Crimson Servant

Chapter 36 Preliminary Negotiation
  "You vicious...robot! You actually want to trick us into drinking something so evil!" Carl quickly handed the vial in his hand to John, holding the hilt of the sword in his right hand, as if he only wanted to hear Jenny VII spit out an evil language again. He will cut off her metal head with one sword.

The automaton didn't care about the threat from the Paladin. She placed her hand on the instrument table and touched the button with her nimble fingers to fill the flask with steam and liquid again.

"In my alchemy list, [Herbicide] is [Herbicide]. If you want to give it a different name and be afraid of it, I would say 'you are a foolish adventurer'. You can refuse to use it, just as far as pharmacology and Practically speaking, this is a magic medicine that curbs the vitality of tree mothers.”

"Reject it and die in this forest."

Jurgen looked at the automaton, pressed the stopper with his thumb and forefinger, and closed the open mouth of the bottle again.

"What is its effect? ​​Robot, and what are the side effects?"

"Jurgen?" The young paladin did not expect that the druid would accept it like this.

"[Herbicide] can provide an external influence effect that lasts for one hour after drinking. Ill-intelligent organisms within one meter will lose their lives, and the impact will deepen over time and eventually die..."

"What do you mean?" Karl looked like he wanted to eat someone.

John came forward to explain, "Low-intelligent organisms mean beings with low intelligence and low evolution. Cells that are not highly differentiated are more susceptible to withering and destruction by necromancy. This is a general term for organisms that have not evolved a brain, and does not refer to stupid humans." "

"...Oh...I'm just asking." The Paladin glanced to the side guiltily.

"Necromantic magic has an impact on humans and poses a greater threat to the environment. I think those Asht wizards will not consider equipping their food with thinking brains."

"The tree mother has no thinking ability. My master set up an automatic control device in its root system to adjust plant hormones to control growth. There should be something abnormal with that device now, but the device that drives the tree mother's self-defense The mechanism is still there.”

"Then if we destroy that thing, we can reduce its aggressiveness." Lightning was happy to have found the weakness. As an archer, he likes to stand in a safe area and hit with a fatal blow.

"No, it will go berserk." Jenny VII dismissed Lightning's dream, "The controller is still restricting the growth of the tree mother to a low degree. Without it, the infinite vitality of the master's creation will occupy every inch of space. The mother tree’s roots will strangle us all and overrun Optittam.”

The horrific scene described by Jenny VII caused several people to fall into silence, and Karl quietly walked to John.

"Are all mages not afraid of death? Why do they raise such dangerous things?"

"They are driven by a greedy thirst for knowledge, and they are arrogant enough to think that they can control everything. Mages always run on two roads, either towards mediocrity or towards destruction. Asht mages are not mediocre, so they destroy. "

Jurgen only felt a swelling and pain in his head. He put the medicine bottle in his hand against his temple and felt a little bit of coolness.

"Okay, there are also the side effects of the undead potion. We will help you clean up the plants only if we are alive."

"I don't know." Jenny VII said coldly, "There are no actual examples of living people drinking it. I can only speculate based on the medicinal properties of the raw materials used. It may cause short-term changes in appearance, which is not irreversible, just like It won't kill you permanently either. The essence of death will spread and kill the plant, and the amount accumulated in the body will continue to decrease."

Jurgen stroked his beard and thought, "The possible problem is the sequelae left by the dark power in the body, such as physical weakness and coldness, which is acceptable."

"That beast," Jenny VII pointed at the paladin Karl, "you'd better pay attention. He has some similarities with [Herbicidal Water], which usually provokes some interesting reactions." Karl heard the automaton's voice The sound made his body feel cold, and he stared back without showing any signs of weakness.

"Thanks for the reminder, we will pay attention."

What Jenny VII said made John more curious about the ingredients of [Herbicide], and he used the goodwill he had accumulated before to get the answer from the automaton.

"Death Essence, Fallen Breath..."

John turned back to observe the expressions of his companions. Lightning and Carl had not changed. Jurgen may have realized it, but the dwarf pretended not to care.

John knew the mage's bottom line clearly. There is a sentence hanging at the entrance to the tower of Mage Anonis's Academy of the Necromantic Faction: Knowledge stops at morality. Just as the advancement of medicine relies heavily on corpses, the development of necromancy factions is roughly the same. Essence of death, aura of corruption...these are just good names. The real name should be corpse oil made from human bones and body fragments of the undead.

This knowledge is only spread on a small scale among some necromancy schools. As for the reason why John knew it, it was because a certain Anonis mage was too diligent and adhered to the academy's creed, and his excessive concentration of evil attracted the Veltis magician.

"Then how do we contain the tree mother? You must know the method, doll."

Jenny VII needed the adventurer to complete this task, so she gave the information without any concealment.

"Cut off her source of nutrition, and the arcane sun ignited by the magic power collected by Optitdan. Originally, the arcane sun hung in the center of the third layer, giving the plants solar energy. But now the tree mother is out of control, and her branches and leaves have destroyed the arcane sun. If you want to shut down the Arcane Sun, you have to face the Tree Mother. You must enter the core area, but you don't have to worry about the brilliance of the Arcane Sun. In essence, it is a more dazzling source of mana. "

Jenny VII realized that this team of adventurers might be the only one with a chance of completing the commission, and the dolls who understood the nature of these explorers added a bargaining chip.

She clicked a few buttons on the operating table. The central instrument table was separated to both sides, and the alchemy instruments were moved to one side. The metal device on the other side was driven by gears and transformed into a furnace with blue light and electric arc in the furnace mouth.

"If you complete my commission, I can make an exception and give you a chance to use the etching furnace, such as recasting the barbarian's armor. I saw the unmemorized metal ingot hidden in his clothes, which is from the Jenny series. Exclusive product. Only this furnace in Optitdam and even the entire world can bring out the true properties of those metals."

Team Sun's eyes lit up. The lack of equipment to repair armor was indeed a big problem they were facing now. Unexpectedly, Jenny VII not only provided a solution, but also offered an irresistible reward. With the special and exclusive magic equipment, everyone heard Karl's heavy breathing. It was most likely not because he was angry at being called a barbarian.

"We require the use of the furnace in advance. This is related to the possibility of completing the commission. With better equipment, we will be able to better deal with the tree mother." John made a rational suggestion. He was not unable to move after seeing the equipment. That kind of person, he is a refined egoist who values ​​efficiency. If the Sun Team had eliminated the Tree Mother, they would probably have gone straight down to the lower level without hindering their goals, and no one would have time to return to the workshop.

What's more, the automaton cannot deceive, but it can conceal it. Just because the automatons can't break the contract doesn't mean they're willing to complete the deal fairly. The prerequisite for the smooth conversation between Team Sun and Jenny VII is that the tree mother, the magical creation that invaded the third floor, is still alive. When the tree mother dies, no one knows whether Jenny VII, who has regained control of this place, will choose to eliminate these invading adventurers.

John's proposal was rejected by Jenny VII without any surprise. The automaton would not accept the adventurers taking the reward before everything started. She never believed in these humans who were good at deception. The automaton believed that it had made a huge concession by negotiating calmly with these adventurers. It did not summon arcane guards to crush them entirely because of insufficient energy.

There were differences of opinion, and John was enlightened by Jenny VII's unwavering coldness.

My Mariana-style persuasion and negotiation has reached its limit.

Now we have to start the intimidation negotiation that Francis is best at.

(End of this chapter)