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60% A Way of Life / Chapter 6: Can I think about it?

Chapter 6: Can I think about it?

He had only just become an adult and there was already talk of having a child and one that would be royalty at that.

"Um, I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.", he carefully said.

"Well, that doesn't matter. This is a condition that isn't negotiable."

"Urgh. Please tell me that this isn't urgent.", he pleaded, only for her next words to throw him into despair.

"It is. It's our fallback after all if you suck at creating the company. So we have at least something."

"Then can I at least think about it?"

"Nope.", it seemed she enjoyed his distraught, as she was now smiling widely. She grabbed a tablet lying on the table and pushed it over after turning it on. "But I can let you select your partner."

On the tablet was a collection of pictures. Each of them showing a young woman, that was unmarried and whom he could select as his partner.

He didn't even look at them, because he had a sudden thought. Maybe this was a possible way of getting back at the woman in front of him. Maybe he could use this to get his revenge for being tortured by her so much.

Before he could think about it more, he already blurted out, "Then I want you to become my slave."

He hadn't even finished the sentence when he felt a glare filled with killing intent focusing on the back of his head. He didn't even need to turn his head to know that it was the guard who was staring at him like this. He was sure that if not for her excellent training, she would have already made a move at him, trying to kill him for uttering those words.

The woman in front of him, on the other hand, stayed completely calm. "That is impossible."

As expected she directly rejected the idea. That was what Ivan had already expected since asking her to be his slave went much farther than what she had offered.

All the more shocking her next words were, "Although it is impossible for me to become your slave, acting like that inside this villa on one day of the month would be fine." When she said that, there was a faint smile on her lips.

Although the smile was faint he was able to see it and it made him understand what she intended to do. He smiled and said, "So you still want me to continue helping you with your stress."

She chuckled in response, "I see, you understand me. But even so, wouldn't that be a win-win situation?"

Ivan knew that the main reason she had come to the orphanage was to relax from the stress of her daily life. She didn't enjoy domination per se, but the act of freeing herself. For her acting like a slave was just another way of freeing herself, a way that might even be better. It not only removed any constraints from her daily life but would also allow her to give up control and just be, without having to think about much.

She was right, this could be seen as a win-win situation but he still felt like he got the shorter end of the stick, so he tried to think of something else he could ask for, something in line with what he had already asked for.

"You said that you want to have a child from me and that it is urgent?", he asked again, just to make sure that his idea might work.

Although Miss. Lucia didn't know what he was thinking about she still nodded after all this was the truth.

Having gotten her reassurance, Ivan pointed at the guard standing behind him and said, "Then I want her too. This will increase the probability of success."

It was something he had realized when he had first seen the guards face. She looked a bit similar to Miss. Lucia, so he guessed that they were related in some way. But her position seemed to be lower since she worked as a guard, so his request just might go through. This way he would get more out of this deal and besides, her constantly glaring at him had started to seriously annoy him. And what was the worst that could happen?

As soon as he had finished his sentence he knew that he had made a mistake. Well, maybe not a mistake but he surely had played directly into her hands. This was made clear from the satisfied twinkle in her eyes as well as her sly smile. Something he knew just too well.

'Damn, I really can't outsmart that woman.', he cursed internally while helplessly waiting for the trap, she had created for him, to fall shut.

"Well, although she is only a member of a side family, that is of course also normally not possible.", Miss. Lucia stated.

Ivan who knew her quite well, instantly knew that the point would be the word normally. With her using that, it meant that there would be a possible way and he didn't think that he had a choice. He could only sigh and ask, "What way."

Seeing his expression of resignation, the woman in front of him chuckled happily. "Guess"

"Hm, it should be something you really need and that only I can provide. Sending her to me should then be a way to control me as well as observe me. It is just that I can't think of anything."

"Good guess. If you agree to help us with something else, then she will act as if she is your slave. Of course, she won't really become one since she will still report to us. But it would still be a great deal for you, right?"

Once again she didn't say what exactly they wanted from him, making him even more curious as well as warry.

"Can I reject it?", he asked just to make sure.

And the answer was what he had expected, "No."

At the same time, the guard was still glaring at him with killing intent, making it not any better for him.

