Arena #9720
After one hour, Nova found himself standing inside an arena. An invisible barrier stood a few steps in front of him.
“Mhm, so this is the barrier Jack mentioned.” He hummed as he raised his fingers to touch it.
“Hmm? What’s this?” An exclamation escaped his mouth. The expected feeling of touching something solid didn’t present itself, instead, he felt as if his fingers had reached the end of the world, with nothing on the other side.
“Why does it feel like I’m in a completely different space altogether?”
It was hard to explain to someone who hadn’t felt it, but that was the best way he could describe the sensation.
Nova stared hard at the barrier, but it was then that his gaze caught sight of two figures standing some distance away from him. One was a middle-aged man with a permanent skeptical look on his face, while the other wore a deep frown.
‘Two against one, but they don’t look all that threatening.’ He thought calmly as he waited for the countdown in his mind to reach zero and start the fight. ‘I wonder what they thought after seeing the bet I’ve set.’
His lips curled up at the thought of it.
[Fight]
A notification rang loudly in the minds of the three combatants as the two barriers that had prevented them from fighting faded into nothingness.
The two men, despite the fierce looks they wore at that moment, cautiously stepped forward, their guards raised and their awareness heightened.
‘They’re being too slow. There’s no need to wait so long.’
Nova thought, and while still standing in the exact same spot where he had been teleported, he poked the air twice with his finger.
/////
“How long do you think he’s going to take to win this?” Erevan casually commented, not interested in the fight at all. If he were being honest, he was here only for the slimmest chance that he might see something interesting, but his hopes weren’t high.
Jack, sitting beside him, didn’t need to think for long before replying, “Considering my fight against a top 100,000 civilization, and this one being against a top 300,000… Nova wouldn’t take more than ten seconds to get rid of them. What we should focus on is the how.”
Erevan was taken aback by the comment but soon agreed. “You’re right. I didn’t think about that.”
His eyes focused back on Nova, who had just raised his finger and poked the air twice.
Then, faster than the blink of an eye, another notification rang out.
[Earth (Subordinate) has won against Khaian (Leader)]
Erevan shot up to his feet, his eyes wide as he stared at the spot where the two middle-aged men had previously stood. There was nobody there now.
For a moment, he couldn’t even process what had happened, despite having seen everything clearly.
When his mind finally calmed down, he muttered inwardly, How is that possible…
/////
Nova calmly looked ahead as his surroundings quickly changed, shifting from the arena to standing in front of his house.
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“I might’ve overdone it a little.” He shamelessly scratched his cheek as he thought back to what had just happened. Then, with a shrug, he continued, “Well, what’s done is done. Now I only need to wait a little for the Gold coins.”
“Don’t forget about my share!”
He took a step forward, about to enter the house, when Jack’s voice loudly carried over from the nearby building.
“Who’s the gold digger now?” Nova scoffed as he closed the door behind him, before his friend could muster a reply.
“I should resume my spear training while I wait for this week’s allowance.”
Taking off his robe and tossing it aside, he took out Dreadscape and resumed his training.
There was nothing that would stop him from improving at any possible time.
/////
Celera, the delicate young woman from the Khaian civilization whose master was the civilization’s leader, quietly sat on the ground.
It had been hours since the notification of their defeat rang in the minds of her and the Khaian warriors, yet she couldn’t bring herself to believe it.
“Master and Uncle haven’t lost. The match must be taking longer than normal, but they will surely arrive soon.” She softly muttered to herself, though her hands had long since clenched tightly to the point her knuckles had turned white.
After the echo of her voice vanished from the room, silence returned, and time slowly but surely passed.
It was only half a day, but she felt as if years had gone by, waiting for those she considered her only family.
But when another notification arrived, this one informing her that her Gold coins, along with every asset present in the town, were to be stripped away from Khaian, reality fully settled in.
Her small, trembling hands grabbed the hems of her robe as droplets of water cascaded down her face and soaked into the fabric, accompanied by muffled sobs.
“Master… Uncle… Why…” The words left her mouth in broken intervals, so fragmented that it was hard to make anything out. The only thing that was certain was the depth of the grief she was going through, and it was immense.
Despite being a warrior representing her civilization, she was nothing more than a young woman barely past the age of twenty. Not only had she just lost the only two family members she had in this place, but her civilization was now stranded in the open, with no way to defend itself.
The situation was as dire as it could be, and there was no one strong enough to help her.
“If not for them… if not for them, you two would still be well and alive. I don’t know what to do now… I’m too weak to lead the civilization, and I can’t avenge you…”
“Forgive me… I’m useless… Forgive me…”
Celera’s sobs continued throughout the night. She only seemed to calm down slightly when the next day arrived, but… her gaze was very different from before.
If her eyes had once been like limpid ponds of water, now they were as murky as dirty water and glinting with piercing coldness.
“Master, Uncle, I’ve come to a decision. It’s true that I’m too weak to personally settle this blood debt, but that doesn’t mean others can’t.”
After almost a full day of sitting in the same place, she slowly stood up.
“It doesn’t matter what it will take. I’ll even beg if necessary, but I swear I’ll end this enmity and bring the two of you peace.”
She reached the entrance and, before stepping out, turned her head to take one last look at the familiar room, filled with memories of her time there.
“I’ll be right back, Master,” Celera quietly said, her eyes softening for but a moment before frosting over.
Then, turning back, she left.
/////
While Celera left her town with a stone-cold heart, Nova was still training in his spear skills.
‘I must reach rank 35 with all my spear skills as soon as possible. Since I’ve already comprehended the first stage of Spear Force, that means I can immediately advance and gain even more stats.’ He thought.
[The Gold coins from the fight against Khaian have been transferred.]
A notification flashed in his mind, and he immediately halted his movements.
‘How much will it be?’
Taking a deep breath, he called up the system and checked his gold coins.
[Gold: 378,568,231]
“A bit over 370 million isn’t bad… if I hadn’t known just how much I could’ve made against another civilization.” Nova sighed, then retrieved 200 million and placed it into several bags, which he reluctantly left by the entrance door.
Staring at them, he muttered to himself, “The temptation is too much. I better call Jack and Erevan to pick these up before I buy more herbs with them.”
He fished out the communication device and, after a quick chat with Jack, was about to call Erevan when someone knocked at his door.
“No way. We just ended the call, but he’s already here?” Nova’s expression was priceless. He eyed the door as if, beyond that, there was a strange monster that fed on Gold.
Walking over, he opened it and said, “Remember today the next time you complain about me being a gold—”
Nova’s words caught in his throat as he looked at Erevan, who stood outside the door.
‘Speak of the devil,’ he thought.
Erevan met his gaze and, with a seriousness Nova had hardly ever seen on him, said, “Can we talk?”
Pushing the door wide open, Nova turned around and sat on the sofa not far away, then motioned with his arm for Erevan to sit on the sofa in front of him.
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