Mage Adam

She didn\'t want to die, because dying means you lose everything. So, she had to let Adam know.

In the lab, the last bloodline improving operation went off without a hitch. Adam took off his safety stuff and told Lina, who just walked in, "Get him out of here. Make things go faster. I want to see detailed maps and who\'s strong and who\'s not in the Makalu Mountains in two days."

Adam had a new job for the forest elves. Now that they were Nature Controllers, they weren\'t scared of getting noticed by tough tribes close by. With that map, Adam could figure out the best spots for the Plane Sacrifice Magic Array.

Lina said yes to the job but didn\'t head out right away. Adam was like, "Anything else?"

"Master, we found some sketchy signs that might be from someone with the Dragon Slayer Guild."

Adam stopped doing what he was doing and looked kind of serious. "Any weird stuff happening at the main mountain?"

"Okov is still snoozing. Just some tribes that grab stuff pass by now and then. Nothing weird."

Adam chilled in an ice chair that popped up behind him and crossed his arms, thinking hard. "Your people are all over the Makalu Mountains now, huh? How many tribes are out there? Who\'s the strongest?"

Lina had the 411. "There are seventeen tribes under Lord Okov. Most are like the old forest elf tribes. The strongest guys are about as tough as a Natural Controller. But their energy vibes are low-key, and my guys were scared of getting caught, so they didn\'t go all in."

"Having seen Okov do his thing, do you think you could take him with what you got now?"

Lina shook her head super fast. "No way! One dragon-spell from Lord Okov and I\'m toast. Even if like forty Nature Controllers from my tribe teamed up, it\'d be the same. Maybe some could get away, but going against him straight up? Not happening."

Adam was on the same page. A Nature Controller was pretty much as strong as a mage apprentice at most. But because their energy levels were way off, they were even weaker in fights. Okov was as strong as a level-2 mage at least, and numbers couldn\'t make up for that gap. If the Dragon Slayer Guild wanted to use slave tribes to fight dragons, those slaves wouldn\'t even be good enough to be front-line grunts.

"Master?" Lina noticed Adam had zoned out and asked, kinda puzzled.

"How strong is this messenger guy?"

"I don\'t know, but he doesn\'t know we\'re watching him."

"Do you wanna join the Dragon Slayer Guild?" Adam suddenly asked.

Lina had figured Adam would either run for it for a bit or take the messenger guy out himself. She never thought he\'d ask her that. Is this a trick? Will I get in trouble for being honest?

Lina quickly killed off the plants that popped up because she was freaking out, then knelt down, shaking. "Master, I totally don\'t want to do that! I can go off him right now if you want!" She quickly swore she was on his side.

Adam used a chill spell to help her up. "No, seriously, do you want to join them?"

The thought had just hit him. He looked like a dragon, so he couldn\'t go undercover in an enemy group. But forest elves were a different story. The master-servant pact was soul-deep; nobody would know unless they blabbed. If the Dragon Slayer Guild was cool with recruiting lame tribes, they\'d totally take a bunch of Nature Controllers.

This seemed like a win-win. The Dragon Slayer Guild must have tons of people if they were recruiting like this. More people didn\'t mean stronger, but it did mean more kinds of info. Even if they tried to keep secrets, stuff would leak out.

At first, Adam just wanted some slaves to be his secret info collectors so he wouldn\'t have to do the dirty work. Now it looked like he might not even need to do that.

As for how loyal these slaves would be, Adam was super sure that the devil\'s racial skills had that covered.

Lina stood there, her brain doing somersaults. She got why Adam would let her join an enemy group. The master-servant bond had not just kept the other forest elves in check lately but also made her see her own situation in a new light.

Being a slave meant you were totally under your master\'s control, with zero room to fight back.

*So why not go for the big leagues, meet stronger folks, and maybe get way more powerful? Maybe someday... *thought Lina.

"Master, I\'m in," Lina said, all pumped up. "But if it\'s just me, I\'m not sure I can get the job done right."

Adam totally got where she was coming from. "Keep one of your slaves here with me; you can take the others."

The message popped right into Lina\'s head, and her eyes lit up.

Lina tried to connect with Adam through the bond, saying, "I\'d die for you."

"Heh heh," Adam chuckled, waving a claw. "Get me that map in two days, and then you can try to hit up the messenger guy."

---

After Lina took off, Adam got back to cleaning up his leftover experiments. They were pointless now, but if the wrong people saw them, that could be a big problem, so they had to go.

The devil felt a little jealous of Lina\'s mission. "Master, why not let me do the cool job? I could just take her soul out and use her body to get it done. Plus, I\'d never, ever double-cross you."

The lab got colder and colder. Every test subject got frozen solid. Then there was this hidden burst of thunder, and they all shattered into ice bits. Adam felt more and more sure about how well he could handle the limited energy he had. "You? You\'re not smart enough for this kind of gig."