Josh froze. He didn't even notice that Jael was behind him before she unlocked his manacles and freed his hands. Hawkins ordered him to step forward and check the stones. He barely even heard, and walked forward in a daze. He checked the stones one after another.

  Josh couldn't breathe. Four new classes, all Utility classes. Scavenger was worth a mint, especially with all the junk still scattered around and grown over by the Jungle. He knew Mary would probably sell her parents for a Gatherer's inventory, and he was pretty sure that careful class advancement would lead to other Gatherer classes like Farmer or Miner.

  Bookworm was one of those weirdly specific generic classes. It was focused on novels and entertainment, on finding new and interesting things to read. It was still a Scholar class, though, and thus came with a number of useful tricks. It might even lead to the Lawyer or Diplomat classes, both of which would be invaluable.

  Mechanist was what he had been aiming for this entire time. Well, one of the stepping stones to more advanced magitech classes. On its own, it wasn't much more than any of the Crafter classes he already had. In fact, if you didn't already have Metalcrafting from another source, it was actually pretty annoying, since you couldn't make machine parts yourself. But it could save them all, used right.

  And the Runner. That damned Runner. He had never cared about that class, not really. It had plenty of uses, and it was a key component in quite a few advanced builds. If you knew what you were doing, it could grant abilities that let you outrun the wind, lend that speed to others, and eventually even teleport. Still, there were other, more specific Basic-tier classes that filled most jobs better. The Sprinter class was better for speed. The Stepper class was a magic-based Explorer class, so it was better for teleportation. And of course the Walker class was a better generalist foundational class.

  Josh still wanted it. He almost broke free of the collar's control out of a sheer, frantic need to grab that bloodstone. To finally, finally, fix his mistake.

  He took a deep breath and decided to preview what he could get from the Mechanist bloodstone. It was the most important. Besides the obvious option to advance to Mechanist, there were three options.

  Wait, he could get an Improved-tier class? What was that about a sidero crystal?

  Oh right, the crystal he had won from the metal dungeon. It looked like while the class was metal-themed, it wasn't actually of the metal element. Josh preferred it that way. He'd need more crystals by the time he reached his next advancement, but he could swing that.

  His eyes went back to the Runner bloodstone.

  “Step back,” Hawkins ordered, sounding almost bored.

  Josh felt his feet move him back. Away from the bloodstones. His hands didn't shake in rage. He didn't grind his teeth. But good God it was close.

  “All I ask is that you stop trying to interfere,” Hou Zheng said calmly. “You are making great strides in this village. You can turn it into the new center of the world. As much as I do not believe you can save this world, you still have a chance.”

  Josh took a deep breath. “What happened to pretending the dragon won't destroy the whole damn City?”

  “I still believe damage can be kept to a minimum,” Hou Zheng said. He remained maddeningly calm. “And I still have the authority to offer you and your friends escape from this world entirely. However, you have demonstrated that you do not trust such promises.” He held out the stones again. “I suspect that you trust this more. You have to know what you can do with these.”

  Josh thought about it for a long moment. Tried to put everything together and think it through logically. Stopping the dragon themselves had always been a long shot. Their only hope had ever been to either inform the City or the Eight Immortals, preferably both. Would it be so bad to just take these stones and... accept the end?

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  What had the City ever done for him? He had tried to play by the rules, like his sister had asked, and he had found a pit of vipers. He conquered half the criminal underworld only to get thrown out for disrupting their precious little system. Despite considering themselves the beacon of civilization, all they really had going for them was a better citystone and the growth pods. What would be lost, if the City fell?

  Okay, thinking it through logically, a lot would be lost. Most of the world's active factories were in the City. Countless libraries filled with all of human knowledge would be in danger if a dragon rampaged through the streets. Even if not one single person died—and that was bloody unlikely, even if they evacuated—the loss to the world's industry and knowledge would be incalculable.

  And even putting aside all that, the dragon wanted to take the Tower, and the dungeons. Remove them entirely. Which meant the rifts would be naked to the world, yet still spilling out monsters. That might not sound like much, but he had seen what happened when monsters roamed freely.

  Then again...

  “Let's say I agree,” he said, stalling for time. “What then?”

  “Then I give you the bloodstones, and you stay in this town for the rest of the reset,” Hou Zheng said.

  “Right, sure, yeah. But how do you plan on making me keep up my end? I'd like to think I'm an honest sort, but you barely know me from Adam. I don't think you'll just take my word on shite this big.”

  Hawkins scoffed. “We do have a Slaver's Collar on you.”

  Josh didn't bother dignifying that with a response. Even if he couldn't get it off himself, his friends would have no trouble. And if Hawkins had enough collars lying around to enslave that many people, his rule of the town would have been very different.

