Chapter 333: [Soul Contract]
A while later, Sol was back on the carriage, holding the reins of the shadow horse as they sped towards the next town. While looking at the open road ahead of him, he thought back to his encounter with those "adventurers."
"What do you think, Amber? Should I have simply killed them?"
Amber, who was practicing her pseudo-law technique by precisely cutting an onion layer by layer, perfectly controlling the strength and range of her distorted cuts, paused and said, "More useful alive."
Sol nodded, agreeing with her. "I could have killed them, but another bandit group would eventually take that perch and do the same thing again. Might as well turn them into vigilantes instead. But it wouldn't be possible without that new skill I combined."
[[Soul Contract] Lv 6: Create a soul-binding deal between two or more parties. Failure to comply would result in one of the three punishments chosen for the contract: soul mark, soul weakening, or soul purge. Requires all parties' consent for the usage of the skill. Mana cost: 500]
[Soul Contract] was a skill he made by combining the vampires' [Blood Pact] and [Enthrallment] with trading skills like [Bartering] and [Persuade] to create a skill that could enforce any verbal contract. Needless to say, this skill was heavily inspired by Orna's ability to create deals. Sol felt it would be incredibly useful to have such an ability, so he tried to guide the tethers with [Aggregate] in that direction, and it worked spectacularly.
What Sol did with the skill was make the bandits do exactly what they said. Now, under the risk of their souls being burned away from the harshest punishment he could choose, soul purge, they must watch over that road and protect the people from bandits, animals, or monsters that may come to harm them.
Though they were bandits, Sol wasn't completely unfair to them either and allowed them to leave the area two days a week to rest and recover before resuming their work again. He didn't want them to be stuck on that cliff for the rest of their lives watching over the road. If that happened, they were most likely to starve, and at that point, it would be better to simply kill them.
He also added to the contract that if they broke any laws or attacked people unjustly, that would also count as breaking the deal, so he didn't worry about them using the two rest days as some sort of loophole.
While [Soul Contract] worked fantastically, it was only an imitation of Orna's Law of Trade and paled in comparison to the real thing. He discovered there were three huge limitations to the skill. The first being the lack of variety of punishments. There were only three: soul mark, which would tell him if someone broke a deal and their location; soul weakening, which permanently damaged their soul; and soul purge, which would completely burn the soul until there was nothing left. They were good options for most scenarios, but they all dealt their punishment on the soul, and someone who could tamper with souls like Torben could remove it with some effort.
The second limiting factor was detecting when someone broke a contract. [Soul Contract] could only identify if someone broke a contract if the party themselves believed they broke it. This was because the contract directly monitored their actions through their soul. On the bright side, one couldn't simply tell themselves they weren't breaking the contract and be safe, as it was almost impossible for souls to lie or play tricks. Only certain individuals with warped perspectives or those trained in interacting with their souls could bypass this.
The last and most restricting limitation was that it simply wasn't very effective on strong individuals. A strong B-Ranker could survive a soul purge, albeit near death. A-Rankers could also be affected by the skill but could either endure it or come out with their soul slightly injured and recover in time. This was because the skill was not a law technique; it wasn't even at max level.
Closing the skill's description, Sol glanced back at Amber and changed the subject. "Those people we passed by said that Brestfol is a few hours away. Once we get there, let's stay for the night. I don't want to pass up a good bed another night. I can also finish messing with my skills."
While it would have been faster to simply keep going and rest somewhere in the wilderness, Amber nodded with his request, not minding the small delay.
Though the travelers said it would take a few hours from where they were, they weren't taking into account the speed of the shadow horse. From encountering the group and the bandits, it only took the duo a little under an hour to arrive at the town of Brestfol.
It was a lovely town surrounded by grassy plains and rich farmland. The scenery was beautiful, but neither of them paid much attention to it for different reasons. Amber simply didn't care for such things, while Sol had something else at the forefront of his mind. Because of this, the two went straight to the nearest inn and booked two rooms.
After bidding Amber goodnight, Sol went into his room and sat cross-legged on the bed to finish combining his skills.
…
"Life trades."
[Error. That name is already taken.]
"General techniques."
[Error. That name is already taken.]
"Handyman."
[Error. That name is already taken.]
"...Tools of the trade."
[[Tools of the Trade] Confirm name?]
