Chapter 122 – The Neutral Party

“Really… enough already! Can’t old Bahanger just happily forge in peace? Why do these bastards keep disturbing me one after another?!”

An angry roar suddenly erupted in the forging room, the dwarf’s rough voice causing the iron door to vibrate incessantly.

The reason for Bahanger’s fury was that while he was fully concentrated on forging the nearly-completed mithril, he once again sensed a Formal-Level powerhouse arriving outside his door.

Just two days ago he had sent away some foolish Noble, yesterday it was a chatterbox ranger, and today here came a mysterious mage. Had they turned his home into some kind of NPC hut?

The repeatedly interrupted Bahanger nearly exploded on the spot, his Battle Aura already beginning to coat his hammer. However, the powerhouse standing outside gave Bahanger a faint sense of threat, so he suppressed his rage and violently slammed the door open.

The iron door crashed against the wall with a loud “BANG!”, shaking dust loose from the eaves to fall in scattered streams.

Outside stood a hooded young man wearing a black Mage Robe with crimson patterns, holding an emerald green staff, followed by a tall figure completely wrapped in burlap robes, faintly emanating a chilling aura.

This visiting youth was none other than Punk!

Punk was somewhat surprised by Bahanger’s attitude. With such major events happening in Doleiz City, there must be many people visiting the city’s guardian – Bahanger. Yet not only was this dwarf impatient, he clearly remained indifferent to Doleiz City’s suffering. This indicated that the dwarf before him was completely different from the kind, Lawful-aligned type he had imagined!

Indeed, though Doleiz City was in grave danger, Bahanger still focused solely on his forging, turning a blind eye. This sufficiently demonstrated that moral appeals would be useless. So Punk simply didn’t bother with appeals to righteousness, instead laying out both the benefits and his purpose directly.

“Greetings, Bahanger. Interested in exploring some quite valuable secret treasure? After success, anything related to Combat Skills goes to you, anything spell-related goes to me. Since I’m providing the intelligence, we’ll split wealth gains sixty-forty.”

Punk didn’t even mention Doleiz City’s affairs. He could already tell this dwarf was a neutral-aligned professional. Being neutral-aligned himself, Punk well understood how neutrals operated – simply put, everything revolved around benefit. Attempting moral coercion with national righteousness was meaningless. Not because neutrals disliked moral coercion, but because they disliked lack of benefit. Thus Punk framed their alliance as a transaction of interests from the start, since among neutral alignments, cooperation based on benefit is most reliable.

Hearing Punk’s “frank” discussion of benefits, Bahanger indeed stopped maintaining his foul expression. With keen interest he asked:

“What secret treasure? Tell me about it!”

“You should know about Doleiz City’s recent plague. According to my investigation, the mastermind behind this incident is a Formal-Level professional named Tisha Xia’er…”

“Wait wait wait, isn’t Tisha Xia’er some deity? She’s even established a Church, how can she only be Formal-Level?”

The dwarf hastily interrupted Punk’s explanation to ask.Punk put on a helpless expression and said:

“This very point is the secret worth investigating. Besides, after dealing with this Tisha Xia’er, there’s all the wealth of a level fourteen professional. Don’t tell me you’re not tempted.”

Punk clearly expressed his conjecture about the secret, as it was bait to lure the dwarf warrior into taking the hook. However, he didn’t elaborate on his speculation, because only by keeping Bahanger in the dark could the dwarf fearlessly take the lead as cannon fodder.

After hearing Punk’s words, Bahanger fell into deep thought. Although he had shown no concern since the plague began, that didn’t mean he was completely ignorant of everything. Thus, he knew what Punk said was likely true. Though he couldn’t guess how Tisha Xia’er managed to absorb faith, even a fool would know such methods must hold tremendous value. To be honest, the dwarf warrior was indeed covetous.

Under Punk’s profound gaze, Bahanger was almost ready to agree. He could feel the fiery blood of adventure burning and surging through his veins once again.

But… in the end, Bahanger sighed and said somewhat helplessly:

“I won’t lie, I’m really tempted to check out this treasure. But I made a promise to protect the Heide Family with all my strength. We of the Heavy Hammer Clan value our promises above all. Doleiz City is too chaotic right now—I can’t leave.”

After speaking, Bahanger turned back dejectedly to his forging table, staring blankly at the gleaming mithril.

Watching Bahanger’s despondent figure, Punk slightly furrowed his brow.

He could tell Bahanger was speaking the truth. This dwarf clearly belonged to the neutral lawful alignment and cared deeply about his promises. Thus, for the sake of that so-called Heide Family’s safety, even if offered a piece of legendary equipment directly, he wouldn’t abandon the Heide Family. Many Formal-Level strong individuals of the lawful alignment had their own persistent “obsessions,” which couldn’t be shaken by mere interests.

Punk didn’t waste more words. He just gave Bahanger a deep look before calmly turning to leave.

This situation wasn’t entirely unexpected. Back on the road, he had guessed part of it from the vague information in his divination spell, which was why he had set up contingency measures on Kaiskaser—specifically to deal with people like Bahanger who “honor their promises.”

Now it seemed this backup plan would indeed need to be activated.

Leaving the dim forging room, Punk stepped onto the street. The setting sun cast a golden sheen over the road. Most citizens of Doleiz moved hurriedly. Since traces of Tisha Xia’er’s followers had reappeared, Doleiz City had declared a curfew. Many were beginning to sense that this sudden plague was intricately linked to the equally sudden emergence of the Tisha Xia’er Church. So, even if they didn’t voice it, both commoners and lower nobles had grown wary of anyone bearing the spider badge.

Most people on the street walked in groups, making Punk—striding alone down the center of the road—exceptionally conspicuous.

“In that case, if anyone intends to make a deal, they should probably show themselves now.”Punk quietly cast a Divination Spell. This time, the spell’s revelation was relatively clear—the core ingredient needed for his next batch of Activation Potion would come from the Noble who had sought him out on their own initiative.

So Punk decided to act more boldly, testing whether the other party dared to discuss matters openly on the street while also probing whether the Heide Family of Doleiz City had truly lost so much power that they no longer even maintained basic intelligence networks.

Whether Doleiz remained unified or became fragmented would affect Punk’s contingency plans, making it necessary to investigate the situation.

As it turned out, the one who approached Punk first was indeed not from the Heide Family, but…

(End of Chapter)