One and a half hours of sitting in a bus, then a 10 minute walk, and Claire was finally at the Draxon Incorporated, Farlane branch. It was a 6 story office building, crowned with a simplified image of a Breach with a diode pictogram inside it; the company logo. The windows were enchanted to be opaque from the outside, so she couldn't get a good look at what the floor space was used for.

  Claire didn't wear anything fancy, just a clean T-shirt and jeans. And her backpack. She always carried it outside. She needed to have something to drink on hand, and tissues in case anything spilled. She knew it didn't do her gender presentation any favours, but she was boymoding anyway, and she always though purses were a scam by the beauty industry, in conjunction with women's pants that had no pockets.

  Today, she also packed a bunch of pens and a notebook, in case she needed to draft any contract on short notice. They probably had paper anyway, but it's good to have her Skill ready to be used at any time.

  I'm stalling.

  With a deep breath, she approached the automatic door that spread as it sensed her, welcoming her into some kind of lobby. It was painted beige, with furniture all white and modern. There was a single person in the spacious room, and she was sitting at the main desk in the middle of the lobby.

  "Hello, I'm here for a job interview? I'm Claire Black." She said as she approached the desk.

  The green-haired secretary - don't stare at her tits - raised an eyebrow in response. "Can I see your ID?"

  Claire rolled her eyes, but retrieved the ID from her wallet.

  "Huh. Okay, go into the elevator on the right, sixth floor, I'll let mister Dradon know you're here."

  Claire took her document back and nodded.

  The elevator ride was uneventful, if a bit faster than she expected. Probably some fancy magitech.

  The elevator opened to a wide, grey-carpeted corridor with the same inoffensive beige lining the walls. There were doors with plaques all throughout the passage, but her goal was the one at the very end.

  She knocked on doctor Henry Draxon's office door.

  "Come in!"

  The office was sparse. There were some shelves, but they were mostly empty. The furniture was made out of lacquered wood rather than the modern style plastic that the lobby employed. Doctor Draxon was sitting at the desk, in front of a laptop - one of those "mobile workstation" types with a thick bottom to allow for advanced heat dispersal and other doohickeys he likely stuffed inside.

  The man himself was, by her estimate, around 40 years old. He was black, with no hair on his head except for a neatly trimmed strip of black hairs on his chin that might generously be called a goatee.

  "Miss Black?" He asked in a warm tone. Too warm for how strangers usually reacted to her.

  "That's me. You wanted to offer me a job."

  "Yes, indeed. Please, close the door behind you and sit down."

  She sat in the faux-leather chair on the other side of the desk. His own was an exact copy. Some statement about being equals? She wasn't sure if she was just reading into things too much, but the whole situation has been weird from the start.

  "Before we begin properly: you can make magically binding contracts, yes?"

  She nodded.

  "Great. My proposal requires divulging sensitive information, and I wanted you to sign a non-disclosure agreement."

  "...before I even begin working?"

  "Yes, I'm afraid the matter is very sensitive."

  He sounded genuinely apologetic. This situation was getting weirder by the moment.

  "I'd need to see the terms first."

  "Of course."

  He handed her the document. The print stated that the contents of their conversation could not be divulged to others without the explicit permission of the other party. The agreement restricted both her and the company owner.

  "I admit, I am pretty new to all of this. Please tell me honestly, if you were in my position, would you sign this?"

  "Even knowing what I'm about to discuss, yes. I believe my proposal will be ultimately worth all the trouble."

  He kind of evaded the "in my position" part of the question, but he said the truth. Sighing, she signed the contract and officiated it.

  It felt slightly different than the deal with her dad. This time, all the energy poured in all at once, as Draxon had signed the document beforehand. Both their signatures lit up at the same time.

  Contract officiated. You can check the details-

  Skip. For the future, only notify me that the contract got officiated.

  The System was somewhat flexible, so she was pretty sure the request would work.

