Agatha The Legendary Guild Master

"No, I can't get it out without you confirming buying it," he hurriedly said, "this artifact is bound to player souls, so I can't move it from the vault without attaching it to your soul first."

Ok, that was a first to hear about such a thing in my life. I once heard about weapons and treasures being bound to persons by blood, but this was the first to hear about binding with the soul.

I squinted my eyes looking deeply towards that master, there was a trap here, I could already smell it. that man wasn't only sly, he was treacherous. I hated dealing with wicked dirty men like him.

For me it seemed that he wanted to sell me something that was worth nothing as a king's crown. I looked deeply into her eyes as I said:

"I will get that treasure of yours, but I will only pay one thousand coins."

"What?!"

He seemed shocked, which made me understand that this treasure wasn't total crap. It must have some value to it, and so I had some hope.

"Forget it, I won't sell it to you. I will go back and select another one."

He said these words with firm conviction that nearly got me. just as I was about to open my mouth, Gabri said:

"We will pay ten thousand gold coins, no more. If this price doesn't suit you, then go and find another treasure for us."

'Don't raise the price again. that artifact is precious, but it has its own flaws. Ten thousand gold coins is a fair price, just wait for him to accept it or else we should get ourselves another treasure.'

Gabri sent this message to me privately. It seemed he understood my line of thoughts. He was more qualified to negotiate with that sly fox here.

"Fifty thousand gold coins, no less," the hall master said.

"I just told you, ten thousand gold coins. Take it or leave it, I won't increase a single bronze coin over this price."

Gabri stood firmly on his ground as he refused to increase the price. I looked towards that hall master like others around me. We were waiting for his decision.

"Fine, I will give you this artifact, however like I said it's a soul bound artifact. Who will be fortunate to be bound with it?"

I didn't know why, when that sly fox said his agreement in this way I felt bad omen. This artifact wasn't that simple, and I felt he was trying to strangle me to this trap of his.

However I had no other choice but to bind this artifact to me. I briefly stole a glance at everyone around me. they were looking to me in a way that made me sure they had the same idea in their mind.

This artifact had some flaw, a great flaw. However I was their leader, if I couldn't take the risk, how could they follow me on the much harder path ahead of us?

"Lead the way, I will be the one to be bound with it."

I then moved towards the hall master who had an irritating smile over his face. That man was trying to push me to punch him in the face, but I restrained myself from doing so.

"You don't need to come there by yourself, you just need to sign this contract, a soul binding transfer contract between the original owner of this artifact and you."

He said that as a contract appeared suddenly in front of me. The contract had the same head line as he mentioned, a soul binding transfer contract. Once I started reading it, I felt some cold hand squeezed to my heart.

The name of the owner of this artifact was a name I would never forget. I raised my head to look deeply towards that hall master as I muttered:

"You aren't the owner of this artifact, right?"

"No, I told you before we got this artifact for a long time already."

His reply didn't quench my thirst, as I spoke again:

"Who is the owner of that artifact?"

"The name is written on the contract, or did you miss it?"

He was fooling around, and that made me feel he gave me this artifact on purpose. When I reread the contract again, I knew why he selected this artifact for me.

In the contract the name wasn't as he mentioned before, it wasn't the sacred land artifact, it was called the sacred land curse.

The name didn't frighten me, I was already expecting something bad coming from that artifact. Nonetheless I didn't refuse that artifact, as I signed my name on the contract which turned into ashes at once.

The contract was done, and that made me feel something like a huge arm hit my chest and my heart so heavily that I even coughed blood.

"Hahaha, finally someone was foolish enough to accept that bitch's long forgotten curse. Now I will sit and watch as you are tormented by this curse. Let me tell you this stupid arrogant greedy weak player, I will greatly enjoy every single moment of it."

Finally that bastard showed his true colors, however none of my friends were in the mood to reply to him as they were all around me as Diana held my body with real worry over her face.

That was the first time to see this Diana worried, and to be honest I preferred her previous cold heartless self more.

They all were worried, but I wasn't. right now I was observing my Inventory as I found a new item added there. it was a small black cube, and I knew it was that artifact.

To know its details I had to take it out and observe it. I intended to do it, but not here. I stood up straight as I freed myself from Diana as I said:

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

"Hahaha, fine? You are tough and brave one I give you that," the master said again with his annoying voice and irritating laugh.

