Chương 210: Looks Like the Real Deal

I totally forgot about Andrea, I should have talked with Rhea about a ritual for Andrea, I wanted her to get magically enforced to not stab us in the back, and after what Miflin said, I would say that it was a good idea.

"Actually I already spoke with her yesterday, but I didn't have the chance to solve an issue, give me a moment." I passed between the fighters until I reached Rhea, she was decked in a new black Victorian-style dress, a corset kept her chest in place and a lot of lace and frills were interspersed with what looked like rubies sewn into the fabric. She looked divine.

"Hi gorgeous, I like the new dress, it looks like you." I whispered in her ear. She giggled.

"Thank you, it was pure coincidence that I found it, and it has a really good effect too." I noticed she was wearing the pendant I had gifted her together with her cross, a couple of bracelets and rings with rubies, opals and onyx stones completed her ensemble, all of them, I could tell, were magical items, she was clearly better protected than the fighters in their armour.

"I love your style," I winked at her, "Sorry if this comes out as an annoyance but after what happened yesterday I was totally wrung out, I should have asked you to prepare a ritual to make Andrea a party member, one that wouldn't let her betray us." She suddenly became serious.

"I understand, but it's not that simple, and I would need time, doing it in a couple of minutes is not something feasible, and Eli... when we have a moment, tell me what is wrong, ok? Don't leave me out please." I nodded, she was totally right.

"I will, I promise." She gave me a comforting smile. I was really lucky to have her beside me, but I should really reciprocate, there was still so much I didn't know about her... and every time we were together we ended up having sex instead of talking, we should really take a moment to get to know each other better.

"So? Are we doing this or not?" came Andrea's voice from behind me.

"It appears that it would take some more time to prepare the ritual, so for now I'm afra-""Here." I turned around, what was this? Chloe passed me some sheets of paper. I looked at them and they appeared to be a contract to become a member of the Guild, it was well formulated and had ironclad clauses against any form of betrayal, even after leaving the Guild there was a period of time during which the former guild member wouldn't be able to act against the interests of the Guild and its members.

It was very well written, but my confusion must have been evident because Chloe started explaining before I even asked the question.

"I gained a new skill, it allows me to forge contracts enforced by the System itself, provided that there is an exchange, no slavery apparently, but this should work for now, it's going to last two weeks, then we can fix it up later on if there is something to change." Wow, this was the reason I chose to invest in Chloe, she was actually thinking of solutions to problems I didn't even know I had before they cropped up. I gave her an approving nod.

"Excellent, we'll have to stipulate a fitting contract for all our members, well done Chloe, if you weren't my Vice already I would give you a promotion." Stolen story; please report. She actually beamed at the praise.

"Thank you, I thought very hard about what path to take given our circumstances, and I realized that my first class wasn't as bad as I thought, it needed some combat potential, but I had the possibility to make it that much more useful for our needs."

I was impressed, while a purely bureaucratic class would be the best for her position in the Guild, I had the feeling that a lack of actual power would make dealing with anyone a hassle for her, so if she could mix the two, it would be the best of both worlds, I should really invest in her more. I took the papers and gave them to Andrea, Chloe provided a pen.

"Apparently we have a way of making this work." She gave me a skeptical look.

"I'm not going to sign my soul to the devil, right?"

"You are free to read the contract, it just stipulates that you will be a temporary member for two weeks, then we can renegotiate our position if we decide to proceed with our cooperation."

"Too much legalese." She signed her name at the end of the contract, I took the pen and signed too. I could feel something settling within me, the System was witness to our deal and approved it. It was done, easy as that.

"Well, if this is it, then let's go folks, we have much to do. Vanguard, with me, Lena, bring the mages to the east, you have all been debriefed about the monsters you'll face, Jack, you and the fighters will take the Dread Mongrels to the west, it's time to get some practice in."

"Finally!" shouted Quinn, the teenager seemed especially eager to move, I should talk with him too, maybe he had gathered some information already. We started to look like the real deal, especially with the crafters away, they were busy in many different workshops around the town, improving and learning to apply magic to their craft. Without them we could finally do something properly instead of playing babysitters. We marched out of the city, the mood was tense but in an excited way.

After crossing the bridge we divided, the mages went east, while the fighters went west, we followed the fighters, while passing I spent some of my mana to create three more farming toads, Rhea and Marcus looked at me pointedly.

"Just a side project, let them be." Marcus let the matter drop, but Rhea mouthed "later" to me. I had no trouble talking with her about my farming toads, actually I wanted to see her reaction.

"Didn't you ever think about how the weather doesn't change? I mean, there are some clouds sometimes, but it never rains, and the weather isn't becoming hotter or colder at all." said Mary, her gaze turned to the sky.

"Maybe this place is just a simulation and we are in some capsule on an alien spaceship..." replied Chloe.

"It would make more sense of the actual reality, but I would prefer to keep my powers thank you, there is so much good that can be done with magic, we can really remove diseases from our lives." Mary, always the optimist.

"Maybe there are magical diseases now, the same way there are magical poisons and toxins." I said to the healer.

"Yeah! I saw a disease skill in the shop too! It was made for eating at your mana until your body starved and started ooz-" Quinn was interrupted by Rhea.

"Let's think positively, I believe you Mary, even with the presence of magical diseases imagine curing something like MS, or Alzheimer's, or cancer! It would be incredible already!"

"What about magical cancer?" asked Quinn. A collective groan came from the group.

"Focus people, monsters ahead." alerted Tom. All of us changed in a second, from laid back to ready for violence. It was crazy how a group of mostly civilians who had never had to kill even a chicken in their lives became so ready to unleash death upon our foes. But it wasn't necessary for us to engage this time, the fighter group, not far from us, intercepted the roaming band of monsters.

The four-legged insects with their bulbous bodies got stopped by a shield wall, while a number of spears poked out through the gaps to stab them to death, the burst of magical speed the monsters showed was rendered useless by the fighters' united front, and trying to attack the sides of the formation didn't provide the monsters with any advantage.

"Not bad actually." I observed.

"If they weren't capable of at least that I would feel embarrassed for them, the damn equipment alone should be enough to do the job even in the hands of children." replied Tom. Well, I believed him, but still, it was a great step forward compared to some days ago, they nearly looked like professionals.

"In any case, good job, both with training them and with the choice of equipment, it apparently works quite well."

"Thanks, now we'll see if it works against the Dread Mongrels too, look, it's starting." Everyone turned at Tom's words, I had tried my hand against the monsters myself yesterday, so I was curious to see how they would fare. I just hoped I wasn't going to be disappointed.