The deal was rather simple.
Michael would receive the information he wanted, and the Elves would receive the Gogi Lord's corpse. Both sides would benefit greatly.
"We accept the deal. Let us inside and we can talk all night!" The female Elf said generously giving him a faint smile.
However, Michael didn't move an inch. He frowned deeply and shook his head.
"That's not going to happen. We will talk here, with the barrier between us!" Michael announced, making his stance clear.
"Of course, if you remove your weapons, and allow me to tie your arms and legs, I will reconsider letting you guys inside. But I don't believe that anyone here wants to be tied up like a prisoner;" He added after a few seconds.
Michael sensed that the other Elves looked at him with discontent and ridicule, but he couldn't care less. They whispered to each other in the elven tongue, which Michael shrugged off. He didn't mind if they thought of him as a coward.
'Why should I trust you guys, in the first place? I don't know you, and you don't know me. I would rather stay alive than fall prey to stupidity.'
The Elves were as strong as the lizard mother, if not stronger. Michael couldn't even deal with the Gogi Lord without help. Dealing with the elven group was out of question.
"You can decide to leave with empty hands, I don't really mind," Michael said calmly, "It's not like I ask for a lot. All you have to do is spend ten or twenty minutes talking about the Untamed Jungle, where Xiltra is located, and some information about the places I should avoid when I travel to Xiltra, places in Xiltra I should visit, and even the places I should avoid in Xiltra."
Michael had nothing to lose if the Elves were not willing to accept the deal. In the worst case, he could preserve the Gogi Lord's corpse and hand it over to the Guild in Xiltra to receive the Elves' mission reward.
The reason Michael was willing to give up on the mission reward was pretty simple. He hoped the Elves would feel indebted to him, and that they would provide secret information. But most importantly, Michael didn't want to make new enemies now that he got rid of the Gogi Lord and the Lizard after tiring himself out for hours.
The group of five Elves was far more dangerous than the Gogi Lord given the fact that they were deemed mercenaries by the empire. It would be great if they could become friends. But even if that was not possible, it would be fine as long as their relationship remained neutral.
The female Elf from earlier nodded her head in response. Michael's comments were reasonable. Michael was the one to have defeated the Gogi Lord and Gogis. He deserved the reward, not them.
There would be some minor issues if Michael were to travel to Xiltra and demand the mission reward from the Guild, but these issues were not worth mentioning. And all Michael asked for was some information.
It didn't take an expert to determine that Michael was a Rookie Lord. His War Rune was Tierless, and the protection barrier was still up.
Considering these factors, Michael was either well-trained or in possession of a powerful Soultrait. Otherwise, he shouldn't have been able to kill the Gogi Lord and his subjects. Or…he was just suicidal, though the Elves didn't think that this was the case. The Rookie Lord seemed vigilant.
"We accept your deal. In fact, we will not report the appearance of a new Lord in the Untamed Jungle, either," The female Elf, who seemed to be the adventurer team's leader, said.
Michael didn't think much about that, so he nodded his head thankfully.
"It's not like his territory will remain standing long enough to be worth reporting, in the first place…" Another Elf added in a low voice.
Michael heard the comment and tilted his head in confusion while looking at the youthful man for a while. After a second or two, Michael's gaze moved away from the youthful man. He looked at the other elves and noticed that they refrained from commenting on the youthful Elf's silent jibe at him.
'They think that I won't be able to hold my forte…is it that dangerous here? The Gogi Lord survived as well, so why can't I?'
It was a fact that Gogis were warriors and physically extremely strong. However, it was not as if their Tier was higher than others upon being summoned.
Michael felt that he shouldn't be too much at a disadvantage compared to the Gogi Lord.
"Don't take my comrade's comment to heart. Your territory is located a bit deeper inside the Untamed Jungle when compared to the Gogi Lord's territory. The Gogi Lord was already in a dangerous position on the outskirts of the Untamed Jungle, but you're already at the border to the middle zone," The Elf Leader explained when she saw how confused Michael was.
