His tone seemed to take on an air of mystery, and Elanev"s eyebrows went as far up as they could on his forehead when the truth was finally revealed to him.
"Angaria knows what is coming, or at least, it can sense it. I cannot give you the details, because I don"t know them myself, but you should understand that all beings have sentience, more or less. Even a plant would strive to move toward sunlight in order to grow. Angaria is doing the same. It can sense that a great danger is approaching it, so it is doing everything it can to brace itself, and find a way to avoid that danger. The other 4 coincidences, excluding the one about your friend, can be explained with that. But him…I don"t know, my gut tells me that there"s something more to him. A Fighter should never ignore his gut. Meh, whatever it is, it doesn"t matter to you. What is it, boy? Is your gut telling you something? Maybe you"ve learned something unconsciously after interacting with the great Senior Fists of Justice for so long?"
The latter part of the old man"s statement was due to the fact that Elanev had put a hand on his stomach with a very serious expression on his face.
However, the next moment, a loud growling sound was heard in the room, which was accompanied by Elanev saying, "Nope, just hungry."
….
The next day, the stadium that was located to the west of the Sect of Hedon was completely packed to the brim with sect members who were waiting for a great show.
Today, that upstart, Travis Éclair, was finally going to be challenged and beaten into a b.l.o.o.d.y paste.
Jealousy was a vice that all creation suffered from in general, but it seemed to be all the more present in the Sect of Hedon, especially in this case where an Amateur Warrior had taken a position that only an Exalted Warrior was supposed to have.
For an entire month, Exalted Warriors had had to control their anger, while Amateur Warriors had had to control their angst at seeing one of their own getting something none of them could ever hope to achieve.
So, today, both sides were cheering for the lucky one who would be challenging that upstart and finally putting him back in his place.
If there were multiple challengers for a post, the rules stated that a random draw would be used to select the one who would fight.
Meanwhile, in the waiting room meant for the one being challenged, Daneel was sitting on a chair with his legs placed on another chair that he had pulled up.
His hands were behind his head, and he was whistling a merry tune while deciding about exactly what he was going to do to instigate the Mad Doctor.
Hearing a knock on the door, he wondered who was brave enough to come to meet him.
After all, if someone was seen entering his room before the fight, they would automatically be a.s.sociated with him and they would have to share the hate.
Opening the door, he was very surprised to see 4 people wearing thick black clothes that completely covered their face, leaving only a small slit for the eyes.
"Travis! It"s us!"
Hearing the fatty"s familiar voice, Daneel raised one eyebrow and let them in.
After entering, all of them stumbled twice due to not being able to see much through their disguises.
Finally removing the cloths, the 4 members of the Shameless Sect took deep breaths, because they hadn"t been able to breathe much due to how tightly they had tied those things around their faces.
After finally regaining his breath, the fatty spoke first.
"Travis, we"re here to-"
"Encourage me? That"s really nice of you all! Don"t worry, I"ll be fine!"
Daneel was in a good mood because of the fact that he had obtained a trusty Ancient Dragon who would be an immense help in everything he was going to do, so he said this after interrupting the fatty.
However, hearing what he said, the 4 looked at each other with sheepish expressions before the fatty spoke, making Daneel"s smile freeze.
"Um…not really. We came to pay our last respects to the Lord of Shamelessness. Boys, let"s do it."
As Daneel watched on with chagrin, the 4 joined their hands together, closed their eyes, and chanted a pre-planned chant.
"May the heavens have mercy on the soul of our dear friend, Travis Éclair. Even after his demise, we will always remember him for the epic shamelessness he was capable of. May he rest in peace!"
Daneel honestly didn"t know how to respond. He must be the first man who had had to hear a chant that a.s.sumed that he was dead while he was standing right in front of them.
He thought they were done, but when a sly expression appeared on the fatty"s face, he realized that he was wrong.
"So…we know you must be crying under that façade. It"s all right! We, your brothers, will never forget you! See, were so thoughtful! So…we were wondering where you stash your Ker Gems?"
Wow.
These 4 really did live up to the sect they had made for themselves.
Daneel had heard a lot of implausible requests, but this one definitely had to take the cake.
Seeing the expression of rage that had begun to come on his friend"s face, the fatty gulped before saying in a high-pitched tone, "Only if you die, of course! If you die, they shouldn"t go to waste right? I mean, you"re an Amateur Warrior going up against an Exalted Warrior who wants to kill you!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
With 4 kicks, 4 people flew out of the room before the door banged shut behind them.
