Lorcan wondered which one of them had completely hijacked his brain a few minutes ago. This was because he had seen the entire group and he remembered each one of their faces except these five.

But since the master mage clearly did not want to reveal themselves, Lorcan kept his mouth shut. Calling out an overpowered illusionist was a great way to die in a mysterious way.

"I will go inside and get my people." Lorcan offered. "I can bring everyone out and swear loyalty right now."

"No need for oaths." Adrian said.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick, rolled-up parchment before he tossed it casually through the air.

Lorcan caught it effortlessly. He unrolled the heavy paper and looked at the glowing magical symbols etched into the borders.

It was a Soul Contract and the specific clauses were already written out in neat, sharp handwriting.

Lorcan read through the terms and it was surprisingly straightforward.

The assassin group would follow all orders given by Adrian Sterling. Their job included teaching a specialized military unit the exact mechanics of counter-assassination, assassination, and stealth tactics. They would act as the territory’s intelligence network. And occasionally, they would be sent out to execute specific, high-value targets. The last one was that it was their job to protect the important figures of Oresfall from assassinations.

In exchange, they received full legal protection, a massive operating budget, and premium living quarters inside a heavily fortified territory.

Lorcan just shrugged. He had honestly expected worse, but this was almost like the man was putting his assassination group out in the open with a great disguise on. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Okay." Lorcan said.

He knew how a soul contract worked, so he just focused his mana, and pressed a strand of mana directly against the bottom of the parchment.

His unique soul signature branded itself right into the paper almost instantly.

He was officially bound to the contract.

"Go get your people." Adrian instructed calmly. "Bring them all out here so we can finish this."

Lorcan just turned around and disappeared back into the dark cave.

A few minutes later, the entire group walked out of the mountain. Dozens of men clad in skin tight black outfits just stood there in silence as they looked at this new group in front of them.

Adrian took a step forward. He held up the exact same soul contract their boss just signed.

"Everyone signs." Adrian said.

He explained the mechanics quickly. A standard blood pact only worked for one person, but a high-level Soul Contract was different. It could be signed by an unlimited amount of people at the same time as long as they had to sign the contract that had the same clauses. The magic treated the entire group as a single bound party, but it tracked their souls individually.

If one guy broke the rules, that specific guy dropped dead on the spot. But the rest of the group stayed completely unharmed.

Though, once that final signature was signed on the paper, the contract would be sealed permanently and no new members could sign it later. Adrian would have to make a new contract for them separately.

Every single assassin turned to look at Lorcan. Their leader just offered a single, firm nod.

So they walked forward one by one. But since these regular killers lacked mana veins, they could not just use pure energy to sign. They had to shed blood instead.

Droplets of blood hit the parchment and it was all absorbed instantly. Then the paper just went right back to looking brand new. Because the tiny trace of natural mana hidden inside their human blood was more than enough to bind their souls.

Once the final assassin stepped back, Adrian took the scroll. He channeled a tiny bit of his own mana and signed his name at the very bottom, officially making the contract active.

The parchment automatically rolled itself back up and Adrian shoved it into his pocket, but he just felt like this was extremely unnatural.

He had just secured a highly trained, fully operational assassin group to work for him without even fighting them. It almost felt like the world itself was giving him a gift for free.

Adrian looked over the group and then he locked eyes directly with their leader.

"What is your name?" Adrian asked.

"Lorcan Graves." the man answered smoothly.

"Tell me something, Lorcan." Adrian crossed his arms. "Why did you agree to this so easily? You run an entire underground group and you are a trained killer. I fully expected you to fight back or set up an ambush inside those caves. But you just walked out and surrendered. Why be so passive?"

Lorcan’s face was expressionless as he stared at Adrian, and then, he looked at the soldiers who were currently lowering their weird wooden sticks.

"It was just a gut feeling." Lorcan lied effortlessly. "I just felt that those weird sticks your men are holding are incredibly dangerous. I did not want to see my people slaughtered over no reason."

He offered Adrian a highly professional smile.

"Besides," Lorcan continued. "If my group gets our hands on those exact same weapons, our assassination success rate will skyrocket. It is a mutually beneficial business decision. If we join you, we get upgrades, increase our success rate and lower our death rate. In return, you’ll get a group that can keep you safe."

"Fair enough." Adrian nodded, feeling like the reason was pretty valid.

But the reality was completely different.

Lorcan did want the guns and that was true but he wasn’t really afraid of the weapons. Even in the fight inside his head, he managed to mess up the entire group with a single combination of spells.

But he was absolutely terrified of the hidden monster somewhere in this group.

Some unknown mage just hijacked his brain. They set up a perfect hallucination without a single warning sign, and the realization alone made his skin crawl.

He knew exactly who held the real power here, and at least according to him, it was definitely not Adrian.

"Alright." Adrian turned around. "Pack up your gear. We march back to Oresfall in a day."