Chương 25: Chapter 24

Standing before the imposing gates of the Silvercrest manor, eyed by two guards and the city behind him, still abuzz with the news of the Life Blood skill book, Sam felt a lot of things. He was laughing at the idiots that fought over that not-at-all rare book that would cause their demise in a year or two; he was annoyed that he had to dodge fights that randomly broke out in and outside of the city over the book; and most of all, he was curious what was the purpose of the lord calling him for a meeting.

Because Sam was hundred percent sure that the excuse that his daughter liked Lucky was just that, an excuse. A man like Lord Silvercrest could buy hundreds of fluffy wolves for his daughter to play with. More than likely, he didn't want anyone to know he was talking to an adventurer. Sighing quietly, throwing a glance at the rapidly counting down clock for the quest, he finally squared his shoulders and approached the gate guards.

"Halt, stranger!" called out one of them, while the other tightened their grip on their spear.

"State your business!" He bowed his head a little, then answered.

"Lord Silvercrest requested my presence," he said simply, while the two guards exchanged a glance. Finally, after a few seconds of silent communications, the other one shrugged and began walking towards the gate.

"We will inform the Lord. For now, I would like to request that you wait here."

"Understood," Sam answered and watched as the guard slipped in, while the remaining one was still eyeing him. He didn't have to wait long, as a notification window popped up not even a minute after the second guard went inside. [The quest "Visit of the highest order!" has been completed!] They didn't have to wait long as the guard returned with a very stereotypical butler at their side.

The butler opened the gates enough for him to comfortably step through, while the guard who played the messenger returned to his post.

"If you would follow me, Sir?" motioned the butler, their face neutral and their voice almost devoid of emotion. Though, Sam thought he might have heard some kind of tightness in the voice. Keeping his observation to himself, he quietly thanked the butler, nodded to the guards and entered the manor grounds. The manor looked exactly like Sam imagined a manor of a lord in a fantasy setting would look like. Marble, gold and weird paintings were everywhere.

The wooden panelling was, of course, made from ironwood, and the candle holders were made of ironworks. There was, of course, a lot of silver filigree and family crests around the halls, of course, also made from either silver, ironwood or simply iron. Sam never understood the taste of the rich… Soon, they arrived in a room that looked like every other room they walked past, but Sam just shrugged. At the polite behest of the butler, Sam took a seat and began waiting.

The butler bowed perfectly from the waist and left the room, closing the door. Sam was about to wonder how long he would have to wait when the recently closed door almost exploded and he was once again face to face with the bombastic Lord Silvercrest, with the stone-faced butler standing behind him. The man was dressed in fancy clothing, practically radiating wealth, though his blonde hair was not very well put together, and he could see something that suspiciously looked like shadows under the man's eyes.

Sam stood up and gave a small bow.

"Greetings, Lord Silvercrest. As you have bid me, I've returned." The man let out a boisterous laugh and then grinned at Sam. Then he squinted, and the smile on his face decreased a little.

"You did, my young friend! You did good! But, my new friend, it seems you're missing somebody!" Sam just grinned and motioned for his own shadow. The man, followed by the butler, stared at it, and two eyes of a wolf blinked back at them. The butler let out an almost silent 'huh' and the grin on the lord's face grew two sizes.

"Haha, what a marvellous development! Come, my friend, let us join my precious daughter!" And with that the other man turned on a dime and left the room, leaving Sam blinking, at the spot where the lord stood. The butler simply spoke up.

"If the good Sir, would follow me once again?" Sam just sighed and began walking. The garden was rather refreshing compared to the interior of the manor. Sam expected sprawling hedge mazes, and precious flowers in stupendous arrangements, but what received him was everything but that.

There were at least three different sparring rings, made of sand, at least a few sheds made of wood (ironwood, of course) probably holding weapons, Sam suspected, and while there was a very tastefully arranged gazebo, it was designed for comfort instead of beauty. And currently, it was hosting the young Lucrecia with an older woman looking exactly like the young friend of Lucky, just, well, older.

