After Fynn nodded, Elza fell into deep thought.
'Recruiting her is beneficial to me right now, this Fynn is more emotional than expected, it would take some time to harden his mentality, unlike him, these three women can kill on my command without hesitation, although their skill level is not up to my standards, after being led by this Elza, they make a good team.
Still, in case, I succeed in recruiting them, it won't be a good idea to send them together on a mission yet, after all, she lost her calm when I threatened her using her companion,' Kale thought.
"Don't think much, you don't have much of a choice, keeping you untouched is already a form of respect that your old leader didn't grant you," Kale said.
Kale was forcing her to make a decision quickly because letting her think more wasn't favourable for him.
"Who are you? Who is behind you? That leader is at Transcend Mortal Stage, we all combined can't win against him," Elza didn't answer his question and asked her own. From the information given by the leader, she knew that there were doubts about Kale having a strong backer that's why they waited until he entered the dungeon.
Elza's question brought a faint smile on Kale's lip, he knew that question meant she is giving in.
"You don't need to worry about that much, I won't lie, I promise that if not all three, I will bring out at least two of you alive outside with me," Kale said in a resolute tone, the reason he put his word like that was to make them sound more real.
After saying that, his expression became solemn, he added "Going this far and conversing like that is already my limit, you know you three are fishes on the chopping board, if I want, I can do anything, even use you as cannon fodder to hunt for the Boss, especially when I won't be held accountable for any of that, this place is a dungeon don't forget that,"
Elza gulped down her saliva, she made eyes contact with Xaxa and Zalie, she could tell they were ready to follow any decision she makes, Elza then noticed the wet lips of Xaxa.
"I agree, but you had to promise us some freedom, like you can't force us to do just anything," Elza said.
Kale noticed her movements, he looked at Xaxa who was staring at him in anger and sneered "Just a single kiss, what's there to fret about? I am not leaving you with a kid or anything, a decade later you can go brag around about who gave you his first kiss," Kale said in a bland tone.
Xaxa wanted nothing more than to kill him on the spot but moving aside, she couldn't even speak right now.
Kale then looked at Elza and nodded "As our old custom, we will take the oath now,"
Elza raised her eyebrows "What custom, what oath?"
"Nothing serious, it's a verbal oath people make in my region, it's something like making sworn brothers and comrades," Kale replied nonchalantly, then turned to Fynn "And you, how long are you going to remain standing, go bring a bowl with the antidote in my bag and the wine bottle I saved to use as a pain killer,"
'Oaths? Is he from Soaring Dragon Kingdom or something?' Elza thought but didn't say anything.
Fynn nodded, he first brought the antidote, the antidote of the venom of his body can only be made from his own blood, the antidote takes time to take effect so while they were resting he poured the wine in the bowl.
Kale peeked at them from the corner of his eyes, once he confirmed no one was paying attention, he made a short cut on his thump and squished out a few drops of blood in the wine, after that he took out his fingerless gloves and wore them.
He then brought the wine to the group and motioned them to sit in a circle, although the antidote didn't dispel all the venom at once, they could still barely move, others followed his command and sat in a circle. Fynn was out of the circle thinking he wasn't included but to his surprise, Kale motioned him to get it too.
Kale scanned through all four of them, he remained motionless but the Battle Qi inside his body surged and his momentum slightly rose.
Elza and the others felt it and became somewhat anxious, wondering if he changed his mind, but the momentum soon disappeared and everything turned calm.
They took a sigh of relief thinking everything was the same, but they didn't know that four leaves like symbol had appeared on Kale's palm under the covering of the gloves, four illusory red chains with three edges claw at their ends came out of them and were now swirling around the four people without them noticing.
If it was a normal Battle Spirit, others could see and even sense it.
But it carried the essence of WitchCraft, just like Ghost Spirits that can't be seen by the eyes of normal people, it too goes unnoticed unless the opponent practices something that allows him to deal with unnatural things like a Necromancer.
Kale took a deep breath then spoke with a solemn face "I, in the name of Kale Oshwatt, propose a contract, I shall raise you as my subordinates from now on, I will nurture you into strong entities as long as you follow my wishes, in return, you shall give me your full loyalty, on breaking the contract, your soul shall be mine, do you accept?"
Once he finished speaking, the three women looked at each other then threw him strange glances, the words sounded very childish to them, it wasn't what they expected, moreover there was no mana fluctuations or anything so it didn't seem like Kale activated any magic equipment or something to trick them.
Unlike them, Fynn had his heartbeat go wild, those lines were very familiar to him, they were similar to the ones Kale said when turning him into a slave, the only difference was he didn't take out any physical contract this time.
The problem was even if he knew it, he could do nothing and just comply. Only he knew the consequences the three women will face if his guess was right.
As for being subordinates? It was just a better way to call them slaves.
Kale may have called them subordinate but it was the same even if he used the word slave because according to the contract they couldn't go against his wishes, he never mentioned what could those wishes be, it was the loophole, who knows if he wishes them to die in the next second, can they survive after going against such a wish?
As for his side of the deal, he said he will nurture them and make them strong, but how much and for how long?
The loopholes made by him were highly favourable to him.
The Devils try to do the same, but the ones who normally make the deal are already aware of such things.
Elza too, could have noticed them but the issue was, she didn't understand the contract as Fynn and only took it as a verbal oath. If right now, she asks if the contract is real, Kale can't lie but why would she ask that?
'Contracts? Wasn't it oath?' Zalis thought but like always she left the objection for Elza to take.
Kale ignored their reactions, he took a sip of wine from the bowl then handed it to Fynn, Fynn inwardly sighed and did the same, he then passed the bowl to Zalie sitting near him.
