The young master backed off, fear in his eyes as he screamed, "Stay away! If you kill me the Tres Family won't let you off!"
Ryker gave the young man a smile, though the rage in his eyes couldn't conceal his true feelings. "Oh, really. That's fine. I like to see how strong the Tres Family actually is. Maybe your patriarch could give me a decent challenge,"
His mocking words caused the young master to peed himself, the terror given by the young man was too much for the sheltered man.
"Eww, you actually pissed yourself in fear. Makes me almost not want to kill you. Almost," he said.
"Please, I'll give you what you want! Please let me off!" the young master tried to bargain, anything to escape certain death.
Ryker contemplated it for a moment before answering, "Fine," his answer caused the young master to have a relieved look on his face, "But-" and now it was gone again.
"You will be my hostage, in case your family tries to back off from the deal. If they try something, you will be the one to die. You, one-arm. Go to your family and tell them to give... How much are willing to give again for your lives?" he asked.
"Three months' worth of profit that the Tres Family made. Any higher and even my father would just leave me dead," the young master told him.
"Good, that much. Oh and give this to one of the Guild's supervisors. So he can be the middleman. Because if the patriarch did anything, there will be no more Tres Family," Rykee was smiling while he said it but the aura he let out is anything but friendly.
One-arm nodded in fear before running away, knowing staying any longer could lead to his young master's death.
"Now we wait. I hope your father would take the sensible option, unlike his son. If you don't try to do anything, I will leave you be but you bring this to yourself," Ryker said to the young master, who had tears in his eyes.
'If I knew you were such a monster, I would've leave you alone!' he screamed in his heart though his expression outside remained the same.
-x-
"What, the person my son wanted to kill destroyed his entire group!" the patriarch of the Tres Family exclaimed, looking both worried and angry at the same time.
"Yes, master. Unfortunately, we are not strong enough to handle him, which led to Bob's death," One-arm said, lowering his head as he spoke.
"And to get my son back, I need to give him three months' worth of resources. Hai, this is troublesome," while he could cough up the demands due to their family's wealth accumulation, to give it to someone doesn't sit right with him.
Unfortunately, the young master is his only son, meaning he is the only one to succeed him. If not, the power would be given to his other family members, most likely his eldest nephew.
"Go to the Adventure Guild and have the supervisor be the middleman. He wouldn't think about crossing the Guild so having him as a middleman would be for the best," he ordered, making one-arm saluting him before going to the Guild.
He sat on his chair before calling his assistant. "I want you to go to my son's room and grab every single intel he has on that boy," he ordered his assistant, the man nodding before doing as his employee said.
He rubbed his forehead. It would be best if the outcome wouldn't lead to bloodshed. With how strong the opponent is, he likely lose a lot of his Genesis Condensing experts if he is not there. Which could lead to the other family staking and taking their everything when the time is ripe.
As he mused on what to do, the assistant returned with a stack of paper, "This is all I've got from the young master's room,"
"Excellent, let's see what he knows about the young man,"
-x-
"This is someone our family shouldn't mess with," the patriarch exclaimed, his face pale as he looked at the information, hoping it would change, but no such miracle happened.
"To go from peak Genesis Formation to someone who could beat two veterans at the Genesis Condensing realm at the middle stages, this is a terrifying prodigy that could spell doom to our family," he said out loud, trying to calm his beating heart.
"To think our Tres Family would offend such talent," he sighed, feeling like he aged by several years. He hoped that things wouldn't get worse.
"Master, I fear it could get worse," the assistant, unfortunately, had to shatter his dream.
Not caring about the anguish look on the patriarch's face, he sounded his worries, "What if he was someone from the Central Region, traveling through the other region to gain some experience?"
Hearing the possibility, the patriarch's face turned paler. While he had never been to the Central Region before, he knew of its reputation of being the best cultivation place in the entirety of the Human Realm, with geniuses found all over the places and experts as numerous as the cloud in the sky.
If the young man his son offended is from there, it would spell disaster for his family. Thankfully, his assistant threw him a lifeline, 'I don't think he would get any experts to come destroy our family.
For any forces that could send their younger generation to the Outer Region, they must be powerful forces, comparable to the strongest forces in this continent. Plus it is likely he was one of the many so they won't do anything if he died while traveling.
However, to be safe, we should give him what he asked for, plus some extra so he will leave us alone. And to make sure the young master didn't antagonize him again,"
"You are right. Tell the elder guarding the treasury to put what he wanted into one storage ring while another one will be used to put the other compensation. Oh, and tell the one who went to the Adventure Guild to take the storage rings and give them to the young man. He's the only one who knows where they are," the patriarch gave his order, the assistant nodding as he went to the elder.
"Please be enough," the patriarch makes a silent prayer, hoping it will be enough to appease the young man.
-x-
Not knowing that the patriarch of the Tres Family thought that he came from the Central Region, Ryker had to deal with another problem.
"Hey, you lowly human, where is this place?"