"Hey, Parasite," Nick half-shouted. "I'm here for our trade."
Silence.
Nothing.
No answer came.
Nick looked at Wyntor with furrowed brows.
Splash!
Finally, a splash came from below them, and the two of them saw the head of a rat poking out of the water below them.
"This better be worth it," the rat said. "It takes a lot of energy to get a body through the Eternal's domain."
While Specters weren't targeted by the Nightmare, their minions were.
However, someone as powerful as the Parasite had some ways to get his minion through a corridor of darkness.
"I got the nine corpses," Nick said.
The rat seemed quite surprised when it heard that. "You do?" it asked in surprise.
Nick nodded. "Yes, I do, but I want the location of a useful Specter that I can actually handle."
"Sure, sure!" the rat said quickly. "I already know exactly which one to give you, and I am absolutely certain that you will like this one."
Nick furrowed his brows and looked at Wyntor.
Wyntor nodded.
"Good," Nick said. "Then, do we just dump the corpses in here?"
"Hmmm, can you send them down somewhere else?" the rat asked. "Getting that many of my minions here costs a lot of energy."
"No, we can't," Wyntor said from the side. "You know better than anyone else that nobody is allowed to help you. I can justify taking the corpses here because we are a Zephyx Manufacturer, and many Specters need corpses, but I can't justify taking them somewhere else."
"I'm not going to risk my business unnecessarily."
The rat didn't seem happy at all.
"If I get enough of my minions here to consume the corpse, I need to expend over 30% of the resources I would get from them. That means I would only get six instead of nine corpses, which means I need another four or five corpses to make this a fair trade," the rat said.
"How you transport the corpses is not our problem," Wyntor said. "You told my employee, when you made the offer, that he only needs to dump the corpses into the sewers. You did not specify where and at what time to do it."
"Based on your offer, we can dump the corpses, all at once, without informing you, into a pit of pure darkness as long as it is within the sewer's domain."
"Frankly, your logistical issues are not relevant to this negotiation," Wyntor said.
The rat really didn't like what it was hearing.
"Are you going to miss out on a Specter just because you don't want to get four more corpses real quick?" the rat asked.
"Are you?" Wyntor answered. "You're the one going back on your word."
"I'm not going back on my word!" the Parasite shouted in anger. "You are effectively only giving me six corpses instead of nine! You're scamming me!"
"No, we are not," Wyntor answered calmly but firmly. "We are the procurers of the corpses, and we are selling them at wholesale. There's a reason why the actual merchants generally ask for 30% more. If you sell the corpses to your customers, you will get the worth of nine corpses out of them."
"What are you even talking about?!" the rat shouted. "I'm not a fucking merchant!"
"So?" Wyntor answered. "We are the producers of said corpses. If you are not willing to sell them for more, that's not our problem. The trade agreement stands. Now, do you want the corpses right now?"
The rat seemed like it was about to die of anger. "Fine!" it shouted. "But I will remember this for the future."
"You are free to make us a new offer after fulfilling this one," Wyntor calmly answered. "You might be our best option for obtaining information regarding Specters right now, but if your offer is too disadvantageous for us, you will lose this position."
"At some point, creating an Investigator team or buying Specters from other Manufacturers might be more cost-effective than accepting your offers."
"In the end, it's up to you," Wyntor said evenly.
The rat just glared at Wyntor without saying anything for several seconds.
"Like father like son," the rat grumbled. "Fine!"
"Give me some minutes."
"Of course," Wyntor answered before looking away from the dark hole.
While they were waiting, Nick saw Wyntor leaning away from the hole and sighing in relief.
Nick was quite surprised when he saw that.
Just now, Wyntor had seemed extremely confident and in control, but as soon as he was outside the Parasite's perception, he lost all that confidence.
"Ready the corpses," Wyntor said as he casually motioned for Nick to bring the hearse.
"Of course," Nick answered as he pulled over the hearse.
Then, a couple of minutes of silence passed.
"I'm ready."
Nick and Wyntor looked into the hole again.
Even though they had been prepared, a cold shudder still ran down their backs when they saw the heads of over a hundred rats poking out of the water.
"Alright," Nick answered. "Want them one by one or all at once?"
"One by one," one of the rats said.
Nick stood up, grabbed one of the corpses, and hurled it into the hole.
SPLASH!
When the corpse hit the water, Nick saw the rats all jumping onto it with fervor.
Nick didn't notice it, but the Parasite's anger nearly vanished at this moment.
The Parasite had only asked for corpses, which meant that Nick could have also thrown in a malnourished little girl, which wouldn't have given the Parasite a lot of energy.
However, the corpse that Nick had thrown in was of a big and muscular man.
That was a high-quality corpse for the Parasite.
And when Nick dumped the other corpses, the Parasite actually felt like he was lucky.
All of these corpses were high-quality corpses!
The Parasite even had to get over more rats since the corpses were so big.
Eventually, all but one of the rats left.
"Well?" Wyntor asked.
The rat looked at Wyntor with a wide grin.
"I'll keep my word."
"I'll tell you. You're going to love this one!"