I directly slapped him for a few times, even though he now had a bit room for maneuver and should be able to evade, my slaps were more or less a bit faster than what his current self able to track, so his head ended up being slapped by me to the point that it turning blue .
As he knew why i did such a thing to him, he said gravely :
I didn't hide anything from you earlier, but that's how the binding contract works, i thought you already aware of what you needed to do, but i guess you didn't have knowledge of such item, but i guess that to be quite justifiable after all, the numbers of those contract were decreasing to the point of meeting one in your entire lifeline would be considered a lucky encounter, i really didn't try to hide it intentionally, i swear, i really didn't .
Seeing how pitiful looking he currently was and the help he unintentionally had giving me by fabricating an excuse on my behalf i just restricted him once more and went ahead and punctured my finger and squeezed it in a hurry before my passive healing skills kick in, luckily theself harm act of me punctured my finger with my teeth, didn't get counted as a physical attack, or i might have really be in quite the hurdle .
The moment my drop of blood fell, the wound healed instantly, reminding me once again of the great advantage the current system have over the other power system, in particularly the one in front of me, i'm able to see that the guy in front of me began to heal but his speed of healing was many times slower than mine, his cheek is still swollen even though a quite amount of time had passed, but i have already made up my mind .
The contract suddenly vanished, i thought that guy did something and was about to give him a few reminders when i suddenly felt my chest tightening suddenly and finally understood that the contract vanishing was the way of how that thing work, the binding contract was now in effect, the tightening of my chest was more than enough proof of that .
I loosened the restrictions upon him and tossed the scroll he was eying from the start to finish, i also began to fiddle with the short sword i had found before and swung it a few times and even though i swung it with quite ease, i was able to tell that even an A rank Adventurer will have to struggle with all of his strength to barley be able to hold it steadily, not to mention swinging it a few times .
The sword have a weird symbols flashing on top of the hilt in my hand, they probably the ones responsible for making it so much heavy in contrast of it being a shortsword, i wanted to try hitting something with it, so i conjured a training dummy made of earth and stacked its defense with a few dozen layers of earth compressed to allow me to test my full strength with the said sword .
I noted that i might be able to use this application of my Transmutation skill to even allow the training dummy to move, this application came just in time, i would be able to use it to enrich my experience in combat, some department which i have already known that i was a bit lacking in, but hopefully not anymore .
But let's leave this at that for now and focus more on the matter at hand, i took a fighting stance and swung the sword in a cutting like manner and the moment my sword came to fell on the training dummy, its defenses were still a bit lacking in ability and weren't able to withstand a single hit, it completely crumbled and turned weirdly into dust, but soon i figured out why it turned to dust, the body of the stone like dummy's fate shouldn't have ended like this .
The moment i looked at the powerful impact the sword have made on the earth that was beneath the training dummy, i couldn't help but marvel and pat the edge of the blade in adoration for a bit, the shortsword was able to sweep the enemies with the same force as the greatswords, the moment the edge came into contact with the dummy, it directly released the strength inside it as a shockwave and sent the said shockwave into the body of the dummy directly, making it crumble from the inside out and directly turning it into dust, i shuddered a bit thinking about what it might do to the enemies .
What was left of the shockwave impacted the earth beneath and shattered a big chunk of it , as i was marveling at the scene happily, the Ludo guy mood was completely the opposite, i wouldn't have been aware if not for the fact that he was cursing too loudly for me to ignore, as i looked in his direction i found that he was still holding the same scroll as before, but it was wide open now, he looked quite disappointed for some reason .
Curses, i even made a dangerous deal for you and you aren't even complete, curses on the whole Dorell family .
I released a chuckle that earned me a deathly glare from the sulking Ludo, my hand a little bit itchy, but remembering the binding contract i calmed down and after a second i completely burst out laughing as i went to him and huged him and squeezed more harder than ever and only stopped when i began to hear the sounds of his bones squeaking, only then i stopped .
His eyes were filled with so much grievance that i couldn't help but look at him with pity, but that fueled his anger even more, seeing that he was already beginning to hit his head in the wall and being so uncooperative, i was forced to use threats to have him listen to me, i said :
Keep going at this and i will come and hug you with my sword next .
That made him stop hitting his head in the wall, but it made his sore mood even worse, because he saw what sword was i talking about, he appeared in front of me as if he teleported with a ghastly face not anything like the handsome features he had showen before, he took a deep breath then screamed at me :
That's my Falling Meteorite, curse you, when did it become yours, return it at once .
I have fallen in love with this sword, you are so considerate to let me have it .
You, you.... Curse you .
I love the effects that the binding contract brought but i should have put no curses on the list of terms as well .
