~~~~~
The morning snow glistened under the bright sunlight emitting from the sun. Cold winds blew early in the morning albeit a little slow, the trees swayed gently, accompanied by the gleeful chirps of birds roaming around the sky.
Under such a tranquil atmosphere, a lone shack stood in a dense clearing, completely disregarding the large dispatch of snow surrounding it. Black smoke depicted the burning of firewood coming out of thr towering chimneys surrounded by a dense outgrowth of a pine tree plunging out of the shack. And inside it lay a maimed man.
Knock! Knock!
Two knocks echoed inside the dark room, causing the maimed man to jolt awake. Rubbing his eyes, he pushed his body up with his dainty hands.
"Come in.."
The door clicked open in his utterance and Hagrid trudged inside the room. Adam looked up at him with his blurry eyes, only to see him carry a bowl of hot soup.
"Awake yet, stick man?"
"Yeah...and don't call me stickman.Call me Adam."
Adam said with an irritated tone. He was irked the last night Hagrid called him Stickman but now he couldn't tolerate it anymore.
Hagrid cracked a grin and put the bowl on his lap.
"None can do stickman, as long as you stay here, like the weak lamb you are. You will be called a stickman. If you want me to call you by your name. Work for it."
"Oh...I completely forgot.."
Hagrid puffed his chest up in arrogance and proclaimed, "Call me master, oh and be grateful that Hagrid the Half-Giant is willing you teach your feeble self! "
Adam turned a blind eye to the proud Half-Giant and focused on his food. The soup was made of veggies and pieces of meat, giving it an extremely delicious flavour. So, focusing on his food was more important than listening to a proud Half-Giant. Rambling with him will only lead him to lose brain cells. And Adam had already decided on his future.
Learn about combat from Hagrid, take his revenge and get out of the Forsaken or Exiled lands and reach the Capital.
He had nothing on Hagrid. He will fulfil the contract and leave afterwards. Either Hagrid lived or what choices he made didn't depend on him. Sure, he saved Adam from the snow. But how the Half-Giant will live or die depended on him and not Adam. Any more familiarity will only cause him problems later. Adam also needed a solid background and being a refugee of the 4th Hero made his job easier. Next time someone would ask about his origin, he would at least be able to say he was a refugee. So he needed someone to testify and Hagrids presence just made the job easier.
Hagrid saw that Adam wasn't paying attention to him so he stopped rambling and cleared his throat, bringing his attention from Adam to himself. He then pulled up a brown-coloured parchment and opened the contract, placing it in front of Adam.
Adam swept his eyes over to the contract and saw that it was a Magical Contract. Keeping the bowl of soup beside him, he took up the contract.
"Read it properly and then sign it."
"Hmm..."
Adam read the following clauses.
***
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•CLAUSE 1:The following party will be forced to comply with the contractor upon signing the contract and will only be nullified upon fulfilling it.
•CLAUSE 2:The said party, Adam Nightshade, kin of Richmond Nightshade the 4th Hero, will be under the tutelage of Half-Giant, Hagrid Nightshade, kin of Richmond Nightshade for 5 years.
CLAUSE 3:The said party will be responsible for completing the contract. Failing to do so will result in siphoning off 50 years of the said party's life span. Upon untimely demise of the contractor will result in the nullification of the contract itself.
CLAUSE 4:Both the contractor and the said party are not to harm each other in any way.No curses, conspiracies or plotting will be tolerated. Doing so will result in the same siphoning of 50 years of the respective party's lifespan.
CLAUSE 5:Upon completion of the contract, the contractor, Hagrid Nightshade will reward the said party, Adam Nightshade with a weapon, armour, spell book or anything of his/her liking.
[End]
***
Adam skimmed through the clauses and looked for any possible loopholes. Seeing that upon breaking the contract, 50 years of his life will be siphoned off, he became nervous as to whether he wanted to sign or not.
Hagrid noticed his dilemma and said in a grave tone.
"Boy, don't get me wrong but this is a serious matter. We barely know each other. And to me the most unpredictable is you. If I want, I can kill you right here, right now. The contract is not the only thing that can you know.."
Sigh!
Hagrid sighed.
"It's alright if you don't want to sign it now. I will just wait for another half-breed to fulfil my job. You are not the only one I have offered this contract you know. Most of them refused, and one got killed. If you refuse, I'll just drop you off at the kingdom and be on my way."
Adam contemplated for some time before sighing in defeat. He was in a precarious situation. Maybe if he could walk he might be able to refuse but...he couldn't. He needed Hagrid to teach him to survive with magic and for that, he needed to sign.
Clenching his fists, he let go of his thoughts and breathed out. He had decided.
"I'll sign it. What will I have to do.."
Hagrid smiled and brought forth a small kitchen knife.
"A drop of blood will suffice"
Adam warily took the knife and sliced open his fingertip. Hagrid bit off his thumb and both of them dropped the droplet of blood onto the contract making it glow red.
