The Beginning of the Story
I wanted to communicate with that noble, almost transcendent creature.
I attempted to manifest my form, but physically severed from my contractor Ella, with the tether of our contract grown faint and frail, my own will was nowhere near enough to materialize.
Just then, the colossal silhouette of the Gumiho, who had been studying me in silence, gleamed with a brilliant silver radiance before abruptly reshaping itself into the figure of a human woman.
Where the light dispersed stood an ethereal beauty crowned with cascading snow-white hair.
Her mismatched eyes bore two striking colors—one a vivid, crystal-clear blue, the other a deep, verdant green.
She was breathtaking, radiating an otherworldly mystique.
The Gumiho stared intently at me—or rather, at the ring—for several quiet moments before humming softly in deliberation. "Hmm..."
"Mr. Lich. Would you mind checking something for me?"
She beckoned over the Lich King, the B-rank boss monster she had summoned earlier.
"Tell me, would it be possible to forcibly annul the contract bound to the spirit inside this ring?"
Though monsters lacked the elevated intellect of humans, they seemed capable of at least rudimentary communication amongst themselves.
The Lich King slowly shook his skeletal head from side to side. An annulment was out of the question.
"Then could you at least enable him to manifest?" she amended her inquiry.
"Kik-kik-kik-ke-ke-ke—"
Lifting his staff forward without hesitation, the Lich King began chanting an incantation in an incomprehensible tongue.
Craaack!
The violet ring flared in sudden resonance, and dense coils of blue smoke were forcibly wrenched outward, shaping me into my human form.
As I looked down at my hands and smoky limbs in sheer astonishment, the Gumiho opened her lips to address me.
The voice that resonated from her was majesty incarnate.
Simply listening to it felt like a crushing weight upon my very soul, carrying the suffocating pressure of an existence residing on an infinitely higher plane. Her tone alone sent electric tremors prickling through the mana coursing across my body.
"Become my spirit."
The Gumiho leveled her gaze squarely upon me, her tone resolute.
"Should you become my spirit, I shall grant you any single wish you desire."
Beneath the crushing weight of primal dread, I fought to suppress every frantic survival instinct and pushed back with a deliberate, defiant edge.
"...And if I refuse?"
"Then I will have no choice but to extinguish your life where you stand. Leaving you alive risks your returning to your original contractor and ambushing me later on. ...Above all, I sense a latent potential within you that might one day surpass even my own."
Having been paralyzed by sheer instinctive terror from the moment I first laid eyes on her, the notion that I harbored the potential to overpower her sounded entirely absurd.
"What will your choice be?"
I had no real choice.
If I wanted to avoid immediate obliteration and see my ultimate goal to fruition, I had to accept her terms.
"...Fine. I accept."
I gave my verbal consent for the time being.
Beneath the surface, however, I had not conceded in the slightest; cold calculations were already turning furiously in my mind.
First, I use this bargain to bring Yeonwoo back to life. Then, I hunt down a loophole in the arrangement, shatter the contract, and set out to reclaim my true, original body.
For now, there was no other way. That was my conclusion.
I had zero intention of spending an eternity subservient to this Nine-Tailed Fox.
Cutting straight to the heart of the matter, I asked, "My official contractor right now is Ella. Dissolving the contract requires the contractor's consent. Just how do you plan to make me your spirit?"
Of course, there was always the method Ella had employed—usurping ownership by force through ancient forbidden magic—but judging from her earlier consultation with the Lich King, the Gumiho possessed no knowledge of such arts.
To that, she offered a solution with utter nonchalance, as if pointing out the most mundane truth in the world.
"We simply venture outside the Tower and slaughter Ella ourselves. Once the contractor perishes, ownership naturally dissolves."
Her casual delivery struck a sudden chord of hope within me.
"Fine. Then let's raid the surface right this second. I know the exact location of her office."
Yet the Gumiho slowly shook her head.
"Impossible. Any monster birthed within the Tower suffers a catastrophic plunge in combat prowess the moment it steps beyond these walls. Having been born of the Tower's mana myself, I am bound by that very restriction."
"Then how do you expect us to pull this off?"
"You must become strong."
A wave of despair crashed over me.
If the Gumiho were dealing with Ella herself, that would be one thing, but expecting me to vanquish Ella was an impossible demand. Not only did she command agonizing torture magic that struck directly at my core, but rivaling the sheer might of the Captain of the Magic Law Enforcers felt entirely out of reach.
"Wait... is it even possible for a spirit to attack its own elementalist—its contractor?"
"Under ordinary circumstances, it is impossible. However, since you only possess the partial characteristics of a spirit, you should enjoy relative freedom from that restriction."
I laid out the grim reality of my circumstances, detailing just how excruciatingly vulnerable I was to her torture magic. I assumed that laying bare my fatal flaw would prompt her to abandon such a reckless plan.
"Hmm... That is a matter I can resolve for you."
Noticing my bewildered stare, the corner of the Gumiho's lips curved upward into a subtle smirk.
