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Upon signing the contract, not only did Eden receive a notification, but he also felt a connection formed between the contract and himself, or what he assumed to be his soul. The connection felt strangely brittle.
It almost felt like he could break it at any time he wanted.
The effects of doing so would remain to be seen, however. Would it void the terms? Or would it still transmit some kind of punishment?
Moreover, breaking it voluntarily through his Talent was one thing, but doing so by breaking a clause would definitely result in the punishment, which he did not know if he could block. A way to circumvent this would be to willingly break the contract right before breaching one of its clauses, but without knowing the potential consequences, Eden was not keen on trying.
Besides, it was not like he had any incentives to break the contract. Not before he knew what he was fetching at least. And even then, Eden was not so keen on going back on his word. After all, even if he could block the effects of the contract, having someone like Morgan chase him was a deterrent in and of itself.
Looking up to Morgan, who had also signed it, Eden asked, "So, the contract has been signed. May I finally know what dangers I am about to face, what I will be searching for, and what my reward will be?"
Morgan smiled, and with a snap of his finger, the paper disappeared. Not saying anything about the sudden magical feat, he replied, "One of the problems with the cave is that I do not know what guards it, or if there is anything guarding it at all. Maybe there is a monster, or maybe the corrosion is too strong, but every man I have sent never left the cave."
Frowning, Eden sent a look at the door, "Your guards are strong. If they could not come back…"
He did not finish, but the meaning was obvious. He knew himself well, and if a squad of guards had not managed to come back, he probably would not either.
But Morgan shook his head, explaining, "The restrictions that stop me from acquiring this item also apply to my guards. And with the secrecy required for this business of ours, I could only attract greedy men with some gold, and even then, I was restricted."
Eden had already expected this. With how strong all of his guards looked, it would not make sense for him to value Eden's help so much if sending them had ever been a possibility.
"What will I be searching for then?"
"A key."
Eden repeated, "A key?"
Morgan nodded with a smile, as if he expected this reaction, and explained, "It is not just a normal key, of course. It is imbued with powerful necrotic magic, and its mere sight would probably drive the average man insane, and handling it may result in other… unsavoury side effects. I provided past employees with a container for it, and I could give you one too, if needed."
"I'll manage without it." Eden immediately refused the offer. If his Talent could resist a copy of the Necronomicon that was so feared by players, he doubted whatever Morgan was having him fetch would be able to affect him.
Moreover, Eden had a hunch that accepting this would reduce his eventual rewards for this side mission. After all, Dreamland was all about taking risks to receive rewards. It would thus only be natural to assume that accepting help for a mission would result in its rewards being diminished.
Morgan nodded before clapping his hands. A second later, the doors to the study opened, and a few servants entered, holding a few items.
There were three of them. One was a long sword, another was a potion, and the last one was a small, finely carved golden idol.
The servants stepped back, and Morgan added a notebook next to the three items. He said, "These are what I offer as a reward. You may only choose one of the four as your reward, however."
A greedy part of Eden was disappointed he could not get the four, but he reigned it in, before using Analysis on the items. Analysis actually worked differently from the way it did on people when used on objects.
One's level of power did not matter in analysing an item, as one would always be able to read all of its attributes. Actually, all the skill did was increase the distance at which players could use their natural ability to see the status of objects. With Analysis, they no longer had to touch them to see their status.
Eden started with the golden idol, as out of the four items, it was the one that was the most likely to be magical. Much to his surprise, however, no status page appeared.
That did not mean this object was so precious that his skill could not analyse it. Again, it could be a godly weapon, and Eden should still be able to read its description. It was the other way around instead, that it was worth so little that it did not even have a status description.
Although disappointed, Eden turned to the sword.
[Animoso]
[Rank: Uncommon]
[Attack: +25]
[Spirited: Every hit with this weapon restores a small part of the user's stamina.]
All things considered, it was good, mainly because of its enchantment. If one were to be part of a large battle, which had the tendency to happen in Dreamland, the enchantment would be a great help, even if only a small amount of stamina was recovered.
