"It's just a sign of how strong and wealthy our impact is," Sith gave his friend a blaming silent look before adding, "as for the conflict of interest, I won't lie and say it never happened before. But our impact's higher ups always thought about such a thing and tried their best to not put any of us under tough situations."
"This…"
"Our impact has many members, all came from different places," another member had to speak up, as the expression over William's face told them he didn't like such a vague answer from Sith, "and so if any conflict occurred between the members inside, or between the forces behind our members, the impact would try its best to remain neutral and let everyone settle their differences away from the impact."
"That's not what I meant, but thanks," William slowly nodded, "I wanted to know if the impact gave out an order and that wasn't on the same line of interest or even antagonised the interests of my academy. For example, what if a war broke out between my academy and another, and the impact asked their members to support the enemy of my academy… What shall I do then? Did such a thing ever happen before?"
And when William said it in such a way, the faces of Sith's team members changed. "I don't need to hear your answer," and by seeing their expressions, William waved his arm, "I already got it. Let's just remain friends, alright?"
"But…"
"No hurry to take a decision right now," Sith knew he already failed in convincing William about joining them. And for a moment there, he questioned himself if he was speaking with an eleven-year-old kid or an adult with vast life experience, "we are going to have a grand meeting in one week out there. Why don't you tag along then? Come and attend that meeting, get to know things about us in flesh."
"Sorry, but as you already know, I still got a team out there, somewhere away from here. And they are waiting for me."
"I get it," Sith paused, "then…"
"I'll consider coming to the Scorching Lands," William didn't promise them anything, not even confirming his destination towards Scorching Lands, "now, let's get ready. I believe we have crossed at least five kilometres by now. We have two kilometres left, and then we'll get out of here."
"Ok," Sith knew in his heart that he lost the chance of recruiting William and let him join his team. And for a moment there, he felt a weird regret for failing to do so.
He didn't even realise that by such an ending, he and his team already fell into William's grasp. Yet they still didn't know this.
"There, we are already at the exit," after one more hour, and just when the early rays of the sun were drawing slowly and shyly over the entire world, one of Sith's team pointed towards the distance as he said this.
The fire stopped raging almost four kilometres behind this point. The monsters stopped following them for hours.
The team kept speaking about that scary Nightmare monster almost all the time. Aside from speaking about it, they tried to befriend William from time to time, speaking about how good the treatment they got from their impact was almost the rest of the time.
But after realising that William kept a fixed distance between him and them, not dealing in any close or that friendly way towards any but Sith, they started to forget about trying to impress him or recruit him for now.
And Sith played a major role in making them forget about William. He was experienced enough to know that trying to push over something sometimes would backfire if one wasn't careful.
William ignored most of their talk after he rejected their offer. He wanted to make himself look uncaring and not interested at all about joining their team.
He didn't refuse the idea in general, but he didn't like joining another team and working under someone's leadership.
If they wanted, then they should hand over the leadership of the team over to him. In other words, they should move their team and join him, not the other way around.
William knew if he dared to hint about anything like that from near or far, then all he got would be a mix of mocking laughs and direct rejection.
He was, after all, someone without any backing or a name for himself. And so he planned to leave a deep impression in their spirits, before parting ways for the time being.
They'd join him, but not now. Perhaps one year later, perhaps a few months later than that. William knew that by the time his team and his name would be famous all over the Scorching Lands region, then they'd start thinking about joining him.
That was William's long-term plan for Sith and his team. And after leaving the landmine, William helped Sith and others to kill many monsters, claiming their materials and cores which William didn't kill by himself.
The team killed a few thousand monsters during that day. And William knew if they were by themselves, without him around, their killing speed would have decreased by a lot.
"This is where we'll part ways," but as usual, everything got to an end. William didn't act stingy with them, used his full power and helped the team to secure tons of materials.
He didn't know if this was enough for this team's test results to be high in the ranking or not, but he fulfilled his promise. And now he didn't owe them anything.
"Will you go to the Scorching Lands right away?" Sith tried more than once during the past day to get an answer from him, but William either rejected or evaded giving him a direct reply.
"Let's leave it to fate and see if we'll meet there again or not," William didn't give a direct answer again, "I hope all the best for your team."
"And to you too," Sith sighed, kept shaking his head in regret while watching William's back getting smaller as he slowly vanished in the middle of the trees.
"What a guy!"
