Two men were sitting opposite each other in a room of a restaurant. Apart from the sound of wind through the open window, there was complete silence in there. Both men stared at each other for a while; then finally, one of them broke the silence.

“What do you want to eat?”

Soren asked Claude in a light manner. He knew that neither of them had any appetite right now.

“Anything’s fine”

Soren nodded, then called the waiter and ordered some food for both of them.

“I wanted to ask you something.”

Claude drank some cold water and then put down the glass as Soren started speaking. He had some inkling as to why this young ‘Traveler’ had come to meet him.

“I heard that the captain sold my information. That’s quite….antagonistic of him.”

Soren said lightly. He didn’t particularly care about this; he had never trusted them to keep silent about his case so, it didn’t come to him as a surprise that the captain did what he did.

Claude didn’t think it was necessary to lie, so he simply nodded to answer him.

“Tell me…..Is it possible to take out my Bloodline after I have become an Initiator?”

Claude was a little taken aback by this sudden question but he still answered. “No. Even if they killed you, they won’t be able to obtain your Bloodline. Only the Rogue Initiators would be willing to try their hands at it. The Families, who are in power, would rather keep you alive and would want you to work for them.”

“And, did the captain know…..that I have become an Initiator?”

Claude nodded and said, “Yeah, he found out by investigating the dead bodies which were found in the jungle; around the same area where you came from. He found the body of the man who had just bought the Initiation stone in the town and suspected that you were somehow involved in that; the timing just matched too perfectly. He sold the information to many Families and Organizations; the Liston family that you joined was also one of them.”

Soren gritted his teeth lightly upon hearing the answer. Maybe the Liston family thought he was already aware that only an un-awakened Bloodline could be extracted. Then they lied to him about the others not knowing that he was an Initiator so he would sign the contract.

He was told that the other Families were out to kill him and take his Bloodline and that his only choice was to run or join their family; though he was sure that he would have been killed if he had made the choice of running at that time.

He was told that the other Families didn’t know about him being an Initiator. They had lied to him so that he would join them and not go looking for any other Family and Organization.

But he knew that the others too would have done the same. It’s just that the first one to approach him was the Liston Family.

Although he was a little pissed-off, he did not feel betrayed. He first had to trust them to feel betrayed, which he never did.

“It was good that you used that Initiation Stone and became an Initiator. Otherwise, they have many methods to extract an un-awakened Bloodline. After a Bloodline awakens, they have no way to take it out.”

Soren silently listened to his words.

Although he didn’t want to accept it, the Captain had done him a favor by releasing the info about him being an Initiator together with his other information. Otherwise, he would not have been approached like that, instead would just be killed directly for his Bloodline.

“Now, the family would, most probably, keep you alive and will train you to become a good soldier for them. As for the Bloodline, the only way they can get it is to take your genes. They would try to pair you with some girl to obtain your offspring, I think.”

Soren clenched his fist but then…..he sighed. He had already reached this conclusion.

All the anger he had about this was released on the Goblins. He didn’t have any proof that Ellie was sent by the Family to get closer to him but after looking at the circumstances, it seemed most likely to him.

He was only a Layer 1 Initiator in their eyes and they had decided to send him to a routing mission?

The enemies they met would have been way out of his league if he was the same Layer 1 Initiator that they believed him to be. And somehow, he found himself on that team.

Not only that but he also somehow got physically involved with the only girl on the team. He was also to blame here though, as he was the one who initiated it the first time and then the things had just escalated.

He wasn’t in love with Ellie. No, he was not that naïve and he knew that it was the same for her too. He was angry at first but not because he felt betrayed. He never trusted them in the first place to feel betrayed. He was angry at himself that he had failed to see this clearly and couldn’t take precaution.

They were after my Bloodline and never cared if I was an Initiator or not. Instead, my becoming an Initiator only hampered their plans…..Most probably, they think that it’s too late for me catch up to the others…Hehehe…

Soren laughed upon thinking how wrong they were. He had the Bloodline Talent ‘Devour’ which pushed his cultivation speed to another level. He had already caught up with most of the people of his age and he would, very soon, pass them and leave them in the dust.

They didn’t know about this aspect of his but he didn’t want them to know either; as it was his trump card.

“Did the Liston family tell you that you would be killed by other Families for your Bloodline? Haha...They all would have done the same, you know. I’d be careful if I were you though, they might just discard you after getting your…..well…genes or maybe just make you into a….’baby-making machine’ haha.” Claude said in a joking manner.

Soren shuddered upon hearing those words. Baby-making machine! No fucking way!

“Does it seem funny to you?”

