“I…uh…” Mateo’s tongue was tied. Facing this man who was glaring down at him made him felt the shivers.

Then a hand grabbed on to Jason’s shoulder. It was Hakeem.

“You’re scaring him, cut him some slack,” said Hakeem.

Jason eased up his shoulders as his gaze went away from Mateo. He took a seat on the nearby chair while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“It’s okay man, he’s not going to do anything,” said Hakeem as he patted Mateo by the shoulder.

“Come on, have a seat,” Hakeem guided the speechless Mateo to one of the chairs and as Mateo sat down, Hakeem did his thing.

“I’m Hakeem by the way,” he extended his hand for a handshake. Mateo was wary at first but seeing the smile on Hakeem’s face made him eased up a bit. Mateo shook Hakeem’s hand.

“Mateo,” said Mateo.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you know about the buyer? Are you an Awakened?” Hakeem’s tone changed a bit colder than usual. Despite the smile hanging on Hakeem’s face, Mateo could felt Hakeem’s eyes were rather sharp.

Jason who was taking a sip of his coffee saw everything and in the end, he only smirked.

Bastard, you’re more scarier than I am if you act like that.

He kept that thought to himself as he watched those two interacted between themselves. Mateo wasn’t the type to cowered in fear no matter if it going up against a rowdy customer or some wannabe gang members but these two were different. He read through stories on the internet and also saw those videos of Awakened fighting against monsters. He knew that against these people, he couldn’t do a thing against them. He calmed down his nerves a bit and answered Hakeem.

“I have this gift,” said Mateo.

“Gift?” Hakeem was confused, he glanced back at Jason.

“I can see things, things that other people can’t,” said Mateo.

A questioning look on Hakeem’s face while Jason was rather intrigued by this.

“Explain,” Jason said.

Mateo explained from the beginning. From the time he saw a ghost when he was a child and to now the present seeing faint numbers floating on top of some people’s heads. Mateo told these two of how he noticed the numbers on top of their heads including the buyer. Hakeem had his jaw gaped wide open as he knew Mateo was speaking the truth. The numbers Mateo spoke was the same as Hakeem’s level. In a way, Mateo had gained the trust of both Hakeem and Jason.

“Interesting,” Jason said.

I wonder what kind of unique trait would he obtain if he manages to awaken. This ‘gift’ of his may or may not affect his unique trait, but there is a possibility.

Jason looked Mateo from up and down and rather than asking more about his gift, he opted to ask about the matter regarding the unknown Awakened.

“So what about the buyer that you told me? Is there a reason you told me that?” Jason asked.

Mateo looked around first, shifting his eyes between Jason and Hakeem. He then took a deep breath as he told these two.

“From what I’ve heard, the buyer is Antonio De la Cruz,” said Mateo as his eyes darted around between these two hoping for a reaction.

But both of them had to disappoint Mateo as neither of them had a clue about this person.

“You guys never heard of him?” Mateo asked.

Hakeem and Jason glanced at each other and shrugged their shoulders in unison.

“Heard of that guy?” Jason asked.

“Nope, not a clue,” Hakeem said.

Both turned back to Mateo signaling to the blacksmith to continued on.

“Well, words from the street, I heard Antonio is a nephew of some big shot gang member. If the rumor isn’t wrong, then his big shot uncle might be from the La Ese gang,” again Mateo waited for a reaction from these two but again these two were oblivious.

“Since when did Toronto have street gangs?” Jason asked as this was a first for him to hear such a thing.

“Never heard of them,” said Hakeem and he continued, “are you making this up man?”

Mateo shook his head left to right while telling them that he wasn’t lying.

“No, I’m not making this up and you have to listen to me. There are rumors going around that Antonio and a bunch of his guys are trying to break into an abandoned factory near Portland,” said Mateo.

“Factory? Why?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know the details but I heard the factory was once within La Ese’s turf and now a rival gang is currently occupying the factory area. I think he’s trying to win back the turf for his uncle,” said Mateo.

“But why swords?” Hakeem asked.

Both Jason and Hakeem was weird out regarding this matter. If it was a gang fight, why couldn’t just they go duke it out with guns and bullets? Was sword even necessary? There was no way a gang fight shifted into an all-out melee fight in this era.

Then Jason remembered about Antonio being an Awakened.

“Do you see what number on top of Antonio’s head?” Jason asked.

Mateo shook his head timidly as he answered.

“It’s a single-digit but it was too faint for me to see it clearly,” said Mateo.

Jason delved into his mind for quite a while as he thought about the time he fought those trees in Portland. He had an inkling of why Antonio needed the swords and the possibility was there.

“When is he coming by to buy the swords?” Jason asked.

“If I’m not wrong, probably tonight at midnight,” said Mateo.

“Hey, spit it out. I know you know something,” said Hakeem at Jason.

“Remember the giant tree? I think this might be the same situation,” Jason said.

Hakeem leaned forward towards Jason as his eyes were already turning wide open. He came close to Jason as he whispered.

“Are you sure about it?” he asked Jason.

“I’m not, but it might be, wouldn’t hurt to go for a visit,” said Jason.

