Chapter 661 Guards"City guards? Really?" Saphandra asked.
Ning nodded to her. He was sure that was who these people were. During his walk around the city, he had seen multiple people wearing such uniforms walking around.
There were even some in the Summoning Circle building.
"Why are they here though? The man looks fine, and all I did was shove him a bit," Saphandra said.
"Is something wrong, sir?" Ning walked forward and spoke.
"This gentleman here says that your lady friend attacked him, is that correct?" one of the city guards asked.
"That… would be correct, yes," Ning said as he looked around the room. No one here was going to let him get away with a lie, so he decided to tell the truth.
"Well, your friend is going to have to come with us then," the guard said and moved towards them.
"Wait, wait, wait," Ning said. "This is not her fault. That guy harassed her. He came to our table and started asking her to give him her hair. She refused many times but he didn't listen."
"In the end, she screamed at him not to bother her, but he still did, that's when she attacked him," Ning said.
The city guards all looked at each other and they turned around to the green-haired man.
"No, that's a lie. I didn't harass her. I was being polite and asked her to… " the man trailed off as he understood how wrong it would sound if he told them that he just wanted her hair.
"What happened here?" the city guard looked to the other men for an answer.
"It's true," one of them spoke. "The lady told him to not bother her and he still tried to go after her. She had only attacked then."
"Right, right, I was looking at the entire thing," another one spoke.
As the people explained and told the city guard what happened, Saphandra was getting annoyed due to the lack of understanding.
"What are they saying?" Saphandra said.
"Just wait, I'm trying to get you out of going to jail," Ning said.
"Why am I going to jail? I did nothing wrong," Saphandra said.
"That's why I'm getting you out of going to jail. Just shut up and let me do my thing," Ning said.
He then turned around and looked at the city guard. "See brother, it's that man who was at fault. My friend here only retaliated as a last resort in self-defense. Her intention wasn't to hurt him," he said.
"Yes, it does seem that way," the city guard said. "Alright, take him into cuffs."
The other guards suddenly pulled out some chains and put them around the man's hands.
"Wait, why are you taking me?" he shouted.
Saphandra sighed at last after seeing the man get apprehended. "Finally, he's gone," she thought and turned around.
"You!" the city guard shouted at her just as she turned. Saphandra turned back and gave a quizzing look.
"You are going to jail as well," the city guard said.
"What?" Ning said in surprise.
"What?" Saphandra asked in confusion as she still didn't understand the language.
"They are taking you to jail," Ning said.
"Why?" Saphandra asked.
Ning quickly turned around. "I thought it was clear that she was not at fault," Ning said.
"It is, and she will not be charged with assault," the city guard said. "But she did use summoning within public space and that is not allowed. So she will have to come to the jail as well."
While Ning tried to explain what was happening, the guards started handcuffing her.
"What are they doing? Tell them to get these off of me or I will kill them all," Saphandra said.
Ning tried to think of what to do. He wondered if he should just grab her and disappear to another island.
However, as he thought of that, the green-haired man started shouting.
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"Do you know who I am? I am a delegate from the Infinite Beasts school, a Rank 5 Summoner. My school has more people in it than your entire town. Do you want to anger me? Do you want to face my summons?" the man shouted.
The city guards didn't take his threat into account at first, but once they saw his hair, they started to fear him a bit.
The city guards were Rank 2 summoners, rank 3 at best. There was no way they could handle something like a Rank 5 summoner, not to mention one with green hair.
The city guard that was giving all the orders previously didn't know what to do.
"Uh…" he mulled for a while.
"Maybe let us go?" Ning said.
"No!" the man finished mulling. "I don't feel right making a judgment on these matters. So I will bring the two of you to the City lord. You can make your case there and see what happens."
The guard was silently pushing away his responsibility and making it the City Lord's matter now.
"Get their cuffs off," the guard said and the handcuffs came off.
"Alright, let's go," the city guard said and started walking away.
"Let's go," Ning said and pulled Saphandra.
"No, you don't need to go. You can stay," the guard said.