"Why look so astonished? That was the very premise of our bargain. Having accepted the terms, you must exert yourself to become my spirit as promised. You will grow strong, and together we will ambush Ella to seize your ownership."
"Do you honestly believe... it's possible for me to grow strong enough to face Ella in a short window of time?"
"Two years will be plenty."
The Gumiho locked her mismatched gaze onto me, her blue and green eyes boring deep into my core as she added, "Compared to the vast expanse of years you have endured... two years is hardly a long time, is it?"
...What?!
She already knew. She had seen right through me, recognizing that I was an entity who had spent centuries trapped in solitude within that ruined laboratory.
The Gumiho extended a pale, deceptively delicate hand toward me.
"Well? What say you?"
I stared at her slender hand for a beat before reaching out and quietly taking it in my own.
"Deal. We have an agreement."
And so, an extraordinary pact was forged between us.
Clasping the Gumiho's hand, I etched the vow once more into my heart: I would revive Yeonwoo, exact absolute vengeance upon Ella, and ultimately tear myself free from this fox's grasp to reclaim my human form.
"Since I will need to address you going forward, pray tell me your name," she requested, gazing down at me.
Meeting those mismatched eyes, I answered plainly, "Dohyun. Kim Dohyun."
"Dohyun... Very well. I shall call you Dohyun from now on."
This time, the question was mine. "What is your name?"
"Monsters do not possess such things as names. You may simply address me as Miho, if it pleases you."
"Alright, Miho. I'll be in your care."
At my greeting, Miho let slip a quiet, satisfied chuckle, her lips curling with amusement.
"Steel your resolve. I intend to put you through grueling training every single day."
"Training...? Exactly what kind of training are we talking about?"
In response to my question, Miho began pacing leisurely across the boss chamber, beginning her explanation.
"Broadly speaking, there are three primary forms of power in this world: skills, magic, and spirit arts."
She counted them off on her slender fingers as she spoke.
"First, skills require no chant or incantation whatsoever. However, their ceiling for growth is remarkably low. Techniques like the 'Consecutive Strike' you witnessed earlier, wielded by the vanguard enforcers as they rapidly slashed with their blades, are prime examples of skills."
Miho's gaze drifted briefly into the open air.
"Second, magic demands intricate incantations to manifest, but its potential is exceptionally high. The fire spheres unleashed by the rearguard mages earlier fall under this category."
She unfurled her final finger.
"Lastly, spirit arts do not even require a chant. One need only call forth the name of the spirit they wish to command. Above all, its greatest merit lies in how limitless it scales depending on the caliber of the contracted spirit. Furthermore, spirit arts are heavily dictated by luck; even an individual with abysmal proficiency can wield an exceptional spirit like you, provided fortune smiles upon them."
Listening intently, I asked, "Then is spirit arts what I'll be learning?"
Miho shook her head firmly.
"No. Innate talent is an absolute prerequisite for spirit arts. Regrettably, I do not sense the faintest trace of an elementalist's talent within you."
I was already well aware from Ella that natural aptitude was non-negotiable for spiritists. Even so, since I was a being composed half of spirit essence, I had harbored a faint, lingering hope that some miraculous magical talent might reside within me.
Seeing my crestfallen expression, Miho let out a soft giggle.
"There is no need to look so disheartened just yet. While magic demands an advanced intellect capable of processing vast formulas and equations to direct mana, skills operate under an entirely different logic. Skills awaken naturally as an unseen metric known as 'levels' rises. And once acquired, an instinctive comprehension of how to command them is imparted to you."
"How do I raise my level, then?"
"The swiftest and most efficient method is hunting monsters."
Her answer drew a heavy sigh from my lips.
"I have to grow strong enough to face Ella within two years. If I'm relying solely on grinding monsters for levels, that sounds like an endlessly steep hill to climb."
Miho raised a single index finger, a subtle smile playing across her face.
"There is another way. While its efficiency is somewhat lacking... it allows your level to rise naturally simply through the passage of time."
"Levels increase purely from time passing?"
"Indeed. The System perceives the vast experiential data and the sheer weight of years accumulated across a lifetime as minute amounts of experience, steadily advancing your level."
...!
In that fleeting second, a blinding flash of clarity shattered the fog in my mind.
An overwhelmingly vast expanse of time. Having endured centuries of isolated confinement... I already possessed powerful skills that I had never even recognized.
The boundless formulas that had once spun endlessly through my consciousness, the countless mana computations and arcane models I had painstakingly fused with complex mathematics, calculating relentlessly in the dark day and night.
I realized it instinctively.
Those agonizing, blood-soaked traces of enduring time were none other than my 'skills,' already carved indelibly into the very fabric of my mana.
"You simply are not accustomed to wielding them yet," she continued smoothly.
"Fortunately, this is the Tower. It is overflowing with monsters for you to practice on."
At last, the path toward my objectives materialized before my eyes.
First: grow powerful enough to slaughter Ella.
Second: become Miho's spirit, then bring Yeonwoo back to life.
Third: tear down her contract and escape her grasp forever.
I engraved those three unbreakable oaths deep into my soul.