just how many spells he could fire off without rest.
Chelsea whispered to the others, glancing over her shoulder every now and then.
“Hey is this really going to be alright. I think he may be crazy if not going crazy..”
Natto perked her ears up and kicked her in the shin, forcing a yelp out of her as the group looked down, turning their attention to the small construct.
“If he is going crazy, so are all of you, certainly you have all seen trauma while in the tutorial?” she began, scoffing, “And you should all understand that with every skill you gain, you change, and lose more of yourself to the abilities. Dra- Shot there has double your skill pool. So show some gratitude and respect you yappy mouthed bitch!”
Theodore bent down trying his best to calm Natto, as he looked at the back of Drake still firing off bombs of fire into the distance.
“This one understands thy meaning Lady Natto, but thine newcomers dost haven't hast the pleasure of being in my liege’s company for very long,” Theodore spoke, then looked up at Chelsea in particular, “Thou has only seen my liege’s barbarism, and this one understands that it can be a thorn in one’s mind. But lest you forget the gracious deeds he hast done as well, filling thy bellies, giving thine roofs to cover with,” Theodore eyed the rest of the group as well now, “Means to grasp power in thine hands.”
Standing up, Theodore moved to Drake’s side saying something the group couldn’t hear over.
“That seemed rather selfish to say, didn’t it?” Jacqueline grumbled.
“The only selfish thing here is that two of you want to voice how your trauma and problems are more important than his,” Natto sneered, “You are not the only ones who have dealt with hardship since coming here. The only difference is that he understands that and does not fault someone for it, where you seem to want to chastise him for trying to overcome and deal with it,” Natto spat, turning to join Drake and Theodore.
It was Tom’s turn to speak up, “She calls that dealing with it?”
Claire walked forward towards Drake and the others, before stopping and turning as well.
“I would say he's doing a good job of dealing with it. Imagine if he truly broke like some of us, and turned those spells your way instead? Do you think you would stand a chance? He seems to be making the best of his situation, and I’m going to do the same and kill every last one of those fucking green monsters with him. That’s more than I can say for you,” she sneered, spitting the last word, “Pussy.”
Clair walked off and stood at the edge of the rampart, waiting for Drake to calm down as well.
“Well that was just uncalled for…” Tom mumbled.
“Don’t think it was pup, you are kind of a wimp for someone who likes to talk so much,” Hudson said, walking past him, joining the group at the edge as well.
Sherry walked without a word, her hand on her grumbling stomach as she mumbled the names of Italian dishes, her gaze distant.
“Well shite. Are we really the odd one’s out again? It isn’t looking good for us Chels if this is how the going is ganna get ya know,” Jacqueline said.
Chelsea bit her lip in frustration. Not sure where to go from here. At every turn so far she had slipped up making her situation worse by trying to rush the process of rescuing Megan and freeing the rest of the group from Chris.
Looking over to the gathering group her fist clenched and shook, unable to hold back the anger and frustration of taking two steps back after just taking a step forward. But a gentle hand touched her shoulder giving her a life line.
“It’s alright Chels, Mr. Shot is a nice man all things considered from what I’ve seen. Even if all you have done is insult him recently… It looks like he really values people who work hard, are trustworthy, and try their best to improve their situations. And I think you embody all of those even if you are rushing it right now out of concern,” Harley said consolingly, letting Chelsea relax slightly, “I will talk to Theo about possibly having Mr. Shot making Megan and your group a priority. He did say he would listen to the whole story when he had a chance. You’ve helped me before so let me help you, take some time to think about the best way to explain your situation to him.”
Harley gave a gentle smile earning her one back from Chelsea as Harley moved next to Theodore, linking her arm with his.
“That girl is too precious for this world,” Jacqueline murmured next to Chelsea.
“Yeah, she’s a real sweetheart… It amazes me she married someone that speaks in gibberish that is wrong half the time..” Chelsea laughed wryly.
“Is it wrong? Well ain't that just par for the course for fake it till you make it innit?” Jacqueline laughed.
Chelsea trailed off as she looked at the now calming down Drake.
I really will have to think about how to speak to him… Damn it..
—------
Drake took a deep calming breath, that both eased his mind but also gave him air for his aching body.
He looked up at his status and saw that he was almost on empty. But not only did he empty his tank he had also managed to do nothing at all other than burn the forest.
His carpet bombing of the forest had netted him a whole whopping total of zero experience. But he had relieved his stress and that was something, and totally not a cope for him.
“Ok..” Drake huffed,” Now for the contracts.. I answered your question but I guess a little more is needed for the explanation other than just ‘I have two classes,’ so would anyone like more elaboration?” Drake asked, looking around.
Surprisingly no one spoke up, each one just had a face of concern.
“What?” Drake asked, snapping his mask off his face and placing it to the side of his head.
He also snapped to form another earthen arm to his shoulder, his status slowly filling up, but not nearly as quickly when he meditated giving a feeling of slight apprehension.
“We- I’ve never seen someone use spells like or in the amount you do. How in the world do you have the mana pool for that, Sir?” Amir asked.
“Skills? Having two classes helps a lot too,” Drake replied honestly.
“What skills?” Amir asked again.