[Potion of Strength]
[Rank: Uncommon]
[Effect: Increase the drinker's strength by 5 for one minute.]
The potion was interesting; it would result in a rather large increase of Strength, at least for someone of his level, and that without any apparent side effects. It could be considered a rather good trump card, but it was not suited for him.
Finally, he looked at the notes, not even sure he would receive any prompt.
[Notes on Alchemy: Notes written by Lord Henry Morgan on the subject of alchemy. May be used to become an alchemist.]
Eden had to force himself not to show any reaction as he read the simple description of the notes.
Morgan carried on like normal, grabbing the sword and lightly swinging it with impeccable form, introducing it, "This is Animoso. It was once used by the King of Spain himself, Felipe V el Animoso. The sword was named after him, and is said to carry his spirit."
He did not bother to hide his disbelief at that last fact in his tone. He then lightly tapped the tip of the sword on the golden idol, "This is just gold. Enough to turn a man rich enough to live the rest of his life happily. It's a more mundane reward, compared to the rest, but it has approximately the same value as the sword."
He put the sword down and grabbed the last two rewards, the potion and the notebook, at once, and said, "I normally would have only shown the potion, but since you are a fellow mystic, I thought of this other reward that might interest you. You see, despite dabbling in every branch of the mystic, I specialize in alchemy, and I happen to take pride in my mastery."
He swirled the potion in his hand, "This is a sample of my skills. Potion-making is only a small subset of my skills, but drinking this would allow a regular man to double their strength. It would not result in as big of a jump in ability for someone as strong as you, but it could undoubtedly help out in a pinch. The effects wear off after a minute, however."
Then, he raised the notebook, and as Eden followed it with his eyes, Morgan smiled, "As for this, seeing your obvious interest in it, I believe you have already guessed what it could be."
Noting to himself that he should work on his acting, Eden nodded, seeing no use for lying at this point, and said, "These are notes on alchemy, aren't they?"
Morgan grinned, putting the potion back on the table, "In this book is a collection of my various insights into the noble art of alchemy. Useless to the ignorant, priceless to the learned. So, what will it be?"
Eden did not waste a single second to reply, "I'll be taking the notes."
Of the four rewards, it was not only the most valuable, but it was also the one that suited him the best.
The sword, while good, was basically just a sum of Dream Points waiting to be exchanged. It would be a spare weapon at best. He already had Jason's Machete, which was just as good. The attack values of the two weapons were nearly the same, and to a Free Player like him, the difference would be negligible.
As for the effects, Animoso might be slightly better in large battles, but Jason's Machete was better for duels, which Eden valued more. After all, if he needed to clear a large group of enemies, magic was far better than either of these swords.
The idol never even entered Eden's sight. While having gold might be useful in interacting with NPCs, there were plenty of ways to earn money in a mission world.
The potion was good, but it did not suit him. His Strength was above average for players of his level, but it was not his main trait. If he were to fight Drakon, for example, Eden was pretty sure the potion would only allow him to match the big man for a minute, and not surpass him.
So while it would be a good trump card in the hands of someone who specialized in Strength, it was just not Eden's case.
But frankly, even if it did, Eden would still choose the notes ten times out of ten.
In Eden's eyes, it was worth even more than a rare artefact. Well, not the Necronomicon's copy, since it was special, but if he had to choose between a Rare wand and the notes? He would take the notes.
This was because the notes offered him the possibility of acquiring a job or a profession. It was not something that was recognized by Dreamland, but all players were capable of learning a sub-system of production-based jobs, and it was one of the main ways to earn Points outside of missions.
For example, Maggie was a chef of some kind, which was how she started her business. Of course, she was special since she branched out to become a kind of auctioneer, but professions were still very important.
Now, Eden was not so sure what Alchemy entailed, since
it existed in many different fictional worlds and basically had a different use in each of them, but from Morgan's introduction, it seemed to be a good one that was deeply entrenched in mysticism or magic.
So, it was indeed without any hesitation that Eden took the notebook as his reward.