"If you don't tell me what the hell you did to our princess I swear to kill you now," my shining armored knight stood up against him as he really intended what he said.

"Back off little boy, you are much weaker than me. don't get yourself killed over an already killed person, hahaha," the distasteful master replied with a great happy mood.

I had to admit, he played his cards well, the only problem he didn't count for was that he played them against the wrong person.

I was the only person in the whole game and even in the entire universe that wouldn't be affected by this curse. Poor for him, he did all this for nothing.

"Then I can kill you, as I'm stronger right?"

Suddenly Diana moved to stand in front of Rody as she raised her sword towards the master. The master's face went pale, he was after all a merchant not a fighter. He knew if Diana decided to kill him, then he would be dead.

He saw what she did with Terry, and that meant she was at least at his level at mystic arts. That was bad news for him as his body shiver from fear as he said:

"I will tell you, alright?"

"Good boy, tell me then what the hell did you do to my master. I swear if you lied then I wouldn't stop until I kill you here."

Diana's words weren't groundless and her threat wasn't something to be taken lightly. So, that master hurried to say:

"I will tell you, but you have to swear to grant me safe passage after I do that."

"Are you in position to set conditions?" Diana said with a strong tone as her sword moved near that hall master's body.

The atmosphere was explosive, any small mistake and everything would explode. I knew I was safe, however I couldn't reveal that.

"That's fine Diana, I can promise you that."

"Master, please don't," Diana turned to look at me with a warning eye. She was really concerned about me. I felt curious, how did the mystic art masters do this trick? Her mind changed and she was total dead loyal to me now.

I liked that.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. We need more info regarding this artifact from him. so," and I turned to look at him, "I promise you, as long as you answer all my questions you are free to go."

"No harm will happen to me, do you promise that?"

"Yes, no harm will happen to you from me or my team right here right now. As for later times, I have no obligations to you," I replied.

"Ok, later times for later then. If you are sincere then you wouldn't mind signing a contract with me, right?"

I knew he was trying to secure himself as hard as possible fearing from our retaliation. However I wasn't a threat to him. In fact I was the one who needed him to speak, so I didn't mind doing this his way to let him tell me what I wanted to hear.

"Fine, write it and send it to me."

As I said that, the others looked strangely at me. I couldn't do anything right now except to write in our team chat:

'Just trust me.'

Their looks became weirder, however no one opened his mouth ever again. even Rody retreated to stand behind me. That move attracted Diana's attention. She wasn't stupid and she must have guessed part of what was happening here, however she didn't retreat even an inch.

I liked her, she was persistent to protect me.

"Here, I wrote and signed it. just sign it and we can start our little talk."

He said that as I found the contract he sent me. I checked it and found nothing wrong except one thing, so I edited it as I said:

"I have edited that part, you won't answer one question, you are obliged to answer all our questions regarding this artifact and anything related to it."

I finished editing that part and signed it. As I edited the contract, his sign vanished and so I clicked on the send button to send the contract for him. He checked the contract many times, everything was like he wrote except for the part I edited.

He seemed hesitated, so I said faking to care or interest:

"I don't have the whole day to waste, you either sign it now or I will let my butler kill you."

He looked at me for a second then he signed the contract. It seemed he didn't think this part was that important. He didn't know how important it really was.

Once the contract turned to ash, both of us sighed a sigh of relief at the same moment. It looked strange, however I got what I wanted. With great relief I said:

"Now it's time for you to tell me what is the backstory of this sacred land artifact or curse that belonged to the blood thirty witch," I moved with my spear towards his throat as I stressed, "and you will tell me about the other curses or artifacts that once belonged to her, and how can I find them. do this and you will live guarded by the contract, lie to me or hide anything from me and I will not hesitate to cut your throat right here by the tip of my spear."

This time, the true me appeared again after I secured my catch. This fat precious data man wouldn't be able to leave here with his life unless I got what I wanted.

I wanted to know everything about that witch, about my other past self according to Shin's allegations.

For me, those words who i heard long time ago were about to be forgotten. however what I could tell the curse that this artifact did wasn't affecting me like it should. I was still strong and vibrant, i was feeling even better than before.

that artifact didn't weaken me, it made more better instead.