"Middle zone? My territory is only a few kilometers away from the Gogi Lord, and so far, I've only encountered Low Tier-1 Monsters, though their population is much higher than I expected…there are no Tierless Monsters either," Michael grumbled quietly, which caused the Elf Leader to add.
"That's the thing. The overpopulation of Tier-1 predators is the most common at the borders between the outer area and the middle zone. There should be some Tier-2 Monsters nearby, but you've probably not encountered them yet."
Michael recalled the lizard mother when the Elf Leader spoke about Tier-2 Monsters, and he kept his mouth shut. The only places he had visited outside the territory were the Lizard cave and the Gogi Lord's territory.
He didn't have to go deep inside the lizard cave and immediately encountered the lizard mother. Even if Michael had never encountered a Tier-2 Monster before, he was pretty sure that the lizard mother had been one. The energy share he received from her was more than ten times stronger than the energy share of the Gogi Lord.
'So, what if I'm in between the outer area and the middle zone?! I survived the Gogi Lord as well. I can deal with Tier-1 Monsters even though I'm only a Tierless Lord, and I have Tiara and my warriors. With enough time and effort, we'll be able to deal with Tier-2 monsters as well. In the first place, no Tier-2 monster seems to be running around mindlessly!'
Michae was a bit stubborn and zealous, but that was required to not let anxiety about his territory's location disadvantage get to him.
It was not as if Michael could change the location of his territory, in the first place. He had to accept the situation and progress, rather than lament about the inevitable.
That was also why Michael listened intently to the information provided by the Elven Adventurers.
"Where should I start? I think you're the most interested in the Untamed Jungle…" The Elven Leader began to share information.
She was meticulous and didn't seem to mind going into detail. Whenever Michael had a question, she would give him a satisfying answer.
The Elven Leader was quite knowledgeable, which made Michael feel as if he hit the jackpot.
Time passed quickly after the Elven Leader began sharing her knowledge about the Untamed Jungle and Xiltra.
More than half an hour passed before she stopped.
Meanwhile, Michael looked like his brain was melting. He couldn't absorb anymore information even if he wanted to. Fortunately, that was not necessary because he had learned most things, he wanted to know from her.
Even if he was not foolish enough to think that everything the Elven Leader said was true, the pieces of detailed information he had received would be quite helpful in the future.
"Thank you for sharing your knowledge about the Untamed Jungle and Xiltra. It was very interesting!" Michael said in a sincere voice. He cleared his throat, and added, "I will get the Gogi Lord's corpse. Please wait a moment."
Saying so, Michael turned around and disappeared in the thicket of the rainforest inside his territory.
The Elves looked at each other in confusion.
"Is he playing with us? We know that the Gogi Lord is in his War Rune's space!" The youthful Elf said, clenching his fist.
The other Elves nodded their heads feeling similarly confused. There shouldn't be a reason for the Rookie Lord to leave suddenly.
"I don't really care as long as we get the Gogi Lord's corpse," The Elf Leader answered with a shrug. She didn't think that Michael was foolish enough to betray them. The Rookie Lord seemed quite intelligent and vigilant. He wouldn't dare to anger them knowing that the protection barrier would disperse in a few days.
"That doesn't make sense…is he trying to fool us?!" The youthful Elf repeated, only for his head to snap forward when the Elven Leader slapped the back of his head lightly.
"Shut up and wait!"
What the Elves didn't know was that Michael was less than ten meters away from them. He retrieved the Gogi Lord's corpse once he was certain that the trees and bushes acted as privacy screens, shielding what he was going to do next.
Then his hands began to glow golden.
Before handing over the Gogi Lord's corpse, he had to extract his body.
After all, that was his loot to claim!
**
[A/N: Spent your hard-earned powerstones on this novel to receive special benefits - such as more chapters and a happy author!]