Contractbound

Valentine had arrived back at the hotel and switched with Graham, who was better at a.n.a.lysis and memorizing. He touched the book cover and felt the rough leather surface on his skin. It felt hard to touch, but there was a slight feeling of elasticity from it. Graham opened it to the first page, which was left blank. There was nothing written on it at all, even when he put the candle close to it to reveal any heat-sensitive ink that might be there. He then flipped to the next page, which had bad handwriting all over it, like that of someone whose mind worked much faster than their hand.

"If you are reading this, then congratulations on being one of the rarest Contractbounds. There are not many like you, so use your power wisely. In my lifetime alone, I"ve met probably only two Contractbounds with this power. That"s how rare they are.

He stopped at that line and thought about it. Although the book didn"t mention it explicitly, since the seal on the door required Fire Divination, it would mean that it was Fire Divinators that the book was referring to. It also said one of the rarest, which meant there were other rare ones.

"It can be argued that Fire Divinators are one of, if not the strongest divinators in the world of Contractbounds. Their divination doesn"t require any sacrifice or offering, and fire is a natural element that can easily be created. Astrologers, admittedly, have stronger spiritual power, and thus can get better divination results, but it"s because their Deity is of the President rank, unlike the Deity of Fire Divination, which is the only Knight rank Deity in existence. However, the moment a Fire Divinator forms a Contract with a President rank Deity, their divination power will surpa.s.s Astrologers of the same level."

This next paragraph confirmed Graham"s initial guess about it being about Fire Divinators. It also surprised him that his divination power was considered among the strongest. He continued reading.

"Some of the contents in this book have been sealed by me for your own protection. Once you"re strong enough, you can use your power to unseal them."

He was reading the last few sentences on that page when his attention was drawn by the word "sealed". Graham got curious and quickly flipped through the pages to look for those sealed pa.s.sages. There seemed to be a lot of sealed information, but he stopped on a page that was completely blank. It was apparent that what the seal did was conceal the information completely from the readers. It would be troublesome to notice that a certain part was sealed unless he made sure that some information was missing.

Graham went back to the page that he was reading and after confirming there was nothing else written under that paragraph, he moved over to the next page.

"Some rules that I have drawn about Contractbounds. Read these carefully if you don"t want to die a horrible death."

He read that line and the tone suddenly became serious.

"First, always maintain your humanity! This is probably the most important of all. We gain power by losing something in return, and sometimes we lose what makes us humans. Our contracts will often make us act a certain way. Do not resist this, but don"t lose your true self either. If you don"t want to turn into a monster (literally and figuratively), you must remember this."

"Second, never form a contract with more than two Deities of the same rank. Doing so will deprive you of your sanity and turning you into a monster. Two is the maximum number, trust me. I have done experiments with willing subjects."

"Someone who has turned into a monster can no longer be saved. Their sense of self is forever gone and they only act on instinct that their contract provides them. They also become much more powerful, and their castings require no chant anymore. Death is their only salvation, so don"t hesitate to kill them even if they are your loved ones."

"Third, our blood is protected by our Deity, because it is what links us to Him. That"s why blood curses and the like won"t work on us unless the caster has another part of our body."

"Fourth, scrolls cannot be destroyed. They only move from one host to another. They cannot be created either. There is a limited number of contract scrolls in this world. That is also the reason why we are nothing but walking stepping stones for some."

"Fifth, the foreign line that comes to your brain after pleasing your Deity contains His true name. Just don"t say it out loud because terrible, terrible things will happen."

"Sixth, after forming a contract with a higher-ranked Deity, the abilities from the lower ones will require no chanting anymore. It"s probably because you are not supposed to chant a Deity whose name is lower than your current one"s."

"Seventh,"

"Eight,"

"Ninth,"

"Tenth,"

The rules after the sixth were all just blank sections. They seemed to be yet another sealed piece of information that Graham could unlock after getting stronger. He a.n.a.lyzed the rules he had read so far.

"For an ancient-looking book, the author"s tone is strangely casual," he said amusedly, "There is probably the author"s name somewhere, but it is sealed. I"m curious about what kind of person he or she is."

"Anyway, I think we have felt the effect of what the first rule mentioned. Remember when you said you felt like something was missing from you after forming your second contract, Val? I bet that was that. I"m glad I have you, so we can help each other remember who we are," Graham spoke with his deep, serious voice.

He flipped to the next page and continued reading the content of the ancient book whose pages had turned brown because of age.

"Current known ranks and the respective Deities"

"Knight: Fire Divination"

"Earls: Lies and Attraction, Secrets, Theft, Uncovering, Reconciliation, Herbs and Precious Stones, Bloodshed and Manslaughter, the Tongue, War, Sleep."

