บท 90: Deal

The old Shaman anxiously waited for Ariel while staring at the remaining two harpies. He could see that one of them did not bother about him but rather focused all her attention on Mira while the other held an aggressive stance against him. He did not dare to move and simply watched as Mira and Angela spoke to each other. Unfortunately, he was unable to hear much of the conversation, all thanks to the harpies using the wind accordingly.

From his point of view, Mira was safe; all the killing intent of the winged woman was directed at him. In any case, he was ready to fight at any time; hidden underneath his cloak, several small vials of different colors were waiting there to be used.

Eventually, after what seemed like an opportunity, the Shaman once again heard the flapping of wings. Above his head, he saw Ariel swiftly approach her sisters without even looking at him. A few seconds later, a dark silhouette emerged from the dungeon.

From where he stood, the Shaman could not distinguish the man's features but the aura he was emitting was strange. Having encountered a lot of people in his life and being very sensitive to his environment, the Shaman felt as if two entities were standing there. One of which was harmless and weaker than himself while the other entity was far stronger but suppressed. It looked like a beast trapped inside the human body just waiting to emerge; he instinctively felt the need to kill that man!

However, the Shaman was quick to hide his intentions. It would be bad if the winged women became hostile because of this. He looked up and stared at the man's silhouette for a moment. The two stayed immobile as they examined each other when suddenly the man made his move.

The old Shaman widely opened his eyes in surprise as he watched the man jumped off the cliff and land with a loud "Thum" between Mira and the Shaman. He swore in his heart, "Was it really necessary to make such an entrance?"

...

"Thum"

Five slowly stabilized himself before walking toward the shaman with an expressionless face. He looked calm at the surface but inside, he was swearing to himself: "D*mn... I did not think it would hurt that much... Me and my great ideas..."

The moment Five saw the Shaman, he knew the mind games had begun. He had been looking forward to meeting the barbarians for just one reason: to negotiate! He knew the importance of people's mental state when discussing deals; even the slightest psychological advantage could completely change the outcome of a deal and so, Five did not hesitate to make a grand entrance by jumping down the cliff. He knew that it was a game and as such, he would not die as long as he had enough HP left! Although striking a blow to the Shaman's mental state was the main reason, the other reason behind this bold move was to conserve his own image! Wouldn't he look ridiculous if he was carried down by Ariel or if he had to go all the way to the East to be able to get down?

Seeing the Shaman expressionless face, Five doubted he managed to gain any psychological advantage; it seemed that the Shaman was a tough nut to crack.

"I presume that you are the shaman of the Black Iron Tribe?" asked Five with an expressionless voice.

The Shaman was initially surprised as he saw that Five could speak the Human Language but he quickly recovered. "Indeed, I am just an elder at the village. May I ask who you are?"

"Me? I guess you can say that I am the owner of this dungeon," answered Five with a mysterious smile.

"The owner of the dungeon? The dungeon master? Does that mean the records are true... Someone really pulls the strings behind all our fights..." said the Shaman. For a moment, the shaman was unable to control his emotions; he unwillingly released some killing intent as he thought about how 3 of his tribesmen had perished in the initial expedition of the dungeon.

Immediately, Ariel moved, positioning herself between the two men.

Fortunately, before the situation got any worse, the Shaman got hold of himself, "I am sorry about that. I just had some unpleasant thoughts..."

"That's fine. I am not here to rub salt on your wounds," said Five as he signaled Ariel to pull back.

"Then, may I ask why you are here?" asked the Shaman.

Five quietly smiled, "I know you are probably here to probe us, am I wrong? Well, this question will be answered by yourself! You will know the answer by the end of the night."

The Shaman frowned and secretly grabbed some of the vials under his cloak. "What do you mean by that?"

"Simple. I am here to make a deal with you! You have been sending your fellow tribesmen to my dungeon for quite a while now. We can already count as long-term partners, don't we?"

"Please go straight to the point!" drily answered the Shaman.

'D*mn, can't you read between the lines?' said Five to himself. "Of course, but before that, I think it would be better to have a conversation in private." As he spoke, Five pointed at Mira who was intently looking at them with her large eyes.

"She is just a child but sometimes there are things should be kept away from them. I agree!" answered the Shaman.

As they heard him give his approval, the harpies started to move. Angela hugged Mira from behind, "Mira, come, let's leave those adults to their discussion. Don't you want to see the waterfall from above?"

...

Soon, only Five and the Shaman were left standing near the pond. The latter was tensed, the departure of the three harpies should have lifted a weight off his shoulders but instead, the exact opposite happened. Five was only level 15 and therefore, the Shaman did not consider him as a threat but that feeling of unease kept crawling in. It was like something inside of him was telling him that Five was an enemy.

"Good, I'll go straight to the point! I want to make a deal with your tribe!" started Five. Over the past few days, Five had considered the different ways to approach the barbarians and how to enlist them. He easily concluded that he could not directly ask for help and after further considerations, he opted for an indirect approach: To make the barbarians dependent on the dungeon!

"In short, I would like you to send more men to explore the dungeon in the future," continued Five with an enigmatic smile.

"What?" The Shaman was surprised, he never expected this sort of request; wasn't exploring the dungeon equivalent to barging into his house, who would want to invite more strangers inside his own house? Unless this was a trap and his goal was to regroup all of them in the dungeon to wipe them out more easily!

