Chapter 275 Gladiator of the Arena Part 1
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While Ermin and the sisters were baffled by the item, with the older sister bragging about her luck, Dale silently thought about it.
'What luck… I think this is the third item I've seen so far with the Luminous Grade on it, and it came from a damn loot Box... Is this a sign from the Gods or something?'
'Sorry, but I won't gamble like this anytime soon...'
'Regardless, an item that can control the weather, how interesting. It's also an Accessory, albeit it gives no Stat bonuses, making this the first of its kind.'
'It's basically just a Skill in the form of an item, nothing more… But that's good enough.'
'A decently good item… Maybe more useful to me than I initially imagined.'
'With the passing of the Seasons, soon enough the drought and rainy seasons will come to Resko, I don't know if I can change a drought, but I can certainly prevent the rain from covering the entire land with water.'
'Still... I didn't want an item, I want Stat potions dammit!!'
Thinking of that, Dale continued to open the chests with the others in the hopes of getting the items he was looking for.
He didn't worry about the time at all since right now, he only wanted to relax a bit, and soon enough he would have no time to even breathe.
He made sure to give Eleonora more chests when compared to Ermin as he already realized who was the luckiest between the two, and that showed itself with the chests they opened...
While Ermin managed to roll beneath 30 rather consistently, Eleonora kept pulling 70s and 80s, managing to get several over 90 rolls while Ermin was the only one to roll any under 10.
This was everything Dale needed to know... From now on Ermin was prohibited from opening his Loot Chests until he 'Accumulated' enough Luck.
Much to his disappointment.
...
And not long after they sorted the loot, exchanging what they got between them, they fetched another mission, going in with renewed motivation.
…
/Three hours later…/
/Flash!/
After another mission well done, the ground was teleported back to the Plaza like always, a process they repeated so many times they were starting to get sick of it.
"... Urg!... Finally, we're done with another mission." Eleonora said as she stretched her back and sat down, exhaling loudly at the same time
"I'm getting a bit hungry as well." Erminia said on the side as she looked around
"We should take a rest for now then." Ermin said as he turned to Dale, sending him a private message
"Hm?"
Surprised, he quickly checked it:
[Thank you for playing with us, for four hours at that]
'... What?...'
[It really meant a lot to not only me, but they as well, even if they don't show it]
[But this is enough, we can all see that we're slowing you down significantly, and now that they're tired, it's time we go our separate ways]
'These guys...'
[I can tell they had a lot of fun just running around the absurd conditions you created, the same can be said for me, nonetheless, they still have other priorities, and with those in mind, they want to try other aspects of the Event before logging off early]
[I can only try my best to keep them around so they can grow stronger, your words surely helped with that, another debt I have to repay]
[We've discussed this before in case you think this is solely my decision, so don't take this on yourself, this was a group decision]
"..."
When he finished reading the notifications, Dale chuckled in a low tone.
'He must've pre-written this message, funny guy.' He thought as he looked at Ermin
Dale didn't feel that he was being excluded, not at all, he just felt that there was too much of a gap between them and they were feeling it.
Some may not care but for them to do so meant they had some degree of self-awareness and that they were bothered by their own inability.
People aren't so easy to read of course, but that was how Dale imagined things to be.
"There's no need to be considerate or embarrassed about this, we all have to stop eventually." He said out loud as he looked at them all
He got up from his seat, knowing the situation was a bit awkward, albeit it was the good type.
"I'll take my leave first, I'll be in the event for all 24 hours of its duration, so just call me if you have the time or need me for something."
Finally, he turned to the sisters, taking out his gauntlet as he raised his hand for a handshake.
"Once again, it's a pleasure, I hope we can meet again sometime."
"... The pleasure is mine." Eleonora said with a rare relaxed smile as she also got up from her seat
Erminia soon did the same, and they exchanged their goodbyes, it was a warm and simple interaction but it was everything it needed to be.
Before he left, Erminia sent him a friend request, something he completely forgot about, but without hesitation, he accepted it, raising his number of contacts by two.
And only now did Dale realize how thin his friends list was...
In any case, with that, Dale left the party and went on his way to the side, far into the massive room, he sat at the edge of a small fountain as he thought about everything he had done in these last few hours.
