"Made new friends?"
"These are Ricardo and Piro from the Mennis family. They have been tasked with helping us choose the available mounts for us to use over the next two weeks, they will agree to rent tier two mounts to us at a good price."
It appears that Zephyr was quite successful with his negotiations, but the problem is that he didn't specify whether they were level two animals or magical beasts. For a harsh and exhausting desert climate, magical beasts tend to be safer to use both for crossing the desert and exploring near the border.
"I'm glad that everything is alright, how about we go see the magical beasts available for rent, unfortunately we have an appointment soon so we're in a bit of a hurry to get the magical beasts."
"Commitment?"
It's normal for Zephyr to be surprised, but having that reaction in front of two strangers isn't a very good thing. Especially when you're dealing with them.
"A new commitment. Can we go to the stables now?"
"Of course, follow us. The stable is not far from the."
So, we went to the stable to see and rent five magic beasts, to my surprise when we get there, he'll send a lot of level one and two magic beasts, even a few levels three magic beasts, but I'm not going to ask how much it would cost to take one of those, because one I don't have the money for and I doubt they would rent me a tier three magic beast, and also only see three of them and not five, that would make this extravaganza lose its purpose. That's really a shame.
At the end of the discussion, we ended up getting five equal level two magic beasts, we got five green lizards, they have good heat resistance and good locomotion in various types of terrain, they are booms for running, and free terrain like deserts or very complicated terrain like dense forests. They have great mobility and flexibility, their shortcomings and disadvantage are that they eat well and do not carry large amounts of weight, so they are used more as scouts or mounts for guards than a magical beast to pull a freight cart.
It cost a good amount of resources that we had with us and the promise to pay the rest in another one after the test, Zefiro was the guarantor of this purchase, if we don't pay on time they'll go after his family to collect the debt That's it. a few hundred gold coins, no and we can't pay, but as we are nobles from other arias in the kingdom and it's only natural that they ask for this kind of little necklace to make the rent, in the end bad things can happen to us and with the mounts and they have to have someone to take responsibility for their losses.
Now that we have our mounts, we are fully ready to head out of town, but before we do, we will make a short stop at a certain inn where I am meeting a suspicious wizard. Hope nothing bad happens, but in case it does I have my entire group ready to fight or interfere long enough for us all to get out of the city hall on our new mounts.
It's always good to have a plan B.
So now I find myself in my inn sitting drinking a glass of sweet milk, no and like I could drink the inn water or go to something stronger at this time of the morning, not yet ten in the morning, never good start drinking at this hour of mine and before leaving town in search of riches.
After I stayed here for a few minutes I felt a small amount of mana come out of my body, and like a small trickle of snow, but as I was observing my surroundings so well, I can't miss the trickle of mana that comes out of the card. that I was carrying, he went to the second floor of this inn. Looks like the mage who wants to find me has been here for some time, he was just waiting to be notified of my presence.
It didn't take long for a green core deer and with the wind and earth elements going down the stairs, an unusual combination of elements, and hard to see a mage with opposing elements like wind and earth, I think I just saw another mage who had opposite elements before, I think it was fire and water.
He calmly made his way to my desk and sat down across from me, I didn't see a hint of nervousness or discomfort on the mage's face, nor did I see any of these allies which means he's very confident in his abilities or that your companions are pretty well disguised around us, just two tier two warriors the rest have only black cores in the inn.
Good morning."
"Good morning. How can I call you?"
"No need to be too formal between us, my name Xi."
"No last name?"
"For our conversation, we'd better be alone with Xi, not the need to know the other's real or last name."
Interesting, he hides his name, but not his face. I would think he might be in disguise, but not a drop of mana or elemental energy on his face, even though he applies a lot of makeup on himself to disguise his features the true high-level disguises have mana and elemental energy involved in them.
"Interesting, but I won't disagree with you my dear Xi. In the end, you are the one who knows the reason for this meeting, how can I help you today."
A smile forms on my mysterious guest's face.
"It's always good to do business with smart people, I came to talk to you today about why you and your group are in this town. It may be arrogant of me to say this, but I believe I know why you are here and I believe that a provisional alliance can be formed for us."
"I won't say this is impossible, but I believe that before discussing an alliance, I would like you to tell me what my group came to do. And just to be sure."
"This is a simple request and one I am extremely happy to fulfill. You are students who have passed a test, and have come here to do some missions, but not one of them is here in the city but in this region of the kingdom. As far as I know you must have come because of a cave full of precious miners and dealing with some smugglers."
"I think this is enough to show that my information network is good, is this amount of information good or would you like some more?"
"Not the need for more proof. But now I'm clearly at a disadvantage here, how about we balance this by telling me what kind of cooperation you'd like to do with me sir smuggler."
"Relax, it's nothing complicated. To be honest, I'm here to help you succeed in your missions, your success and my success."
"So, it looks like you want us to kill your competitor so you can expand your business across the border?"
"It's really good to be a smart business partner. I know this may seem a little wrong to very noble people like you, but I must say that my group is much more professional and compatible with our realm than the team that is working across this part of the border."
"What makes your group so much better than theirs?"
"I believe you already know how this group does its work and what kind of work they do. If you accept my help and that of my associates, we will help you kill this group of smugglers that come from a realm far away from us, the operation my team is not only much more professional but we will not do the same type of business that they."
"First of all, we are not going to enslave and sell the citizens of our kingdom, we don't think slavery is completely wrong but we wouldn't do that to our countrymen, but in order to be transparent and honest with you I won't lie saying we won't transport slaves, but all of them will be from foreign countries and not from our country."
Our businesses are more focused on selling miners and sly quests to avoid kingdom fees. So, I don't think it's a moral issue for your team to enter into a temporary alliance with the agent, secondly we're going to bring wealth to the kingdom and not just green our wares for the enemies of our kingdom."
"Impressive Mr. Xi. But I would like to know why you sold information about your opponents to government officials, it's not dangerous to do that, the officials might end up chasing you to find out how you identified the smugglers and then they might end up finding the reason for you to report the existence of these smugglers."
"This is a risk we have to take. In our line of business, we can't delineate the risks we can only mitigate them, and I will provide the location of the smugglers at the border for you and send some men to be your backup, they will obey your orders and after killing the smugglers you and Your team can take whatever you want from the hideout or the cargo they're hauling, but after that there won't even be a mention of us in your report, after the smoke clears my associates will take control of this part of the border. What do you think of this plan?"
"It's a pretty good plan, but I need some reassurance that these are your complete intentions and nothing else to worry about after the smugglers are dead."
"What kind of reassurance would you like Mr. Fenris."
"Something simple is a magical contract between you and me. Anyone who violated them died in a very painful way."
"Fair. Just give me a few moments and the contract will be here for us to fill it out and sign the contract, we'll just need a few minutes to complete the procedures."
"Easy, my new friend. We have all the time in the world to sign this contract."