Zen honestly had nothing to say in regards to the system's change. He hadn't had it for that long. Who knows? This might even be supposed to happen often.
He decided to ignore the message for now and decided to check out the new skill
[Soul contract]
Remaining: 3
Cost: relative
That was it. Zen was a little confused. Unlike the previous skill, he hadn't gotten any instructions.
Zen decided he still had a bit of time before it got too dark, so he decided to wait for his SP to regenerate completely before he tested the skill
A few minutes later , Zen's SP was full and he decided to activate the skill.
Zen suddenly felt something get injected into his mind as he activated the skill.
Zen closed his eyes and focused on what it was , trying to figure out what was going on.
What Zen saw was a piece of paper,a contract, although it might be more appropriate to call it a contract written on something that Zen had never seen before. It looked like paper, but looked like it was made out of stars as it floated around, glowing and shimmering with cosmic light.
Zen focused and noticed that other than the words "Soul contract" written boldly on the top, it was mostly empty.
"Zen, what's going on? Why haven't you said anything?"
"... you can't see this?"
"See what?" Freya asked curiously
It seemed even Freya who was bound to him through the system couldn't see the soul contract.
"The soul contract, I can see it in my mind"
Freya didn't seem too surprised about this. She had already seen him leave his body,compared to that, this wasn't that shocking
"What does it look like?"
Zen tried his best to describe it to Freya, pointing out that it was still blank.
Freya asked him if he could write on it and after a few tries, he realized that he could, however it seemed that writing on it would cost him Aether.
Zen asked if Freya had any ideas about what he should write on it because that was the only thing Zen could think to do with it.
With the amount of earth pop culture that Freya had been blasting into his mind since the day she found out he learned to read, he'd be lying if he said he had zero guesses about what this skill actually did, but he just wanted to be sure.
Zen began to focus with his mind to write on the the piece of paper inside his mind, and "writing" obviously meant listening to Freya and then writing down what she wanted.
Quite honestly, neither of them excepted this to do anything, but Freya was just trying to have some fun, and Zen kept going because,why not?
After a few minutes, Freya finally stopped.
Zen decided to read it, once again being reminded of how flimsy and ridiculous Freya's personality was.
This agreement is made between the individual AZRAEL and ____________(insert name here) states that (the promisee) will act in total acquiescence and obedience as a loyal partner and ally both in battle and everyday life to AZRAEL in exchange for his complete dedication and loyalty to the promisee and assurance of sustenance, power, and proper treatment and care .
Through this contract, both parties are bound at the soul for as long as the contract is in place.
"What do you think?" Freya asked
Zen felt like the last part might have been unnecessary. It was already called a soul contract, there was no reason to add soul binding again.
"How do we use it? Do i....drop my blood on something or am i talking about the wrong manga"
As soon as Zen expressed the desire to use the contract, the system suddenly sent him a notification before Freya could reply
[Completed drafting contract]
[Detected that host is making physical contact with a suitable lifeform. Would you like to use the contract?]
Zen was confused. He was just sitting on a rock right now, he wasn't touching anything. What lifeform was the system talking about.
"Does it really matter?it said lifeform, not human,so what ever it is might not even be a person, and If it works then whatever it is won't harm us, so might as well just say yes"
Although Zen was confused about the system saying he was making contact with something, despite him being quite sure he was alone , he simply muttered a yes to the system, curious to see what would happen.
Five seconds passed and nothing happened. Zen was beginning to think it may have failed when he got this
[SP: -1]
[Error. Lifeform is in a dormant state]
[System tutorial is active]
[System will aid in soul contract]
[Soul contract probably of success has increased to 100%]
A bright burst of light suddenly appeared directly in front of Zen, blinding him temporarily.
[Revitalization and reprogramming in process]
Zen suddenly felt a strange cold slimy sensation on his arm as it felt like something was wriggling and convulsing on his arm.
Zen suddenly started getting notifications that he was losing SP, and fast too. He still couldn't see so he didn't know what was happening but he was inwardly thinking that it was good he found a cave before doing this. If he had been in an open position, that would have been all kinds of bad.
Zen suddenly felt the cold slimy thing on his arm jump away and at the same time, the light disappeared .
[Successfully created a soul contract(partnership) with ultimate ranked lifeform]
Zen heaved a sigh of relief. Although he had kept quiet during the process, he was very sure something had happened.
The moment the light appeared, he began feeling a little light headed as he felt like something was leaving his body, and at the same time, something was coming in. It was strange, it felt like not just his energy, but his life force was being drained, and someone or something was trying to enter his consciousness, similar to the soul link skill.
Wait a minute!
