Chapter 199: An Offer

Orna spoke with a tone filled with disappointment. "I gave you all the knowledge regarding the ritual and even told you about the dwarven city so you could find answers there, yet all I hear of is your clan's incompetence. Oh, how I miss the days of the Mystic Blood Clan."

Kirgar clenched his fist. His people had done their best, but this creature never considered it good enough. It always compared them to the previous orc clan and spoke highly of them at every opportunity.

"Wait, dwarves? They also lived here?"

Sol had heard that there used to be a dwarven kingdom in the Orna Mountains, but no one had been able to find any trace of it.

"Yes. Not long after the Mystic Blood Clan and I formed a beneficial relationship, dwarves requested an audience with me. They asked if they could also live here under my protection. The orcs at the time weren't in favor of it until the dwarves reassured them they had no intention of living on the land. They wanted to live under it."

Rex was the first to piece it together. "Under it? So those tunnels…"

"The dwarves constructed tunnels throughout the region with their city hidden somewhere inside. I informed the Frostaxe Clan about them in hopes they would learn how the dwarves held their ritual, which I was told was different from the Mystic Blood Clan. But they have yet to find their city."

Orna did not know or really care at the time where in the tunnels the city was located. Because of that, it was only able to provide the location of the few entrances it could recall from memory.

"So what happened? Where did the orcs and dwarves go?"

Sol doubted the dwarves still lived there because if they did, the world would likely know about it. Something must have happened to both races that they were no longer here.

"I am unsure. I was asleep at the time."

"What? But didn't your deal include protecting them?" Aron blurted out his thoughts as he understood something bad likely happened to them.

The squad members all glared at him to keep his mouth shut. None wanted to irritate this being, and it wasn't the time to question its story.

Orna let out a remorseful groan in response. "I know and I can only blame myself. I failed to uphold my end of the deal, which caused severe backlash. It set my recovery back a millennium."

'It injured him?'

This question appeared in the squad's minds. Sol could only think of one way that could be possible.

"Was this deal witnessed by the Goddess Naria?"

Naria was known to most as the goddess of the sea, but she was also worshiped as the goddess of trade. It was said parties who made an agreement with her as witness must fulfill their end of the bargain or suffer divine retribution.

"Naria?" Orna scoffed. "She doesn't even understand the true purpose of trade. No, it was my own power that caused it. My very own law of trade punished me for not upholding my end of the deal. Speaking of which, I haven't been completely honest with my guests."

Everyone's bodies became tense as they worried he did, in fact, want to kill them and take their life essence. It didn't help that it spoke of a goddess like someone they knew from across the street.

"Since I awoke, my intuition has been telling me there is a very profitable deal we can make. You mentioned you desired safe shelter. I assume from this orc, correct?"

Sol breathed a sigh of relief as for a moment he thought this was heading in a different direction and nodded.

"If you can offer something of sufficient value to me, then it can be arranged and more. I can even harvest this orc's life essence if you desire."

"W-What?!" Kirgar shouted. He was shocked at the fact that his life was being used as a bargaining chip.

The eye gazed at him and the voice resounded through the cavern.

"Your clan is late on last month's payment. You still owe me 2,000 mortals' worth of life essence. Collecting your essence will at least cover a fourth of that."

"T-that…"

The Champion's first thought was to run away, as far away as possible, but he didn't. The first reason was because if he escaped, his clan would likely be punished for it. The second reason was because he knew he couldn't escape even if he wanted to. He didn't believe he could take more than three steps before this being ended his life.

The eye turned back towards the squad, but its gaze was clearly more focused on Sol.

"So how about it? I can sense you have something of value to me."

Sol was stunned as he didn't understand how it could perceive that, but he just surmised it was through methods beyond his understanding. Regarding things of value, Sol had many things that could fall under that category: gold, unique weapons, even the charged elemental canisters could be sold for a large sum of gold, but he felt that none of that would interest the being.

'There's only one thing that could interest him… but if I give it to him, we fail the mission.'

He could easily conclude that the only valuable item Orna would be interested in was the fruit they recently obtained, but he was very conflicted about handing it over. He felt that if he did, it would make Lapis' death all for nothing. He then wondered if she would still be alive if they had simply surrendered to the orcs and gave them the fruit.

Sol mentally sighed, 'No point in dwelling on what I could have done better. I need to focus on how the rest of us can survive now.'

From his light red spatial ring, he retrieved the legendary fruit. The moment it appeared, the surrounding temperature dropped significantly.

'I never actually got to see its description.'

Sol used [Analysis] on it as he didn't get to do it last time.

[Winter's Kiss

Legendary

Quality: Perfect

Effect: Consumption would increase all attributes by 50. Vitality and Wisdom increase by another 50. Greatly increases ice affinity. Caution: Extremely high chance to kill the consumer. High chance to transform the consumer into an ice elemental. Medium chance to transform the consumer into an elder ice elemental. Low chance to not transform the consumer. High vitality and ice affinity would provide better odds.]

'This is… insane…'

If Sol ate it, all his attributes would increase by over 30%, while Vitality and Wisdom would increase by over 60% of their current value. It was the same as gaining 70 levels worth of attributes, and there was also the added benefit to one's ice affinity. The only problem was that he wasn't very confident in being able to eat the fruit without either dying or becoming an ice elemental. He felt like he would have to wait a long time to be able to actually consume it.

The squad appeared conflicted when he pulled the fruit out for the same reasons Sol was hesitant, but none spoke their thoughts. Kirgar's jaw dropped when he felt the energy radiating from the fruit, as he couldn't believe they were carrying such a treasure.

'Was that the cause of the blizzard?'

Kirgar could instinctively tell that the fruit would be extremely beneficial to him. If he ate it, his strength would soar by a large amount, and his ability to manipulate ice and snow would greatly increase as well. He regretted not arriving sooner to claim the fruit for himself, but as he did, he realized that too many times today he regretted not getting sooner. This could no longer be attributed to bad luck but his own incompetence, and he understood that well.

Orna's giant eye widened as Sol presented the fruit to it. Sol's hands felt like they were on fire as he held it, but he endured the pain and waited for its response.

"I cannot accept this trade."

"What?"

Everyone was initially shocked that even this wasn't enough to satisfy Orna. Fortunately, they all misunderstood.

The Winter's Kiss floated off Sol's hands as it levitated in front of the giant eye. It inspected it as it gave its judgment.

"This is worth much more than just protection. I need to offer more to make this a fair deal. Do you perhaps wish to own half the mountain range? You can even choose which part of the region, whether the current orcs' territory or the abandoned dwarven territory."