Once the two other young Originals woke up, Nial asked them the same questions as Felix.
Oddly enough, their answers were uncannily similar in a sense that made him wonder whether all of them told them the truth, or they orchestrated a big lie together.
However, Nial doubted the latter given that he could sense the slightest changes in the body language and mana fluctuations of the people around him.
He was pretty sure that he could tell if someone was lying to him as long as they were not tricksters from the depth of their hearts.
'That New Scheme is more troublesome than expected, spreading through multiple, if not all, shelters at the same time… it's just good that the bastards belong to one race and not to multiple different races. That makes things a lot easier!'
The new scheme to get their hands on human slaves under 'legal' circumstances was quite simple. A Soul Contract was used to seal certain deals. If the conditions couldn't be met by either party involved, the one who broke the contract would become the Slave of the other party.
In this regard, Party A, the member of the foreign race, would deliver training resources, and a seemingly powerful, yet altered Mana Breathing technique that was supposed to allow the practitioner to accelerate the training of their Mana Core, which would be enough to complete the conditions for Party A.
There was no danger for Party A of breaking the Soul Contract, which was why only Party B could fail, if they didn't meet the conditions in the given period. According to the new scheme, the conditions seemed feasible at the first glance, but that was only the case until one figured that the Mana Breathing technique was actually altered, preventing human Originals from reaching the Prometheus rank.
They would have to destroy their cultivated mana core and start anew, without the use of the altered Mana Breathing technique and without enough time left to reach the threshold required in the Soul Contract. Thus, one would inevitably end up as Party A's Slave!
It was treacherous but not exactly unfair because everything was written down in the Soul Contract. One was even allowed to read through the Mana Breathing technique a few times before actually signing the contract.
Party A was not at fault for Party B's ignorance or greed, but that didn't really make things better because Party A was deceiving the humans of Jundra intentionally.
They did not know anything about Mana Breathing techniques, or any other techniques, which was what made it impossible to figure out that they were getting deceived.
"What are you going to do against them?" Melheim Zorn asked Nial when he heard about the situation. His face was red and the broken table that lay crookedly between the two Originals clearly showed what happened just a moment ago.
"Right now? Nothing," Nial responded calmly.
Melheim looked at his Boss through the runic eye, his mouth opening and closing several times. No word escaped his lips but it was not hard for Nial to tell what he thought.
"I don't have enough information yet, and these idiots told me that their family members and loved ones have a few months left before the duration of their Soul Contract comes to an end," Nial explained further. He thought of something and added,
"Furthermore, I should destroy the root of the problem rather than giving everyone a big paycheck to save their loved ones. It's too much of a coincidence that the Cultivation Drugs appeared nearly at the same time as the New scheming surfaced, don't you think so?"
Nial was pretty sure that there was a connection between the Cultivation Drugs and the new scheming. There were many valid theories that swarmed his mind, but the most prominent reasons for him to believe that something was odd were probably the timing and the follow-up actions of the contracted loved ones!
With timing, Nial meant that the period when the Cultivation Drugs appeared was just weeks, if not days after the first Soul Contracted surfaced. Nial knew only about three Soul Contracted until now but there were certainly more.
As for the follow-up actions of people like Felix, all of them tried to make a huge fortune with the use of Cultivation Drugs rather than raiding dungeons. Easy money was a tantalizing offer not many could refuse.
Dungeons were quite lucrative, even Origin dungeons. Given the long period, Felix and the others had to earn the required fortune, it wouldn't be impossible to say that they could earn more than enough just by conquering one or two dungeons a day.
It was more dangerous but one wouldn't have to deal with loan sharks, let alone search for them, to begin with!
"You mean that they're connected?..." Melhem Zorn gasped in shock, his voice turning quieter with every word as realization struck him. His expression changed and he scowled, "Tell me what you need, and I will make sure that you will get everything you asked for and more!!"
Nial was a little bit stumped because Melheim was extremely energetic all of a sudden, but he merely nodded his head.
"I want to know every single person who signed a Soul Contract with the same kind of scheming. It might not be easy for you to find out about it, but their families should be desperate to make money after they realize that their loved ones were tricked. Maybe that will help you… It needs to be a covert operation because things will get a little bit more difficult the moment the Embassy of that shitty race finds out about it!"
The thoughts of Nial were rather simple right now. He wanted to figure out how deep the foreign race had dug its talons in mankind's flesh without letting the government and organizations notice. There might only be tens of people under a Soul Contract who were publicly known, but Nial presumed the numbers to be in the hundreds or possibly even thousands.
Losing a thousand rather talented Originals would be quite a big loss, and the long-term problems that would surface in hundreds of years might as well turn worse.
'While Princess Evalyne searches for the hidden laboratory for the Drugs, the troublemakers will slowly move up the leader of Drug dealers, and Melheim will take care of the new scheming with the use of the organizations' wealth and connections…that should be enough…'
"I will take your leave. Just message me whenever you find out something new���but don't bombard me with messages, I don't want to be interrupted every half an hour," Nial ordered before he took his leave with Ryu sleeping on his shoulder, and the Little Oracle jumping around at his side while continuing to hold his hand.
Now that Nial had finally finished his business in the Orion Artisan Guild, it was time for him to visit a bunch of merchants.
He had many Beast Corpses and Dungeon loot drops to sell and a bunch of nutrition solutions to purchase.
Nutrition solutions were not actually popular in the human shelters because their uses were rather restricted, but Nial had a great use for them.
His need for nutrition was tremendous because of the 10,000 Refinements of Imperfectia technique. It required both mana and nutrition, not too little of either, at that.
Thus, he would have to buy most merchants' stock of nutrition solutions.
'The foreign races are probably still withholding body refinement techniques because they don't know whether it will harm humans from Jundra to refine their body using techniques that were customized for other races…which makes sense… but some human Originals will probably get greedy in the future and make demands…how stupid…'
Nial could pretty much tell how mankind was about to develop. Their development was likely to be split up. A part of mankind was likely to willingly and unwillingly follow the steps of foreign races to use their techniques, learn from their vast knowledge, and become close allies…or even a sub-race to those 'Saint'-like members of foreign races.
As for the other part of mankind, they would attempt to grow on their own, independently, and without the help of other races.
They could maintain their freedom like this and make sure that their growth and versatility in the choice of abilities and techniques would never be restricted due to others.
Nial belonged to the latter with the sole difference that he allowed other races to help him, if he trusted them to a certain extent. He wouldn't blindly practice a certain technique just because someone was willing to give it to him.
That was also why he had read through the entire tome of the 10,000 Refinements of Imperfectia several times in a row before he even considered practicing it.
This might be enough to make him look a little bit distrustful and way too vigilant about others, but it was important to be both.
There was no need to trust a stranger, even less someone, who wanted to gift you with something!
That was just way too suspicious!