"Contracts are dangerous."

That's what this doctor told me; he seemed like an experienced player in this deadly game.

I could lose my life in an instant without understanding how.

That's the downside of the supernatural.

I need to train myself or I won't survive long. 

It's not like I'm in bad shape but I decided to train starting today.

The first step toward my goal is my cardio and stamina.

I will now start to run and do some biking.

I also need to defend myself, so I'm considering taking a personal coach to teach me some martial arts and I'm currently trying to find a way to improve my ability to shoot with a gun in a country where firearms are banned. 

It is going to take a bit of time and I still need to attend to my daily life, but I will try to make this work somewhat. 

Earlier I tried to contact Dr Hector Grant to sell him a pitch in which I would have used my fame to make his research known in exchange for a piece of land and a cottage in the mountain to lay low if needed. But he didn't bother to respond. Such a shame.

I can sense that my body is different.

I still don't know how exactly but I can feel the whole of my body, even parts like my brain that you are not supposed to feel. 

Yesterday I cut myself with a knife while cooking a beef bourguignon and suddenly I felt like I was imperfect. By willing it, I reshaped my body like I shape one of my sculptures. The flesh wriggled like tiny little worms and in a minute my cut was ancient history.  

This... I don't have the words. I'm overjoyed! I'm becoming closer to my ideals!

I spend the rest of the day taking a day off and celebrating while testing this new power of mine. 

I ended up in the hospital with a few stitches. 

It seems like using it too much is a burden on my mind and injuries that are too big can't always be healed.

Nevermind. I now have a good grasp of my abilities. 

What is left is for me to try to continue my journey of self-improvement. 

After 2 months of running my stamina is way better. 

The next logical step is to try to gain some muscle and become acquainted with violence. Starting boxing should be able to take care of this problem. 

If my power is based on my mind I also need to begin meditating. 

I went back to the pocket dimension where Deleass had his shop.

I used the business card he gave me to summon a door and by passing trough it I was back to the fantasy market.

He gave me some stocking and labeling of magical product to do and paid me at the end of it with those elemental ducats.

With the previous ducats i amassed the last time I got here, I had just enough to buy this really interesting book titled : "A beginners guide to Chronomancy".

After reading it, I now know how to contract time a little.

It's difficult to use but I'm pretty intelligent and I am becoming more skilled each time i practice.

At the same time, I examined the book "Blood Pacts For Dummies" that I borrowed from Kira.

I don't think I have any use for this but it's always interesting. Plus reading those two book helped me become more familiar with the occult.

With the help of Till who owed me a favor, I tracked down the author of "Blood Pact For Dummies" and traduced most of the book.

It's a woman named Izel R.

By reading her blog I understood that she was an occult enthusiast and after expressing my desire to meet her, we set up a meeting in a cafe I know well in Paris. 

Till proposed that I should use my charm to make her more open to our proposition so I ended up preparing for this meeting as if it was a date. 

I arrived 5 minutes earlier to make sure that everything would be okay but except for the fact that the cafe was more crowded than expected, everything was fine. 

She arrived just on time.

A bit above her 40, looking Mexican, wearing conformable but elegant clothing... That was my first impression of her.

The meeting was especially good. She blushed quite a lot when I complimented her look and we came to an agreement that she would teach me some blood magic in exchange for me destroying all copies of her book that I possessed. Something about the fact that she made a "deal" to destroy all copies of this book to hide it from the public eye and that she didn't consent to have his book in the library.

I accepted all her conditions and asked her to help me make a copy of the book (but nonmagical this time) so that I could replace it in Kira's library. 

Later I ended up bringing her to one of my statue exposition.

She told me a few more things while we were walking together:

* Blood rites used to be a lot more powerful when more people believed in the gods

* She herself is a regular human (but with some minor supernatural ancestry) who learned how to do them from finding some ancient Aztec texts and encountering other 'hemomancers'

* It is best to use blood magic sparingly, and she herself hasn't truly dabbled in it in a while because it poses risks to your health and your soul

I agreed to steal an axe for Lod and even if he didn't keep it in the end, he still gave me a part of the reward he promised me.

I now am the happy proprietor of a small cottage in the Alpes mountains.  

The walls are made of logs, there is just enough place for a bed, a desk and a small table with two chairs. 

It's quite cramped and lost in the forest, but that's what I wanted. 

It will be the perfect place to go if I need to be alone or to lay low. 

I could try to invite Izel here one day if she wants a quiet place to learn blood magic. 

Nobody could find us here.

I would need to make something up however. My girlfriend for sure wouldn't take it well if I told her I was going on a vacation with an unknown woman. 

I became rich recently. 

It's a wonderful feeling. 

Money is flowing and I'm bathing in this sweet extasy of having to worry about nothing anymore.

I remembered that I didn't kill the wolf girl that was with the billionaire I shot.

The vent spider put her down but it was but a mind attack.

She would have been fine. 

And she would have been pissed.

I need to make sure this powerful girl is not going to put me in trouble.

And how to make sure of that?

You get it.

Money.

I'm gonna employ a bunch of people to find information on her and then organise her assassination if I find her dangerous.

If she is indeed dangerous but I can't fight back then at least I'll make it so that if she come to me, she would be faced with a tiny surprise.

I'll hire several hitman and bodyguard for the occasion.