At the juncture of taking a decision that would irrevocably change his life.
Cabrera couldn't help but think of his life till now.
He was born in the slums of this city from a mother who had been abandoned by her husband.
His first eight years were tough but full of warmth, thanks to his loving mother.
In his ninth year, she was killed as collateral damage of a fight between two gangs. Losing the only emotional pillar he had killed something in him.
After two weeks of mourning, he set his thoughts on getting revenge and grew up embracing the dark side.
This made him mature faster, and by ten years old, he joined a gang. One of the gangs that caused his mother's death.
By channeling his grief and anger, he accomplished different feats good enough for the leader of the gang to take him as a successor.
He suppressed his emotions and killing intent, and managed to not get caught.
Using his wits, he continued to perform stunning feats, killing and destroying a lot of things belonging to the second gang that killed his mother.
It was the gang leader that gave the mana technique that got him to the Intermediate level.
He waited till the age of sixteen, which was when the gang leader appointed him as the second in command.
His joy knew no bounds that day. His acting, scheming and lying had paid off. He could now begin his revenge in earnest, and so he did.
The next few years, he brought people who would be loyal to him into the gang in large numbers, while slowly disposing of the thorns in his side by sending them on missions and ambushing them.
During this time, he used his power to completely destroy the other gang that killed his mom.
Only the old members, as well as the gang leader, were left.
Six months later, he poisoned the unsuspecting gang leader and killed him, before making up an excuse to kill all the old members of his gang in an all-out internal war.
The day it was done, he cried as he mourned his mother.
After some time, he realized he didn't have any intention to stay in a gang any longer, and so he left.
Only to come back a week later unsuccessful.
He found that he wasn't good at doing most things except running a gang, and that compared to the measly pay, gang work paid better, so he decided to stick around by becoming a gang leader.
Years had gone by and he felt mostly empty. He wasn't able to go past the intermediate stage and could only sharpen his techniques. But even that hit a wall eventually.
And with age came wisdom…as well as leniency.
He had become inactive, and his gang members were no more than street thugs with how much their skills had regressed, as they hadn't fought or trained seriously in a long time.
Yet, someone beat up his boys and himself. He was also offering to sponsor the gang.
To make it better than it was in its heyday.
Cabrera felt his blood boil with ambition and expectation.
A feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time.
So what should he choose?
'I could say no, and he leaves'
Say no and the man leaves. The Dark Tooth gang would go back to their normal lives drinking and sleeping daily while robbing commoners of change in their spare time.
Or…
'I could say yes and nosedive into unknown danger'
Say yes and his life would completely change, for the better or worse, he couldn't be sure.
He would become very busy and might even die. Surely he should back out, right?
But why was his blood pumping at the call to danger? Why would he risk it?
Then he realized. It was because he had always loved dangerous situations. Because beside risk lies reward, and beside danger lies opportunity.
If he wanted to rise, then this was a chance.
After all, people said…
'Opportunities come only once'
And with such thought, his answer was made clear.
He looked at the boy before saying slowly.
"What do you need me to do?"
Ezra grinned widely at this moment before asking…
"Do you have soul paper or a mana contract?"
Cabrera's eyes dilated slightly before he answered.
"Yes, but only two copies of Silver rank"
"The fact you have that much is impressive in its own right" Ezra said as Cabrera brought a white scroll onto the desk
Ezra took and opened it, showing scroll wide rune markings.
'It's the real deal' Ezra thought.
It was a soul contract. Which is a paper that would witness the transaction of two beings and bind them.
The terms and conditions of the contract would be written out, as well as what sort of punishment should be executed if one party fails to uphold the agreement.
Naturally, it had its own limits and disadvantages, but was widely used across the three continents.
The disadvantage was that people could leave loopholes in the agreement, which they would later exploit if the other person didn't discover them before signing it.
The types of punishments one could state were also limited according to how high the quality (rank) was.
While the grade of soul paper determined who could break off from it.
An Expert Knight could forcefully break off a silver rank soul contract, while a Master Knight could break off a Gold soul contract. But not without facing repercussions, which depend on the other party's cultivation stage, the rank of the soul paper and the designated punishment.
