Chapter 244: Contract

This was also the abnormality that Joo Joowon had only discovered now.

If this had happened under normal circumstances, he would have noticed the changes in his body not long after waking up. But now, because the loss of Mental Power caused his headaches to flare up from time to time, not only was his thinking hindered, his perception and sensitivity toward his own body had also decreased accordingly. Therefore, it was only now that he discovered that, at some unknown point, an additional strange connection had appeared between himself and Hwi, as though their minds and souls had become connected.

Previously, if Joo Joowon wanted to know Hwi’s emotions, he needed to observe his behavior or use Mental Power to capture his emotional changes before he could understand them. But now, he did not need to do anything at all. He could naturally sense Hwi’s current mood, as well as even the slightest changes in his thoughts.

Aside from these things, he also seemed to have installed something like a tracking device on Byeol. As long as Hwi had not gone too far away from him, he could accurately sense Hwi’s location. It seemed that even commanding Hwi to use his skills no longer required the relatively inefficient method of speaking aloud. Instead, he could directly transmit commands through his mind.

However, this change seemed to be a one sided ability that only Joo Joowon possessed. Hwi did not seem to have anything similar. He simply seemed to have become more attached to Joo Joowon.

In Joo Joowon’s eyes, this situation was no different from signing a contract. The only difference was that he did not have the kind of Beast Taming Space that Beast Tamers in the novels he had read in the past possessed, so he could not simply store his cats away.

Even so, these abilities were already extremely useful. For example, in the future, when he went out, he would no longer need to worry about something happening to Hwi. If Hwi encountered a battle, Joo Joowon could immediately sense it even while he was outside and rush back at the fastest possible speed.

These changes had not existed before. Obviously, these abilities had appeared only after he had interfered with Hwi’s soul.

Therefore, the Pet Companion recognized by the system should be related to the bond between souls.

However, although he had figured out where the problem was, Joo Joowon still had no idea how he could "contract" with Byeol.

When he had come into contact with Hwi’s soul at that time, it had been entirely because the situation was urgent, and he had taken an enormous risk. Moreover, because his Mental Power had not returned, he did not even know exactly what he had done to Hwi’s soul that had caused the system to recognize Hwi’s identity. It was impossible for him to give Byeol another round of brainwashing now, right?

Besides, Byeol was not as simple minded as Hwi. Even if he really did this, it might not necessarily work, and Joo Joowon did not want to do such a thing anyway.

After thinking carefully for a moment, Joo Joowon felt that the reason should not be brainwashing, but rather the soul’s inclination.

Although the soul relied on the body to exist, the emotional inclinations of the body could not affect the soul. Or rather, before the soul had "met" someone, it did not possess any emotional inclinations.

All living creatures had an instinct to protect themselves, and the soul was the final boundary of a living being. It would not easily be entrusted to another person. In the kind of higher plane where the apprentice mage lived, the soul was even more of a forbidden area. Once one’s soul fell into another person’s hands, then even if one died, one would still be unable to rest in peace.

Their souls would not reincarnate or be reborn. Instead, they would still have to serve the other person until even their souls had been completely burned away.

And Hwi was now more or less in the same state. Joo Joowon had a feeling that if he wanted to come into contact with Hwi’s soul again now, he would no longer encounter the difficult situation where every step had been impossible like before. Instead, it would feel as natural as returning to his own home.

And even after Hwi died, his soul would not dissipate. Instead, it would return here to Joo Joowon, and unless he was willing to let go, Hwi would be unable to reincarnate.

If this were judged according to the standards of contracts in novels, Joo Joowon felt that this should be the highest level of soul contract.

According to the Age of Apocalypse’s settings for Pet Companions, if Hwi went out to hunt zombies now, Joo Joowon would be able to gain the experience from the monsters Hwi killed even if he was not by Hwi’s side, rather than having to stay beside him like before in order to absorb the experience.

What was even more surprising was that he could also choose the ratio in which the experience was distributed.

In other words, as long as the Pet Owner was willing, he could completely leave no experience for the Pet Companion and take all of it for himself.

However, this method could not really be considered as completely sacrificing the Pet Companion’s growth.

Unlike players, the conditions for Pet Companions to advance were not dependent on experience points like those of players. Instead, they placed more importance on the pet’s own talent and its absorption of energy, which was simply the very common act of "eating."

In most games, aside from players, all other creatures such as NPCs had to rely on their own efforts to cultivate and advance. Only players did not need to cultivate or learn cultivation techniques. As long as they had enough experience points, their cultivation would never encounter a bottleneck, allowing them to continuously increase their strength.

Therefore, becoming a player’s Pet Companion was actually a shortcut to becoming stronger for many creatures.