Arrrgggghh, have all the Bloodlords become so shameless, he said that and went back to his favorite wall to continue hitting his head, i looked at his back and wondered whether should i tell him about my real identity, now, or refrain from doing so for a bit, i didn't want him to lose his mind before giving me the information i wanted, i found myself somewhat pitying him, so i decided that for now i won't bring that matter up .
Seeing that he was so determined on competing with the wall on who was tougher, i decided to interfere as to not have him bury us in the cave, i went to him and asked why was he cursing before, didn't he get what he wanted .
He stopped headbutting the wall and said with a bit of melancholy :
Cursethatbindingcontract, no, i didn't get what i wanted in fact what i got was far from it, i already was determined to get that thing from the moment that i had learned that it was in that Dorell family member's possession, i have planned everything, then you appeared and killed Loren, then injured me gravely, then here we are, even the thing that i was forced to make a binding contract with such an unfair conditions and a shameless Bloodlord like you and if that wasn't enough misery, the thing that i traded for was not even complete, just the first two levels, which doesn't even cover the first part of the method, how much suffering am i going to be forced enduring .
Can't you just devise another plan to get hold of the next levels, you mentioned that Dorell family was nothing but a branch family, can't you pressure them to hand the full method to you guys .
Then he stopped talking and looked at me as if he was looking at an idiot, before he shook his head and said :
Even though our family is much stronger than the Dorell family, we still can't pressure them to hand anything out, due to them being under the wing of another main family the Donoel family which one of the two main families siding with the Demon Emperor who is backed by a Great Emperor, this was a one lifetime chance since some leaked information told me about the fact that a Dorell family member was going out of the city holding the mind nourishing method in his spatial ring .
Alas i failed miserably, the two levels are of some worth in raising my strength a bit, but the actual method have a 8 level before you are considered to have mastered it, they could have made my strength leap with no bounds, alas, it's all lost now, i already told them that i would be going back home after this job and go in retreat, so there isn't even a second chance to make another move, do you understand now why i'm acting like this.
Why did this useless guy came out of his family compound with that weak strength and only able to have two levels, even though his father doted on him dearly, he was still useless and was given only two levels and ordered to venture out and make a name for himself, curse him a thousand no a hundred thousand time .
He said all this with quite anger and sorrow, he even went as far as pulling his green hair in frustration in the middle of his explanation, luckily the guy he was blaming and cursing was already dead, i know that i should wrap everything about this subject up, but i'm a bit curious to know more about that mind nourishing method and its ability to allow him to increase his strength and wait a minute didn't he previously said that the father of that kid had a fight with him and casted him out, then why did he changed his words, was he plotting for that guy to be killed from the start, a demon indeed .
I couldn't hear his sulking anymore, so i directly asked what the mind nourishing method even do ? .
He said that it would have enhanced his own family's power, they are mostly specialized in the mind and spirit techniques and that technique directly enhance the mind so it will be like giving the whole family an upgrade, then he once again cursed the binding contract and continued to say that the method play a quite powerful rule in enhancing the ability to harness mana more effectively and more efficiently .
It should allow their family to become much powerful than the other families, he also mentioned some facts about how the Demons were following a power system mainly dependent on harnessing Mana and compressing it into their mana core, the more powerful your mind is, the more powerful the attacks of yours will be and the more you will be able to harness the Mana around you, he did say that they are different from us "Bloodlord" but didn't elaborate any further on what he meant by that .
I asked him how they measure their level of strength and he demonstrated, that it's measured by the amount of mana you can invoke and the color of the mana surrounding you, Grand Emperor have white mana, the only one he saw with that color of mana was the Great Emperor of the beasts, emperors have deep red colored Mana, in the Rulers case it's a bit different, their colors can vary due to the fact that they still hadn't decided on the path they wish to take, i found myself drifting back to the fight with the guy named Loren, his mana color must be yellow or purple, i guess, Dukes and the rest are measured and ranked on how much Mana can they invoke around themselves and most of this measure system is whacked but no one cared to point that out .
I already made a mental map of how that power system of their worked and the information he kept on giving me kept on making the structure i built in my mind become more and more clearer .
First there was the existence of the Mana harnessing Techniques, not named weird techniques anymore, they are responsible for harnessing Mana and increasing the strength of their user, every demon is born with a certain affinity to a three or more magic elements, there were twelve elements in total, the Technique also give its user information about how should he effectively use his Mana by using specific meridians in the body to harness the Mana, but some techniques could also limit the strength of its user due to have a difficult circulation or a specific but difficult to achieve or maintain during combat mana circulation meridian .
Your sensitivity to Mana is assigned to you at birth, you can increase it using some special method but that also have a limit .
The techniques are Ranked in 7 levels, the strongest techniques are those level 7 due to them being directly steming from powerful and magical creatures, then there's the level 6 techniques who are capable of raising someone up to the Ruler level but not anymore up, the rest levels vary in strength, but they are weak in essence, but level 5 techniques are excluded from that list, the compression of Mana raises the quality of the strength, one can able to lunch, the elevation of the Mana Core simultaneously allow the elevation of physical strength, mind and even spirit .
