Edwin left the office to gather the 'tenants' while Alex crossed the hall and entered his room. He brushed past the large, neatly-made bed and went to his closet. Once there, he activated [Mirage] and pushed his second consciousness into it.

The mirage glanced out into the room before turning back. "Dang, this might be the last time you make me."

Alex rolled his eyes and grabbed a large hoodie from the hanger. He changed into some more casual jeans and his trusty Converse. "Oh, stop being dramatic. You're me, and there's no sense of "you". We're just the same. Overcomplicating it doesn't help. Plus… even if that were the case, if we can get the evolution, you'd just be a better version." He pulled the sweatshirt over his head and pressed down on the point of the Magician's Cap.

"Yeah, sure."

"All right, I'm going to head down first. I'll poke you when I'm set up and have Lin or Edwin near me. Then you can come down and make a scene. Sound good?" He removed a pouch of pre-ground mana stones and generously dumped them over the mirage while pressing the shell into existence.

"Yep, I get the fun part anyway."

Alex left the closet and walked out of the room. Making his way down the hall and out the front door, he marveled at how comfortable his normal clothes felt. Not necessarily fabric-wise, but something about being back in street clothes just felt right.

He turned and walked back to the staff quarters and found Lin sitting uncertainly on her new bed. "Lin, come with me for a second. I need your help."

"Uh, okay. Yes," she said, looking around at the room uncertainly before following him out front.

As they crossed the driveway and into the green grass along the left side of the driveway, he filled her in on his plan. "I need you to create a layer of illusory ground, or something like that. I am going to make a spell circle about this big." He pointed to an area around the base of the tree that was well shaded.

"What do you need an illusion for?"

"Just in case any of them have a mana sight skill. Can you do it so that it covers up my mana?"

"Yes, it will appear solid and match the ground's mana. But… I already saw you disperse your mana when we were in the cavern. Why not do it here?"

"I'm going to try and do it here, but in case I slip, I'd rather be certain no one sees it. I've had other things to practice lately, but this will jump to the top of my list very soon. Being able to cast and not have anyone know is going to be very valuable."

She agreed and began spreading her mana across the ground.

Once everything was set, Alex examined the area with his new Spectral Eye and was impressed by how normal everything looked. Just to confirm, he ran his foot through the grass and was impressed when it felt like normal grass.

Lin snorted.

Ignoring her smug attitude, Alex mentally prodded his other consciousness. It had been awkward at first, but he was getting better and better at "remembering" what his mirage was doing, at the same time he was doing it. It led to a slight delay in timing, but for the most part, it was as if he was watching through a different set of eyes in real time.

He came down the stairs and took a right to walk to the kitchen. Smiling, he waved at Gabby before grabbing a small butter knife from one of the drawers.

Gabby gave him a strange look, but Alex just continued to smile and left the way he'd come. As he descended the front stairs, a half dozen people had already begun showing up in the grassy section of the front yard, along with several of the house staff.

Glancing over at his original self, he saw one of the thugs talking to Lin. He didn't want to draw attention to the fact that there were two of him, so he walked to the tree instead.

While approaching, several eyes turned toward him, and even a few of the strangers made comments about his 'goofy-looking hat'. He stopped at the edge of the tree's shadow, watching the growing crowd. Most of those approaching from the neighboring property were simply walking through the woods and crossing his yard to reach the tree.

There were a few that he saw and noted as sensible; they kept space from the tree and scanned the faces of Alex and his staff warily. Part of him wondered what exactly Edwin had told the group to get them to gather so quickly.

The mirage-Alex kept to himself, maintaining a respectful distance from the small, split groups as they formed. When it appeared that no one else was going to emerge from the woods, he spoke up and asked the nearest group, "Is that it?"

"Huh?"

"Are there any more of you? Or is this the whole group?"

"Yeah, this is everyone willing to come for your bullshit reward. Just start giving it out already."

"Okay, friend. No need to get nasty. Is your boss here, at least? I'd like to talk with them," Alex said with a small smile. It still felt odd, even after all of the practice, for his vision to be so mundane when merged with one of the illusions. The lack of his mana sight was a hindrance, but he trusted the main body to have taken care of their part of the plan.

"Nah, they're back at the guild house."

"Oh, a guild?"

"Yeah, 'course. We're the Ashen Hand Guild," he said proudly while holding up his hand.

Sure enough, his hand was black, though it looked smudged along the knuckles, and he assumed that they used soot or some other substance for the effect.

"I see," he responded. Focusing intently, he dipped into his core and formed a spell circle as quickly as he possibly could with his raw mana control. It didn't need to be overly strong, since it was the layered effect that he was after, but still managed to build up two stacks of [Spell Weaving] and lay down most of the anchor rune before anyone even reacted.

Two people used movement skills to close in on him, while another jumped away from the tree, further back into the tree line. Everyone else was too slow to even react or had no way to spot his use of mana.

The anchor spell snapped into place, just at the same time as the oversized [Extended Duration Spell Circle] went off from the original.