Though, now that Sam was getting closer, he could see that the older woman was moving as little as possible and looked rather faint.

'Ahh, sick mother, boisterous father… probably enemies out of the wazoo. I bet I'll need to retrieve a medicine…' Sam speculated as he approached the family.

'Or maybe remove a curse…' The lord, heads taller than anyone else in the garden, was standing next to the gazebo and the moment Sam stepped close enough that the women of the family could see him, he began speaking. Though for him, speaking was yelling. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The young lady of the manor winced and sent him an apologetic look while the man's wife just smiled indulgently at him.

"Look, my darling Lucrecia! Look who came to visit us!"

"I can see, father. And could hear you from inside the house," came the deadpan reply. The man just laughed harder.

"Though I do not see the wolf." She turned to him.

"Sir adventurer, could you perhaps explain?" Sam just smiled and simply called out.

"Lucky!" There was a brief pause, then there was a quiet bark and Lucky resurfaced from the shadow beneath Sam. The wolf jumped up, pranced a little in front of Sam, then stuck a pose and let out a howl. Sam watched as Lucrecia stared with sparkling eyes, then simply stepped back as the howl ended and the girl let out an ear-shattering squeal, proving her ancestry beyond a shadow of doubt and pounced on the eagerly waiting Lucky.

"It's soooo fluffy!" Sam watched for a minute as the young girl and wolf played together, then looked up at the lord and lady of the manor, who were sitting in the gazebo, watching the playing duo with a smile. Lord Silvercrest motioned for him to join them, so he did so. He calmly walked up and took a seat opposite the pair. However, before he could speak up, the lord reached forward and gingerly touched the abstract decoration in the middle of the table.

The moment his meaty fingers touched the decoration it lit up with gentle white light and Sam felt some kind of magic activating around them. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Worry not, friend, just a little magic to make sure what we say stays here!" came the loud explanation from the lord. Sam nodded in understanding, suspecting that one of the people in the manor must be a master of that type of magic.

"I understand, my lord. Now, perchance you may share with me the reason you called me here…" he simply said, then leaned back, looking directly into the man's eyes.

"Smart man!" exclaimed the lord, then his entire demeanor shifted. Gone was the boisterous and happy lord, instead Sam was sitting across from a lord of a family, with an edge to them that made Sam a little nervous. Though the voice level didn't go down.

"I called you here, young man because I needed someone unaffiliated with anyone. And the best ones are adventurers that work for money!"

"That makes sense, my lord. Then, how can I be of service to the House of Silvercrest?"

"Good attitude! Good attitude!" the man proclaimed, slapping the table, rattling the entire gazebo while his wife continued to sip her tea as if nothing interesting was happening.

"I shall be direct. Enemies of my house grew jealous of our wealth. They desire our silver mines, thus they conspired and managed to place a foul curse upon my wife."

"And you want me to help you to lift it."

"Excellent deduction, young man!"

"Hmm… Do you know the name of the curse?" This time, the grin was replaced by a frown on the man's face.

"Sadly, no. We scoured libraries all over the land, but we could find no mention of the curse. All we know is that it saps my darling's energy. Every day she grows weaker." By the time he finished, he was almost whispering and throwing a worried gaze at his wife.

"I see," Sam said simply, then raised a hand at the woman.

"If I could?" There was a tense moment as the lord eyed him, but at a gentle touch from his wife, he relented.

"Go ahead, young man. Maybe you could see something that countless wise men have not!" Sam nodded and activated several skills. The first one was Mana Sense, focused on the woman, then Discernment, just to be sure and finally Mana Sight. Staring at the woman with both of his senses and eyesight, he could immediately spot the ugly, pulsating and rather foul black ball of mana in her body. Right at the level of her stomach.

The pulse of the black ball of mana was the same as the mana circulating in the woman, but every time the woman's mana circulated, it came back less and the black mana grew in size. It was a slow process, but as Sam focused on it, the surroundings started getting out of focus, and he could only see the woman. Then even the woman was lost to his sight, and he was directly staring at the blue mana, infested by what was definitely some kind of foul mana parasite.

