Spirit Soul

While Kyle looked at Gaby as if nothing was wrong, Gard nodded his head proudly.

There was a fine line between need and greed and Kyle had hit the bullseye.

He was only demanding their rightful share and not asking way too much.

Gard was impressed with his student's negotiation skills and happy that Kyle was upfront and clear about it.

An unlimited supply of materials for an entire year for both Kyle and Selene couldn't be really measured.

But, it would definitely prove to be quite beneficial for them.

Additionally, procuring a good cultivation technique with double awakened cultivation veins was something the Guild could do easily.

Informing the Lahin kingdom about Selene's existence and her contribution was not an issue either.

The only difficulty would be to bring a copy of such a technique to Vila town.

As such, the most expensive reward he had asked for was an unlimited supply of materials for Kyle and Selene's apprenticeship.

However, even that was not an exaggerated price, considering that both had just begun to learn everything from scratch.

One could say that they were barely at the starting line, and the resources they required wouldn't be excessive.

At least that was what they should think!

Kyle's opinion was slightly different because the word 'unlimited' was not restricted to a particular item. As such, he could even ask for dimension crystals or stones, and so on.

Gard understood Kyle's intent too, and if he were, to be honest, he felt that Kyle was not only hardworking but also tactful.

His student was walking on eggshells while stating his demands.

He walked the fine line between offending the Guild and retaining a good relationship with them.

If they were to greedily ask for a lot during that one year, their relationship with the Guild would worsen, but that also worked the other way around.

Kyle's only intention was to have enough resources to produce everything they wanted to without being restricted.

"The Guild can agree to all demands, except the unlimited supply of materials. I propose that we either give you a monthly allowance of resources or an annual limit.

In either case, you can request every desired item as long as you don't cross the total amount of the limit we give you!"

To Kyle's misfortune, Gaby was a skilled negotiator too.

So she simply rejected his demand without hesitation.

Kyle had expected this, and he simply nodded his head.

However, he reemphasized what he expected of the guild one last time.

"Once the mission is completed, please tell the Guild to praise Selene as much as possible...and don't be stingy with the cultivation technique's quality!!"

Smiling vibrantly, Kyle held out his hand as if to close the deal.

His actions made Gaby feel like punching him.

Nevertheless, in the end, it was the Guild's decision to accept or reject the requests.

Gaby was just a messenger and a representative of the Guild who had fulfilled the task she had been given by Laila.

As such, she had no issues with his requests but had only been a little annoyed to see Kyle outsmart her yet again

Thus, she used a little bit more force while shaking his hand.

Kyle's lips twitched to feel her iron grip but he said nothing.

Gaby's eyesight had been healed up to 50%, and she could see much better than before.

She was well aware of the fact that he was the reason for the same and that she was still in need of his ability.

But, she couldn't help but let out her frustration after seeing him smirk.

"We will depart in a week because the other adventurers will arrive by then.

The mission's difficulty is high which you must have already figured out. It's important that we leave no trails behind that would connect us to Knar Laz! Please remember that!"

Kyle and Selene nodded their heads at her instructions.

It was obvious that the chubby merchant was planning something grand.

And, from the looks of it, the Thunderclaw kingdom seemed to have a mole as well.

He was not sure whether the royal family was the cause of the whole mess.

But what he was fairly certain about was that the Thunderclaw kingdom would not abduct Lohars in broad daylight.

Doing so would blow their cover. Furthermore, if they asked the merchant to simultaneously create kidra blood orbs with the rogues of the Nasga race at the same time would blow their cover.

This wouldn't make any sense because it was simply too great a risk for too few benefits.

In the worst possible scenario, the Lahin kingdom's queen would wage war against the Thunderclaw kingdom.

It was obvious that the Thunderclaw kingdom was already a disgrace in her eyes because there were more than enough Lohar slaves.

However, the number was probably not alarming enough to force the Queen to make a move.

Enslaving thousands of Lohars at the same time was different, and could already be seen as a well-planned and stealthy mode of an attack on the Lahin kingdom.

Because of that, Kyle assumed that the importance of their mission only increased further.

And, Selene had turned into the main chess piece of the Guild.

This morning, Selene didn't seem to mind being used as she wanted to do the exact same.

Thus, they should reap the most benefits while being as covert as possible.

Seeing her determination made Kyle nod his head.

"We will be careful, and I hope that the adventurers are strong enough, so we don't have to worry about anything!"

