The Martial Unity

Rui understood the entirety of what Commissioner Reze was getting at and more with just a single hint.

"So in Chairman Deacon's mind, the way that the Voider has operated, colluding with Guildmaster Bradt and not using any backer's power as a deterrence, is a very strong indication that the Voider is an independent entity that found a winning strategy," Rui continued. "He has plenty of reasons to think that the Voider has zero foreign backings, especially not a bigshot like the Kandrian Martial Union. The Kandrian Martial Union would openly declare the Voider as one of its own to prevent anybody from messing with the Voider. Barring the three other powerhouse nations, nobody has the balls to pick a fight with the Kandrian Martial Union."

"Correct," The man nodded. "Not just that, but the fact that the Martial Union has materially suffered at the expense of the Voider's dominant success is also a strong reason to not doubt the Martial Union's interests and commitment. Chairman Deacon believes that we would never support the Voider while incurring such lackluster success ourselves, the best part is that he is correct, we would never have done such a thing. It is simply highly suboptimal and detrimental to us, and thus not our style, we would never have conceived of such a plan."

He gave Rui a gentle but pointed look.

"I'm not liable. It's not my fault you're unable to keep up," Rui shook his head. "Send stronger Martial Squires next time."

Commissioner Reze laughed in response. "Only someone like you has the capital to rightfully say that. Your absurd success has put even our finest grade-ten Martial Squires to success. Frankly, we're still curious as to how you're able to perform such amazing feats in the Shionel Dungeon. Would you be interested in divulging your techniques, strategies, and tactics to us? We will remunerate you appropriately for such valuable means to traverse the Shionel Dungeon."

"You would not be able to use the most crucial parts of our modus operandi, I promise," Rui replied.

He was also unwilling to sell his winning formula to others even if they could replicate it, it was the means by which he intended to fulfill his objective, and giving to the Martial Union would not only make his job harder, it would make him less valuable since they would be able to replicate his success on a larger scale.

"That's a shame," Commissioner Reze commented, not pursuing it any further. "But that's beside the main point. Regarding the agreement, I trust you have no more issues?"

Rui wanted to object, but he had no more principal objections, at most they would haggle over the details. He had to admit that it was a sound proposal that benefited both parties significantly. His challenge was limited to the Shionel Dungeon and the hurdles that lay within. He had not intended to challenge himself in the political domain, certainly not to challenge himself against an alliance that contained tons of powerful forces all looking to hunt him.

It would benefit him greatly if he could leave that part to the Martial Union's assuring capabilities.

"Alright," he sighed. "I tentatively accept your offer, but we still need to have out all the details. I refuse to go in blind. Exactly what proportion of the harvest are you looking to get?"

"Well, we were considering fifty percent of the total haul," Commissioner Reze stated.

Rui almost burst out laughing at the absurd amount that the man cited.

The fact that he demanded such a high amount for some basic sabotage was absolutely hilarious.

The money that Rui earned from his harvests was not low. The esoteric substances harvested from the Shionel Dungeon were sold in milligrams because of how expensive and valuable they were. Rui routinely dragged out gigantic boulders of pure esoteric ore deposits. He was earning major shares of what was essentially the equivalent of a major multi-billion dollar industry in this world.

Fifty percent of that was simply far greater than what he was getting back. However, the biggest issue was not Rui's desire for wealth, the greatest factor was that he was already giving fifty percent of the wealth to Bradt Distribution Services. He could not give the remaining to the Martial Union even if he wanted because he needed it to fund the sheer expenses of his dimensional storage ring which required a huge amount of wealth to sustain. If not for the fact that he was earning gigantic amounts of wealth, he would not be able to sustain regular use of the dimensional storage ring due to how much energy it cost.

He couldn't give away all of it even if he wanted.

"The services the Martial Union are providing materially are not worth more than ten percent and I'm sure you know that," Rui snorted.

"Perhaps," The man did not deny Rui's words. "However, I'm sure you realize that the reason we are demanding so much is that you need these basic services you claim are only worth ten percent. That increases their value, and our bargaining strength."

Rui could not deny those words. He did want them a lot even if he didn't explicitly need them, in comparison, he did not mind if he was slightly less filthy rich than he currently was.

"Still, I cannot give you fifty percent, it is actually impossible due to reasons I cannot specify. You can think of it as me possessing only fifty percent of what I harvest, monetarily speaking I think fifteen percent is appropriate," Rui replied.

"Forty percent," Commissioner Reze lowered his precise.

"Twenty percent,"

"Thirty,"

"Twenty-five," Rui retorted. "And that's my absolute limit, I'd be making close to less than the Martial Union if I go any lower."

Commissioner Reze nodded, agreeing to the matter. "Twenty-five percent it is, then. We can work with that."

"You mentioned other conditions, did you not?" Rui recalled. "What exactly are they?"

"Ah, well, really we have one condition. We would like for you to avoid supplying esoteric resources to these Kandrian Empire-based companies." He reached his hand out to his secretary, who pulled a document and passed it on to him.