Into the Creations 1267

## Chapter 1267 – Dark Moon

“A human? What is this? I sense a familiarity. Are you a contractor?”

Hearing those words, I instinctively knew its identity and let out a soft groan.

“The demon Vioda. And you are?”

“I have no name to give to the likes of a demon.”

“Oh. Won’t you make a contract with me?”

A contract with a demon.

In the original game, it was an unconditionally beneficial offer. You could gain permanent stat boosts in exchange for penalties. There was even a specialized job called a demon contractor. But this is the world inside the game, and the game system doesn’t exist.

“That corpse. Isn’t he your contractor? Did you kill your contractor?”

“If there is something to gain, there is something to lose. He wanted power, and he lost his life as the price.”

I pieced together the situation in my head.

The black magician successfully summoned a demon here. That alone is a great achievement. The average person can’t even summon a demon.

The problem is that he failed to successfully complete the contract with the demon. He was probably very excited after successfully summoning the demon. The black magician wanted power, and the demon probably wanted a part of his body in return.

A finger, a toe, or one ear would have seemed like a small price to pay compared to the power he would gain.

He probably made the contract with the naive thought that the demon had no reason to kill the contractor.

The demon took the black magician’s organs as payment for the contract. The corpse with an empty abdomen below the demon is proof of that.

“Are you trying to kill me under the guise of a contract?”

“No. You are different from this one. This one was just lucky to succeed in summoning, yet he was too arrogant. He was not worthy of making a contract with me.”

“So you killed him?”

“Yes. I played around a bit. He was as stupid as I thought.”

I thought about the demon.

The demon Vioda.

It was an unfamiliar name even to me, who knew the knowledge of the original work. He was probably a low-ranking demon.

“Unlike that one, am I to your liking?”

“I can tell by looking. You are not an ordinary human. Mana is blessing you. Such humans are very… very rare.”

Flap.

The demon spread its bat wings and flew upwards. The demon slowly flapped its wings and floated in the air.

“There’s something I don’t understand. Can you answer a question?”

“Yes. I’m in a good mood right now. Ask away.”

“……It seems like it’s been about three days since you killed that guy… why have you been staying here?”

“I was thinking about what to do next.”

“For three days? Since your contractor died, you wouldn’t have much time left to stay in this world.”

“Being bound by time is a characteristic of mortals. This world means nothing to me.”

“……”

Demons have personalities too. Of course, the risk of a contract varies depending on their personality.

‘I was going to make a contract if possible. I can get stronger quickly through a demon contract.’

But putting the contract aside, this kind of demon is dangerous. The moment he loses interest, he will casually stab me in the back.

Having already made a decision, I asked the demon, just to satisfy my curiosity.

“Vioda. What can you give me?”

“Don’t you want power? I can give you power.”

“What kind of power specifically?”

“I can create a dark hole in your body. You will be able to handle more than twice the amount of dark mana compared to the mana you have now.”

“That’s not a very appealing condition for someone who isn’t a black magician.”

“Then how about this ability? I will give you the power to interpret all languages.”

“…All languages?”

“You can interpret machine languages as well as magical languages. You can even interpret ancient languages that no longer exist in this world, demon languages, and the languages of angels.”

I was momentarily tempted.

Especially the fact that I could interpret ancient languages and magical languages was very tempting.

‘Ancient languages will be helpful when finding ancient artifacts, and magical languages will be helpful when researching magic.’

I looked straight at the demon and opened my mouth.

“What is the most important price?”

“I will take one of your precious things.”

“…That’s absurd. Is that how you killed the black magician?”

Precious things.

In other words, it means that I could lose my life to him. There is no human who doesn’t value their own life.

“I will not take your life. I swear on my name.”

The demon said.

The fact that he swore on his name meant that he really had no intention of taking my life as the price of the contract. Then it would be beneficial for me to make a contract. The power to interpret all the languages in this world would definitely be a great help someday, even if not right now.

“……”

My lips wouldn’t part.

When I thought about precious things, Yuria came to mind. Then, the faces of my classmates, including No. 31 and No. 212, came to mind.

A demon with transcendent power would surely target them.

“I don’t need it. I can get stronger without your power.”

I opened my astral and activated 34 mana rods. A cool mana surrounded me.

“Are you refusing? I can’t understand. It’s a chance to get stronger without losing your life.”

“I hate losing my things more than anyone else, even if it’s just me.”

“You are still young. You don’t know what power is. But there is no need to be sad. I will change your values completely. I will engrave what power is into your soul.”

Just as I was about to activate the calculated formula with magic.

Vioda moved first. In the blink of an eye, the demon appeared in front of me.

