Transmigrated as a Ghost

Once everyone else had left and Marcus and Andrea were alone, she slumped down onto the floor and sighed.

"You know you are not making this easy for me. At this rate I am going to be forced to fight you for the honor of my tribe." Andrea said while rubbing her forehead.

While she looked like a rough and tumble kind of person, she was actually pretty intelligent, and she knew that a real conflict with Marcus would not bring her or her tribe anything but defeat.

Still if he kept disrespecting them, it was likely that she would be forced to fight in order to appease her tribe members, or those aiming for her position might call into question her ability to continue leading.

Sitting down on the floor and facing Andrea, Marcus said, "I would not recommend fighting me. I admit that you are strong, but you have no chance of winning, and that is a fact. Anyway, I am not trying to stir up trouble, but those three came after me even though they knew you had already said not to mess with me. I could have done a lot worse to them if I had wanted to, but that would not get me any closer to my goals.

Now let us get down to business. I want to hire you and your tribe for a job."

Surprise on her face, Andrea had not been expecting this, though her surprise soon turned to suspicion.

She did not trust nobles of the kingdom one bit, and it only took one experience working under them for her to know that they were rotten to the core.

Of course, this was just her viewpoint from one bad noble family, but she was right to be wary.

"I am afraid I will have to decline. I do not work for nobles, and I do not care for your money. Also, we already have a job protecting this village which they paid for already." Andrea said with a stern look.

However, Marcus was not going to give up after just one attempt, and said, "I never had any intention paying you in money. I have seen the weapons your tribe has, and they are good quality mithril, but still far from the best. You especially are probably starting to feel the constraints of your weapon with as strong as you are. There is simply no way that mithril club can keep up with your power at level fifty-three. I am sure if you went all out with it you would probably break it within a few swings. But if you help me out with something, I will upgrade the weapons of all of your tribe members who are over level twenty-five."

Her interest peaked, Andrea said, "And how exactly are you planning on getting us so many high quality mithril weapons? We have already obtained the best that are offered in Loursend."

Smiling, Marcus took off the band on his left wrist and transformed it into his top tier adamantine shield.

Seeing this Andrea's eyes went wide, and her mouth gapped open.

She had never actually seen such a high-level piece of equipment, since adamantine in itself was pretty rare. But an adamantine item recognized by the system was pretty much the peak most could ever hope for.

Still, even though this shield was impressive, it did not prove very much other than Marcus' own gear was superior.

In fact, if she could get away with it, Andrea would probably have tried to kill Marcus for it, since the chance for her to obtain something like this again probably would never present itself.

"So, you have a fancy piece of equipment. How does that prove you can supply stronger mithril weapons to me and my tribe? Do you have an in with one of the best forgmasters in the capital?"

Nodding his head while smirking, Marcus said, "You could say that. I am as close to one of the best as possible, since I am the one who made this shield. I will personally make you and the members of your tribe new weapons. I will even personalize them, and for you I can promise that it will be system recognized."

Hearing that Marcus himself was the one who made this shield, and that he would make her a top tier mithril weapon, was almost enough to have Andrea jump to agree with whatever his request was.

But she caught herself from doing so, since she had no intention of leading her tribe on a suicide mission if that is what Marcus planned for them.

"Fine, you do have my interest. What is it that you want from my tribe?" Andrea said with a cautious expression.

"What I want is your expertise and fighting prowess. You and your people probably know these woods better than anyone else, and it would be helpful to me to have your knowledge. Then there is your strength. Other than myself, you are definitely stronger than any other fighter I could find up here. Not to mention that a number of your tribe have decent levels as well. I have been sent to thin out the number of beasts and monsters that have been amassing in the Great Gome Woods, but I am just one person. I would like for you to help me out with getting rid of them so that the woods become a bit safer again."

However, after hearing Marcus' request, Andrea's face darkened, and she said, "I am sorry, but I will not lead my tribe to death. We left because we simply could not deal with the beasts and monsters that are coming from the north. Some of them are just too powerful to contend with, and before we found our way here, we lost about twenty percent of our members. I cannot force everyone to go back into those woods and risk their lives like that when we have a decent sanctuary here."

Understanding Andrea's situation, Marcus could see why she did not want to venture back into he woods, but honestly what they were doing now was only a temporary solution.

Eventually the stronger beasts and monsters were going to flood out of the woods like the lower leveled one were, and at that point even though they had fortified it, this village would not stay safe.

"I am not asking you to fight the strongest beasts and monsters, just to clear out the weaker ones. I will personally handle the more powerful ones myself. And if they are too strong for me, I will have to see if I cannot get reinforcements down here. Anyway, are these woods not your home? Do you not want to take them back? Are you content to live in this village or some other part for the kingdom forever?"

Trying once again to get Andrea on his side, Marcus was hoping to appeal to her pride, and it seemed to be working.

He could tell she was seriously considering his offer now, and that he was just one push away from getting her to agree.

"How about this. Along with the weapons I will also give you enough food to last through the rest of the winter without any need to conserve your reserves."

Marcus then took out a large crate that barely fit in Andrea's yurt and was filled to the brim with cured meats.

Opening the crate Marcus allowed the smell to permeate through the area, and Andrea quickly picked up on it with her heightened sense of smell.

Her mouth nearly watering, she could not say that she did not want this food. As while her tribe had a good amount of goat meat, it would probably not last all winter, and frankly she was getting tired of eating mostly goat.

Seeing that he was close to winning her over, Marcus played another card one that would not really cost him anything.

"Oh, and I am also a master of healing magic, and as long as some is not dead, I can heal them back to their peak. So, if you have anyone that is missing a limb or has some other debilitating injury of any kind, I can heal them."

Hearing this Andrea's face lit up, and now it seemed she was very close to agreeing to help Marcus.

"Very well. If you can do all you say you can, I will lend you mind and my tribe's power. But first we do have some members that are injured, and if you heal them, I will agree to the rest of your terms." Andrea said with an almost desperate expression.

'It looks like the offer of healing was more important to her than I thought. Someone close to her probably got badly injured.'

Clapping his hands together, Marcus said, "Okay, then we have a deal."

After that he stood up and held his hand out to shake Andrea's, and she got up and clasped her hand in his to seal the agreement.