Chapter 4: Spirit Contracts And A Black Cat

The Saintess And The Silver Crown.

Keeping with its cliché streak, had a power system that had been done a few too many times.

Spirit contracts.

Humans in this world, although capable of absorbing and storing mana, they couldn’t use it freely, thus making that mana useless.

And that’s where spirits come in, they’re entities born from a specific type of mana in the air, whether that be ice, fire or even light mana.

Like humans, while the spirits can freely shape the mana of their element to their liking, they can only use a fixed amount of mana they’re born from, without replacement.

This meant that once their mana ran out, they’d disappear forever....which was the equivalent of them dying.

So, the two parties would come together and form a mutually beneficial contract, hence, a

Spirit Contract.

This contract granted humans the ability to use mana based on their contracted spirits and it granted spirits replenishment through the human’s natural mana regeneration.

The only problem to this was that... The Spirits were extremely picky.

Even for little bastard’s that were running on time limits, they were extremely choosy of who they formed a contract with.

And unfortunately for the former Adrian, not a single spirit wanted to become contracted with him.....not even lesser spirits.

His final test, which would ensure his placement by Lady Renelle’s side, was to contract a spirit that was at least at advanced rank.

A task which he had failed at, spectacularly.

Not a single Lesser Spirit had acknowledged him, common Spirits ignored him outright.

Even the temperamental ones that normally latched onto anyone with decent mana reserves had rejected him without hesitation.

It was as if something about him repelled them.

But the former Adrian was unwilling to give up, he had been desperate.

Desperate to justify the years of training the Ardent family had invested in him, desperate to prove that the life she had spared in that blizzard had not been wasted.

And desperation breeds recklessness.

He turned towards the desk, on which lay a book most candidates were forbidden from touching.

It was a dusty one with what seemed to be leather as its cover, it was so old that even the title had been nearly erased by time,but you could still see a bit of what was written:

On Unclassified Entities and Pre-Recorded Contract Failures.

Unknown Spirits.

They were Spirits that did not fall into the standard hierarchy of Lesser, Common, Advanced, Superior, Prime, or Ancient.

They had no elemental classification, nor had they ever been properly documented

Even so, the former Adrian saw this as his only hope.

According to the memories, he had followed every instruction in the book, down to the letter, a summoning circle made from his blood.... One that had already dried up on the floor behind him.

And enough mana to leave him almost empty, which wasn’t a small amount, after all.

Even the trainers here had been surprised by just how much mana his body could hold and he had almost poured all that into the circle.

What happened after that was blurry, but the last thing the previous Adrian remembered was pain and that’s where the memories ended, which meant one thing.

"He died before my soul occupied his body," He said, "which is probably why he never appeared in the manhwa."

The manhwa had never mentioned Adrian at all, which made sense now, he had died before the story even began.

Well....he wasn’t too sure if the story had already begun, but still, Adrian died too soon to be relevant.

"Though this seems a bit too convenient," he muttered as he stood up again, "I guess I’ll be Adrian from this moment on."

Adrian slowly walked towards the dried blood before placing a finger on it, wondering if the summoning had succeeded or not.

«Don’t tell me you already forgot about our contract.»

A voice suddenly came from behind him, forcing him to turn around, and that’s when he spotted it on the bed.

A black cat.

Its eyes seemed a bit too intelligent for a household cat, and although he couldn’t explain it, the creature gave of this terrifying aura.

Adrian stared at the creature on the bed, his expression slowly flattening.

"A cat?"

The black feline sat upright on the wooden bed as if it owned the place.

He still couldn’t shake off the pressure this cat released, especially now that he had noticed something, all the light that reached its fur was quickly absorbed.

Its eyes, however, were the most unsettling part.

They glowed faintly, pale and almost silver, and they carried a level of awareness no normal animal should possess.

The cat tilted its head slightly.

«How rude,» the voice spoke again, yet the creature’s mouth never moved, «but I guess you truly did forget, maybe a side effect of the contract?»

Adrian looked at the cat, then back at the summoning circle as he came to the conclusion.

"So it worked," he muttered.

The cat’s tail flicked lazily behind it.

«Of course it worked.»

Adrian crossed his arms as he stared at the creature.

"So you’re the unknown spirit?"

The cat didn’t answer immediately. Instead, it slowly lifted a paw and slowly began licking it.

For some reason, the action seemed as elegant as can be, which was ridiculous.

«Spirit?» it finally said, seemingly sounding amused as if he had said some funny joke, «you may call me whatever helps your tiny human mind understand the situation.»

That answer didn’t help at all and it caused Arian to frown slightly, if he was going help the lady, he had to account for every single anomaly that would shift the story off course.

And right now, he and this ’cat’ were the biggest ones.

Well, not that he cared for a change in the storyline anyway, after all, if things play out as they did in the manhwa, then Renelle would end up dying, and he wouldn’t allow that.

Anyway, he still needed to know what type of spirit this was.

Spirits in this world usually had some kind of elemental signature. Fire spirits radiated heat, Ice spirits chilled the air around them, Light spirits were said to glow faintly.

So given its fur, "a darkness spirit?"

Neither he nor the former Adrian knew of spirits known as darkness or dark spirits, but given that he didn’t follow conventional methods, he shouldn’t expect conventional results either.

«I guess you can call me that for now,» the cat said as it stretched, «but I could just show you, if you truly are curious.»

For some reason, that sounded like an extremely bad idea, so he just shook his head.

"I’ll pass," Adrian said before adding, "though I still need to know what element you’re aligned with so I can plan properly."

«I see,» the cat muttered before the shadow it cast suddenly expanded and enveloped the cats entire body in what seemed to be a cocoon.

When it dispersed, the cat was gone and the next second Adrian felt a weight on his head as the cat spoke again.

«For now, we’re only limited to shadow manipulation,» it explained.

"I see," he muttered, "then that should be useful enough."

"So....how do I—" before his words could be completed, a knock interrupted.

Knock. Knock.