The contract floated upwards with a reddish halo around it as runes manifested out of it, plunging them inside Adam's dainty body and Hagrids burly torso. A searing pain coarse through Adam's chest, as if there were chains placed over his heart causing his poker face to crumble into a frown.
"Bear the pain, it will go away..."
Adam nodded his head and just after a minute, the pain vanished. A heavy sensation coarse through Adams's body but it was not to the point of discomfort.
Hagrid heaved a sigh of relief and stood up.
"What's done is done. Now, all we can do is our best. You get what you want and I get my revenge. Now hurry up. Well, start your training in an hour."
Adam kept his head down on the floor before calling him out.
"Hey, Hagrid."
"Yeah.."
Hagrid turned his head back and looked over at Adam.
"There is something that's bothering me. can I say.."
Hagrid turned back to face him and folded his arms.
"You can see that I can't walk right. How will I fight then? Don't you think that binding with me was a waste?"
Hagrid's eyes turned solemn upon hearing his statement, followed by a heavy sigh.
He turned around and moved towards the door.
Adam grew sad upon not hearing an answer. He was utterly confused as to how he would fight his way up to the top if he was unable to walk. There must be something he could do, right?
But contrary to what he was expecting, Hagrid closed the door and all that entered Adam's ears was.
"Jump on that artefact and meet me outside. There is something I want to show you."
Adam shook his head in dismay and pushed his body onto the wheelchair and sat down. Taking out a large quilt made of animal leather he wrapped it around his body and became ready to go out. But first, he decided to check his status.
================
[BODY STATUS:]
...
{PHYSICAL COMPUTATIONAL DATA}
[Name:Adam Benjamin Smith(Nightshade)]
[Life form:Tier 1]
[Age:26[66 Million][Sex:Male]
[Height:161.5cm ][Weight: 40.8 kg]
[Profession:]
[Attributes:
-Strength-0.5
-Agility-0.1
-Stamina-0.1
-Dexterity-0.9
-Intelligence-1
...
[Emotional Status:Confused]
[Heart rate:Normal]
[Blood pressure:Normal]
...
[End]
====================
'It's normal it seems. And my stats are normal as well
'And Nightshade...'
Adam smiled hearing his friend's name.
'It's just as badass as he said it would be. Now I am his kin. He did say he was my father a couple of times and that he wanted to marry mom. But...hah'
Adam sighed. Shaking his head at his friend's idiocy, he decided to check on a thing which bothered him.
'Hey, AI'
Adam commanded not knowing if someone would answer as his stepfather said that the Nanobots had no AI installed but he decided to try to see if he said the truth. And..he was right.
[Yes Sir ]
'How come there is an Ai when father said there is none? Did he lie?'
Adam was shocked that his father lied to him. This was a small matter but he was hurt and had a tinge of anxiety wash over him.
[No Sir Adam. I am just the bare minimum of consciousness Dr Issac imparted me upon.]
[Let me introduce ourselves. We are called the HiveMind.Specifically designed to follow your orders and live as long as you do so. We have no conscience of ourselves and can only work according to our thoughts. Even this conversation is being guided by your brainwaves, acting as a CPU for computing this sentence.]
[Even though you can use the system screen regardless of our help, we would implore you to use us. Dr Issac had programmed us for this sole purpose and even predicted that one day you might call upon us]
'Oh, so a none functioning AI, good. But why did you respond now? If you knew about me dying a day ago, why didn't you guide me?'
[We implore you to understand that Dr Issac had strictly forbidden us to affect your progression in this new life or question your choices. Only when you would call us for valuable advice should we interfere, or we can just stay connected to your brain and stay on standby.]
Adam grinned widely. He was glad he had such help with him.
'Okay, so what can you provide me with? I hope you can do something more than just show me my body status.'
[Yes. We can Sir Issac. You can use us as a weapon. For infiltration, reconnaissance, and spying and also as a means to access or store information from the primitive Earth. However, this feature can only be accessed until you fulfil one of the conditions placed to access them.]
'What's the condition then?' Adam asked cheerfully.
[We implore you to understand...]
Adam massaged his forehead, before stopping the HiveMind from responding.
'Okay, shut up! He prevented you from informing me right?'
[Correct]
'Okay, forget about it.'
'Do one thing, remove the emotional status, heart rate and blood pressure tags from the system window and replace them with other tags when I command you to. Is that clear'
[Affirmative]
"Good, go on standby," Adam muttered.
However, a loud bang echoed from outside the room followed by Hagrid's monstrous voice, just as he commanded the HiveMind to go on standby.
"Where are ya stickman? Chickening out ?"
"Coming!"
Adam shouted back before commanding his wheelchair to move forward and exit the room. He made a determined expression as if he was going on a new journey as soon as he would step out of the room.
He was glad he was alive but now, he wanted power. Not the power of toppling mountains with a single flick of his finger, but to walk and protect himself at the bare minimum from the maws of ferocious beasts. And if the Half giant would provide him with that and even if his plot for revenge could kill him, he wanted to take a shot and trust him.
As this was the only way he could survive in his precarious situation.
~~~~~
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