Tom's subordinates didn't even know what to say as they saw the commander of the opposing army kneeling before their own, and when they heard Tom remark, they were completely speechless, surprise? What surprise was he talking about? It couldn't be...
At first, they doubted their eyes, and it was normal, they had come to fight while thinking that they would have a difficult fight and were even prepared to sustain heavy wound, but what was happening here?
Like to respond their questions, the army of hundreds that had come with the second and third ranked wisemonkies also kneeled in front of Tom, shocking even more his subordinates, they understood what was happening, the opposing army that they had come to fight was kneeling in front of their leader, which meant that they were subordinating themselves to him, what they couldn't understand however was why?
Why would they subordinate themselves to him while they hadn't even fought him, in their case, they were vanquished by Tom before becoming his subordinates, but that was clearly not the case here.
Seeing their reactions, Tom's grin got even wider, it was understandable that they wouldn't understand what was happening here, after all, they had never seen Midas and didn't know about the deal he had made with the latter.
As he was grinning from ear to ear, he suddenly felt a surge of power that made him freeze for a second, before his grin got even wider than before as strength coursed through his whole body, bringing with it an exhilarating sensation.
As seconds ticked by, he felt his strength soaring, when he realized that the current enhancement he was feeling was superior to the one he had had when Midas became his subordinate, his smile got so wide that it was almost comical.
When the enhancement finished, Tom was left sighing, both in satisfaction and disappointment.
Satisfaction because he got the greatest enhancement he ever got since the moment he awakened his bloodline.
Disappointment because despite this enhancement his strength was still in the range of level 2, he felt that he was infinitesimally closer to the level 3, unfortunately he didn't breakthrough to level 3, which was quite bad as he needed to fight a level 3 soon.
"I see that you didn't breakthrough to the next level like you expected" said Midas, finally emerging from the shadows.
When the second and third ranked saw Midas, they bowed to him and exclaimed in unison:
"We extend our greetings to the Master!."
"Does the king suspect anything?" Asked Midas.
"Yes, he was becoming suspect of us with each day that we didn't send anyone down there, we tried to gain more time, but we had to come down eventually, sorry" said the one Tom assumed to be the third ranked since he exuded a weaker aura than the other.
"No, that's okay, if you tried to buy more he would have figured that something fishy was going on" replied Midas calmly.
Meanwhile, the second ranked glanced at Tom before turning to Midas and asking, "master, is he the one ?"
"Yes, he will be the one that will help us bring down that foo-"
"Wait, you kneeled before me without even knowing who I was?" Asked Tom incredulously, if when him and his subordinates appeared Midas was with them, he might understand that they kneeled toward him due to their master being with him, but that was not the case, so why would they become his subordinates as it seemed as clear as water that Midas didn't tell them about him.
Seeing his puzzlement, the first ranked clarified "when Minvar was sent down here master said that he will come with him hidden in his shadow, but before setting out he said to us that he was convinced that the previously sent wisemonkies were still alive, and they surely became someone or something minions due to our race trait, he said that this person might be the one that will help us take down the king"
"If that person were to lose against Minvar, he would return with both Minvar and the others, and we will deal with the king as previously planned, however if that person was to take down Minvar we needed to do everything in our power to cease to send down others wisemonkies, but instead gather our own subordinates and when we can't buy any more time to come down"
"If we were to stumble upon an army of wisemonkies led by someone that was not of our kin, we needed to become his subordinate as master because he was certainly master ally".
After he finished explaining, Tom took some time to think over what he said before saying "I understand what you said, buy there are a few flaws in your reasoning"
"Which are?"
"What would you have done if I was not Midas ally"
"It's impossible because if you decided not to become his ally, master would have surely taken the others with him and if you tried to stop him, he might have killed you" explained the third ranked.
Hearing this, Tom glared at Midas, which avoided his gaze and looked like admiring the scenery, which made Tom's eyes twitch in annoyance.
"Why didn't you tell me that you would take the others with you, if I didn't take your offer"
Midas smiled and replied, "that was because I was sure from the beginning that you would take my offer".
"Why would you think that? We didn't meet at that time, so you wouldn't know, so why are you so sure of yourself" Asked Tom with a raised brow.
Midas chuckled then responded "It's quite logical if you think about it, if like I thought, the one that was the cause of the disappearance of the others wisemonkies wasn't killing them, but instead transforming them into his minions, it means that this person was trying to absorb our whole tribute and maybe become our king, this kind of person wouldn't throw away that kind of opportunity, what I just needed to know was if that person was some kind of tyrant like the current king in which case I would need to kill him/her or if it was someone that I can trust"
Tom thought about what he said, and it seemed to make sense, but he still asked "what would you have-", however Tom was cut off.
"Uhh, boss, what is happening here?" Asked Mooglie on behalf of all his subordinates that couldn't understand the f*ck was happening.
"What is happening?" Tom grinned at this question and replied:
"What is happening is that today we are going to make a coup d'etat"