“Your king?” Blue Maple asked suspiciously. However, his voice was a little cold as he was abruptly placed in this position, and he was being asked to consign something. That wasn’t something that he liked.

“Yes, our king. I hope that you can establish an equal contract with him. This is a similar contract to those that humans have with their pets, except those contracts are between master and servant. They aren’t equal.”

“The Phoenix?” Blue Maple continued asking.

Evidently, Blue Maple’s guess was that the king of the birds had to be the mythical Phoenix.

“I’m not referring to the Holy Phoenix King. Furthermore, we don’t know where he is.” The Golden Roc shook his head and answered with a tinge of regret in his voice.

“To be frank, your current status is very compatible with the Holy Phoenix King. Your Heavenly Fire is very compatible after all. However, that won’t be beneficial for your Nine Heavens Mysterious Ice, unless we’re talking about Ice Phoenix.” The Golden Roc continued explaining truthfully.

“Who is your king, then?” Blue Maple inquired confusedly. He couldn’t think of anybody else as he didn’t know much about myths and legends.

“I have to apologize about that. I can only tell you that our king and the Holy Phoenix King exist on the same level. Our king is, from a certain perspective, even stronger.” The Golden Roc lifted his head arrogantly, and he was clearly immensely proud.

“I cannot speak his true name. Otherwise, the Demons will sense this. Our king is still too weak at the moment.” The Golden Roc sounded a little depressed as it heaved a sigh while it spoke.

“But, rest assured, his spatial abilities and his personality are absolutely compatible with you!” The Golden Roc’s voice was filled with firmness, and it was clear that he had absolute confidence in his king.

“Space… personality… that should be right…” Blue Maple contemplated momentarily, and he had probably guessed who the Golden Roc was referring to.

“I can consider that. But what’s in it for me?” Blue Maple asked coldly. He wouldn’t accept just any request for no good reason.

“I’m sure you’ve already guessed. Is a companion as powerful as our king not good enough for you?” The Golden Roc answered. He was displeased that Blue Maple still had to question his own benefits, and he could feel that Blue Maple was being disrespectful to their king.

“Good enough? The prerequisite is that he has to be able to freely deploy his abilities,” Blue Maple answered.

The Golden Roc fell silent after hearing his words…

“Yes, my king cannot expose himself, because he’s still weak, and the Demon race will discover him. He has to be Rank 120 before he can freely use his abilities without being discovered.” The Golden Roc sounded serious as he spoke.

“But I can use my last strength to give our king a final layer of protection. He will have nine chances to unleash his full strength before he reaches Rank 120, but he will sacrifice three chances if he uses too much power in one instance.”

“When he reaches Rank 120, not to mention the fact that he can evade his enemies’ detection, our king’s spatial power will be completely awakened. As long as you don’t tread into Demon territory, and as long as you don’t provoke an overwhelmingly powerful being, he should have no problem escaping. He will be able to unleash his full strength at that point.”

The Golden Roc completed his explanation and stopped as he stared at Blue Maple, awaiting his response.

You want me to be his babysitter before he reaches Rank 120? That means he will need a little more than a year… Blue Maple was thinking about his costs and benefits.

This seems like quite a steal, but… I think I’m getting too much out of this. I’ll probably have to go through a lot of trouble.

……

“I can agree, but can I still sign the contract with my current Level? Will I lose the ability to have a pet? And, what else do I have to do as he’s growing?” Blue Maple shot out a series of questions, but he did have half a mind to agree.

“Haha, don’t worry. I can make sure that you can complete your contract. Furthermore, you are the old gangster’s disciple, so I won’t try to attempt to deceive you or pull any tricks. The other scheming old bastard has also left a mark on your body.”

“Tsk, tsk. If I trick you into signing an unequal contract, the old fellow will probably come over immediately to destroy me,” the Golden Roc sucked on his tongue as he spoke, and he lamented with mild fear in his heart.

“Mark?” Blue Maple asked confusedly. His voice was a little cold, as iciness permeated over his body.

“Don’t worry. This mark isn’t meant to spy on you. It’s only there to detect whether you’re in mortal danger. The mark can also detect, say, if I trick you into an unequal contract.” The Golden Roc continued to explain as he guessed what Blue Maple was thinking about.

Blue Maple’s coldness receded as he listened.

The Golden Roc watched Blue Maple and his emotions didn’t seem to change, so it continued to explain.

“You will naturally be unable to have other pets if you sign an equal contract with our king. However, you can still have mounts for moving around. As for when our king is growing…” The Golden Roc paused momentarily.

“Forget it. I don’t think you have to look for that deliberately. Your master, the old gangster, probably has some with him. I’m talking about things that Spirits need for sustenance. Our king will tell you himself about other things that he needs, and all you have to do is not reject him when the time comes.” The Golden Roc evidently didn’t want to give Blue Maple any more trouble.

Sometimes, not implicating or involving too much with regards to costs and benefits was the better option.

“Alright, do you have any other questions?” The Golden Roc seemed to be in a hurry to sign the contract.

“No, I don’t. Let’s sign the contract.” Blue Maple didn’t mind that the Golden Roc was in a rush, and he couldn’t be bothered with whatever ulterior motives the roc had even if he did. The worst that could happen to him couldn’t be worse than exiting the game and returning into slumber.

