Chương 169: Chapter 165

"Mistake." Bael seethed over the smartphone.

"He is a High Elf. You have no idea if he only politely hates you, or truly hates you. One of those will get you killed, and you leave it to a coin flip. None of us are there to sense his emotions." And even if they were, according to Medy, High Elves were masters at gaslighting themselves, which made them the most convoluted race to handle for demonkind. Even if the demons were here to give him heads up, they'd only give him slightly better odds at guessing right.

What Wade couldn't believe, was that there was even a distinction between 'polite hatred' and actual hatred. But among the High Elves, it sure was a thing. In fact, as he considered High Elven, market's blessing whispered there were twenty different words for hatred - ranging from polite calculated hatred to absolute seething loathing. The default being a convenient 'It's a good thing you mildly annoy me, I can more easily stomach being around you.'

- which was as close to saying 'I like you' as High Elves could get with each other, without starting to puke. It was all modular compound words too, which just added layers on layers of obfuscation for every possible situation.

"Oh god they're so weird." Wade muttered as the language blessing rammed more cultural lessons into his head. Bael was less conserned with the cultural nuances and more with the actual issue of his new employer getting shanked.

"You won't know this High Elf's true thoughts until you wake in the night with a knife at your throat. Kill him and be done with it. The Deathguards can be dispatched first, they are all dead to begin with." Eri clicked his jaw, equally agreeing with the sentiment. Lyrian was a slaver, or working with slavers which was just as guilty; thus he had to die. The whole High Elf or not was a moot point, Eri was an equal race believer. If they were slave masters, they were on the kill-on-sight list. Simple, really.

Can't be helped. Once his employer was done with all this, it was time to sit down and figure out how to kill Lyrian in a way that worked for everyone's schedule here. The four Deathguards stiffened and turned to stare at the skeleton at the same moment. The one closest to Lyrian tried to turn his way and pass some kind of message to the boss with pure eye contact. Market's Blessing of language made that warning trivial to understand.

They all knew saying a word right now as prisoners might endanger their 'boss' so they remained quiet. Their contract more or less demanded it. But they needed to pass on some critical information to Lyrian. Specifically: 'The skeleton has actual emotions, somehow, and they're extremely hostile in your direction.' Eri clicked his jaw a few more times, leering straight at his target.

Once his employer was done with all this, they'd sit down and figure out a good schedule that worked with everyone here on how to behead the slavemaster. Eri would call it a team bonding exercise. The demons flinched in place again.

"That's pretty brutal to consider for your fellow demons here." Wade said, all in english, while he waved Eri away for now.

"Just kill them?" A single jaw click came back, annoyed.

"They are not my fellow demons." Bael answered.

"All four would have cut my throat just the same, with far less talk. Once you are brought outside hell, survival is an understood law."

"Yeah, we've done this enough times there isn't really any problems between us all about it." Medy added.

"You need to do what you need to do, you know? Like I've been killed a few times while mining by raiders or getting left behind, but I don't hate the demons that stabbed me, none of us have a choice other than trying to kill the other painlessly. Some have been actually really polite about it, going out of their way to make the death painless and quick when they really didn't need to. That's the best way we have to show a little niceness to each other out here."

"Is rather complex situation." Leon said, tapping his helmet where his chin should have been.

"Cannot imagine how strange entire culture must be with curse like this. Very dark. But extremely interesting. Wade, imagine saying hi in High Elven." Wade did. And realized it had an entire little ritual to it. The first introduction among High Elves was, quite literally, to offer the other a polite low-stress reason to hate each other with. There was an art to picking the right thing, almost like fashion.

And it also made Wade realize that trying to tell a sob story or venting about life was considered extremely uncouth, outright disgusting. It had been closer to him dropping his pants, turning around and dumping a steaming log onto a dish platter and then serving it up to the dinner table. The kind of primitive stupidity only the lesser races did for one another. It did make a lot more sense why they were all universally hated.

