Chapter 133- Desert Part 5  

The old man stopped his horse and pointed at a big blue house in front of them. "Alright, we have arrived your highness. You can see that big blue house just a few hundred meters away, right? That's his residence. I can't only accompany you here since I have no business with him."

"I hope that you will come out well from this problem, your highness. Good luck and safe travels, your highness" The old man said and turned around, and trotted away on his horse.

Adori only nodded lightly.

Looking at the old man's disappearing figure, Liu Guanyi thought to himself. The white-bearded elder certainly had his own ways and wisdom.

No wonder he could live for so long and lead his tribe even in such a dangerous and inhospitable place with many dangerous creatures lurking around.

Shaking his head, Liu Guanyi dismissed the useless thought and focused on the important business. Glancing at Adori, she instantly understood and led the three in the front. Knocking on the door thrice, they waited for the owner to come out.

Soon, the door opened, showing a lean and muscular man in a thick brown jacket. "Hello, what do you need, esteemed guests, to come at my humble abode in this barren desert?" Said the man in a gruff voice.

"You are a hired worker, aren't you? We are here to hire you?" Said Adori.

"Oh, customers then, please come in." The man moved out of the door and gestured for them to come inside.

"No need, it's okay." Adori waved off his hospitality. "Can you help us to track the death worms? We were told that you have your ways in the desert."

"Hmm, the death worms? What an unusual request." He pondered seriously as he rubbed his chin.

"Of course I can certainly guide you to where they usually reside and sleep in the day. However, going into their nest in the deep underground is a pretty risky job even for a top C-ranked scout like me so you have to offer the right price to move me, isn't it? You are quite wealthy yourself, aren't you, princess?" The man said with a smile.

"Ten thousand credits." Adori didn't mince her words and immediately spoke with a straight face.

"Impossible! ten thousand credits are nothing. It should be three million credits at minimum. Don't be too stingy, aren't you a princess of Zahard?" The scout exclaimed as he instantly rejected it.

"Princess of Zahard or not credit is still credit, one hundred thousand credits." Adori retorted.

"What do you mean by that? You are a princess of Zahard for Headon's sake. I am not risking my life for a measly one hundred thousand credits. At the very least, it should be two million and nine hundred thousand credits."

"I don't want you to fight for my team but only to lead the way in the underground. Aren't you exaggerating the risk for you? You are a scout so you should be able to escape quickly if we meet the death worms or any ferocious enemy, two hundred thousand." Adori rebutted unyieldingly.

"Although I don't need to fight anything below the ground, what if the ground collapses and we will be buried underneath? Going into the underground is already a great risk in and of itself. And what is two hundred thousand? It's still nothing."

The heated debate continued as Adori kept pressing forward with fluency while maintaining her calm throughout the whole debate.

After a very long back and forth debate, it finally ended slightly in Adori's favor as the deal was agreed with her paying one and a half million credits half the amount upfront with a silver lining that he had to make sure they would be able to meet the death worms before she would pay the rest of the half.

Since they were in hurry to finish the test as they couldn't train at all as they had to travel around the desert all time, making their progress stuck, they forced the scout, Theo, to guide them to the underground of the desert as fast as possible, which meant today.

This was also to prevent him from changing his mind, and if all of these occurrences were also planned by the Rankers on the 75th floor, to prevent Theo from contacting his superiors.

After all, they hadn't found anything after asking many tribes over a month but suddenly, now they had found the clue to finding the death worms and even a regular that was capable to guide them?

Xin might not be that keen and smart but Adori and Liu Guanyi were certainly different. They had instantly noticed the oddity and prepared countermeasures accordingly. Even though they were extremely strong, it didn't mean that it was okay to be careless.

Rather than being overconfident and being punished later on it was much better to prepare for rainy days even if it was still in summer. The tower was an extremely competitive and unforgiving place as even Adori, a princess of Zahard from the loyalist faction, was not spared from being targeted.

Schemes and betrayal were as common as drinking water here, only those who keep their awareness and caution could survive for long. This wasn't just for regulars but also Rankers alike.

This was the problem when longevity could be so easily attained, the old ones wanted to keep their power and wealth and prevent the younger generation to take over.

They quickly departed from the house to the desert, however, Theo didn't simply lead them aimlessly, no, he led them to the most dangerous region of the desert where sandstorms occurred the most and many powerful beasts live and dominated the region.

As they had set off during the sunset when they arrived there, it was already dark as the strong and fast desert wind blew on their faces.

Liu Guanyi didn't need to act though since the scout seemed to live up to his reputation as a top C-ranked regular as he could easily scour through the almost pitch-black desert without any lights.

Since it was already dark, having a light on would make them very conspicuous and that would easily attract the strong Shinheuh that dominated this part of the desert.

Although they weren't a problem to them, killing them was also not that beneficial for them so it was better to save their precious time.

"So, what are we doing here? Why did you lead us here?" Xin asked the scout.