There seems to be something that differentiates these space knights from regular humans.
Their leader had offered him a presumably temporary truce, and the least Tristan could do is check how strong these people are.
Well, other than the captain named Siegfried.
Tristan looked at a brown-skinned, muscular guy with army cut hair, the one who tried to instigate a fight against him earlier. When he looked at him, the man narrowed his eyes, forcing Tristan to glare at him back. He was tempted to fight this man then and there, but for the sake of cooperation, he chose to hold back for now.
[Human]
[Battle power 89]
[Spirit force 39]
[1200 blood essence required to proceed]
[Sealing success rate 19%]
Next, Tristan looked at the Asian-looking guy that was introduced as the mechanic of the team. a guy that is a bit shorter than the others, whose black hair was done in a spiky style.
[Human]
[Battle power 87]
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt[Spirit force 62]
[1300 blood essence required to proceed]
[Sealing success rate 20%]
Third, Tristan looked at a white-skinned, skinny man with collarbone length messy blond hair. His skin was covered in tattoos of various animals.
[Human]
[Battle power 78]
[Spirit force 91]
[1300 blood essence required to proceed]
[Sealing success rate 19%]
Lastly, Tristan looked at a woman without legs. This is the magic user who challenged him back in their last encounter.
[Human]
[Battle power 52]
[Spirit force 262]
[Sealing success rate 14%]
[1700 blood essence required to proceed]
From the stats, all four of them are definitely one level below the Kingsblade guards, but somehow, they have lower sealing success rate compared to those elite soldiers of the kingdom.
Tristan noticed that each of them has a tattoo of barcodes and bits and pieces of metal poking out from their flesh, which could mean that they were enhanced using their technology. Considering the lower sealing chance, they might have some kind of item installed in their body that would protect their mind from the enemies' enhancement magic.
If Tristan has the resources to create a half-man, half-robot creature to fight against the elves, he would need to install such a chip on them.
In the end, the space knights are really not worth spending his precious blood essence on. They were not really strong individually, so the secret for their power must be in their weapon and armor. If they don't have their devices, they really aren't worth the cost.
"So, tell me Tristan, what do you think?" Siegfried quirked his eyebrow and asked.
This Siegfried definitely offered something Tristan sought for his entire time here, but when he looked at the others, especially the brown-skinned man who threatened him before, he simply chuckled.
"Haha… True, but it is hard for me to trust you, knowing I killed three of your men."
Siegfried smiled. It seems he has prepared himself for this response.
"Tristan, of course we are angry about that. No matter what, they are still my comrades, but first and foremost, we are soldiers, and in a war soldiers will die all the time. This time, we are talking about our survival."
"Soldier, huh… I see, then what about your duty as soldiers? What of your mission? You can't lie to me, I know that one of your missions is capturing me."
"Yes, but capturing the goblin was also our mission, and we failed on that, too. We will be punished for this failure, sure, but missions are already a part of our lives, and survival is still more important than all that, don't you agree?"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmTristan nodded, casually listening to the captain's attempts to persuade him. Though they sounded genuine, there was no way for him to trust them fully. His life experiences had told him that all humans are the same, untrustworthy.
Therefore, there was nothing he could depend on except his perfect skill, the blood seal.
But, though the skill was powerful, the cost for using it is very high. Not only did he have to pay the high blood essence cost, he also had to gamble against the extremely low rate of success. For now, he would rather not do it, at least not until he was sure he really needed their help at all.
If they happened to be lying, which they most likely were, he would be wasting thousands of blood essence for nothing. They will be just a puppet who can't provide him any information, and can't help him in battles due to their low strength.
Finally, Tristan made his decision.
"I cannot trust you at the moment, captain, but if I am interested, I will get back to you."
The burly man nodded. He doesn't seem to be disappointed. Instead, he calmly said.
"Think about it. We are probably the only allies you can have on this planet, and we might be your only chance to ever return to your world."
Sadly, Tristan had to admit that he's probably right. One day, he would definitely find the right time to cut the information right out from them. But for now, they're not his priority, not now at least. Perhaps when he has more blood essence, or after he has upgraded his blood seal to level two, he would try doing that.
But one thing was certain, he would return to deal with them later.
Right after they talked, the march of soldiers could be heard, and the guards unlocked the cage, before letting Tristan out and escorting him back to the room where the Kingblades were. Right as he walked in, Nyx glanced at him from where he sat and watched Tristan sit on one of the chairs.
"What happened? You look a mess! Did you just fall from a horse?" Nyx asked with a sardonic chuckle.
"No comment."
They stayed for two nights, but it seems the queen was still nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, seriously, when will we be able to see the queen?! I can't just stay here for an eternity, you know."