Black Eye’s POV:

  “Neymar make sure to get us two rooms at the inn, I’m going to visit the local guild hall,” I (Black Eye) said.

  “Yes, Captain,” Neymar replied.

  My team was staying tonight in Leafanton. It was still morning and we could continue marching south, but I decided to stay here tonight as I heard Armoun was selling some Lio to a possible sleeping cell in this village. He told headquarters the man was not an assured ally and still is in the testing phase to see if he could be trusted. I was curious who this could be, so I decided to stroll through the streets, hoping to bump into this man, but first, I wanted to check on the notice board in the guild.

  Entering the guild hall, I chatted with the receptionist, when a man entered, no… not a man, but a tall kid. The kid was reporting to the receptionist a story about goblin sightings and how he killed two of them. The receptionist seemed to think the kid was lying. I used the rank one skill “Eye of truth” of my innate ability “Demon’s Eye” as it was a habit of mine, and it turned out the kid wasn’t lying. ‘Hm, this kid is brave. I wonder if he is the one Armoun gave the Lio to,’ I thought.

  “No, Amana. He’s telling the truth,” I said.

  I wanted to know if the kid was whom I was seeking, so I decided to ask him a few questions.

  “Hey, kid come with me for a second.”

  The kid followed without objections, intimidated by the Aura that my Red Shtan armor gave out passively.

  “What’s your name kid?” I asked.

  “Haitham, sir,” The kid replied, clearly trying to sound respectful.

  “No family name?” I asked, already guessing the answer from the kid’s clothing, but my spy training made me ask so that I am sure he wasn’t a noble.

  “No sir, I’m just a farmer,” The kid said. Using my Eye of Truth, I could tell he wasn’t lying.

  “Relax Kid, you can call me Captain Black Eye,” I said, trying to lower the stress the kid got from the Red Shtan armor.

  “Yes, Captain Black Eye, sir,” The kid replied, not less intimidated.

  “No, Just Captain Black Eye, no need for the sir,” I said, a bit of annoyance leaking through my voice as I hated all the formalities of the Assyrian language.

  “Yes, Captain Black Eye.”

  “Let me be frank with you, kid. How did you get your ability?” I said, taking a not-so-small risk by mentioning abilities to a kid, but my intuition told me he was special, and I could just play dumb later if it turned out he didn't have one.

  “What!? I don’t know what you're talking about,” the kid said, scared. From the kid’s reaction, I was almost certain he had one, but I used “Eye of Truth” just to be sure, and it turned out the kid was lying, he knew what I was talking about.

  “So, you do have one. It seems I wasn’t wasting my time,” I said, smiling.

  “H-how did you know?” The kid stuttered.

  “It doesn’t matter. I want to see your ability, come with me.” I wanted to know what ability the kid had gotten, but the kid seemed to disagree. Raising his voice, he said, “I’m not showing you my ability!”

  I looked at the receptionist and she was staring at us, ‘God dammit, this happens when I try to be nice.’

  I used my rank two skill *Eye of intimidation* to order the kid to stop, as it allowed me to control any victim who was intimidated by me, and the kid was clearly scared. Then, I pushed mana into the rune ring on my finger, where, a confusion spell was inscribed. The spell would make a target forget what happened in the last five heartbeats. The ring had limited use and was expensive so I was a bit annoyed at having to use it.

  The ring shone with a faint light for a second, then the receptionist lost focus momentarily and returned to her work as if nothing had happened.

  “Follow me, and do nothing else other than following me,” I ordered the kid through my rank two skill, not wanting a repeat of the earlier situation.

  Going back to the inn, I didn’t face any trouble on the way. Finding my party, I ordered them, “Pack all your bags, we’ll be leaving Leafanton in half an hour.” I didn’t want to be here anymore as the receptionist might remember what happened if she saw me or the kid again, and I was sure she would report about the kid having an ability.

  The party, upon seeing my serious face, didn’t question my orders. ‘I really have a competent part,’ I thought to myself.

  It didn’t take us long to reach the boundaries of the village, a small forest. I decided we should camp here for tonight as it was getting late.

  While the party was setting up the camp, I took the opportunity to ask the kid about his ability, but the kid lied, so I gave him a small punishment to make him regret lying. After learning that the kid had some kind of transformation ability, I decided to use a scroll of revelation on him to see what the ability did.

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  Using the scroll was hard, it took me in the spy training months to understand all the information I got from it, thankfully, the kid’s ability wasn't complex, so it shouldn’t take me much time.

  I went to my tent to fully digest the information from the scroll. It took me about three hours. After finishing my work with the scroll I made my weekly report to headquarters, as there were no communication disturbers nearby.

  I provided mana through a metal disk with heavy inscriptions on it, which made the device start to hum.

  “Reporting to headquarters, code: 12CXE5TS. Can you hear me?”

  “Yes, I can. What do you have to report agent?” A female voice came out of the device. ‘It seems Lana is receiving this report,’ I thought.

  “I’m about half a day's walk away from Count Louis’s lands, and the sun has set a few hours ago. There have been no unexpected happenings except for finding who Armoun is testing to see if he can be made into a sleeping cell.”

  “You saw Ghandour?” Lana said surprised.

  “No, who’s Ghandour?” I asked.

  “The possible sleeping cell in Leafanton, you saw him?”

  “No, I didn’t see him. I found a kid with an ability and thought he was the guy whom Armoun gave the Lio to. The kid is called Haitham. Should I ask where he got his ability from?” I asked, regretting not asking the kid where he got his ability. ‘Maybe I have been hasty?’ I thought.

