Title at bottom
Peter waited with an impatient expression, staring at the growing horde with murder in his eyes. His soul no longer proved to be an effective deterrent.
In various planes of existence, many entities stopped in their tracks as they received the terms of conditions personally offered by the system into their brains. Some were elemental spirits, others non-sapient creatures. Each of them had desires. Demands for the contract.
Most sought Peter's help in advancing to a higher tier, but some had bizarre requirements. Some demanded a piece of his soul, some wanted blood sacrifices. One of them wanted him to find an ideal mate for it.
System…
[
Receiving responses from the willing entities…
A total of 207 entities had shown willingness to sign a contract based on the conditions…
Filtering based on compatibility and contract viability…
Warning… The user's emotional state might influence the summoning parameter…
]
Peter scoffed. He didn't care. Let it be influenced. As long as he could kill these pests, he would be satisfied.
System…
[
Checking affinity alignment between the user's emotional state and responding entities…
Removing all the entities that desire harm towards the user in exchange for the contract…
Sending the most compatible entity contract…
Response received…
The entity requires a sacrifice for the summoning contract…
]
Peter's eyes narrowed as he looked at the final message. Turning toward the army of monsters, Peter's lips curled into a bloodthirsty grin.
"Take them. Take them all," Peter whispered, voice cold and resolute.
System…
[
Sacrifice acknowledged…
Do you wish to proceed?
]
"Yes!" Peter shouted, and the world shook. A tremor in the very space. An echo followed — a whisper of dread, recorded only in forbidden tomes. It spooked the kobolds into retreating again.
His shadow stretched out before him, expanding fifteen times its usual size. It twisted unnaturally in countless ways, darkening even further until it was blacker than night. The ever-changing shadow, now given life, rose upwards between Peter and the kobolds. The mass of pure darkness writhed, reaching up to two and a half meters.
Slowly, it took humanoid form, facing Peter. A male wearing darkness as a cloak, hiding uncountable tentacles under it, some of them visible at the bottom.
Unwilling to give up on the young human, but too cautious of the unexpected arrival, the kobolds just observed. Hard to know if it was another foe while it faced the little human.
System…
[ Contract established with Deathknell]
Peter stared ahead, at the being that occupied his entire vision. The eldritch spirit stared right back. The spirit's presence was not just seen, but felt. It had no eyes, but Peter felt a thousand gazes observing him.
Peter felt like he was sinking into a deep ocean, the longer he stared at the being. A creeping suffocation made him wobble in place. His ears bled, hearing the footsteps of ruin and despair. They eerily sounded like a bell.
Peter wanted to look away, but found himself incapable, forced to watch its form constantly fracture and reform.
The kobolds recoiled, their primal instincts screaming that whatever it was, it was doom itself. But the being did not move against them. Instead, it kept staring at Peter, and a multitude of notifications hit him.
[ Spirit of fortitude resists greater fear]
[ Eternal Ward successfully protected from soul corruption]
[ Eternal Ward successfully protected from mental corruption]
[ Eternal Ward successfully protected from mental domination]
Peter's eyes widened in surprise, 'This… this creature wasn't supposed to attack me. The act was against the very contract it signed,' he thought, finding his back covered in sweat.
As the enforcer of the contract, System responded to the breach. The skill was only supposed to call beings that were unable to harm Peter. Peter had contingency plans even for such a scenario.
System…
[ Contract violation detected. Imposing further restrictions on DeathKnell for violating the contract.]
'It was not sapient. Why would it try to defy a contract enforced by the System itself?' Peter thought, watching as a magical circle formed beneath the eldritch being.
The circle pulsed with ambient mana. Cracks split the air as glowing chains surged inward to bind the creature. It thrashed like a beast caught in a cage, lunging at the circle's edge, each time a transparent wall preventing it from escaping. Even the divine struggled to oppose the system. It would accomplish nothing.
Moments later, the circle faded. Peter observed the eldritch being with curious eyes, noting the chain marks covering its cloak all over.
Peter gave it a cold smile. "Go and claim your sacrifice," he whispered. The bell of death and destruction obeyed, turning toward the sea of kobolds. Their shadows merged as one, covering the ground in pitch black. From the shadows, ink-like tentacles emerged.
Some were impaled. Others had their bodies coiled by the tentacles. Countless alien eyes glowed faintly with a reddish hue across the surface of each tentacle. Those still alive struggled in vain as they were pulled into their shadows, into oblivion.
Once the last body vanished, the eldritch horror turned to Peter, awaiting his next command.
"Why did you stop? Clear them all. Eradicate them," Peter snarled. "There are more in the village. Even more in the forest," The faces of the recently dead surfaced before his vision.
"Don't stop until they're all dead," he said. His father's smiling face flashed through his mind.
The creature gave no reply. It simply dissolved into the shadows and vanished, disappearing from Peter's sight. But Peter still felt it, a soul bond to it. It killed for him, out there somewhere.
No longer worried about the horde, Peter allowed himself to glance at his notifications. They were constantly increasing, no doubt due to the active kobold slaughter by Deathknell.
System…
[
You have killed a level 24 kobold. 340 experience rewarded.
You have killed a level 27 kobold. 390 experience rewarded.
You have killed a level 22 kobold. 320 experience rewarded.
…
Your summon Deathknell has killed a level 23 kobold. 140 experience rewarded.
Your summon Deathknell has killed a level 27 kobold. 150 experience rewarded.
Your summon Deathknell has killed a level 21 kobold. 120 experience rewarded.
…
You have gained a total of 59,200 experience points. You have levelled up to 35.
]
System…
[
Congratulations! You have unlocked dexterity.
]
System…
[
Congratulations! You have gained two new titles.
You have gained the Title: True Cultist.
You have gained the Title: The Walking Calamity.
]
Neither sounded good to Peter. He focused on them to read their descriptions.
Title…
[
True Cultist
Perform a ritual and sacrifice more than 100 beings.
Effect: - 500 karma
]
Title…
[
The Walking Calamity
Become the master of the Bell That Will Toll before the coming of calamity.
Effect: Grants the user the ability to wear Deathknell — the Eldritch Spirit of the Abyss — as a Spirit Armament in the form of a living, shroud-like cloak.
]
Peter's Class Joker was a Rare-grade class that granted 3 free stat points with every level, on top of 1 point each in Constitution and Spirit. With some quick math, Peter realised he had 96 stat points to allocate. For the moment, he ignored the Titles and focused on that.
He summoned his Status Screen and began placing points into his stats, before turning his attention to the growth of his skills.
Status…
[
Name: Peter
Race: Human
Class: Joker {Rare} lv. 34, Villager lv. 1
Level: 35
Experience: 0/ 35000
Age: 10
Title: Trailblazer: Skills, Skill Creator
Stats:
Health: 460 (Cons * 10)
Mana: 3150 (Spirit * 10)
Constitution: 46 Spirit: 315
Strength: 41 Agility: 41
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 39 Perception: 10
Luck: 18 Charisma: 35
Free slots points: 0
Skills:
IDE,
Status Camouflage,
Mana sense Lv. 38,
Mana Manipulation Lv. 22,
Weapons Mastery Lv.24,
Undying Vitality lv.29,
Split Focus,
Eternal Ward lv. 24,
Spirit of Fortitude lv. 38,
Inspect lv.25,
Summoning
Summons:
Deathknell lv. 220
]
He decided to invest 9 points into the newly unlocked Dexterity and 7 points into Perception, bringing both of them to the same value. Since today had been a prime example of why Peter needed magical skills, he put 20 points into Intelligence. Last but not least, Agility and Strength received 30 points each.