The beast-eared girl rose as if in a final burst of strength, snatched the pen, and signed her name.
Her pressure on the pen felt like a knife, carving out a crooked pattern. Tasha almost thought the girl was merely venting her rage before death, scribbling wildly on the floating paper. But as the final stroke fell, the entire contract glowed. The unrealistically ornate document in midair dissolved into dust the next instant, simultaneously illuminating the minds of both parties.
It was a peculiar transformation—the tangible becoming intangible, achieving immortality through its own dissipation. If the joss paper burned for the dead in legends truly reached their spirits, this must be the process. The moment the contract was sealed, fireworks exploded in Tasha's mind. It felt as though a valve within her soul had been opened. With a click, countless sealed memories unlocked.
They were so complex and vast that Tasha instantly understood why she hadn't "remembered" them the instant she awoke. Her unprepared soul would have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume. Her current predicament wasn't much better. Tasha felt trapped inside a mad library where every book darted about like startled birds. Merely dodging the sharp edges of pages left her frantically scrambling.
She strained to tame this flood of information, seeking patterns and predicting trajectories—the greatest challenge being that she didn't wish to evade this dangerous knowledge. She craved to understand it. She was indeed calm and cautious, yet possessed an equally fierce curiosity. When the latter overpowered the former... but the difference between a reckless fool and a victorious hero was but a sliver of wisdom and luck, wasn't it?
It was like translating texts between two utterly dissimilar civilizations—how could one comprehend things never seen or heard? If only it could be categorized like files, Tasha thought. Images of Excel spreadsheets, file folders, and business card holders flashed through her mind, these fragmented thoughts silently seeping into the chaotic torrent.
Under her will, the knowledge began to transform.
Piece by piece, the information sorted itself into categories, organized into frameworks she could grasp. Some details might be lost or meanings altered, but it was sufficient. The gate slammed shut again, most of the "books" flying back to the other side. The sudden torrent ceased, and Tasha discovered with delight that she had indeed intercepted some fragments.
Ah, no wonder the dungeon is called the Abyss's outpost.
For ordinary dungeons, the way to gain further favor from the Abyss is to devour the living beings above ground. Through this process, the dungeon channels energy from the Material Plane into the Abyss while drawing magic from the Abyss itself. With each exchange of material energy, the Abyss corrupts the surface world. Just as slimes can cultivate environments conducive to magic stone growth, if a dungeon were filled with Eryans, the altered environment might one day allow greater demons to no longer be repelled by the Material Plane, enabling them to roam the surface unchecked.
Tasha did not pursue this path. Yet whether due to anomalies stemming from her pact with Victor or the Dungeon Heart's accommodation of the status quo, her contract with a Material Plane creature was accepted.
A portion of the Dungeon Heart's hidden knowledge unlocked for her. This otherworldly wisdom and power restructured itself into a form Tasha could comprehend, transforming concealed information into clear text, laid out as plainly as a table.
Three "cards" lay on the table before her.
The first card depicted Ah Huang's plump head, annotated: "Clever goblin Ah Huang. Even the strongest ants remain mere ants—perhaps a pure waste of core power."
As Tasha focused her attention on it, a curious nudge came from that direction, Ah Huang's emotions laid bare. Just like before, communicating with it was like playing fetch with a pet—one couldn't expect a clear, coherent conversation. The information on its end was a complete mess, probably only another goblin could make sense of it. Aside from the card's name and that brief annotation, there was nothing else. Ah Huang was born of the dungeon, and little had changed.
The second card bore a vertical-pupiled yellow eye. Note: "Victor, the Book of the Dungeon—a peculiar tome claiming to be a great demon. Now, at least, a decent reference book."
Tasha probed it as she had with Ah Huang, stepping into a dark alleyway where whispers hissed at her ears. Before reaching halfway, she was flung back. "Hey! You weren't trying to peek, were you?" Victor shouted. "Don't be foolish! The darkness in my soul would crush you, and your stupidity would drag me to my death!"
Tasha knew much of that was exaggeration, yet she felt a bone-chilling cold and glimpsed fragmented images—like fleeting dawn dreams—vanishing in an instant. Even with their contract, she realized it was best not to pry into others' souls. It felt dangerous, intrusive, and downright rude. Clearly, not every soul was as transparent as Ah Huang's.
[Book of Dungeons]This card also came with an attached skill.
