Game of the World Tree

▪️YOU HAVE NO INTEGRITY!

After receiving the promise from the female elf, all the human mercenaries reluctantly took off their equipments under Berus’ command and following the Black Dragon’s instructions, placed them all together in one huge pile.

As a result, they were only left with simple coarse cloth underwear whilst shivering in the cold night wind of the canyon…

After every mercenaries took off their equipments, Belus was surprised when he noticed several tall figures suddenly emerged from within the distance. He squinted his eyes and found that these newcomers turned out to be several more elves!

They were dressed in gorgeous equipment and ran over excitedly towards the pile, before joyfully taking away all the equipments that the mercenaries had taken off.

The mercenaries were flabbergasted at the mere sight of these elves checking the pile in a. What’s more, their greedy expressions became even more conspicuous as they eyed Berus’ robe and staff, as well as the mercenary captain’s silver long sword as if they’re gonna fight each other as to who would take these equipments.

Judging by their proficiency of sorting and picking up the equipments, one could easily tell that these elves had done similar things countless times, as if they’re seasoned robbers.

Their manic expressions were like those of uncouth bandits, lacking any sort of the elegance and refinement that’s typically associated with elvenkind.

Belus “…..”

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, thinking he must have seen it wrong.

Was this really the expression that an elf should have?

For some reason, he suddenly felt uneasy.

Are these people actually from another race and they’re just using a disguise to mask themselves as elves?

Belus narrowed his eyes and secretly cast an appraisal spell, but the feedback he got was that they are indeed from the elven race…

If its not a disguise then perhaps, an illusion instead?

He rubbed his temples in frustration.

Regardless of the growing unease within his heart, his mind reasoned that the elves were still the most trustworthy sentient race. They wouldn’t have the capacity to scam other people.

As long as he followed what they’d agreed on, the elf would definitely convince the Black Dragon!

Belus persuaded himself within his mind.

He was sure of it since he had personally dealt with elves a lot before.

Although most of the time they were in opposition, he very well knew about their integrity.

It’s a widely known fact that elves never knew deception!

They would definitely do what they had promised!

Moreover, as the kindest and most life-loving sentient race within Saigües, the elves would not let the Black Dragon harm them just as long as they admit defeat.

Even if they were enemies to each other!

Similar things like these had been proven countless times in the past.

This kind of near-pathological stubbornness of the elves had even become the most effective weapon for humans in dealing with these long eared folks.

“Lord Belus… they have completely taken our things away.”

At this time, a low voice came over to report to his side.

Belus turned his head and saw that the speaker was the accompanying mercenary captain, a powerful golden-haired swordsman of middle silver rank.

The swordsman’s expression appeared unwilling as he gazed at his own long sword, which had been taken away.

Belus curtly nodded to him while sporting an apologetic expression.

“Captain, I’m sorry, this happened suddenly….after everything is over, the household will compensate you for any losses you incurred.”

After hearing his explanation, the captain closed his eyes and reluctantly accepted it.

Belus breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the Black Dragon.

“We’ve now taken off all our equipment. The goods are in the ruins next to that tall tower, and the elves are locked up in the dungeon of the tower…”

“Now that our deal is done……we can leave, right?”

Silence.

“….Leave?”

Upon hearing Belus’ words, the Black Dragon, Meryer, grinned and bared his fearsome teeth.

“Since when did this lord ever said that he would let you go?”

Upon hearing this, Belus’ face darkened instantly.

“Dragon! Don’t you go too far!”

He then looked at female elf riding on the back of the Black Dragon.

“Miss Elf, you just promised us.”

Upon hearing Belus’ words, Li’l Salty Cat nodded innocently.

“Yes, right! Don’t worry…we shall keep our promises!”

She then giggled and added,

“But just so you guys know, we didn’t break our promise! Didn’t you remember what Meryer’s exact words were earlier?”

She coughed a few times and imitated Meryer’s tone of voice.

“You guys don’t need to cut off your hands anymore but instead, just give me all your treasures and the captive elves, plus you must hand over all your weapons and equipment as well.”

Li’l Salty Cat then nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and mischievously stick out her tongue at the corner of her lips.

“We never said that we would let you guys go~ Didn’t we already established that beforehand?”

Belus “……”

After listening to Li’l Salty Cat’s response that’s riddled with mischievous mockery, the veins around the old mage’s forehead started to throb in a frenzied manner as his face turned red just like a volcano that’s about to explode.

Seems like they really didn’t have any intention to let their caravan go…

But…isn’t it too shameless!?

They were just deceiving them all along!?

Belus’ face became extremely livid whilst all his pent-up anger finally exploded, disregarding all proper decorum as he infuriatingly stomped his feet and pointed his finger accusingly towards the female elf.

“Y-Yo-YOU!!!…You little shit! This is extortion! You’ve broken your damn promise you shitty elf! Do you still have the honor of your silver race!?”

Little Salty Cat simply rolled her eyes, completely unfazed by the tirade being hurled at her.

“Broken my promise?” She reiterated with the same mocking tone before adding, “When did I break my promise? If there’s anyone to blame then its you, the one who didn’t carefully checked our terms before agreeing.”