  Hou Zheng ignored him as well, keeping his eyes on Josh. “Are you aware of magic contracts?”

  “Sure, but no one can make them any more—” He stopped, realizing. “Of course. You had someone with a Lawyer class in your higher realms or whatever write you up a contract for this.”

  “Well, not for this,” Hou Zheng admitted. “I do not have that much foresight. And I can't return to the higher worlds outside of the solstice. Not easily, at least. No, I had a friend write me up a number of blank contracts that I can fill in now.”

  Josh frowned. “That's not how Lawyer contracts work. They have to write everything up themselves. Explicitly.”

  “My friend is a Master-tier Arch Judicial Contract Lawyer,” Hou Zheng said, his tone dry as dust. “I promise you, he can do quite a bit more than a Basic-tier Lawyer class.” He pulled a scroll out of thin air; a storage ring, Josh guessed. “If you'd like to begin?”

  Josh suddenly really wished Darius was here. Or Baara, or Abraham, or Abraham's wife Miriam, or really anybody who was slightly better at paperwork than he was. God, he'd even take Mary, if that meant she'd be doing it instead of him.

  Hou Zheng wrote up the contract quickly, and Josh took it in his hands as if it would explode. The concept of a magic contract was pretty simple: The signatories were magically compelled to follow the contract. You couldn't break out of them with brute force like a Slaver's Collar, but on the other hand you couldn't be affected by one without your express consent. If you tried to sign a contract under duress, it would simply fail. It would also break automatically at the solstice. Or, to be more specific, it would break if any party involved in the contract was affected by the reset.

  He read over the terms and conditions carefully. It wasn't that complicated. In exchange for Josh staying on this side of the mountains, making no attempt to send anyone over the mountains for the purpose of warning anyone about the dragon, and actively preventing anyone from doing the same, he would be given the rewards already agreed upon. Those were listed again: Four copies of four different bloodstones, all of which were listed. Extraction from “World 16777-H216 (Earth-type),” which Josh confirmed was the term for his planet, for him and all his loved ones.

  The list of loved ones was both depressingly and hilariously small. It just listed Ruth, Mary, and Darius. His sister wasn't even on the list. Not that she'd ever be willing to go, of course.

  “I think my friends will have more people they'd like put on this list,” Josh noted wryly.

  Hou Zheng nodded. “I will have them sign their own copies. They will be able to name their own.”

  Well, that was one loophole down. There would still be loopholes, of course, there always were. A static document could never last long against a mind actively trying to circumvent it. Even though Josh usually preferred the brute-force approach, he was sure he could find a way around it soon enough.

  Still, that wasn't something he could really rely on. He wasn't exactly some genius Lawyer himself. God, he'd literally never had that class. He was far from the type to pick up Scholar classes. He couldn't trust his loophole skills against a priest and a dragon.

  ...his life was mental. He had a sudden, strong wave of nostalgia for the days when he was just another reclaimer on the Burn Line. That had been a life with a clear goal in front of him. Not easy, but simple. He had been making an obvious difference in the world.

  He shook his head to clear it. “All right, so you can enforce things on my end. What about you?”

  “I am signing as well.”

  “Yeah, not what I meant.” He tapped the contract. “I don't see the dragon's scrawl on this thing. What's binding him?”

  Hou Zheng sighed. “To be honest? Mostly his own apathy. He doesn't care about you.”

  Josh narrowed his eyes. “Your lies are shite. He's sent two alien bounty hunters after me.”

  The big man snorted. “That's not quite the imposition on his time and money that you might think it is. I do not know the full details of his abilities, but I suspect hiring us was slightly easier than writing a letter. Our conflict is not something he is worried about. He is scratching an itch to remove an annoyance. Nothing more.”

  That shouldn't have been as insulting as it was. Being underestimated was a good thing. Still, Josh couldn't help but feel offended. “Fine. So I'm an itch. He's not going to fly a few miles out of his way to shoot a fireball at us. I'll buy it.”

  Hou Zheng cocked his head to the side, eyebrow raised. “Did you never scan him? He actually doesn't have fire breath—”

  “Whatever!” Josh snapped, loud enough that the guards put their hands on their weapons. He ignored them. “No dragon, that's the important bit. What about everyone else?” He jerked a thumb at Hawkins and the rest of his cronies. “What happens when I sign this? These buggers can jump me the second we're done.”

  “I've already signed a contract of my own,” Jael said. Her tone was flat, businesslike. “Unless you break your contract or Ruth is in danger, I will not be able to interfere.”

  Hawkins, on the other hand, snorted. “I haven't signed anything.” He sighed dramatically. “I suppose I can negotiate a treaty between us.”