"Then can you at least tell me what it is? What else could be so important?"

"Do you know about class locked dungeons?", she asked while leaning back relaxedly.

"Aren't they the rare ones that can only be entered by people with specific classes?", he wasn't sure about it, since they were rarely mentioned in all the material he had read. But from what he had found, they were just as the name implied. They could only be entered by certain classes and were mostly geared towards them. The rewards and challenges would have to do with the class and they were seen as the best way to grow a class if one was capable of finding one.

"Correct. My family has found one for technomancer and we want to use you to farm it.", she came straight to the point.

"Um, what does this have to do with her?", he asked while pointing behind him.

"After becoming a slave, she will count as an object and you will be able to take her into the dungeon. She can then finish the dungeon since it is only low ranked and get the item we want from it."

"Huh? Didn't you tell me that she wouldn't truly become my slave? And now you are telling me that she has to become one for real?", of course, Ivan focused on the important part. Her wanting to use him to get something from the dungeon wasn't surprising. It would surely be something very valuable they weren't able to acquire in another way. And although he wondered how they knew about it, he also knew that it was better not to ask.

"The slave contract will be real, but you will waive most of the rights you would have over her."

"Then why should I accept this if I have to waive my rights?"

"I said most of them. There are some that you can retain."

"Um, I don't feel that she is that willing.", he commented.

"Don't worry about that."

"But if I can't even order her around, then how couldn't I?", he murmured.

Although she surely had been able to hear him, the woman sitting opposite of him, ignored him and pulled out a stack of paper from her storage ring.

"Here, these are the contracts. Read them carefully and then sign them."

"Just out of interest, what would happen if I decline?", he asked curiously.

"Nothing much. We just won't have any partnerships. And maybe someday if you misbehaved, you would find yourself waking up in some cold dark cell."

Although it was spoken jokingly, he knew that she was serious about it. If he declined, then he was a potential security risk for the ruling family. Maybe as long as he hid his class and didn't get into contact with one of the three families he would be fine but there was no guarantee.


Chapter 7: Contract

He stopped hesitating and grabbed the topmost contract. It was the one concerning the company and it was just as she had told him. There were also some details concerning profit distribution, which were split evenly between them. After making sure that there was nothing problematic in the contract, at least nothing he was able to find, he signed it.

He then took the next one, which was the one between him and her. It was just as they had talked about before. On Sunday he could freely enter this villa and she had to act as his slave. There was only an additional paragraph that stated that she could delay this for up to three months if she was busy with something important, which he found reasonable.

He signed this contract as well and then picked up the final one. This was the one he knew the least about. It contained the details of the contract between him, the guard, whose name was Jenny Falk and Miss. Lucia.

According to the contract, Jenny Falk would become his slave and Miss. Lucia would provide for her daily necessities. In exchange, he would take Jenny into the given class locked dungeon, where she would clear as many floors as possible. He would gain 10% of the drops except for the boss drops with the rest going to Miss. Lucia. He would have to take her into the dungeon on at least six days a week for the first two months and for at least three days a week after.

There was also an option to stop this if Miss. Lucia demanded so. He was sure that this was in case they didn't need the rewards from the dungeon anymore or he could make something better.

Besides that, he would also waiver some rights he would normally have over Jenny. First of was the Right of Command, which meant that he wouldn't be able to give her any commands even though she was his slave. Then there was the Right of Trade, which meant that he couldn't sell her. And finally the Right of Live and Death, which meant that he couldn't decide over her life or death. Normally the owner of a slave could kill her through the system since she was just seen as an object belonging to him.

In fact, although he had waived those rights that didn't mean that there were no loopholes, the biggest might just be the fact that she was seen as an object, he could do anything with and thus no laws and rules would have to be obeyed and he would be free to do anything to her, that he was capable of doing.

Besides that, it was also written in the contract that she would guard him. Something that was surly in it so that he didn't mess up and get himself killed before they could make use of him. Miss. Lucia would even pay for accommodations for her, making it completely free to keep her around.

Seeing that there was no problem with the contract he signed it as well. At exactly the moment he finished his signature, the stare full of killing intent from behind vanished. This made him sure that it had been something that Miss. Lucia planned as a way to make him request the guard. He had completely fallen into her trap. Not that he had a problem with it.

