Chapter 20 - Business is Business

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Devlin finished looking through the Codex and exited his room at noon. He began preparing lunch just as Selena instructed. Someone as prestigious as Selena had her own food pantry stocked weekly with Grade-2 Spectral Beasts Meat and Low-grade Earth Herbs. It was a luxury that increased ones vitality and ability to cultivate.

Selena came in just when Devlin was done setting everything up and sitting down. Not a word was said as she sat down and began to eat.

5 min later.. Silence

10 min later.. Silence

Devlin began to stifle from the awkward atmosphere. He could tell Selena was throwing a temper tantrum just like a little girl. Her anger was a bit justified though after what happened last night.

"Cough.. Cough.. Little enchantress I apologize for my indecent self; however, if this continues our meeting will continue to get more and more awkward."

Selena face brightened when she finally heard Devlin break the silence. It seemed it had been bothering her as well, nonetheless her mouth was still sealed shut.

"I believe meeting each other can be called fate. Although I do not know your position in your clan, I have few business offers I would like to address if you don't mind."

Selena interest was piqued when this man in front of her who not even was 16 yet was trying to make business negotiations. She felt it was quite funny seeing him struggle to persuade her as her face was still stone-cold on the outside.

"Please tell me how a voyager, such as you, with no knowledge of this world or grand cultivation could show me something I would need."

This may have seemed harsh, but for a person with a Royal status like Selena there was not many that could surprise her.

"Then how about a bet, little enchantress?"

"Of what?" She commented with extreme curiosity.

"If I'm able to exceed your expectations for some beyond belief reason, I would like two things"

"Please do tell"

Devlin decided to lay his cards down in case she took it back, "First I would like fifty percent of the profits, and forgiveness for my past transgressions including my status as a servant."

"Denied"

Devlin was stumped by how quick she turned it down.

"Wh.. Why?"

"Goofball, you wouldn't be able to stay in this dorm and use my resources if you were no longer my servant. Who knew your were such an idiot. I pity your younger brothers. Denied once again."

Devlin didn't get mad at her, rather he thought she was quite cute from her actions. He already speculated that this was her true purpose from Nicks hint and Selena's behavior however he needed to double check from her personally in order to feel a hundred percent safe.

"Then how about servant-in-name only? In public, we have a master-servant relationship, while alone we're friends."

Soon as Selena heard friends her eyes glistened with yearning. It reawakened another side of her past and she immediately said, "I agree" with no other questions asked.

"Glad we can agree on something finally," Devlin sighed with relief as he was afraid this crazy girl would add another condition.

"Then I would like to present to you something I discovered in the Lost Sahara once I arrived."

As he explained his offer, two papers were put in between them. Selena picked up both and glanced at them before freezing up completely. She was astonished by how Devlin could get his hands on these. Andromeda had scavenged all over the Lost Sahara hoping to dig up any ancient artifacts from the Great Divination Era.

"Bursting Vein Pill- Increases Users efficiency in cultivating. Someone who uses up a low grade Nova Essence in an hour can speed it up to 3 breaths of time. The only setback is the pill can only last an hour."

"Double Collapse Pill- a second chance! Those who are uncertain of passing the barrier to Arcane Realm are given another chance to breakthrough without being crippled."

"These ancient pill recipes are currently unknown; however, if I was too give a rough price on both of them, I would say the Bursting Vein Pill would be 1000 Gold Drachmas, while the Double Collapse Pill would be near 2500 Gold Drachmas."

As she read both recipes out loud and told him both of their prices, her voice was quivering with excitement. This was a huge business deal! She realized where Devlin's confidence came from as even her elders would be deeply surprised by how amazing these were.

"Mhmm not too bad.. and what do you plan on doing with these exactly?" Selena said as her stunned expression swiftly switched to calm and cool.

Devlin had a keen sense and noticed Selena quick switch of emotions. He inwardly laughed and said, "As we both know, I'm in desperate need for money. I believe by selling these two ancient recipes to you, I will not only build a connection between me and your clan but also exhibit my trust in you."