"Presidents: Illnesses and Shape-shifting, Potions and Medicines, Invisibility and Treasures, Stupidity and Hatred, Deception and Hidden Thoughts, Wisdom and Trans.m.u.tation, Dispute and Animal Languages, Cunningness and Transformation, Astrology and Familiars, Wit and Blood, Serpents and Death."

"Marquises:"

The part for Marquises was blank, which meant the information was sealed. The rest of the page was also blank. Graham highly suspected that the information was not available to him at the moment, not that there was nothing there.

"So mine is indeed the only one with the rank of Knight. Why do you think is that? And why is His rank only a knight if his divination power is one of the most powerful? I wonder what ranks are above Marquis," the more he read, the more questions he had. Graham then pondered, "With this information, we should be able to plan which Deity we want to form a contract with next carefully. According to the rule, we can choose two Deities from each rank."

He a.n.a.lyzed the Deity"s names carefully and tried to think if he had seen abilities belonging to them.

"The Deity of Serpents and Death"s power is definitely the one used to kill Levi Brouwer. I got that one through divination. The next one is the Deity of Illnesses and Shape-shifting. Do you remember Zeger de Witt, Val? The government official whose artifact we stole? The description of his power matches this Deity," he paused.

"As for Cadhla, her t.i.tle is a Trans.m.u.ter, and there is this Deity of Wisdom and Trans.m.u.tation. I"m positive He is the one she"s in contract with. Speaking of which, I don"t actually know Raff"s Contractbound power. He is most certainly one. Maybe I can do divination later just out of curiosity."

"And then there is that Zwarte beast that used invisibility. How is its power related to the Deity of Invisibility and Treasures? I hope this book has the answer as well. The part that you were reading only told us about its description and weaknesses."

"The Deity of Potions and Medicines probably grants their Contractbounds the ability to concoct potions of different effects, while the Deity of Wit and Blood"s Contractbounds are probably the ones with the strong blood attack as mention in the past divination. The Deity of Stupidity and Hatred and the Deity of Dispute and Animal Languages have peculiar names. What kind of power do you think they grant? Is it the ability to make people stupid and hate each other?" he amused himself.

"I can probably use divination to get the detail of each Deity"s power later, but personally I think the Deity of Deception and Hidden Thoughts would suit you best because your specialty seems to be stealth and secrets. As for me, since manipulation and information gathering is my forte, I think I should go with Cunningness and Transformation or Astrology and Familiars, although the latter was said to have subpar divination power compared to mine."

Graham flipped the page over to the next one and read the content. It was about the details of Earl rank Contractbound that he had read before from another journal, with the addition of the missing seventh, eight, and tenth Deities that were missing from the previous journal. Although the information was similar, the style of writing was different. It was likely that the authors of the unliftable journal and the ancient book were two different people.

"Thieves are Contractbounds of the Deity of Theft. They are very agile and granted night vision to help them commit to their life"s calling of stealing. They can take away your belongings without even touching you, so be careful when they are around, although they can"t do it if you are too far away from them, or if they can"t see you. Stronger thieves can even steal more than tangible objects, which makes them a formidable foe in battle."

"Mouths are Contractbounds of the Deity of the Tongue. They are powerful speakers, who are able to influence people using words and, to some extent, speak to the Dead. They can chant their Deity"s name if their words are not enough to make people do their bidding. Powerful Mouths can order a whole group to do what they commanded. Their calling is to stay behind the scene and manipulate people into doing what they wish. They will turn cold gradually from being detached for too long."

"Shrouds are mysterious Contractbounds of the Deity of Secrets. Just like their name, their very existence is questionable. They are very agile, which makes it even harder to spot one in real life. Their anti-divination ability is able to interfere with most divination, and their ability to shroud a word in secret will make fighting them a nightmare, especially if they are able to restrict the word you use in a spell chant. Stronger shrouds can even conceal their faces, which makes you unable to recognize them, or even their very presence. Without you knowing it, they are already behind you with their weapon."

He finished reading the information regarding the Earl rank Deities.

"With this, I have a complete repertoire of the Earls. I can probably sell this information for some profit whether to those guys or to the black market," he concluded. His eyes were glimmering with the thoughts of having money flowing into his wallet.

"Speaking of the black market, we need to find a way to get in. I can"t just keep coming here to find Cadhla and Raff for my spiritual item needs. But the stuff there is outrageously pricy. We definitely need more money. Just when I thought I had become a rich man..."

He moved on to the next page, and it was about the Contractbound power combination that he had read before through his divination, so he skipped it. Graham grabbed the magically st.u.r.dy old paper and gently flipped it to the next page. In the room illuminated with only candlelight, the t.i.tle of the page, that was full of the messy handwriting until to the very bottom, caught his attention instantly.

"Known information regarding President rank Contractbounds"