Zen concentrated and realized he could feel it, another consciousness. It was definitely similar to soul link, similar, but there was definitely a difference between the two feelings.
"Huh? Freya, did you call me?"
Freya seemed confused as she answered in the negative and asked if he was feeling alright.
Zen kept hearing someone calling out to him. It wasn't a voice or even a sound, but a sort of strange mental pull, like someone was quite literally tugging at his heart strings. He just felt like someone was calling out to him, like he could feel the person's intentions.
Zen suddenly looked down and saw what looked like a black blob,or maybe it was better to call it a pile of slimy sludge.
Zen noted that although it was out of place, he shouldn't have so easily noticed something so small, especially with its color and how dark it was. Zen however felt inexplicably drawn to it. He suddenly knelt on one knee and placed his open palm on the ground,in front of the small black sludge, and surprisingly,it slowly moved onto his hand like a snail or a slug would have.
Zen suddenly felt an entity speak to him, it wasn't the system, and it wasn't the voice that had been calling to him..... it was the soul contract skill itself!
"It wants me to give the contracted lifeform a name?"
Zen was sure of it. Although the mode of communication was similar,it was definitely the skill talking.
Zen looked at the small black blob in his hand and realized it must be this thing. This confused him,as he was very sure that this thing had never been on him at any point in time .
It was at this point that Zen suddenly noticed his watch was gone. Zen honestly found himself to be a hard person to surprise or impress, but this time, he froze.
Where was it? The government issued watch was impossible to take off,it was with a person from birth till death. The only actual way to get rid of the watch was to cut your wrist off as it was bound to the person.
"I think I know what happened". Freya spoke in an astonished tone.
"I never told you this before, but the reason that the watches don't ever come off, don't ever get damaged, and don't ever run out of power is because it isn't made of any of the minerals or elements known to man "
Zen nodded. He knew this much but this didn't explain how it would disappear.
"Sigh! A few hundred years ago,a large meteor crashed on earth, that might not be surprising considering how strong earth's gravity became after aether came around, but this one was different, this one carried strange alien organisms with it. The government gathered all of them and deemed them mostly harmless after experimentation. The only unique things about them was that they was their near indestructibility, ability to shape shift that not only allowed them to change form but also change the very structure of their cells to mimic that of what they shape shifted into,and the fact that they could parasitize and prey on other creatures life force and energy. Unable to find out what to do with them, the government researched on them for about a century before finding out a method to forcefully carve out a specific form using the shape shift ability of the creatures and using Aether to forcefully imprint that form onto them permanently. This was what the government used to create the-"
"-Watches"
Zen looked at the small black blob on his hand. This WAS his watch, and he had entered a contract with it.
"You're a quick study, as always" Freya praised.
"It's hard to think that of all the possibilities they chose one like this "
"This was the one that had the least risks, both to the people, and the world as a whole, and at the same gave a benefit"
"But what about all the functions?"
"Simple. These creatures bodies are compatible with literally any and every kind of energy, even aether. The government used this, and the ability to drain creatures of their energy to create the watches by using a special method to force their cells to shift and form every single piece of the watch,both internal and external, and the reason they last forever,is because it's draining its wearers energy. You don't notice because it's such a minute amount that it's impossible to feel it. The only known weaknesses of these things are extreme heats. The reason for the heat weakness is unknown.
Zen looked spaced out for a second as he looked at the little blob in his hand. Even now he could still feel a faint connection with it, like he could read its thoughts.
The soul contract once again prompted Zen to name the creature,it also explained that the reason he could do this was due to a detail he had left in the contract where it said (insert name here). As the creature didn't have a name, Zen who was the one who wrote the contract,got to name it because of this technicality.
Zen looked at the pitch black little creature and decided to keep the naming simple, and call it Black.
The moment he decided on the name, the words BLACK appeared on the contract in his mind before the contract finally disappeared from Zen's mind.
[Requirements fulfilled: Gain an animal companion]
[Perk unlocked: Bestiary]
"Hmmm? What's this?"
He didn't bother looking at it,it was already getting late and he would try it out tomorrow.
Now, Zen had another problem. What was he going to do without his watch.
He looked at Black on his hand who stayed motionless all this time and called out to it.
"Black?"
The little blob shook slightly as it heard that. Zen was able to mentally feel the creature's reply. There were no words but the intent was there. It looked like it recognized the name Black.
Zen asked if black could turn back into his watch and fortunately, Black replied by wrapping itself around Zen's wrist and doing just that. Zen tested out the watch's functions and realized everything was perfectly normal.
Zen was a little confused but looked outside the cave and realized that the moon was almost up.
It was getting late.