Karl’s heart pounded, his [Void Heart] activated again as if it was salivating the dragon.

He knew instinctively, his [Void Heart] wanted to devour that dragon. Taking everything that the dragon was, turning it all into his.

“Damn, this is definitely some evil corruption shit,” Karl said as he fought against the urge.

Taking closer inspection at the spear and the dragon. He noticed underneath the lackluster appearance of the almost broken spear covered in cracks, was blue flame that flowed like water and pulsed like the heart of a living creature. Like it was sucking the life out of the dragon with every pulse to sustain itself, refusing to crumble.

The spear was like a single pole made from unknown black metal without any decoration. It was so dark that it was even darker than the darkness of the room Karl was in. Like a line of black ink on a colorless painting.

As for the dragon at the end of the spear, it looked dead. But when Karl touched it, there was still warmth. Not much, but it was there. Touching the dragon felt like touching a piece of roasted meat after letting it out in the open for a bit too long. There was still heat, but it lost most of that already.

The dragon lay in a curling position with the tip of its tail touching its nose. Its eyes were closed as if it were sleeping. There was barely any meat on its skeletal frame. But Karl could still clearly see the wings, attached to the dragon’s wrists to the tip of its tail, were still glossy and alive.

Just like the spear, the dragon also refused to die.

Looking at the particular pair in front of him, Karl thought about how he could benefit from this.

===

[Sin Weapon] discovered. Would you like to establish a contract?

[Primal Beast] discovered. Would you like to establish a contract?

===

The System popped out two questions before Karl could think about it.

Sin Weapon? Primal Beast? That’s cool. Karl thought as he wanted to get more powerful anyway. Having something like this wasn’t so bad.

But the question was, should he made a contract with the broken spear, or with the dying dragon?

Remembering the stories about dragons, Karl believed there was no contest here.

From what he read, dragons were once the figure of power and might, of elegance and grace as they stood at the peak of the food chain. But when the dragon started to fuck around and gave birth to Dragonborn, that status of theirs was as go as gone. There were even stories that recounted how horny dragons were. They were so horny, they shape-shifted into a humanoid form with a beautiful appearance that many races would fall at their feet and room the street the charmed other races. No different from succubus if this world had any.

And the rest was history. Generations were created. The son was the grandfather of the daughter of the big brother. Dragons were such a bunch of horny fuckers, literally, that their family tree was a mess.

There was also a story about a drunken bard who once yelled as he cried about it.

The bard’s adventurer team discovered a dragon lair, they went inside, ready to face the dragon. They heard the dragon’s roar that sent shivers down their spine. But something familiar welled up inside the bard as he asked, “Dad?”

No more roar, only a question, “Son?”

The bard and the dragon met face-to-face and talked with each other. Turned out, the bard had around thirty more siblings. One of them was his great-great-grandmother. Oof. That was one popular dragon.

“I choose the [Sin Weapon],” Karl said as he grabbed the spear to dispel the stories he read.

The moment he grabbed the spear, blue flame rose from both the wound on the dragon and the spear, covering him and turning him into a human torch. But the flame wasn’t hot. On the contrary, it was cold.

The flame was as cold as the hands of corpses that cursed Karl after he killed them.

His instinct was telling him this flame wasn’t something the living should have. He must remove his hand from the spear, at once.

Power was great. But losing oneself for more power was foolish. So Karl tried to let go of his hand. But before he could, tendrils made from blue flame stabbed into his hand and drained his blood. He felt like the victim of his own [Plundering Accumulation] as his blood was being drained at an alarming rate.

He tried to pull his hand out again, only to meet with an even bigger resistance.

“You want blood? I’ll give you blood. Blood Sea.” He roared.

Following Karl’s roar, a crack in space opened beside where his hand was holding the spear. Blood and killing intent oozed out from the crack and poured onto the tendrils. Like hungry hyenas finally found a corpse after weeks, the tendrils devoured the blood from Karl’s Soul World with greed.

Shadows of lost souls flew up from the floor as the screams and wails. Some even moved in front of Karl's face and screamed.

Suddenly, his [Void Heart] thumbed like an actual heart. It was supposed to be something unexplainable that resided inside his heart. But now, it was manifesting physically as it created a connection with the spear and the crack his Soul World opened.

