Ullr opened his eyes and found himself back in the Respawn temple after the giant spider killed him. He looked around and saw the usual scene of people praying, but something was different. Ullr discovered that one of the five pedestal was filled with a strange bulky mannequin, like if some artist started making a statue but didn't finish it.
Also, a robot that looked like the boss of the first floor was standing in a corner and Ullr could just observe how it created a metal skeleton out of iron and finishing it with some gears and a mana core. Ullr nearly drew his weapon but he suddenly saw a player tag emerge above the robot. He remembered the server announcement from several days ago that mechanoids could be played now.
Ullr shrugged his shoulders and went outside.
He wandered around the city in deep thought...
John once again walked around the city in his dwarven appearance, he delivered some of the swords he and Olaf created.
When John delivered everything he took a stroll around and observed how the situation changed for the better after he ordered his bots to provide for the refugees. The whole city was livelier and there were only a few beggars sitting on the sidewalk while peddlers were selling their wares to an abundance of people of all races. From humans to demons, angels and even a few Mechanoids. Everything seemed harmonic and John nearly forgot that war was soon to be fought.
John shook his head on that thought when he suddenly saw Ullr trotting around in deep thought. John remembered something he wanted to ask Ullr for some days and walked towards him. John greeted him but Ullr seemed to overhear him as he was in deep thought, only after John called out to him a second time did Ullr notice him.
John led Ullr to their usual workshop because they wouldn't be bothered by anybody there.
He took out an item and laid it on the table and asked: "Ullr could you do me a favor? Would you mind creating a usable and useful item out of this?"
Ullr looked at a pile of scrap leather, that looked like a child had a blunt knife and was bored and tortured some leather, while John explained: "It was my first try at working with leather and as you see it didn't go well. And now a poor man out there has to live a miserable undead life because of me. And I want you to help me end his misery."
Ullr didn't hesitate and grabbed the leather, he cut two stripes out of it which were long enough to fit around their wrist and still had a bit extra length. He asked John to make two buttons while he was cutting two lines on the leather pieces so that he had three strands of leather for every stripe which were connected by about 2cm of leather which wasn't cut on each side. Then he made some tiny holes on one side of the leather stripes while cutting out a small thin rectangle on the other side.
He sewed on the buttons he got from John and started braiding the strands. At first, it looked strange because the braiding didn't seem to work at the bottom of the workpiece was closed but after Ullr made some strange hand movement that pulled one end of the leather through itself, it ended up as a perfectly braided piece which seemed impossible to make.
Ullr gave one to John while equipping the second.
John received it and looked at the description.
Symbol of friendship
Rank normal
As a true symbol of friendship, this item was made. It was made out of an item that represented the disgrace of a craftsman. But now the hunter that produced this leather and was doomed for an eternal life of undeath can finally rest in peace.
John even got the notification that the title "Disgrace of all crafters" is deactivated as long as you wear the "Symbol of Friendship".
John was even more surprised when he suddenly got another notification.
" Assimilation of devil powers complete, Contract Quest and Fire Walking unlocked."
"New Contract Quest, target Ullr!"
John was dumbfounded and quickly said goodbye to Ullr and ran into the next alley he could find. He read the quest description and it told him that he would be punished if he didn't complete the quest so he had to do it.
John quickly changed his appearance, he grew taller while his hair changed to a darker black and was oiled back to fit better to a devil. His eyes became red and his ears started to become pointy like the ones from an elf. Also his clothes changed from and dirty leather apron with cotton garments to a shiny white suit with a tie in the same color.
John transformation finished and as Ullr was still in the workshop, John used Fire Walking to teleport into the Workshop by using the fire of the forge that was inside. Ullr was startled when John suddenly emerged out of the fire but before anyone could say anything the game took over John character and said: "Mr.Ullr I would presume, it came to my attention that you've got a problem that you got stuck on. So I have here a small contract for the both of us that let us exchange two, let's call them, favors. My favor for you is that you get something that allows you to overcome your problem while your favor may be collected on another day or never what do you say?"
Ullr felt reminded of his brother but something was different like the person standing in front of him had no ulterior motives like his brother had. Ullr didn't need to think long he agreed to the contract so the man gave him a blue shining scroll and a quill. But just when Ullr started writing the quill developed sharp spikes that drew blood from his hands while the ink he was writing it was red.
Ullr gave back the contract and the quill and watched how the man went up in flames and vanished only leaving a small box behind...