"Starting to see now why I hate this place Michael?" Play whispered in his ear, still floating around invisible.

"Everyone here sucks. Everyone. And they find real creative ways to make it worse." Wade stared down at Lyrian, the High Elf warlock who could potentially be an ally in working with the High Elves of Merced, or just biding his time to stab him in the back. And Wade would have absolutely no way of figuring out which kind of hatred Lyrian felt. Eri clicked his jaws at his side, then patted his shotgun. There was an answer to everything, and not knowing which side Lyrian was loyal to could be resolved real easily.

Wade took a step closer and tried to squint through. Maybe Market's Blessing with body language might work better? They had a lot of subconscious tells with their ears. The dim light and the silver tinted helmets of the Arcanaught suits did make it hard to tell actual details. Now that he was closer, he could get some details right. He really shouldn't have been surprised the male elves looked like androgynous twinks.

Lyrian was missing the pristine makeup Selena always had on, so his face looked very plain and ordinary in comparison. More like a tired accountant with disheveled hair than an exotic High Elf. Maybe dark blue or dark silver hair? Could also be shoulder length or longer, but it was tied up in a utilitarian manbun since there wasn't a way to fix loose strands of hair once the suit and helmet was on. He couldn't see how far it went after. The High Elf looked back, frowning, although...

it might be his default passive face.

"I just can't believe that's what the winners of this divine war decided to do." Wade said to the Elf instead of anything useful, still somewhat in shock at the stupidity of that curse. If they could do a curse like that, why not outright slavery for the rest of all time? He'd seen way darker things all over so far, Demonkind alone were already budding up against the slavery issue on top of having their homes squeezed into a few square miles, all separated from each other.

Of course, he wasn't advocating that the curse should have been something even worse just because that made more logical sense. It was just…

"This is like, the single most petty use of a racial curse I'd ever seen. Why this?"

"A topic of much debate among High Elves, believe me." Lyrian answered back, and Wade could definitely see an eye roll this close.

"Divinities are fickle things. Most likely this was intended as a backhanded slap as they died, a final parting gift to twist the knife in." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Guilty as charged~" Play whispered, her voice seemed only to be heard by himself.

"Don't underestimate divine whims Michael, we're not human. And my ancestors were far fatter than I am, with deviant tastes. Speaking of, this is all quite boring. There's a chest in the lake, and you're not opening it right now." Spoken just as Lyrian explained divine pettiness and spite. That couldn't have been a coincidence, it felt far more like a threat. Right, Play didn't care about this unless it furthered her goals. She wanted to see Wade do one thing only: Get stronger and win the game.

He stepped back from Lyrian and turned to Leon.

"I need to get the chest before Play starts being a pest. What's the advice on Lyrian everyone? Should we take him on or do what Bael asked for?"

"Well I kinda think you should let him join you." Medy said.

"He seems nice. For a High Elf I mean. And he's got a pretty good reason to work with you." A pope hat was clutched to a ribcage in betrayal. The skeleton stared at the smartphone with distraught. She was supposed to be his friend, how could she take Wade's side in all this? Sickening. Horrible. Woe upon the world. Wade held a hand out, "Eri. No. We don't commit war crimes here." The skeleton instantly stopped in his tracks and clicked his jaw. Executing a slavemaster is the furthest thing from a crime.

"Executing a prisoner who's surrendered is." Wade clarified.

"Da, no Canadians in group here." Leon chuckled.

"We figure out other solution to this problem." And the problem was Eri. Wade could already see that skeleton was going to disobey the group vote and murder Lyrian at some point. He wasn't certain how to navigate this problem.

"Keep an eye on the five for us Leon," He turned to the lake.