“That’s something I can’t say just yet, lady’s got to have her secrets ya know,” Drake said winking, “But in all seriousness,” Drake began, motioning to Natto and bending down to pick her up, she disappearing again with the appearance of his ears and tail once again, “I’ll tell you all later. I may have opened up a bit but we have all just gotten started, everyone has to earn that trust over the next couple days.”
Drake took a moment to look over the people gathered, noticing some people missing, but they soon moved from the makeshift earthen room, and joined as well.
“Now, anything else before we get this underway?” Drake asked one final time.
“Food….” Sherry said, pulling on Drake’s black sleeve.
“After… I got some of those boar’s in my inventory. So I think I can whip up something really good. If the Goblins are good for nothing else, they carry quite a lot of spices,” Drake told.
“Fuck them! Get the contract over with,” Claire snapped.
Drake looked over sympathetically.
“Alright then, Sherry if you would.”
Sherry grumbled a bit but grabbed Drake’s hand, as a pure white magic circle formed below them.
“Infallible Mistress of Truth and Law. Be my witness in the writing of this tying of destiny. Form Creation. Of Truth and Law,” Sherry chanted, the power beneath them fading slowly.
The next moment a prompt showed up in front of Drake, as he felt a pull of mana come from his body.
Would you like to form a Contract with Sherry Turner?
- Details of this contract are as follows.
- You may not harm the contractor in bona fide in any form.
- You may not retaliate in any form to the contractor.
- The contractor will not disclose any information deemed confidential between parties that has been agreed upon prior to contracted agreement.
- The Recipient will be required to protect the contractor for the full duration of the tutorial, under penalty of harm if broken.
- Breach of Contract will result in a punishment of loss of experience.
Drake stiffened at the terms, not sure he liked the wording of ‘under penalty of harm’ and ‘loss of experience’ but he did agree to help them, so it almost went without saying.
Lay in the bed you make, they always say. Know how far this ‘harm’ goes Natto? Drake asked.
“I do not, but in most contracts it is reciprocal, so I would venture to say that if they were harmed you would be harmed in a similar way. This would only go for significant injuries, cuts, broken bones ect. You will not be getting small paper cuts as recompense,” she answered.
What about this loss of experience? How much are we talking? Drake asked, his hand moving to his chin.
“Standard contract is commonly one level. The more requirements, details, stipulations and clauses as well as the more powerful the contractor the stronger the punishments. So it is a blessing and a problem the hungry mongrel is only level ten,” Natto explained, irritation in her voice.
Got it. Thank you. And takes one to know one, don’t be too hard on Sherry. Drake replied almost chuckling.
“I want to add a small change to this,” Drake said.
Sherry looked up at him annoyed, as if he was wasting her precious time to get her food.
“Make it so the harm can not count if a person inflicts self harm,” Drake said evenly.
Sherry grumbled but quickly recasted her spell, the magic circle forming and a new prompt appearing in front of Drake.
Would you like to form a Contract with Sherry Turner?
- Details of this contract are as follows.
- You may not harm the contractor in bona fide in any form.
- You may not retaliate in any form to the contractor.
- The contractor will not disclose any information deemed confidential between parties that has been agreed upon prior to contracted agreement.
- The Recipient will be required to protect the contractor for the full duration of the tutorial, under penalty of harm if broken. This does not include harm inflicted by self of the contractor.
- Breach of Contract will result in punishment of loss of experience.
“Perfect,” Drake grinned.
He mentally accepted the contract, and felt another pull of mana come from his body, and a chime in his head.
[You have entered a Standard Contract with Sherry Turner]
Drake gasped slightly at the jarring feeling of his mana being forcibly pulled from him. Sherry doing the same. The feeling of the mana tethering between them in the most subtle way after was hard for Drake to grasp unless he focused on it, but he did not miss the change. His eyes catching the smallest of pure blue threads connecting them.
Fuck is it going to be like that for all of them. He chuckled sarcastically.
“I did not enjoy that… That food later better be good..” Sherry grumbled, hunching down.
Drake scoffed, “The Chef never disappoints,” raising himself up Drake grinned, “Who’s next?”
After a few long arduous minutes Drake received the Contracts of all eight party members, everyone leaving him slightly more exhausted than the last.
Fuck, I think I might need to actually sleep after this. I haven’t felt this tired since starting the tutorial. He thought.
“This many contracts for your first time dealing with them would be quite exhausting. It is good that you have such pointed regeneration skills,” Natto commended.
Drake smiled inwardly as he looked at his newly formed group of future confidants.
“Good now that we have that out of the way, I’d like to say it’s time for a good meal to christen the deal, but the Goblins won’t let that happen it seems,” Drake sighed.
In the distant the sound of a horn and drums roared and beat, signaling the approach of another wave of Goblins.
Out of the treeline rose a line of heavily armored Goblins, each one wearing a tower shield similar to the one Tom held. Behind them the rolling sound of the catapults and thrums of footsteps as battlements of hundreds of foot soldiers followed suit.
“Lovely, looks like they've upped the ante. How accommodating,” Drake smiled, “Lets see just how well this new team works together shall we? I can’t wait, it’s like Team 7 is back together!”
“Was that team not only consisting of three members? You have double that you buffoon…” Natto sighed.
Drake continued to smile, once again willfully ignoring Natto’s correction that was in fact very correct.
Comments
If anyone who actually knows legal jargon would be so kind to help me with my butchered "legal" contract please let me know lol
