Gamer Reborn

Chapter 591

“That sounds pretty good.” Ajax answered. “But how does your ability to make deals work? That was a bit vague and I don’t want to tell my whole life story.”

Verya was caught off guard by that question. She was very happy he seemed willing to take the deal but since he didn’t accept it right away she was worried she had overplayed her hand by offering it so soon.

The sidhe bargain might be at first glance weighed against the sidhe, any ambiguity in any agreement they made would favor the non-sidhe party, this was also the part of the information the sidhe intentionally leaked. The part they kept close to the chest was that the deal as a whole was bound from their point of view. Her previous deal about putting his fears to rest, he could have asked about more explanations or named more fears he had that needed to be put to rest but her understanding of putting a fear to rest is what the deal was based on. And all that was just confirming truthfully whether he should be worried about a fear or not.

“This is where humanoid isolation hurts you.” Verya sighed. “It is pretty well known that making deals with an antagonistic sidhe is a bad idea, just as well known is that vague amounts are based on your understanding at the time of the agreement.”

“That explains why your ability would also mess with my Mana.” Ajax nodded, he also couldn’t help but think if power dynamics might affect this more, while Verya was a higher level than he was, he was, according to his Skill, the stronger of the two. That said neither was vastly stronger than the other, thinking about it this way it might also be why the weaker sidhe that left had brought this one along despite having been following him for a while. It might have needed someone around his power level to make binding deals with him.

“I’ll accept the deal if you also explain why you seem to want to make it so much.” Ajax said, as far as he could see the deal was perfectly fine but if he was going to walk into a trap he wanted to know what he was walking in. He could just not take the deal but he didn’t want to risk angering the sidhe when he was so close to their territory. He was sure a much stronger one could quickly hunt him down if he somehow angered them into it. “To the best of your abilities.”

“I’ll agree to explain but to the best of my abilities is too much.” Verya shook her head. “It would mean explaining too much to you about how our powers work, I’ll agree to explain in detail why I want the deal.”

“That works for me.” Ajax was happy Verya didn’t seem suspicious about how he might get her to help with travel to not one but two dungeons.

“So the deal is my help to get you safely to the dungeon. In exchange for the information about the phrase to limit any deals you make. I’ll also explain why I wanted to make this deal in detail.” Verya reiterated the deal.

“That all works out well but we should change the wording of safely.” Ajax nodded. “I left the humanoid lands to explore and grow stronger, some amount of risk comes with that. It also means I might take small detours for interesting opportunities along the way.”

Verya had to fight the frown, masking her facial expressions while shapeshifted was something sidhe usually strungled until the made to to level on hundred and fifty. With every passing exchange the human was leaning the deal more and more into his favor. It was a good thing the dungeon wasn’t that far away so she could deal with the extra requests without too much trouble.

“So be it, my help with your goals on your way to the dungeon along with any reasonable detours along the way. In exchange for the information about the phrase to limit any deals you make. I’ll also explain why I wanted to make this deal in detail.” Verya didn’t fight to show a little displeasure at the changing deal hoping it would get the point across that the human should stop messing with it. “My help would also be within reason, if you decided to fight a level two hundred or anything similar I will try my best to advise you against it and leave you to die.”

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With the removal of the safety requirement Verya wanted to ensure she wouldn’t be dragged into a suicidal encounter based on the human’s ego or stupidity, regardless of how smart he was.

“I am Ajax Hearthbound and I approve this deal.” Ajax could feel a lot more Mana move with his acceptance of the deal, he wasn’t sure if it was because the deal involved so much more than the previous one but he did notice that Verya was showing some signs of fatigue clearly this took a lot more Mana from her than before.

“Curious, I’m not feeling any urge to explain anything.” Ajax said as he felt the Mana settle.

“You... wouldn’t...” Verya huffed. “You didn’t trade an explanation.”

“Then what did I trade?” Ajax was suddenly a bit more worried since that wasn’t something he had expected.

“You traded the information about the phrase of not accepting any deals without a specific form of agreement.” Verya explained. “It wasn’t something I ran into before but it could be very bad if that was to spread among the other ascended races.”

“I thought anything vague was supposed to benefit me?” Ajax asked hoping to get a better understanding of where he messed up, if this worked that way he might not have gotten as good a deal as he hoped.

“It does.” Verya cursed internally she hoped she wouldn’t have to reveal this. “But there wasn’t anything vague about it. The deal was for the information about the phrase to limit any deals. You assumed I wanted information about how you came to know about something like this because of our earlier discussion but the deal is based on my understanding of the words the same way I was bound to put your fears to rest as I understood that action.”

Verya was also a bit unsettled because she had drained almost half her Mana pool on this agreement, that was simply too much. Clearly there was something she missed in the agreement since she wasn’t expecting it to cost half as much as it did.

“Well that is a little inconvenient.” Ajax acknowledged, a little more relaxed now that he knew his misunderstanding of the deal didn’t affect him directly though it did mean he wouldn’t be able to share the trick with others. “That should also mean that since no dungeon was specifically designated you are to help me all the way to the far one, we’ll make a stop by the one that is closer to the sidhe lands but my destination is the other dungeon.”

“That does explain why it took so much Mana to complete the bargain.” Verya acknowledged. “A much more fair deal than I initially suspected.”

“You still think it's fair.?” Ajax asked.

“From what I can tell it's still in my favor.” Verya admitted. “You underestimate how valuable that information I just bound was to us. My accomplishments by having it sealed will be valuable once I return to my village. It’s also a good thing for you since with it sealed there won’t be a reason for any of the stronger sidhe to hunt you down. Or I shouldn’t say any but at least one less reason.”

“That makes sense I guess...” Ajax let out a sigh. “We might as well get going then, which way do you think we should go?”

“It’ll be faster to cut across the sidhe lands.” Verya answered quickly. “Since you are traveling with me there won’t be a reason for any of the strong sidhe to attack you, though some of the ones around our level might want to test themselves against you if they meet us. You might not get a choice in accepting that challenge.”

Verya very much wanted to stick to the sidhe lands at least there she understood the dangers and could somewhat navigate them, that wasn’t taking into account the shorter distance they would have to travel on the way to the first dungeon, going around would add at least five days to their journey.

“Would it be an issue if I was to cover up my Aura?” Ajax asked his new guide.

“You can cover up your Aura?” Verya was surprised.

Ajax used Shadow Mana to cover himself and his Aura was heavily suppressed, it could still be felt since he hadn’t gone so far as to shadow travel but it was much more subdued.

“Why weren’t you doing that before?” It seemed stupid to her that he wasn’t doing this while also being so weak compared at least to the Ascended races, he was strong compared to most of the awakened or inferior races that lived around here.

“Because I didn’t want to seem like I was trying to infiltrate your territory like a thief if someone a lot stronger than me came across me.” Ajax explained.

“That’s actually not a bad idea.” Verya nodded in affirmation. “But you should be fine now that I am with you best to keep yourself from drawing attention. There are inferior creatures in our territory that I am pretty sure could kill us both so best keep an eye out for them.”

“Why would you let creatures that powerful live there?” Ajax was surprised.

“As a way for our people to train themselves, keeping everything perfectly safe would stifle progress.” Verya looked at him like he was stupid. “If we want to stay safe from them we just have to stay in the village its not like anything here can threaten even the average sidhe, though I suppose our average is stronger than the best some awakened races surrounding us can do.”