"Greeting red fairy, my name is Naka. How can I be of your assistance?"
Everyone is so respectful to me like this, I'm really glad about that. It makes things so much easier.
"Well Naka, maybe it's me who can be of assistance to you. I heard from some sources that you're planning to fight a true powerful being, and maybe I can give you a power up."
His eyes turn sharp, he got suspicious. I wonder if he'll admit or deny. I especially said true in stead of truly to show that I know more than I say, but I don't know if he caught up to that.
"It is true that there is a strong enemy, and we've been training in the cave to grow stronger. But it'll still take a lot of time before we're strong enough to beat him."
"What's important isn't strength in numbers, for a strong enemy numbers mean nothing. You'll need individual strength that's stronger than his. And I can help you on your way, but it'll cost a bit of the strength of your clan. It won't be much, and there will be no lives lost."
There's a glint in his eyes that shows his interest. But he's still suspicious.
"Is it truly that great? Won't there be a huge drawback to this power? And why would you help me?"
"The amount of power you can gain is dependent on your will, if you faint you'll barely gain anything from that point onwards. And I'm a red fairy, a race that loves noble battles, if I can help you have a wonderful battle I'll enjoy watching it."
I show him a smile as I tell him that. He looks relieved because what I say is in line with what he knows, he believes that I'm being honest with him. How can he believe a stranger so fast? Maybe I'll never know.
"Tell me more about your method. If it isn't anything truly sinister I'll accept your help and grant you a wish."
A wish? What could he even give me like he is now? He probably believes me that I will make him stronger than the dragon. Maybe I can, but I don't plan to give him that power.
"The method is rather straightforward, to gain something you'll lose something. I have the power to control blood, so I'll take the blood essence from you and your clans man and insert it into you, after this I'll let it merge and evolve. Your body will follow the evolution and grant you more power and potential. But for this to work I'll need to bleed you into a weakened state, the only moment when the blood essence merges is when you're close to death."
What I told him is almost honest, and it kind of makes sense so he should believe me.
"This way of gaining power is truly miraculous, I've never heard of it before, I never even heard about someone who could control blood like that. Is it okay to bleed everyone into a weakened state? Like that I don't need to worry about being stabbed in the back while I'm in the middle of the ceremony."
He's not as trusting as I thought he was. At least he isn't stupid, or maybe he is because he makes everything even easier for me.
"The dragon is visiting in a week, so I want to do this fast because I'll have to get used to my new powers. I'll call everyone for a meeting and you can pick those that you'll need for the ceremony, we can start first thing tomorrow."
He must be truly desperate to sign this pact with the devil.
And as he said, within 30 minutes all the lizardman were gathered. There were about 2000 of them. And of them there were about 100 drops of blood essence, it was truly a huge amount. I think I'll hit max level tomorrow.
After telling Naka about every lizard that need to attend the ceremony, he doesn't look surprised as I picked his strongest men.
He looked really happy after I told him that his growth will be huge. I was happy too.
We got cave assigned to the two of us and they brought many different kinds of foods, Black Eyes ate them all.
"Master Red, are you sure that everything is going well?"
"I am about 90% sure that they don't think that I'll kill them. But there is a chance that he's planning to kill us after he gained his power. The only sad part for him is that he won't get the chance."
"Hehe master is truly doesn't have any mercy if it's between him and power. But what will we do about the dragon that's coming soon?"
"We'll go into the dungeon, he can't fit through the opening. So he won't be able to follow. And with a bit of luck he can't even sense us inside. So, we don't have to worry about that big lizard yet."
And so we tested till morning. At morning Naka himself came to get us. We followed him to a clearing inside of the forest, he ensured me that nothing came to these parts of the forest.
And so the their offerings to me began. There were 87 lizardman including their chief, adding up to 93 drops of blood essence.
Last night I thought everything trough, so I was prepared. It's just that using telepathy on everyone is too taxing, so I let their chief tell them what to do.
"Everyone cut both your wrists, keep them bleeding. When you faint we will make sure that you'll live."
All lizardman looked at each other, nobody wanted to start. And so the chief was the first one to do so, he's probably super excited to get his new power. After they saw him everyone followed.
"Black Eyes, you know what to do."
At that he turned even darker, he looked like dead pixels in the real world. And then it spread, it covered everyone. I started flying around, I made everyone bleed more and just before they faint I take out their essence, I collect the essence close to me. After all lizardman near me faint I move on to the next group.