Chapter 85 – Elinka's Reward

Since those disguises and lies had become completely meaningless to Punk, Elinka simply began to plead directly, trying persuasion and playing the moral card.

“Respected Master Mage, this matter might be a terrible conspiracy against Dolez City. A righteous Master Mage surely wouldn’t sit idly by and watch such terrible evil spread unchecked, right? The 150,000 citizens of Dolez City are in mortal danger. It’s just a pity that the Doctore Family lacks sufficient power to make any contribution to Dolez City. If you could help Dolez City resolve this matter, you would surely gain the friendship of all the people of Dolez City and the Doctore Family.”

Elinka pleaded with Punk using the most sincere tone possible, not only forcibly connecting this matter to justice and goodness, but also dragging in Dolez City, which had nothing to do with it. This moral blackmail performance by a “desperate poor girl” could be said to be tactful, reasonable, and difficult to refuse – it would definitely work on those hot-blooded youths from the good alignment.

Unfortunately, Punk didn’t buy into this approach.

Although this boring moral blackmail was nothing but a complete joke to Punk, this interesting “Spider Cave” made Punk very interested!

The most valuable thing was undoubtedly the “inheritance” of Elinka’s grandfather, that formal mage!

After Punk repeatedly used divination spells to confirm, Elinka’s grandfather had indeed disappeared in the Spider Cave, and with formal mage-level divination spell investigation, some specific intelligence actually couldn’t be obtained, which itself proved the involvement of formal-level power.

When a formal mage goes out adventuring, not to mention whether he discovered any treasures or whether he carried precious magic books or notes with him, just the equipment on his body would definitely not be insignificant. Even a mage “newcomer” like Punk had a golem by his side – no matter how poor that 11th-level mage was, he wouldn’t go out “naked” to battle, right?

So, with the missing mage’s inheritance as temptation, exploring the Spider Cave was already very attractive to Punk in terms of benefits.

Even setting aside the benefits, this event that clearly involved formal-level power suddenly appearing near Punk without any prior signs – who would believe it wasn’t a conspiracy?

How could one allow others to sleep peacefully beside one’s bed? No matter what, Punk couldn’t possibly ignore this “great hidden danger” brewing freely beside him. Who knew if the enemy would suddenly come knocking after they were prepared? So from the perspective of eliminating hidden dangers, the Spider Cave expedition was also very necessary.

But… whether he would take action was one thing, and whether to fleece this fat sheep that had delivered itself to his door was another matter entirely.

Punk slightly narrowed his eyes as he observed Elinka, who was clearly showing signs of anxiety and unease. He had always firmly believed in one principle – the wealth of nobles was like water in a sponge; as long as you squeezed hard enough, there would always be some. Now sitting across from him was an anxious noble, so how could he live up to his title of “sponge-squeezing expert” (what the hell?) if he didn’t drain her completely dry?

Having made up his mind to extort this noble, although Punk had already decided to explore the Spider Cave, on the surface he pretended to be completely uninterested, saying expressionlessly to Elinka:

“I’m very sorry, Miss Elinka. Although I very much want to save the people of Dolez City from fire and water, I’m currently busy with a very important experiment and really don’t have time to go adventuring in the Spider Cave. However, as someone who takes eliminating evil as my duty, I won’t ignore this matter either. Let me think… Hmm! Perhaps I can spare some time in thirty years, and then I’ll definitely go back and completely destroy that evil cave!”

Punk didn’t immediately deny Elinka’s words. He just casually used a delaying tactic, pushing the entire matter back thirty years in one breath. For a formal mage with an extremely long lifespan, thirty years was just a small number, and delaying such a “little” time was nothing unreasonable.

The subtext of Punk’s words was also very clear!

I am indeed interested in this Spider Cave, that’s true, but if you can’t come up with considerable compensation, then I can very well wait thirty years before going on this adventure. After all, your grandfather’s “inheritance” won’t grow legs and run away. For my lifespan, thirty years is completely worth waiting for – I just don’t know if you can wait that long!

Faced with Punk’s calm “honesty,” how could Elinka, as the Family Head of the Doctore Family, not understand the subtext in these words? So Elinka didn’t continue with futile arguments. She knew that if she couldn’t produce “compensation,” this seemingly young but actually cold and ruthless mage in front of her would absolutely not help.

The White Tower fell quiet for a moment, with only poor Hotte on the experiment table occasionally letting out a few groans and wails that no one cared about. Punk calmly watched the conflicted and silent Elinka, and both of them sat quietly at the dining table without saying a word.

The silent standoff lasted a full thirty seconds. Elinka, her cheeks flushed red, seemed to have made some kind of decision. She took out a pink handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her forehead, her pearly white teeth gently biting her lower lip.

Under Punk’s amused gaze, Elinka slowly stood up and walked in front of Punk.

Her dress seemed to have some kind of mechanism already set up. She gently pulled a ribbon, and the entire gorgeous noble gown slowly fell to the ground, revealing Elinka’s body underneath, which wore no clothing at all.

At this point, her meaning was already very obvious.

“Master Mage…”

Elinka’s voice was so low it was almost inaudible.

But Punk still calmly watched Elinka’s blushing face, his eyes showing no ripples, as if standing before him wasn’t a beautiful and sexy young woman, but just an… ordinary “body.”

Punk picked up the tea on the table and took a sip without any unusual expression.

“Miss Elinka, if your so-called sincerity is merely this… then I have to say – the Doctore Family has truly disappointed me!”

Punk gave a completely cold response to Elinka’s actions. This woman’s scheme was far too insulting to his intelligence!

For Punk, who was wholeheartedly pursuing power and knowledge, he had no interest in wasting time on meaningless mating activities. Moreover, if he really had relations with Elinka, the formal mage Punk-Saian would be “defaulted” as the protector of the Doctore Family. Then not only would he not get the “benefits” he had originally envisioned, but he would also have to spend time and energy solving the big trouble of the Spider Cave for free, while the Doctore Family would get a powerful backer for nothing. How stupid would someone have to be to accept such a deal for boring mating desires?

Hearing Punk’s response, Elinka looked at Punk as if she were looking at a monster, even forgetting to put her clothes back on.

She absolutely couldn’t believe that after making up her mind to offer herself, not only was she not “accepted,” but she was even ruthlessly mocked! Good heavens! Were these mages crazy, or was this world crazy!

It wasn’t until she had stood there naked for more than ten seconds that Elinka confirmed she truly had no attraction whatsoever to Punk. Although the butler had speculated about this possibility based on mages’ temperaments before she came, when she actually encountered it, even though Elinka had some psychological preparation, she couldn’t help but stand there stunned.

In another awkward atmosphere, Elinka blushed as she slowly put her dress back on. For the first time, she felt like a pitiful courtesan who thought she could sell herself for a good price, but in reality, no one thought she was worth looking at.

Elinka, who had returned to her seat at the dining table, took a long time to calm her mixed emotions. However, she finally confirmed that without substantial benefits, the Doctore Family couldn’t possibly hire this “great deity” Punk.

After staring at Punk, whose face was mostly hidden in the shadow of his hood, for a while, Elinka finally sighed helplessly. The desperate girl could only hold onto her last bit of hope and throw out the final card that the Doctore Family could offer!

Recently, collections have decreased, and I’m feeling quite sad. Please give more collection votes, everyone.

Thanks to book friend Gathic for the 1000 starting coins reward.

(End of Chapter)