  “No need. The kid is the one Ghandour gave his Lio reward. How did you find the kid?”

  “By accident," I replied truthfully.

  “By accident! Are you trying to get information on the possible sleeping cell in a roundabout way? You could get punished for that,” Lana accused me.

  “No, I would never go against orders. I was in the guild when…” I told Lana how I found the kid.

  "Why did you treat the kid this way?" Lana asked when I mentioned that I kidnapped the kid.

  "I thought about enslaving him rather than finding out if he could be trusted, should I proceed?"

  “No, I agree on using him to further our plans but the others in your party might get mad if you enslave him. Remember they joined you on the basis that you’ll free the Assyrian Empire from slavery, so tread carefully. I advise you to control him with fear as that is your trademark with your rank two skill. Sometimes fear’s chains are more bending than real chains. Now, tell me, what does his ability do?”

  I told Lana what the kid's ability did and she was impressed. After talking about the kid, Lana reminded me of my mission.

  “Black Eye, per Headquarters’ orders, you are to convince Count Louis to join our case. You can use all means possible, and if you fail make sure to end the Count’s life. Remember this mission is extremely important, in fact, it’s the most important one you’ve ever done. the Count has a Lio refinery, so If he joins our ranks that would be a great boost to achieving our goals. Good luck to you Agent Black Eye. Long live the cause!” Lana said the last sentence with a pride-filled voice.

  “Long live the cause!” I replied while hitting the side of my thigh with a fist.

  The call ended after that. I was feeling exhausted from using the scroll and almost depleting my mana on the call. These kinds of long-distance calls drink mana like there’s no tomorrow. I had been on the call for three minutes, which was longer than usual.

  In my tent, I made a quick plan to proceed with the kid. Lana advised me to scare the kid, and the best way to scare anything was to seem merciless.

  Going out of the tent, I faced the kid.

  “Kid, the scroll wasn’t lost on you. You have a good ability which has a lot of potential,” I said.

  “What does it do?” The kid asked, hopeful.

  “I’ll be frank with you kid, you have only two options,” I said raising two fingers. “Either I sell you to slavers, who will treat you like an animal, and will make you sign a harsh slave contract to obey any master that buys you; or you can be my slave. If you choose me, I’ll make you a slave contract that will have humane conditions. What do you say?” I gave the kid two bad choices to drive him to a corner, I wanted him to refuse them both, so I could show him how merciless I could be.

  “I refuse both choices,” The kid said, defiantly.

  'He took the bait.'

  “Hahaha, there is no third choice kid. Choose one,” I said provocatively.

  “I prefer death over slavery,” the kid said.

  'That is better than expected. But how should I go about punishing him, should I scare him by stopping my sword before his neck or…’ At that moment I remembered a crucial thing about the kid’s ability. ‘It should save him,’ I thought.

  “Okay, I’ll give you what you want, no need to delay the inevitable.”

  I struck the kid with my sword his head flew for a second before it hit the ground. The kid’s neck didn’t erupt with blood, instead, the parts of his neck that I slashed turned into a transparent liquid.

  “You are alive?” I asked unbelievingly as I half expected the kid to die.

  The kid’s face which was on the ground looked to be confused too. I picked up the head and then put it back in its place.

  “Yes, I’m alive,” said the kid, while shivering.

  “It seems that the Perfect Existence ability makes one… perfect,” I said, amazed. ‘Should I really antagonize the kid into servitude,’ I thought after seeing the kid’s monstrous ability. ‘No, I shouldn’t. I should make him an ally of the Republic, but how do I go about doing this?’

  ‘By using the carrot and the stick solution! He should fear me, but, the fear, should be accompanied by rewards.'

  “Kid I’ll change my offer. Serve me-”

  “YOU ALMOST KILLED ME, and you still think I’ll serve you?!” The kid shouted.

  ‘I think I might have been too merciless,’ I thought.

  ……….

  Convincing the kid wasn't easy, I had to lie a bit. But, in the end, he agreed with some conditions. All his conditions were reasonable except for wanting to know how I controlled him, as I would have to tell him how my ability worked.

  'Doesn't matter, I could always lie to him about how I controlled him.'

  After managing to convince him, I went to sleep.

  The next day, I woke up later than usual. I went to the group and told them about our newest recruit. They had mixed reactions, with the twins happy to see a new face, Neymar not caring, Edger untrustful of the kid, Ramses neutral, and Naya and Hugo annoyed. I told Art that he could explain the basics of our abilities to the kid, as I was trying to make him feel more comfortable.

  I got a few questions about who the kid was and what could his ability do. I told the party what the kid's ability did, but about who he was, I said I didn't know because I abducted him when I found out he had an ability. That got the twins mad, and the rest also disapproved, except Hugo and Naya. In the end, I convinced them by saying we needed him for the cause, and that I would let go of him after we finished our mission.

  Seeing that the kid was still sleeping and not wanting him to write any sensitive information about the group in his message, I ordered Naya to find his family and leave a message at their door saying; their kid was alive and wouldn't be returning home anytime soon.

  After the kid awoke and Naya returned, we continued our march into the Count’s lands. Throughout the march, I was thinking about how to use the carrot and the stick method when an opportunity popped out of nowhere. Neymar reported seeing a mana touched Seezeek. I ordered the group to attack the Seezeek, knowing the fight might be hard.

  The fight turned out better than I thought and what I hoped had happened, the Seezeek had a mana core!

  ‘This core should be a good compensation for the kid after my harsh treatment. With it he should be able to get his first new ability,’ I thought.

  ‘I hope the kid turns out to be a useful servant as killing him after he gets strong will be…hard.’