"That one wasn't taken!? Yes!" Sol exclaimed, both shocked and relieved. He finally got to name the skill after the 23rd try. After the 15th, he had already given up and was trying anything hoping it would stick, but the one he was sure would have been taken was surprisingly available.
[[Tools of the Trade] Lv 6: The user has extensive knowledge in most trades and professions. Whether it be rearing animals or fixing items, the user's expertise allows for efficient and precise work, with an increased chance of success on all tasks.]
Seeing the short description for the skill, Sol let out a long sigh and fell back onto the bed.
A smile grew on his face as he thought to himself. 'Finally, I'm done combining.'
With a single thought, he brought up his status page to see the results.
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer]
Level: 121
Exp: 43,543,380/13,348,063,234
HP: 5000
MP: 6250
Str: 120 (+480)
Vit: 120 (+380)
Agi: 120 (+480)
Int: 120 (+480)
Wis: 125 (+500)
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 7, [Analysis] Lv 9, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX
Siphoned Talents:
[Swift End] Lv 2, [Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4, [Spectral Claw] Lv MAX, [Gigantify] Lv MAX
Passive Skills:
[Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 9, [Advanced Weapon Mastery] Lv 5, [Intermediate Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Perfect Balance] Lv 7, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 8, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 7, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Intermediate Craftsman] Lv 4, [Invincible Physique] Lv 9, [Death's Dance] Lv 8, [Seeker's Map] Lv 5, [Tools of the Trade] Lv 6
Active Skills:
[Lesser Channel Control] Lv 1, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Manipulation] Lv EX, [Telepathy] Lv 6, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 9, [Overpower] Lv 8, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 9, [Mana Slash] Lv 7, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv EX, [Vorpal Blade Rush] Lv 7, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 6, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 7, [Unarming Blow] Lv 7, [Death Sentence] Lv EX, [Umbral Domain] Lv EX, [Telekinesis] Lv 8, [Memory Engraving] Lv 6, [Mental Acceleration] Lv 7, [Mental Scrying] Lv 5, [Psy Blast] Lv 7, [Shapeshift - Bat] Lv MAX, [Beguiling Gaze] Lv 8, [Silent Execution (Variant)] Lv 5, [Ethereal Traversal] Lv 7, [Advanced Omni-Elemental Magic] Lv 3, [Precise Touch] Lv 6, [Rapid Mend] Lv 5, [Soul Contract] Lv 6, [Dread Claws] Lv 8
He knew that he wasn't truly done as he would eventually obtain new skills or finish maxing out his psychic skills, but he was simply glad to be done for now, as it was a very draining process.
The act itself of combining skills wasn't draining. In fact, it was the easiest part given his experience with [Aggregate] and his law technique [Lesser Channel Control], allowing him to easily manipulate his tethers. What was actually time-consuming and the reason it took him so long to combine the over 200 skills was the careful decision and planning he had to do for each one. He simply couldn't slap skills together and hope they turn out well; he needed to meticulously plan and consider the potential combinations, then guide the tethers to combine in the ideal direction.
When he was done combining the skill, he still wasn't finished, as then he would have to tussle with the system. Almost all the skills he combined this time around were unregistered, and he had to come up with a name for them. Sure, he could have left them unnamed or given them random names, but that didn't sit right with him, as it was something he would have to live with for a long time. But even though he decided against giving them random names, he couldn't deny being tempted to name a powerful skill like [Dread Claws] something like [Ticklish Terror].
As much as it tempted him to pull that prank, it required someone to see his real status page, which wasn't ideal, so he decided against it.
Forgetting about [Ticklish Terror] for now, he turned his attention towards his psychic skills and thought to himself, 'They're developing nicely. When they max out, I will combine them.'
Whenever he wasn't pondering skill combinations, he was working on leveling his psychic skills, as he wanted to combine them only when they reached max level so he could create something truly powerful like [Umbral Domain] or [Polychromatism].
'I can't wait to see what kind of skill would come from that combination. Hopefully, I gain another secondary ability like Symphony of the Night and Full Spectrum. I guess I'll see when I get there, but since I finished faster than expected, it's time to take care of another matter.'
Closing the status page, Sol reached into his spatial ring and took out a large dark and lustrous scale. It was the scale given to him by Orna that represents the Law of Dragons.
Sol looked at the inanimate object and spoke as if he were talking with another person.
"So… am I still too weak to use you?"