A mana contract was basically the same, except for the fact that the one who breaches such a contract would have their mana stripped from them for a set amount of time, a set amount of mana or even a rank regression.
The fact that Ezra asked for such a thing to be brought out meant the details of their deal would be kept a secret.
And without saying anything, Ezra took a feather dipped in ink with runes carved on it and began to write the details of the contract.
After five minutes, Ezra handed it to the boss for confirmation.
It basically said Ezra would sponsor them by giving them money and mana techniques to help increase their strength enough to rise to the top. In exchange, they would safeguard his interests.
The boss couldn't help but frown deeply. What did 'interests' mean?
There was no indication. This was one of the things he would never accept.
It was one of the fatal flaws of a contract, never allowing an ambiguous word.
The word 'interests' meant a lot of things.
It could be that they would commit treason, that they would kill a noble, or maybe something worse.
After all, he was only meeting the boy for the first time.
Heck, he didn't even know his name yet.
It might be that the so-called 'interests' was but a trap where they would finish a very crazy mission and be killed as scapegoats for whatever he was planning.
So no, Cabrera would never sign such a contract as he handed it back while asking…
"Are you joking?"
"I thought you were desperate for my help?" the boy asked.
"Yes, desperate, not stupid" Cabrera pointed out.
"So outline the meaning of 'interests' while stating the amount of sponsorship you will be giving us weekly"
Another trap was the fact that Ezra hadn't specifically stated the amounts of money he would send, only that he would sponsor them.
After all, giving them one silver a month was also sponsoring, was it not?
"Per month, not week" Ezra said.
"Fine" Cabrera conceded.
Ezra used mana to erase all he had written, before writing again.
Another thirty minutes passed while Fredrick only watched them without making a sound.
He was also reading the details of the contract Ezra was writing, and once again felt awe when he connected the dots of what he thought Ezra was trying to do.
After a whole forty-five minutes of writing, erasing and cross-checking, Ezra gave the contract to Cabrera.
"Hmm" was the only thing Cabrera muttered as he stole glances at Ezra from time to time with incredulous looks on his face.
A question was seriously buzzing him.
'How?'
How is it possible for a kid to write with such insight and decisiveness?
The contract was unbelievably long this time and filled a lot of things.
It said Ezra would provide two Silver rank mana techniques, three Gray ones and fifty Bronze techniques as a down payment and starting sponsorship.
Subsequent sponsoring would include: an entirely new building to be used as headquarters, five Bronze rank armors, ten gold coins a month, and at least five new members, but the gang leader would take care of that.
The gang was required to register as a guild with the name "Black Jaws" and act as a proxy for Ezra to spread his influence across "THE THREE CONTINENTS". The plan on how to do it would be provided by Ezra.
The guild would have to guard other organizations he would build in the future by sending men and other needed resources.
Thanks to the multitudes of clans, guilds and mercenaries, a law had been enacted which granted land owners the right to sell it, and the new owner would only have to make sure that taxes were paid to the royal family.
This meant that nobles would be able to sell land to other nobles, merchants, clans, guilds, lone mercenaries or even commoners if they could fork out the cash.
Ezra would use this law to his utmost advantage considering his future plans.
The gang, or soon to be guild, would have their members move on Ezra's order to buy unearthed land or soon-to-be dungeon zones.
Sure, there were limits to the feasibility of his plan, but he already made plans for those.
Things like, the nobles couldn't sell their land secretly or else the royals had the right to charge the person with treason, confiscate his land and behead him and his family.
This was why Ezra needed to make a merchant organization, as well as an information organization, and it couldn't be just one.
He is going to use this gang as a springboard for the rest of his plans.
It was also written that Ezra's authority superseded Mr. Cabrera.
Ezra's decision would have to be carried out to the letter.
Of course, Ezra couldn't chase Cabrera away and he never planned to.
Ezra needed his expertise, experience and reputation, or why else would he want to work with him?
Neither Ezra nor Cabrera could speak a word of this contract to anything or anyone.
If one tried to, their brains would be fried and they would die.
Cabrera was never to tell anyone the name of his sponsor, and would do everything in his power to mislead them.
A lot of things were also written, but these could be said to be the main points.