Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Hearing the words of Lucius, the three masked men felt a bit unnerved. To them, Lucius was saying stuff that didn't really seem believable. But they didn't feel like interrupting him right now and wanted to let him speak a bit more, with the hope that it would all make sense in the end.

"You three gentlemen are used to temporary jobs, while I'm willing to employ you full time." Lucius stated.

"Employ us? What do you mean, employ us?" The three of them said in unison.

"Just what it means. You three will work for me full time, with a few adjustments, of course." Lucius spoke.

"You do know us three are commissioned for more severe criminal acts like murder, right? How does it make sense employing us full time?" Carlyle questioned.

"Well… while I do say full time employment, I mean you will be at my call whenever I need you. Who knows when I might need you thus I would like you to stay available all times." Lucius answered.

"This doesn't make sense. Even if you are a nobleman the cost needed to hire us like that would mean you would pay for each day. That cost would go far above what you paid us now." Arius said, finding it all to be strange.

"Of course I know that. I mean to compensate you for that in a different way in addition to paying you for the individual 'projects' you would be taking on." Lucius replied.

"What do you mean in a different way? You will not be paying us in money?" Cohen asked, feeling doubtful about the entire thing now.

"It won't be money. Rather, it will be something that is worth far more than just money. It is something you won't be able to buy at all with money." Lucius answered.

"I don't believe you. If it's not money, then it won't be worth our time. And if it's something immovable like property that is even more useless for people like us. We cannot put in roots and need to move around a lot." Arius said while shaking his head.

The other two seemed to be done with Lucius as well, and decided to leave. But just as they were about to turn around, Lucius spoke.

"What if I give you a sample of that?" Lucius threw out.

"A sample?" Arius raised his brows under the mask.

"From the information that is a bit 'public' you three all have rare ranked gifts, right?" Lucius questioned.

"We do yes," Arius replied.

"What if I told you I can change that gift to an epic ranked gift?" Lucius said with a smile.

His words were spoken in a slightly low voice, making the three masked men feel as if they were mistaken.

"You mean to say you can give us new gifts?" Cohen asked for clarification.

"Indeed. They will be a better version of your own gift. Of course, this is only if you are willing to accept." Lucius replied.

"What nonsense! Everyone knows gifts cannot be changed." Carlyle said out loud.

"You do know there are gifts that people don't even know exist, right?" Lucius countered.

Carlyle narrowed his brows, but did not speak. Arius, who was the more knowledgeable of the three though, seemed a bit intrigued. He didn't know why, but he felt a bit interested in the words of Lucius as they didn't seem to be false.

He was an assassin and in his line of business, it was very important to be able to judge people and tell whether they are lying or not. And Arius had faith in himself that he could judge people every well. 

He had met a lot of people including noblemen, that tried to hire him and tried to cheat him from the very start. He could tell their lies rather easily but in the case of Lucius, he seemed to be telling the truth.

'Heck even the name he gave 'Lucius' seems to be real.' Arius thought to himself.

"Hmm… there are indeed several gifts that are unknown or just new that people don't know of." Arius decided to speak.

'He took the bait…' Lucius thought as a smile appeared on his face. 

Fortunately, it was hidden beneath the mask or it might have caused the three men to feel even more strange seeing Lucius. 

"Then you must also know that gifts can have miraculous effects that can affect even other gifts? Most people only see Rare or Epic gifts to be strong at most. But the effects of Legendary and Mythic ranked gifts are even beyond what most imagine.

What do you think a Mythic ranked gift can do?" Lucius questioned further.

Unlike Lucius, the other three didn't really have much knowledge about gifts above the epic ranked. Legendary and above ranked gifts almost never appeared and even if they did, they did so every thousand years or so.

Plus, most of the detailed information about them was only available to the nobles, the churches and higher organizations like the artificers guild. Other than them, commoners had less to no chance of knowing about them.

To them, those gifts were no less than mysterious and could do the unthinkable.

"I've heard rumors that Mythic ranked gifts can affect the very basis of the world. The stories of Etara speak of Mythic gifts as something that is only sent when the world needs them. 

They come in the times of disasters as divine intervention and help solve them." Arius answered after thinking for a bit.

Lucius was rather surprised by the man's level of knowledge. This was something anyone could learn if they read the scriptures of Etara, but not many could comprehend the truth about them since they were written a bit vaguely.

But the first line like what Arius said, about mythic ranked gifts being able to change the very basis of the world, was something even Lucius had come to as a conclusion.

'Seems like this man might be a better pawn than I thought…'