"I'm going to go after the lootbox and think about what to do here, Eri, can you tag along with me? I'll need your help." Best to pull the skeleton away from the walking target he wanted dead. Plus he actually needed the help too. His suit was resistant, but not rated to be actually submerged in there. He might be able to put a boot inside the liquid mana, but the further in he went the more he was testing his luck. It only took a single leak. The skeleton clicked his jaw and rolled his shoulders.

Not until pretty-boy with the ears is dead and floating on that lake facedown for his sins. All right. That would be a bit of a problem to handle. Eri wasn't outright rebelling, but he certainly wasn't going to be friendly about all this until Wade handled it one way or another. It made sense, the larger his team grew, the more chances there were for teammates to butt heads with one another, and that would be something he'd need to navigate just as well as he'd navigate actual combat situations.

He couldn't order Eri to ignore Lyrian and just carry on orders, that's not how the skeleton worked. The undead pope cosplayer was here for the love of the game, a paycheque of interesting hats, and any music instrument he could spot. The System had sent him back to keep Wade safe, nothing more. Wade had no other leverage. Which meant he needed to approach this from the other angle: Actually convince Eri to let the High Elf off the hook.

"Lyrian, was it even your choice to come down here?" Wade asked, somewhat connecting some dots between what Medy had said and what Lyrian mentioned about his own loaned Deathguards. A bit of a gamble, if Lyrian said he wanted to come down here and run around with slaves he could order to flat out die for him because it made him giggle, Eri would probably leap right for the Elf and start strangling. And Wade wasn't even sure if he'd want to step in to stop that.

"No. Good Andrian no. I'm a wine merchant, not a warlock. Walking in this realm was among the last things I care to do, thank you." Eri started grinding his teeth, as if he knew exactly what Wade was planning to do and he was not a fan.

"So why are you down here?"

"I've been sent into the mines as a surveyor for a few… errors in society and personal judgement." Wade stared at the High Elf. The Elf tutted and looked away.

"I did not comport myself to the standards other High Elves would expect of me." If Eri could hiss, the skeleton would have. Wade was ruining everything.

"Do you generally keep Demons as slaves?" Wade went right for the heart of it. He had noticed a few flickers of disgust every now and then come over the elf's face, but with this question, Wade saw no hints. Which meant the question hadn't triggered any kind of disgust. Uh oh.

"Yes, I suppose we all do?" The man said, signing his death sentence. Eri gave a few happy jaw clicks, preparing his blade outside the Elf's sight. The four demon deathguards seemed to sense the intent and all stiffed up in place, looking panicked.

"What kind of demons do you keep?" Wade asked, debating himself on the mess.

"There are house servants that maintain the grounds of course." Lyrian continued without knowing the grim reaper in a pope hat glowered behind him.

"Demonic servants are used in every city. Any civilized society has a staff on hand to handle menial tasks." The Nathir blade gleefully lifted up.

"If they weren't brought out of hell, demons wouldn't have any kind of room in their cities to liv-" Lyrian's throat tightened and he immediately switched his voice midway.

"They're excellent workers and their skills belong among house servants keeping the grounds clear. Having them anywhere else in the world is a stupid proposition and a waste of good talent." The Nathir blade wobbled.

"Bael?" Wade asked.

"Servant duty... is not the worst fate for a demon." The demon grunted out, clearly annoyed at even having to mention that.

"It's a safe assignment, very low chance of death and uncomplicated. Is that factored in your logic, Elf?" The elf dry heaved, but immediately got everything back under control. It flickered through so fast, Wade would have missed it if he hadn't been paying attention.

"No, that would be preposterous and highly uncivilized. I keep them solely for their services and no other reason. I only know the names of my house staff for... administration reasons." Eri clicked his jaw angrily a few times, upset. Wade rolled his eyes in turn now.

"Eri. You have the blessing too. Don't lie, you saw the dry heave just as much as I did. And if that means what I think it means…" The skeleton's blade went up, and then down, and then up again. Lyrian was a slave master that should see the exact solution all slave masters deserve, and Eri was really annoyed at having to rethink nuance.

