บท 205: Signing the contract
Necro Valley, Eye of Death division
"Rumble rumble!"
A loud rumble suddenly shook a dark and desolate room. The room was barely lit by a few candles; one could see a black coffin resting at the center of the room.
The rumble did not go unnoticed. As soon as it happened, the door of the room was pushed open and several liches stormed the place.
The coffin lid trembled and slowly slid to the side. A bony hand emerged from the coffin and pushed the lid further, causing it to fall off. The lid made of marble exploded into pieces as a silhouette emerged from the darkness of the coffin.
"Regent Ivanna! You are finally awake," respectfully declared one of the liches. He bowed lightly facing the coffin. The other liches quickly followed, except for one.
Ivanna stepped out of the coffin. She briefly checked her decrepit body, her hand touched her half rotten face. The remains of her lips slightly curled up; she was still alive!
"D*mmit! Who was the one who gathered information about that mission? How could a Commandment appear so far from their shrine?" Ivanna glared at the liches. She lost so much in this mission; her most powerful Undead Summons were annihilated and could no longer be summoned. Furthermore, she even lost her precious second body.
"Still so noisy!" The sole lich who stood still spoke with an amused tone.
Ivanna's stare hardened as she noticed that person. "Meral! What are you doing here? The Eye of Death does not welcome you! You have been banned for misconduct in the past; you dare step in here again? You, escort him out," commanded Ivanna as she pointed at one of the liches. However, the lich did not dare to make a single move.
Meral chuckled at Ivanna's confusion. "Ivanna. Many things happened in your absence. I am no longer a random person you can order around. In fact, I am now your superior; I joined the Undying Council! You should address me as an elder from now on."
"What? Impossible! How did you become an elder? Only someone who is at least a Corpse Lord or Lich Warlock can join the council!" exclaimed Ivanna. She did not believe what she was hearing.
"That's true. I have to thank you for this opportunity. After you failed your mission, the elders agreed to reallocate your Lich Wizards. I managed to gather eleven of them and completed the fusion process. Now, I am already a Lich Warlock."
At that moment, loud rattles came from outside. The door was pushed open as a corpse entered the room. Two large shackles were wrapped around his arms, the shackles' chains clanked on the floor, causing this loud rattle as if something was being dragged around.
The corpse looked at the two liches briefly and spoke, "I knew this would happen You should stop arguing with each other. We have more important things to do. Meral, the Undying Council is about to convene; go to the meeting place right now. Ivanna, go prepare yourself. You might not be aware since you were recovering, but the Night of Macabre is approaching. We need to get ready."
Ivanna frowned. "The Night of Macabre? Did I sleep for more than a month to recover? Fine. I will make the necessary preparations."
"Old man, you can't speak to me like that anymore. I am also an elder now," said Meral with a smirk.
The light in the eye sockets of the corpse lit up. However, his voice remained calm. "For now but who knows how long you will last with that attitude. Just like Ivanna was stripped of her Lich Wizards for failing her mission, you will also be punished accordingly if the Night of Macabre is a failure. You are in charge of the Necromancy Department; we expect you to be able to gather enough corpses during the night."
"Tssk. Fine, old man!" Meral snorted and left the room quickly. He knew he could not argue with the corpse. All elders were not equal; Meral recently joined the Undying Council. He might be able to scare regular members of Necro Valley but the corpse was a powerful elder and a Corpse Commander at that.
Once the Lich Warlock left the scene, Ivanna turned her attention to the corpse. "Elder, what exactly happened? I know I failed and need to be punished but I could not do anything. How was I supposed to defeat a Commandment? Isn't taking away eight Lich Wizards a bit too much? It took me decades to obtain them!"
The corpse shook his head. "It is not that simple. Your failure caused the church to dispatch a few executioners to deal with us. But more importantly, a change in power occurred in the Undying Council. In your absence, a second Corpse God was born and he is none other than Meral's grandfather."
"Although the council was against this, our voice cannot go against a Corpse God. He used your failure as an opportunity to distribute some resources to the members of his family and stabilize his position in the Undying Council. I am sorry that you were wronged but you will have to bite the bullet for now. Perform well and use the Night of Macabre as an opportunity to gather information from all the empires. It is a rare opportunity for us to have eyes all over the continent."
Ivanna lowered her head, unable to answer. If a Corpse God ordered for her Lich Wizards to be reallocated, there was nothing she could do. 'D*mn... Decades of hard work gone just like that?'
"I will do my best, elder," answered Ivanna. She respectfully bowed.
The corpse nodded as its expression turned gentle. "I have to go now. The Undying Council will meet in a few minutes. We need to do the preparations before unleashing the Plague of Death."
