My head hurt that was first thought I had as soon as I woke up. What appeared in front of me was an unfamiliar ceiling.
Where am I, I thought as I looked around the room. It was a very minimalistic room with only 2 pieces furniture in it part from the bed. A wardrobe and a chair.
It was then I remembered what exactly had happened. I had collapsed due to exhaustion or rather because of what Lily put me through.
Grrrr
At that moment my stomach growled.
How much time was I asleep for.
I tried to get up from the bed but even moving my legs felt taxing.
"Anyone there?" I called out.
There was no response.
Even my throat felt like a drought had hit it with how much itchy it was feeling.
Finally I couldn't take it any more and tried to get up. My legs were wobbly as I tried to stand up on them.
I somehow managed to walk up to that door. As I turned the handle to open it the handle wouldn't budge.
I was locked in this room with no way out and there wasn't even anyone else present who would get me out of this room.
But then suddenly the door was opened and I lost my only support and was about to fall on my face just for Lily to lift me up in a princess carry.
Could this day get any worse.
"You woke up rather early. I thought you will not wake up for at least one day." She said while putting me back on my two feet.
"So how much time has passed since I collapsed?" I couldn't help but ask her.
"Oh not much. Just two hours."
"Then why am I feeling hungry like I haven't eaten for days."
"It would be weird if you didn't feel that much hungry. Did you think we are able to use our blessings and still be fine. The way your blessings work is similar to how energy is consumed by machines."
"You want a desired output and thats why you use a machine. But the machine needs a constant supply of power for it to work in its optimal condition and give the desired results."
"Like that blessings also need energy for them to function properly. Since you are still new to all this the energy consumption is more but as your proficiency increases the energy consumption goes down."
What she said made a lot of sense.
"So you prepared anything for me to eat."
"Who do you think I am, A prophet? Of course I didn't prepare anything for you. Let me see if there is anything for you to eat."
As I was sitting alone in the room I tried to remember what I felt just before I passed out. The image was fleeting but it was as if the image was everything I needed in order to increase my proficiency like Lily said earlier.
The image of how the cells were getting devoured at a rapid rate was stuck in my mind. Even though I was getting results all this time my thinking had been wrong.
My blessings employed my energy in such a way that they replicated the diseases by consuming my energy. It was also the reason why my very first approach of trying to transfer those nutrients to other parts didn't work.
But now I had a clear image of how I could easily increase my proficiency. If I could observe a real bacteria or virus and how it affects plant my proficiency would rapidly increase. Would I also get live subjects in case of humans and animals.
But something about that image still felt incomplete to me. Like it was missing something. Something I couldn't put my finger on.
Right at that moment Lily barged into the room carrying with her a basket full of chocolates. Why did she only have chocolate in her home. Did she not have any other thing apart from it. It wasn't that I didn't like chocolate but they were just too many and nobody liked to make a lunch out of them at least not me.
"Don't you have anything else inside the house apart from chocolates?"
"You don't like chocolates?"
"Its not a matter of whether I like them or not. Who makes a lunch out of chocolates. And I like to eat them just in a small quantity not a basket at a time."
"Thats the only thing I have in my house. Either take it or leave it."
Could it be that she didn't know how to cook. But I killed that question as soon as it appeared in my mind. If I asked it she would put me another hell tomorrow or worse she could just start it today.
I couldn't even voice my protest because of her ridiculous strength.
And so had to eat a basket of chocolate to satiate this hunger.
Right then Lily broke the silence.
"You remember I talked about signing a contract when you first visited the guild asking about blessings."
Now that she mentioned it she did talked about a contract but didn't mention it all this time.
"Yes you did mention it. That was the reason I didn't immediately start training with your guild."
But why would she bring it up now.
"Well I have a personalised contract that I would like to offer to you. What do you say. You interested?"
"How does this differ from whatever contract you were going to make me sign previously."
"Before I answer that question answer a question of mine. How much do you really know about this world."
"What I really know is that it is after life and that gods exist and bless us humans. Apart from that I know nothing. Oh I was also able to see a monster that looked like giant when I followed those soldiers outside the city."
"Then let me tell you about this afterlife in more detail."
"This world even though it feels peaceful it really is not peaceful. You might not feel it in the cities but there are countless monsters inhabiting this world. The monster that you said looked like a giant was really a giant."
"And the list of monsters doesn't end there. You name any fictional character from earth be it werewolves. Vampires, zombies, hellhounds, dragon each and every one of them is present in this world."
"And the thing about those monsters is that they are stronger than humans right from their birth. And thats why a single monster is capable of killing multiple humans but it is difficult for a human to kill a monster alone unless the gap in their is really wide."
It was true. The soldiers I had seen yesterday. One of then was squashed to death like an ant. And the flaming sword guy was able to cut the monster because it was distracted.
"And if that wasn't enough there are monsters who also have blessings of gods. If you feel like this life is peaceful compared to what you lived on earth then I hate to break it to you but the life on earth was like a walk in the park."
"You didn't had to be afraid of getting killed by the unknown on earth."
"But the gods didn't take away all of our hope. These cities that you see are protected by their powers na that is the reason why monsters don't attack the cities on their own. Not until they have a proper leader to unite them."
"Now to why I mentioned all these details. In the general contract that you would have signed you would have gotten the benefits like access to guild resources to train yourself, chance to take part in the annual auction, you can also take missions to earn resources and money for yourself and use the guild as a medium to form parties or group with other people with blessings temporarily."
"In return what you would have to do is give a part of whatever you received in mission as a commission to the guild and help the guild in protecting the town in case of monster invasion and completing a few compulsory mission every month."
"This was the general contract. The guild has the ability to revoke the membership in case of non compliance."
"Now the only difference between a personalised contract and general contract is that you also get a say in personal contract along with better service than other members. There are some other benefits but we can discuss that later."
But why would she offer me a personal contract. Wouldn't she end up on the losing side because of offering me personal contract.
"You must be wondering why I offered you a personal contract when I could have benefitted more by offering you a general contract."
"The reason is that I want you to know your worth. You might not know it but what you managed to achieve today wasn't an everyday feat."
"But I didn't make any big progress today. The only thing was that I was able to manipulate the health of a lot of plants as compared to yes-" I was suddenly interrupted by Lily.
"Don't try to feign ignorance with me. Do you know how you eyes looked just before your collapsed. Your eyes had turned to a shade of green whereas the usual colour of your eyes is black. How would you explain that to me."
I got caught.
"I know a lot more about blessings than you think. That breakthrough of yours is the reason why I am offering you a personalised contract."
Did I even have a choice. Since she was extending a helping hand toward me it would rude of me to reject her.
"When do we sign a contract?" There was no reason for me to reject her proposal.
"Let me draft a contract for you. I am pretty sure you will like it as compared to general contract. If you still have changes we can negotiate them. Meet me tomorrow a little early to sign the contract. You are free to go today."
It feels like the breakthrough appeared at a rather fortunate time. I was still feeling tired and so I headed home early today.