The proficiency of these techniques are :
Novice, Proficient, Adapt, Mastery, each level of mastery enhance the effect of the said technique on you .
He kept looking at me weirdly as he spoke as if he was implying something like " just how ignorant can a person be " but i paid that no mind, i was processing the new information he kept on giving me, i made use of this chance to have him explain most of the things that i have questions about .
The Mind nourishing methods, a secret method, some were created and some were to this day of unknown origin, they affect and enhance their user greatly, some rare ones are said to be able to grant powerful special abilities, but their numbers are even more scarce than level 7 techniques and those who have them in possession, will never allow it to spread outward .
So i guess that was why he is so grumpy, i ignored the weird eyes he was giving me and once again asked him to explain more about the Battle Aura power system, thanks to the binding contract he still dejectedly begin to explain .
Battle Aura, this power system was mainly used by the humans, but then with the widespread of the breathing techniques and the discovery of the enhancing effect it have on the body, most of the other races, become intrigued and assimilated it to their power system, with a few modification to the original scripture, as to make it more compatible with their bodies .
But as they sensed how profund was that power system was, they cut off most of the humans heritage, completely cutting off their chance of rising up and that led them to went into hiding or else get enslaved by the other races .
The power system work with the body of the user as both the foundation and the way going forward, the Battle Aura depend on Life Force, a natural energy in the nature and it exist in every living thing too, the ancient demons used to call them knights, but now they are called Battle Aura user, using Breathing Method, the user can absorb Life Force from the outside world and then refine it with his own life force, making it completely his .
The ranks of Battle Aura system is Adept, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, Sovereign, the first three ranks are based on the amount of Life Force they have, the Grandmaster and the other levels above are ranked based on the amount and quality of the Life Seeds they have, in case of the demons they have Demon Seeds instead of Life Seeds .
Any of the three lower ranks can actually compress his Life Force and turn it to Life Seed at any point of time, but with not enough accumulation, it can lead to devastating results like getting crippled or directly exploding on the spot .
Breathing method, the breathing method is used to regulate the breath of the user and make it easier for him to interact with the life force in the outside world, each Technique have his own elemental affinity as well, the Techniques varies in Rank on the basis of how fast can it interact and refine the Life Force of the outside world, there ranks are :
Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert .
The proficiency level is also playing a big factor in how much Life Force will you be able to interact with using the said breathing method, the level of proficiency are :
Novice, Proficient, Adapt, Mastery .
But even with a high level techniques, if your affinity to Life Force is low, you still won't able to achieve much in that path, but if you have a high affinity coupled with a high leave techniques, then you can break your shackles and reach a high level of strength with the said power system .
Battle Techniques, they are techniques that are made for battling using life force, but they are Battle Techniques just in name, but their actual effects and uses are actually quite versatile, some can be used for healing, some can be used for sneaking on your enemy, the techniques are Ranked based on the 7 level system just like the Mana harnessing Techniques .
The proficiency in the said Battle Techniques have quite the deciding effect on the battlefield, they are following the same proficiency level ranking as the Breathing Method .
Secret Techniques, those were the last thing he addressed, those techniques are either called Ace techniques or forbidden methods, they too were scarce in numbers, but that was entirely because they tend to have more demerits than merits, the cost of using some of those techniques can be even the death of the user, but the power they gave are top notch, they too use a proficiency level, that increase the effect of the said techniques and simultaneously increase the cost to use the said techniques .
With that he finished explaining all what i wanted to know, i finally got some basic and some profund information about the two power systems that i was interested in, i was now a bit glad to see how everything had turned out to be, i couldn't help began fantasizing about when i will be able to use those techniques he mentioned .
But why are you so interested to know about this, you guys have your own Blood Link system and have the racial traits to make up for any shortcomings, you might have .
You could call it, curiosity, but why don't you allow me to take a look at the Mind Nourishing Method in your hand .
I told him that i wanted to have a look at the scroll he was still holding and he tossed it at me right after, luckily it was still open, so i hurriedly went to take a look and found that as expected i was still unable to understand anything written in this piece of paper, so i returned it back to him .
Ready to get moving .
I guess he had enough of headbutting the wall for today, i couldn't help but ask why was he going back, so i asked, saying :
Are you going back to Devons ? .
Yeah, i will have to file a report that our team was wiped out during an accident while on patrol, you coming ?! .
Yes, I'm coming with you to Devons, i'm still curious about a lot of things that i want to ask you about, but there's something that i need to deal with first .
I said and got out of the cave with a head still fully filled with questions, but with that guy Ludo here, sooner or later, all my questions will be answered, especially the question about the state of this world .