The three women weren't worried about Kale mixing poison in it, if he wanted to do such a thing then there was literally no need for him to do such a thing or even hand them the antidote.
After the last person drank the wine, Kale faintly smiled and muttered 'Contract Establish,'
The illusory red chains swirling around the four persons suddenly dived into their bodies then disappeared.
Suddenly. all four of them felt a deep chill that made their bones shiver, it appeared for a fraction of second but beads of sweat had already formed on their foreheads, they saw each other's shocked expressions and understood that it wasn't their hallucination, then they turned to Kale for an answer but he was in a worse state.
Kale was on his knees, he gritted his teeth while clenching his head. He took several long breaths before calming down, he too was covered in sweat.
There were three conditions he needed to follow while using ‹Chain Of Contract›.
Firstly, he can't lie while proposing the contract.
Secondly, both parties need to agree to the conditions.
Third, the blood of both parties needs to come in contact with each other.
Once the conditions are met, the contract can be established but with how many and what lifeform level beings he could form a contract with depends on his own soul and lifeform level.
'If it wasn't for me to have a breakthrough to Level 11 with an A+ foundation, I might not have been able to form contracts with all four of them at once,' Kale evaluated.
"What... Did you do?" Xaxa shouted with a trembling voice.
"Hehe... What do you mean by that? Didn't I just say what I did, I established a fair contract between us, the one who breaks it dies, simple," Kale said while lightly painting.
Elza's expression turned dark, when she surrendered to Kale it was naturally not from her heart, she was just securing her and her teams' life, once she finds a chance she wanted to escape from both him and Nura Clan. She knew that Nura Clan won't let go of her once they knew she allied with Kale, even if they did, she won't have a good end, as for being under Kale, why would she go and give away her freedom just like that.
She didn't have high hope for his survival in the first place, according to her even if he survives here, he will die in the future anyway, but if the words he said earlier were right, then she can't escape that easily now.
Elza peeked at Fynn from the corner of her eyes and saw his down and not-so-surprised expression, it was enough to conclude that the words just spoken were likely the truth.
Xaxa was about to shout but Elza interrupted her "It's alright, we are in this together, it's expected that master uses such means, on the good side, this way we can trust each other and show a higher level of teamwork when fighting together," She said in an understanding tone.
Elza directly addressed Kale as master as soon as she spoke, it was a way to show that she submitted and also alert Xaxa and Zalie to not make a fuss.
'This woman is smart as expected, her temperament is like water, she knows how to change shape depending on time and place,' Kale thought.
Xaxa listened to her and became quiet, Zalie was a quiet type of girl to begin with, even when she felt despair, she left the talking to Elza and didn't shout like Xaxa.
Elza saw the approving look of Kale and continued "For now, instead of fighting we should focus on what to do next, we don't know much about each other so how about we introduce ourselves to see what could we use to go out,"
Kale chuckled, he could see her thought at a glance, she wanted to know more about him to slowly collect information about the contract he used earlier and find the loopholes.
Kale shook his head declining her opinion "We don't have that much time, from what I see, the assassins stationed around the dungeon will ambush us by the morning, my initial plan was to clear the second floor Boss Room first but we can't do that now.
For now, we will have dinner, rest for around an hour so that you three can recover, then we will head towards the third floor. On the way, we can talk about ourselves and you can also tell me the information you have on that assassin group.
We don't actually need to go and fight them, the more they stay here, the more suspicion they will cause to others, as long as we travel carefully and stay inside the dungeon for some time, they have to retreat, after all, they fear what would happen if we meet other adventurers to seek help from the guild,"
"But what if they decided to chase us down and kill with full force instead of waiting outside?" Elza asked.
"This can happen, but even if it does, it is still better to go to lower floors, because from what I think, and the fact that the old man is of high lifeform level than you, we will be like rats trapped inside a box here on the second floor. On the lower floors, even he has to be careful on the because strong monsters will give him priority instead of us, when fighting," Kale said.
Elza nodded, she had no words to refute.
***
Kale made some extra side dishes that included herbs with refreshment effects, it increased the amount of food to match the five people and also help them remain more energetic.
The five people then cultivated in turns in turns, to recover their energy.
One and a half hour later...
Everyone finished their preparation and got ready to leave, They were about to head towards the tunnel but at this time Kale arrived in front of Xaxa.
"What?" Xaxa snorted, even though her status dropped to that of a subordinate, she didn't let go of her anger and pride against him.
Kale got on his knees, grabbed the piece of her inner cloth sticking out from the space between her armour and ripped it using force.
Xaxa reacted, she jumped backwards, she grabbed her dagger in anger but then she saw that Kale ignored her, he ripped the torn piece of cloth in two parts and threw at the small shrubs on the side.
Elza's eyes shined, she understood what he was doing, she also ripped a piece of her clothes and was about to throw it on the ground but Kale waved his hand "Don't make it that obvious, throw it at a place where it isn't easy to find, and you there, use some of your attacks on that terrain, break that rock too,"
Fynn and others got into motion on his command and created a fake used battleground.
Kale observed his surroundings and confirmed to check if there was something left then nodded in satisfaction. Just then, he felt a slight pain from his neck, Kale pulled the collar to the side and saw the little snake leisurely sucking blood from his neck.
'This foodie, it's only been a few days since birth and has already become strong enough to dig fangs in my skin, though the premise is, I don't strengthen my body,' Kale didn't mind its action and adjusted his collar, when he turned back again, he saw the three women staring at him with strange looks.
As for Fynn, he was already used to it.