I am an Eldritch Entity

Eryndor thought of a few points which he hadn't paid attention to after knowing the entire plan of Caulin.

The first point was, the machines which changed the location of the Maws of Abyss.

The second point was, the information about the Shx'Trelith eldritch entity.

For Caulin's plan to work, he had to know that particular information about Shx'Trelith which mentioned no devices with connection back to the Earth were allowed near it because there were high chances it would trace it to reach Earth.

Eryndor recalled the two conditions he assumed about the high price for the information about his title from the Mystical Artifact.

One - It was based on the rarity of the information.

Two - It was based on the level of life form involved in the information, and since he was an eldritch entity, that price turned out to be high.

As usual, there could also be a third option which involves both.

However, if the Mystical Artifact indeed used the level of life form to determine the price, then Shx'Trelith was also an eldritch entity.

It's level of life form was certainly on the same level as him.

Then just like now, Caulin would have had to pay a high price if he wanted information about Shx'Trelith.

But.

But.

What if…he didn't use the Mystical Artifact?

The machines moving the Maws of Abyss, and the information related to Shx'Trelith.

What if he had gotten help from the Cyborg Outer Domain?

They certainly had the capability to go head to head, or even come out victorious against the Human Federation if it came to technology.

They could entirely launch spaceships without letting the Human Federation know and conduct their own information gathering.

Could Caulin put machines on the third planet to move the Maws of Abyss without letting the Federation know of his moves? Doubtful.

But could the Cyborg Outer Domain do it? Certainly.

Now, one could argue that Cyborg Outer Domain was helping Caulin because he was about to betray humanity.

But then, why would they tell Caulin about information related to the Trenek secret realm which was important enough to consider significant for humanity in a bad way?

There was only one answer, Caulin had someone loyal to him in the Cyborg Outer Domain.

Of course, all of this was based on a mountain of assumptions.

One - That the price of information was related to the level of life form involved in the answer.

Two - That Caulin hadn't paid the price to know information about Shx'Trelith.

Three - That Caulin wasn't capable enough to evade the Human Federation to put machines on the third checkpoint planet which housed the Maws of Abyss.

Eryndor glanced at Paulina's phone and thought.

Let's take a risk.

He had long covered his entire body with the Sovereign's Cloak. After making sure once more that nothing was visible, he typed in the message.

"I am interested, but the terms need to change.

"I also want direct access to your connection with the Cyborg Outer Domain."

After typing the message, he just leaned back on a nearby rock and let out the breath he had been subconsciously holding all this time.

Caulin's reply came after around five minutes of waiting.

"No. I don't trust you."

Does that mean he implicitly agreed that he does indeed have a spy in the Cyborg Outer Domain?

So he trusts me enough to let me know that he did indeed have a connection, but not enough to give me direct access to them.

Does he not trust me with that connection even if we're on the same side? Is it someone close to him? Cautious guy.

Caulin implicitly agreed about his connection, because one, he had already cut ties with humanity, it wouldn't matter if he had dealings with an Outer Domain.

And two, if anyone were to use that connection to somehow attack Caulin, the Cyborg genius must have enough guarantee to not be caught or was confident in leaving no proof that he was connected.

Which means, his action of trusting me is also ultimately based around his confidence in himself.

Eryndor thought for a while.

I can't ask for resources, I need to maintain the persona that I am incredibly powerful and have a strong network.

He typed in his response.

"Direct access to your information based Mystical Artifact."

This time there wasn't even a moment of wait before his reply arrived.

"Nope."

Caulin had no intention of letting this person or anomaly anywhere near The Covenant of Omniscience.

Last time, he had just mentioned that entity and the Mystical Artifact began acting up.

Who knew what would happen if he let that entity directly use it? So, he rejected.

The Covenant of Omniscience was still incredibly useful to him, he didn't want to do anything with even the slightest possibility that he would lose the book.

Eryndor's eyebrows twitched as he got another rejection.

Is there a problem with the information based Mystical Artifact as well?

He mentally noted that to himself before sending him a message once again.

"I want to use both of them, but it will be through you. This is your last chance."

Naturally, to keep up the persona, he couldn't keep getting rejected without consequences.

Thankfully, the response was positive this time.

"Okay, but there need to be a few additional conditions."

Maybe because he rejected the offer twice, Caulin conceded a few times in the discussion.

It turned out that using the Mystical Artifact indeed came at a price, and even contacting his spy took a lot of effort.

He also took the risk and sent the information about the Trenek secret realm first.

Of course, Eryndor didn't have any plans to back out from the deal in the first place.

