Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The Tie of Exchange.

An old technique which was now used to get into contracts where loyalty and trust were not guaranteed.

Its practise was no longer common in Feinheath or rather in Pelian because of the extreme nature of the punishment for not keeping your end of the bargain as the instigator.

The Tie of Exchange was said to originate from the giants, being a technique first created with the intention of assuring one's life in a disadvantageous situation by offering to give something valuable to the opposite party.

The user of the Tie of Exchange was usually the one with much to lose as after giving up something of theirs to the opposite party, in some cases, they could be summoned for inquiries on delivery of agreed upon items while the opposite party was to ensure that they kept their end of the deal which was usually something meagre.

Why this technique was abandoned was because it hailed from the crust of Aigas. From the very body of the Deity Quintess which meant that it had an immense authority.

The punishment that resulted was said to be extremely odd and dangerous but the records never specified what it was.

The human records at least.

Skullius nodded to Silrat's words as he remembered that he had one Tie of Exchange pending as well, with Sause's fingernail still being in his storage.

'I should probably check in with that guy soon,' he thought.

"Alright, seeing as you have no problems with it, let us first stipulate the terms in detail," Silrat said as he removed a lock of his crushed garnet coloured hair and held it towards Skullius behind the bars.

The Discount Human was confused by this gesture.

Sauce had to remove his fingernail, so why did this guy just use his hair?

"From you, I require your services for missions pertaining to the Guilds Association as well as your continued and permanent allegiance. You cannot become tied in any permanent contracts outside of the Association and are barred from associating with enemies as well as potential enemies of the organisation. All this, is in exchange for any demands that are within my means and those of the Association, excluding freedom," Silrat declared, his satin grey eyes gleaming with enthusiasm.

The middle aged man had a certain confidence about him that rattled Skullius as if he felt that everything was in his control.

'Damn, bro,' Skullius thought. 'Allegiance. That doesn't feel good at all. I guess this is where this guy really planned to hook me in. I'll forever be a piece he can call to his aid if I agree to this...' Skullius thought.

He gazed at Silrat, the man wearing a cheery smile that emphasised that the allegiance part was probably non-negotiable, which was fair.

Skullius had no other choice. This was the most leniency he could get and it came with perks.

As someone who worked under the Association, he was also bound to be rewarded handsomely, right?

Fantastic.

Solo events were going to be problematic in the future.

Or not, since he had told Silrat about the curse.

He probably couldn't change the fiber details as the gleam in Silrat's eyes told him much about the value he placed on him. The fact that he was using a ToE was also proof enough.

Sigh.

"Fine," Skullius said.

This felt weird.

He felt like he had met a similar circumstance and outright refused similar conditions in favour of acting alone. The hard way.

Now, it had changed.

He was gambling on this chance.

On the bright side, he would abuse this privilege.

"I agree to those terms. As for what I want. I want knowledge and power. Any resource that has basic and advanced knowledge. I want it. From books, to Enriching gems to equipment and other things you know. I also want special treatment that others don't get, like specifying how I move for certain missions you want."

"How ambitious," said Silrat with a cunning smile. "Of course I agree to these, however, we have a limited supply because of the mass usage and trade that is going on because of the mass appearance of Clusters and the political situation. I must also stress that Inhone is a flawed template of a city. Security, wealth and such are lackluster compared to other cities and as a result, the same is true for this branch of the Guilds Association. We lack of lot of things that the other branches have but rest assured, I will deliver."

"The quantity in terms of Enriching gems might be really low but I do have a few things that you might like from equipment and treasures."

"Treasures?!" Skullius asked with an excited voice. He had read about natural treasures and was really interested in them.

"Yes. Before you get to enjoy our collection, let's finalise the Tie of Exchange."

"I agree to the terms if you full agree to mine," Skullius said.

As he said so, a notification appeared, confirming that the deed was done.

~~~

[Tie of Exchange: Lock of hair from Silrat Veins]

The individual known as Silrat Veins has pledged a lock of hair as a medium for the exchange. He is the prime attendant and is bound to not break his word after offering it.

With this item, the lesser attendant CANNOT summon Silrat to pay the favour he owes for the exchange.

The individual Festos Dawn is yet to pledge anything as a medium of exchange. Would you like to pledge?

~~~

Silrat waved his hand, the runes on the bars dimming somewhat.

He then passed on the lock of hair to Skullius who took it and injected mana into it.

With that, Skullius felt himself tied to the lock of hair which he held closely.

He wouldn't want to store it in his ring and let Silrat know that he had another storage space.

'Ah... so he really does know about the Tie of Exchange. Curious,' thought Silrat. It was strange for someone who demonstrated such a lack of knowledge on basics to know something so old and uncommon.

He put this thought to the back of his mind though and focused his mind onto something else.

"With that, I will deliver the things you requested and prepare to have a brutal struggle with Erkus when he finds out about the support I'll be giving you," Silrat said as turned to leave.

He stopped however and turned back to Skullius.

"By the way, it's suspected that you are in possession of a bunch of books from the College. Where did you put them?"

"Ah... that's hard to explain and I'd rather not talk about it. The Tie of Exchange doesn't require me to be entirely truthful right?" Skullius replied.

Silrat flashed a toothy smile.

"Indeed. Very well. I'll make it up then. Those two Energy Formers won't be bothering you for a few days after I have given my report. There's no surveillance here so feel free to do what you want."

Silrat then left, Skullius being left to the silence where he subconsciously breathed out and slumped down.

'I hope that doesn't come back to bite me too much,' he thought.

If there was something that made him suspicious, it would be the fact that this ToE was different from the one he engaged with Sause.

For one thing, he couldn't summon Silrat anytime he wanted.

Was there some loophole he was unaware of?

Skullius didn't know. He waited for a few minutes and tried to verify if he really wasn't being watched.

Unfortunately it was hard to verify this and he eventually gave up. He couldn't just sit on his butt and waste time anyway.

He pulled up his status and reviewed his Task.

~~~

Exp: 64,000/64,000

Eighth Task: Elevated any class skill to the next Tier

~~~

"That should be fairly easy," Skullius said. "And since I have all this free time, I might as well finally check out what [Evil Darkness] can do now and then finish the Task by evolving [Basic Evil Production]."

Skullius immediately delved deep within as his mana surged, bits of darkness starting to leak out slowly...