Chapter 108. Interesting Information.

Cinderielle and Verdantia waited in the room for a few minutes. In the meantime, Cinderielle asked Verdantia. "Is it really okay to ask right away? They have information about Tiantian."

Verdantia looked at Cinderielle and sighed. "There are plenty of ways for them to listen to us while we are inside the building. Try not to say any details, okay? Believe it or not, the way these information places gather most of the information is by people self-revealing their intentions when they think nobody is listening."

Cinderielle frowned. "That's quite… low."

Verdantia shrugged. "Anyone that comes here probably has intentions of learning secret information about someone or something. Them learning about that is also quite low, so getting information on them is not that morally wrong."

Cinderielle was stumped. What Verdantia said was the truth. Since they were here, investigating the movement and location of a few people and sects, it was "fair" if someone collected information about them.

Verdantia then proceeded to answer her question. "It is okay to ask in these places. Will our intentions be revealed? They will. However, it's not like the other person has anything to do with us. Moreover, Eldric is not a fan of places like these because of what you just said. Instead, he likes to use people to do his bidding by abusing his family's power."

Cinderielle frowned. "But Theodore is his lackey when he is from the Ironheart family. Isn't Ironheart quite a popular and strong family?"

Verdantia nodded. "They are. Theodore's grandfather is a really powerful general of a renowned power. However, Eldric's Stormrider family are suppliers of a mount called <Stormbird >. They are an E Rank creature, which is quite insane for a tamed monster. Even if taken from when they are an egg, E- Rank and above creatures have a natural resisting instinct, making them almost impossible to tame."

Verdantia leaned on the armrest and continued. "<Stormbird > is not only an E Rank monster that can become E+ if the talent is good enough but also intelligent enough to become a good war mount. Plus, they have ranged attacks. Even if they are not that effective, if the numbers are enough, they can do quite a lot of damage. Eldric's family has a famous <Storm Power Company> with around 150 riders. The average level of the monsters and riders is 18 or so. It's quite powerful."

Cinderielle nodded, thoughtful. "Level 18? Why does it sound low?"

Verdantia laughed. "Well, our World's average level is not that high, at around 9 or so." 

Cinderielle snorted. "I am speaking about people of power, not counting civilians and such." 

Verdantia pondered. "Hmm. That's difficult to answer. The numbers vary quite a lot depending on what source or power you look at. However, the average level of any renowned power hovers between Level 15 to Level 24." 

Cinderielle was surprised. "Such a big difference?"

Verdantia smiled. "There are plenty of high levels. It's just that, in comparison, the Levels 25 and above are very rare. Level 25 is when the second Energy Cycle occurs. People who reach this level become much stronger. However, Energy Cycles are challenging to complete. Hence, not many manage to do it, getting stuck at levels before that, even when they have enough experience. Moreover, there is a very important detail I missed."

Cinderielle looked at her, and Verdantia commented. "Experience is a very limited resource. Killing other creatures is never effective in the long run. Eventually, you become too strong to gain experience from killing. And you need to be careful because if you kill creatures that are too weak, you will lose experience." 

Cinderielle nodded with a thoughtful expression. "I see. Is this information for the entire world?"

Verdantia laughed. "How could that be? This is for those we have information on. Ceperet is quite extensive, Cinderielle. Who knows if there are monstrous entities roaming around?" 

When Verdantia finished speaking, the man from the <Information Flower Garden> returned. Verdantia smiled mockingly. "What? Are you disappointed that you didn't hear anything interesting?" 

The man smiled. "Not at all. It was very informative." 

Cinderielle pointed at him and exclaimed. "Hey! You just admitted that you were sneakily listening to us!" 

He nodded. "That I did." 

The red-haired Sylvan was stumped when he was so accepting. What do you do when they just admitted to it? 

Verdantia asked, ignoring him. "So, how much information do you have, and for how much do you want to sell it?"

The man commented. "Well, the <Void Witherwood Exarchs> location is very secretive, so it is quite a problem to share it. If someone discovers it, they will probably know that someone leaked it. Finding it 'by accident' is almost impossible. So, for information on this Level, I would like to ask for 10 Bren Coin."

Cinderielle froze, and her eyes widened. Verdantia sighed. "If you are not willing to share the information, just say so. 10 Bren are 2,500,000 Lir coins. For that money, I can probably upgrade the equipment of 10 people and equip them entirely with Level 10 armor and weapons of decent quality." Then, Verdantia commented. "I can buy it for 250 Tyn Coins. Not any more than that." 

The man laughed. "That's equivalent to 125,000 Lir Coins. Don't you think that offering 5% percent of my original price is a bit insulting?"

