Chapter 29 - Negotiations

"It's okay. But before we will be able to get any work done, you need to get your avatar back and running," Peter announced, resting his back against the backside of the couch.

"That's understandable," Tom replied, nodding his head as if in order to accept the terms offered by the other party. "But I would still like to know what is that you want me to do?"

"First, you need to get your avatar to the level fifty," Peter said, leaning over the coffee table between their seats. "Once that's done, I will be able to introduce you into the higher floors as an advisor properly," he added, resting himself to the back again.

"Sure, I should be able to climb there in like..." Tom took a moment to seriously analyze the question, "about a week? Maybe two if the raids will be pretty unlucky," he added, trying to come up with the most precise answer that was possible.

"Tom, don't forget the most important part," Marvin advised, patting Tom's back.

"That's right," Tom nodded his head, heeding Marvin's advice. "What will be the pay of this job?" he asked.

'Even if it's not like I will be in any need of money anytime soon, I can't just work for free!' Tom scolded himself. 'It's those kinds of small mishaps that could lead to my cover being blown!' he reminded himself of that simple fact before holding up his breath a bit as to appear more anxious.

"Didn't I say it already?" Peter asked before releasing a heavy sigh and lowering his head. "First off, you will be given free access to this floor and all its amenities," Peter started by moving his arm around the enormous room as if trying to sell it to Tom.

"That's great, but I could get here in more ways than you can imagine. So let's talk not about what you can offer, but what I expect instead," Tom smiled as he put down his own offer.

"I'm all ears," Peter replied before putting a smile on his face. As surprising as it was to see him happy with Tom negotiating the terms of their deal, Tom wasn't going to back out of it now.

"First off, the access you spoke off. It would be a pain to get it from my own sources," Tom started, leaning back on his seat before looking at the ceiling. "Then, I need my private capsule in a private room along with a dorm for the guild I will set up under the name of the Hub's management," he added before finally lowering his eyes at Peter's face.

"That's..." For a moment, the man hesitated.

'So he is not that dumb,' Tom smiled to his own thoughts, not even bothering to hide it. By allowing Peter to see his smile, he made him aware that this small ploy of his was intentional.

Getting Tom a private capsule or even an entire wing of the online hub to serve as a dorm, allowing him to create a guild under the patronage of the Online Hub itself, was an entirely different matter altogether.

"I'm sorry. While other demands are acceptable, getting you to use the hub's brand to create your own guild under it?" Peter said before shaking his head. "That's the one thing I will have to refuse."

For a moment, the silence ensued between the parties. While Tom intentionally didn't speak a word to see how the other two would cope with it, Marvin clearly didn't want to put himself in the middle of this negotiation.

"Ah, I guess I can only say I'm sorry," Peter said after roughly four minutes of complete silence.

"There is no need for you to be sorry," Tom smiled in response. "Because I accept the offer. I should be the one apologizing for testing you out like this," he added before lowering his head in an official act of an apology.

"Dang, I didn't expect this," Peter's eyes widened a bit when Tom made his statement, "but I'm glad we managed to sort things out. But that also means..." he left his sentence open, most likely too worried too utter it.

"Yeah, I need to go and quickly raise my avatar's level," Tom finished Peter's suggestion himself before standing up. "With that said, I don't think there is any point in staying in this place. I will be better off just grinding the dungeon, wouldn't I?" he asked while pushing his hand forward.

"That's true," Peter agreed, grabbing Tom's hand and shaking it energetically. "I hope this will be the beginning of fruitful cooperation. I can already see all kinds of things we could do together!" he added before guiding his quests to the doors.

"So, what do you think about it all?" Marvin asked as soon as the lift started going down. Even though he wasn't showing it, Tom could tell he was pretty anxious about the entire situation.

'It is not wonder,' Tom thought to himself. 'For an outsider, our talks didn't appear as a negotiation but rather as an argument,' he added in his mind before patting Marvin's back.

"Don't worry about it. Everything went well," Tom said to calm his friend down. "But that also means I won't be able to get any real meal done now. Tell me," Tom stopped his words for a moment for no apparent reason. "Could you maybe go and get me a nice, big breakfast in like two hours?" he asked. "I will be going to the dungeon right away. The sooner I get to the level fifty, the better!'