Using the vine to rip open the pants leg, and pulling it closer, Ramie saw a small piece of cloth sewed to the lining of the pants' leg. Next, he used the vine to rip it open, and pulled out a scroll made from beasts' skin.
The moment Ramie focused on the scroll, a stat screen popped up in his mind, even though he hasn't opened it.
< Low grade, Servitude contract seal >
< Servitude contract seal: a contract that initiates an unbreakable bond between two individuals, a master, and a follower. The contract works only when the two parties agree. If one of the two parties in unwilling, the contract would not take effect, and the seal would lose effect. Only the master has the privilege to nullify the contract. >
< Contract's elements: The follower has to obey the master; the follower cannot lie to the master; the follower cannot build up an intention that means to harm the master, the follower cannot betray the master. >
< Forcefully attempting to breach the contract's elements can lead to severe consequences that vary from madness to death. >
< The contract would be nullified without the consent of the master when the follower reaches the second level, Rank. The contract can only be used on a follower at the first level, Rank or lower, but not higher. >
Seeing the mage picks up the seal, Cyril's heart was overflowing with anxiousness.
The main issue here was that he had seen the artifact. After that, there was no way this mage lets him off.
Would this mage be stupid enough to let him go, a potential problem that could bring a calamity to himself? Of course not!
Hence, Cyril took out the most prized possession he had, a treasure that he had gotten in one of the few strokes of luck in his life. He had picked it up from the corpse of a very high ranking member of a certain powerful clan, after being ambushed by a horde of beasts.
This was a contract seal! Its price would be a life altering to someone like himself, even though this seal was only low grade. Unfortunately, he could never sell it, as it would lead a disaster to himself.
As such, he had been intending to use it. But not just on anyone, but on a special individual, to reap the most benefits off this lucky encounter. Windfalls were rare; most would spend their entire lifetimes waiting for one of them, a one that'll never come.
But he had his, so… he had to use it in a manner to maximize the benefits.
Few months ago, he had finally found his target. It came in the form of a woman, from a powerful family.
After doing his research, he found that this woman had a low statue in the family, as distant relative. To get rare resources, she's forced to venture into the forest to look for them, as with her standing in the family, she could only get leftovers.
Hence, he decided upon her. This way, even if he uses the seal on her, and forces her to marry him, others wouldn't look into it too much.
In his mind, if she marries him, he'd become part of that family, and he'd finally have a background to lean on. Even though the woman didn't have an illustrious statute, and as her outsider husband, he wouldn't get much at all… however, to someone like him, not to mention the husband of a distant relative, even the position of a servant in that family was beyond his grasp.
Anyway, if gets into that family, then his hardship filled life would finally come to an end. He would not need to venture into this dangerous forest any longer, and his living would be guaranteed for life.
Anyhow, this was the reason why he went astray. He was following the woman, intending to find a chance to use the seal on her, to enslave her. His plan was to ambush and injure her. Afterward, he'd force her to sign the contract, and put up a façade that she fell for him due to him saving her life, in front of others.
The beautiful part about the plan was that even if it failed, the powerful family wouldn't look much into her death, making things more convenient to him.
However, just as he was closing in on her, and by some stroke of shit luck, he had lost the trail, and wandered into this uncharted area.
In the end… fate seems to have a different say in the matter. The situation was completely overturned. He had really fallen in the hole that he had dug for her.
Never would he have ever thought that instead of using this seal as a ticket to a better life, he'd hope from all of his heart that this contract be used on him, to extract him from a certain death.
As he stared at the seal, he was afraid that this man would take the seal to himself, to use on someone else more capable than him. This way, he'd still be killed, to prevent the leakage of the news.
This seal was his treasure, his biggest trump card he had to a better life, now however, he would be lucky if it was used on him, to turn him into a follower, a slave!
This is how pathetic his current situation was!
'That damned woman, what kind of ridiculous luck she have!' Cyril was agonizing in his heart.
Ever since he set his eyes on her, one mishap was befalling after another. At first, he had thought that she had really good luck… However, he dismissed it as only coincidence soon afterward. His reason was if she was lucky, then why would she live so miserably, even despite being born in a wealthy family?
