“Awoo!”
Following a wolf's howl, three or four red-eyed werewolves stepped out from the darkness.
“Awoo... Hiss!”
They all glared fixedly at Ogre, already consumed by madness. After a few snarls, drooling saliva, they lunged toward him.
Werewolves were one of the most typical and common types of variants.
Compared to rare species like shadow demons, werewolves or ghouls were actually Ogre’s true targets for this trip.
Whether born or converted, all werewolves shared a common trait—at regular intervals, they would uncontrollably transform and fall into a state of total madness.
Only the legendary king among werewolves—the Alpha Werewolf—could rely on an immense willpower to gain full control over the transformation.
‘Why didn't you mention that earlier?’ Ogre pulled a dining knife from his waist—a silver dining knife.
Silver was extremely effective against werewolves. It suppressed their regenerative abilities, and even mere contact could sear their flesh and blood.
This was one of the reasons why silver coins were included among mainstream currencies; silver could even check the spread of werewolf infection to a certain degree.
‘You didn't give me a chance...’ was what the shadow demon actually wanted to say. But by the time it transmitted its thought into Ogre’s mind, it turned into something entirely different: “It's my fault! I deserve to die for almost letting Master fall into...”
“Shut up.”
The shadow demon: “...”
By the time Ogre finished his words, he had already charged straight forward.
The Sister’s robe didn't slow Ogre down in the slightest. In a flash of silver light and blade arcs, the brief clash ended, and the werewolves reverted to their human forms.
Reverting from a full moon transformation could only mean one thing—they were dead.
Thud—!
The heavy sound of bodies hitting the ground announced that the battle was already over.
“Too bad you came late. I already have a dog.”
After reassuring the shadow demon residing in his forearm, Ogre flicked his silver dining knife, shaking off every drop of blood.
Drawing the blade, slitting throats, piercing hearts, and sheathing the knife—the entire sequence flowed seamlessly, as light and effortless as a butterfly dancing under the moon.
“What a fulfilling night.”
Sheathing his knife, Ogre swiftly left the perilous spot, vanishing into the night without a moment's delay.
Only a few corpses remained to prove he had ever been there.
“As expected of Master! You effortlessly accomplished what other mortal apprentices couldn't hope to do!” The shadow demon's flattering didn't stop.
However, what it said wasn't entirely false.
It really was terrified of Ogre—it genuinely felt this guy was not a normal human.
He was even more twisted than a freakish creature like itself. Cross-dressing to feign weakness was one thing, but he was also wildly unpredictable and enjoyed torturing the shadow demon. Who knew if there was even a single word of truth in anything he said—yet he happened to be obscenely strong.
“I don't need a pet that only knows how to flatter. I need you to prove your value,” Ogre responded calmly.
Flattery was the most meaningless thing in the world.
Some people aspired to be heroes since childhood, while others wanted to become peerless villains. But no matter what kind of person someone grew up to be, nobody ever started out aiming to be a bootlicking sycophant.
“As expected of Master! Unwavering and unmoved in mind! Surely, you will become a world-renowned... uh, brave hero in the future!”
“I'll give you four sentences to demonstrate your value—right now, you have three sentences left,” Ogre said nonchalantly.
By this point, he had left the graveyard and reached the wilderness.
It wasn't that Ogre liked doing good deeds anonymously; he simply didn't want to get dragged into unnecessary complications that might ruin his disguised identity in the village.
Although even if someone came under the cover of night, they likely wouldn't see him clearly, it was still best not to leave any leverage behind.
One could never be too cautious.
“I'm willing to sign an equal contract to help Master become a Shadow Warlock!” The shadow demon immediately put forward its bargaining chip.
“An equal contract? Why not a master-servant soul contract?” Ogre asked indifferently.
A person's soul power was limited; most apprentices were doing well if they could contract three extraordinary creatures.
To control ordinary extraordinary monsters, using contract scrolls or magic arrays as intermediaries was undoubtedly the best choice, as it significantly increased the number of creatures one could control.
The downside, however, was that the degree of control would decrease.
