Congratulations user, you have risen to Level 03!

Reading the message that appeared in the black window floating in front of him, Noah was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. To go up to Level 02 he had only needed two or three days, but to reach Level 03 he needed two weeks. The difference was quite large, but he was pleased to see that he had received a new skill after so long.

If the other Blessed knew he was complaining that it took him two weeks to

"develop

" a new skill, they would surely start hitting their heads against the wall, as it was normal for a Blessed Rank C to take at least a few years to develop a new skill, and Noah was thinking that two weeks was a long time. Of course, Noah wouldn't have told anyone that, he was just comparing the difficulty of the time it took him to level up.

'I just hope that now it won't take me like two months to level up again,' Noah thought while looking at the amount of exp needed to reach level 04.

User: Noah Stern

Level: 03, 0

/1600 exp

HP: 14

/14

Strength: 14

Agility: 14

Stamina: 14

Skills:

(Hell Flames Lv 02, 482

/500 exp: A technique that consists of invoking the flames of hell itself. The flames of hell did not differ from normal flames, but after purifying so many sins and so many sinners, it became the most powerful flame, having even burned the flame god himself, making him beg Lucifer to extinguish the flames before he died.To increase the power of hell's flames ability, the user must burn sins or sinners.)

(Hell Tunneling Lv 01, 246

/300 exp: A technique that consists of opening a tunnel to hell and leaving somewhere else in a fraction of a second. The greater the distance, the greater the energy spent.)

The exp needed to level up had risen from 400 to 1,600. That was four times more than before! Noah had thought that the exp needed to level up from 100 to 400 could be just because he would need 300 more points for each level, but confirming that this meant that the exp points needed to level up would always quadruple had caused Noah to worry about how long it would take him to level up in the future.

'I hope that to reach level 05 I don't need 6,400 experience points. Otherwise I will need to stay longer than I imagined in the Fortresses unless I stop needing other Blessed with me in the future...' Noah thought as he looked at his wrist.

Wrapped like a bracelet was Lilith, who needed a little more to reach level 02. Noah hoped that during this Fortress she would level up just like him.

'Wait a second... Where's my new skill?!?!' Noah hadn't realized that he had received no new skills on his profile until now because he was only focused on the exp needed to level up.

Congratulations user, for reaching level 03! You have unlocked a new skill!

"Phew...

" Noah sighed, now less worried. He was afraid he hadn't received any new skills even though he had leveled up, so being curious, he opened his profile again.

User: Noah Stern

Level: 03, 0

/1600 exp

HP: 14

/14

Strength: 14

Agility: 14

Stamina: 14

Skills:

(Hell Flames Lv 02, 482

/500 exp)

(Hell Tunneling Lv 01, 246

/300 exp)

(⁰д⁰)

'Where's my new skill?!' Noah couldn't find his new ability anywhere. Both other times they automatically appeared on the profile as if they were always there, but right now after the system notification, the ability did not appear. 'Maybe the system has a bug?'

To use the new skill, the user must mentally say 'Form Contract'.

Initially, Noah was disappointed and worried about not receiving anything, but after reading the system message, Noah was once again very excited. He had found the option of making system contracts very practical and useful, and as this was only governed by his imagination, he was able to imagine infinite possibilities of use for such a contract, both when having pet monsters, and when he would need to deal with other humans.

'Form Contract,' Noah said mentally.

Contract name:

Party A obligations:

Party B bonds:

'This... is much simpler than I imagined.' Noah looked at the black window floating in front of him with very few words written in the font made of flames which he had already gotten used to, but the contents of the window were very disappointing for him. He thought it would be extremely complicated, something he would take hours to formulate, but he felt very disappointed to see the interface was so simple.

'System, what prevents someone from breaking a contract?' Noah asked curiously.

Both Party A and Party B are required to fulfill their own part of the contract as written. Both will know what to do and what the other should do, as described in the contract. If either side does not comply with what was agreed, the contract will be canceled and the fine for breaking the contract will be paid with the life of the guilty party, or something of equal value, as long as the other party accepts.

'This... is more disappointing than I imagined...' Noah was really disappointed with this contract subsystem. He could not see how this was different from a regular contract, except maybe of course that the penalty for terminating the contract was much more serious.

When Lucifer became bored, he liked to go to the mortal world to have fun making contracts with humans. Lucifer had never lost in any deal he made, making the saying

"Never make a deal with the devil

" become extremely popular.

Since Lucifer was the one writing the contract, he always used his own intelligence to make contracts that were equally advantageous on the surface, but when someone read the contract more rigidly, they would realize that Lucifer had left several openings for himself on his side of the contract, while the other person's side was much more rigid.

It is up to the user to transform an apparently fair contract into something completely disadvantageous to the other party if you so choose.

As this ability depends entirely on the user's own intelligence, it will not have a level and will not be able to level up, being already available at the maximum level.

After reading the explanation of the system, Noah completely changed his perception of this ability. He thought it was just a skill he could use from time to time to make money, but in fact he could be completely dishonest in making the contract and reap large profits out of it.

Thinking about the endless possibilities he had envisioned before he was temporarily disappointed, Noah was excited again about the contract and started to imagine what he could do to get rich quickly, what he could do to level up and become famous, and everything that could be made easier with contracts, since everything depended entirely on his imagination.

Noah's discussion with the system was very quick. While it might have seemed like it took a few minutes to happen, it actually didn't take Noah more than a few seconds - the time only needed for the rest of the group to come from the entrance to the room where he was standing next to the two corpses of the monster and the other human that they had seen.

The skin of this monster was much more resistant than the skin of a normal Boss of a Rank E Fortress, at least when it came to resisting the purification of Noah's flames. The arrows and spells fired by the other team members still did considerable damage, much less than they did to the monsters of a Rank E Fortress, but they still did damage. Only Noah's flames had done less damage, but Noah didn't think that the reason for that was that his flame was weaker than the others. No, the reason that Noah believed to be the case was related to the seam made in the monster's belly.

While they were fighting, Noah had noticed that the monster always tried to protect its belly, sometimes even leaving its head unprotected to protect its own belly, and this kept catching Noah's attention, since because of that, Noah managed to grab his dagger out of the monster's eye, which enabled him to stick the dagger in its other eye, thus decreeing the end of the battle. The monster that looked like a wild boar could no longer defend itself from damage as it could no longer even see the incoming attacks.

Curious, Noah, instead of incinerating the monster's body immediately after killing him as he always did in the other Fortresses, this time decided to wait and open the seam on the monster's belly to find out what was wrong inside. Even if there was still a wound that hadn't yet healed, it didn't make sense to Noah for that monster to leave his head (which is someone's most fragile place) unprotected just to protect a cut in its belly.

The other Blessed had also noticed that there was something wrong with the way the monster was acting. Many times it took actions that completely escaped logic to protect its own belly, which aroused everyone's curiosity to find out what was inside it that was so valuable.

But when they approached, instead of the monster that was lying motionless on the ground, dead, what first caught the attention of the people in the group was what was in front of the monster.

Completely shattered and disemboweled was the corpse that appeared to be humanoid. Because of some very characteristic organs and muscles, the Blessed Ones had strongly believed that this corpse was that of a normal human, but when they looked more closely, they saw that the corpse looked very much like... a dwarf.

Please read the author's notes down here! :3 ↓↓↓