Every single one of the gathered thugs was caught in the spell circle, and he was extremely satisfied by the use of the third rune that Maelis had taught him in the last three months. The way that the layered spell circles interacted with one another was perfect, and even though he'd tested it before, he'd never done it on this scale.

Both spell circles activated, coming into view even to his normal vision. The smaller, main circle contained the area spell base with an anchor rune, and was modified by the larger circle that included the extend rune.

Even though the spell flashed and ended as normal, the effect was extended and lasted much longer thanks to the new rune.

With his main body still hidden by Lin, the mirage Alex kept his large smile and walked forward. Two of the thugs had dashed toward him, but were now anchored in place. He approached them first, casually extending the butter knife in his hand to tap their shoulder.

As he started to talk, he formed another spell circle, holding it at the ready. "This is really just meant to show you all that you're not as strong as you think," he said, projecting his voice so that everyone could hear him. Many of the group had been caught while facing the other direction, so they couldn't see him, but they could listen to what he said.

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Without warning, someone activated a skill nearby, but Alex had been anticipating this reaction. A ball of fire formed over a man's frozen shoulder and grew to the size of a softball before flying in a straight line toward him. Alex pulsed his mana to activate the barrier spell circle, and the orb of fire splashed against it ineffectually. He continued speaking and moving as if nothing had happened, forming another barrier spell circle as he went.

"It frustrates me that you and your group came here when I wasn't home, and thought you could just take it for yourselves. But honestly, what frustrates me more," he spoke calmly as he continued to walk among the group and tap the butter knife to their shoulder or neck, "what irritates me more, is that if it weren't my home that you came to, you'd be out there terrorizing some other poor family. You would just set yourselves up in a nice home and… what? Charge them for your protection services? Protection from what? From what little I've heard, you haven't even cleared out a Rift a few miles away."

The further he made it into the group's center, the more he could tell that they were scared. Two more magic skills were activated, and he blocked them both with ease. Their eyes went back and forth, and sweat beaded on many of their foreheads. Some of their eyes shook as they looked down at the gleaming butter knife. It almost made him feel bad.

Am I the bully in this situation?

He refocused on his monologue, staying prepared to move in case any of them had a crowd control breaking skill. "I don't know what your situation is like. I hope that some of you have a reason to act this way, or a family that you feel you need to support. What I'd like to do is offer you the chance to come and work for me, instead." He heard several of the staff behind him whisper, and even heard Mark say 'What' in a loud way.

The next person he tapped with the knife had a look of hatred in his eyes so fierce that Alex knew he'd never accept. It was the same look of irrational anger that he'd seen on Rylan's face. Scanning him and those around him, he saw that the man was a Common Warrior class, but was higher leveled than most in the group.

He let out a sigh, and as he turned to walk away, laid a spell circle with a targeted base at the man's feet.

"I see there might be some bad blood between you all and my friends. So, we'll need to do this the right way. Here's my deal: go and kick your former leaders off the property they're staying on. They cannot take anything with them. If you do that, you'll be given the chance to try out for a spot here at the house, under my guidance, where you'll actually get stronger and earn your living. There's no need for you and me to fight. Either accept and take care of your former group leadership, or leave. If I see you here again, I'll make sure you're greeted with more than a butter knife."

He didn't say anything else until he reached the last person, the one furthest away from where he was originally standing. They were mid-stride and frozen in place, fast enough to react and move that they had almost made it out of the spell circle's area of effect.

Alex moved in front of them and knelt to make eye contact. The kid was younger, probably closer to Sam's age, and his eyes were wide. He'd been forced to listen to Alex as he moved among the group, calmly talking, and only saw now that he held a knife and wore a friendly smile.

"You're a clever one," Alex whispered. "I hope you accept." He reached out and tapped his shoulder lightly with the tip of the knife, making his point. The creepy and cold smile he'd been intentionally wearing fell away as he stood and turned on his heel.

He repositioned himself to stand in the path that most of the thugs had crossed from the woods. Standing between the frozen group and their exit strategy, Alex tossed the knife at the ground, slightly disappointed when it just bounced instead of sticking up in the dirt. He crossed his arms and waited for the remainder of the spell's duration to run out.

The effect lasted a bit longer than he'd anticipated, likely pumped with more power with the mana required for the large area effect.

When it did end, most of the group stumbled and looked at him hesitantly.

One person finally moved, just as he'd expected. It was the burly man from before, and even as he began shouting nonsense to rally his comrades, Alex pulsed the mana through the thread still connected to the spell circle.

The thug hadn't taken more than a step or even gotten out a full sentence before he was lying on the ground twitching with blue lightning crackling over his body.

There was a slight spike of panic as Alex worried he may have killed the man, but in the few tense and silent heartbeats that followed, no kill notification appeared. Instead, most of those who had thought of attacking Alex saw one of their toughest fighters fall to the ground in a heap before he could take a single step against the unknown wizard.

Most of the group was twice as unsure then. The silence was broken when someone stuttered a question, "C-Can we pass?"