When Karl’s hands didn’t feel like it was being frozen by the flame and burned by his blood at the same time anymore.

He felt it, a will that was yielding for life. He looked down. The dragon was opening its hazy eyes as it looked at him.

I don’t want to die. I want to survive. The dragon sent its will to Karl.

Looking at the small dragon, there wasn’t any blood flowing out from where the spear stabbed. It was one step through death’s door already. But it still wanted to live.

Karl grinned his teeth as images of a pathetic boy who had to eat rotten food and drink water only when everyone else took their turn resurfaced in his mind. No matter what, the boy wanted to survive. No matter who he had to beg, who he had to kill, what he had to do. The boy wanted to survive.

Karl gripped the spear tighter, so tight that his hands were turning white.

“Fine, you want to live? Make a contract with me.”

===

[Sin Weapon]’s contract establishing.

[Primal Beast]’s contract establishing.

===

The System spoke.

And the moment it did, Karl’s guts felt like it was being turned inside out as his Mana and Qi flowed from him to the spear. From the spear to the dragon. From the dragon back to him. The endless circles continued for who knew how long as each circle was more painful than the last.

With each circle, the dragon was covered in more and more blue flame.

With each circle, Karl pulled more and more of the spear out of the dying dragon.

Once he successfully pulled out the spear completely, blue flame shot out from the dragon’s wound like a geyser. The flame twirled and danced around the spear’s crooked tip. When no more flame came out of the dragon’s wound, the spear sucked all the flame and all the souls in the room into it. Leaving the room in darkness once more.

Karl fell on one of his knees as blood was dripping out from his eyes, his ears, his nose, and his mouth.

His guts still felt like it was on fire while being inside a blender. His muscles felt like someone using a tong and very slowly pulled out every fiber and then put them on a grill. His hands and legs couldn’t stop trembling.

He used the spear in his hand as a walking stick and forced himself to stand up.

Karl looked down at the puppy-size dragon. Its eyes were closed once more.

“A failure then.” He sighed.

But before he could look away, the dragon shined and was covered in black light. The dragon got smaller and smaller until it became a tennis ball of light and shot inside the crack his Soul World opened.

“What?” Karl came close and looked inside the crack.

The corpse mountain and blood sea were still there. But now, there was a floating black ball of light above the blood sea. It was floating a distance away from the corpse mountain as it drew blood up from the sea. The souls the spear sucked up were also flying around the ball of black light.

Karl couldn’t feel it before, but he could now. There wasn’t just blood and killing intent in that sea, there was also Mana. His Mana.

So that’s where my Mana goes when [Void Heart] devours it.

Karl looked at the black dot eating away at his blood and Mana as he smirked. Without his command, the crack closed and disappeared.

Standing up straight again and stretched, Karl couldn’t wait to see what kind of harvest he had. And since he was covered in wounds and blood, he could get a better deal too.

Karl looked at the spear, it turned from a seven-foot-long spear into a two-foot-long black stick. It looked like a fat poker stick with no handle, something Karl would use to keep the fire going in his kitchen during winter.

Holding the cold and firm piece of metal in his hand, Karl thought about the only old dude and young genius he could ask to repair this.

He nodded his head and walked toward the door.

But he lost his balance and almost fell if he didn’t stomp hard on the ground and kept a kneeling pose. The process took much more toll on his body than he had thought. Since he couldn’t even walk properly, might as well sit down and cultivate.

After cultivating for what felt like hours, Karl scanned his body with Qi Scan to confirm his condition.

Once he was sure he was okay, he walked out of the room.

The moment he walked out of the room, Elly was there with her back toward him. She was calling someone with her communication clock. Karl somehow arrived at the mansion’s entrance the moment he walked through the door.

“Please this is an emergency, a client has disappeared in the haunted mansion. I need…”

“What are you doing?” Karl said as he tapped Elly’s shoulder.

“Eeeeeeeee,” Elly shot up as her hair stood on its end. “Don’t eat me, I’m not tasty.” She screamed as she ran away at full speed.

But before she could get away, Karl grabbed her collar, successfully choked the life out of the girl.

