Xu Feng was not a rich person.
Sure, he might have become a millionaire, but only he knew what the harsh reality was. That kind of money was barely enough to ensure the guild he wanted to create remained alive.
Hence, he could not afford to spend resources on a large number of people like those big corporations do.
Instead, he could only allocate the precious resources to talented people whom he had decided upon.
And so far, he only plans for Zhao Kai and Carmen. As for OneManMedia, he still needed some more time to decide.
His ethic and moral code was a pain in the butt, to say the least.
'Sigh, if only I was born rich. How nice would it be.' Xu Feng ultimately lamented his trash background silently.
Sometime later, Jeff finished gathering the corpses as Xu Feng promptly stored them in his inventory. These corpses were going to be sold later on to make up for the cost of hiring Jeff.
"The Raburles are only one part of the monster that resides in this forest, so don't be too complacent." Jeff subsequently turned to Carmen and warned.
Carmen simply nodded her head as she hid the fact that she wanted some monsters to ambush them for her to practice. Honestly, when she was in a team previously, none of them bothered to properly guide her.
They were either frustrated by her combat or were just trying to get her private information in the real world. Thus, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that she was somewhat skeptical of Xu Feng's approach and wanted her to join his future guild.
However, skepticism without evidence could not prove much.
'If he really has high hopes for my potential, then he will not waste this chance to guide me properly.' Carmen thought to herself.
Previously, she emphasized that she wanted to improve her skills to test Xu Feng's response. And to her surprise, Xu Feng indeed went on to guide her and taught her sincerely.
Even his evaluation was critical and harsh, unwilling to compliment her in the slightest to get her goodwill toward him.
Had he compromised even a little bit, Xu Feng could have easily persuaded Carmen more thoroughly to join his future guild. Yet he didn't do any of that and instead opted to stop her from being egoistic, albeit somewhat unnecessary.
She wasn't foolish enough to think she could match against experts after just some tips.
"Is there something wrong with my face?" Xu Feng's sudden question snapped her out of her thoughts.
Unbeknownst to her, while she was analyzing the overall situation, she failed to realize her eyes were glued on him, despite not actually paying attention.
From an outsider's perspective, most would mistake her to be staring at something in Xu Feng's face.
"Eh, no, nothing." Carmen shook her head and turned around, avoiding his eyesight.
'Phew, nearly exposed my inner thoughts.' She breathed a sigh of relief.
Unaware of her thoughts, or more like he didn't care, Xu Feng no longer pried further.
"Looking at the time, we should be arriving at the danger zone in 10 minutes or so." Jeff suddenly announced.
"Not really," Xu Feng quickly rejected it. "I supposed our summoner here wants some more experience in combat before tackling the Ironhide Behemoth. And I doubt you want the fight to be easier once we get there too, right Jeff?"
Silence, Jeff had to agree with Xu Feng's words. To be honest, one was a Cleric and another one was an inexperienced Summoner.
Xu Feng's support was amazing, exceeding his expectations. Originally, he merely thought Xu Feng was a conceited noble who only knew how to toy around with lower-status people, but he was wrong.
Contrary to his earlier imposing demeanor, Xu Feng was casual and didn't really care much as long as no one offended or crossed him.
From that aspect, Jeff once again lamented his choice of being overly petty and decided to mend his ways.
"My client is Lunar Wraith, so if she wants to take some time training in the forest, I shall comply with it." Jeff coolly said, before flashing a grin.
"But that was not the original commission, given my duty is only to escort you all to the Ironhide Behemoth location and slay it. Therefore, if you want us to train here for a while, my charging fee needs to be increased."
Jeff's eyes were locked on Xu Feng, clearly knowing he was the one with the money.
He thought he was slick and getting a chance to regain his short pay of 2 silver coins and more.
However, compared to Xu Feng's shrewdness, Jeff still came up a bit too short.
With a calm and collected expression, Xu Feng said, "We're not staying in the forest to train, Jeff. You are going to continue to escort us and if we encounter monsters on the way, you'll naturally have to clear the way for us."
Meanwhile, Carmen seemed to want to say something, but Xu Feng blocked her with his hand and proceeded to send a private message about his plan.
Startled, Carmen checked on the notification she just received and when she finished reading the message content, she glanced at Xu Feng with a disbelief expression. Her eyes widened in shock at how mischievous and stingy he could be.
Despite knowing that, she couldn't help but reveal a sweet smile, clearly agreeing to stay silent and follow his arrangement.
Poor Jeff didn't even know what he was going up against.
Want to extort Xu Feng for money?
Jeff might be high and drunk to think that was even a possibility.
In fact, thanks to his scheme, Xu Feng decided to not be polite and secretly released some lures he had stored. These lures are undetectable to the casual players and NPC unless they have high mana concentration.
And given Jeff remained oblivious, Xu Feng was positive of his mana concentration trash, especially with the evaluation he had graded him when he was focused on battling the Raburles.
'You are still too green to extort me,' Xu Feng sneered inwardly, ensuring Jeff would pay a heavy price for such an attempt.
