Humanity Return

Ch. 22 – Soul Vessel

The blowing wind swayed the dense foliage with the sunlight making it through the small gap between all the green leaves, slightly illuminating the surface of the forest.

Two men face each other far apart, one male and one female, one standing and one sitting.

The girl who was sitting had just heard a question from the young man standing up, she gave one short answer,

“Hah?”

The aura took a while to recall the fact that Leinn had only learned how the Contract worked less than a day ago.

Grabbing into the pocket of her dress, she pulled out four pieces of paper, three black papers with magic circles and one green paper with familiar carvings.

“You should have gotten this Contract Seal when signing up right?” said Aura while showing the four papers in her left hand.

Looking at the familiar paper Leinn thought for a moment and managed to remember it. He started walking past Aura and headed straight for the place of his previous fall, where his big bag was located. He reached into his big bag...

“Aha!” he pulled out the same four pieces of paper, but it was very tangled after being squeezed inside his big bag.

Leinn smiled happily after finding the four crumpled papers then walked back to front of Aura.

“So, what am I doing this paper?”

Aura raised her body and stood in front of Leinn with the papers on her left hand.

“You just need to drip your blood onto this paper and stick it on the Beast's body that you want to contract with” Aura pull and hold a piece of black paper in his right hand.

“Hoh..” Leinn parted and held a piece of black paper in his left hand.

Aura raised the black Contract Seal in her hand that was.

“Of course both parties must accept this Contract, if either of them both reject that Contract, then the Contract Seal will not work and burn to ashes”

“Alright!” Leinn replied in short and directly turned his body around while putting three other pieces of paper into his pants pocket.

He ran to the front of the Gorilla Beast while biting his finger. A drop of blood flowed out and dripped onto the black paper and was absorbed in an instant, forming a magic circle on the black paper.

The magic circle started to spin and emit light. The mana in the air also began to move strangely, as it was affected by what was about to happen in that place.

Seeing that, Leinn began to extend out that Contract Seal.

“Hoh..”.

The Gorilla Beast reached out its right hand and the Contract Seal stuck to the back of its hand easily.

The magic circle on the paper began to shine brightly and drifted out, spinning above the two of them.

The magic circle slowly began to enlarge until it reached three meters wide, then stopped. The mana in the air became calm along with the light from the magic circle that started to dim.

“Eh?” The aura standing not far away from them let out a puzzled voice after seeing that.

The scene in front of him was very different from what he had seen before, or that he had read in the alloy book regarding Contract...

Cracks...

Simultaneously, cracks appeared in that magic circle. After shaking vigorously for a while, the paper in Leinn's hand finally turned to dust, flying carried away by the wind.

“Huh?” Leinn looked at his hand that held nothing.

Then he looked at the Gorilla Beast in front of him in a daze.

“What is this problem?”

“Hoh?” The gorilla looked at the back of his hand for a while.

The Gorilla Beast looked back with the same expression.

Aura felt very surprised at the result. Seeing the two of them accept that Contract, that result could only have one other reason.

“L-leinn..” said Aura nervously.

Still with the same confused expression, Leinn turned to Aura after hearing her call.

Aura looked at Leinn with an expression of disbelief, she pulled out one paper in green and stretched it out to Leinn.

“C-try to drop your blood and put your Mana into this paper..”.

Leinn took the green paper and did as Aura asked. This time the engravings shone and began to move on the paper. With one last ray of engraving it turned into a row of numbers.

[ 3 0 ]

Leinn looked at the number that appeared on the paper in his hand for a while, then looked back at Aura.

Aura looked at that result with her mouth open, not believing in that result. Taking the paper out of Leinn's hands and starting to stare at him loudly, trying to find fault in the result. He also rubbed his eyes a few times and the result did not change at all.

“So what does this mean?” Leinn realized something was wrong after seeing that reaction.

“Can't be this..”.

After trying to find fault for a minute without finding any results, Aura finally lifted her face and looked at Leinn.

“Soul Vessel-mu is not enough to make a contract with Gorilla Beast it” said Aura with a clear gaze.

“Huh?”

Not understanding what Aura meant, Leinn could only let out a puzzled voice. Seeing this reaction Aura returned the paper and began to explain.

“To put it simply, Soul Vessel is the most important thing one needs to create a Contract”

Looking at the number on the paper in his hand, Leinn looked back at Aura, pointing at the number 30.

“What is this small?”

Aura nodded her head, she looked at Leinn with a serious expression. Pointing at the paper in Leinn's hand, he continued.

“It's small, TOO small. I have never heard the story of someone who had never made a Contract have a Soul Vessel as small as this” Aura shook his head, it was still hard to believe what was going on in front of it.

“Huh..”.

Staring at the figure once more, Leinn wore a serious expression.

“So, what is this Soul Vessel relationship with Contracted Beast?” leinn said without lifting his face.

“Uh..”.

Seeing the serious expression on Leinn's face, Aura took a deep breath and began to explain.

“When someone wants to make a Contract, the first thing they check is their Soul Vessel level. After knowing their limits, next they will look for Beasts that do not need Soul Vessel beyond what they have”

Aura looked at the paper in Leinn's hand.

“One's Soul Vessel level is affected by the potential they have from birth, it can be enhanced by increasing their Rank Contracted Beast. Whereas people who do not yet have Contracted can only increase their Soul Vessel slowly with hard training”

“Huh” Leinn raised her face when she heard the last two words Aura spoke.

He then looked at his left palm, visibly pondering over something.

Aura looked at that and continued her explanation.

“The amount of Soul Vessel required will increase according to the increase in the strength of the Beast present. Ordinary Rank B Beasts required Soul Vessel above 2500, but these Gorilla Beasts and Wolf Beasts had already reached the peak of Rank B and had almost broken through to Rank A. They should need Soul Vessel between 9000 to 11000”

Hearing this Leinn turned his head towards these two Beasts. The Wolf Beast just sat quietly looking back at him, while the Gorilla Beast was already lying down and closed its eyes and almost fell asleep.

“Hundred years of research have yielded quite detailed information. The weakest Rank C Beast requires one's Soul Vessel to reach 500”

“500...”

Hearing Leinn repeat his sentence, Aura's voice also shrank.

“...Rank D requires 100..”

“...”

Leinn simply stared at Aura without saying anything, and Aura continued her sentence in a voice that was almost as loud as a whisper.

“...The weakest E rank requires Soul Vessel as low as 20, and below that is Rank F Beast..”.

Staring at the paper in his hand with the number 30 staring back at him.

“Rank F and Rank E Beast weakest, yes..”.

Seeing Leinn becoming speechless, Aura subconsciously extended her hand.

“...!”

The hand stopped in midair when Aura saw the expression of the young man in front of her.

A wide smile that seemed to be trying to hold back his excitement.

“...so I can only catch the weakest Beast..!”.

Leinn clutched the green paper in his hand, making it a paper ball.

“Interesting!”