"Do you want to get stronger?" The words rang in Leah's tired mind several times before she answered, "How?"
Asher told her, "I would like to form a pact with you and share my power. Is there anything you need to know?"
"I'm in," Leah answered. It was clear she wasn't going to hesitate. Asher began the ritual once again and the soft glow of power emitted around them like before. "To form this pact, I demand that you seek power, Leah. Do you accept?"
"I accept," Leah answered. She felt the swell of power going through her body, invigorating every fiber of her being. It was intoxicating and also like fire in her veins at the same time. When she regained her wits, she asked Asher, "Why did you not give me any conditions regarding loyalty?"
Asher sighed and answered completely honestly for her, "You are the only person I fully trust, Leah. No matter what, you've been with me from the beginning. You have the same goal as I do, to get stronger. If we both achieve that, there's nothing that can stop us."
Leah nodded her understanding. "It was still a gamble."
"A gamble on what? My only actual friend? I trust you enough that I don't feel a need to put unnecessary conditions on you."
Leah smiled widely as she fully realized what the pact meant. She would be able to almost perform at Asher's level. What neither her or Killian realized was that Asher was benefitting the most out of the group. Both times he had formed a pact, he had felt a great power growing inside of him despite the loss of energy from the act itself. It was similar to how he dominated monsters, yet it wasn't at the same time.
The only thing he could think of was that it was enhancing his abilities in some way. Asher was very intrigued by the event and had already decided he wanted to try his new ability on someone else as well. The other B rank guild member, Timothy, was his new goal. Asher knew he could convince the man easily, as he wished to serve both Killian and Asher. What better way than to get stronger with them?
Asher was already feeling the effects of the pact with Killian. The man had already gone hunting and Asher could feel every kill empowering him. If Asher could gather a dozen loyal people to serve under him, he could very well be propelled towards new heights of strength. His minions had no real purpose beyond recovering his energy up to this point, but the human element was exciting to Asher.
He debated using his energy sharing ability on Willow for a few moments, but decided for the time being, he had to gather his own strength first. If he came to a point where he could afford to do so, he could boost her forward with his own power. In the meantime, he planned to look forward towards new ways to spread his influence. There was no point in holding himself back when he had so many means at his disposal now with which to strengthen himself.
Asher went to Timothy, and the rank B guild member quickly accepted without a second thought. In the man's mind, he'd be dead had it not been for Asher. Anything he could do to repay that debt would be done immediately if possible. He had also volunteered to help run the front counter of the shop in his spare time in between hunts. He had explained to Asher that at rank B, things changed slightly.
The monsters got smarter as they became stronger, so a hunt could potentially last days or even weeks depending on the strength of the prey. Asher was intrigued. That meant that he had a special advantage on everyone else with his collection of minions when it came to that point. He had quite a few goblins at his disposal that would be able to scout for him.
He'd have to be careful though, because their strength was rank C at best. It wouldn't take much for rank B beasts to destroy them. He wouldn't mind experimenting a little bit with the shadowy essence they left behind, however. Ever since he had consumed some of that, it had seemingly boosted his strength gain from killing monsters.
For several days after Asher had formed the pacts, he could feel a flow of energy going into him from every kill the others made. He could tell when Killian went on a hunt, because it was a massive swell of energy every time. It seemed as though the guild recognized Killian's efforts, as they awarded him rank A for his strength. He had thanked Asher repeatedly for the gift he had been given.
Before long, Leah advanced to rank B and Asher felt his strength swelling. He had long since sent his minions to Winterhaven to kill every rank C beast they could find. Asher had given them every target he could think of that was in their range. Over the course of a week, word had spread through the town that there was a group of rogue creatures, all fighting other monsters. The interesting part to the people was that they were rank D monsters at the highest possible strength level for the region.
Groups were dispatched to deal with them, but they always somehow eluded the guild. This was because Asher was controlling the strongest of the group directly and guiding them all. Asher knew that the group wasn't smart enough to evade capture or death by themselves, but with him directly controlling them, they stood a chance.
Before long, something interesting happened to one of the goblins. It fell to the ground and writhed in pain. Asher wondered for a moment whether it was resisting his control. After about an hour, he saw that it wasn't that at all. It was growing over time. He wasn't sure what the deal was, but there was a group of guild members trying to track down his minions, so he had one of the others grab the one that was incapacitated and they moved on.
It was a game of cat and Mouse for days after that. The group of goblins would evade the guild, just barely. Whenever the group would return to the city, Asher would let the goblins free roam to kill more monsters without his assistance. The guild members that were tracking the monsters kept getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of results. Eventually, one of them asked Asher, "Why don't you join us? I know with you, we'll have those beasts in no time."
Asher smiled lightly and stated, "I've been working on a personal project, I can't spare any time for a group of mere goblins, no matter how elusive they may be."
The man's next words made Asher's jaw drop. "Well, we've had our fill chasing these monsters, it's been two weeks and they've evaded us at every turn. We're going to ask Conor to turn this into a rank B job."
"Surely they can't be that bad," Asher nervously said.
"Like I said, we've been tracking them for two weeks, with no luck."
Asher cursed his luck. The one goblin was still incapacitated and they were potentially sending out a rank B strike team to deal with them. Even if they were all healthy, they couldn't handle that force. He thought about making them retreat into Imperia, but even then there was no guarantee they would make it. Asher had a feeling he'd have to accept the loss and collect the shadowy essence left behind by his dead minions later on. He was still curious what exactly was happening to his one goblin however.
He sighed as he came to the conclusion that he likely wouldn't know in the end, as the rank B team left. They had a professional tracker with them, allowing them to chase down prey easier than lower level guild members. Obviously the leaders of the guild didn't want to take any chances with the goblins.
Asher looked through the eyes of the leader of the goblins, a particularly large hobgoblin. The one minion was still incapacitated and Asher shook his head. Hours passed and the goblin still hadn't moved at all beyond writhing in pain. Asher wasn't sure if it was a trick on his eyes, but he could swear the goblin had actually grown larger. In the end it wouldn't matter, because the guild team arrived shortly after that and slaughtered the entire group.
Asher sighed in disappointment. He was going to be set back on that end of things once again. It was frustrating, but he couldn't help it once they upgraded the job level to rank B. Even trying to flee the province wouldn't have helped out. All he could do was pick up the pieces where he could and collect new minions to do his bidding.