Second Day after Grey met the Guild Master of the Shadow Guild, Onyx Tavern, Central Earthenshire.
"Sir–!"
"I told you to drop the honorifics. You're more than half my current age, Rahk. You see, some might think that I'm some sort of noble blood when they see you acting like that towards a younger face." Grey interjected, his right hand clasping the wooden ale of beer on this cold evening.
"All right. Grey, are you certain that man some time ago was the Guild Master of the Shadow Guild? Rumors are circulating, especially in the underworld that only high-ranking individuals that could be counted in one's hands had personally seen him." Rahk lowered his voice even though the tavern's interior was filled with seemingly never-ending noises from the drunkards.
"You're drunk. It's been a few times since you've asked that very same question with the very same lines." Grey said before taking a sip of a beer, which was being neutralized by his alien biology.
At that moment, as though Grey already expected it considering everything that the [Alien Archive] had absorbed in regards to the seemingly non-existent person known as Borax Doranfell, a woman on his right side donning a simple yet formal black shirt spoke.
"Are you perhaps Grey?"
"Why are you even asking something you already know? Is that a woman's unchangeable nature?" Grey nonchalantly remarked before dropping the wooden ale on the wooden table in front of the tavern's bartender.
He received an inexplicable look, but the woman's eyes were clearly telling him something along the lines of being weird and a bastard.
"Mister, ask someone to assist this man who cannot hold himself against alcohol. Here's our pay."
Receiving a nod from one of the bartenders, which was surprisingly a mix of human and a dwarf, Grey left the premises with the woman in black.
[She's the closest confidant of Borax Doranfell, Master.]
'Thanks for the heads up, but there's just no one would look for me apart from anyone with a connection to him.'
***
Capital City of Lumen, Holy Empire of Lumenasia.
"Rifts are truly convenient, eh? But the journey's damn short; a person wouldn't be able to enjoy the ride." In a laboratory coat that seemed to never change because of his instinctual habit before his reincarnation, Grey muttered.
'Is this man truly the one that identified Master Borax?' The woman thought to herself as they traversed the streets near the castle walls of the capital city, which was bustling with holy lights amidst the seemingly fruitful evening.
After some time, after Grey and the woman dressed in jet black entered the inconspicuous entrance in the alley far from the eyes of the others, they arrived in front of a door that looked like a wobbling space, a sight of miniature alignment of stars.
'Krishnaya, analyse it.'
[Yes, Master.]
Ding!
[Spatial Spell analysis… Processing!]
[The information about the spatial spell has been analyzed!]
[Would you like to know the information, Master?]
'Ah…! Thanks for asking, but good job. Hold it for now since we're doing this significant business first… You know, like a popular saying… two birds in one stone!'
***
"You may never know why I am trusting you with this, a mere stranger that I happened to meet, but remember this, if you fail then you will die.
"I need to have insurance, however, if you decline this, then I have no choice but to brute force my way into the territory of the Elves." Borax faced the strange young man in a laboratory coat, whom he perceived to be a Mutant in a very short amount of time since their first encounter.
Titling his head upon hearing the word, 'insurance,' Grey waited for Borax's next action. After a moment, the latter then retrieved something from his own spatial storage.
It was a miniature Libra scale oozing with a dark aura, which was also wrapped with black chains.
Seeing this, Krishnaya instantly informed her Master about its information.
Ding!
[Scale of Duanaxim]
Alien Archive Description: [A divine artifact of oneness, which allows both parties to have a seemingly eternal contract of life unless the agreed condition has been fulfilled. If one of the two parties failed to do what has been promised, then the said party's soul will be damned; the body will return to dust!]
'That's a hellish description, quite technically.' Grey inwardly muttered.
"Go for it then." Unfazed, Grey said to Borax, which somewhat surprised the latter since he had yet to explain what this object was.
However, as though the Shadow Guild's Guild Master had a realization, he refrained from asking such a question and bet on the founding confidence of the strange young man.
"I don't know where that nonchalant demeanor of yours comes from, but you look very naïve of the world," Borax said before controlling the divine artifact, letting it float mid-air towards the subject.
"Well, I am." Grey let out a self-deprecating laugh. "Anyway, get me-"
Grey paused speaking, causing Borax and the woman on the sidelines to look at him with suspicious gazes. It was as though a bolt of lightning just struck his skull, immobilizing his brain to rationally think.
'Wait a damn minute…! Krishnaya, are you thinking of what I'm thinking?!'
"Guild Master Borax, may I ask what form of initiation such an artifact needs to activate?"
'Don't tell me I need a drop of my fucking blood? I'm a damn alien…'
"It's through a drop of blood. Why? Is there a problem?" Borax's brown eyes squinted, his aura seemed to become colder at Grey's suspicious query.
"No, there is not."
'I don't know… let's see.'
Since his arrival in this world, Grey had yet to bleed in his new true form.
"Let's begin." He added.
***
Ding!
[The Divine Artifact, "Scale of Duanaxim" has been triggered!]
[Your life will be bound to the other party until you fulfill the condition.]
[Other Party's Condition: Total Healing of the Body and Soul.]
[Your Condition: Absolute Wish from the Other Party's Parent.]
'I just feel like I got scammed. But whatever.' Grey thought after a certain mark of the same libra scale found itself on his wrist and the lying little girl, who was awake and in pain; the one who also painfully expressed about the total healing of her own self.
"Rana, inform everybody to be on high alert. We never know what might happen." Standing by the door, Borax asked the black-dressed woman. Without leaving his side, the latter did his command through whatever means possible for her.
"Great… What's your name?"
"M–Moria... M-Mister, cough! Cough!" Drenched in cold sweats, with her skin paler than snow, the little girl answered.
"Okay… Moria, I'd like you to give me permission to heal you, will that be okay?"
Even though it was already stated in the contract via the divine artifact, it was still different in terms of alien ethics that would require the subject's permission for Grey to perform [DNA Modification].
"O–okay… cough! I–I trust you..."
[Alien Skill: DNA Modification has been activated!]
[The subject's permission has been granted!]
After a moment or two since Moria's soft voice, Grey retrieved a syringe in his [Alien Archive: Material Dimension]. It was a sedative.
In the next moment, Borax's and Rana's eyes widened, witnessing Grey's real-time transformation back to his true form; a lofty skeletal humanoid alien.
Just as Rana was about to move due to her danger sense, Borax stopped her.
"Let us watch first."