The rest of the conversation was him embellishing himself, and obscuring how his skills actually work.
"Oh yeah, I can separate my spirit to attack anything for me."
"Hiding my soul? You guys can't? I'm pretty good at hiding my mind too, the spirit not so much."
"I can copy most damage types pretty well, fire, ice or physical damage."
"Dealing soul damage? Not really that hard, but it takes some preparation."
"I heal pretty well too, I wouldn't mind using your healing armament though. I don't wanna use my mana."
After using their healing armament, he felt right as rain. He wasn't badly injured, but the speed at which his injuries disappeared was astonishing.
It was a rare armament, a white lantern with six golden gems around the windows on the lantern.
It had a wide, brown base with many small figurines frozen in different poses. Lovers walking together, duels between what seemed like friends, public speaking with many young people around an old teacher.
When it was activated a great light spirit with a crown of six suns rose from the lantern, spreading its arms as sparkling lights danced from its golden body like a living fire.
The figurines came to life dancing and celebrating under the light of the light spirit.
Matthew's jaw fell watching the grand display. The golden sparks flit through the air into the bodies of the injured, a river of fire flowed through his veins and lights of the temple blurred as his vision became a bit hazy.
It wasn't sleep however, rather he was so awake it felt like he had been connected to a pair of jumper cables.
After a mere thirty minutes he was healed and speaking to Parker privately.
People whispered, eyes examining him with keen interest. Matthew ignored them, speaking to Parker about the dunes.
"So you find wish coins a lot there? Barely see any in the dark forest."
"Weird. We find at least one every week, if we are bold, split up and push farther in we can find at least three." Parker said, eyes narrowing. "Doesn't really make sense, we've even found coins in places we've checked before."
Matthew was a bit shocked, he had thought there was a fixed amount and now he was finding out there spawned periodically. He had to explain that he wasn't lying, but even he found it hard to believe.
Where were all the wish coins going? There weren't even as many hunters in the dark forest.
"We already have a stable way to farm Sand worms, so getting spirits is less about fighting more about effort." Parker explained, "They're tricky, but—"
"No spilling of industry secrets please," Jamie warned.
Parker grunted, raising his arm to Matthew like he was powerless. Matthew waved the gesture off, it was simple to understand.
Jamie understood that if they lost control of their method then they would be competing with other groups.
Matthew only taught his methods of survival to Gareth and the others and he could already feel the change in the Dark forest's activity.
If he taught them his methods of harvesting the paralytic or killing Light lurkers then he would lose out on potential spirit coins. It was a bit ruthless, but Jamie wasn't unreasonable.
All he had to do was formally join their group, he would gain access freely to all their armaments and information. The healing armament alone had grown their group to this level, apparently they had other great resources.
Jamie originally wanted him to pay to use the armament like others, but Matthew used Stella to convince him not to. It wasn't too hard considering they didn't have many injuries and Asha, Parker and even Jamie himself thought they needed his skill set.
"What I want is simple, I won't intrude on your fishing. I'll assist your scouting for monsters and even use myself to create better situations for you to attack." He explained, "I don't know much about the dunes species, but I'd bet they have prey and enemies we can use against them."
"Why didn't anyone think of that, we pull the Salamanders to the Sword demons and third-party them!" one of the boys exclaimed.
He brought fresh ideas and was definitely skilled. Jamie reluctantly hummed in agreement.
"So how will we divide the spoils?"
"I keep what I kill, you keep what you kill. It's like a contract, I provide my services." Matthew replied cool and certain.
"I feel this relationship is a bit unbalanced though, a contract is only formed either between equal or unequal groups. We have more to offer than you, that's why you came to us, right?" Jamie spoke with quiet assurance, "You can't provide any more incentives?"
Stella put a hand on Jamie's shoulder, her deep frown stopping him.
"Hey, cool off. This isn't an enemy."
Jamie looked a bit reluctant to agree with that. Matthew raised a hand to get their attention.
"Of course I don't mind giving up something. Maybe a particular type of beast."
Parker nodded enthusiastically "Yeah, we're maining Salamanders and Blade demons. Also stone titans if we can bring them down."
Jamie narrowed his eyes, "I don't think that'll work though, we need more coins than you. If you keep hunting we lose on possible coins."
Matthew nodded, he respected Jamie's shrewd nature and the ruthless way he was trying to force Matthew into the group.
"True, but I also need to reach level four soon. Should I give up on my advancement for you? I want us to build a long relationship. One you can rely and trust on in the future."
He tried framing it well, but he feared that it was too layered for Jamie to understand.
Jamie's brown eyes lit up for a moment as he seemed to think of something. He folded his arms and Matthew knew it was a good time to attack.
"I can promise I'll be a reliable partner, but I need you all to be reliable too. I'm eighteen spirits away from level four, I'll join you for five hunts before I move on. I'd like to at least make it to fifteen."
He made sure to make them understand he would still meet other groups and he was keen on working for himself.
Jamie sighed, "You can't reveal anything we show you and we'll help you get to fifteen, but we do want to monopolise Salamander and Sword demon spirits. So even if you like them we can't spare more than one spirit."
They formalized the terms of what he couldn't tell anyone and the types of creatures they would be facing so that he could determine the ones he would like the most.
Then the negotiation cooled down as people began to talk casually.
Matthew stood and left them to talk, he didn't want anyone to feel he was one of them. He looked around and found that Gareth and the others had returned safely too.
He found an uninhabited wall and laid against it, considering the events.
Stella sat beside him not long after, looking a bit concerned, "I'm sorry about Jamie. He's a bit hard, but he's not a bad guy."
"I'm okay, i was just giving you guys some privacy"
The same he would like to have now. Jamie was definitely not a bad guy, he drew hard lines between friend and enemy but it was in their interest.
Parker and Stella were too concerned in helping what they thought was a friend.
Stella smiled, taking out a purple water bottle to take a sip before offering him a drink. He declined and continued staring into space.
"You're never scared out there? if you got hurt nobody would be there to help you," She asked.
Matthew shrugged, "If you're going to survive here, the first enemy you have to fight is fear. That's why I wanted to kill the Maw."
Stella looked unsure for a while, her lips held tightly. Her eyes seemed to float over to something, a place where their group had built a small shire.
They camped up against one of the great pillars, they had dedicated a spot against the pillar to dropping small knick knacks. A lighter, a ribbon, a set of necklaces and some pictures.
Matthew glanced over it and looked away. They were both silent for a while, but she kept glancing at him, probably wondering if the silence was uncomfortable for him.
If it was the old him he may have tried to soothe her worries, say something nice and try to be respectful. He actually liked the silence, but her glances were annoying.
"You've put yourself in a lot of danger, you should understand. When you try to save someone, you're throwing yourself in danger physically or not." He explained, "You're the medic here so I guess it's a lot for you."
They both stared into the blurring figures of people under the red torches of the stone temple.
"I hate it," she whispered, after a long time.
"I don't want to have to be the one seeing someone's eyes go hollow, but I don't want anyone to die."
"Ambitious, but you don't have to worry about me. When I die, no one will be there." Matthew said plainly, a feeling of catharsis leaving him as he said the words.
He wouldn't want Stella to see his eyes when he died. Even Matthew disliked meeting his own gaze in the mirror.