Haggle

White wolves and white witches, these are the hidden bosses of the Frost Forest. Lan He could care less about the Mithril Pendant, an item with no practical value, but the White Wolf's Fangs were indeed precious.

The Frost Forest was no longer a beginner's teaching instance; each person could only enter a maximum of four times a day, and it was uncertain whether they would encounter a hidden boss within those attempts, let alone the two-thirds chance that the hidden boss wouldn't be the white wolf.

If Ye Kai had only asked for the 8 White Wolf Fangs, Lan He wouldn't have hesitated. But after asking for 72 Strong Spider Silks and then 8 White Wolf Fangs, Lan He felt this person was a bit too greedy, true to the nature of someone who would kill a whole team for a hidden boss. No matter how skilled, if a person's character was lacking, was it appropriate to recruit them into the guild?

Lan He was beginning to hesitate, but Ye Kai replied to his message unhurriedly: "Too much? Then I don't need the Mithril Pendant, okay?"

Lan He couldn't help but laugh and cry, quickly replying: "Brother, we're all sensible people. I don't care how many Mithril Pendants you want, but the Strong Spider Silks and White Wolf Fangs..."

"How many do you think is appropriate?" Ye Kai asked.

"Choose one of the two," Lan He said.

"This... is really a tough choice!" Ye Kai said.

"You can't have both fish and bear's paws, brother," Lan He said earnestly.

"Then I'll take the White Wolf Fangs!" Ye Kai said.

"Okay," Lan He breathed a sigh of relief.

"How about a few Strong Spider Silks as a gesture?" Ye Kai added.

Lan He almost spat blood.

"How about forty?" Ye Kai asked.

"Brother, this..." Lan He was at a loss for words.

"Thirty?"

"Uh..."

"Twenty-five. That should be okay, right?" Ye Kai asked.

Lan He was silent for a long time, his hands on the keyboard, unable to find the right words.

"Twenty-four?"

Lan He's heart suddenly softened. The other party had come down to haggling one by one; it would be embarrassing for the prestigious Blue Brook Guild to haggle over a Strong Spider Silk, wouldn't it? Lan He immediately struck the keyboard: "Alright, let's settle on that!"

"Oh."

Just as Lan He was taking a breath of relief, another message popped up: "Then give me a few more Mithril Pendants, you don't care anyway, right?"

Lan He almost fell off his chair. What kind of person was this? The Mithril Pendant was practically useless, and yet he wanted to take advantage of even this small benefit?

"What do you need so many for?" Lan He asked, unable to comprehend.

"These things, while useless in our eyes, have a different value to some people," Ye Kai said.

Lan He, of course, knew Ye Kai was referring to the girls who liked such decorations. So this guy wanted them just to flirt with girls? One or two as gifts were fine, but so many at once, how many girls did he intend to charm? Lan He despised the man for a moment before asking: "How many do you want?"

"If you don't care, then just give them all to me, right?" Ye Kai said.

"We only have a few, just two..." Lan He had to lie, while deeply regretting his careless words about "not caring at all." Indeed, the item had no practical value, but it was a rare decoration, and giving them away as benefits to the girls in the guild was a good choice; giving them all away to this person felt a bit painful.

"..."

Ye Kai only replied with an ellipsis, but it was enough to make Lan He blush with embarrassment. The lie was indeed poorly concocted, but since it had been told, Lan He brazenly persisted: "Shall we leave it at that?"

"What about the loot if we encounter a hidden boss?" Ye Kai asked another question.

"Everyone rolls for it!" Lan He answered very straightforwardly.

"..."

Ellipsis, once again. Lan He sighed. How could someone so keen on getting a better deal be fooled on this? Rolling for loot seemed fair, but Lan He and his four companions were friends, and on the other side was a lone outsider; rolling for loot was essentially four against one, heavily in their favor. Clearly, this person was also well aware of this fact.

"Haha, just kidding..." Lan He quickly joked, "If we encounter a hidden boss, we probably won't be able to set the record, so it wouldn't be right to let brother work for nothing. You get first pick of the loot from the hidden boss, how about that?"

"Alright, let's agree on that," Ye Kai consented.

"So when will you come over, brother? Our people are all at the Frost Forest!" Lan He said.

"Oh, wait a moment, I'll come out of this instance," Ye Kai said.

"Okay," Lan He nodded, and then looked at Ye Kai in the friends list: "Brother, do you need to change your class first?"

"No need, let's keep it as it is!"

Lan He was taken aback: "This..."

"Let's not talk about it now, I'll hurry through the instance," Ye Kai replied.

So Lan He silently closed the message window, pondering back and forth, feeling that something was off. After mulling over it for a long time, he suddenly slapped his thigh.

What was he doing? His original intention was to invite this guy to run an instance together to build rapport, but he ended up haggling over the rewards for quite a while, completely changing the nature of the interaction. It was as if he was hiring someone to work, which was beneath the Blue Brook Guild.

Thinking of this, Lan He suddenly felt pained about the rewards he had haggled for, as if he had given them away for nothing. But then, he remembered the condition under which these items were to be given away: breaking the clearance record.

Lan He froze.

Missing one person, breaking the record, all of that was just his pretext. The Blue Brook Guild had brought forty top guild experts to the new area, how could a five-person team possibly be short of members? Being short of members was just a plausible reason to invite someone, and breaking the record was a goal to give everyone the illusion of a common struggle, making communication easier.

Frankly, Lan He didn't believe that inviting a random person could create a new clearance record. After midnight, when the instance counts reset, Lan He had already led the current elite five-person team of the Blue Brook Guild through the Frost Forest three times, with a stable gap from the current record held by the Herb Garden. If the arrival of one person could change that, wouldn't that mean his strength was greater than that of their guild's elites?

Lan He thought Jun Mo Xiao was talented, but he didn't think he was more talented than their guild's elites. Yet, in the end, this person seriously haggled with him over the rewards for clearing the instance. Was he serious? He was only level 20, and he even said he wouldn't change classes first. Did he really think he could refresh the record like that?

"Lan He, how's it going with contacting that person?" At that moment, Gao Shou Xi Zhou, a teammate sitting next to Lan He, asked.

"He's been invited and will be here soon. Who's giving up their spot?" Lan He looked at the other four teammates.

"Oh, I'll take a break then!" someone said.

Lan He nodded, and that person immediately left the team. The remaining four sat at the entrance of the instance, waiting for Jun Mo Xiao's arrival, with Lan He still filled with uncertainty.