While Darius was struggling to fully understand his feedback and where he stood in terms of survival chances, Marasmus raised his head and spoke slowly with his bright red Soul Fire burning brightly.

"I'm interested in this trade, but I can only decide for the first two. For the last one, I contacted my master, the Grand Lord, and he will be the one to do the negotiation with you.

"

Darius nodded and smiled outwardly, but his heart shivered internally. Marasmus could contact the master of the Plains of Death remotely? Then how was Darius supposed to take away the stone even if he managed to ultimately kill Marasmus?

Would the master have descended down to strike him? Darius was beginning to wonder about Ceasar's three predictions for the path of 56. The first had advised him against using the Dagger of Death, indicating he would need all three charges. The second had been to use the Stitch of Time very sparingly. The third had been to prioritize Mikey and Joneson for they were key.

Darius was beginning to understand that the success Caesar had envisioned for the path of 56 and the success Darius himself wanted had indeed been two very different things.

He was not sure if in the AI's scenarios anyone but himself would have come out unscathed if he were to engage Marasmus and hypothetically win.

If Darius didn't want to have to default to fighting Marasmus and possibly losing Gunner, Mikey, and Joneson, he would have to succeed with this barter. He also had a feeling that Vena would find it far more interesting if he managed to talk his way out of this compared to fighting it out like a meathead.

Otherwise, she could have just summoned an average joe from Earth over this wily old merchant, wouldn't she? Darius became more confident in himself.

His mind blazed with theories and various rationales. Darius was now certain about Caesar's inability to see all the possible futures, not because he himself was so amazing, but because his handler could only process the possible outcomes based on all the facts he knew and could account for.

This was what supercomputers were used for and were usually accurate to a very strong degree. The only weakness of such predictive calculations was when unknown external variables interfered with the events.

Darius could name two such variables off the top of his head which were likely the cause of the deviation in outcomes. The first was Vena making Caesar give him three hints.

The AI would never have predicted the Goddess would directly interfere out of sympathy, or likely just to make things more interesting, and he hadn't updated Darius on his new chances after giving him this info back then.

The second was his decision to focus so heavily on his Luck stat. Luck created random beneficial encounters. Caesar could try to predict a thousand of them, but he would still miss nine thousand others.

Case in point, Darius' meeting with Darla had allowed him to acquire 20 extremely valuable items which would be his capital for this upcoming barter.

Without them, it was far less likely that he would ever opt to trade any of the 10 things he acquired from Foldo, rather choosing to fight it out using the Dagger of Death and A Stitch in Time as well as the two vampires.

Since he had determined that Caesar was not all-knowing and that he could forge his own path, Darius focused his mind and closed his eyes. He channeled every bit of his mercantile skill acquired from Earth, everything he had known a learned over the course of his life and brought it forward here.

When he opened his eyes, both Gunner and Marasmus saw Darius' eyes narrow into serpentine slits, but this time it didn't go away. Gunner shivered in fear, not because of his bizarre it looked, but because of the darkness behind those eyes.

Even Marasmus, who had been dissatisfied with the fellow's silence, was greatly unsettled. He wondered what on Faust this was? Did the fellow have non-human blood in his veins or what?

Darius himself was unaware of this trait of his. Many times in his previous life, the reason why he had been able to swindle and trick other parties had not only been due to his honeyed words, but the horror the other party had felt from seeing his eyes flash in such a manner.

"Lord Marasmus, may we begin?

" Darius asked with a smile.

Marasmus shook away his hesitation and nodded silently while gazing at Darius.

"Begin.

"

"For the first item on the agenda, which is my ensured safety in leaving the necropolis with my property, I have these three items for you to choose from, Lord Marasmus.

" Darius offered as he removed three carefully selected items from his Inventory and placed them before the Reaper.

Marasmus slowly looked through what was offered. On the left was a dagger that was rusty and coated with blood that seemed to have contaminated the blade somehow. In the center was an egg-shaped stone that looked similar to marble, though it was three times bigger than what was in the undead's chest and was vastly different. On the right was a strange ruby that seemed hollow in the middle.

Darius introduced the three items and their effects, allowing the other party to choose between the Dagger of Hassasin that could track targets through blood, the Egg of a Hellhound which could track souls through scent, and the Soul Gem which could store a soul.

Marasmus spent a long time choosing between the three because each of them was valuable to a point that it would be hard to measure their worth in gold! He was particularly interested in the egg and the gem as both of them would prove to be immensely useful to him, and even the dagger, while weaker, was also good!

The undead was internally shocked that Darius could take out such high-quality items, and then remembered the stuff he had offered for the murder of his own self and chuckled.

Those poor humans! They had rushed here to die not knowing they were being merely offered the trash in this fellow's pocket! Marasmus rubbed his bony head and pondered quietly.

He then pointed to the Soul Gem. At the end of the day, he wanted to assure his existence! While 8,000 years might seem too long for normal people to live, for him it was not enough!

After spending 15 years alive that were full of suffering, struggle, and torment, 8,000 years of power and peace were truly soothing to his soul, like a soft balm being spread across his wounds.