  "Alright then, what is it that was so important? What would you want me to do?" She asked.

  "I need you to lead an internal investigation about the theft of proprietary technology."

  "Why did you need to silence me?"

  "First, to ensure you wouldn't slip up during the investigation itself. As you said, you're young and new. Mistakes can happen, and my whole life's purpose has been to prevent and mitigate mistakes. Second, if rival companies know that the prototype has been stolen, they would scour the black market to buy it and patent it themselves.

  "Normally, all of our products have what we call a 'security seal' installed. It serves as both a kill switch and a proof that the product had been designed and built by the company. But the seal is installed as one of the last stages of production, and what got stolen is a prototype."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Draxon Inc. produced equipment for Breach delving, which included mobile shelters and food storage but also weaponry to deal with the magical fauna inside. Something told her no one would go into trouble of stealing a prototype for a magical tent.

  "Okay, why me? I know this hurts my chances of getting the job, but I need to stress I have no experience with investigation."

  "I need the situation dealt with as soon as possible, and hiring any of the more established investigators would be as good as screaming 'I got stolen from' from the roof. News like that travels fast."

  "So you're saying you are desperate." Claire couldn't help but say smugly.

  To her surprise, he nodded. "Yes. But so are you. I've had a background check done on you. Dropped out of high school, no-"

  "Yeah, yeah, don't remind me." She sighed. "Okay, this is not what I was expecting coming here. So I come in, interrogate your people, find who stole the device and where they put it, and then I get paid and leave. Is that the plan?"

  "Yes."

  "I was hoping for a permanent position, but I'll take what I can get. We are both desperate."

  "I can think of a few uses for your abilities I could have. We can discuss long term employment when the matter at hand is dealt with."

  "Fair enough. In that case, there is still the matter of payment."

  "Ten thousand Indigo, with twelve thousand more when we retrieve the prototype."

  Her eyes opened so wide she was worried they would fall out of their sockets. Ten thousand was enough to buy an apartment. Not rent, buy. This was an insane amount of money. He really needed that thing back.

  Then again, he was a billionaire, this was probably half a day's profits for him at most. Still, most people in her place would sign whatever paper he put in front of her for this much. However...

  "I would like to negotiate."

  "I'm afraid this is as much as I can spare for this. Any more, and it would be cheaper to just deal with the fallout."

  He was lying, but that was fine.

  "First of all, good on you for being honest, up until that last sentence. Second of all, I want more payment, but not in money."

  Draxon narrowed his eyes, his demeanor shifting from the amicable facade for the first time. "Plaease elaborate. On both points."

  "Well, the whole point of me getting hired for this is because I can detect when someone's lying, and you lied about the amount. Specifically, that it would be cheaper to deal with the fallout than paying me more. And as for the additonal payment, I want soul parts."

  Draxon leaned back in his chair. "Fascinating. Let me show you something."

  The billionaire reached underneath his blue shirt, and pulled out a necklace he was concealing there. It was a fist sized amulet inlaid with complex runic circuits.

  "This is the most advanced warding array ever constructed. It protects from kinetic force, energy attacks, soul attacks, mental influence, and divination. None of these functions had ever failed me.

  "So. How in the world did you pierce it?"

  "The ability's text reads 'regardless of their power'. It's got a nasty curse attached, though, so it balances out." She felt no need to obscure the information. The man had signed the se NDA she did, and he would be her employer anyway.

  "Fascinating." He repeated, stowing the warding amulet away. "I'm more willing to hear out your request after this showing, but it would have to wait for w few months. Classes capable of soul manipulation to the degree they can separate parts of them are quite rare."

  "Good thing I'm one of them. You just need to sign it away in a contract."

  Draxon's eyes narrowed for the second time today.

  "I suppose it makes sense. Foolish of me, why else would you want them in the first place. Very well. I'll pay the cost personally, then, I'm really curious now. How much and what?"

  "I want one percent of you ether, shell, channels, core, and Soul Power."