Of course… the climax of ultimate bad fortune he was suffering now refuted that thought of his. Except… there was no room for regret now.
With nervous heart, and a pathetic expression, he stared at the seal.
"Good sir, I have spent my entire life in the Underground city! I have wide net of connections. Whatever you need, I reckon that I can bring it to you. More ever, I have good connections with powerful people, hence, whatever information you need, I can obtain it with ease! Sir, I'm willing to become your follower, No, your servant! If you chose me, all of my knowledge and expertise will be in your service. Sir, becoming your servant is a great honor. It has always been my wish to serve a strong master like yourself!"
Fearing that this mage wouldn't use the seal on him, and just kill him instead, he started selling himself high. Of course, most of his words were more than just exaggerations, they were straight lies. However, he had no choice but to do so.
In his mind, this man was a strong magician that was hiding in the forest, concealing himself from others, to avoid being hunted down and killed for his artifact. Hence, he should be cut off from the city, and by extension, the resources and information.
As such, he focused in his lies on the aspects that he knew this mage needs. This was his way of telling the magician that you can use me to connect you to the city, that I can bring you information, resources, I can run errand for you and the likes, that I can be very useful to you.
This was his gamble.
Hearing him, Ramie's eyes lit up.
Truth be told, Ramie had no thoughts of killing this man at all.
He had been merely staring at him so hard because this man was almost an exact replica of Eric's father! The striking similarity extended to the voice even. Ramie was really founding it difficult to distinguish.
However, the attitude and the overall vibe was completely different, plus some minor difference.
Anyway, after determining that this man wasn't Eric's father, Ramie re-focused on the information extracting problem.
His ability, soul perception, was a perfect detector, when it comes to ill intents. However, when it comes to lies, it wasn't useful at all.
The reason for such thing was that people don't only lie out of ill intents, or because they harbor malicious thoughts, but they can also lies out of fear, or to lessen the impact of a hurtful truth, or to extract themselves from a difficult situation, and any other number of reasons.
Ramie had many questions to ask. However, he wasn't sure that this man would answer truthfully. Hence, and since this man went after his life, Ramie had no intention of acting kindly toward this man. Thus, he threw at him the cold words a while ago, to intimidate him, so that he wouldn't dare to lie in the inquiry.
However, the moment he was going to start his questions, the man, and out of the blue, had taken the initiative to offer this contract seal, wanting to become his follower.
Now, Ramie had no idea what this 'contract seal' is, or how it was made. But luckily, the artifact seemed to have information in its data base in regard to this seal, thus it identified it at once.
"Who made this seal? And what is that underground city you've mentioned?" ramie asked the man, while inspecting the scroll.
Still nervous, and a bit confused about the second question, Cyril answered, with some stuttering:"…Scholar magicians…sir! The underground city is a population center few tenths of kilometers away from here, sir!"
"Scholar magicians… hmm…?"
'This is strange, the artifact knowledge didn't mention anything about seals, but now, the artifact easily identified this scroll.
Opening the scroll, ramie saw that it was filled with complicated inscriptions similar to the inscriptions made by Brent. However, and unlike them, these ones were several folds more complicated; they were interconnected with each other, forming a single engraving, and were divided to several layers. The whole thing was like an electronic board.
Ramie couldn't make any sense out of it.
However, the element of the follower inability to lie to the master greatly appealed to Ramie. Thus, he asked: "why are you willing this much to become my follower?"
Hearing this response, Cyril's eyes lit up. In his mind, if this mage was willing to take him in, then he would definitely not silence him afterward, as it would be wasting this rare seal. Hence, he showered the bloodline mage and kissed his ass nonstop, while over exaggerating his 'many fields of expertise.'
Ramie was still not convinced of this man's words, thinking that he was lying. However, since he didn't sense any ill intent from the man, then most likely, this guy was lying for another motive.
Anyway, ramie didn't really bother about him. All what he cared for, was getting the information he needed, he was very anxious to. This seal, was merely a way to ensure that this man wouldn't lie to him.
'I should use this seal on this man, to get the information I want, and maybe some guidance in that underground city he mentioned. Afterward, I'd just nullify the contract…'
"How is this seal used? And… oh yes, what is your name…?" Ramie asked the man.