"Hmmm?" Liam frowned at first, but then his lips unexpectedly curled up to reveal a cunning smile. The woman had just spoken. What she said wasn't as important as the fact that she only spoke. Because… this meant that she could only speak!
What would a powerful being do when they are truly angry? They had their own pride and ego, so they wouldn't bother talking to someone insignificant in their eyes, like Liam. Even the old elf had thrashed him around every chance he had gotten.
The fact that this woman didn't do any of that and simply shouted out a few words in a shrill voice implied that she was only capable of doing that much. This was good news! This was huge news!
After hearing her yell in anger, Liam became even more confident as he started pulling the souls faster and faster.
When the chained-up woman saw this, her already ugly face changed into something even more unsightly. Liam did not look like he was going to respond to her or pay heed to her words, so she became more frantic.
"Bastard! Stop it! Stop it right this instant! Otherwise, I will make you die a death that you will regret for all eternity!" The woman screamed at the top of her lungs, each of her words packing a powerful, terrifying aura capable of inducing fear in men's hearts.
"I will peel your skin off, cook your flesh while you are still alive, and feed you to the dogs!"
"I will hunt down your mother, father, brother, and sister, and kill all generations of your family after torturing them for an eternity!"
"Mark my words! You will never see the light of day! You will die in this fort just like all of these miserable creatures in front of you."
…
…
…
While the lady in chains continued raging on and on, Luna, who was standing a few feet away from all of this, couldn't help but wonder. Just what the hell was going on? Who was causing all of this ruckus and being rude to my master?
[Master, should I come over?] She quickly asked Liam in her mind, but he immediately responded with a 'No.' The woman was clearly after powerful beast souls, and he did not want to risk exposing Luna.
Thankfully, it looked like the fox's presence had not yet been noticed. This only confirmed Liam's theory that the prisoner's powers were extremely limited.
She might be someone very terrifying and powerful, but right now she was merely a snake without fangs. This was why he was very careful not to enter the room, and now he knew for a fact that her powers were limited outside this threshold.
"Perfect." Liam soon finished gobbling up the next wyvern as well. The woman stared at him in disbelief, also panting slightly. She had screamed at him all sorts of taunts and threw the weight of her aura around left and right, but nothing was working!
"Stop it. That's enough. I need the souls. Just leave the souls. I can offer you other things." Her voice was very hoarse now after continuously shouting. The stick was clearly not useful, so she resorted to the carrot.
"Look here. Look at this mountain of treasures. In exchange for the souls, you can have any three items from this pile. Anything at all that piques your interest. I give you my word."
Finally! Now we are starting to play ball! But Liam did not respond to her again. He only silently rolled his eyes again. Three items? That was not nearly enough to compensate for these powerful creatures.
He shoved the last of the wyvern's soul into the black bead and proceeded to move on to the next wyvern calmly. There was now only one more wyvern left for him to absorb.
The woman's eyes reddened in anger as she saw the human being completely ignore her. "Fine, you can take four items, no you can have five items." She tried to bargain.
Unfortunately for her, everything only fell on deaf ears. Nothing she offered was moving Liam at all, at least outwardly.
On the inside, Liam was sweating profusely. He knew this was a dangerous game he was playing but his gut instinct told him to keep pushing her.
He was the one who had the upper hand here. All the leverage lay with him. Otherwise, this mysterious powerful person wouldn't be pleading with him this pitifully.
Let me see how far you are ready to go. Liam had a feeling that if he pushed this woman just enough maybe he could get all of these treasures.
And the next second, just that happened. Seeing that Liam was greedily trying to absorb the last two wyvern souls as well, the woman gnashed her teeth and offered up everything.
"You can take everything. I will give you my word. I won't lay a finger on you. You can come in and collect all the treasure heaped up here."
Liam couldn't help but slightly falter after hearing this. This was what he had been waiting for, the full offer!
However… this seemed too good to be true?
Especially the part where the woman promised not to harm him all on her own. Shouldn't he be the one negotiating something like this? Why did it feel as if this was too easy? Everything had gone just as he had expected, and this was a bit unsettling.
Liam did not stop and once again continued absorbing the wyvern soul, but this time he gave a curt reply to the woman. "Why don't you make that kid deliver all the items outside this room? Then we can talk more."
"What!" The woman shivered in anger. She had willingly gotten to this point, and yet this guy was continuing to press on her nerves. "You can come in and collect the items yourself. Didn't I give you my word? No harm will befall you!" She scoffed angrily.
