Rafael sent the apprentice with the documents of the agreement between the Order and the Alliance, and he was quite nervous. All he knew was that he would have important documents and items in his possession.
In front of him were two important figures of the Adventurer's Alliance, and he was silent as the elder called Vice-Leader Xu read the documents handed to him. On the other side was a figure with feminine curves whose age and appearance were not visible because she wore a hooded cloak that distorted her face with magic. When the old man nodded to the woman, the two signed the paper and the apprentice signed in the part marked as witness, Rafael had already signed as a representative of the Order so as soon as the apprentice filled in his name, the contract floated in front of them and shone with a red light before turning into a mist and disappearing.
The apprentice then took out copies of the contracts and other terms and asked for their signatures again, saying that it was for information recording, handing over part of the copies to them, then took out a new blood contract for Old Xu, and finally handed a strange crystalline stone to the woman.
As soon as the woman saw the stone, she quickly took it from the apprentice's hand and said goodbye in a strange, hoarse voice, leaving the apprentice and Old Xu alone. The old man called an adventurer and told him to go get the items that Rafael needed, then looked at the blood contract that the leader of the Order of Sages had made. After signing the contract, Old Xu would have 500 breaths to decide what information he wanted and could not disclose to anyone. Not even a preview of the information could be disclosed due to the risk of a terrible blood curse and total retaliation from the Order.
He took a deep breath and signed the contract, which repeated the same magical effect as the previous contract. The apprentice, seeing this, took out an hourglass and took out 4 sealed scrolls and placed them in front of him. When Old Xu read the previews of each piece of information, his heart raced with fear and terror. Among the four scrolls, two were called world disasters, one of which was called "The End of Magic" and was set to take place 250 years in the future, and the other was called "The Arrival of Eternal Night" 400 years later.
Just the name of the two events left him completely terrified, but Old Xu quickly calmed down. He wouldn't be alive when that happened. He was already very old and had already consumed his immortality fruit. Having not reached the peak of the three professions, he knew that he had little time left to live. His only hope was his talent as a pseudo Master of Prophecy, which could help him peek into the future and find a new path and solution to his current problem.
To do this, his instincts were telling him to choose one of the other two remaining scrolls. The first was called "Century of Blood" and the second was "The Great Conquest".
The century of blood was said to be underway, and the great conquest would only happen in 100 years. Trusting his instincts, he removed the seal of the "Century of Blood". When he did so, the other three scrolls turned to dust, and he sighed in regret. The apprentice of the Order put away the hourglass. Soon, Old Xu's apprentice entered the room, carrying several shadow bags and a cage with two horned rabbits. The apprentice from the tower took the items and quickly left, returning to Raphael, as he knew that the animals had a limited lifespan.
Old Xu, who remained in the room reading the information, soon gathered his servants, apprentices, and slaves and ordered them to prepare for a trip to Essos. His goal was the same as Raphael's: to profit from deaths and wars. As he gave orders, his future, which was previously impossible to glimpse, finally began to show some paths and possibilities again, making the old asian man smile sinisterly.
***
In the Tower of the Sages, Rafael received the two bags and ran towards the Yin Yang Tower, the home of Natasha and her master, White Shadow. He was going to ask her for a favor. The rabbits would die in 48 hours, and his two towers did not have the capacity and energy to carry out the necessary experiments so quickly. The tower in the Garden of Beasts had power, but it did not have space.
His only choice was to hope that Natasha would grant him a space in his master's Tower until he completed the experiments involving the rabbits, otherwise, he would only have another pair of animals after more than 1 month. As soon as he arrived at the location and explained the situation, Natasha took him to the second underground floor, which was her own space, and he began to quickly study the samples inside the bags that contained the soil, air, feces, and plants that were in the tower where the rabbits lived. Natasha also began to do experiments involving collecting blood and other fluids from the animals, and the two soon became lost in their studies, not realizing that time was passing. It was only 24 hours later that they were interrupted from their experiments by Natasha's Master.
"Rafael, I didn't know you were here."
"Master White Shadow, it was my fault for coming without sending a message. I had a small emergency and needed a large space for an experiment…" After a brief explanation, the Master nodded and understood what was going on.
"Okay, feel free. If you need anything, ask Natasha. I'm leaving to take care of some matters, and I came to ask her to monitor some experiments for me in my absence."
"Will you be away for a long time, Master?"
"I'm going to help an old friend with an experiment, he said it might take a while and that it was a bit dangerous. So, I made some adjustments to the tower. Here are the instructions."
After Natasha showed concern for her master and wished him luck, he gave her a book with notes on some matters of the tower and said goodbye to us. After he had left, we turned our attention to the experiment. We still had 24 hours, and there was no time to rest. I might fail this time, but next month, with this experiment as a basis, everything should go well.
****
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