Selena nodded in appreciation towards Devlin's precise details for why he was doing this. It definitely wasn't something made up on the spot.

"Alright deal. As for the price I believe 30% of the profit can be..." Selena replied, before a "cough" interrupted her.

It was now Devlin turn to be shocked by how shameless this little enchantress could be. She clearly was shocked yet still demanded him to get only 30% of the profit, even after he just said he trust her. Since this was the case he might as well tease her a bit as payback.

"Ms. Selena, I feel the need to explain that my earlier proposal was for 50%, not 30% profit. Since Ms. Selena cannot admit to her earlier shock, I believe I have made a mistake in my lapse of judgement." He grabbed the two parchments and stood up, clearly planning on leaving.

"Stop!"

"Yes?"

"It was just a test haha..," Selena added with a bitter smile, "I apologize for my actions and as a gift for continued partnership I will raise it to 60% profit."

Devlin's footsteps came to a complete stop and his lips twitched upwards. He was utterly surprised by how quickly she raised the profits.

"However.."

Devlin's grin froze as he knew it was too good to be true while Selena continued saying, "Since every meal you eat with me is around 500 gold drachmas, I believe a 55% profit would be more appropriate, don't you think Mr. Skyfall? Not only this but there should also be a reasonable explanation after this as to why you have not just one, but two godheads, while still at Blood Knight 1-Star."

Devlin couldn't help but feel a bit ridicule from how easy he fell for her trap. Devlin's heart also bled when he found out just this one meal was nearly 500 gold drachmas. This was the same as a Grade-1 Blood Crystal.

'I guess there really is no such as a free meal'

Devlin said to himself, while handing over the parchments to Selena.

"Deal!"

"Then as we agreed, I will no longer command you unless we are out in public. I'll also put these lovely recipes out on the market as soon as possible; however, before this I would love to hear what kind of excuse you are going to make up for procuring two godheads," said Selena with a diabolical grin, knowing something unusual was behind this.

Unlike Selena's cheerful, Devlin face had a downcast. He was hoping to leave as soon as he fulfilled his purpose to sell both recipes, but before he could leave, the conversation shifted automatically. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, rather he felt it wasn't the right time. Sadly, the time and place came to quick before he could figure it out.

As Devlin stood up his shadow split up into two, a three-headed hound with a curse mark and a tiny black jackal appeared. Both had dense aura infinitely near the deity phantom.

This caused Selena to nearly have a heart attack. Although she heard it from Devlin, she still couldn't believe someone was able to have two godheads. The fact that he had two phantoms instantly changed her perspective. She could sense the overwhelming aura illuminating from the jackal was similar to her Hel phantom.

"You can't say a word about this."

"Of course, otherwise both the Crystal Waterfall Temple and Armament Sovereign Temple would eat you up without giving you the chance to grow." Selena said with a complicated face. Her emotions were in a jumble right now.

Devlin saw this and absolutely knew what she was contemplating over. Although he was a friend, he was also someone who has blood relation to the Heretic, that was extremely notorious in the past. If the sects knew about him having this much potential to grow, they definitely would imprison, possibly even killing him to prevent a future disaster to repeat itself.

Before Devlin could ruin this depressing mood, he saw out of the corner of his eye a name above the jackal. Immortal Anubis.

His eyes lit up and glanced over at the hound to see if the same thing happened.

Just as he predicted. Gatekeeper Cerberus.

These two names were very familiar to him as he had studied plenty of mythology and Egyptian History while being deployed to many places in the military.

Cerberus was known to be gatekeeper of Hell who let dead souls in, but never out. He was more of a weapon of hell itself.

Anubis was known to be the Lord of Hell, who was presumed to control whether one could reincarnate. He was like the Sands of Time, never fading.

Both of these phantoms seemed to correlate with each other. Devlin's eyes flashed with realization as he now understood a bit from the name of his phantoms.