The mood of the conversation between Sam and the man named Mi immediately shifted, and Sam went into high alert. His mind raced with options to escape the situation. Running wasn't an option; with their numbers, they'd catch him eventually. Besides, fleeing would make him appear weak and could provoke them further.

Should he launch a surprise attack and kill the man? The chances of succeeding were slim, and even if he did, the group's retaliation would likely be severe. Mi flashed a wide smile, tilting his head, but his eyes betrayed malicious intent.

'Fucking hell, either way I'm in deep shit. Damned if I try to escape and doomed if I fight the group head on. This is fucking bullshit!'

The group behind him seemed ready to fight at any moment. With a deafening silence lingering, Mi finally spoke again.

"What a good expression you have there, haha! Now, I'll get straight to the point, Mr. Meat Dealer. Join our group, follow our rules, and you're free to continue your trading business. Your activities have cost us quite a bit, you know? Our leader wanted to teach you a 'lesson,' but since I like you, I won't kill you just yet. So, think it over carefully."

Sam's brain worked in overdrive, weighing his options. Fighting seemed risky, as did trying to escape. Accepting their offer felt wrong; his gut screamed against it.

"Let's say I agree to join your group. What do I have to do?" Sam asked.

Mi's face lit up with genuine happiness. "Not much, really. All you have to do is get marked by our leader. That's it. Pretty simple, right?"

'i need to get marked? What the fuck does that mean? Is their leader a degenerate or... No no, let's just ask him directly.'

"What do you mean by getting marked?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a 'mark' given by our leader. It gives you about a 10% boost to all your stats. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but it's not a secret anyway," Mi said nonchalantly.

Upon hearing what the man just said, his brain ignore the mark effect said by the man and something in Sam's brain suddenly clicked, "Wait a minute, is this 'mark' in some form of tattoo symbol or something?

"Oh? Impressive, young man. Yes, it's a tattoo," Mi replied, raising his right sleeve to reveal a long tattoo on his forearm.

The tattoo itself is resembling something Sam has seen before back on Earth, It looked like odal rune tattoo or the mark symbol in this case.

"Say, I just wanted to confirm something real quick. Have any of your group encounter someone's with pentagram symbol on the back of their neck?" Sam ask the man with a hint of wariness mixed with curiosity in his voice.

"Maybe we have, maybe we don't, it's hard to say. Even if we have encountered such person why would I have to tell you?"

"Because I'm about to join your group?" Sam replied, trying to appeared like an innocent kid.

"Ho? Nice try young man, but you're not fooling me with that."

"Sigh.. alright, fair enough I guess."

"Enough small talk. I will give you five minutes to decide whether to join us or... Well, you can probably guess what will happen if you rejected the offer."

In this scenario, most people in his position right now probably just accepted the offer given to him. Meanwhile Sam on the other hand, had completely zero percent intention of joining due to the man condition, getting a marked given by their leader. If the man's group has connection with the pentagram mark incident, then it's not something Sam should messed or involved with directly as of right now since Sam is not strong enough yet currently. He needed more power, and he needed overwhelming strength to deal with this kind of issue directly lest he fucked himself over by foolishly facing it without any preparation.

In a matter of fact, since Sam intentionally not focused on leveling up, he undoubtedly felt himself restraining his progress to becoming stronger quickly. He felt there's way more things to explore and focus on in this whole forest rather than just went on a massacre in the name of getting stronger. Like a kid in a fantasy world, Sam wanted to uncover all the secrets buried in the forest, he wanted to know what exactly is this place, and he really wanted to know more about the beast living in this forest of death.

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Sam thought of his inquisitive desire. He thought back to when he hypothesize many things about like, how does the System work? What kind of behavior a certain beast has and how do they hunt their prey? Patiently learning and proving his hypothesis slowly one by one is an extremely exhilarating sensation for him. The feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment is something he can never get tired of. Feeling his mood getting better by remembering his journey till now, an undescribable feeling begin to spark in his spirit ready to burn bright. Shaking his head, he cracked a smile with new fire burning in his eyes that screamed determination.

"Yeah, I don't need the five minutes. With the way you're 'convincing' me, i'm just going to refuse your offer. My answer is no."