All that mattered to the Guild at the moment was getting Selene onboard. Kyle held no value for the Guild, and it was only Selene's sheer existence that mattered to them.

She didn't have to fight, or do anything but appear with the golden seal of chivalry in her hand.

A small demonstration of the fact that she could cultivate in both the path of Pryr and Maest was more than enough.

After that, she was supposed to say that the other Aldras were trying to save them.

This statement would negate the possibility of connecting the Guild's adventurers with the chubby merchant.

This would also clear the Thunderclaw kingdom's name because the Guild would treat the chubby merchant like a wanted criminal.

It wouldn't hold back from killing him if required.

The entire situation was becoming increasingly complex, but at the same time, not as dangerous as initially thought.

At least as long as Selene and possibly also Kyle would be protected by the stronger adventurers!

With only one week left before their mission would start, many things could happen.

Any unforeseen change could impact the entire situation, and turn the tides against them.

Unfortunately, the other adventurers would take a long time to arrive.

It would take a few more days before they would reach the Nasga tribe which the injured Lohar had been talking about.

As such, there was nothing they could do in order to turn the situation in their favor.

For now,  they only hoped that the disadvantages wouldn't outweigh the advantages.

'There probably won't be a Naga at the Krysal stage...or will there be?' Kyle suddenly wondered.

Gaby's words brought him out of the jumble of dark thoughts that churned in his mind.

"Can we go out hunting at least once, or twice until next week? It would be best if I regained my eyesight…I want to join the mission too!"

Having expected Gaby's eagerness to join the mission, Kyle nodded his head without any hesitation.

"I have no problem with that...but try to increase the annual limit of what we can spend then!"

Smiling lightly, Kyle gave his best to convince Gaby again. He wished to increase the amount of funds he could spend on materials as much as possible.

After that, he turned to face the Jars.

"Selene and I will probably have to cut down on the time we spend on the apprenticeship for the time being, is that fine?"

Despite feeling sad about this question, Gard understood Kyle's intentions.

Thus he reluctantly nodded his head.

"Try to increase your combat prowess as much as possible, and start using your cultivation resources too!

I know what you plan to do, but with the steady supply of materials from the Guild, you won't have to save up your funds anymore, alright?"

Kyle had not expected Gard to know what he had been planning.

But, commenting further, he just nodded his head. Meanwhile, Mell remarked,

"Even if it's against what I said some time ago, we should equip you two with proper equipment!

An Armor, stronger weapons, and a spatial ring will work wonders to increase your combat prowess.

It would also give you ample freedom to move without being hindered by your weapons or spatial pouches, and so on!"

Thankful about having teachers who cared about them, Selene and Kyle bowed a little.

They expressed their gratitude, which caused Gard to react by giving Kyle a slap on his shoulder.

This almost pushed Kyle to the ground, but he was barely able to prevent falling down as he exhaled with a painful sound.

"Holding back is truly not something you're good at, honey!" Mell said to her husband with a faint smile.

It was not long after that Gaby told Kyle that she had received extra time off from the Guild in order to prepare herself for the mission.

As such, she had enough time to go hunting with Kyle and Selene.

It would only benefit them in increasing their combat experience with Gaby next to them.

After having said this, Gaby was just about to leave the house when Selene suddenly asked,

"How about we go hunting today? It took me quite a while before I could finally adjust to my body after my condition had been tended to… Shouldn't it be the same for you then?"

Kyle had initially planned to ask Gaby about hunting the next morning.

But after hearing Selene, he felt that it might even be better to go out now!

Even if he nurtured the potential path of Arashi, there were other paths he had yet to nurture.

The azure colored hue was one of those paths Kyle was interested to nurture.

His gut feeling told him that it would be extremely useful.

That was also why Kyle felt glad when Gaby nodded her head, agreeing to Selene's statement.

"You are right, it would take me a while to adapt to the sensation of being able to see properly.

Adjusting myself to the improvement from an eyesight of less than 20% efficiency to almost 50% took quite a while.

I thought the duration in which we would travel, I would have enough time to cope with the change while traveling to our destination.

But now I realize that it might be a short trip so doing so would be dangerous too!"

With that being said, they went out hunting every single day.

For the next seven days for more than 10 hours a day, they hunted diligently.

In the end, they used their remaining time to cultivate at a rapid pace using the resources they acquired in exchange for hunting beasts.

They continued this drill until the day before their departure,  only to fall into a deep slumber owing to exhaustion.

**

If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.

You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain

More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:

https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ

Link also in my description.

Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!