She wasn't too surprised when Minos started approaching her and started a conversation since it was not uncommon to know that a 5th stage beast could speak human language.
However, she couldn't believe that in a place as poor as this, someone was able to recognize her race. First, her race had not even visited the Central Continent for centuries, let alone to a place with such a poor spiritual density. So, it was unexpected that someone could even recognize her race around these areas.
At the same time, it was not just the mother fox who was entirely shocked by what Minos had said. In fact, Dillian was also quite surprised. It was rather because he had never heard of such a race, still, he anticipated that Minos was able to recognize it, considering that he had inherited the expertise of a high-level specialist.
As the mother fox stared at Minos, Ruth finally joined the group and began to closely observe the beasts in front of her, locked in the cage. The little fox seemed very normal to her, but her mother was truly unique.
Ruth had never seen a fox with more than one tail.
That was obvious. Even though some extraordinary powers of the Central Continent knew of this race, Ruth was not a part of them. After all, this empire never had a God and only held a second-tier status against others.
The mother fox then spoke for the first time, "How do you know about my race?"
"I can tell you about it later, but first, shouldn't you tell me your name?" Minos replied with a smile on his face.
The fox gazed at him for a moment and responded, "My name is Emlyn. But what difference does it make to you? You will probably only try to sell us, like those humans before."
Clang!
Minos shook his head in denial, and using his sword, slashed open the cell. Crouching down to meet the fox's eye, he then said, "You are mistaken. I will not do such a thing. I will provide you with medical treatment and also let you decide your own fate."
"Hmph, do you take me as a fool?" Emlyn retorted sharply, maintaining their eye contact.
Ignoring the fox's gaze, Minos turned to Butler Dillian and requested, "Grandpa Dillian, can you start her treatment?"
"Hmm, all right, young master," Dillian nodded before entering the cell and then started using his healing-focused technique.
Radiant Healing!
At the same time, golden threads began to emanate from Dillian's hands, gradually healing Emlyn's wounds. Each time the golden thread passed through an injury, the wounded tissues on the fox's body would begin to regenerate quickly. At the same time, the dirt and black blood that had dried also degraded, leaving the wound completely clean before they were closed.
Meanwhile, Minos took out a large bowl from his spatial ring and placed it in front of the two foxes.
Tchuf!
After that, Minos began to fill the bowl with water from the Spatial Kingdom. Turning to the fox mother he said, "Drink. I know you are greatly dehydrated. It doesn't have any poison."
Seeing this, Emlyn felt a little strange as she gazed at Minos and then at the bowl. She didn't know if she could trust this human, but before she could even make up her mind, her daughter had already jumped into the bowl and started gulping the water down.
"Kyla! Wait for a minute..." she whispered in a low voice.
However, her words simply turned futile as the little fox only continued to drink from the bowl. Being a spiritual beast, Kyla had great senses, so she understood that this water was not only not poisoned but rather was very rich in spiritual energy.
Kyla's mother had been so worried about Minos that she just couldn't realize it before. His knowledge was not common for anyone in this place, and she was also severely injured, making her vigilant of him and not spend effort to probe the spiritual water before her daughter did.
"See, if it was poisoned, your daughter wouldn't drink it. Go ahead and drink. It will aid in your recovery," Minos reassured with a chuckle seeing the little fox.
After a while, mother and daughter drank all the water that Minos had given, a few moments later, he took out a bag of spiritual apples and placed it before the two to eat.
Minos then patted the little fox on the head and asked, "What's your daughter's name? Have you already chosen?"
"Hmm, her name is Kyla," Emlyn said as she ate several apples at once.
She was hungry!
Not only did she not eat for two days, but she was also drained of almost all of her spiritual energy.
"Oh! It's a beautiful name. Well, Emlyn, although I assure you that you can do what you want, I will still make you an offer. Please listen to everything before you plan to refuse. I'll also give plenty of time for you to come to a conclusion, so you don't have to answer right away."