Ning quickly shook his head. "She speaks a language that none of you can understand. I need to be there to translate what you say to her. Otherwise, it would be unfair for her to not even be able to make her case and get punished for something she did not do," Ning said.
The guard thought for a bit and said, "Fine, you can come along," he said.
Then, the group started walking.
The green-haired man stared at them from time to time, but for some reason, Ning thought he was being angry at him, rather than Saphandra.
'I wasn't the one who attacked you though,' he said.
After 15 or so minutes of walking, they reached a massive house built on the side of the mountain.
This was the City lord's mansion.
Chapter 662 Furion EmpireThe city lord was a big man with blonde hair that had a crimson lion walking right beside him as he walked into the hall.
Ning, Saph, the green-haired man named Noren, and the city guard were all waiting for him.
"What is the matter here? Why have you disturbed me?" the city lord asked while eying Noren's hair. Despite how he was acting, he was a little concerned about the man's existence in his room.
The guard explained everything that had happened and even told him what Noren had told about himself.
In the meantime, Ning read up on both the lion and the city lord's information. The crimson lion was Rank 4 and so was the City lord.
"This Infinite Beasts school… where exactly is it?" the city lord asked.
"The Furion Empire," Noren said.
The city lord gasped a little and quickly hid it, but everyone in the room caught his surprise.
'The Furion Empire,' Ning thought to his map and saw where it was. The Furion empire was on the southwestern quarter of the planet, directly opposite to where they were and was one of the richest empire on the planet.
Not only in strength, but the empire was also known for its summoners. If a school in that place had sent someone to this place, then they would have to be honored for that.
"I'm sorry, delegate, we treated you like this," the city lord quickly said.
"Hey, apologize to the delegate now," the city lord shouted.
"M-my apologies," the guard quickly apologized.
"You two, apologize as well," the city lord said.
Ning crossed his arm and stood quietly, while Saph didn't do anything as she understood nothing.
"You bastard, I told you to apologize," the city lord said.
"Why?" Ning asked. "I don't remember doing anything."
"If I tell you to apologize, then you apologize," the city lord shouted.
"Yeah, I don't think so," Ning said.
"You bastard!" the city lord got angry. "Red, go scare him."
The crimson lion suddenly moved and Saph got ready to attack in retaliation. However, Ning placed his arm in front of her and stopped her.
Instead, he walked up front and stuck his hand into the open jaw of the lion that was rushing towards him.
Ning then made a fist from the inside, and along with the entire lion, he directly punched the ground.
Large web-like cracks appeared on the clear marbled floor, but to his surprise, the lion was perfectly fine.
Then, a summoning circle appeared below the lion and it was suddenly teleported away.
"Try attacking me again, and this time it will be your head on this crack," Ning threatened the city lord.
Ning couldn't help but narrow his eyes in surprise at the disappearance of the lion, but he held it in while he scared the city lord.
"I-I…"
"Shut up," Ning shouted. "Are you going to put that guy in jail or not?"
"I…" the city lord didn't know what to say. While he had never heard about the Infinite Beasts school, he was perfectly aware of the massive schools to the west that were better than most empires.
They also had a big hand in the world politics, so the city lord didn't want to punish him at all.
However, he was too afraid of Ning to say no. Someone who could send back a Rank 4 beast with a single hit while having red hair was no ordinary being.
The city lord wouldn't be surprised if Ning suddenly revealed himself to be a Rank 7 Spiritual artist. If that was the case, the city lord was way in over his head with the matter.
He was secretly cursing the city guard for bringing such individuals to his house.
"Alright, since you can't seem to do anything, I will make the judgment for you," Ning said. "My friend here goes free without any charges."
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"You and your boys here will overlook any other incident that happens with me and my friends. You will not disturb us anymore, and stop him from disturbing us as well."
Ning then turned around to the green haired man. "I will let them do with you as they please, but if you come bother us again, you will wish that she would just kill you."
"Good day!"
Ning grabbed Saph's hand and pulled her away.
"What happened? What's going on?" she asked.
"I just told them to let us do whatever we wanted, that's all," Ning said.
"So the man won't bother us at all?" Saphandra said.