Contracts formed without scroll intermediaries generally fell into three categories: equal contracts, master-servant contracts, and symbiotic contracts.
Ogre hadn't studied the differences in depth; he only knew that a master-servant contract could be unilaterally severed by the 'master' at any time, with the cost usually borne by the servant.
“A master-servant contract won't allow you to gain my power—I can grant you mastery over shadow magic, Shadow Leap, Shadow Weapon, Stealth, and so on! Human rogues love signing this kind of contract with us. Once the contract is signed, I won't need much essence to survive, as long as I stay out of the light!”
Shadow lifeforms like shadow demons were actually very difficult to capture, because given enough time, they could slip back into the shadow world.
For Ogre to catch this shadow demon, aside from his elemental counter, luck played a non-negligible part as well.
Of course, most shadow demons had no desire to return to that godforsaken place. That was why they used human bodies to maintain a limited presence in the normal world without sinking back into the shadow mirror world.
Aside from signing a contract, this was the only way they could live normally in the human world.
Naturally, they still feared the attacks they were vulnerable to.
“If it's so great, why don't you sign contracts with humans directly instead of resorting to harming people?” Ogre asked out of curiosity.
The shadow demon said, “If there were any other way, who would want to sign a contract with short-lived species like you... Ah, Master, I didn't mean it like that! An outstanding human like you is clearly a brave hero at first glance!”
Barring accidents, shadow creatures had virtually unlimited lifespans.
Only through injury, being devoured, or having their existence swallowed by endless memories would a shadow demon truly die.
Signing a contract with a human offered no benefits other than securing a stable dwelling and borrowing contract power to heal damage caused by light.
No matter how you calculated it, it was a losing trade.
Unless captured or desperate to escape the shadow world, only an idiot would sign a contract with a creature whose average lifespan barely reached a century.
Even an equal contract inflicted significant drawbacks on a shadow demon.
The contract was rooted in the soul, which meant that after the human died, the shadow demon had to accompany the soul until it completely dissipated, weakening itself along the way to nourish the lingering soul.
It was practically being corpse-camped.
Furthermore, without a living person to supply essence, even exposure to sunlight during this period could kill the shadow demon.
Even if it found safety underground, staying trapped beside a human corpse with no end in sight was no different from being dead.
If the contractor's soul collapsed entirely, the shadow demon would suffer immense damage—harm severe enough to render it completely immobile, leaving it to slowly wait for death.
Unless it found a new contractor before dying, or the contracted human willingly allowed the shadow demon to devour their soul, or paid heavy soul costs to dissolve the contract before dying, there was no avoiding these consequences.
That was why shadow demons wouldn't easily contract themselves to anyone.
As for the other two types of contracts, they were even worse for shadow demons.
One was the symbiotic contract, where they died together—effectively tying their lifespan directly to that of a human.
Then there was the master-servant contract, which was even more extreme. Who in their right mind would hand over their life, letting someone kill them on a whim?
No matter how you looked at it, it was terrible.
Thus, shadow demons preferred to harm people to steal bodies, granting them a far higher degree of freedom.
Of course, between dying immediately and dying later, the shadow demon could still clearly weigh the options.
“What if I insist on signing a master-servant contract?” Ogre had no intention of creating a major weakness for himself.
Although an equal contract didn't mean dying together, it still shared fortunes and losses. It effectively bound the contractor and contracted together in key aspects.
It was easy to sign, but hard to sever.
If one party died, even if it didn't kill the other, it would still cost nearly half their life force—a shadow demon wasn't a dragon, and lacked the overwhelming foundation to break off at will.
“Without an equal contract, Master, you won't be able to draw upon our shadow world's spell power...” the shadow demon said glumly.
It acted as though it was taking a huge loss. If it weren't trying to stay alive, who would willingly sign such a thing?
Of course, it was also secretly relieved that Ogre had caught it. Had it been a Dawn Cleric instead, it would have been squished to death on the spot.
However, that relief didn't last long, as Ogre's next words plunged it straight into despair.
“It's fine. I don't care.”
Rate on N.U.
