Sam felt that there is a great chance that Kiran wouldn't come to meet him. But he is not extremely worried and was ready to accept either outcomes.
Because Kiran might be a high profile person, but he is not really that strong. In fact, even Gran and Sia might be able to give them a tough fight. After all, they can hold their own against the Saber Monrach without getting caught for a good while. At least a lot more than a twenty or so minutes.
Even though most of it is the result of their elemental usage, it is still a great achievement.
But he would still take this guy in and most of it is due to the disguise technique and his desire for glory. If his desire is strong enough, Sam could use his ability in art of disguise to make infiltrate different places.
And kiran would comply just for the glory or thrill of doing those things. After all, all the enemies and opponents Sam is going to face are going to be beyond what Kiran could currently imagine.
But on the second day, when the whole team is having a feast, Kiran came and said to Sam.
"I would work for you. Exactly for a decade. But I would like to continue challenging tougher opponents. If you cannot agree to that, I will leave right after I defeated the Saber Monrach."
Sam smiled and replied.
"I will take the second option."
Kiran was surprised.
"Are you not afriad that you wouldn't be able to keep me for a long time."
"The distance between you and Saber monarch is something you don't understand. If my estimation is not wrong, you would be work with me for a long time. A lot more than a decade."
"I will prove you wrong."
"Don't worry, with the things I would make you do, you might not even want to prove me wrong. Anyway welcome to the team. Join us for the meal."
Kiran sat at their table and after the meal was over, everyone went to do whatever they wanted to do for the day, they are moving the next day.
"Oh, by the way. Kiran, you forgot to show your real face the other day."
Kiran halted in his tracks and began hesitating.
"Never mind, but show us a face that you would only use with us and also that face should never cause any troubles and we must never have a chance to mistake someone else for you no matter which realm we go. Do keep that in mind before you decide what to show us. You have twenty four hours. Right before we depart tomorrow."
After giving them the time off for the rest of the day, Sam also took an off day and went to the nearest lake he could find in the forest to take a swim and relax.
With Kiran's addition, seven out of ten members were recruited and there are three more that he needs to recruit.
But these three members are all of transcendent stage of Astral Plane. One at Middle stage and two and the Initial stage. There is no way recruiting them would be easier than recruiting the current team members.
And it can actually only be harder.
Saber Monrach could possibly manage to compete with the Initial stage people with his battle prowess, but that would be hard for him to do when considering that all the people in the list are stronger than their peers.
All the current team members met Sam with any problem or need on their part. He could be considered fortunate, lucky or this might just be a simple and direct coincidence, but things always played to his advantage and he managed to recruit them as per his wishes.
But the remaining three would be a massive pain in the ass.
After some contemplation, he decided to halt the recruitment process a bit.
Because, by now the first phase plans which are currently being led by Argan and Arkiv are in their final stages and soon the first phase powers will all be over.
The players will be moving to the second phase powers and Sam doesn't want to lose out. Even though he managed to finish off a few second phase powers, that is just a drop in a bucket.
There are too many second phase powers and they might be higher in number than the first phase and some second phase powers are connected with the third phase powers.
So, has to plan properly.
He decided to move back to the desolate or feathered to take a break for a month and prepare for what they are going to face before deciding on whether he should focus on the organizations in second phase first or prioritize the recruitment.
With that in mind, the next day, he met with the rest of the team and went back to the desolate and told them to take off days and roam around the next month.
He went back to the roots of his research just so that he could calm his mind while he waited for Argan and Arkiv to arrive with news and the heirlooms.
He went back to school, sat in classes, participated in research with Sirona and her staff, taught students, not just some senior students who works in differnet fields, even the little kids. He just did whatever he wanted for a month and in the middle of it, Argan arrived with Arkiv and the troops that fought for a few months straight are all stationed in Feathered to take rest.
There are a few dozen heirlooms and Sam is extremely satisfied with the results.
"How are things on your end? Whatever that thing is?"
Arkiv asked as both of them drank together.
"Not too bad. I recruited a few people. Ther e are still a few left to recruit."
"Don't tell me you are making a crew for the next batch of people too?"
"Of course, what do you think? I would just charge in and out of the organizations and struggle with them for days and even months trying to find ways and methods to defeat guys that are a dozen times stronger than me? I will pass on that one. I would rather finish with everything in a few days and take rest while acquiring whatever I could from that realm."
"Are you still expanding?"
"Not really. I decided to stop expanding for a few years. It is going too big and I need to make sure that there is no threat from all the people I am going to provoke. If I can make sure of that, I would once again start expanding."
"Then it would take some time."
"Yeah, it would. I will once again start after I am done with the phase two. By then I would have a certain strength that would stop the powers from phase two to try and swallow me whole, so I could just expand then freely after making an example out of them."
"Speaking of Phase two, I have some messages for you."
"Messages? From who?"
"The rest of the players of course. They want to make a deal."
"A deal? For what? I am not giving them any troops. Anyway, the second phase is mostly dependent on quality over quantity."
"Its not about that. They want you to cut them some slack."
"Just tell me what it is."
"Well, it would be better to talk to them directly. Nobody is currently going after the second phase organization and some of them are cleaning up some of their messes. So, by the end of the month at the latest, they would visit the feathered planet and have a meeting with you. If that is alright of course."
"Let them come. But what is it that they cannot just tell through a message?"
"Well, this time they are asking something big of you, so they decided they at least need to be polite and visit you while asking it."
"Whatever you say. What are your plans now?"
"Currently there are none. Since there is no time limit, I can do it a bit leisurely. Anyway, I am with the rest of the players on this one. I will wait for them to come and we will talk. Until then, let me enjoy some of your luxury, will you?"
"As long as you can pay for it."
"Is there any kind of fellow player discount? I am not as rich as you, you know?"
"you are not poor enough to ask for a discount either. I know you are rich enough. Just don't be a miser and spend something on yourself. Otherwise, you would go mad soon."
After that, both of them left their own ways. Sam continued his research and teaching and Arkiv spent his time relaxing.
By the end of the month both of them arrived at the feathered planet and so did the rest of the players.
All the players that are alive gathered.
Sam could sense the changes in everyone of them. They are clearly stressed in the past few months.