Suspicious Salesperson: You can pull out a contract at any time, anywhere, but it will only use the language you've learned and lacks the inherent allure of a demonic pact. No worries! Because all performance hinges on the salesperson themselves!
...Tasha began to realize the forces shaping the cards weren't solely from this world. That sales pitch sounded straight out of her own realm. Thinking about it, the patterns on the card backs resembled cheap playing cards sold near train stations for a few bucks a pack.
She skimmed the first two cards and fixed her gaze on the third, depicting a blood-stained girl with beast ears.
"Marion, bleeding out. Her bloodline is mixed and impure, mostly human and werewolf. Provide her with temporary shelter, and soon you'll receive her soul—P.S.: She has about ten minutes left before becoming 'Dead Marion.' But no worries, a pup with such weakened blood has little combat value. Her soul and corpse might prove more useful."
That tone was so Victor.
Tasha rolled her eyes at Victor through the link. His large yellow eyes stared back blankly, utterly unaware of her thoughts.
When Tasha had conjured the contract earlier, she hadn't bothered to customize it—the other party couldn't read it anyway. So she'd used the demonic community's widely acclaimed default version. She would fulfill the contracter's wish, and from that moment on, everything belonging to the contracter would belong to her.
A thoroughly Abyssal-style, one-sided clause. Probably only someone like Victor would call this perfectly fair.
Beneath the card of the beast-eared girl named Marion, the skill section remained grayed out, awaiting contract completion to unlock. Tasha frowned at the "Near Death" label beside the name, then shuddered violently. She slipped out of the space containing the card and desk.
There was no card or desk—they were merely manifestations of something within her soul. Both the earlier frenzy and the subsequent tidying occurred within Tasha's mental palace. In reality, it had taken only minutes. Marion, on the brink of death, begged at her feet. The surrounding crowd remained as terrified as before. Tasha saw the flickering torchlight approaching from the distance.
"Hide everyone!"—Now she understood what those words had meant.
It wasn't difficult.
A long fissure split open in the ground. The goblin-widened crevice swallowed everyone, weapons, and corpses alike. Panicked cries erupted. "Don't be afraid!" Marion shouted, coughing up blood. "It's me... Follow me!"
She steadied herself and moved deeper into the tunnel. The pitch-black underground was unsettling, but compared to the army closing in, how much worse could the unknown space be? With Marion leading the way, the exiles began to follow.
Less than a hundred remained, and soon all had descended into the underground city. The earth and stone at the entrance closed like flowing water. The goblins were masters at manipulating the surface of the underground city—Tasha hadn't realized they could excel so thoroughly. In mere moments, the ground was as smooth as if no earth had ever been disturbed.
"Done!" Victor declared. "The contract is fulfilled. Throw them out."
He was right, and Tasha could feel it. "Hide everyone"—no mention of how long, no mention of who to hide from. If you're desperate enough to make a pact with a demon, remember to plug every loophole you can think of. A demon's contract always favors the house. Marion had already fallen unconscious, unaware of this terrible truth.
"What are you waiting for?" Victor pressed. "No lord would tolerate a dungeon on his lands. Do you want to be swarmed by a horde of Holy Light Knights?"
"All traces are buried underground," Tasha pointed at the soldiers' corpses. "They won't find a thing."
"A mass disappearance on flat ground? Any fool would suspect foul play!" Victor countered.
But regardless, it was already too late. Footsteps of the army echoed above, separated from them by only a layer of earth. The survivors huddled together underground, holding their breath.
Barking, footsteps, shouts—they drew near... then receded.
Phew! The collective sigh of relief formed a small gust of air, terrifyingly loud in the dark tunnel. Many covered their mouths and noses. They froze like statues for a moment, then several began looking anxiously toward the tunnel's only light source—Tashan, who no longer concealed her spectral form.
Was there enough air in the tunnel? Tashan suddenly lost her train of thought. No one underground needed air, just as no one needed light, food, or healing...
She froze, realizing new information had unlocked in her mind.
"Healing: A creature among your Contracted Ones is experiencing a drastic decline in vitality. Healing has been unlocked."
"Kitchen: Among your Contracted Beings exists a creature requiring sustenance to survive. Kitchen has been unlocked."...
Not only that, but also "Residence: Among your Contracted Beings exists a creature unable to recover stamina in basic tunnels. Residence has been unlocked," and so on. Yet the most crucial was undoubtedly the top entry. The moment the beast-eared girl became property of the dungeon, Tasha gained the means to repair her.