He sent a single word 'Singularity' without any explanation. Caulin was smart enough.

Looking through the information he had sent, before even reading through it, Eryndor began taking screenshots of the entire chat to send them to himself so he could delete all the messages in Paulina's phone.

His heart skipped a beat when his eyes inadvertently glanced over a word while taking the screenshots.

Opening?

******

First, I need to inform you that I've added this part after releasing the chapter, so you'll only be paying till 'opening?'. You won't be paying for this extra part so don't worry, I am not cheating anyone here haha.

Creator's thoughts didn't let me add anything above 500 words so I had to add it in here.

In the above chapter, there is actually a lot between the following -

Three - That Caulin wasn't capable enough to evade the Human Federation to put machines on the third checkpoint planet which housed the Maws of Abyss.

[lots of stuff]

Eryndor glanced at Paulina's phone and thought.

^Yes, in the chapter above, between those two paragraphs, there is actually a lot of stuff which happened which I deleted because I felt it was a bit far-fetched, too complicated/convoluted of a plot which might be difficult to follow, and might not make sense at a few points. I am writing it down below, within the next five days, you can give me an input regarding your thoughts about this. If you think it's alright, I'll put it somewhere in the next few chapters so that it can become a canon and I can use a few points out of this in the future, if not, you don't want it? That's alright as well.

******

Three - That Caulin wasn't capable enough to evade the Human Federation to put machines on the third checkpoint planet which housed the Maws of Abyss.

If everything was true, then Caulin was truly daring.

Deriving from point number two, Caulin hadn't paid the price for Shx'Trelith's information even when it concerned his entire betrayal plan.

Sure, he had a spy planted in Cyborg Outer Domain, but to steal information on an eldritch entity which was already highly classified enough, and even send it to a widely proclaimed Cyborg genius of the Human Federation? That was extremely risky.

Which meant, Caulin hadn't even paid the price even at the cost of his planted spy.

In this event of Polinek, humanity would've lost only Pat Ravencroft, a Commander level figure, and a few other members of Ravencroft family while gaining Calix, a Commander level figure who could 'continue' to be a Commander level figure.

Everytime the Cosmic Limit increased, people had to be quick to climb up in order to maintain their lead. Who could climb faster than Calix, whose ability made it such that his power depended on the number of people under him?

He was at least one of the fastest if not the fastest climber at least in the early stages of the power system. Eryndor had no doubt that he might already have a power at the peak stage of level three.

Humanity also successfully planted a nail in the side of the Mage Outer Domain.

Now, if we turn to this event.

Even if we considered that Caulin somehow knew about the tournament taking place, what would humanity gain out of the information he was about to tell him?

Nothing.

Even if it saved the lives of Guardian Sol and all the students, that was just what humanity already had, it couldn't be called a 'gain'.

Because if we looked at it that way, Caulin, a future Commander level figure, the mercenary teams and the senior students of the Academy which had gone to help in battle of Polinek, could be called a 'gain' as well since they didn't die and were still on humanity's side.

No matter what, regardless if Caulin knew about the tournament or not, the overall value of the battle of Polinek city was much greater than the Trenek secret realm.

Caulin didn't pay a price even when it concerned the battle of Polinek city, and now when it concerned the Trenek secret realm, he wanted Eryndor to tell him the title, which, in a roundabout way, had the same weight as the price he wasn't willing to pay.

So essentially, Caulin was playing a game with him.

He is lowballing the offer covertly.

If Eryndor agreed to the deal straight up, it would mean that the value of Trenek secret realm to him was higher than what Caulin thought.

And if Caulin indeed knew about the tournament, there must be someone among the students or the two high ranking members of the Human Federation that this entity who exposed his plan valued.

If Caulin looked deeply, only the four students Eryndor, Paulina, Drakarion and Valentina were involved in the plan of Amplifier Doll and Polinek city, which concerned the battle of Polinek city, and now were present in the tournament which concerned the Trenek secret realm.

Among them, Eryndor was the only one who happened to be with Liliana on the mission to Shx'Trelith where he could've obtained all the information about it and also know Liliana's actions, which weren't possible for the other three which were in the Polinek city at that time.

Won't that mean his doubt on me would substantially increase? He would pay even more attention to me than to Paulina who was simply assumed as a middle man for now?

No, he couldn't agree to the deal.

He had to take a risk and change the terms so that Caulin wouldn't become suspicious that this entity who exposed his plan had an abnormally high valuation of the Trenek secret realm.

Eryndor glanced at Paulina's phone and thought.

******

Alright that was all.