A BARGAIN

After reading the information on the wolves Eric got an idea.

"Don't attack them!"

"What!? Why?"

"I wanna try something first!" Eric responded as he put his weapon on the ground.

"What are you doing!?"

"I'm gonna try and bargain with them."

"Uwah?" After hearing one of his favorite words the Soldier monkey's eyes sparkled. This could be seen as a business opportunity and his kind loved things like that.

"How?"

Just then a bright light shown over Eric's hand and a big pink apple appeared in his palm.

The Wolves lowered their stance and reared their fangs in response to the unknown light as they approached slowly with low growling noises.

The boar snorted and the monkey shouted as they took up defensive positions but Nate had faith.

Although he couldn't hear about it right now he knew his friend could see the beasts information and more than likely had a plan.

"Wait!" Eric yelled as he put his empty hand in the air and extended the pink apple towards the wolves.

The Brush wolves paused for a moment and examined the unsightly group of creatures until their leader came out of the bushes behind them.

This wolf had a particularly dark green coat and he was slightly larger than the others but his information was a little different as well.

The others were between levels 4 and 6 but he was level 9 and had an additional skill called root spear.

"This is for you guys." Eric said as he waited patiently for the leader to get closer.

"We just wanna get through here in one piece."

After smelling the fruit in Eric's hand the wolf took it surprisingly gentle in his mouth and placed it on the ground.

"Woof, ruff."

"Looks like he understands." Nate said in surprise.

"Hey monkey, can you communicate for him?"

The Soldier monkey nodded as he moved next to Eric before the wolf barked again.

"Woof, woof."

Eric looked down at the monkey and waited for a response but when he saw him raise all ten of his fingers he was shocked.

"You want ten?" He responded to the leader.

"Grrr"

The monkey shook his head and sat on the ground before raising all ten of his toes and putting one of his thumbs down.

"Nineteen more!? That's nearly half of what we have!"

The pack leader let out a low growl and looked at Eric fiercely.

"Oh come on! How are you even gonna carry that many?"

"Woof!"

Three more wolves came out of the bushes and gathered behind the leader.

"Fine, fine!" Eric yelled as he pulled more fruit from his inventory.

"There!"

After receiving the pink apples the leader barked once more.

"Hey-"

"Eric, look." Nate interrupted as he pointed toward the barrier.

The wolves blocking their path had started leaving and grabbing fruit off the ground.

"Let's go." Eric said as he started inching his way toward safety.

As they started walking away he turned his head to look behind him and what he saw was mildly surprising.

The Pack leader went back into the bushes he came from while his henchmen took the fruit in a different direction.

"Huh." Eric was fascinated by this. He knew they couldn't carry all of them at the same time but he didn't expect them to devise such a feasible plan.

Since there were eleven of them they could only take so many pieces of fruit but instead of leaving the food unguarded or a few members behind to protect it they left the single most powerful member of the pack to watch over their next meal.

After getting back to the barrier everyone, including the Soldier monkey, gathered around the original fire pit and started to relax.

"So?"

"So?" Eric asked In confusion.

"You could see their information right? What's the deal? Why'd they accept fruit as a peace offering?"

"Riiight."

"Well, it said they're herbivores and we just so happened to come across a fruit that's supposed to be favored by some animals like that, so I tried to trade with 'em."

"Why didn't they go get the fruit themselves?we had just left when they surrounded us."

"They definitely looked aggressive after seeing the systems light all of a sudden but the pack leader seemed weary of us because we're new so he probably chose the easiest option he had, which was to let us go."

"You really are crazy. How'd you manage to come up with something like that?"

After resting for a while the boys decided to check their inventories. Eric had 9 of the pink apples left while Nate had a total of 26.

"Dang dogs." Eric said as he took 4 more apples from his inventory and distributed them.

"Here, one for each of you."

After receiving a fruit, each one of their reactions was different. The boar was happy as could be, Nate was simply grateful to have food, and the monkey..

He wasn't very happy.

"Uwah! Wah!?"

"What?"

The Soldier monkey pointed at the fruit in his hand.

"What about it?"

"Uwah!" The monkey said as he raised 4 of his fingers.

"Haha! We got a real comedian here."

"What's up?"

"He wants more fruit."

"How many?" Nate asked as he looked at the monkey.

"Four."

"That does kind of sound like a lot.."

"Wah!?"

"Listen monkey, if we give you the food you want we might not have enough for later." Eric said with a serious expression on his face.

"We're still new to this place and we haven't even made real tools yet, so there's no guarantee we can get more."

"If you're really that hungry right now I'll give you and the pig another ONE each, but you'll have to wait otherwise."

The Debt monkey was confused. Everytime he ate he would eat his fill, but now he had a limit.

"Ah?" He said as he scratched his head.

"We have to ration until we can get our hands on more food."

"Once we get more you can eat to your hearts content."

After listening to him everyone started eating.

Crunch~

"Oh my gosh, this thing's delicious!" Nate said as he started chewing on his apple.

"It's pretty good." Eric said after him.

The Debt monkey was sitting quietly in a corner enjoying his second fruit and the Buffalo boar was so happy he trotted in place.

He got so excited it could be seen in his expression. He didn't expect the single one before, but now, he had two of the sweetest fruits around!