Chapter 213: Escalation

Kaelen stared at the message for a long moment before he typed a reply.

Me: Don’t you think it’s too early to think you’ve won? Rejoice while you can because this will be the first and last time you’ll come this close to winning.

She replied almost immediately.

Empress Rime: I’d like to see you try. And oh, I learnt you ditched the final boss just so you could sell the information to other Heralds. You sure know your thing now, but you should’ve cleared the floor while you could.

Kaelen almost rolled his eyes.

Me: I had no idea that was even a thing until a few minutes ago. My Herald tricked me. Do you have any idea how much they made from it?

It was important to know because the Herald could just give him any amount and claim it was the 80% he had requested.

Empress Rime: Huh? It wasn’t an agreement between the two of you?

Me: No. I only learnt about it from someone else who happened to have purchased the information. I already confronted them and asked for my percentage.

Empress Rime: Your percentage? Hmm... okay.

Kaelen stared at her reply in confusion.

Me: What’s that supposed to mean? Am I not supposed to get a percentage of the profit?

Empress Rime: I guess so...

Kaelen frowned.

Me: What is it? Tell me.

Empress Rime: Your information was sold without any prior agreement or notice, and you only learnt of it through a fellow candidate who happened to have come across it somehow. Yet, what you’re asking for is a percentage of the profit, and y’all can call it a day? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like you aren’t as ruthless as I thought.

Kaelen frowned in confusion but didn’t reply immediately. He took a moment to think over what she’d said.

What was he supposed to do? He had asked for 80%, after all. Was there another way around it?

He thought about his reply for a moment before sending it.

Me: What was I supposed to do?

She replied almost immediately.

Empress Rime: You had the opportunity to make the biggest profit off a Herald, likely a member of one of the big families, and you chose to split the profit and settle it peacefully.

Your Herald’s actions were against the rules, and though it doesn’t call for their death, Kelsey will be willing to go the extra mile just to make their life miserable, especially after they tried reporting her to the Council of the Tower Masters last time.

So long as it involves profit, you might as well receive more than the entire profit itself. But I guess it’s totally understandable to want to play it safe if you’re scared of your Herald and don’t want to get on their bad side, like all weaklings do.

Kaelen’s expression turned ugly as he read through her message. He didn’t need an extra point to his intelligence to understand she was trying to rage-bait him into doing what she said.

She was trying to manipulate him, but at the same time, she was only looking out for him. But Kaelen didn’t need her manipulation to do just that because if he’d known earlier that he could benefit more from escalating the matter, he would’ve done just that before even confronting the Herald.

Me: I see what you did there. But thanks, I’ll do just that. Though it might take a while to reach Kelsey.

Empress Rime: I can help you with that. But don’t get your hopes up. The Herald Executioner might not like the Heralds, but she dislikes you more. She’s no different from the rest of them. So you should be cautious of her.

Kaelen was slightly surprised.

Me: Thanks for the heads-up.

Empress Rime: Anything for my hubby~.

Tch.

"She’s probably in the mood because she thinks she’s ahead now. There’s no guarantee she wouldn’t attempt the fourth floor tomorrow while I’m still stuck waiting for the third floor to reset."

"Such a setback."

"I wouldn’t waste any more time after the third floor. I’ll fast-pass the entire floor and go straight to the fourth floor after that, and keep ascending until I can’t climb any further.

"I’m a slime who seems to have forgotten his past. But I guess it’s time to start blowing shit up all the way."

"’But I guess it’s time to start blowing shit up all the way.’ Did I just hear that right? Do you realise how corny you sound talking to yourself like you’re some protagonist monologuing straight out of a hentai?"

Kaelen almost choked on his saliva as he snapped his head towards the mocking sound of Kelsey’s voice.

"You must read a lot of hentai to know what a protagonist from one sounds like," Kaelen shot back.

"Guilty," Kelsey admitted with a shameless smile that made Kaelen’s lips twitch. "I’ve been doing a lot of research on your world, and that is such a classic piece that enlightened me on why you behave in certain ways."

"I definitely do not have the same behavioural patterns as those fictional MCs—not that I’ve read one. And before you say another shameless thing, I’d like us to focus on why you’re here. Do you need me to give you a full statement on how physically, mentally, and emotionally abused I feel after fighting for my life, only for my Herald to sell the information to other lobbies after I specifically requested that it be kept discreet? I want nothing more than to maximise the profit and get full-time compensation, considering the trauma caused after my Herald decided to be the villain of my story."

Kelsey was taken aback for a moment before she smirked. "I got the memo quite alright, and though I don’t like you very much, Kaelen Cross, I have a score to settle with your Herald. So tell me, what’s the biggest amount of evolution points you’ve ever seen in your life? A million, ten billion, a hundred trillion?" she asked with a smirk.

"Why’d you stop at trillion? I make that much on a bad day. And a quadrillion? That’s barely enough for a single advancement. So tell me, how much do you think is the biggest amount of evolution points I’ve seen?" Kaelen asked with a faint smile.

Kelsey stared at him strangely for a long moment before she finally asked, "Did you just say a quadrillion is barely enough for a single advancement? Is that how much you spend on every evolutionary advancement?"

Kaelen was confused by her question, but before he could ask, her eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

"Don’t tell me you still upgrade all your evolutionary abilities before each advancement. How the hell did you make it to Tier 80, wasting so many evolution points at your age? You could’ve made it to Tier 500 by now."

"...What?"