"He shouldn't," Ning said. "If he does, we will just beat him up good this time around."
"Well, I can't wait to beat him," Saphandra said, making Ning chuckle a little.
"Right, I was a little confused about something that happened back there," Ning said along the way. "Why did that lion disappear?"
"Well, beasts usually survive based on the spiritual energy of its summoner. Every hit you deal to a beast eats away at the Summoner's Spiritual energy, and as such if you completely make them run out of Spiritual energy, the pact usually ends and the beasts get unsummoned."
"Wait, so I can never hurt a beast that has been summoned?" Ning asked.
"No, you can hurt it. You just have to deal damage that is higher than the summoner's energy pool. If it runs out of energy before all the damage is dealt, the beast has to handle the damage," Saphandra said.
"Oh, so I don't have to worry about beasts dying as long as I have enough spiritual energy?" Ning asked.
"Yeah," Saphandra said. "So long as you have spiritual energy, your beasts can continue fighting."
"I see," Ning said when a different question came to his head.
"Wait, why doesn't little blue get unsummoned, considering you don't have spiritual energy at all," Ning asked.
"I… am a special case that doesn't happen every so often," Saphandra said. "Little blue is even more special I guess."
Ning asked for more, but Saphandra changed the topic, so the two of them talked about different things as they returned back to the tavern.
Chapter 663 Planning to Leave"Where have you guys been?" Taron asked while chewing on a chicken leg inside the tavern.
"Some small trouble arose, so we had to take care of things. It's all fine now," Ning said.
"Well, good. I don't like trouble," Taron said. "Right, how many more days are we staying in this town? I heard around the area that this is a backwater place in terms of spiritual energy amount and the talents that appear."
"Yeah, that might actually be the case," Ning said. "If I'm not wrong, the Origin of this planet should be somewhere in the Southwest."
"Yeah, let's leave this place. I'm kind of bored already," Saphandra said.
"Well, if that is the case then let's go get some tickets for the ship. We will sail tomorrow," Ning said.
Taron nodded, while Saphandra hesitated a bit. "Ship?" she asked.
"It's a water world. Ships are the primary forms of transportation," Ning said.
"Sigh, yeah I knew that," Saphandra said. "Fine, let's go get some tickets for the ship but a little later. I'm kinda tired right now."
"Well, you guys hand around then, I have a little task I need to complete before I leave," Ning said and left the two.
He went out and went towards an alleyway. Once inside, he teleported away and appeared around a massive forest.
'Is this where the cub is?' he wondered as he looked around the place. The other quest he had taken from the Summoning Circle was about capturing and returning a Rank 2 cub that the academy was rearing.
He tapped into his spiritual energy and soon found himself in the darkness again.
"I need help finding a cub. Whoever can find the cub and deliver it to me without harm can get 20 percent of my spiritual energy," Ning said.
Suddenly a whole bunch of lights gravitated towards him. The lights ranged from all levels of intensity and while searching for one to accept, Ning noticed a familiar light.
'That emerald snake,' he thought and grabbed a light.
A bond formed instantly as the massive snake was summoned in front of him.
'Thank you for summoning me again,' the snake's vague thoughts reached Ning, which was still surprising to him. However, after having been with 3 beasts, whose thoughts he could constantly feel, Ning wasn't fazed much by the thoughts.
"Go and bring me a cub of the Teal Tiger," Ning said. "Make sure to not hurt it at all."
The snake wiggled its tail and moved its tongue to agree with him and moved away. The antennae in its head would help it find the beast very easily.
Ning wondered if he should have just used the system to find the cub, but he knew he wanted to practice summoning so he didn't think much of it.
After 5 minutes, the snake came back with a greenish cub of a tiger that would grow to become teal in color.
"Finally," Ning said and grabbed the cub from the snake's mouth. "Good job. You can go back now."
The snake seemed a little disappointed, but a summoning circle appeared below it and it was suddenly gone.
'Did it want me to summon it again?' Ning wondered as he felt the last vague feeling left behind by the beast.
Ning then teleported close to the city and made his way towards the Summoning Circle with the little cub on his arm.
