Chapter 162: I Know a Person

Honestly, Julius didn’t really have any other choice. She was right. He hated to admit it but she was. He would most likely try to evolve his healing skill, hoping that it would solve his soul crisis. He would be too impatient to wait for his soul to heal “naturally”, as she put it.

While he still couldn’t know for sure that what she was telling him about his soul was true, he didn’t see a reason for her to lie to him.

“I don’t think I can do that,” he answered her truthfully.

She must have sensed his genuine indecision because she relaxed a touch and walked up to him.

“The only way this can work is for me to know exactly what you are capable of. I already know most of your skillset but need to know every detail, your strengths, your weaknesses, and anything else that might help me assess you’re condition more accurately,” she explained to him, sounding very sincere.

He nodded his head at her, letting her know that he understood the reasons. Still, he didn’t want to share all of his secrets with someone he had just met less than an hour ago. However, an idea bloomed into his head.

“Would you be willing to make a contractual vow with me?” He asked her.

She turned to look at him with an offended look. “You, want me to make a contractual vow with you?”

He didn’t know what he did to offend her so he just softly nodded his head at her.

She frowned at him. “Why would I connect my soul to a Tier 2? I am the one who is offering their help if you didn’t realize it.”

He was about to respond but bit his tongue. She had a point, she was the one holding all of the cards.

“Why don’t you just do it, Alice? It’s not like he is planning to use it against you,” Dante interjected.

Alice gave Dante a hard glare, warning him to be quiet or else. The man in question put his hands up in a mock surrender and kept his mouth shut.

Finally, the woman turned to Julius. “Okay, I am willing to do that. But it will cost you something extra.”

“What was it going to cost me before?”

“I was going to have you tell me how you were able to learn that perception skill. I wanted every detail of how you ended up getting it,” she told him.

“That’s it?” Julius asked, surprised. He had been expecting something more than that. Something more along the lines of selling his soul to the devil type of thing. He would have likely told her all about it if she had been originally here to teach him some stuff.

“That’s it, you say?” She chuckled in disbelief. “You don’t know how valuable a skill like that is do you?”

Julius just shrugged his shoulders. Of course, he knew it was a valuable skill, but it was hard to believe that nobody in the many years of this world hadn’t learned the same skill before.

“I’m fine with telling you exactly how I ended up with that skill. I can’t promise you will be able to recreate it, but I won’t hold anything back from you. Now, what are the other conditions you have for agreeing to a vow?” He asked her.

She just smiled at him. “I want the recipe.”

What? She wants the recipe? Julius thought to himself, totally not expecting that request.

“You want the recipe?” He asked, making sure he had heard her right. He of course knew exactly what recipe she was asking about, but he couldn’t believe his ears. He put his fingers into his ears and gave them a cleaning, making sure there wasn’t anything inside of them.

“Yes, my condition for doing a contract is that you give me that hot chocolate recipe,” she said with an excited grin.

Dante gave a disgusted grunt from the side. “Seriously?!”

She whipped her head back at him. “What? You have a problem with my request?”

The old man stood his ground this time. He crossed his arms and looked at her like she had brain damage. “Yeah, I do. You make it sound like it’s a big deal to go along with a soul-bound contract and then all it takes is some hot chocolate for you to give in? What kind of Tier 6 are you? You are a disgrace to all of us.”

“Don’t judge me for my personal request. You didn’t even try it, so you can’t say anything. And don’t forget that time when you gave a Tier 5 core to some noodle shop owner!” She angrily pointed out to Dante.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Come on, are you serious? Julius thought to himself as he observed the two of them bicker like an old married couple. Also, who the hell pays a Tier 5 core for some noodles? Maybe I am in the wrong business.

“How many times are you going to bring that up?! I told you, I didn’t have anything else I could use for payment. I wasn’t just going to not pay the man,” Dante argued.

“You could have given him your dirty sock and he would have been happy. It would have still been a hundred times more expensive than the cost of the bowl,” Alice shot back.

“Who do you think I am? You think I would give a person my dirty sock for such a tasty meal?” Dante asked offendedly as if the mere thought disgusted him.

“Hey…” Julius tried to interject. However, the two of them ignored him and continued bickering back and forth.

“Hello?”

They still ignored him.

Finally, he had enough of being ignored and created two blunted orbs made of softened mana. He then shot them right at the two arguing people. Unlike the mana construct he had created before, these two constructs actually made it several feet further before they were dissipated into harmless mana particles.

However, this seemed to be enough to get their attention.

“Huh, so that’s your other epic skill,” Alice said in a laid-back tone as if the two of them hadn’t been arguing in the first place.