Chapter 122 Crew
"Sit."
At my words, Miller stood behind me. Tristan sat across the table and the three battle slaves sat on the ground.
Suprised, I looked around.
"They are a lot more organized and composed than I thought they would be."
Tristan wasn"t looking at me with the suspicious gaze as before, rather he was looking at me with… reverence?
Miller, for some reason, was smug as he stood behind me.
The battle slaves had their heads hung, not daring to look up.
[09:13 am]
I looked at my watch and decided to finish things quickly.
First, I spoke to the three battle slaves.
"What are your names?"
"We don"t have one."
A male battle slave spoke.
The two male battle slaves looked similar to each other. The one who spoke was slightly bigger than the other one.
Both of them were covering Merlin behind themselves.
It didn"t seem like they were pushing her back, but…
"Are they trying to protect her?"
I c.o.c.ked my brow at their actions.
"Protect her from what? Me?"
A small smile appeared on my face.
"I see. Anyway, from now on, all three of you belong to me. This means that you have to follow all my orders unconditionally."
"Yes"
The male battle slave, who was slightly bigger than the other one, was the only one who was answering. It seems he was the group representative.
On the other hand, Merlin was covering behind those two.
"Then, here is my first order. Stand outside the door and guard it."
I waited for the three battle slaves to leave before pa.s.sing a slip of paper to Miller.
"Take the route marked on the paper and leave the Underworld with all of them. The route will take you to a portal that opens randomly at the mountain range. After that, follow the further instructions written in it."
Miller apprehensively took the slip.
Given how we have been hiding our ident.i.ties, Miller should already know that I was going to do something in the Underworld.
"Leader, what about you?"
"I"ll follow you guys later."
I didn"t worry about Iris or someone else following them.
In the Oath with Iris, I had included the condition that if I won, Iris would unconditionally let me and my group leave the Underworld and won"t try to track us as long as I don"t commit a crime.
Even if they were followed, after using the portals to leave Underworld, it will become impossible to track them.
Lastly, I pa.s.sed a vial containing red liquid to Tristan.
"Leave together with them. Also, I don"t think I need to remind you of the Oath in case you want to double-cross me, do I?"
Tristan nodded while staring at the vial.
"Use this to find me in case I don"t come to the rendezvous point by tomorrow."
"Leader, will you be fine?"
I spoke casually to rea.s.sure Miller and pointed at the vial.
"I will be. That is only insurance."
Miller slowly nodded.
"Now, leave."
Following my orders, Miller bowed and left with Tristan.
CLUCK-
I locked the door and trudged back to the sofa.
"Haaa... f.u.c.k"
I knew no one was watching me or coming to meet me, so there was no need for me to keep acting tough.
I cursed while panting slightly.
Despite how unbothered I was acting, I had taken a lot of damage from my back-to-back fights.
Low-grade Elixir, the ones I have, doesn"t heal instantaneously.
They are a lot faster than healing potions, but not instantaneous.
I was able to stand tough was only because of my high pain tolerance. If not, I doubted I could have calmly talked with so many people.
The reason I hastily sent Miller and everyone away was also this. Even if I had a high pain tolerance, there was still a limit and I have to recover before the attack starts.
Calming my breaths, I brought out the Harmonization elixir.
A vial with sparkling blue liquid appeared in my hand.
This was Harmonization Elixir. It is an alchemy material that is used to combine things more easily.
After much discussion with Caim, we had come to a judgment that, to create my curse, I need a royal demon core, haki-spiritual gra.s.s, mandrake, and a few more alchemy materials.
I had already planned out where I was going to get everything.
Royal Demon Core from the Caim that Leon was supposed to defeat, after awakening his stigma, at the semester"s end.
Other things were alchemy materials that I could get with money.
Harmonization Elixir wasn"t something I had planned to get, as Umbra had a monopoly over it and it wasn"t necessary.
But since this was a chance to get it, I decided to ask for it. With this, the chances of failure will reduce considerably, or at least it won"t have a negative effect.
"I have 800,000B now."
I had won 200,000B from my fight with Mother Mash. It could have been more had I not shown off so much, but at least I got this much.
Though I have to thank Huntress for it. She was able to persuade the gamblers, and quite a lot fewer people bet on me after that.
"I wish I could have seen her real face." Back then I was trying to find Tristan and couldn"t go to see when Huntress was persuading the crowd.
What was sadder was that Tristan was with Huntress at that time.
Anyway, I got 1,000,000 with my fight from Vile reaper.
Many believed that Vile reaper would have prepared something to counter my pressure. Coupled with the fact that I barely won against Mother Mash, most bet on Vile reaper.
Of the total 1,200,000B, I gave the authorities 400,000B along with backing down from the tournament as compensation to please Iris.
"I doubt she will let me go with just this."
I shook my head, though.
Even if Iris was displeased with how I went against her authority by breaking the rule twice, she will have to wait until the tournament ends.
Gladiator Championship, although a small tournament, is still under Umbra. I doubt Iris will try to disrupt the tournament, as it might anger her brother, the acting head of Umbra.
Besides, by the time the tournament ends, I will be long gone.
"Let"s focus on recovering."
I sat crossed-legged on the ground and mediated.
Since there was no Ether potion yet, I can only refill my ether reserves naturally.
I sat in the same position for a few hours while waiting for the attack to start.
A few hours pa.s.sed, and I opened my eyes.
"Huuu….."
Exhaling deeply, I checked my ether reserves.
"Around…90%. This will do."
CLUCK-
Opening the door, I went back to the seating area while checking the black diary.
I circulated a bit of ether into the diary.
"Let"s see how things are going to start."
Checking till my ether reserves were down to 65%, I reached the seating area for top-16.
As soon as I entered, all the contestants" attention was on me, and they whispered amongst themselves.
Ignoring them, I sat at the seat farthest from the front edge and mediated.
.?