Verdantia spoke calmly. "If your offer wasn't nonsensical, I might've agreed to pay a fair price. However, now I don't want to. Since you won't accept 250 Tyn Coins, I will buy it for 200 Tyn Coins."

Cinderielle looked at Verdantia with her mouth agape. 'Did she just reduce her offer!?'

The man looked at Verdantia for a few seconds and laughed. "You are hard to deal with, Miss Liferoot."

Verdantia answered back. "I consider myself to be quite an outgoing and easy Sylvan to talk to unless people treat me condescendingly and think that I am a brainless youth who would spend a fortune just because. Now, will you accept 200 Tyn Coins for that information?" 

The man picked a pack of documents and slid them across the table. Verdantia nodded and took out 200 Tyn Coins from her pouch. She was not rich because Verena didn't usually give her money. However, she had some saved for her travels, around 350 Tyn Coins. Although, 200 were now gone. 

"Then, for the information-"

Verdantia stopped him. "Wait. Let me read."

The man's smile faltered a bit. "Miss Verdantia, I can't spend too much time here. There are other customers that need to be attended to."

Verdantia didn't flinch and answered. "Make them wait. You can't rush a deal with your customer just because there are others in line. I want to check if the information I've received is correct or worth it." 

Cinderielle wanted to clap but held herself back, secretly remembering all these things. Verdantia read the documents for around 5 minutes. Even if it was supposed to be just the location of the Void Witherwood Exarchs>, finding the place was not as easy. Hence, there were several details, including a few traps in the way there that should be avoided. 'Hm. They probably know more. However, this is good enough. We need to be careful of this path as well; there are quite a few traps and probably others that aren't noted down here…'

According to these documents, they were hidden relatively close. Verdantia muttered. "White Flower Forest, hm… No wonder we've met a few times. They are basically neighbors." She asked. "How much to expand this information with the knowledge of the Level of top leaders?" 

The man pondered, and looking at Verdantia, he decided to give an honest offer this time. "30 Tyn." 

Verdantia pondered and nodded. "I agree. Give it to me."

After he received the money, he stood up and went to the back again, coming back with a list of names and levels. 

Verdantia's eyes focused on the top people and sighed. 'Levels 18 and 19 are not few… The leader is Level 20. That's a problem. Level 20 has a sub-cycle improvement, so they are quite a lot stronger than Level 19s…'

She passed the information to Cinderielle so that she could also be informed and asked. "Have you gathered information about Eldric?" 

The man nodded and pointed at a small stack at his right. "However, this is connected to one of the Stormrider Heirs. It won't be cheap." 

Verdantia frowned. "How much?"

"100 Tyn Coins."

Her frown deepened. "Information about him alone costs half of the location of an entire organization?"

The man smiled. "If anyone wants to buy information about your last actions, the price is much steeper, Miss Verdantia. Reaching into the dozens of Brens."

Cinderielle blinked. "What about me?"

The man looked at Cinderielle with a strange gaze. "We don't gather information about unknown people." 

Hearing such an answer, her face became a bit reddish in embarrassment. "Right. My bad."

Verdantia raised her eyebrow, not believing him. That gaze was not one of puzzlement, but it was much more complex. Verdantia asked while looking at the information stack about Eldric. "What if I just want to buy what he is doing in this area?" 

The man pondered. "I can lower the price to 30 Tyn Coins. However, you will miss essential information that might make a change in whatever Miss Liferoot is searching for."

Verdantia pondered for a while. 'Hm… While it is strange that he is in this place… Does it even matter much? 30 Tyn Coins is quite a lot of money…'

Cinderielle didn't say anything all this time. She didn't know what to say, and other than that, it was Verdantia who was spending quite a fortune for all this information. Seeing her struggling, she decided to comment. "Is it that unusual for him to be around here? I saw him take a caravan in this direction in the past."

Verdantia nodded. "That was because his stop was not in this city. He was going much further into the east, where the Stormbird Family's house is."

"So, what are you going to do, Miss Liferoot?"

Verdantia sighed and threw 30 Tyn Coins. "Take that. I'd rather be safe than sorry." 

The man smiled. "I am sure you won't regret getting this information."

Verdantia rolled her eyes and opened the stack of documents, giving them a read. At the side, Cinderielle saw Verdantai's face go from skeptical to surprised to severe. Seeing her face, Cinderielle asked. "Was it worth it?"

Verdantia looked at Cinderielle deeply and back at the sentence she just read. 

[In short, his overall objective is to find a Fire Sylvan he has met in the past. Intentions about what he will do with the Sylvan are unknown, but here are a few references of what he did in the past:

Capture and force…]

The green-haired woman smiled profoundly and said. "Well, it was worth it indeed."