  "That is ridiculous."

  "You're clearly on your third or fourth evolution, one percent is a drop in the bucket for you."

  "My strength is precisely why a whole percent is too much. Unless you achieve something extraordinary, you gain Soul Power at a mostly constant pace. But the requirements for more Skills and Perks grow exponentially. This would set me back months."

  "Half a percent?"

  "Girl, you are an interesting individual, but I will not let myself get fleeced of my power."

  She thought for a moment.

  "How much SP do you get in a week, on average?"

  "Around fifty. And this information is valuable on its known, for the record."

  "A week's worth sounds reasonable then, no? I want ten units of Soul Power, and the energy equivalent in each of the other four components."

  He nodded. "That is much more reasonable. In the future, you should be careful about asking for souls. Personal power is much more important to people than money or influence, I've come to learn. Even getting set back a week feels... wrong. So ask for small amounts. Or find someone on death's door to exploit."

  They then spent at least two hours drafting the contract. In short, Claire would investigate the theft to the best of her ability and do everything she could without endangering herself. In exchange, she would get 10 000 Indigo immediately, as well as 10 SP worth of ether and mana channels each. If and when she found the prototype, she would receive further 12 000 Indigo, 10 SP, and the equivalent in mana core growth. She was not to speak about the specifics of her task until 10 years have passed.

  At last, both if them went through the contract three more times, finding no issue, and the printed several pages were signed by the two Classed. Claire noted that it took more mana to officiate the longer contract.

  Contract officiated.

  You gained 10 units of Ether. You can allocate them using the System.

  You gained 10 units of Mana Channels. You can allocate them using the System.

  Of course it wouldn't be simple. At least it properly integrated without causing issues.

  Right next to her, her new employer groaned in discomfort.

  "Ugh, that was... not as bad as I was expecting, but still unpleasant. If we ever do this again, I'm having someone else be the donor."

  Seeing as the transfer had shaken someone like Draxon, she elected to wait with allocating her newfound power until she came back home.

  Luckily, the bus came after a few minutes of waiting, and she still had some stories to binge on her phone, so the ride back passed comfortably.

  Nevertheless, when she got back home, she was exhausted. She hastily took off her boots and went straight to her room, shrugging off her backpack and falling limply on the bed.

  She fell asleep not long after. When she woke up, she didn't quite know how long she napped for, but she felt like it wasn't enough. However, her stomach demanded that she heave herself up and scavenge the kitchen.

  Where her mother was just making coffee.

  "Oh, hi dear! Where did you go today?"

  "Interview. Got a job." She answered groggily.

  "Oh my God, that's wonderful! What is it?!"

  "Draxon Inc., and I can't talk about it, NDA."

  "Oh come on, you know I won't tell anyone." Ping. She's lying. Though I didn't need the Perk to know she'd blab.

  "Magical contracts, remember? I physically cannot tell you."

  "Oh, right. It must be pretty difficult dealing with that."

  "I don't know, it makes things clear. You can trust that the other person won't go back on their word."

  "Intuition can do that, too. I've trusted the wrong person only once, and never made that mistake again." Her mom replied, pointing at her missing left foot.

  Mom used to work in Breach containment. Her Class was capable of buffing the strength and perception of multiple people at once, so she was an excellent asset. She stayed for quite a while after losing her foot when her assigned bodyguard failed to pay attention. No, what made her retire was an even worse wound. Some sort of specter snuck behind the frontlines and proceeded to devastate her soul. Though mages like her had resilient soul shells, she simply couldn't stop the spirit in time. Her core got a nasty injury, and so her mana regeneration was permanently crippled. Her spells were no longer worth the risk to her life, so she was dismissed with a pitiful severance package.

  Rremembering all that made Claire regret she hadn't asked for the shell to be part of her forward payment, but it was too late now.

  Speaking of, she grabbed an apple and made her way back to her room. Sitting on the bed, she willed her System to open.