Chapter 141 - Tricking The Sly Snake
It was that snake, and he seemed to be watching everything that just happened here.
"If you are this free already, why didn't you show up to help?" Arthur chuckled, as he slightly blamed this sly snake for hiding when the flying monsters appeared and attacked here a couple of days ago.
"You didn't need my help, you are more capable of handling them yourself," the middle aged voice appeared again, before a great snake showed itself in front of him.
That rapid move was something he didn't detect, and he didn't know if that snake had other abilities, like shape shifting or something.
"You are here for the treasure?" Arthur asked, faking ignorance.
"Sure, you were about to call me, right?" the snake said, while he kept his eyes over the treasure, "but that piece you gave to the scorpion isn't enough for me, I want the rest of that treasure, all of it," he added, with much more greed than Arthur expected.
"That won't do," Arthur shook his head, as he moved to stand in front of the rock, hiding it behind him, "you can have double the amount that scorpion had."
"No, double is too low, I can leave the same part you gave to him, that would be enough for that scorpion's later growth."
"No, the most I can do is triple that size, nothing more."
"Triple is low, I can recede to half of this rock."
Arthur went silent for a moment before nodding while saying:
"I can give you that, but I won't give you any elixirs or icy ores."
"Ah? Why this discrimination? You helped that scorpion with much more than she asked for!"
Arthur didn't know why he felt a tinge of envy here, plus more greed. "She is a pet, a monster I can summon and order around, but not like you. You can just leave me the next moment you evolve, and not come back! Investing any more in you would be a loss for me."
"But you have my word, and I always abide by it!" the snake refused to let this matter go, as the comparison between him and the scorpion ignited something deeply residing within him.
"Words do no use for me," Arthur said, feeling glad he managed to push this sly snake into his trap, "if you can give me something to guarantee your loyalty and obedience to me, I won't hesitate to further help you."
His words startled the snake, who seemed to hesitate about this matter. At this moment, and before this snake could jump out of the deep trap Arthur had pushed him, Arthur took out one icy potion, and one icy ore, and played with them in his hands, enticing the deep desire of having them inside that snake's soul.
"Ok, what bond do you want me to make with you? Let me warn you, having me as a pet won't work as I will evolve to be a human, negating any pet contract!"
Arthur's eyes shone brightly despite him trying not to show his excitement. He knew from before any pet contract wouldn't work on this highly evolving monster, and he just had in mind the perfect way to do it.
"It's another way of contracting, called the fellowship contract," he said, trying to coat the slave contract with another nice wording, "see, this way you will be my follower, in human shape you will have," he added, before throwing the last piece he had, "and this way you can travel with me all over the world, have all the adventures you might like, and also will make many friends."
The greedy eyes of that snake shone brightly when he heard these words. Arthur knew such a monster lived his life solo, without the friendship of any other, monster or human.
That was the reason why this monster agreed to be a human, ditching the hard and lonelier path of breaking free from this realm, aiming to gain many friends and have fun with them, like humans did.
This wasn't the first human evolved monster Arthur had met, as when he was a cultivator he met many like this snake; all were lonely; all thought friendship.
"Alright, do the contract then and let's get started," the snake said, in an extreme excitation, which didn't suit the tone of the middle aged man he was using.
Arthur didn't delay any more, as he took out his tools, wrote on the icy nature ores he just obtained, making a huge pile of runes of them.
He also noticed from far away the observing keen looks of Noura, but he just leaned on the ground of that carcass, hiding what he was doing from her.
He made seven hundred groups of ores, each consisted of seven pieces. Half had the word 'Slave' written on them, and the other half had the word 'master' on them.
After he finished, he distributed the groups on the ground, while surrounding the area the snake stood at with the slave runes, while surrounding his area with master runes.
Once he finished, he looked to the snake as he said:
"I will start the contract now, you will feel a stinging pain on part of your body, while a tattoo will appear there. don't be startled and just endure."
"Humph," the snake just harrumphed with pride, as if he was caring about pain in his stage.
"Contract activated!"
Arthur gave the word, and the next moment the runes and the blood used to write on them, the bronzed giant blood, shone brightly, before they two were covered by an opaque shield of dark red color. Inside this shield, the snake kept screaming out of pain, while Arthur was astonished at how fragile he was!
The process didn't last for more than ten minutes, and after the shield disappeared, and the runes were burnt down to dust, a pair of tattoos appeared on Arthur and the snake.
At the moment of this tattoo appearing, and just moments before the shield subsided, the snake picture got some haziness, and Arthur saw a mesmerizing form of a very stunning female standing in front of him.
However this picture didn't last longer than a moment, making him doubt himself about if it really happened or not.