The Shaman frowned at the thought, "What a strange request... First of all, what would we gain by sending more men there and more importantly, what would you gain? Although we both know that we obtained a considerable amount of resources from the dungeon, it wouldn't be wise to put all our eggs in the same basket, right?"

"I understand your thoughts but don't worry. I welcome your tribe to my dungeon as long as you are just aiming at collecting resources. However, if just like the first few barbarians that came to the dungeon, you try to attempt to take my life or my core, I would not hesitate to retaliate! It is rather unfortunate that 3 barbarians lost their lives in the dungeon but our deal can precisely prevent that from happening."

"I will simply make a proposal and if you agree, then we can proceed forward. Usually, there are about 40 barbarians that explore the dungeon every day with the exception of the past two days. I would like to double that number. What do I offer in exchange? I will first guarantee that none of the barbarians will die there as long as they are not blinded by greed! Second, I can increase the ores you like to collect. As for what I will gain, the more visitors my dungeon has, the quicker it can develop. In short, we can depend on each other," said Five. He did not explain everything in detail but rather, he waited for the Shaman to ask him some questions.

The Shaman quietly considered the offer. There were many dark areas but the offer was indeed alluring. The reason why they did not send their whole tribe there was mainly to avoid extinction! It was for that same reason why the barbarians never hunted as one large group and would rather spread through the forest in several small groups. As for harvesting more ores, it would greatly benefit the village as they were in the process of training some blacksmiths and needed a lot of material to do so.

However, the offer looked too good to be true, "It is a very interesting deal but how can I trust your words?" asked the Shaman.

"That's easy, we can write a contract like people like to do or even make an oath. Or maybe you have other ways to bind us?" asked Five.

"Tsssk, contacts are for townsmen! We, barbarians, are different but we can make an oath as long as you agree to stand in my circle of truth when doing so!" said the Shaman.

Five quickly nodded, he did not have any ill intentions when making the deal. However, to seal the deal, he did not hesitate to lie. "There are no problems to that. As I said, I hope that we can depend on each other. I have already shown my sincerity by allowing your men on the fourth floor without making them fight the boss of the 3rd floor. Are you not aware of that?"

The Shaman frowned for a moment. Previously, the Shaman always believed that they would need to defeat a boss monster before proceeding to the next floor and so, he ordered the barbarians to stay on the 3rd floor. Yet, when they attempted to enter the 4th floor yesterday, they did not encounter any difficulties which could be all thanks to the dungeon master.

Still unsure of himself, the Shaman took the opportunity to probe a little more, "then, does that mean that we will have access to all the floors? How many are there?"

'Sly old fox, trying to get information from me?' swore Five in his heart. "Seven. The dungeon currently has 7 floors but I will not open all of them to you at once. I will tell you when you can access the next floors. I hope to keep the deal between you and me, the fewer people know about it the better it would be. It would without a doubt affect your tribe if outsiders heard that you cooperated with a dungeon master like me. If I suddenly open all the floors to you, wouldn't it look strange?"

Five did not hesitate to lie. In this situation, it was better to appear as the one holding power and furthermore, there was no way for the barbarians to ever find out if he was telling the truth or not.

"mmm, I understand your worries but I am just an elder of the tribe. At the very least, I will have to inform the chief of the village," answered the Shaman. He looked calm but inside, he was struggling to hide his excitement, 'Seven floors? And we only barely reached the 4th floor? There are so many resources waiting for us?'

"The chief? Achi? That is fine. Besides, I am sure you can speak on behalf of your entire tribe. You might not know about this but Achi once allowed me to rest for a night at your village. I am very grateful to him for his act of generosity. He should remember me, especially since when I left, I told him that the life in the village would improve in the near future. It seems that I was not wrong," answered Five.

The Shaman's eyes flashed in surprise. It was something he was not aware of. "Anyway, your offer is very attractive but let's discuss the details! How much more ores will we be able to extract per day? If I am not wrong, without us, your dungeon would definitely not have developed that far..." said the Shaman hinting at Five that a satisfactory number should be said.

It was the shaman's attempt at regaining the upper hand. After he heard that the dungeon's development was dependent on the number of visitors, he immediately decided to push this fact to show that he was the one holding the initiative.

"Haha, Sir, it is true that you did help but without the dungeon, your tribe would most probably still be hunting every day and I seriously doubt that you would have survived the harsh winter. Especially after the recent beast tide where we took down the Beast Kings. Besides, the barbarians are just a catalyst to our growth, not an essential component," said Five. He looked at the shaman, trying to look as confident as possible.

Only half of what he said was the truth, they did indeed fight the beast kings during the trials but only one died in the dungeon! As for why Five said that he took them all down, it was because the harpies brought back the drops coming from two more boss monsters, it was safe to assume that the barbarians were not aware of this. As for the second part of his statement, the barbarians were indeed not absolutely necessary for the growth of the dungeon but to meet Five's schedule, they were the key component!

The Shaman widened his eyes in surprise. 'The beast kings? Was that why we suddenly stopped catching anything during the hunts? Did the dungeon really take down all Beast Kings? Impossible, even our village would have a hard time dealing with them...'

He suspiciously looked at the weak man standing in front of him, "mmm, then, may I ask how you would ensure that no one would die in your dungeon?"