"The world as a whole operates in contract with the divine or so I've been told." The voice of the bobbing cloud continued.
"When each race that walked the earth came into existence they were aided by a divine being for their survival, in exchange for survival the races are given a contract. This contract is one of servitude where we worship the Gods and live by their rules and in exchange we receive blessing and a connection to the world system."
I was slowly absorbing this new knowledge as it was interesting, the plot for some isekai fantasy backstory.
"The more fate the race has in their god and follow their rules the more powerful the race, and when a but once their god dies or the race betrays the contract and the god serves it that race would go on to be forgotten by the world system and the known races will no longer remember them it'd be like we never existed even though we still do."
"So did your god die or did your race betray the contract?" Her tone was crestfallen as her eyes seemed lost.
"You see, our lord died over thirty years ago, years ago, so as a forgotten race we are relatively young despite being one of the most powerful. I heard back when we were a known race we were a revered race, as one of the only who had a close relationship with our god." The cloud slowly descended upon her haysack.
"I may not know much as I was young at the time but our god was always smiling and helping us with all our problems even teaching us how to use our abilities. After his death we were like lost lambs unable to move on, the elders tried to keep us in order as best they could but the people's minds were in distress."
I kept watching as her beautiful voice kept switching tones gradually getting lower and lower, but my mind was also in conflict as I just processed that she was a child when her god was alive… just how old is she, I know it's improper to ask a girl their age and my appraisal skill don't work on them.
"It was then that the Goddess of the night came to us with a contract in exchange we got the Knowledge of runes and the power to fight once again."
"A contract?"
"Yeah… how do I explain, some forgotten races receive contracts from gods in exchange for benefits, such as knowledge and power in exchange the god gets praises from more people and their sacrifices also increase the god's powers-
"These contracts also come with their downsides, as each god had their virtues based on their dominion over their assigned aspect of nature, and along with that virtue they have their assigned sin to reflect that dominion, and as contractors of that specific god we also share their powers and their sin."
The curtains of the tent opened and Madam Tsukio walked in taking over the explanation after interrupting Sara.
She had a small wooden basket hanging on her left elbow and a small smile on her face.
"Glad to see you've recovered lad." She walked over to me and dropped the basket onto my chest.
The weight of the basket was pressing onto the center of my chest but the weight wasn't that overwhelming as I sat up despite being in turmoil.
I looked at the runes on my chest, remembering what had happened the first time I smudged it but despite being smudged by the basket nothing happened which made me confused.
"Don't worry I stopped channeling my mana into the runes so now it's just words writing on your skin."
She then sat beside Sara and opened her arms to welcome a small child, Sara then floated towards her and landed on her legs and Madam Tsukio started to stroke her cloud-like body.
"Eat up young man, training will resume afterward."
"Huh! So quickly am I not even fully recovered yet?" I was shocked by her words my whole body was in pain and it was getting dark out.
"Of course am reshaping your mana pathways so it's obvious am going to have to keep shattering it as it heals until they meet the requirements to channel mana without issue."
I looked into the basket as she spoke not wanting to think about the pain all be facing again after I've finished eating.
"Huh… not fruits this time?" The basket before me had two loaves of bread three pieces of dried meat I assume was pork and a sachel of water.
—
Once again I was standing in the chilling flowing waters this time I was fully laid bare as my only boxers had been placed upon a rock close by with my trousers.
A slow yet sensational movement could be felt gracing the skin of my back. With each touch, my senses were screaming with anticipation.
I could feel every cell in my body tremble as she traced to the center of my back I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth in preparation for what was about to come as I come. After I had experienced it once I knew I had to brace myself.
"You see, runic magic by nature is a dark form of incantation in comparison to scripture magic or purely elemental magic."
Her soft voice now spoke into my left ear as her body came close to mine and I could feel her skin make contact with my back.
I gulped as I realized that the only thing that separated her chest from touching my back was her palms that rested on my back directly between them and my back.
"To learn incantation magic one would have to make a contract with the god who owns that specific ability and have them teach you the language of the gods. It's all about sacrifice as the goddess of the night is a very picky goddess you see."
I felt her breath on my neck which sent my senses into overdrive that I completely forgot why I was even out here, I couldn't even comprehend her words as they entered one ear and left the other.
"How much are you willing to give for her to acknowledge your sacrifice, human boy?"
My lips trembled as I took a deep breath trying to find words to speak but my lack of experience with women was limiting my ability to think.
~Fu fu~
A soft seductive laughter entered my ears and I felt my legs shaking as the center of my back began to grow warmer and warmer and an intense pain drew my senses back to me before ripping them away once again as I lost consciousness.