“If there was a boss-type monster, you think you could let me have a go with it,” said Hakeem with a smirk.

For the first time, Hakeem felt like challenging the odds. His competitive spirit back when he was a basketball athlete started to return once more. He gained more confidence after that mission in Thunder Bay, being the leader of a group of soldiers really did the work in bringing up his motivation.

This time he had a goal in mind. The person that sat beside him, Jason. In his eyes, Jason was absurdly strong and now he couldn’t wait to reach the same level as him. Meanwhile, Jason looked at this friend of his who had his eyes twinkling like gems.

“Sure, why not. Just don’t ask me to rescue you if the boss has a higher level than you,” said Jason.

Hakeem was stunned as that thought never crossed his mind. He had forgotten about the level of the monsters. While he was staying silent trying to come up with a way to combat such a situation, Mateo spoke out.

“I want to tag along,” said Mateo.

Jason eyed up Mateo from top to bottom. He was shorter than him but bulkier and a bit wider in comparison. It might be due to his occupation of being a blacksmith he still had reservation in bringing Mateo along. Although Mateo had told him about Antonio but it still wasn’t a good reason for him to tag along.

“Why should I?” Jason asked.

Mateo fell speechless for a while but he snapped himself out as he didn’t want to lose this opportunity.

“I’ll do anything, I just need to become an Awakened,” said Mateo.

“Why?” Jason asked.

“I know sooner or later, those monsters are going to come here and when they do, I need to be ready to protect my family,” said Mateo with his eyes showing conviction.

Mateo has a big family and being the responsible type of person, he felt the need to save his family considering most of his family members didn’t care much about the monsters. Although most of them were fearful of them but none really did anything, except for that one particular uncle of his who kept buying illegal firearms and stocking them up. Mateo had told him that gun won’t work on those monsters but that particular uncle still didn’t budge.

“Let’s bring him along,” said Hakeem. There was a bit of tear at the corner of his eyes as he felt the sincerity in Mateo’s words.

“Sure, I’ll bring you along,” said Jason.

Mateo hearing Jason’s word felt the sun was rising in his heart. A bit of good news in these terrifying times. But it went down the drain after Jason’s followup.

“But there must be a give and take. You don’t think it’s going to be free do you?” Jason asked.

“Bro, can’t you be charitable for once,” said Hakeem.

Mateo didn’t hesitate as he knew that everything had a cost.

“I’ll accept,” said Mateo.

“No, that’s not how it works. You see everything needs a black and white, it’s how the world works,” said Jason.

“Seriously bro? I don’t think a contract is going to do anything good in this world situation,” said Hakeem as he thought a written document in this current world means nothing since going to court would be the least of their problems.

Jason on the other hand ignored his friend’s words as he muttered a single word.

“Contract,” said Jason.

In that single instant, he felt a huge chunk of energy being sapped away from his body as greyish aura came whirling around his right hand. Both Mateo and Hakeem were shocked by looking at this phenomenon.

Jason extended his hand to the sky with his palm facing up. Soon, the greyish aura combined into one big sphere and as everything condensed inside that sphere, two items manifested itself from thin air replacing the grey sphere on Jason’s palm.

A small parchment along with a quill pen. Jason felt himself brimming with energy and as he laid down the parchment on the table, he wrote something, a single clause and as he finished writing it, both Mateo and Hakeem read it.

“Obey my words for one year?” Hakeem read it through and he glanced at Jason with perplex.

“So, you think you can handle it?” Jason said to Mateo as he handed over the quill pen to Mateo.

“Bro, isn’t this basically slavery?” Hakeem said as his undertone grew serious. Hakeem didn’t like it.

Jason ignored Hakeem while keeping his eyes at Mateo. The blacksmith was having a hard time thinking about this. He knew what this contract meant, although it wasn’t written explicitly, it did mean that he was becoming a servant to Jason.

“Mateo, you don’t need to do this. I’ll back you up, I’ll help you try to Awaken,” said Hakeem.

But a second later, Mateo had decided. He took the quill pen and signed his name on the parchment. As soon as he signed the parchment, it glowed in grey light. It split into two and dove right into both of Jason and Mateo’s left chest.

Both of them felt a slight pain over their left chest that lasted for a few seconds and as the pain ended, they heard a voice in their mind.

If Mateo breaks the clause, then a heavy punishment awaits.

“What just happened?” Hakeem asked as everything happened to fast.

Mateo clutched his left chest as he started to ponder whether this was a good idea or not. But then he saw a hand directed at him. It was Jason with a smile on his face. Mateo had a hard time telling whether this Jason was smiling sincerely or not.

“Pleasure to be working you,” said Jason.

Mateo shook Jason’s hand as Hakeem watched.

“First thing first, set aside six swords for us including the last sword I just made,” said Jason.

“Yes,” Mateo said as he went outside the pantry enacting Jason’s order.

“Bro, you really went overboard this time. Slavery is not cool man,” said Hakeem as he left the pantry.

Meanwhile, Jason had his own thought in mind.

You’re too naive Hakeem. You’ll never know if a stranger going to backstab you, I’m just doing what’s needed to be done.