“Don’t eat me.” She fell to the ground and balled up with her face on her knees and her hands on her head. “Gods above please protect me. I swear I’ll never gamble again. I swear I’ll never burn my hard-earned money on a cup of ice cream sprinkled with elemental crystal again.”

“It’s me, your client, Miss Clerk,” Karl said as he tapped the stick on Elly’s head.

“Mr. Kanehiro?” She opened one of her eyes and looked at Karl.

When she saw Karl’s condition, she shot up and spoke in an alarming voice. “What happened to you? Why are you covered in blood? Is that blood dripping out of your eyes and nose?”

Knowing that he wasn’t the ghost she thought he was, she leaned forward while she looked at him with curious eyes instead.

The girl was still an Adventurer Guild’s clerk after all. She was used to seeing people in this condition.

“Hey, Miss Clerk,” Karl called out as he put the stick away.

“The guild will not cover any expense for you even if you get hurt, whether it was from a mission or a deal.” She recited.

“I know about that. I was just thinking.” Karl pointed at himself and smiled. “The owner didn’t say anything about danger in the mansion. Deadly danger that could kill at that. Right?”

Elly fixed her glasses, “Mr. Kanhehiro. May I remind you that we of the…”

“I’ll give you one-tenth of whatever amount we can get from the mansion's current owner.”

“This kind of fraud is unexpectable. How dare he sell a mansion to you, knowing that there was a risk of death. Don’t worry Mr. Kanehiro. I, Elly, am an ally of justice. I shall see it through.” She thumped her flat, non-existent chest.

“Thank you, Miss Elly. I know you are a reliable person.” He smiled.

“Oh right, stay still for a bit Mr. Kanehiro. I need to take a picture of your current state and scan your vital. We need proof after all.”

Hearing that Karl used his hand and hit his chest, making his heartbeat and Mana Flow unstable and chaotic. “You can scan me now, Miss Elly.” He smirked.

With a smirk of her own, Elly scanned Karl with a flat disk and with her communication clock.

Having a partner when scamming people really was helpful.

-----

“Young Master, oh no, what happened? Wait, we need a healer. No, we need to get you to the clinic.”

“Calm yaself down, ya idiot disciple. If the youngster wants to get healed, he would have walked to the clinic himself.”

“I’m fine Nanok, thanks for your concern.”

The usual entertaining scene played out in Eldrin’s store.

“Nice to see that you are as caring as ever, Eldrin,” Karl said as he waved hello at Fixa.

“What do ya expect from me? A candy?” The Dwarf said as he wrote something down next to a stack of paper. It was a massive stack of paper too, enough to bury Eldrin in it ten times over.

“Sure, a candy sounds nice. I want the ice flame lotus flavor. Coffee would be great too.”

“Oh, screw off will ya.” Eldrin waved his hand to shoo Karl away.

Karl peaked at what Eldrin was writing, “A supply contract?”

“Yeah, we got some youngsters from ya academy who want to sign long-term contracts with our store. I’m fixing the final draft right now before we can get to work.”

“Nice.” Karl nodded. “Oh right, can you two look into this for me.” Karl pulled out his stick and placed it on the table.

Nanok and Eldrin looked at the stick. While Nanok had a questioning face, Eldrin pointed at the stick.

“What’s this supposed to be? A fireplace poking stick?”

“Close,” Karl smiled, “It’s a spear.”

Both the old man and his idiot disciple looked at Karl like he just lost the last of his marble. While Nanok looked apologetic, Eldrin patted his shoulder as he looked at Karl with pity.

“Look,” Karl picked up the stick and poured his Mana into it, turning the stick into a cracked and crumbled spear.

“Ohhhhhhhhhh,” The two craftsmen looked at the spear with sparking eyes.

“I need you two to fix this.” Karl withdrew his Mana and placed the stick on Nanok’s hand.

Without wasting a second more, the two craftsmen dashed into their workshop and put the stick onto their experimenting table. But when Eldrin took his small hammer and knocked on the stick.

“Ah ~ Harder daddy,” A seductive, womanly voice spoke with a hint of satisfaction.

It was neither the voice of Fixa, Karl, Eldrin, nor Nanok.