***Back to the under zone***
Astaroth and Gulnur crashed to their backs, fully exhausted, after fighting for the last twenty minutes. They were both drenched in sweat, panting, as they admired the ceiling.
They had killed a thousand monsters, of which almost a hundred were special grade. Those were the last few monsters that had cropped up.
Everyone had made the same amount of Exp, three hundred and twenty-four thousand points. Since they were all in a party, it divided the Exp into equal parts.
Since Genie was not in the tournament area, Astaroth made his full Exp amount this time, and that made him slightly happy. But having an extra pair of limbs to help would have been better, he thought.
No one had leveled up from this round of monster bashing, but many were close. Mostly, none of them had expected to gain Exp during a PvP tournament.
This was all bonus, candy, if you will. They wouldn’t complain, though.
“What are the chances that each large cave in this zone is a monster’s nest?” Astaroth asked, knowing full well the answer.
“I’d say, ninety percent?” Gulnur responded, smiling widely through his beard.
“Any of you want to quit now?” Astaroth followed up with another question.
Their heads were shaking, and everyone was smiling. This was a perfect spot for some grinding, and who knows, there might be treasure down here too.
Astaroth and Gulnur got to their feet, and the group proceeded forward into the tunnel network. Gulnur was acting as their guide and vanguard as they reached the next large cavity.
They fought their way through another three caverns, leaving them with just one last zone and the center grotto. Gulnur had told them that the center grotto was much larger than the other five.
So most of the group expected that cavern to be where the main event would be held. There was most likely a boss-level monster in that cavern, and they would defeat it at any cost.
The cavern tunnels they had been walking through were a maze, and their trajectory had not been in a perfect circle around the map. The last zone they ended up in, before the center one, was under the urban zone.
Most of the party had leveled up once at this point. Only Athena and Phoenix had yet to level up, but Astaroth had leveled twice on his side.
Those were the perks of still being level thirty, he guessed. The one thing that really peeved the group was that the monsters did not drop any worthwhile loot.
They dropped Monster Cores and Soul Cores, but the Monster Cores were not worth much. The Soul Cores though, were worth a pretty penny.
So far, they had divided the monster cores and soul cores between each other, as fairly as they could. They could make a decent lump of coins if they sold them after the tournament.
Some crafters had already started leveling up their trade classes and were making big money in the game. Proof enough that it wasn’t just about monster bashing.
They could make many applications of monster cores and soul cores, as Astaroth had already seen from White Death’s soul core. Astaroth had gained more soul cores from this, but none from boss-level monsters.
White Death was currently stuck as a normal-level soul, but Aberon had told him that if he sublimed his soul, he might regain his zone boss stats.
That meant a massive increase in strength for White, but also for him. Having a summon at that level of strength meant he would have a powerful helper, but also gain a massive stat boost during melding.
But for now, this was still a distant dream. Or at least he thought so.
Until he reached the next zone’s cave. The large cave opened up to a massive flat area in which many monsters were lying down, napping.
His mouth hung agape as he saw them. Dire wolves.
Hundreds of dire wolves. All just lying there, ready to be harvested.
Astaroth stood at the entrance to the cave, almost drooling. If he was lucky here, he could push White Death to the next phase with all those souls in here.
He turned around, facing the rest of their makeshift group.
“I need a favor!” He exclaimed, trying to activate puppy eyes mode.
The four others looked at him weirdly before Phoenix broke the silence.
“What do you want?” She asked.
“What do we get in exchange?” She added, her smile resembling a shark’s.
Astaroth thought for a bit, before pulling back all the Soul Cores and Monster Cores from his inventory.
“I will give you all back my part of the Soul Cores and Monster Cores!” He said, trying to bargain with them.
“What is it you want in exchange so badly?” Phoenix said, curiously.
“I want all the Soul Cores and Monster Cores from this room.” Astaroth said, laying it out.
He knew he was a terrible negotiator, and that she would probably scam him for greater value. So he gave up even trying and was forthcoming.
“What do you need those for, specifically those, I might add?” Phoenix said, frowning.
Astaroth wanted to keep that information for himself, but he knew the situation wasn’t in his favor. So he told them a half lie.
“I need wolf Soul Cores and Monster Cores for a quest.” He lied.
“A quest, huh?” Phoenix said, having a hard time believing him.
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“Hmm. Fine. But the cores are not enough.” She responded.
Astaroth did not care for the cores, so he gave them away right away.
“What else do you want, then?” He asked as he gave them away.
“You seem like a man of your word. How about you sign a contract to owe us all a favor?” She said, smiling again.
The request took aback Astaroth. Could one sign a contract within the game that was binding in any way?
“Sign a contract? How would that ensure I keep my promise? Not that I wouldn’t, but I don’t see how that is binding.” Astaroth said, his brows furrowing.
“That is a simple question to answer. There is a contract function that is account bound.” She started stating.
“That function allows me to call in the favor at any moment of my choice, and you must respond.” She continued.
“If you refuse, it will lock your account for one day. If you refuse again, it becomes three days, then a week, then permanent.” She finished, with the smile of a devil brandishing its offer to a human.
Astaroth was shaken. There was such a function in the game?
How had he never heard about it? Was it maybe a new function?
Unless he hadn’t heard about it because he had not yet started using it much. Or maybe it wasn’t well known because it wasn’t a normal function.
“Don’t worry too much about how it works. Just know that it works.” Phoenix said, seeing the wheels in his mind spin full throttle.
Astaroth was brought back to the current situation with her words. He knew they couldn’t wait too long before going into the cave, since the remaining players’ counter had already dropped to six hundred and fifty.
He thought about the offer for a few more seconds before nodding his head. Then Phoenix started tapping the air before her, probably pulling out a menu in the interface.
She had a contract draft down in a few seconds and everyone in the party received a notification. Astaroth tapped on it.
It was the contract offer, written with all the names of the current party members. In it, it was specified that Astaroth would owe each person in the contract one favor, callable at any moment.
Phoenix had already signed her part of it, and all the party members were currently reading it. They seemed satisfied as their names all started flashing brightly on the contract interface.
All that was left was for Astaroth to sign. He was slightly hesitant because that meant he could sell his levels to them if they decided that’s what they wanted.
He asked if he could add a clause about not asking for something like his life or forcing him to die voluntarily, and Phoenix nodded. It was a reasonable demand, so she added the clause.
They all resigned their names before it came back to Astaroth again. He read the clause but was satisfied as he could be with it.
He signed his name on the contract, and it shone a bright white. A new option appeared in his interface, where he could view his current contracts.
The interface menu also gave him instructions on how to accept or demand a contract, as well as what happened when the contract was honored or not.
If a contract encompassed many players, like in this case, every time a player pulled their favor and he acquitted it, their names would disappear from the contract.
This meant that they wouldn’t be able to request many favors from him because of a loophole. This reassured him a bit, as his shoulders slumped.
‘I now owe my ass to four different people.’ He mused internally.
But with this, his thoughts went back to the wolves in the cavern behind him. With some luck, he could upgrade White Death’s soul after the tournament, and that meant he would be stronger.
A smile found its way back onto his face. He looked back at the wolves and grinned.
“Fingers crossed. I need this!” He said as the party readied to dive into the monster mob.