Simply put, he didn't do anything special.
Dale continued to do mission after mission, gathering about 2 to 3 Million Favor with every Quest they took, completing many hidden Achievements and Objectives.
And with an average of five missions every hour, they had done an obscene 20 Quests ever since Babylon opened.
This actually meant Dale had already gathered enough to pay for his debt, now he just needed to gather some Favor to shop in bulk again.
Funny enough, some players were still doing their third or even second missions due to how large and complex they were, meanwhile, Dale brute-forced his way through everything without care.
Meanwhile, he kept using the Modifiers to try and see how to make use of them better, since he had realized before that just using them wasn't enough, they were good and bad places to use them.
Especially because he learned that even if he stacked multiple Modifiers together, there was no guarantee he would receive a Greater one later.
He understood that the Modifiers had to fit the Quest, and from there, he may have a chance to get the Greater version of one of the Seeds, just like the second mission he did, Fall of Ingur.
Dale also assumed the Quests to be connected with the Rulers of Babylon, the so-called Old Gods due to the presence of the modified System Window that appeared whenever he received a Greater Seed.
Maybe not them exactly, or maybe it's beyond them also, Dale wasn't sure what to expect from the Seeds, but he was waiting for an opportunity to use them, and he better be ready for them.
And that wasn't hard to do, Dale had accumulated dozens of rewards from all of those missions, he just needed to go through it all since they were… Rather overwhelming.
There was also the mystery of the Inquisitors, Oversees, and above them, the True Ruler, things he didn't quite know how to tackle yet.
Not to say the 100 Loot boxes they opened, there were also all of the rewards from all the missions they did plus the items he bought in the shop last time.
Did he mention the Key that silently rested in his inventory?
The Challenger's Insignia… Its description read as follows:
[... Description: A Special key that unlocks a greater Challenge within Babylon.
*Tradable*
]
As he reread its description, Dale wondered if this was the key he needed to use for him to qualify to use the Greater Modifiers, but the name could be but a coincidence.
Nonetheless, about a sixth of the Event's duration had already gone by and he still had much to do.
So with a sharp expression, Dale chose his next activity.
[Duels: 1v1
Category: Arena Combat
Ranking: None
Specifications: None
Base reward: To be determined
*Bets are opened to all in this mode*
]
"I remember hearing from the Inquisitor at the start that Recognition affects whom I get paired with as the System will try to get people of similar strength and ability with me."
"In that case, who will be my opponent?... I'm excited, maybe even a bit fearful…" He said with a chuckle as he selected the activity
[Would you like to make a Bet?]
"Hm…"
'I know you get a basic reward based on the Ranking of the opponent you defeat, but the best way to make a Bet.'
'Bets are always done before the match is even found, and the odds are then revealed to the fighters themselves when the match is over.'
'A bit strange, but that's how it is, viewers can bet during the fight though if they wish.'
"In that case… What is the highest Bet I can make?"
[With your current Ranking, 10,000]
A smaller window appeared underneath the Quest selection screen, causing Dale to frown a little.
Although it was somewhat surprising to receive a response to his question, Dale already knew this wasn't the same Game System he was used to.
Babylon had its own rules in a sense.
However, his frown was mostly from something else...
'10,000? Rather disappointing… But fine, I just need to raise my Ranking, nothing a few matches can't do.'
"I'll do it then." He said out loud as he went on with the Mission
[Searching… Match found]
Almost instantly, the System found him an opponent, causing Dale to smile.
'This will be fun.'
Dale didn't expect to lose as he was confident in himself but neither did he expect to win easily, otherwise it would be lackluster... Though considering this was the very first match and his ranking was still uncalibrated, maybe he shouldn't think that deeply about it all.
Was he greedy and overconfident for thinking like that? Surely, but did he have a reason to think like that? Absolutely.
If there was someone out there who could defeat him while using his Temporary Skill, then there was nothing he could do, that was just how things were.
There was always a bigger fish… Wasn't there?
[Moving to Arena…]
As the message played in his ears, Dale sharpened his will.
He was about to find out if the saying was correct, if there was truly a bigger fish out there, or...
If he was already it.
/Flash!/
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Notes
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