Chapter 142: Social Contracts

Chapter 142: Social Contracts

I feel my awareness before I feel myself awaking.

Its still dark. There's a tiny body next to me.

No.

Not a body, but a blob.

Slowly growing, attempting to be subtle. My awareness caught it at the size of a large beetle.

I stop myself from awakening fully, somehow being able to control that in this state. I know that if I actually awake from his sleep, my body rhythms will change and the moment will be lost.

Continues to grow, little by little. Small, microscopic beads roll into this block, making it larger and larger. This slow transition happens over the course of hours, producing virtually no movement of the bed.

Grows and grows until it's the size of a person. The only difference is, they grew into a little spoon position.

In this half state between awake and sleeping, I can barely sense judging stares of the other two of the hero group. However, they do not stop her. I get the feeling this is something would be quite dangerous for them, if they tried to interject.

As I lay there, she snuggles and deeper into my unknowing embrace.

Only one thought crosses my mind, as this happens.

I have to stop this before this becomes something that is normalized for her.

In some ways, this could be viewed as cute. However, eventually she will become too powerful. If I don't build on the right things early on, it's possible she could turn down a dark path. And it might become too difficult to stop her then.

There's no consent to what she's doing now.

Even though she is super comfortable to hold.

Seriously, it is better than petting a cats belly. And theres no feeling like petting a cat belly.

The moment I decide to fully wake up, I can feel her break into many pieces, dissipating as if like a gas.

Slowly, methodically, I sit up from the bed, gazing around the room.

Both Ru Ning and Tai Ye mentally look away. Guiltily.

As they do so, I look for Dana. The true culprit.

I find her beside Mei Lin, having added the rest of her body to the one that was being cuddled. Clearly attempting to hide away. To avoid the situation.

To catch her attention, I do something I rarely do with the three of them, or any of my tamed creatures. I speak aloud.

Dana.

I can practically see the ripple (shiver) go through her blobby body.

Mei Lin almost stirs from her sleep, but releases Dana from her grip, turning to the other side.

I speak again, with a little less gravity in my voice.

Dana. I know what you did. Could you come over here for a moment?

For the higher ups of these local bad guys, discovering the source and working that contact is going to be their best bet.

The hero group's recommendation for me is to continue the healing, but to focus more of my energy towards my personal safety and keeping up the appearance of normal action. Only by doing so will I be able to deceive them.

Her ultimate thought, though, is that they were already figuring out that one potential connection might be a perspective sect member that has come into the city and their master.

This is most likely because of the timing of the attacks/healing. Not only that, but it will be someone who can manipulate team creatures, mostly remotely.

My and their worries, is that these higher ups will assume that the only person who has been shown to be able to have that ability is me, via the spiders and Gong.

The healing aspect will also be an issue. Theyll want to know how the rats can do that, as from the ones that have been captured/dissected, theres nothing to be found.

I dont really have an answer to that just yet.

Ill probably use alchemy as an excuse. There are ways to make rats into healing conduits, using some nearly untraceable qi-based methods. Those are obviously far above my ability and skill level.

There are also ways to have their intelligence boosted and able to decide based on users' will via taming methods. Also, beyond my Qi abilities.

However, there are still ways to emulate the effects on a smaller level. These methods are possible without Qi and are difficult, but not impossible. It would be much easier to implement on a large scale. The formulas also could switch in common ingredients after multiple layers of distilling and reversing into new chemical ingredients. Technically, that means availability wouldnt be an issue.

but its a long shot either way.

The only other alternative is a rat demi human doing the same thing using their racial connection. And the alchemy part could fill in the rest.

They will eventually discover the truth. Theyll likely assume I had some secret backing in the city. Which I might have to drop hints of when questioned.

It will help explain if I get captured, the sheer number of things I will attempt to entice to save me.

Which reminds me. My best option for the worst-case scenario is to drop all my healing, tames, and scanning, to send out a pulse to all nearby high level spirit beasts and attempt to form a contract with them.

It could work but I dont know at what cost. Dealing with powerful individuals like that is beyond dangerous.

All the contracts Ive made so far have been extremely favorable to me, because I raised them to sapience. Others could have frightening terms with them doing what they want afterward. And the fact that they would be stronger because of it wouldnt help if I need to fight them once the deal was done.

My mind turns away from this frightening train of thoughts and back to the current situation.

The hero group believes the truth will probably only come to light when I'm in the middle of the exams. By then, it should be too late. From the things they've heard and discovered, I should be relatively safe within the sect. Even with this level of information, it only amounts to rumors in front of the sect.

They wont care about what Ive done, as long as they can exploit it to their benefit themselves. All else can be swept away. Not the best situation for me, but not the worst.

With their recommendations fresh in my mind, I move on to Mei Lin and talk to her for a bit. I once again let her know to stay inside until I come back, or until the carriage is ready to leave. If anything happens, I'll meet her at the beginning testing location. I stress that it's very important that she stays with the tamed creatures.

Though it may speed up the findings of the group that's now hunting me, it at least will give her time and protection to get to the sect.

The hero group and my scan also assure me that these types of groups like to hit the person directly and hard. At least, at first.

With this in mind, I head out to the markets to make some purchases. Starting a new day.