As he tried to make sense of the mess of tangled webs of mana in the woman's body, he also tried to sift through his inherited memories, trying to figure out if the other Sam ever came across something like that or maybe heard about it. He was about to give up and curse the fact that the inherited memories didn't come with a convenient search engine when he found it.

'Right! The Ironwood Monster Break! Somehow, a portal was opened in the city and foul monsters started pouring out.' At first, he wasn't sure that it was connected to this parasite, but then another very faint memory resurfaced.

'If I remember correctly… there was a mention of battles for the silver mines after the Monster Break…' He closed his eyes, slowly turning his skills off, then leaned back and began to consolidate what he figured out.

'If I'm right, then more than likely, this ball of mana is what would open the portal. Probably will use up the life force of the lady, then bamm… monsters everywhere… But how to remove it?' And wasn't that the million dollar question… Sam opened his eyes, and glanced at his notifications. [You have discovered something new but horrible with your senses!] [Your skill Mana Sense became Level 15!] [Your subskill Focused Sense became level 3!] [Your skill Mana Sight became level 5!] Dismissing them, he turned his attention to his hosts.

"Well, from what I can see, you don't have much time left. That thing is eating the lady's life force. I can't even fathom what it will achieve when it consumes the last drop. I assume you have a basic plan?" The man nodded grimly, while his giant hand engulfed one of the woman's tiny ones.

"Indeed, young man. Through research and contacts, I found an artefact that is capable of housing and transferring such spirits without damaging the previous host. However…"

"However, you need somebody to get it. And you can't leave her, because then…"

"You are perceptive, young man!" burst out the man, and the woman gave him a small smile.

"Let me tell you the details!" Before the man could start, Sam held up a hand.

"And what makes you think that you can trust me with this? By all accounts, I could be a plant by your enemies…" His only response was laughter from the man and an elegant chuckle from the lady.

"Nobody who has a pet like that could be an evil person!" came the baffling reply.

"Plus, I have this nifty thing here!" With that, the lord of the manor placed a parchment radiating magic in front of Sam. He immediately recognized it. And not for good reasons. The parchment was yellow, with dark red, almost black edges, and to his Mana Sight, it was almost as if it was bleeding mana. A Blood Contract… Sam left the Silvercrest manor in a daze, with Lucky, exhausted, back in his shadow, staring at the window in front of him. [You signed a Blood Contract!] [If you break the terms of the contract, your life is forfeit, along with several other punishments!] [You are marked by the magic of the contract until you fulfil it!] [You received a new quest!] [A shadow in a shadow of a shadow!] [Lord Silvercrest has entrusted you with retrieving the Chalice of Restraint, used for housing and transporting belligerent spirits in the olden days. However, the House of Silvercrest has enemies around every corner, so be careful! You also signed a Blood Contract with Lord Silvercrest as a sign of trust, beware of the terms, lest you suffer a fate worse than death!] [Time Limit: As long as Lady Silvercrest lives.] [Failure: Lady Silvercrest dies. You don't deliver the Chalice of Restraint.] [Penalty: Death. One year 90% EXP penalty and the permanent loss of one from every base stat.] [Reward: The undying gratitude of the House of Silvercrest. You can hire young Lucrecia as a follower. Additional rewards are possible.] He stared at the sentence 'Additional rewards are possible.' and couldn't help but feel happy, but still want to despair. It was a rather famous sentence. It basically meant that the quest had some hidden elements that he would need to solve if he wanted to finish it. Which meant complications. At least it was an early quest, so it wouldn't take much time. And based on how developed the parasite was, he had at most one-month in-game time before the Monster Break occurred, if he was right about that.

Sighing and lamenting his weird luck, Sam ducked into an alley, and if somebody were watching that alley, the man that came out on the other end looked nothing like Sam, be it their face or clothing.