In the meantime, Minos was about to speak his offer, Elen and Eduard had arrived at the place since they were also curious about this beast that they had never seen before.
"Oh, what a beautiful fox!" Elen exclaimed after seeing little Kyla trying to eat an apple.
Meanwhile, Minos leaned closer to Emlyn's ears and said in a low voice, "If you join my forces, not only will I allow you to personally kill the criminals who were responsible for what happened to you, but I will also assist you and Kyla at reaching level 89 in less than 150 years."
Upon hearing the latter half of Minos' offer, Emlyn was even more shocked when compared to after finding that he could recognize her race. That was because it was not easy for a member of any race to reach the limit of their potential.
No, even in the Emlyn tribe, there had been only five foxes with nine tails who were able to reach that level in the last generation! What's more, they all were only able to do it after a few thousand years!
"Hmph, you are spouting nonsense. Do you even know how difficult it is to reach that level with my potential? It is not easy to find high-level medicines out there for free. For every single one of them, there is always a great massacre if one wants to get the right to absorb it," Emlyn snorted in a mocking tone.
Indeed, it was challenging to find top-notch medicines that didn't have an owner. Most of these plants were planted within the properties of large families and large tribes, and powers like those barely had enough for themselves, so outsiders could simply forget to buy something like that.
And even if someone were to sell such medicine, the price it would be sold at would be so high that very few people in the world might be able to afford it.
As for those found free in nature, well, it could be said that it was rather easier to find a needle in the haystack than to find a high-grade herb out there. And even if someone did find one of these, it didn't mean that she, or he, would be the only one to know about it...
Minos smiled, clearly understanding her worries, "I understand your concerns, but I can assure you that what I said is the truth. And though I can prove it, you will have to agree to join my forces after seeing the evidence.
But you don't have to worry about me going to order you from the very moment. In fact, I don't plan to ask you to do almost anything until you reach level 70. You only need to help me if I am in danger of dying. If not, then I will only ask you to do something after you have recovered your paw and are able to transform into your humanoid form."
Minos didn't want to attract attention by showing a Nine-tailed Fox around. It would be too risky, and it would only be a matter of time before she would be recognized.
To prevent any disaster, he wouldn't ask her to do anything until she could transform into her humanoid form. From then on, as long as she didn't use her original form, no one would be able to distinguish her from humans.
According to Minos, this transformation could even take 40 to 50 years, but the result would be worth it. Having a spiritual beast like a Nine-tailed Fox in his army was akin to having a human with Silver talent and at the moment, Minos couldn't even dream of such a prospect!
After conveying this, Minos got up to leave before saying, "Don't worry about it now. First, I will help you recover from your injuries, and once you are completely healed, you can deal with that bandit yourself.
For now, you should just focus on recovering. But when you have come to a decision and want to see my evidence, I can show you. Just keep in mind that you will have to accept the deal after that."
He wanted Emlyn to join his side, but to reveal to her the existence of the Spatial Kingdom without her being compromised would only be stupid. Therefore, there was no turning back if Emlyn wanted to verify if Minos could keep his promises.
Upon returning to the group that was admiring the magnificent 5-tailed fox, Ruth asked Minos. "What were you talking about? It felt like you didn't want us to hear." She said with a disappointed look on her face.
Minos had spoken in a low voice, ensuring that only the fox and he were able to hear. This prevented anyone else from knowing the content of their conversation, raising Ruth's curiosity and forcing her to ask him.
Minos chuckled and shook his head, "Nothing, we were just talking about everyday things, like life on the Continent of the Beast and here on the Central Continent. She seemed very interested in the way of life here, and so, I shared a few insights into the possibilities that she would have here..."
Ruth's mouth opened in disbelief as she asked, "Are you saying that she came from that legendary Continent of the Beasts?"
"Hmm, why? Are you so impressed? It seems that your sect is not as incredible as you thought all this long..." Minos teased her while taking advantage of beautiful Ruth's appearance.