Alex shrugged. "Accept my condition or leave. If you're walking this way, I'll take it that you're going to deal with your boss, so I have nothing to fear from you. If you reject the offer, you can start walking down the driveway." He pointed past their group and down to the left, down the long driveway.

It was the young man closest to him who moved first. It was still a hesitant movement, like a skittish dog moving around an object. He moved around Alex, toward the woods and their former house, not taking his eyes off of him until he was in the woods.

Once he moved, the majority of the group followed, although of the twenty-odd gathered, seven of them moved off down the driveway.

Alex found that more than acceptable. In fact, it surprised him that so many were willing to deny the offer to join someone strong and just turn and leave.

Shrugging, he walked through the now-empty field to the main group. He glanced at the main Alex as he joined the staff, though he was already walking back toward the house with Lin close beside him.

"Who were they?" Sam asked.

"What do you mean, let them join us?" Gabby asked.

"I must admit, Master Moore. This is not at all what I anticipated when you said you would handle the problem."

He held up his hands. "Don't worry. We can take things slow moving forward. There are several kinds of tests or trials we can put them through to see if they really want to be here. I also want to get to know them a bit better and figure out why they were doing what they were. Maybe some of them are just in a bad way."

Edwin's mustache twitched, and Alex could tell that there was something he wanted to say.

"Look, I don't have everything mapped out, but I've spent the last few months putting a lot of thought into next steps. I don't want an entire organization here, but things are getting pushed that way whether I want them to be or not. We need bodies for some jobs, and these people happened to fall into our lap, quite literally, here waiting for me to come back. Let's see how things play out."

"Will they actually leave, though? What if they just come back with more people and weapons?" Mark asked.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Can you even hire them on? What if they just say that they're going to follow you, but are really waiting to be an opening for this Ashen Hand group, again?" Ms. Grant said.

Alex was impressed with how fast she'd grasped the situation, but he shook his head and made meaningful eye contact with Mark and Sam. "There's a way to guarantee that they're not. But let's just see how things go first. Only a few of them might come back here after everything is said and done. Nothing's stopping them from warning their leader, grabbing everything they can from the house, and leaving. It seriously doesn't matter." He waved for the group to follow as he made his way back to the house. "Either we get a few people who are interested in joining, the situation resolves itself, or I need to use more force soon. One way or another, we won't have to deal with this issue anymore."

There were several whispers of affirmation from behind him, most notably from Mark and Mr. Grant. Part of him was surprised that Sam wasn't more approving, but I had a mental note to ask the young Druid's opinion later.

He took the stairs a few at a time. "I've got some pressing stuff to work on. Edwin, can you meet me upstairs when you get a sec? And bring a copy of an anatomy textbook. It can be physical or digital, it doesn't matter."

"Of course, sir." Edwin's response was unfazed, and it made the illusory Alex smile.

He made his way up the stairs, and just as he entered the office space, the mirage was dismissed into motes of mana.

Alex looked at Lin with a tight face, brows slightly drawn together. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, this one is positive, Senior."

"Stop calling me that," Alex said with his thoughts already moving on to the issue at hand. "How many of them did you sense?"

"At least two, no more than five."

"And you're sure they're not part of this Ashen Hand group?" He chewed on his lip and moved to sit behind his desk while he thought.

"Their mana signatures were more powerful than the group out there. One of them was at least partially hidden, though not well."

"How powerful were they?" Alex asked. Alex felt uneasy that another group was already tracking his people so soon after their return.

"Mmm…" Lin chewed on the question for a few moments. "Probably as powerful as your friend with the glasses."

"Evan?" Alex thought of the Enchanter and knew that he was only around level 26 when they left the Rift. "That's still a pretty impressive level range for people out here."

Edwin entered, confused to see Lin in the office. "Master Moore," he presented himself.

Lin looked between them.

"That's all for now, Lin. I might need you later, just stay around the house. Go spend time with Sam in the greenhouse if you want something to do."

She nodded, and Edwin took her place in front of his desk.

"Edwin, Lin has spotted some people scouting the edge of the property. She's sure that it's not more of the Ashen Hand thugs."

"Hunters Association, sir?" Edwin ventured.

"Maybe? But I don't think they'd be trying to scout us out like they are. I'm worried that it's people from the Guild."

"What is your plan, sir?"

"There's not much to do at the moment. I just need you to be aware. If they do attempt to break in tonight, don't do anything about it. What I do need right now is a bit of undisturbed time to push two of my skills into advancing. Can you make sure that my bedroom is cleaned and emptied of some of the more expensive furniture, and also make sure that my laptop has access to the camera feeds?" He looked around, not sure where his laptop was kept.

"It's in the drawer of the new desk. Here is the tablet you requested with an anatomy textbook pre-loaded onto it, sir."

He removed the laptop and passed it to Edwin while accepting the tablet device. When the butler dismissed himself, Alex took a deep breath and centered himself.

"All right. Time to create some clones…"

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