His rebuttal made her click her tongue in amusement for a while. Then she said, "You make a good point. Greg is indeed more trouble than his worth, and I don’t want another Greg."
"So, I’ve made my decision. I want you to do a better job than Greg."
Loki nodded in satisfaction, where he was in his room. Then he sent a message, saying, "In that case, you must give me an incentive. What can you give me that will encourage me to be a better Greg for you?"
She threw the question back at him, saying, "What do you want?"
His reply didn’t come for a while because he was thinking about what to ask her.
He thought to himself, saying, "I don’t need her money, so I shouldn’t ask for that. What I need is a way to increase the speed of fusion of energy threads, but I doubt such a thing exists, and even if it does exist, I can’t ask her for it because I should know it."
"I don’t need materials and resources or secret recipes for refining Core Metacs either. That only leaves one thing that she can be useful for me."
With his mind made up, he sent a message to her saying, "I want you to protect me for 8 years."
He needs that time to complete the fusion of his energy threads. Right now, he needs 6 and a half years, but he asked for 8 years just to be safe.
When she heard his request, her face took on an unnatural expression. She quickly responded, saying, "What do you need so much time for? I hope you’re not trying to advance to rank 5 here. You should know that this small world has been hollowed out by the divine beings of the sect and can’t accommodate rank 5 beings."
Loki didn’t know that. But he still said, "I know that. Don’t worry. I know what I am doing. Just do your part."
She said, "Just to be sure, what exactly will I get for doing this for you? How good a performance should I expect from you after you take Greg’s place?"
Loki thought about this question for a while before saying, "For every year that you protect me, I will kill a rank 4 warrior for you."
She shook her head and said, "Not enough. I want you to take a city for every year that I protect you."
Loki countered by saying, "Make it half a city per year, and you have a deal."
She said, "Deal."
Then she said, "I will send a contract to you now. It is backed by the sect, so you can’t break it. Sign it, and I will trust you."
Loki chuckled and said, "Don’t you trust me?"
Before she could respond, he said, "I guess you don’t. That’s fine. We don’t need to trust each other to work together."
So she smiled and said, "My thoughts exactly."
She didn’t let Loki’s words stop her from trying to secure a guarantee. So as soon as she sent this message, she went to buy a contract from the sect with her merit points. Then she filled in the terms of their agreement and sent the contract to Loki.
Loki received the contract immediately. He too didn’t waste time going through it.
He saw that Amelia had listed exactly what they agreed on. But she added a limit to how long he has to fulfill his part of the deal and also listed some terms that outline the consequences of defaulting on their parts of the deal.
To stop him from running away after enjoying the benefits, she added a clause that he won’t be able to leave the small world or advance to rank 5 until he fulfills his part of their deal.
Since the contract is a grade 5 contract, he won’t be able to break it until he reaches rank 5. But if he can’t reach rank 5 without fulfilling his part of the deal, he won’t be able to break the contract.
And if he somehow finds a way to bypass her restrictions, it will cost 10 grade 5 merit points and 100 million energy stones to break the contract. This price is higher than what he promised, so it is just better to fulfill his promise than find a way to break the contract.
By his estimate, the agreement was water-tight. But he didn’t care anyway because he is not afraid of entering unfair agreements. As long as the contract gives him immediate benefits and won’t take away his free will, he will sign anything.
This thought flashed through his mind and made him chuckle as he said, "If Rusty could remember, he would be able to prove to people for me that I can’t be trapped by contracts. Then again, it is because I am so good at escaping from contracts that he can’t remember that he tried to trap me with one."
After amusing himself with that thought, he continued to read the contract. When he saw that the agreement was fine, he signed it.
Immediately after he signed it, he received a notification from the sect telling him that he entered into an agreement that was backed by the sect. Only then did he sigh in relief.
As he exhaled all of the breath that he had been holding in his body, he said, "For a while there, I thought she was trying to trick me into lowering my guard so that she and Skarg could get me with a surprise attack."
"Not that I am afraid of them at this point. I just don’t want any disturbance or risk having to start again."
Then he patted his chest and said, "Fortunately, it is not what I thought. She really seems sincere about cooperating with me. Now I can relax."
On the other side, Amelia also sighed in relief and said, "It seems I have struck jackpot!"
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A/N: Please, don’t forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets. Thank you.