“Haha…it’s a little bit funny. Don’t worry, they would take care of you well if you agreed to that...Hehe”

Soren suddenly imagined the scene where he was surrounded by little kids who kept calling him ‘Dad—Dad’ and a cold shiver ran through his spine. Only one thought kept ringing in his mind right now: I would rather die than let that happen.

There was one more problem that he had neglected while being lost in his imagination. He was bound to the Liston Family by the Blood Contract and according to the terms, he had to follow every command of anyone who was a blood relative of the family. That meant; he would be compelled by the Blood Contract to follow every command of his own children.

……….

Claude laughed upon seeing Soren’s reaction.

“Don’t Worry, not all of the girls would be like that; I think. So, don’t go around suspecting everyone. Not everyone is working under some family.”

Soren simply nodded as he came out of his imagination and focused on the present.

He had thought hard about this and had already formed a plan. He had made Isaac start the process just before coming to meet Claude.

“I do feel bad that our captain betrayed you like that. So, for that, I apologize and I also would like to say that I don’t want to become hostile with you.”

Soren looked at him intently and nodded.

Knock! Knock!

The waiter knocked on the door and brought in the food that they had ordered. Then, they started eating their food while talking about some small stuff.

……..

“Actually, it's only a rumor but I’ve heard that the Captain had hired some Hunters to act as bandits and rob that person who had bought the Initiation stone. Someone blurted it out when he was drunk and now it has already spread around. I think even the Captain has heard these rumors.”

Soren was surprised to hear about this. He had never given it a thought that those men may not be bandits. Though Claude said that it was only a rumor, Soren believed it was most probably true. Although he was not really clear-headed at that time, he remembered some of the things.

One of the things that he remembered was how the bandits had acted at that time. They felt more like a mercenary group to him than some ruthless bandits. He had never thought about it as he never cared enough but after hearing what Claude said, it made much more sense to him.

Claude took a sip of the cold beverage, which they had ordered, to change his taste and started eating again while Soren became lost in his thoughts.

“There is an auction going to be held by the ‘Myriad Items’; you remember them, right. You can go and have a look, you might find something useful,” Claude said as he swallowed the food in his mouth.

Soren also came out of his thoughts and simply nodded. He didn’t need anything in particular right now and what he needed was something he couldn’t afford. He also didn’t know what they would be selling in the auction so he just made a mental note about this; mental note meaning Isaac recording it.

He was at Layer 7 right now and he was aware of the difficulty of breaking through to Rank 1. He had also looked around in the library for information regarding this but couldn’t find anything solid. The only choice for him now was to get the info from the Liston Family.

He was already involved with them; the least he could do was get something out of it.

………

They finished their food and bid each other goodbye. Soren paid for the meal, as he had invited Claude, and made his way out. He had one free day before he had to go in for the briefing. Since he had nothing much to do, he decided to just go back to his hotel.

He cultivated, studied his spells and practiced mana control the whole day after coming back to the hotel.

CP – 67%

He continued the process till the next day. He only stopped when the sun had risen above the horizon and was completely visible.

CP – 72%

He cleaned himself up and wore some normal clothes: It was time for him to go to the briefing.

He went out and walked towards the breakfast café. He had missed the food here when he was in the jungle. He sat down and ordered some food, with some drinks to go together with it.

“Master, simulation complete, success rate was 22.5%.”

So low! Is there any way to increase it?

“Yes. Using a spell that meets the criteria will increase the success rate to more than 99%.”

Soren was a little surprised and quickly asked about the spell.

“The spell should be something that is strong enough to finish the process and weak enough that it won’t do any damage.”

Soren raised his eyebrows at such a specific request. But as he thought back, he remembered that he did have a spell like that.

He took out a wooden box from his backpack and opened it. There was a red colored token like thing sitting inside it. He then pricked his finger with the fork and dripped a drop of blood on it.

It soon turned into Blood Mist and permeated into the Stygian Grimoire that Soren had already released.

“Spell Learned: Spark [15/15]. Mana Cost – Negligible.”

Another spell was added to his spell list. He had given Isaac the job to figure out a way to deal with a certain problem; which was solved by using this spell now.

He put away his Grimoire and started eating his food. He also opened his status while eating.

 

He closed the screen and finished his food. He went out after paying for the food and made his way towards the Liston Family mansion.

It didn’t take him long to reach the place. The guard recognized him and let him in after nodding towards him. Soren also returned the greetings and went through the huge gate.

He walked on the stone path and looked around, only to find a big garden filled with different plants on the left side. There was also a patch of bamboos growing in one corner in that garden. A stone path branched off from the main one and went through the garden.

On the right side, he could see some buildings with a branch of stone path moving towards them and a big field behind them. There were some sounds coming from that field like some people were training there. It seemed like it was the training ground.

