If Isaac wanted to lead a team which could take medium difficulty missions, he couldn't stay in Rank 1 lower stage. His Qi Core was currently 27.9% full and he still had 18 reward points. Previously he'd saved the reward points since he might need them to buy his Anima, but now there was nothing to stop him pushing for middle stage.
Knowing this, Isaac visited his locker and withdrew 14 reward points and an iron piece. Then he went to the market while being extremely careful he wasn't being followed, bought some food, and exchanged the reward points for Basic Qi Pills. After that, he left the market, taking equal care to make sure nobody was tailing him.
However, he didn't go to cultivate right away. It was already quite late, so renting a room in the Cultivation Pagoda now would be a waste. It would be better to go tomorrow when he could cultivate for the whole day, so he went back to his locker and stowed the pills away.
Since he was going into seclusion tomorrow, it meant he couldn't personally prepare to make the team. Fortunately, he could still get other people to do it for him – and he wasn't just thinking about Johan.
If he left everything down to Johan, he would end up as a puppet team leader who got dragged around by Johan and his cronies and then took the blame if anything went wrong. No, of course he didn't trust Johan to set up the team. He'd much rather do it himself, but as already mentioned, he was going into seclusion...
His solution to this conundrum was simple; get other people to gather intel for me while I'm in seclusion, then use that intel to make decisions when I come out. That way, Isaac would still be the one deciding the team members and it wouldn't need to be delayed by 2 weeks. But there was still a problem: who would gather intel for Isaac? The answer to that was even easier.
*************************
After 30 minutes of walking, Isaac was back in the abandoned farm area. He'd originally planned to leave the group tied up here while he was in seclusion, but now he had a better idea.
He opened the door with a loud thud, making the prisoners on the floor look towards him. Their eyes with filled with terror and their bodies were in terrible states; every one of their fingers were broken and all their fingernails had been pulled out. There were also lacerations and cuts all over their bodies, burn marks on their... it's best not to go into too much detail.
The point was, they all stared at Isaac like he was Baal incarnate.
"N – nwo! Dwon't come weer me!"
One of the men tried to speak, but he was missing a few teeth... alright, maybe it was more than just a few.
Isaac ignored his desperate cries and approached anyway. He stopped a few feet in front of the group, each of whom had a rope tethering them to the wall and limiting their movement. Then he spoke,
"Don't worry, I won't torture you anymore. In fact, I'll even set you free," the expressions of those on the floor twisted to reveal surprise and hope, "if you do a job for me."
Their excitement was dampened, but only slightly. Even if they had to do something in return, it was still a chance to avoid any future torture and get out of here. Besides, they would've been extremely suspicious if Isaac was letting them go without wanting anything.
"The job won't be anything dangerous, and I'll let you go if you're willing to accept it. We can even start with a clean slate and no grudges between us, so I won't come after you again unless you do something new to antagonise me. If you're not willing to do the job, I'll leave you tied-up here for 3 weeks with no food and only the rusty water in that trough. Even after that, I'm not sure I'd let you walk free..."
Sanna blurted out,
"What's the job?"
"I need you to spend some time listening to rumours and gathering information for me. It's a simple choice: you work for 3 weeks, or you stay here for 3 weeks and then get tortured afterwards."
All 6 of Isaac's prisoners frantically nodded their heads,
"We agree, we'll do it!"
"Oh, but there are a couple more conditions. First, work properly and don't slack off. Second, don't disclose my identity or any details about me to anyone. Third, return the 3 reward points you stole from me before. You might think you're safe – you might think the worst I can do is torture you. But if you break my rules or try to cross me ever again, I will force you to accept a mission with me. You know what that means? It means we'll all be together outside the sect. Once we leave the sect, I can assure you you'll never return."
The 6 of them shuddered. Torture was bad enough, but they had convinced themselves that Isaac couldn't threaten their lives. Their despair only grew once they realised they'd already failed one of his requirements.
"... S-s-sorry, sir... I'm truly sorry, we..."
"Come on, spit it out!"
"We don't have your reward points anymore."
"What did you spend them on?"
To the group's surprise, Isaac wasn't angry. That eased the short man's nerves as he answered,
"A High Tide Talisman... sir."
"A High Tide Talisman? Good. Bring that to me instead."
Talismans were tools created by inscriptionists and were typically used in combat. Inscriptionism was a profession with similar popularity to alchemy; inscriptionists could draw runes or inscriptions using a liquid – usually beast blood – to achieve special effects. They could draw talismans, create arrays, or enchant items, though an inscriptionist would typically specialise in just one of those 3 fields.
