Lohan kept his artificial eyes fixed on the trembling figure in front of him.
Through Instinctive Perception, he could sense that the man’s mana pulse was truly chaotic, typical of someone who had suffered severe spiritual trauma or extreme exhaustion.
The odor emanating from him, picked up by his Chemosensory Aptitude, carried the metallic trace of blood, though Lohan couldn’t quite distinguish the origin of that blood, as the scent was a mixture of Monster blood and human blood.
"Why are you selling something like this so publicly and desperately?" Lohan asked through the mental link, allowing the man to hear his voice. "A Level 15 Dungeon location is something I’m sure any major Guild would offer a lot of money for. Why offer this at the bazaar for pennies?"
The man let out a bitter laugh, which ended in a dry cough. He looked around, watching the elves of Thalendor pass by them as if he were nothing more than trash by the side of the road.
"The Guilds of the Great Corporations, haha? They’d kill what’s left of me just to make sure I didn’t tell anyone else!" the Player hissed, his eyes bloodshot. "My guild... there were ten of us. We entered that cave thinking we’d be the pioneers in this area, imagining the glory that would come from conquering a dungeon like Astralis Requiem did a few days ago. But inside that cave there were... there were roots inside that quietly devour the Mana of anyone who enters before you even realize it."
"My companions didn’t just die... they vanished. The system didn’t even notify ’Stellar Retrieval’ about some of them. I don’t want anything to do with that place anymore; I just want enough coins to buy supplies and try to reset my progress in another city."
"Lisa, what do you think?" Lohan asked via the private link. "The scent of danger on him is strong, but his fear seems... theatrical at times."Lisa remained motionless, looking at the man skeptically. "To be honest, Halon, if what he says is true, the risk might be worth the reward.
Right now, our headquarters is a Level 10 fossilized tree. If we can get a Level 15 Dungeon Core, maybe we can fuse it with our current core. From some intel I’ve gathered, that could give us some advantages."
Lohan pondered. The Astralis Requiem Base certainly needed upgrades; they hadn’t built anything there yet just because they had to repair the environment.
If it were really possible to do as Lisa suggested, perhaps that would speed up the process!
"All right. If there really is a Level 15 Dungeon, we’re interested." Lohan relayed this to the man again.
The Player seemed to catch his breath upon hearing the acceptance. "I’m not stupid. I know you don’t trust me. You can pay the full amount after you see the entrance with your own eyes. But I need a guarantee... I need to know I’m not taking two penniless monsters out into the middle of nowhere. I want 50 Silver Coins for the information."
Lohan almost let out a derisive "Tsk."
50 Silver Coins? For most Players still struggling to earn 50 copper coins a day in the Novice Villages, that was a fortune.
But for Astralis Requiem, which had just conducted gold coin transactions with Intervar, 50 silver coins was a suspiciously low price for "Elite" information.
However, considering that in Thalendor no one gave a damn about dungeons, the price made sense from the perspective of a desperate seller.
Without saying a word, Lohan formed a small bluish hand and, with a fluid motion, drew a Gold Coin from within his gelatinous mass as if it had been stored there all along.
The coin’s intense golden glow reflected in the man’s wide eyes, and he let out an audible gasp.
"That’s double what you asked for," Lohan said, his mental voice now imbued with an authority that made the Player take a step back. "This should serve as a guarantee. But know this: if this is a path to an ambush or any other trick, I won’t just kill you, I’ll make sure you wish you were dead."
The man swallowed hard, greed battling terror on his face, but the sight of the gold won out. "Y-yes, of course! This way! It’s on the eastern edge of the Mythlorien Forest, where the trees start to look... different."
He stood up quickly, brushing the dirt off the rags he wore, and began guiding the pair out of Thalendor’s luxurious avenues.
Lisa allowed Lohan to climb onto her back, and her two white tails swished in a sign of readiness for combat.
Lohan could have simply shown the man 50 silver coins, but his curiosity was getting the better of him at that point.
Something inside him told him that this man and his group were up to something, that the story he’d told had been poorly spun and was riddled with holes, but if there really was a Level 15 Dungeon where they were being taken, even if it was a trap, it would still be worth the potential confrontation.
Relying on his own strength and on Lisa, even if a group of 10 Players banded together to try to deal with them, Lohan didn’t feel they would be completely vulnerable.
The path to the cave of this Level 15 Dungeon was a bit long, taking them an hour to get there as Lisa kept up with the man’s pace, who was gradually becoming more out of breath.
The man even tried to strike up a conversation out of curiosity, wanting to know if they were Players or "NPCs" in this world, but the pair didn’t pay much attention to his questions and just kept talking to each other through Lisa’s mental link.
Seeing that he was being ignored by these two creatures, he seemed a little sad, but Lohan noticed a slight flicker in his magical energy stemming from an intense emotional fluctuation, which contrasted sharply with the expression the man was showing, making the situation even more bizarre.