There was a change in Vioda’s body. The black bat wings cracked, and the monkey torso split open, with blood and guts falling like a waterfall. The goat’s head grew larger and larger, and its two eyes glowed bright red.

Blood and guts gathered to form a torso, and the bat wings grew large enough to wrap around a person.

There was a real demon in front of me.

A transcendent being was staring at me.

“Now, look at me. Realize how insignificant you are.”

My body stiffened. It wouldn’t move as I wanted. I had to activate magic, but the mana was out of my control.

Fear crawled up from below, constricting my body.

I despaired at my own weakness. I knew that I was nothing more than a bug compared to the being in front of me.

“Make a contract with me. Don’t you want to escape your mortal fate? I will guide you to the path of immortality.”

“……I refuse.”

The demon’s eyes widened.

One of the original knowledge came to mind.

The setting was that if an ordinary being encountered a transcendent being, they would most likely go insane. I remembered a way to overcome it. But unfortunately, it was not a method I could use right now.

I just had to endure it.

“Hooh. You’re not going insane even though fear is crashing down on you like a tidal wave.”

The demon came closer.

The demon looked into my eyes with its red eyes. The saying that eyes are the windows to the soul came to mind.

“……I can’t understand. You are feeling fear and despair. But your mind is fine. Neither fear nor despair can invade your firm mind. You are not being protected by any higher being…. It is not a mind that a mortal should have. I’m curious. What are you?”

The demon’s voice, full of interest, calmed me down instead.

The fear subsided, and the despair faded.

I grasped the situation with a cold reason. I was just surprised by the demon I was seeing for the first time. It was similar to being startled by a shocking scene in a horror movie.

‘Was the setting that you go insane when you see a transcendent being exaggerated?’

Going insane, my ass. My mind is fine. There is no fear or despair. I activate the prepared magic.

[Lightning Grab]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Thousands of currents of electricity flashed from my right hand. I grabbed the demon’s shoulder tightly with my hand.

“Kuh-eum.”

There was a reaction. The demon let out a faint groan. Before the demon could counterattack, I used a moment.

[Telekinesis]

I smashed the wooden chair with telekinesis and lifted the pieces.

[Shape Transformation]

The chair pieces turned into 12 wooden swords.

[Material Transformation: Mithril]

I turned the 12 wooden swords into mithril swords. The 12 swords moved at the same time and pierced the demon’s body. The demon frowned.

“Is this all? I spent too much time.”

The demon’s body blurred and disappeared. The demon was looking at me until the end.

Clang!

The 12 mithril swords that had been stuck in the demon’s body fell to the floor. They all returned to their original chair pieces.

I sighed and stroked the back of my neck.

‘The demon returned on its own. There must have been restrictions on revealing its true form.’

The demon tried to subdue me by revealing its true form. But I didn’t give in. Regardless of my counterattack, the outcome was already decided there.

I looked around. In the scattered space, old books and reagents were scattered. I couldn’t take everything. I had to select what to take.

First, I approached the black magician’s corpse. The first thing I had to take from the black magician was the dark hole.

‘The abdomen is empty… I’ll have to cut open the chest.’

[Water Blade]

I created a small water blade at the tip of my finger. The water blade, which was much sharper than a surgical knife, easily cut through the stiff corpse.

There was a dark hole next to the rotten heart.

‘…Oh. The dark mana coming from the dark hole is considerable. Just looking at the dark hole, it’s almost level 6. Is it the influence of the demon contract?’

Anyway, thanks to that, I gained a great benefit. With this level of dark hole, I could easily earn tens of millions of credits if I sold it on the black market.

‘I’m not going to sell it. I’m going to use it.’

I had been collecting dark holes whenever I found them. For research purposes and as a trump card.

After taking the dark hole, I looked at the research materials.

‘He was a black magician researching chimeras. Was the ogre contaminant originally a chimera?’

There were notes on how to make chimeras using black magic, genetic manipulation, and the synthesis of living things. It seemed like it would take quite some time to understand, as it wasn’t just simple black magic-related content.

‘I’ll take this too….’

I looked at the other books. I saw books related to black magic. I memorized the ones that seemed easy on the spot and burned the books.

‘There are many books related to demons. After skimming through them, there’s not much that’s useful.’

After narrowing it down, I chose 8 books.

There was nothing else useful besides these. This was because the black magician had used chimeras and other offerings for the demon summoning ritual.

‘I should be satisfied since I made more than my money’s worth with just one dark hole.’

I used telekinesis to pick up the books and went outside, putting them in the bike’s top box.

Vrrrrrrrrrr.

The pocket watch I had in my pocket vibrated.

As if showing the dignity of a gentleman, I leisurely took out the pocket watch and checked the caller. It was Rose, the head of the X Manpower Agency. I answered the call.

“It’s me.”