Mi wicked smile upon hearing Sam answered immediately faded from his face significantly, an annoyed and contempt expression showed all over his face with his eyes looking at Sam like a worthless garbage.

"What a disappointing answer, I thought you were more smart than that. Are you really sure this is your final answer?"

"I'm 100% confident and sure in my answer" Sam said still smiling at the man as he started to slowly walked closer to the man menacingly.

The group behind Mi unsheathed their weapons, and Sam could faintly hear archers drawing their bows in the shadows.

"You know, if you decide to kill me, I'll blow myself up and take you to hell with me. How about that?" Sam said loudly, standing a step away from Mi.

The man and the whole group upon hearing what Sam just said frowned, and their hesitation in taking action showed on their body language.

"You wouldn't dare.." The man replied, with clear sign of anger in his voice.

"Oh? Try me bitch. You think I'm scared blowing myself up? If I'm scared doing just that, I wouldn't be able to hunt all the beasts and made a trading business with meat you fool. How do you think I've survived all this time alone? I blow up every beast I hunt by sacrificing a part of my body. It's painful, but I regenerate, pretty simple right? So, what do you think, still believe I don't have the balls to do it?"

Sam, in fact didn't have a skill that allows him to blow himself up. Basically, all he's doing right now is pulling bullshit after bullshit out of his ass just to intimidate them all and plan a small seed of hesitation in there mind.

Sometimes, there's one specific person you can't discern whether he's is bullshitting or simply saying the truth. So, whatever the person is saying regardless of the truth, if that person doing it with face full of confidence and a little bit of visible proof misleading their thoughts, something like what Sam doing right now, then the lies shall become the truth.

Currently, Sam is wearing a tattered bloodied tunic with visible charred marks thanks to the fire mage he killed before. And also, he didn't carry a single weapon with him, no sword, no daggers, no staves, no wand and no bow. He just looked like a man who's carrying nothing except his body, further evidence that he's indeed relying on his skills.

The skill 'identify' also cannot be relied on identifying Sam since the skill doesn't provide any further information in details about any creature besides their Race name and their levels.

Luckily, Sam's gamble in bullshitting is paid off. The man and his group analyzing Sam from top to bottom to check if there's any clue he's lying. Unfortunately for them, Sam already unintentionally provided them with sufficient proof that makes them believes he's indeed capable on using an explosion skill.

Seeing them so focused on analyzing him, Sam didn't missed this chance to further make a mess to their minds.

"Also, tell your archers to stand down. Do you think I don't know they're there? Do you think they'll land their shots before I take you down with me?" Sam taunted.

The man eyes snap out of his analysis mode and went wide awake. Without any unnecessary movement the man simply raise his hand and gesturing the archer to stand down.

"Do you really think it's wise to make an enemy of our group?" The man said. An intense fury showed on his face and he's not even bothering to hide it.

"Probably not, but it is what it is. I know what you're going to do after letting I let you go but I'm not scared, none of you scares me. The moment you chase and hunt me down is the moment where I show you the depth of hell. This is not a threat, this is a promise so try me motherfucker."

"..."

"So what's it going to be? We end this lovely conversation on a good note and go our separate ways, or I kill you now?"

"...Alright. We'll walk away, and acted this meeting never happened."

Hearing the man reply, Sam mentally smile, happy that his plan worked perfectly.

"Wise choice. Now, tell your group to drop down all of their weapon and back away as far as possible from here."

"How can I know you won't kill me?"

"I don't know and I don't care. It's either that or our deal is off"

Reluctantly, Mi complied, ordering his group to drop their weapons and back away. Once they were out of sight, Sam felt a wave of relief.

"Alright I've done my side of the deal, now it's your turn to back away."

"Sure! Just one more thing, do you like pineapple on pizza or pour milk first to eat cereal?"

"Wha-?"

Confused by Sam sudden question, Sam successfully caught him off guard and quickly kicked him as hard as possible, sending the man flying through the forest.

"As if I trust you with my back! Let's never meet again, you creepy motherfucker!" he yelled, then ran as fast as he could. As he ran, he heard movement around him, indicating they never intended to let him escape alive.

'Alright, chase me then,' he thought. 'In return, I'll gladly take all your lives and bury your bodies deep inside this forest.'