Death… And Me

Chapter 4526: You Will

Antohio brought Rean, Flugel, and Lukay to a private room where they could talk without worrying about anyone overhearing their conversation. Once the door was closed and he confirmed that there was no one else nearby, he finally sat down and looked at Rean with a much more serious expression than before.

”So, friend Rean, I would like to talk more about the array you used during your test.”

Rean smiled in response. ”That’s obviously not a problem at all. I also want to talk about the arrays available in the Arrays Guild. Would this friend have access to them?”

Antohio nodded. ”I’m a supervisor, after all. I might not have access to as many secrets as the Arrays Guild Branch Master, but I shouldn’t be too far off. At least compared to the knowledge available to ordinary members, I can access quite a lot of it and more.”

”Then I believe we can reach a good deal here,” Rean said, nodding. ”So, what is it you want to know?”

”What kind of method was that that you used?” Antohio went straight to the main topic. ”I’ve never seen that kind of array arrangement before. Still, it was easy to understand and especially a lot better than the energy-gathering arrays anyone I know could make. Did you come up with those methods on your own?”

”Hahaha!” Rean laughed in response. ”Friend Antohio, as you said, you hold quite a high position in this branch, and you likely have been to the Arrays Guild in the Central Section many times, right?”

”That I did indeed,” Antohio confirmed. ”I’ve dealt with people from the central branch several times over the years. Why the question? What does it have to do with anything?”

Rean shrugged. ”Forget about the North Branch. Have you seen anyone making arrays like my own in the Central District?”

”No,” Antohio answered again without hesitation. ”So?”

”Then that’s about it,” Rean explained. ”You haven’t seen it anywhere because no one uses it, only me. I created it.”

Antohio pondered for a bit. He still found it hard to believe Rean had come up with that on his own. The arrangement was far too efficient compared to anything he had seen in Woster, and Rean had produced it as if it were nothing special. ”Are you not lying to me?”

”I’m not, but what if I was? It doesn’t change the fact that you want to learn how to do it, so it doesn’t matter if I learned it on my own or if someone taught me, don’t you agree?” Rean knew exactly what to say.

Antohio couldn’t go against that logic.

”Besides,” Rean continued, ”if the Arrays Guild had this kind of method available, do you really think they would teach me? I’m a nobody, a simple Aura God who had never registered as an Arrays Master before. You can even investigate me if you want. I’ve been leading a pretty low-profile life, so there are very few cultivators other than a few friends and my family who even know I exist.”

Rean leaned back slightly, allowing Antohio to digest his words before continuing.

”Last but not least, I had no choice but to learn it on my own. That’s because when I tried to join the guild in the past, I was rejected before I could even register for a test since I knew nothing about arrays. The guild didn’t let me check anything in their libraries. There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world, after all.”

”I worked pretty hard to accumulate Godly Crystals to buy information about arrays on my own... and with a little help from my friends here.”

Rean gestured toward Flugel and Lukay, who remained silent throughout the conversation. Both of them knew exactly where Rean was going with this. The story was convincing enough to explain why he possessed knowledge that seemed far beyond what he should have been capable of learning.

Then, Rean smiled once more. ”Let me tell you something very interesting. From what you saw, my own methods are much better. However, because I’ve never joined the Arrays Guild or any other power that deals with arrays, I was only capable of working with the simplest possible array arrangements and materials that could be bought.”

Rean leaned forward, looking straight into Antohio’s eyes. ”Do you know what I mean by these words?”

Antohio was not an idiot. He picked up the hidden message in Rean’s explanation almost immediately. ”Your methods are better, but you only know the most basic arrays. That’s why you are willing to make this deal with me. You want access to the more advanced arrays that ordinary guild members would never have access to, especially a new member like you.”

Rean leaned back in his chair. ”I’m so happy that friend Antohio and I understand each other so well.”

Antohio went silent for a moment, thinking about the pros and cons of such a deal. First of all, could Rean’s methods be applied to more advanced arrays? That was the question that mattered most to him. If the answer was yes, then the value of the knowledge Rean possessed could potentially be enormous.

Little did he know that what Rean showed him was truly nothing special at all to any Array Master back in Besgol. Flugel even felt a little pity for Antohio, seeing that he was about to make a deal for a bunch of basic knowledge. To Rean, however, the important thing wasn’t the value of what he was giving away. It was the information he could obtain in return.

Antohio got up from his chair and paced back and forth. Rean didn’t say anything, simply waiting for Antohio’s response. The supervisor was clearly trying to determine just how much he could gain without giving away too much of the guild’s knowledge, at least not at once.

Could Rean have instead tried to get in contact with the Guild Branch Master or someone of higher authority? Of course he could! Antohio might have said he had his own position in the guild, but Rean highly doubted a supervisor of tests for new members truly held such a high position. At most, his access to knowledge was above average in the Guild Branch.

However, going for someone of higher authority straight away when Rean had just joined would look way too suspicious and would attract more attention than he wanted.

One couldn’t forget that even in the city, one wasn’t safe. If Zone Gods started to come after his group to force things out, things would become too complicated; let’s not even talk about Law Gods. It was better to start from a lower position like Antohio, who had a lot more to gain than to lose if he helped Rean, Flugel, and Lukay.

After all, Antohio had already seen how valuable Rean’s methods appeared to be. If he could personally acquire them, he could potentially use that knowledge to improve his own standing within the guild. That made him much more likely to cooperate than someone at the very top, who would have little reason to take risks for the sake of an unknown new member.

Finally, Antohio reached a conclusion. He stopped pacing and looked directly at Rean. ”What I can do is accept you as my disciple in the eyes of the guild. That would allow you to have almost the same level of access as myself.”

”That we can do,” Rean didn’t mind.

”But before that...” Antohio wouldn’t simply jump into it without guarantees, of course. He knew better than to hand over access to the guild’s knowledge based solely on a promise. ”You have to teach me your method for that Energy Gathering Array. As to whether you believe I’m going to fulfill my part of the deal or not after that, that’s up to you.”

Rean looked at Lukay and Flugel, who nodded back at him. They had already expected something like this. There was no reason for Antohio to expose himself without first receiving something valuable in return.

Finally, Rean accepted. ”Then we have a deal. Don’t worry, you will definitely fulfill your part. I’ll make sure you will.”

Antohio raised an eyebrow at those words, but Rean simply smiled. There was no need to explain what he meant. As far as Rean was concerned, the deal was already settled. Now, they only needed to see exactly how much information this supervisor could provide them.