People around the city looked at him curiously, but Ning walked to the building without much care for what people looked at.
"Here," he showed the cub to the clerk who was working today. It wasn't the same clerk as the one he was used to meeting, but they were easily informed after he showed the quest papers.
"Thank you for finding this cub. The academy has been really worried about the cub," the clerk said.
"It's no problem," Ning said. "Can I get paid in dull Pearls?"
"Sure," the man said and paid him in Pearls that were devoid of spiritual energy.
Once he was done, Ning left the Summoning Circle, but this time he didn't take another quest as he would be leaving the next day.
Ning made his way back to the tavern and took the two of them to the dock area.
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"What exactly are we looking for again?" Taron asked as he walked around.
"Find out about boats that are leaving for the Darius kingdom. That will be our next destination," Ning said.
"Darius, huh? Got it," Taron said and looked around.
Saphandra had an annoyed face that neither Ning nor Taron could ignore.
"Do you really hate boats all that much?" Ning asked.
"Not hate," Saphandra said. "I'm more scared of them. I only nearly drowned and I have a trauma from that."
Ning looked at her weirdly. "Can't you fly? Why would you be worried about drowning?" he asked.
Saphandra gave an embarrassed look and said, "I was so scared when I fell into the water that I forgot what I could and couldn't do."
"Was this before or after the people in your world died?" Ning asked curiously.
"After," Saphandra said.
"How did you survive?" Ning asked.
"I involuntarily pushed away all the water in the area and could finally breathe again. I don't even remember doing that, but I survived thanks to it," Saphandra said.
"Well, don't worry about drowning then. We're here to save you," Ning said. "Besides, you should start trying to swim now if you are going to live on this planet full of water."
Saphandra nodded.
"Hey! I found one," Taron shouted and Ning walked towards him. They quickly found the boat that was going to leave and started searching for the staff.
Once they found the staff, they quickly found the location from where they could buy their tickets.
Each ticket cost them about 10 Full pearls, which was cheap for them since Ning could just make as many of them as he wanted to.
"Alright, so tomorrow morning at 7:30," Ning told Saphandra and Taron. "We will have to board the ship by then."
Chapter 664 Onward to Darius Kingdom"I'm dying, aren't I?" Saphandra asked with a deathly face. Blood had drained from her face as she lay on the floor unable to move.
"How-how could I have let this happen," she asked, her voice barely louder than the noise around her.
Ning looked at Saphandra with a frustrated face as he brought out something from his storage. He reached over to her face and opened her mouth before putting it in.
"Eat this," he said as he made her swallow it.
Saphandra swallowed it without asking and finally, her deathly face got better.
"I thought I was going to die," she said as she slowly stood up.
"Stop exaggerating," Ning said with an annoyed voice. "It's just sea-sickness. You'll be fine now that you've taken your medicine."
Ning left her be and walked out of her room. Then, he went out of the hallway to the deck and felt the cool air of the ocean.
There was water as far as he could see with no sign of land anywhere close.
It had been half a day since they started their journey in the morning and were currently less than a quarter of the way through. It was a 3-day long journey with no stops, so there was still plenty of time for everything.
Ning looked at the different fishes that swam underneath him and wondered if there were any monsters there at all.
"Hey brother," Ning called out to a sailor that worked on the ship.
"Yes?" the young man came up to him.
"How often do the beasts come to attack from underneath the water?" Ning asked.
"Oh very often, sir," the sailor said. "But don't worry. We have 5 Rank 3 Summoners that are constantly monitoring the water underneath and fighting away any beast that comes to attack us."
"But they are only rank 3 though," Ning said. "What if a stronger beast comes by?"
"Well, fortunately, beasts higher than Rank 4 or 5 are pretty much impossible to find around here, and they also don't like bothering us humans, so we are fine," the sailor said.
"I see," Ning said. "Thank you for answering."
Ning stayed on the deck for a while and simply enjoyed the journey. They were headed west so the day was going to last longer than normal.
With nothing else to do, Ning returned to his room and started studying the different pieces of information he had in his mind. Primarily, the information on the summoning circle was what he went for.