Arrays were complicated systems of runes, usually set up on a large scale to defend or attack a place. Enchantments could give an item a special function, such as making a pen write by itself, or reinforcing a shield's durability. Talismans were consumable items that used runes to draw upon the power of their materials and create a special effect.
For example, Johan had stolen some talismans when he left the Friberg family to take the trials. He hadn't needed them then, but he'd used a defensive talisman to guard against a fatal strike from a bear during his mission with Isaac. That talisman was the Iron Guard Talisman and made the user's skin as hard as iron at the place they were struck. In comparison, the High Tide Talisman was of lower quality. It was a rather basic attacking talisman that created a tidal wave of water. The wave possessed the power of a Rank 1 middle stage attack and the group had bought it as a trump card, just in case they got into a sticky situation.
Soon, it would be Isaac's. After the group readily agreed to give Isaac the talisman – it was bought with his money after all – he untied them.
"Bring me back to your house to get the talisman. Then I'll explain your task."
"Yes sir, right away."
The short man seemed quite eager to impress Isaac. Maybe he was some kind of masochist who needed to be beaten up and tortured before he learnt to respect somebody. Whatever, it wasn't any of Isaac's business. He only cared that they got the talisman, and the man's words gave him some assurance. If they tried to use the talisman on him after retrieving it... well, first of all it would tell him they couldn't be trusted and they wouldn't be able to backstab him later on.
Secondly, there was no way it would work if he was expecting it. Talismans had a short delay between the point they were activated and the point they actually took effect, since the runes took a few moments to work. The better the inscriptionist, the quicker the activation time of the runes. However, only a shoddy inscriptionist would be selling talismans for 3 reward points, so Isaac would have plenty of time to stop the user while the runes were still struggling to activate. Then he really would go through with his words; he'd force the group to take a mission with him and then cleanly dispatch of them once they left the sect.
Fortunately for the group, any thoughts of double-crossing Isaac were long gone. They obediently brought him home. Sanna went inside to search for the talisman and Isaac decided to do some swordsmanship practice while he waited. Soon, he was immersed in his training.
Sanna had been inside for about 20 minutes, and Isaac thought something seemed suspicious. He was on the verge of going to check up on her when she walked out of the hut.
When she returned, she found him practicing swordsmanship in the street. As she watched his translucent orange blade dance, she was extremely thankful they decided not to fight him.
After a series of precise cuts, thrusts and slashes, Isaac lowered his sword arm and the blade disappeared. He grabbed his coat from one of the group members and pulled it over his shoulders while walking towards Sanna. She handed him a piece of paper with intricate red drawings on it, and Isaac inspected it to check it was real. Then he stashed it in his pocket,
"Good. Now, the details of your job. You will be my eyes and ears on the street for the next 3 weeks. I want you to pick up any rumours, stories, or information about the new disciples. Specifically, I want you to find people who've shown exceptional skills or completed impressive feats. For the next 2 weeks, find as many of these people as you can and do some basic digging into information about them. After that, I'll contact you so you can hand me a written report on your investiagtion.
"Then I'll update your task for the final week. And I wouldn't try writing a fake report if I were you. There will be someone else observing your work and talking to me. If they think your performance is unsatisfactory, there will be consequences. But if things go well, you'll never have to see me again after 3 weeks."
The group all nodded. When Isaac motioned for them to leave, they turned and fled from him. Both Isaac and that cramped farmhouse would be recurring themes for their nightmares.
Isaac waited for them to go, then he also left. He returned home to do one more job: destroy the future plans he'd hidden in the box under his floorboards. If his time as a captive had taught him anything, it was that notes like these could become a weakness no matter how well you hid them. If Isaac could've opened the box to show the group his key was meaningless, they might've released him earlier without him even needing to escape.
He memorised the notes thoroughly, reading the important parts over 10 times each. Then he started a small fire in his fireplace and tossed the booklet of notes in. He prodded them around with a poker to make sure they all burnt properly, then watched as the sheets gradually turned to ash.
When they were thoroughly destroyed, Isaac put the fire out. A steady blaze would've been extremely welcome during the harsh winter nights, but keeping the fire going while he slept would be too dangerous – especially since he lived in a wooden house.
Therefore, Isaac had to bear with the usual chilling cold when he went to bed. He could only try his best to sleep well, since it was important for entering seclusion tomorrow.