In Luz's head, you could visually see the 5 princes facing Luz. They seemed to be arguing with one another more than caring for Luz at the time. Luz stood there silently and cleared his throat telepathically to attract their attention.
The five princes slowly calmed down, and one asked, "Where and when will we eat?"
Luz telepathically told them the contract and added that there would be plenty of food after they signed the contract.
Two of them accepted the soul contract immediately without even bothering to read it. Two others read only the first clause and were satisfied since Luz guaranteed their lives.
Only one of them commented: "What do you mean with paragraph 5? I'm not signing that."
Luz shared with a mischievous grin, "As long as he doesn't sign, there will be no food."
The other four princes released loud impulses and moved toward the outsider.
"Accept it. I want to eat. Otherwise, no mana for you," threatened the other four shouting around.
The outsider tried to make his "siblings" understand his worries. "This is a trap. We don't get food."
"Contract says: he protects us." replied another, and the other princes grabbed his body.
'If he doesn't sign, then we kill him,' thought the remaining four and forced him to sign the contract.
"Well then, we've settled it," Luz replied with a huge grin.
'Luckily, I forced the contract on the five parasites while they are still on the mental level of a hungry 4-year-old,' went through Luz's head after he was back in reality.
"And how did it go, Luz?" asked Simon, who was sipping from his teacup.
'The five of them didn't even read through the contract... hahaha... they just ignored the last clause. {The host may modify the terms of the contract whenever he wants}.'
Chuckling, Luz sat down opposite him and picked up his teacup.
"They signed the soul contract without reading it," Luz replied, laughing before sipping his tea.
The tea was served in porcelain rune cups and was a black tea blend, using mana plants for this purpose.
Simon just nodded with a smile while rubbing his hands together. Meanwhile, Simon's porcelain cup continued to remain in the air.
"Then it's time to accelerate your progress as fast as possible," Simon commented while a paper flew in front of Luz.
Luz raised his eyebrow as he read it through. There were two sheets in front of him. One sheet detailed how Luz's training would look from now on, and the other one was a contract.
Chuckling, Luz placed the contract on the table and said, "I think it would be better if we call Master Brian. I'm still an employee under him, after all."
Master Simon almost had to spit out the tea at his words.
"You are a clever fellow. You realized right away that a contract with a stronger party could be problematic," he commented, and suddenly several clauses appeared in the contract.
One of the clauses resembled the last clause of his own soul contract. A cold shiver went down Luz's spine, and he continued to drink his tea, which left only a bitter aftertaste.
"Well, at least the kid I'm taking care of isn't completely retarded," sighed Master Simon while tossing Jodoc a bag.
"What's going on?" asked Luz, confused.
Jodoc moved his wings before nipping at Luz's ear. "Simon and I had a bet on whether you would fall for the same deal as well," Jodoc commented while pulling out two mana crystals with his claws.
One of them was green while the other was yellow. Jodoc threw the yellow crystal to Luz, who immediately grabbed it.
"You're not aware of the mana crystal colors, are you?" asked Simon.
Luz just shook his head.
Author's Note:
Please don't wonder why the mana crystal color variant I use is identical to Supreme magus.
Just for your information, I am not copying anyone here and am using a Ph meter from acidic to basic.
But a Ph meter starts with red before moving to orange, to yellow, to green, to blue, and to purple…
"So mana crystals have a different color and intensity depending on the quality," Simon told him while continuing to drink his tea and visualizing an image in the air.
In front of Luz, a chart appeared in the air with several colors and a few comments about each color.
'How many liters of tea does his cup actually contain,' Luz wondered while holding an empty cup in his hand.
"As you can see, mana crystals of the color red correspond to the lowest quality. But such mana crystals are enough to fill up a mage apprentice mana completely," Simon informed him while dropping sugar cubes into his tea.
A spoon and teapot appeared in the air and poured tea into Luz's cup. Steam rose from his cup, and Luz continued to sip on it.
Simon, on the other hand, continued his narrative, "But red mana crystals are generally enough to replenish around 10% of a beginner mage's mana. Orange mana crystals are enough to completely fill the mana of a normal beginner mage."
"So how about in my case, and what are the potential consequences?" asked Luz intently.
"Pssht, let me finish," Simon replied, shaking his head as he continued to narrate, "After red comes orange, and after that comes yellow. The colors which come after that are green, blue, and purple."
Simon stopped briefly, and his expression became more serious. The atmosphere darkened for a moment, and Luz thought to himself: 'Did I not pay enough attention???' while a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
"It is highly unlikely that you will ever come across a purple mana crystal, let alone green or a blue one. But if you do, don't take them. Any mage would know that you are carrying a treasure since you can't suppress its frequency," Simon stated in a serious voice before the atmosphere quieted down again.
"I can answer the latter, but we need to do some experiments to verify the former," Simon said as the visualization changed, and he continued with his narration: "You can think of it like this. Your own mana has about the same purity level as an orange mana core. Nothing would happen if you used one or maybe 10 red mana cores a month to restore your mana. But if you use too many, you will accumulate impurities in your body."
"What kind of impact does this impurity have?" asked Luz intently.
Jodoc answered this time instead of Simon. "The consequences are that it will be more difficult for you to ascend as long as these impurities remain in your body. It'll take longer to remove such impurities instead of never relying on low-quality mana cores."
Thx for the chapter!