The tall one among them grumbled before saying, "I told you it wouldn"t work!", but before the fatty could reply, he realized something that terrified him.
Their "friend" had taken care to keep the black pieces of cloth that they had used to disguise themselves with him before kicking them out!
While Daneel smiled on the other side of the room and burned up the pieces of cloth, the fatty cursed, knowing that they were quite thoroughly screwed.
All he could hope for now was a miracle.
Little did he know that that was exactly what would occur that day.
….
Hearing the bell ring, Daneel was about to walk out of the door when Drakos stopped him.
"Young King, you should activate your cloaking spell now. It"s safest that way, instead of activating it on the field."
Flummoxed, Daneel asked, "What cloaking spell?"
As an awkward silence ensued, Drakos hesitantly asked, "The…cloaking spell to hide the fact that you"re an Exalted Warrior?"
"Why would I need a cloaking spell for that? If I don"t display anything at that level, it should be fine, right?"
"No, Young King. Although the chance is slim, it is possible that a Hero might watch the match, and if they do, they will be able to tell at a moment"s glace that you aren"t what you claim to be. I a.s.sumed that you had already obtained one from the other inheritance you seem to have."
This time, it was Daneel"s turn to speak hesitantly, after rubbing his nose with embarra.s.sment.
Now that he thought about it, the Watcher had mentioned before his infiltration that it would be best if they chose someone with similar level, as the Sect had means to find the true power level of a person.
Clearly, these were those means.
From the silence and Daneel"s embarra.s.sed pose, Drakos could tell that Daneel had no knowledge about such a thing.
"Here: use this. It"s just a small trick, so it isn"t cla.s.sified as essential information. So your inheritance isn"t all-powerful, I see."
"Not-. I mean, nope."
Daneel had been about to say "not yet", but he had thankfully managed to control himself at the last second.
As the system was still at the Peak Champion level, it was obvious that it wasn"t aware of these things which were at the Hero level.
Clearly, he needed to begin thinking about how he was going to upgrade it again.
Putting it to the side for now, Daneel wiped off the sweat that had come on his forehead due to the close shave and thanked Drakos before telling the system to activate the cloaking spell.
As far as he was concerned, this ancient dragon had already earned its keep many times over.
"So how are you going to defeat an Exalted Warrior without arousing suspicion?"
To this, Daneel replied without thinking just as he was walking through the door.
"I"m just going to act like David, to kill the Goliath."
"Who?"
Stumbling, Daneel quickly replied, "Err, nothing. I"m just going to act like an underdog before using a weakness to win surprisingly."
…
That day would be remembered by all as the day on which an Amateur Warrior would s.h.i.+ne to beat an Exalted Warrior, who was poised to grind him into dust.
In the records, it was noted down in this way:
"The one who won the lucky draw was known as "Ferocious" Saul, known for his intimidating strength which surpa.s.sed his own level. However, it soon turned out that it had been back luck for the Exalted Warrior. The opponent, Travis Éclair, had by chance chosen "speed" to his focus, reaching great heights in that aspect, that allowed him to evade and dance around the field, not letting even a single attack fall on him. Whether it be magical attacks or fists and kicks, Travis would escape them all, tiring out Saul and making him more and more frustrated. Apparently, this Travis had always had a talent in speed, which had allowed him to learn a skill beyond his level that just happened to target the weakness of his opponent. Toward the end, Saul"s rage had made him expend too much energy, and Travis was able to obtain victory amidst shocked silence from the onlooking crowd using simple attacks, which showcased his own weakness of having very low power for someone at the Amateur Warrior level. This kind of imbalance is actually a fatal weakness, so Travis was not singled out for special focus by the sect. Yet, he would go on to keep his post."
…
After the fight, Daneel was back in his office, chortling to himself remembering how good it had felt to defeat that Exalted Warrior.
"So you used speed to overpower someone who specialized in strength. What would you have done if it were someone who specialized in speed?"
"I would have used strength, and shown my weakness to be speed, before winning using a "lucky" fluke."
"And what if they were all-rounded?"
"Then I would have feinted weakness, before using a surprise attack to take them out in one go, which would again look like luck."
This made the Ancient Dragon sink into deep thought for a few moments, and when he finally spoke again, he made Daneel grin.
"Young King, I should have realized how schemi-, I mean, intelligent you are after I saw the way you defeated that old bird. Well, I am now completely convinced that you will definitely succeed in that plan of yours to pit the Mad Doctor and Ashah.e.l.l against each other. So, what"s next?"