<< You have gained Jenny Falk as a slave.

Name: Jenny Falk

Age: 25

Cultivation: 3-Line

Class: Warrior (Lvl. 3), Swordswoman (Lvl. 5)

Skills: ...

>>

Together with the prompt showing that the woman was now his slave, a new menu option appeared in his mind besides his status screen and his skill interface. This menu option was designed for the management of his slaves, with currently only Jenny Falk appearing in it. There he could also see that he had waived the three rights.

"Great, now that this is done, I'll give you the gifts and then you can go and get started.", Miss. Lucia smiled before pulling some items out of thin air.

The first thing was three books stacked on top of each other. This was then followed by a bank card and a ring.

She pushed the books towards him first. "Here take them. They will give you a good starting point."

Ivan took the first one and read the title which was printed prominently with golden letters on the black book cover. 'The start to body refining.'

After reading it he exhaled a large breath. He had seen it before on the network. Being worth around 2.5k CP it wasn't cheap. But it was one of the best freely available skill books to start body refining and thus cultivation.

He didn't hesitate to open it and was greeted by the prompt.

<< You have opened the skill book 'The start to body refining'. Do you want to transfer the knowledge into your brain and thus acquiring the skill 'Basic Body Refining'? >>

This was how skill books worked. They contained all the knowledge required for the skill. After opening them it was possible to use the System to transfer the knowledge, thus acquiring the skill without the need to learn the knowledge by yourself.

He pressed 'Yes' and felt the knowledge pour into him. It was the basics of Soul Points and how to use them to strengthen the body. Together with the knowledge the skill also appeared on his status screen as well as the information about cultivation which was now 0-points.

The cultivation depended on the amount of energy as well as its purity, that was available to him. He could use this energy to cast active skills either for combat or crafting. Until now he had only been able to use the passive effects of his skills, which had limited him heavily. Now with the 'Basic Body Refining' skill, he would be able to increase his energy pool and thus use the active skills as well, drastically improving his capabilities.

A body refining skill was something every starting adventure needed. It would allow them to reach the cultivation of 9-points before they had to change to a higher leveled skill. Thus the adventure guild would provide every new member with a free body refining skill. But the one they provided was much worse than the one Miss. Lucia had just given him.

The conversion of Soul Points to cultivation was much better and the energy he would have would be of a higher grade, which would improve the effects of all skills. Now he had to earn Soul Points and level up his cultivation.

There were multiple ways of earning Soul Points but the most common were: Slaying foes, crafting items, and finishing quests. Those activities and many others would add Soul Points to a pool, which could then be used to improve one's cultivation.

Ivan wondered how large his Soul Point Pool was since this was an important point in his further training. Since the pool could only store a certain number of Soul Points any more than the maximum would be lost. A large part of the talent someone had was the size of the Soul Point Pool.

Take for example someone with a pool size of 50. At the beginning where activities would only provide ~1 Soul Point he would have to, for example, slay around 40 to 50 foes to fill his pool. Then he would have to spend at least five minutes to cast the body refining skill to empty the pool, before continuing.

But in later stages when the foes got stronger and the quests harder. The items crafted more complex and difficult. Then they would also provide more Soul Points. Of course, the requirements for the next cultivation level would increase as well so everything balanced out somehow, with each cultivation level becoming harder to reach. But the problem was that there would be a point where even a few foes slain would completely fill the pool. And the cultivation skills would always require at least five minutes of cast time.

This already made the problem clear but it was even worse later on or with quests, which generally gave more Soul Points than slaying foes. Here the amount gotten would soon exceed the size of the pool and thus every exceeding point would be lost, making them very ineffective.

Thus a large Soul Point Pool was a must. Sadly there was no way to find out how large the pool was. It could only slowly be seen when one would get stronger and got to the limit. Also, items that could increase the capacity of the pool were rare, thus making the initial capacity all the more important.

Although there was no way to find out the capacity of the pool it could be observed that a main class would have a larger effect on the pool than a side class. Thus Ivan with his two main classes should have a sizable pool.

Together with the good quality of the 'Basic Body Refining' skill, increasing his cultivation should go well.


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