"So, who are you Zoe and for what purpose are you in this place ?" Zach needed information on her so he asked her the same things she had inquired. "I ... I am an elf of Delp's capital and I'm here because I am ... an explorer and this ruin wasn't thoroughly explored before so I decided to do it."
Zoe was hesitant when she answered about why she was here and she seemed to have avoided to say some informartion. Zach knew she had lied about why she was here but he didn't know why she holded information on her identity.
"I know you aren't an explorer, so for what purpose are you here ?" Zach insisted, he would not be able to gain her trust if the only things they said to each other were lies. When he said this Zoe's face tensed, she was obviously panicked about him seeing throught the false purpose she said, she scratched the back of her head and answered truthfully.
"I am here to find something to help my country." She said with resolution, she continued "And you how did you ended in a so dangerous place despite being so weak ?" Zach shook his head, he had already answered her but apparently he had to repeat himself, "You won't believe it." he then told her about the huge bear which tracked him and how he fell in this ruins by accident.
"Indeed it's hard to believe but there was some reports about a high rank 2 bear wandering in the forest and killing here and there so it should be the truth." When Zach heard that he was rather happy 'With everything she said, I am almost certain that she is close to the army or Delp's high officials. Hence why she didn't give me her whole identity.'
Zach had hit the bull's eye, Zoe knew of this bear because she heard a soldier report this case to one of her protector who was also an official in the army. "When did you enter those ruins ?" Zach asked.
"I entered them 4 days ago and since them I didn't see the light of the sun. There are 2 means to exit those ruins, one going back to the entrance but if it's as you said and there is a 50 meters gap even me I don't have confidence to jump over it. As for the second it's to kill the fox and there will a mysterious teleportation circle which will be created." Zoe explained.
"There are 2 things that bother me, how do you know that if we kill the fox there will be a teleportation circle because you said that you were the first to dive into those ruins and why don't we jump out of those ruins from the hole the bear and I created ?" Zach was curious about those 2 points.
"It's because ... In Delp kingdom there is another ruin like this one and when you kill the beast on the last floor there is a teleportation circle that appear and like on that one the hole you did is no longer there, it was repaired after about 6 hours. The dungeon's external structure repair itself quite quickly and every monster in those ruins mysteriously come back every month after killing the beast on the last floor."
At first Zoe hesitated to unveil what she knew about those ruins because it would ignite the greed of some, imagine each month you could collect quite a bit a ressources to become rich or to forge weapons and so on.
"Is that so, I'm happy that you didn't try to lie to me because until now I think that I saw through every lie you said." Zach said with a smile "Preposterous ! How could you have seen every lie I said." After saying that Zoe realized that in addition to make a fool of herself she confirmed that she lied to him.
"I know you are not just a simple a elf of Delp you are more than that, as for your exact position in Delp's kingdom I am not sure, I would say that you are a relative of an high official." Zach decided to test his theory of Zoe's origins.
When he saw Zoe's face, he knew he was right, she had a dumbfounded face and her jaw seemed to be about to drop on the ground. "How .. How ... How do you know !?" Zach chuckled and didn't respond to this question instead his said with a charming smile "Relax girl, I won't do anything to you, instead we should cooperate don't you think ?"
When she heard Zach response she was even more confused and lost 'Girl ? I am at least 2 years oled than you and I am still taller than you but you call me girl ?' Zoe was lost , it didn't make any sense for a 12 years old kid to be this calm, sly and smart for a boy of his age.
After she calmed herself, she thought about Zach proposal and she found that it made a lot of sense and it would be for the best if they worked hand in hand. However each one of them couldn't just trust the words of the other like that so she thought about a mean to make themselves trustworthy, after half a minute she had an idea.
"Yes, we will work with each other but to make sure that you trust me and I trust you we will swear on our soul." Zoe said and it was obvious that Zach would not be able to negotiate this condition.
"Okay, repeat after me, I swear on the core of life itself, my soul that I won't try to harm you until we exit this ruins." Zoe chanted a sort of spell and Zach repeated what she said just after she started, when he ended he could feel something new.
He sent his consciousness in his soul space and he noticed 2 things, he didn't go there since the time in the mountain. The bead this time had a colour which was more yellowish than before even if it was still mostly white.
The second thing was that there was a sword pointed in the bead direction 'It should be the representation of the swearing, I suppose that if I don't respect my promess this sword will destroy my soul bead. Anyway it's not a theory I will try to verify.'
'Even if it's not perfect, I more or less have her trust now so I don't have to be afraid of her betraying me in this dungeon, my life is safe, for now.' Zach could breathe a sigh of relief, it was one less thing to worry about.
However it wasn't perfect, he was still injured and pretty weak compared to her and the fox so even if went in the arena to fight he wasn't sure if he would survive.
'Considering her position in Delp kingdom maybe she has something to help heal this tenacious internal injury.' Zach needed to heal this injury before even thinking about fighting a being as powerful as the fox, what was good was that he didn't have to fear telling her about his internal injury.
In fact, once they swore on their soul, Zoe relaxed quite a bit, she was worried that he would have tried a suicide attack like.
"I have something to tell you." Zach said in a serious voice and instantly Zoe focused on what he was about to say, she was worried that he would not help her, their promise was quite open one so she was certain that Zach would swear.
If she had tried to make him swear to help her maybe he would have just discarded everything and tried to get rid of her and steal everything she had.
"In fact, I have an internal injury caused by the water wolves on the fourth floor and if you could help me heal it I will be able to help you kill the fox." Zach said with a bitter smile.
Zoe smiled and was relieved, it was nothing more than an injury but the next second she realized that all this time he was bluffing and he played her like a fool making her believe that even if weaker than her he was in a better shape.
She let out a resigned laugh and took out a pill which had a turquoise color. "Here, it's a healing pill, it should be able to fix your internal injury." Zach took it and started to drink it without any hesitation, he knew that if she tried to harm him she would die the next instant so it couldn't be poison.
A few seconds after finishing the potion Zach had a warm feeling in his abdomen and 5 minutes later he could feel that the internal injury was no more, like it never existed. "Great ! I am totally healed, when you recover completely we will be able to go against this fox." Zach was ready and happy he had done 2 of the 3 things which would help him survive in this dungeon.
"That's right ! In a bit less than 2 days we will be able to teach this fox a lesson and exit those ruins." Zoe was eager to finish those ruins because there was unique treasures only here on the first clear that she could get to help her country.