Belus “……”

“YOU!!…You have no integrity!! How can you be so shameless!? Can you even consider yourself an elf with that kind of credibility!?”

He looked at little Salty Cat with apoplectic anger.

What kind of bizarre elf is this?

Didn’t she belong to the most honest and trustworthy race in all of Saigües?

Is she really an elf?

Belus’ heart was entirely filled with uneasiness.

They were already at a disadvantage initially, and now with all of their equipments gone, they’re practically nothing more than a harmless crop for the Black Dragon to harvest.

Damn it! How could he make such a rookie mistake! He actually believed the enemy’s words!

If he had known that he’d be shamelessly hoodwinked like this, then he might’ve as well ordered everyone to break out in the first place!

But who knew that these elves would really be so untrustworthy!?

It doesn’t make sense at all!

They’re……they’re elves for f**ks sake!

The pinnacle of integrity that they would even rather choose ruination rather than change their righteous ways.

As Belus fumed with anger, the chatbox of Little Salty Cat’s live stream was entirely filled with players’ joyful comments that cascaded endlessly.

“Ah, this NPC has too low IQ…definitely wasted his life lol.”

“Yeah, how can he believe the enemy’s words?”

“What a noob.”

“Hahaha! Now he’s confused, right?”

“Lmao times have changed! Old man!”

“Hmph! Evil must be punished, no matter what method is used!”

Meryer raised his head with an air of righteousness.

At this moment, several players who had just left to secure the stolen goods finally came back with each of them fully armed with the stolen equipments while looking at the barely naked mercenaries with smug expressions.

Little Salty Cat felt a li’l bit embarrassed by their completely uncouth appearance and villainous behavior…

But…who would hide their emotions when playing a game anyways?

And this time, these NPCs are the enemies unlike the friendly NPCs from Florence, so they didn’t need to consider their image at all.

At this moment, these players were simply overjoyed!

It should also be noted that there was no reward for perfect resurrection upon completing this quest.

Initially, they were still worried they would lose out if someone died during the battle.

And if they relied solely on the Black Dragon’s help, the equipment of the enemies they killed would have been burned by the dragon’s breath.

But who knew that Little Salty Cat could easily fooled the enemies with a few words, and these humans had really taken off all their equipments!

Without their equipments, these smugglers were just like tigers without any teeth.

Other than those two silver-ranked experts, the other mercenaries were probably not their match at all!

As for the two silver experts…well, just leave them to the Black Dragon to deal with!

This sidequest was simply too easy!

His expression changed slightly as Belus watched the increasingly unpleasant expressions of the Black Dragon and the strange elves who are slowly surrounding him.

But soon, he calmed down his raging emotions.

He saw the female elf on the back of the black dragon and forced himself to remain calm and said, “Hmph… Elves, your real goal is to rescue your companions, right?”

“Hehe, if you don’t want your companions to be in danger then it’s best to let us go since my subordinates are still inside the tower!”

“Danger?” The players looked at each other and burst into laughter again. “Hahaha! He actually said that Boss Box would be in danger?”

“Hehe… It’s your men who are in danger, idiot!”

“Our captain is a tough guy who can single-handedly take down level twenty mobs in the wilderness!”

...What does that actually mean?

Berus’ eyebrows twitched.

Just then, the gate of the tower was suddenly kicked open, and several members of the caravan ran out with blood upon their faces.

They looked entirely panic stricken and shouted while they run as if something abominable was chasing after them.

“H-Help… HELP!”

“What’s going on?” Belus turned back instinctively and frowned.

One of the caravan members ran up to him and said anxiously, “Dead… dead… they’re all dead… he killed them all!”

…He?

Belus was slightly stunned.

Soon, he saw a tall figure rushing out of the tower…

It was a male elf with dark gray hair.

He was holding a dagger that was still dripping with blood, and his clothes were also stained with the same red liquid.

His breath was erratic, as if he had just broken through, and his expression was distinctly cold and indifferent.

It was Boxlunch.

What a strong killing intent!

Is this… an intermediate iron-ranked elven hunter?

Berus’ expression tightened.

After Boxlunch came out, Belus did not see any more of his subordinates fleeing out from the tower…

This made him feel a lump in his heart.

Wait a minute… there were still more than ten people left in the tower, right?

This… could it be…

He looked at Boxlunch, who was emitting a thick killing intent, and his pupils shrank in disbelief.

He…did it alone?

How is that possible?!

When the players participating in the quest saw Boxlunch, each of their expressions brightened up as they waved their arms towards him.

“The captain is here!”

“Hahaha! The captured elves must have been saved already!”

“No more messing around guys, let’s go and finish this sidequest quickly!”

“Haha! Don’t believe the enemy’s nonsense in your next life!”

“Hehe, I wonder if killing these mercenaries will get us more experience points…”

After speaking, they each drew their own weapons and rushed excitedly towards the mercenaries who had already removed their equipments.

Meanwhile high above the skies, the black dragon, Meryer, let out an excited roar and spewed dragon breath towards the two unlucky silver-rank experts…