“Alright, let’s begin,” the Golden Roc said excitedly.

The Golden Roc opened his mouth after he spoke, and white light emerged from between his enormous beaks. A large and milky-white egg appeared between his beaks and gradually floated before Blue Maple.

This enormous egg was as tall as Blue Maple was, and it just hovered in front of Blue Maple.

There seemed to be a seal over this egg, and it didn’t seem to have any special characteristics besides the fact that it appeared extremely smooth.

“This egg is for incubating our future king. It was originally incubating nicely within our territory, but just as our king was about to emerge, the Demons gathered many elite warriors and invaded our territory!” The Golden Roc’s voice was filled with hatred as he spoke.

“Those who were protecting our king wasn’t limited to our kind. There were other powerful beings from other bird-type species, and even some other species who weren’t birds.”

“However, the Demons actually mobilized three of their Twelve Demon Gods!” The Golden Roc’s tone was furious, and he didn’t attempt to hide his anger at all!

“We couldn’t hold them back at all. Our kin and the other powerful Spirit beings couldn’t hold them back. In the end, our remaining kin sacrificed their lives to hold the demons back, while the remaining powerful beings from other races constructed a formidable defensive perimeter while I, who was most adept with spatial power, escaped with our king, who had yet to emerge from incubation. That was the only way I could escape with spatial power.”

The Golden Roc’s expression turned gloomy, and his voice teemed with despondence.

“Unfortunately, I was struck with a fatal blow by a Demon God in the crack between space, and I had no other choice but to escape to this forest, Elven Forest, as it was known in the past, in hope of recovery.” The Golden Roc glanced at his fatal wound along his wing as he spoke.

No, that wound wasn’t on his wings. The roc’s wound extended down his back, and it could only be seen when the roc turned to its side.

“However, that didn’t do anything for me. Elven Forest is no longer like it was, and elves are no longer like they were. The forest doesn’t have its dense aura of nature like it used to, so the forest can’t help me recover from my injury.” The Golden Roc’s voice was filled with dejected acceptance.

Evidently, the Elven race wasn’t not much better than demons. Otherwise, the Golden Roc would have probably sought them out for help.

So, this place is called Elven Forest. This forest was once elven territory, so there’s no wonder that not a single snowflake can be seen during midwinter… Those were Blue Maple’s thoughts at a time like this…

“In the end, I can only hide here and seal this place down. I have also sealed our king away, who is about to be born. I’m on my last legs, and this seal lasted for one hundred years…” The Golden Roc lamented.

The Golden Roc actually spent one hundred years in this narrow pocket of space!

There was no wonder that the roc was excited and in such a hurry before this. Such a long time had passed, and he was about to be liberated in peace. How could he not be excited?

Another one hundred years… Blue Maple thought as he frowned. The last quest that he had completed with Blue Snow also had a story that started one hundred years ago.

“Are the other Spirit birds all dead?” Blue Maple finally asked another question with a cold voice.

Blue Maple typically wouldn’t bother with these boring story details, but the particular point in time one hundred years ago piqued his curiosity.

“Heh, heh. You can tell? Even though not everyone has perished, the Spirit birds don’t have their Holy Kings to unite them. There’s no way they can protect our king, who is still weak. Just as I have said before, the Holy Phoenix King is nowhere to be seen, and nobody knows whether he is going through reincarnation or he’s managed to find rebirth.”

“The Holy Peacock King perished in a great battle thousands of years ago, and nobody knows if another Holy Peacock King has been born till this day.” The Golden Roc shook his head exasperatedly as he spoke with a tinge of regret in his voice.

“You’re only asking about Spirit birds. You must have realised why I’ve been staying in this place this whole time. The reason is because other races, excluding the kind elves or other Spirit birds, cannot be trusted!” The Golden Roc’s eyes grew sharp as he spoke!

“Those fellows will be overcome with greed to control our young king, and they will never sincerely help him grow. Even though my words may sound a little exaggerated, I will never allow any accident to happen!” The Golden Roc exclaimed passionately, and his voice was filled with determination!

Greed? What a joke… Blue Maple could already guess what was going on, and he could relate!

Greed. Even the Elves, who were kind by nature, could be overwhelmed with greed, not to mention other races.

Humans were undoubtedly one of the greediest races. Blue Maple was still weak, but full of potential, and this was the reason why the Golden Roc had given Blue Maple a test of his greed and his personality.

“I also wish to ask your master, the old gangster, for help. I know that I can trust him and his personality, but unless I have no other choice, I don’t wish to owe humans such an immense favor on behalf of the Spirit birds! The Rocs also have our own pride, and we will not easily ask humans for favours.” The pride in the Golden Roc’s bones wouldn’t allow that, either.

“I hope you can understand that, and I trust that you can understand, because you know very well what a human’s strengths and weaknesses are.” The Golden Roc stared at Blue Maple, like he was trying to imply something else.

“Even though I do not know why you, who is still weak, will come to this place, which is the Elven Forest of old, you will probably sign an equal contract with our king in the end.” The Golden Roc chuckled as he finished his sentence.

“Then, let the signing of this contract commence!”