Ivanna looked at the departing figure of the corpse and sighed. So many bad things happened to her since she discovered Dreidus' aura. 'The night of Macabre... Such a foolish name. Isn't it just a large scale Plague of Death? The living really likes to give useless names to everything. But the elder is right. If I obtain enough information, I might be able to regain my losses and maybe I'll be able to track Dreidus' location...'
...
A few days later, in the middle of the night, Five and his monsters were silently waiting for their guests. After accepting to join the Hurricane Alliance, Five received the news that the first elder was on his way to the dungeon to sign the contract.
Five was rather uneasy as a powerful dungeon master was going to enter his dungeon. He remained on his guard against the Hurricane Alliance. He agreed to join them because he had the [Void Contract]; he was ready to leave at the first sign of trouble but the Hurricane Alliance was most probably also aware of this. He did not know what kind of tricks the alliance would use.
Despond, the first elder of the Hurricane Alliance, agreed to meet near Five's dungeon. The monsters were on alert. They knew the old dungeon masters could not harm the new ones directly but they were careful when facing such a powerful individual.
Five stood at the entrance with Dreidus, Ishan, and Harriet. They stared in the distance, as the time of the meeting was approaching. Suddenly, the harpy queen's wings trembled.
"Someone is coming. I felt a change in the air current."
Ishan and Dreidus frowned, looking for the guests but the area in front of them was completely deserted. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. But that person is much stronger than me. He purposely allowed me to detect him and now, I cannot sense any change any more. He should arrive very soon," answered Harriet.
At that moment, the three monsters' vision suddenly darkened. A giant silhouette appeared above the entrance, completely blocking the moonlight. Five and the monsters' widened their eyes; it was unexpectedly a dragon!
A giant dragon was flying above their head. Due to the level restriction, Five was unable to see its level and even Harriet couldn't. The dragon flapped its wings, looking down on the monsters but it did not attack. It held a condescending look; it would not gain anything by attacking the three monsters.
"I see that you've prepared a reception for me."
A voice sounded and at the same time, another silhouette appeared, jumping from the back of the dragon. It was a middle-aged man. He wore a light mage robe. The man gracefully landed in front of the three monsters and smiled faintly.
Five and the monsters were stunned. They took a few seconds to react. The monsters quickly took a defensive position, but deep inside, they knew it would be pointless to fight that man. They could not see through his strength.
"Are you the first elder?" hesitantly asked Five as he noticed that the man and his dragon were not displaying any aggressive behavior.
The middle-aged man grinned. "Of course. Who else can I be? I understand that you are on your guard but don't worry. I am just here to give you the artifacts and sign the contract." He took out a thick pile of paper and handed it to the monsters.
Dreidus was the first to recover. He hesitantly grabbed the documents and briefly examined them before passing them to Five.
The latter bit his lips as he took the thick document. 'Do I really need to read through this again to check if they changed some clauses? It will take forever!'
Despond laughed as he observed Five's change in expression. He added, "I know what you are thinking. Don't worry, the contract is the same as the one Merlin showed you. I can swear an oath for that."
"I swear to speak the truth. This contract is identical to the one Merlin showed to Five earlier. Absolutely no changes were made. May Sancus witness my oath."
"Does that reassure you?" asked Despond after swearing his oath.
"Yes," acquiesced Five. After discussing with Iris and Merlin, he understood that oaths and contracts were extremely powerful tools in the game. They could not be ignored or else, it was an instant game over. This was one of the reasons the [Void Contract] was a highly sought item.
He quickly signed the contract despite his doubts and unease. As soon as he finished, the thick document burst into flames, signaling that the contract was now in effect.
"Excellent. Here are the items we promised you. A wave of monsters should be arriving here tomorrow night. Deal with them as you wish," explained Despond. He enthusiastically continued, "Once you set up the portal, I recommend going to the hub. You should socialize with the other dungeon masters, especially since you will be leading them to attack."
"Do you have any questions? I won't be staying here. I am very busy and need to return because of the Night of Macabre. My dungeon will need me."
Five shook his head, still numb from just signing the contract. "No, that's fine. Thank you for delivering these items to me. I shall go to the hub tomorrow. It is a bit late right now."
"No problem. Work hard. There are quite a few requests posted at the hub; maybe you'll be able to complete them and earn some rewards." The middle-aged man seemed to be in a hurry.
Without further ado, Despond jumped back onto the dragon's back under the amazed stare of the monsters. The dragon became transparent and as if they were never here, Despond and his mount vanished in the middle of the night.
"This seems so unreal. I just hope that joining the Hurricane Alliance was the correct decision," absent-mindedly murmured Five.
"I am quite relieved that he did not request to enter the dungeon or look at what we have. They respect our privacy to some extent. Let's go back. We need to prepare for the Night of Macabre and we also need to use the artifacts we obtained."
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