12

Deep into the mountain range, a group of figures was running up and down repeatedly on a cliff. Most of them had a face filled with pain and it seemed that they were on the verge of passing out. When they all ran down the last time they all fell down on the ground like a bunch of dominoes.

Lance looked at the slaves and frowned. After a week of training, he found out that besides some above-average physical capabilities they wouldn't be a match to a 1-star adventurer. He also found out their names throughout the week: the girl beastman, Lina, and the two beastman were Brul and Trist; the two dwarves were Groath and Bodvar; the two female dark elves were Sophia and Felicia, and the two male dark elves were Charles and Flinn.

He didn't really care about their names, what he really cared about was how long would they take to be ready. Through this week he calculated that at least without 1 year of continuous training he couldn't make them par with top 1-star adventurer and have them be absolutely loyal to him. But he had already predicted something like this so he wasn't all that worried, it was just that the other way was a bit villainous.

Lance gazed at the slaves and said, "You have five minutes to rest then you will follow me."

The boys and girls looked at each other their faces filled with exhaustion and a bit of reluctance. After the rest period, they all got up and followed Lance to a cave near them. This cave was the one they had been living since they entered the mountain range, but they notice that there was a hole that wasn't there when they had exited the cave to train.

Looking at Lance as he entered the hole trying to find any clue to what was expecting them but all they could see and feel was an impervious calm and brutal silence coming from him.

On the other side of the hole, they found themselves in a large cave big enough to house all of them and ten more. Lance looked at the curious slaves and took something out of his pockets.

"Everyone of you will take one of these pills and eat them."

They hearing that looked at the black pills in his hand and made fear-filled faces. Neither one of them approached him looking at one another in hopes that one of them would take the initiative. Lance grunted seeing that, "I will not say one more time. Each and every one of you will take one pill and if in the next five seconds there are still pills in my hand I will kill you according to the remaining pills."

The moment he said that an explosion of bloodlust spread across the cave filling it instantly. Both the boys and girls felt like they were in front of a butcher and had illusions of being flayed and burned alive. They felt like they had a knife a few centimeters away from their hearts.

Before the five seconds passed all the pills were taken. Lance looked at them and smiled, "Now taken them. This pill will boost your muscles and learning capability, which will make you stronger faster. The only downside was that you will have to suffer body reformation."

While listening to the effects of the pill, most of them thought that Lance was stupid. They knew that he was holding their lives by a thread but what they knew that he didn't was that they could evade the effects of the slave contract. The downside was that they had to kill their master before he had a chance of activating it.

So many of the slave masters wouldn't reinforce their slave's physical and fighting capabilities in fear of one day they would rebel and kill him. But what they didn't know was that before he even left Flick Village Lance already had calculated and predicted all of this. He knew that the moment he chose to buy slaves to enact his plan he would have to resolve the obedience problem so he began to experiment.

With the knowledge from Earth and the botanic knowledge from this world, he after many experiences created this pill. This pill would exponentially enhance all the physical, mental, and above all fighting capabilities of anyone who took them, but what they didn't know was that weren't the main effects that made him create this pill. First, this pill could only be taken once and by people that didn't begin in any mana training as the pill would reform their bodies if they took this pill more than once their body would implode and because if they had trained any kind of mana manual their mana roots would be tampered by the said manual and when they took the pill, it could make them into cripples.

Second and the main effect. The ones who took the pill would feel an unusual trust and loyalty to the first person they saw. Lance for this effect had experimented for weeks and when he managed to create this effect he was delighted. He had experimented in a married woman of a chief of a gang from one of the villages that he had passed through in his journey toward BlackIron City and he found out that after they took the pill they would only open their eyes to the first one that touches them and since that they would follow every single one of his orders.

You can imagine what happened to the poor woman as Lance had his way with her in front of her husband. Seeing his woman having sex in front of him and by her own will, made the poor gang boss drop into a pit of despair. LAnce didn't really have any thought when he did that, to him this wasn't anything but an experiment.

Inside the cave after all of them had taken the pills, Lance waited for their bodies to finish their reformation so he began to explore his mana root. After a while, the bodies of the slaves stopped twitching and Lance stopped exploring his mana root and walked to the girl beastman first.

He touched her face and she opened her eyes immediately. He noticed a change in her eyes as they changed from a black state to an adoring almost crazy loyal glint and he smiled as the pill had functioned as he had predicted. After that, he touched every single one, and then he said with a very calm but firm voice, "Arise, my soldiers."

The ten bodies that were on the ground like they were synchronized got up and stood on their spot quietly all at the same time. They all looked with adoring gazes at the man standing in front of them as inside their minds they all thought the same, 'For him, I would give anything. If he wishes for my death, I will gladly cut my own throat.'

Lance opened his arms and laughed, "Ahahaa! From now on you will be The Blood Council! With you, we will bath this world in blood!"

"Yes, master!" they all shouted in unison. Many years from now, this event would be whispered between commoners, nobles, kings, and emperors with fear and dread across their faces.