The main path went straight ahead like a snake, ending at a huge mansion that looked similar to a palace.

Soren moved towards the right path and went towards one of the building. He had already been informed of the location.

He entered one of the rooms in that building and saw that others had already arrived. They were living in this mansion so they just had to move a little to reach there anyway.

He nodded and greeted them and then sat on one of the empty chairs. He didn’t show any of his emotions on his face and kept a straight expression right now. All the thoughts that were going through his mind, before when he was meeting with Claude, had been buried deep within.

After waiting for a while, Faron entered the room and went towards the front where there was a podium.

“I am sure you all are pretty confused about the sudden change in order but we have a situation. The area you guys were supposed to clear had some changes after we had already gathered Intel on it. A high-leveled beast suddenly arrived in that area and subdued most of the other beasts. It killed most of the strong beasts from different races and also injured many. From our Intel, we can confirm that it’s a Rank 1 creature.”

Faron described the situation to them without waiting or spouting any nonsense. The others were a little bit stunned upon hearing Faron’s last sentence.

Rank 1 creature? Suddenly, every piece of the puzzle fit together and they finally got the reason as to why their lairs were mostly devoid of any strong beasts and why they had found so many injured ones.

“Some of our Initiators are already moving in to intercept it as we speak. Although we are planning to kill it, the least we expect to do is to chase it to some other family’s territory. I will also be leading a team and we will be moving out soon. You guys have finished your mission as you were told so you will receive your rewards, without any cuts.”

He then took out 5 black pouches and handed it over to the 5 of them. Soren took his own pouch and opened it. He was quite surprised to find that there were 5 mana crystals sitting inside the bag.

These crystals looked bigger and had a pure white color, more than the small ones he had.

Mid-Grade Mana Crystals!

The reward for this mission was 5 Mid-Grade Mana Crystals, which was equivalent to 500 low-grade mana crystals.

Soren closed the bag and kept it inside his jacket, carefully. The others also did the same and again focused on Faron.

“There is no compulsory mission from the Family right now but if you guys want to earn some extra, you can go to the Administration Building and take any mission from there. Soren, you are clear to take on solo jobs now, so you can choose to do that but make sure to take one that does not cross your limit. Ok then, see you guys next time.”

Soren got up from his seat with the others as they all went out together.

“I wanted to find some information. Do you guys have a library or something like that?”

Soren asked Faron as they were getting out.

“Well…Not exactly a library but we do have an Information Center. You can get the information there just by paying some fee. You can find some things there that you might not in a public library.”

Soren thanked him and went out of the building. Faron pointed towards the building that was supposed to be the Information Center as Soren nodded and walked towards it. The others also went their own way.

Ellie looked at Soren’s back as he was moving away and slightly hesitated but finally decided to go her own way too.

……..

Soren went inside the building and found a young guy, playing with his communicator while sitting behind the counter comfortably. He looked at Soren as he entered and put away his communicator.

“Name”

“Soren Farrow.”

The guy behind the counter looked up at the young man with a somewhat surprised expression. He had heard his name recently.

He had always thought that ‘Travelers’ were some weird people that looked like aliens but was quite surprised to see someone so normal. He quickly typed Soren’s name in the screen in front of him.

After getting the confirmation, he handed a portable glass screen to Soren and told him to look for the info that he wanted using that and pay up on the counter after getting it.

Soren nodded in acknowledgment and went inside with the glass panel. He found a silent corner and sat on a chair. He then started to look for the information that he wanted using the panel.

The price seemed quite reasonable so he didn’t hesitate to use his crystals to buy knowledge. He searched through all the info he wanted for now and also checked out some other information that he could not get in a public library.

The one he wanted the most was the information pertaining the breakthrough to Rank 1. It was slightly expensive relatively but he still bought it.

The panel gave him all the information related to that subject and he quickly made Isaac record everything. He took some time to finish his business here. After he was finally done, he got up and stretched himself to relieve his somewhat stiff joints; he was sitting for quite a while.

“You’re done?”

“Yeah”

Soren paid up the cost of information using the crystals he had just received. It cost him 2 Mid-Grade crystals.

“What if someone doesn’t have enough mana crystals after reading the information?”

“Hehe…eheHeheHHHThat’s why I checked your identity before. If you don’t have enough mana crystals to pay, it will go on your credit which you can pay afterward. You can’t run anyway.”

The young guy made an expression that said ‘you know what I am talking about’. Soren furrowed his brows as he did know what the man was trying to say.

He was talking about the Blood Contract. Once someone signed the Blood Contract, they could not run away. The only way to be free was to find a way to solve the contract.

After all, going against the contract meant certain death.