Chapter 17 - Poisoned Mind

[Do you wish to force a summoner contract?]

This feature was an aspect of the summoner contract that Silva could use to force a being to submit and be his summon.

But for this summon to work, he needed to dominate the creature and force it. The goblin was very weak, and so Silva was able to use this feature.

"Yes, I want to use the forced contract," Silva said. A light shone on the head of the goblin, and it went down, leaving a mark that looked like a four-pointed star and an eye at the center.

The mark also faded away after a few seconds. Silva could feel his connection with this goblin, his emotions, and other things as well. Silva could even slightly tell what this goblin was thinking.

He could sense the goblin's hate for Silva, but it could do nothing about it.

Silva had an idea since the goblin hated him that much, and so he gave a command.

"Whenever you think ill of me, you will choke yourself until you stop thinking about it."

Immediately he gave that command, the goblin used both hands to choke itself. It began struggling for breath, but its hands refused to stop.

The others had dealt with the goblins, and so they watched this horrific scene. They had killed goblins and other monsters, but they never actually put them through something like this.

They could see the tears welling up inside the eyes of the goblin, its eyes were bloodshot, and its veins were all popping.

Silva looked at the goblin with a blank, expressionless face, waiting for the goblin to find its way out.

The goblin was about to pass out, but then its hands left its neck, and it was able to breathe. It seemed it had finally let go of its hate for Silva.

But that was too early an assumption, as the goblin grabbed its neck a few seconds later.

"It seems you still hate me. I tried to believe that you were capable of forgiveness, but it seems you can't, so I'll end you now," Silva said. He walked to the goblin and plunged his sword through the heart of the goblin. He didn't even flinch as blood sprayed on his face.

The others looked at Silva with some fear in their eyes. Silva had killed that goblin without the slightest care after torturing it.

The law of the labyrinths was that when something died in the labyrinth, it would be transformed into certain materials known as drops.

The most common of them are crystals; the monsters and things killed here normally turn into crystals that can be sold for a good buck.

Many people have also died in labyrinths, but there was no corpse, no body part to remember them by.

Most of the time, their funeral is held by burying the crystal or whatever drop came after they died.

Still, this didn't stop anyone from exploring labyrinths; humans still seek out the treasures that lay in the depths of those hellish labyrinths.

The goblins that they killed transformed into crystals, and Quin took them and put them into his storage.

"We should head deeper; we have wasted a bit of time here," Quin said.

"Sorry about that, I was the cause. I just wanted to test my summoning magic," Silva said and walked up to them.

"Summoning magic?" Quin asked in shock.

"Oh, it seems Mum and Dad never told you about it. My main magical ability is summoning. I have not been able to train it for years since I focused on training and quests.

I just decided that today would be a good day to start, and so I used it on the goblin. It was choking itself because of the command I gave it.

Bound by the summoning pact, he is unable to defy me unless he possesses greater strength than mine," Silva explained.

"I see, but Silva, you said that you have never practiced this summoning magic before, right?" Quin asked.

"Yes, today was the first day," Silva responded.

"Sigh, is there no end to your abilities, Silva?" Quin asked.

"Hehe, I just got lucky, that's all," Silva responded.

Quin knew his brother all too well and how he downplayed his abilities. In fact, something told Quin that he was yet to know the true depths of Silva's power.

Honestly, that feeling was true; Silva had never for once used the numerous dark dragon abilities and skills he had gathered over the years.

Neither had he shown some of his sword skills that were level 7 and above. He had reached level 10 mastery in basic swordsmanship and was about to evolve the skill.

This, among many more, were the unfathomable growths that he had over the years.

The party headed deeper into the labyrinth, and soon they were met with two choices: a path to the left and a path to the right.

"We should take the left; I used Search, and there was a ton of goblins on the left, even a few hobgoblins of good strength," Silva said.

"What the hell are you saying, you brat? If the left has more monsters, then we should go right," Mike barked at him.

"Mike, what the hell do you think we are here for? To enjoy our walk through the labyrinth? We are here to get stronger, gather experience, and gather resources.

The only way we can do that is if we head to the places that are more risky because that's where all the good things are," Silva explained.

"Bullshit, you just want to get us killed, you little bastard," Mike yelled.

Roxy came and stood beside Mike. She folded her arms and spoke.

"I agree with Mike. We can't just head into danger because your lust for battle is very high. Are you even human? How can you want to take us to our deaths like that?" she spoke with a pissed-off look on her face.

It was at this point that Silva understood why she refused to greet him when they met. Her mind had been poisoned, poisoned by Mike, against him.