"Eri… the other demons here would have no choice but to die if he does." Wade might not be able to convince Eri of letting Lyrian go, but killing other slaves who were simply caught in the middle was a bridge too far for the skeleton. It worked too. He threw down his blade and started squeezing his pope hat in annoyance. When did a little bit of murder ever become this much of a problem? His boss had no issues killing off insects to test his spray bottle. Slavers were right next to insects on the totem pole here!

"Yes, he's not in the moral right, but there's some grey zone." Wade pointed out.

"The whole execute vs rehabilitate thing."

"He is prisoner too, we cannot execute anyhow." Leon said, then turned to the elf himself and changed to High Elvish.

"You caring for the demons working under you?"

"I object to that assessment, strongly." The elf hissed out through gritted teeth and straining neck.

"I do not care for the demons on my staff. They are demons, and deserve no other consideration besides the labor they offer. Consideration for their habitat, feeding and rest is only done so that they might do better work later. Only the dull witted would think otherwise." Eri rolled his entire head in exasperation, clicked his jaw with one final tut, then stomped over to Wade. A moment later, he yanked out the rope with an annoyed flick before he marched straight into the lake, directly for the mithril chest.

His free hand gave his boss a single finger as he sunk into the shallows. But Market's Blessing whispered more context than the obvious. Eri was never going to like Lyrian. At best, he viewed the High Elf in the same way Wade would view a snake. They'd only managed to temporarily convince him.

"Maybe trouble there." Leon said, standing next to Wade as they watched the skeleton march through the liquid mana. Wade could tell more than just the surface of that. The Russian was far more empathetic, and worse: Naturally curious about strange cultures. Lyrian was a goldmine to him from an anthropology point of view. Which meant if there was a powderkeg moment that happened, he would be directly opposed to Eri. On the skeleton's end, he grabbed both ends of the chest, then lifted it up without issue.

So long as Wade was holding the other end of Eri's rope, the game considered it no different from putting a hook and reeling the chest in that way. His hook just happened to be a sapient intelligent skeleton.

"I know." Wade hissed.

"I just don't really know a solution here."

"Maybe we change goalposts?" Leon suggested.

"Instead of making Eri like Lyrian, have simple working relationship. Disliked, but cordial? Enough to not demand killing." As far as Wade knew, that was kinda how the High Elves worked with everyone. The skeleton marched back through the lake to the shoreline, where the chest dropped on the ground with a heavy thud.

"What exactly is in this chest?" Lyrian asked from a distance.

"Now that we no longer have any true stake on it, I am… curious."

"I haven't yet decided if I'm working with you." Wade called back, waggling a finger.

"Stay quiet until I ask questions." The Elf gave an annoyed tut and his facial details actually relaxed. That was exactly the kind of social 'mild annoyance' high elves appreciated since he could focus on being annoyed at Wade's answer.

"One moment." Leon requested, walking over with his hammer. He tapped the chest, and then tried to move it. Exactly as Lyrian and his skeletal minions brought here discovered, Leon found himself unable to move the chest at all. The Russian nodded to himself.

"Okey, go ahead." Wade wasn't dumb. He tossed Eri the rope, tied it to his belt, and then let the skeleton go up to the chest and open it up himself. Which worked great for Eri, because the skeleton wanted to skewer something after all this, and a mimic would be a perfect little vacation. The chest snapped open. No jaws or gibbering tongue was found inside unfortunately. It was another regular normal chest. Eri rolled his skull, jaw opened wide in the most dramatic sigh he could possibly deliver.

Within the chest, there glowed a bright starlike floating object, lifting upwards. Wade took a few hesitant steps, and put his hand on it. The System delivered exactly what it said it would: Common Boon gained: Spectral Touch Spectral Touch (Common) - Enchant a ranged projectile. This projectile will become immaterial during use, traveling through targets for quarter of a second before becoming material again. Only one projectile may be enchanted at any time.