Chapter Sixteen: The Challenge

Sixteen

They had only made it a few feet further when they got the next System alert and Dane froze, one foot in the air as his eyes scanned the text. He had barely finished reading the alert when there was a pop of displaced air and the demon was standing next to him again. Mel’s long seven feet towered above him and looked down at him with an imperious glare.

“You’ve read the new alert?”

“I have,” Dane said with a slow nod. Next to him, Tolic had grown still and watched Mel with cautious eyes. And maybe a bit of fear.

“Good. I have a competitor in the area. He has signed another warlock in the area who should be competing for the Title that just became available. If you defeat this competitor, preferably by killing him, I’ll reward you.”

“What’s the reward?” Dane asked instinctively.

“A skill. Not a class skill, but an extra skill when you hit five that’ll tie into your class.”

“What’s the skill?” Dane asked, being obstinate.

“I’m not going to agree to do whatever this job is without full knowledge of what the reward is.”

Mel sighed and tapped the ground with her foot. Then she rolled her head side to side and her bones cracked. She snapped her fingers and another scroll appeared in her hand, this one much smaller than the last contract he had signed.

“The skill will be Summon. Level it enough and you can summon anything,” Mel said as she stretched out the scroll allowing him to read it. He skimmed through the contract and had to hide a smile at it before something tickled the back of his mind.

“Why is this a regular skill and not a class skill?” Dane asked. Suspicion laced his voice as he asked.

“Your class skill allows you to summon safely. Already bound hellborn that must listen to you. This skill doesn’t do that. You can bring them here, but there’s no guarantee it won’t just eat you.” Mel smiled slyly as she ran her finger down the scroll to point at the long line waiting for his signature.

“How do I know what I’m summoning? Or is that part of the skill?” Dane fought the urge to sign. He had been rushed last time and he wasn’t going to allow himself to be railroaded this time.

Mel stared at him for a long moment then sighed through her nose. The small contract disappeared with another pop only to be replaced with a table and a pair of chairs. The lean demon sat down and waved a hand to indicate to him to do the same.

Seated they stared across each other as equals and Dane felt a bit better about that. Having her loom over him had been getting old fast. She waved her hand and a long, blank scroll appeared before her.

“I, Mel, will offer you, Dane, the skill Summon and the item Book of Summoning, if you complete this task for me. Prevent the opposing warlock, name unknown, from earning the system reward via the challenge that has been issued to this localized area.” As she spoke the words began to flow in red ink across the paper.

“What is the Book of Summoning?” Dane asked. He stared at the paper nervously. Mel was obviously in her element here and the pressure to deal with her in a somewhat fair manner was escalating.

“The Item, Book of Summoning, is a ritual guidebook to show how to summon beings. As you level the skill Summon, more of the rituals will unlock up to level Fifteen. Then you’ll need to upgrade the book to learn more summons.”

“Will the book have a way to bind the summons. So I don’t get eaten?” Mel froze and frowned.

“As a bonus stipulation to aforementioned goals, if Dane earns the title from the system, he shall be rewarded with the Class Skill Binding,” Mel gritted out through her teeth.

“Automatically, or do I need to sacrifice the cores to reach it?” A vein started to throb at Mel’s temple as she breathed deeply.

“I can’t remove the sacrificial elements of your class. I can reduce the strain. Ten cores to be sacrificed to earn the skill.”

“That works for me,” Dane said. His heart raced and sweat pooled in the palm of his hands as he stared at the growing list of the stipulations on the contract. Text was growing smaller the more they talked. Dane had the sudden realization that Mel wanted, no needed, this to happen.

“On the side, why does it matter if I beat this other warlock?” Mel froze and looked up at him slowly.

“It’s no concern of yours, but how our contracts perform can affect us contractors. I don’t care if you fail, but I can’t have my enemies succeed.” Mel spoke slowly as if explaining it to a child.

“These rewards you’re offering me. They’re from your own personal stash, right?” Dane guessed. Mel nodded slowly and several more thoughts clicked into his head.

“If the other contractor dies. Do you get a bigger reward?”

“No. That would lead to more slaughter than anything else. We are judged meritoriously by how our contracts succeed.”

“But, you don’t care how I do?” Dane said, slowly puzzling it out. It hit him suddenly and he grinned widely.

“You’re already in the lead. You just have to make sure no one takes it from you. Playing defensively rather than offensively.”

“Close enough. Now, will you sign this or not?” Mel stabbed her finger back down on the paper toward the blank black line and a feathered quill appeared in her hand, ink dripping off of it.

“Shit. Another contract right after the last one. But the gains on this could help make up for me having a non-offensive class.” Dane banished his thoughts and with more than a hint of trepidation, grabbed the quill and signed his name across the scroll. The moment the pen finished the ink burned white and the contract disappeared. Mel sighed and rose to her feet and the table and chairs disappeared, depositing Dane to the snowy ground.

“The opposing warlock has been approached by his contractor as well. He’ll have plenty of incentives to make sure you die,” Mel gave the warning as she disappeared in a sulfurous burst of smoke.

“Wow. She’s intense.” Tolic brought his skin suit closer and offered Dane a hand up, which he took. The flesh of the deceased was cold and clammy with half melted snow wedged in the palms of his hands. Dane ignored him and was busy scrolling through his alerts to see the newest one.

System Alert

A mana surge has been detected.

In an effort to prevent ecological collapse this mana is being converted into biomass. Destroy the excess biomass and drain the area of excess mana to earn a Title.

Dane had to stop himself from licking his lips at the thought of a Title. They were rare, even during an incursion when the System granted experience and classes freely. Only System granted quests could generate one and they were all powerful in the long run.

A leaderboard had appeared and Dane saw a countdown start on it along with a compass pointing the way toward where the thickest concentration of the mana would be. Biomass would just be monsters that the system created to store the mana and pull it out of the area. These were a fairly common occurrence early on and they even had a name.

Beast Waves.

“Come on Tolic, we’ve got some killing to do,” Dane said as he started to march where the compass was pointed. They only had a few more minutes before the timer hit zero and the System unleashed its chaos.