Chapter 27 First step

Not long after that Lucas found himself back in training. Whether it was learning runes and figuring out new spells, or combat training with Liam, he was always busy. Leaving an empty spot in his schedule made him feel uncomfortable. It didn't take long for the baron to notice Lucas focussing on improving his strength, which made him happy. He was watching him do laps on the courtyard through an open window. "The stronger he gets, the more power I'll have. This was truly a good decision."

"That's correct, but I would like to warn you.", Venion said with his signature hood on. Even for the baron, it seemed the mage wanted to stay hidden.

"What do you mean, what's there to warn about?", to Havi, the contract was a guillotine for Lucas, any wrong move and he would be dead. "The contract works on intentions and meaning in words, if you were to tell him to build a chair, he would do so, but after he made it he has the power to immediately destroy it again. If you say that he has to make it and cannot destroy it, it'll stay whole."

"I see, so I have to be careful, huh? Don't worry, haven't you said it yourself as well? I'm a smart man Venion, don't sweat the small stuff."

'What an absolute buffoon.'

Entering the courtyard, Havi could see his slave working himself to the bone. Every single exercise known to man was performed by a single kid. 'Ha! He looks like such a small and stupid child, how did Venion even think I would screw this up?'

"Lucas, enough training, you're strong enough to handle the mines by yourself now, right?"

'What is he talking about? I don't have nearly enough strength to handle more than 3 spiders.', but the question posed was rethorical. The contract worked on intentions, the baron wanted a 'yes' out of Lucas, so he could only comply.

"Of course, my Lord."

'Why the hell did you say that!'

'I didn't, it's the contract I swear!'

"Perfect, then I want you to go visit the one in the south and defeat the monster that live there."

'Oh right, I should show Venion how smart I can truly be, like a scheming merchant.'

"After you're done, I want you to immediately return to this mansion.", 'There, how's that!'

"Yes, my Lord, I'll prepare myself to leave as soon as possible."

"Good, until then.", and with that he left the courtyard, leaving a steaming Lucas behind.

Preparing himself he took some extra tools with him, like some small throwing knives, they wouldn't pierce the spiders' legs but should be good enough to pierce the eyes. Gathering some food and equipment took some time, but at least he was prepared now. The strangest object he took with him was a small empty notepad and a quill pen.

This was a feather of a goose, with the tip tempered in heat to reduce the brittleness, and with the feather removed it looked like a normal writing utensil. Perhaps the most surprising thing was that he had taken two purple potions from his training period with him. He still had a few leftovers but was sparing them. The potions induced a torturous feeling, but did refill your energy reserves, taking it during combat was suicide, but outside it could be seen as a powerful healing spell.

The trip to the mine was uneventvol, he used a horse to reach the southern mine. It looked about the same, with the same construction around the mine. The fact that there were no beds still bothered Lucas, but this time he had a different idea. This mine was operated by the baron, the Scarlet Moon made them unusable for him, so this means that he was already sending workers to them. The fact that there were no beds must mean he treated the workers as literal slaves, people on the bottom of the hierarchy, worthless.

This time he wanted to make sure he wouldn't be discovered in there. He had been studying how to erase his presence, Venion exuded an invisible pressuring aura by default, only revealing it to others when he deemed it necessary. It was how he was pushed down so many times in the beginning.

There had to be a way, but after writing out most of the spells he found that could be useful he would have to use darkness energy, so that was out of the question. With no other choice, he was left to figure out how to destroy the runes that embedded themselves into his heart. This was actually the first thing he wanted to do. 'Since the baron didn't give me a deadline and merely asked me to return when I'm 'done', I can get some time off.'

He went inside the wooden construction to destroy his contract.

Sitting down in one of the chairs he placed his backpack on the table to take out everything he needed. He didn't need to hurry, as long as he cleared out the mine and returned right after he was fine. After all, the order was to clear out the spiders in the mine, but there were multiple loopholes that he could take advantage of.

He had already done multiple studies on which runes do what and the order the runes had to be destroyed, but couldn't destroy them with magic. One of the conditions was that he couldn't break the contract, using magic, the contract would realize it was Lucas' magic and activate itself. He needed to be done by someone else.

'Or physical objects'

He opened one of the purple potions while grabbing one of the throwing knives with his other hand. The potions did remake all the muscles, but very slowly, so the runes on the heart just stay there. It could not get rid of foreign objects or substances in the body, it only remade the muscles to their original structure.

'This has to be the most stupid thing we've done so far.'

In theory, this was quite simple, but actually carving your own heart wasn't as simple as it seemed. All his instincts told him to not puncture himself with that knife, yet he didn't want to be bound by another contract anymore. Taking the knife he sat down on the floor in a meditative pose and positioned the knife above the lower part of his heart. The runes in question were the ones that linked the explosion with the trigger, touching either would result in suicide, but the linking ones were fine. Some were still dangerous to touch, but after a lot of research, he found which ones were harmless. There was always a chance he had them wrong, but Lucas didn't mind taking that risk. He needed darkness to clear the mine on his own, fighting against so many monsters on his own would be a death sentence.

He was extremely lucky that the four of the five runes that he needed to destroy were reachable without puncturing his lungs.

'I guess being glad I only have to puncture my lung once isn't the most normal thing'

'What do you think? That every kid can't wait to get a punctured lung?'

'At least support me in these situations, you take control of the potion, I'll do the carving'

He had the potion in his hand to make sure he could drink it the moment his heart was punctured. A human could live for a little bit after the heart was punctured, unlike the brain where death would be unavoidable, he still had a chance. Taking a deep breath and calming his heart as much as possible he went ahead and slowly inserted the knife into his torso. It hurt a lot, be he was used to that level of pain, not flinching in the slightest.

Visualizing the knife and its trajectory it slowly went towards the heart. Once the knife almost hit the heart he stopped once more. Taking another deep breath he pushed the knife right outside where the heart would reach when it was pumping blood. Pushing it any further he would damage his heart with every heartbeat. He started to get a bit nervous, but his split mind could reassure itself that it would go fine.

Being cautious he lowered his heart rate as much as possible, he let the blood leave his body, but there wasn't much coming out as the knife kept the wound closed for now. He never let go of the knife but he did try to meditate for a bit to lower his heart rate even more. When he was completely calm and his body felt what he wanted to do his heart slowed to a crawl.

Taking his chance he inserted a little bit further in the correct place, destroying the place where the rune originally was while drinking the potion right after. After he swallowed the drink he pulled out the knife and pressed his hand on the wound, making sure not too much blood would flow out. Laying down now, would increase his heart rate, so he held steady, pressing his hands firmly on the wound. Using healing magic now could result in a failure due to the pain the potion brought, so rather than risking another explosion on the wound, he would rather wait it out.

The potion did its work and all the muscles started to be remade.

He had a few spasms, but he limited as much as he possibly could to limit the loss of blood. He didn't have to lay on the floor or spasm all around anymore. Compared to his first time drinking it, he was sitting still and focused on the reconstruction of his heart. After the effects went away, the wound was healed and after a thorough inspection, he noticed that the rune he was aiming for disappeared.

Using healing magic to close up the wound he had a giant grin on his face.