Hearing Kroff, Five could not help but smile. “I might have underestimated the value of this protective layer."
"So you want to negotiate now?"
"Naturally, this is what you were after, but we will swear an oath that you will not harm my dungeon core or any of us present here!" said Kroff.
When Five first started to think about his plan, his only goal was to be able to safely leave the dungeon without having any debts or restrictions. In the end, he only wanted freedom and did not want to lose any more time in the dungeon.
However, now that he was having the upper hand and learned a bit more about the dungeon, he asked: "My demand would be simple... Just give me some DP to make up for what I've lost."
"Hmmp," Kroff frowned upon hearing the request but quickly moved his hands. Although the dungeon core was in front of Five, Kroff did not need the dungeon core to make the transaction. He had with him a pseudo-dungeon core that had all the functionalities of the actual dungeon core. Kroff made it so that he would be able to control the dungeon when he would be visiting the floors; sometimes, immediate changes would be required, and it would be a waste to always go back to the throne room to do them.
As such, his hands quickly moved and Five quickly received a system prompt.
[System prompt: Dungeon Master Kroff has initiated a transfer, do you accept it?]
At the same time, a faint screen appeared in front of Five showing the number 1000 which represented that Kroff was willing to give him 1000 DP.
"Only 1000 DP? Are you really a miser? Do you think the protective layer is only worth that much? Don't tell me that you took the sentence ‘Make up for what I've lost’ literally?" asked Five.
Kroff frowned, "Due to the contract's restriction, I can only give you up to 20000DP..."
"I already know that, please do so!" replied Five with a smile. He remembered that Harriet mentioned that detail in the Harpy's communal room.
20000 DP was not much to Kroff but his pride was hurt. "Then let's swear the oath first!" said Kroff. He was willing to give the 1000 DP to show his willingness but now, he determined that it would be better to be on the safe side.
"Sure, if you meet up my 3 requests, then I will naturally not harm any of you!"
"Three? Are you crazy?"
"Relax, old man. I am sure that they are things you can easily achieve, and their value should not exceed that of the protective layer! 20000 DP is clearly not enough!" declared Five.
"Mmm," Kroff thought for a second before agreeing. "Alright, but only if the requests are not excessive!"
"Sure, let's do it then!"
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"I, Five swears to not activate my weapon as long as Kroff will agree to three reasonable requests of mine. May Sancus witness my oath."
Kroff attentively listened to the oath. Finding nothing wrong, he quickly followed up and made his own oath, promising to not harm Five. The oaths were short and did not contain a lot of details; for example, the term "reasonable" was very vague but there was nothing Kroff could do. He could try to negotiate with Five but as long as they were not excessive, Kroff would naturally agree; the last thing he wanted to see was his Aegis being wasted.
When they saw the oath being made, all the monsters relaxed. It looked like the situation was under control. Although they would still have to face Kroff's anger, the Aegis was safe for now.
"Good! Then accept the trade of 20000 DP and state your next request," said Kroff. He had to bite the bullet for now and only wanted this to end as quickly as possible.
Five looked at the screen that was now displaying "20000" and quickly accepted it. Although he could have asked Kroff to allow him to kill some monsters to increase his DP, he did not want to push Kroff too hard since that would be unreasonable.
But now was time for the hardest part, his second request was something he was not confident Kroff would agree. He quickly checked his own DP to confirm that he received the amount before saying:
"Then the next request naturally is about the monster I am supposed to receive!"
"Hmmmp! You really did your research? Speak what type of monster do you want?" said Kroff.
"Isn't that obvious? The monster I want is Harriet!"
"Impossible! I cannot give you one of my core monsters! We said that the request should be reasonable! This is clearly not!" immediately declared Kroff. Harriet was one of his leading monsters. Despite the appearances, she held a lot of responsibilities in the dungeon, he could not simply allow her to leave like that.
"Is it really unreasonable?" asked Five with an enigmatic smile.
"Obviously! She is one of the pillars of the dungeon! Losing her is not any worse than losing the Aegis!" said Kroff while furiously looking at Five. "That guy really thinks he can have anything?" thought Kroff.
"Then what if I add in the formula to the bomb I am holding? You should know that it is quite valuable! I only had access to very few DP and yet, it is strong enough to pose a serious threat to your dungeon core!"
Hearing that, Kroff paused for a moment and suspiciously looked at Five. Harriet meant a lot to him, she was very competent at her job but that did not mean that no other monsters could replace her. In fact, in the pyramid of monsters, they were competing daily to make contributions and climb the ladder. Having a higher post also meant their race receiving more resources and being more sheltered.
Kroff knew very well of the abilities of his monsters and so, he tried to balance the pro and cons of this transaction. He was already aware that the recipient in Five's hand was dangerous. With the feeling he got, it was definitely a threat. He could not precisely judge the strength of the bomb but was very intrigued by it. His feeling was after all very vague, it was like having a blade placed on his neck but be it an ax, sword or a small dagger, all of them would feel exactly the same if the same amount of pressure was applied.
He was very intrigued at how Five got his hand on this weapon. As far as he was aware, this was not available at the Dungeon Shop and when he looked at the transactions made by Five, all Kroff could see was a bunch of worthless materials. But if the weapon was made of these materials, then that would be a great discovery.
"Why would I be interested in that formula? I already know what you bought with my DP in the pseudo dungeon core, why would I need that?" said Kroff.
"Old man, none of us is stupid. Do you really think that all the materials I bought with your DP are used? It would take years to obtain the correct combination and ratio! But if you are not interested, then nevermind! Just give me a level 30 monster!" answered Five.
In the end, he wanted to have Harriet simply because he believed that she would not try to backstab him. If Five asked for other monsters, then there was a risk that this monster would communicate with Kroff behind his back. Although the risk still existed with Harriet, he believed that it was much lower after having made some observations. But if he could not obtain Harriet, then he would simply aim for a high-level monster and kill it for some DP!
Kroff did not answer immediately. Upon seeing that Five was not insisting on the matter, doubts filled his heart as he reconsidered his options. A few seconds went by in silence. None of the monsters present dared to interrupt but they were all on alert! Although Five was negotiating with Kroff, most of his attention was directed at the different monsters. He feared that one of them would suddenly appear and take out the gunpowder and so, was extremely vigilant.
Finally, "Can you guarantee that we will be able to make this weapon easily?" asked Kroff.
"As long as you are not completely stupid or clumsy, it should not be an issue!" answered Five. As soon as he heard the question, Five rejoiced in his heart.
"Then hand over the formula and if it is as you say, then I can agree to allow Harriet to leave! But she must agree too. It is up to her to agree to become your monster. That is something even I cannot force!"
Yet another unexpected factor popped up. It was something Five was not aware, he has heard about trading monsters from Harriet, but it never occurred to him that the monsters would also need to agree to be traded. However, that was something he was not too concerned about; he believed that Harriet would agree and so, he did not mind giving the formula first,
"Alright then, if she agrees, we can consider the second request as fulfilled or else, I will just take a level 30 monster!" said Five.
"Good! Mehlroth, call Harriet!"