Arthur took the piece of paper and quill out of his inventory to create the contract.
As soon as the items left his inventory, the system asked whether he wanted to use the contract’s basic template.
"First of all, you can’t tell anyone about this or record anything related to it. I’m putting that in the contract, understood?" Arthur said, looking at Shadow Cloak, who was still caressing the daggers.
"Sure, sure. Just hurry up."
Arthur accepted the template and made his changes. In addition to receiving 20% of Shadow Cloak’s highest stat, three of her skills, and 5% of the EXP she earned while using the daggers, he added a few more things to the contract.
The first new condition: she would have to kiss him whenever he wanted.
The second condition: she couldn’t tell anyone about the contract or show any videos or images of it to any player or NPC.
And lastly, to help him during the early game, Arthur wanted 20% of all the coins she earned from killing monsters. Whenever she sold her drops, he also wanted 10% of the money she made.
The fixed benefits from his class, the stats, skills, and EXP, didn’t appear in the contract. Arthur could hide them, keeping his class a secret.
He decided to show only the EXP gain, since Shadow Cloak would notice it.
When he was finished, he handed her the contract to read. Shadow Cloak read it carefully, and the further she got, the deeper her frown became.
"I agreed to one kiss. Now it’s whenever you want? Aren’t you asking for too much?"
Arthur shrugged.
"At least I’m a handsome guy. Think of it that way."
"And don’t you think you’re asking for too much of my money? Can’t you lower it a little?"
The two talked it over, trying to reach a compromise that worked for both of them. In the end, they decided to reduce his share of the coins dropped by monsters from 20% to 10%.
Everything else stayed the same. Shadow Cloak didn’t remove the part about the kisses...
As soon as the contract was complete, the system notified Arthur.
[Contract Created.]
[Both parties must sign for the contract to take effect.]
[Both parties must also sign to terminate the contract.]
Arthur signed it and handed it to Shadow Cloak. She signed as well. The moment she did, the contract glowed blue before disappearing.
At that moment, the daggers, which had previously been locked for Shadow Cloak, were no longer restricted. She immediately removed her old weapons and equipped the new ones.
The smile on her face was contagious. Shadow Cloak began jumping with excitement as she slashed at the air, testing the daggers.
"They’re so much faster, and I can feel the power. Cinder, you’re amazing!"
She ran toward Arthur, her lips moving toward his. Their lips touched, and Arthur felt something indescribable rush through his body.
He even stuck out his tongue, brushing it against hers. It was a wet kiss, and it felt really good. Arthur had only kissed someone a few times before.
"I’ll send you a friend request, but now I want to go kill some monsters."
Shadow Cloak sent the request and ran back into the cave to test the daggers.
Louise stood there, watching everything that had happened. Even though she and Arthur weren’t together, something inside her was screaming. She wanted to take her anger out on something.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Louise asked.
Arthur now had a 20% increase to his Agility, the highest stat of Shadow Cloak, a Rogue.
He could also choose three of her skills. On top of that, he could make one more contract, allowing him to maintain two at the same time.
"I think I’ll take advantage of being here and hunt some monsters. You can return to the city if you want."
"Are you sure you’ll be okay here alone?"
"Yeah, relax. I’ll see you soon."
Louise seemed a little reluctant to leave Arthur alone, but in the end, she left. He could come back to life, so she tried not to worry too much.
Arthur then opened the system and checked the skills.
’I can choose three skills, but I don’t think Shadow Cloak has even unlocked three skills yet... What now?’
He had no idea how it would work. As soon as he opened the system, he saw something impressive.
Every Rogue skill up to level 20 was available for him to choose from!
After level 20, players would receive a quest to advance their class, which was why the other skills didn’t appear.
[Skills above level 20 will only be unlocked if the player has unlocked the skill.]
The system was already warning him. The skill kit up to level 20 was always available, regardless of the class. After that, the player in question had to unlock the skill before Arthur could use it.
Even so, this was much better than he had expected. He could choose and use skills that the player herself couldn’t even use yet!
His first choice was obvious: Stealth. The core skill of any Rogue.
[Stealth]
[Type: Active Skill]
[Tier: Common]
[Level: 1]
[Description: Blend into your surroundings, becoming invisible. Attacking any monster or player will deactivate this skill. You may be discovered if the enemy’s Perception is high enough. Increasing Stealth’s level will reduce the chance of being discovered and increase your damage bonus.]
[First Attack Damage Bonus: +100%]
[MP Cost: 10 MP, then 1 MP per second.]
[Cooldown: 20 seconds.]
It was a very powerful skill. The damage bonus was quite high, and now that Arthur thought about it, he could easily combine it with skills from other classes to deal massive damage.
Mages didn’t have a damage bonus like this precisely because their skills already had higher base damage. So what would happen if he combined the two?
’And the damage bonus isn’t physical. It applies to everything. That’s interesting...’
For the other two skills, Arthur had a few options. He wanted a passive skill, but having two active attack skills would be better.
Since Stealth had a long cooldown, Arthur believed he needed two more skills that would be directly useful in combat.
Before he could finish choosing, Suzy sent him a message through the friends tab.
"Can you come help us with something?"