The wind mage's words silenced the people present, as they all silently contemplated for a second. It wasn't like a blood contract was a bad thing, it was just very unconventional since the consequences could be dire. Or, well, that was kind of the whole point of one. They doubted that this youth would agree to sign one though. Not many people would be able to put their life on the line for a friend, no matter how nice they seem.
As they expected a no, they got a more unusual answer in response.
"Uhhmmm, what's a blood contract?" Ark asked with a bit of confusion on his face. From the looks on their faces, he guessed it wasn't something nice, but if it was to save Thufrat, he wouldn't mind as long as it got the job done.
"Ehhhh?"
"You don't know what a blood contract is?" The leader asked with some confusion. Were did this youth come from? Did he seriously not know what a blood contract was?
"I really don't know!" Ark answered, a little embarrassed.
Everyone was a little dumbfounded at this, they fought blood contracts were something everyone knew about, but apparently not. Since she was the best at explaining, the lady with fiery red hair took it upon herself to explain.
"A blood contract is a contract were you plant fire Mana within your blood. If you disobey what is agreed upon in the contract, your blood will ignite and you'll die an agonizing death. The terms of the contract are up to the people who make it." This was a pretty brief explanation, but it got the point across.
"So you're saying that whoever disobeys dies right?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Then I'll do it, as long as you can save my friend, and I want that to be a term in the contract!"
"Of course!"
"I have one more question still, you said that you're supposed to plant fire Mana in the body of the one's who sign the contract right? But what if you're a fire mage? Couldn't you just extinguish that Mana?" Ark asked apprehensively, he didn't want to get tricked by something as simple as this.
"Isn't it obvious? It's overlooked by Yione, God Of Judgment! It's not like we're the ones who are going to plant that fire Mana, and who can resist the God Of Judgment?" The lady responded, once again surprised by this youth's lack of knowledge.
"Ehhh, ok" Ark was really surprised. Did gods really exist? These people were not trying to trick him right? Ark wasn't sure, but he knew that if he hesitated now, he might not be able to save Thufrat.
"Let's just get this over with quick! The longer we wait, the longer my friend will have to suffer!" Ark urged a little.
Upon his request, the leader of the four retrieved a blank parchment from the bag on his waist. The bag, being really small, was obviously a spatial bag, otherwise, it would never fit something of that size. After he retrieved the parchment, he quickly started writing the contract. It didn't really take long for him to finish it, only about a minute or two.
After he finished it, Ark read it two times just in case he missed something, but there didn't seem to be any problem with the contract. All the others also read through the contract carefully, since they had to sign it too. After everyone approved of the contents of the contract, the leader retrieved a knife from his waist and cut open his finger. After this, he wrote his name on the bottom of the contract and passed it over to the next person.
The lady with the fiery hair was the last of the rebels to sign the contract, and when she tried to hand over the contract and the knife to Ark, he only squinted his eyes a little and took the contract, but not the knife. The others were a little baffled, was he not going to sign the contract?
Different thoughts were crossing Ark's mind. What was wrong with these people? Did they seriously rub someone else's blood into their wounds by using the same knife as each other? That could be dangerous. Ark only conjured up a wisp of water Mana on the tip of one of his fingers, he then condensed the water Mana a lot and turned it into a very high-pressure stream. He then used this to cut open one of his fingers, to then sign the contract.
It was at times like these that Ark wished he had other affinities such as the wind affinity. Since it was a lot simpler to use the wind to cut things. Later, he was going to try and get some new affinities once more. He tried earlier when he had just arrived in this world, but he didn't think his body would be able to handle it, since just getting the fire element was a fluke, thanks to him having the water element. He was a lot more powerful now though, and he believed he would be able to handle it.
He did have the light element, after all, so he could heal himself if things turned sour.
As Ark finished writing his name on the parchment, a mysterious event took place. The fire Mana in the surroundings gathered into small vortexes above each person's head. They then started revolving faster and faster, before descending onto everyone present. The fire vortexes shrank down to a minuscule size before resting above everyone's hearts. If the terms of the contract were broken these vortexes would wreak havoc until the person died.
As the effects of forming the blood contract settled in, Ark decided to immediately part ways with these people. After experiencing this blood contract first hand, he didn't doubt it's authenticity anymore. Therefore he felt comfortable leaving Thufrat to these people since they would have to do everything in their power to save him unless they wanted to die.
"Since everything is settled, I'll leave now. I don't doubt the authenticity of this contract, but I'm going to warn you anyways. If anything were to happen to my friend, I'll kill you, no questions asked." As Ark said this, he patted the dust off his shoulders and set off into the forest.