Dane and Kai exchanged glances before reluctantly nodding in agreement. As much as they disliked the idea of being under someone else's control, the benefits of working for Asher seemed to outweigh the risks. Plus, they knew that their chances of escaping were slim, especially with the tracking artifact and the mana oath in place.
"Alright," Dane said, finally giving in. "We'll do as you say."
Asher took out the mana oath paper and used his mana to make an imprint on the bottom of it.
"Call Emmy later and make sure they sign it, one by one," Asher replied as Tom took the stamp-like artifact near Dane's arm.
Tom pressed the artifact on his arms, and after a second, he removed it.
"That hurts," Dane muttered as his expression changed a little.
On Dane's arm, a white sigil appeared and disappeared soon after. It was similar to the sigil that the artifact had, and on top of it, a white needle appeared, pointing toward Dane.
Doing the same thing, Tom did the same thing to Kai, but his sigil was brown in color, and a brown needle appeared that was pointing at him.
"Give the artifact to Emmy," Asher said as he looked at Tom.
"She will give you guys the contract, and I hope you both are smart enough not to cause trouble here," Asher said, looking at Dane and Kai.
"Don't worry, we will not do anything dumb," Kai replied as Dane nodded as well.
"Good," Asher replied, his expression unchanged. "Tom will fill you in on the details of your first mission."
Asher left the room, leaving Dane and Kai with Tom.
Emmy was standing outside the room in which Alyssa was meditating.
"Is she still meditating?" Asher asked, and Emmy nodded.
Asher still had days left before returning to World Academy, and he wanted to properly rank up to D Rank before returning.
And the fact he needed to practice his sword art was a significant issue as well.
"I will be training for two days, and if she is done, take her to the Portal Dome," Asher said.
"Okay," Emmy replied as Asher turned and walked along the long hallway to reach another part of the mansion.
"Mhmmm," a weird noise could be heard, but Asher ignored it.
Asher entered the room, which was quite spacious, and he could practice his sword art properly there.
"Let's start," Asher took off his shirt as he picked up his sword.
He closed his eyes as he imagined an opponent in front of him.
Asher raised his right hand as he followed a series of motions that were required for the technique he saw in the scriptures.
Multiple steps were needed to successfully perform this technique, so Asher started with the first one.
The first step was to coat the weapon in his hand with aura, which needed to be uniformly distributed upon the weapon's surface.
"Not perfect," Asher could see his aura was a bit denser on the blade than on the other part of the sword.
He repeated the same process again and again. Finally, after more than 30 tries, Asher somehow managed to distribute the aura on his blade uniformly.
The second step was even more complex than the first one.
The next step required Asher to create a thin layer of mana around the sword between his aura and the sword. It was a layer that was meant to separate them. If the mana layer had been created before the aura, then the aura would not have been stable.
It was a weird technique that required the person to have the talent of both a mage and a swordsman.
The more Asher learned about this sword art, the more he could see that it required him to have excellent control over his mana, just like a mage did.
Unlike weapon users, mages used their arsenal of spells to make up for the difference in their powers. Unlike low-level hunters, high-ranking mages could even control the mana around their surroundings and even change the flow of mana near them.
And the amount of versatility a mage had was something a weapon user would not be able to achieve. A single high-ranking mage could even handle multiple people simultaneously if they had the mana pool to support their spells.
Asher closed his eyes as he spread his mana sense to sense the environment around him. He needed to make sure that the mana coating he did was between the aura and the sword because if he failed and a gap appeared, the mana would either spread into his surroundings or change the density around the sword.
Asher started with a single place as he tried to slip his mana around his body under his aura. It was a very difficult task to do even when Asher was fully concentrating on it, and pulling this move in a fight would be even more challenging.
But it was a technique that Asher wanted to master because it increased the power behind his attacks and was mainly used as a defensive technique. And this was the one thing Asher was lacking right now. Due to him losing his previous sword art, he had lost every single defensive technique he came up with.
Asher tried, but the moment he tried to spread the mana across the sword, the density of his aura would change, making it a failure.
"I am missing something," Asher was sure he was making a mistake.
He was sure that the second step was something he needed to achieve before moving to the third one, which seemed impossible for now.
Asher closed his eyes as he tried to visualize the movement of his mana inside his body. He could feel that his mana meridians were fine, and there was no issue.
He tried to do the second step again, but now he could see what the issue was.
The amount of mana that was being released at once was greater than he imagined it to be. Due to the new mana meridians he gained when he changed his bloodline, Asher could see that his mana was being released in bursts.
The bursts were small and controlled, so they looked refined to him now, but for the technique, Asher wanted to learn, he needed perfect control over the release of his mana.
Asher had his mana flow skill, which allowed him to control such things easily, but the amount was so small that if not for learning this new technique, Asher wouldn't have noticed this issue.
Asher kept focusing on his mana for hours and hours.
Three days had passed already, and Asher and Alyssa were still meditating in their rooms.
Emmy was standing outside the hallway, making sure nothing weird happened.
She turned as she saw Alyssa, who was coming out of the room. Right now, she was walking fine, but her mask was still on, so Emmy didn't know about her being cured.
'D-Rank,' Emmy said to herself.
She was surprised that Alyssa was so talented, and her ranking speed was comparable to Asher, who was close to D Rank already.
'Is that the reason Young Master recruited her?' Emmy didn't know anything about Asher's view of Alyssa.
She guessed that Asher had signed her as a member of his personal team he was building due to her talents. However, Emmy was reluctant to have Alyssa close to Asher, as it could ruin his image as he was the heir of the Greville family.
But Emmy knew her job was to follow Asher's orders and not question them. And for Emmy, Alyssa was not someone she hated anyway.
For Emmy, Alyssa was just a person she didn't care about. She could simply kill Alyssa if Asher wanted her to die. There was no reason to feel threatened, as Alyssa did not have a strong background.
"Do you want food?" Emmy asked Alyssa, who looked at her with dull eyes.
"Yeah," she replied, but her voice was monotone.
Her eyes had become more emotionless, and her gaze had become similar to Asher's.
Emmy looked at her for a moment.
"The breakfast is this way," Emmy guided her, but she was being careful of every move Alyssa made.
It was a strange feeling, but looking at Alyssa, Emmy felt threatened for a moment, but it was only a fleeting moment that disappeared instantly.
'Was I wrong?' She kept looking at Alyssa but didn't sense anything from her anymore.
