After some back and forth between Faust and the old man who seemed reluctant to agree some time ago, an agreement was made. Faust now looked somehwat defeated and the old man seemed to have become younger as he smiled like a child.
"You...you tricked me didn't you." said Faust as he saw the expression of the old man. It seemed so different from a while ago that it was just obvious, but the old man shook his head at such a statement.
"Not at all, for all that risk , there needs to be an adequate amount of reward. Me getting half of the spoils and veto to one of the items we find is just the bare minimum. Experience is not bought so cheaply young one. "
"Bahh....what experience? You don't seem to be a battle oriented build, so how much can you help? What are you going to do, bandage till it suffocated?"
"Pffftttt....oh , sorry sorry....it just came out."
Vali hastily apologized for the sudden outburst, but the other two didn't seem abused. Vali lowered his head, but he also wasn't pleased ' If you don't like me laughing, then why the hek are you making jokes then? Man, they're also not including me into the conversation at all.'
"Mister Faust, I may not be a good fighter, but you don't seem to understand." smiled the old man revealing his teeth. They were yellow showing his age and poor mouth higene, but some of them seemed of different colour, almost white. " This is not a knightly tournament to test our might and honor, this is a dungeon. Living is the highest form of reward you can get in here..."
"And....your meaning, is what?" callously said Faust as he crossed his hand before his chest. The old man smiled at this and took two things from his backpack. One of them was a relatively small crossbow, and the other was a small roundish glass vial. It was hard to see inside as the glass wasn't really that transparent, but by the looks of it it wasn't something good.
Vali was intrigued by it and came closer to see. The vial was no more than five cm tall, its opening was sealed by a cork, but it seemed that that wasn't enough of a seal as it was also sealed with some kind of yellowish wax.
"This is definitely something you haven't seen before, it's a concoction mabe by me after all. It's different kinds of extracts from different kinds of plans, refined and finally combined to make this marvel. It's the amalgamation of countless years of my work....
"Is that poison, Bale?!" beamed Vali as he approached the old man, slightly startling the later and almost making him drop the vile on his hand.
"You...you, what are you doing, you almost made me drop it?!" screamed Bale " Although, even if it fell to the ground it wouldn't break so easily, it's gorgon glass after all, by still....
"Ahhh, sorry about that. It's just that I haven't seen poison like that ever in my life." Vali nervously scratched his head, and Faust just smiled at the angry Bale who was now wholeheartedly explaining to Vali.
"Hmphh, of course you wouldn't have seen, and it isn't a poison! Do you think it would take me years just to make something as rudimentary as that? This here I call the 'devil's lick' , a concoction that can make even the most strong opponents bow in pain just by touching it. Even begin close to it can have side effects." the man brought the vial close to Vali's face, and continued explaining. " Poison is good for dealing with monsters, but oftentimes they are immune to it's effects , you can't get enough of it fast enough in their blood, or their defensesare to strong to penetrate. It's a gamble, and something I'm not good at is gambling.
So, in my wisdom I created this. If even a dropof this hits skin, it makes it itch like crazy. It's quite the devious thing, that's why I called it the 'devil's lick'."
"Nice...." wasn the only thing Vali could say. The vile indeed was something dangerous, but not for them. He turned his head towards Faust who furrowed his brows in thought, and could se that he was sold by the explanation also.
"It seems like I've underestimated you, old man. If what you claim is true then this will be much easier. The chosen of the dark gods really have a great resistance towards poison and regeneration like no other, but how will we administer it? Is it with...
"Correct...it's with this crossbow!" proudly exclaimed the old man as he brought the crossbow up" It may not be to big, but it is powerful. Combined with some of the sharp arrows I've got, it will surely pierce the tough hide of the Boar-man.
With just a drop of my concoction in the tip of the bolt, it with continue to scratch itself like a flee ridden dog."
"That's a good plan, but we still have to prepare for other things. The 'chosen' will most likely have some kind of ability or abilities granted to him by the dark gods that we don't know, and the most concerning , it most likely can call its kind if it gets threatened. I don't want to sell myself short, but I'm sure neither of us can handle a small horde of Boar-men all at once."
"Of course, that's why we will do it not long before the 'expulsion'. Even if something goes wrong we can just run until the time comes. What do you say young one?"
"As you say old man."
"Hehehe....
"Hahahaha.....
Vali looked at the two of them shaking hands , and couldn't help but laugh inside. It didn't last long though as they began shoot glares at each other, and Vali was to afraid to interrupt them to ask what he was going to do.