After a few hours of studying, he got bored and went out to check on the other two.
He knocked on Taron's door, but he was missing. So, he went to Saphandra's door and knocked on it.
Saphandra opened up the door.
"Oh you're looking healthy now," Ning said.
"Well it feels good not having to throw up every few seconds," She said.
"What are you doing?" he asked and looked behind her to see a book on the bed. "Are you studying the language?"
"Yes," Saphandra said. "Want to quiz me?"
"Uhh… sure," Ning said and stayed with her for a while, asking various questions for her to answer.
Ning saw that she was definitely getting better. A few more weeks of learning, and she would be able to hold a normal conversation with anyone, at least an understandable one.
As they were studying, there was a knock on the door. "Dinner time," the sailor shouted.
On the ship, there were 2 meals a day, lunch and dinner. As for breakfast and supper, one could just go grab a fruit from the dining hall if they were hungry.
"I'm really hungry," Saphandra said.
"I would hope so," Ning said. "Considering you skipped out on lunch and threw up everything else that was in your body."
"Yeah, let's not remind me of that," Saphandra said as she made a gagging motion. "Even the thought of vomiting is making me want to vomit now."
"You'll be fine, you've eaten the medicine," Ning said.
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"How did you even come across the medicine?" Saphandra asked as she got ready to leave.
"What do you mean how? I bought it in the city. They sell all kinds of stuff that are useful in the sea," Ning said.
The two of them walked over to the dining hall and found Taron already sitting at one of the tables, surprisingly with another girl they hadn't met before.
"When did he meet a girl?" Saphandra asked.
"Most likely while you were in your room, trying not to throw up," Ning said.
"I told you to stop reminding me of that," Saphandra said as she kicked his leg.
Ning pretended to get hurt and laughed a little. They then lined up and took a place each to grab their food.
There were varieties of food for dinner and Ning chose a little of all of them. At the very least, he was going to taste it all.
Saphandra only took what she recognized and let the rest be. Once they grabbed their food, Ning looked around to see where they should sit.
"Shouldn't we go by Taron?" Saphandra asked.
"Let's not disturb him," Ning said. "He will probably hate us if we bother him at the moment."
"Well, then we should go sit over there with— that bastard!" Saphandra shouted.
"With who now?" Ning was surprised and looked at where she pointed and saw a man wearing a hood, sitting alone at a table.
Despite his hood, however, his long green hair spilled along his side and Ning recognized who he was looking at.
"That bastard!" Ning said as well.
"Do you think he followed us?" Saphandra asked.
"I don't know. Want to find out?" he asked.
"Sure," Saphandra said and took the lead before walking towards the man. She slammed her tray onto the table, surprising the man.
"Hey what are you— Ahh," the man was even more surprised this time when he saw Saphandra.
Ning sat down by her side and looked at the man with a serious face. "Are you following us?" he asked.
Chapter 665 Taron Scouted"What? No, I'm not following you!" the green-haired man named Noren said hurriedly before Saphandra would beat him.
Now that they were on open waters, if either Ning or Saphandra held a grudge against him, he would be as good as dead.
"Then why are you here?" Saphandra asked while secretly looking at Ning to see if she said it correctly. She felt a little happy when Ning nodded.
"I— It was just a coincidence. I boarded the ship without knowledge of you guys coming here. After what happened in the city, I simply wanted to return back to my school," the man said.
Saphandra side eyed Ning and asked, "what is he saying? I only understood 'city' and 'want to return'."
Ning sighed and explained what he said before turning back to the man. "Was this really a coincidence?" he asked.
"Yes, I swear to god," the man said. "In fact, I have been staying in my room the whole the day so I don't have to interact with you."
Ning sighed again. "It's alright, you don't have to do that. Just don't bother us and you can do whatever you want," he said.
"Thank you," Noren said.
Ning explained Saphandra what he said to him and she nodded as well. Then, as if the man in front of them wasn't there, they started eating.
Noren quietly finished his meal and started walking away. However, just as he was leaving, he saw something and turned to look at Ning.
"Umm… I don't mean to bother you, but that is your friend, right?" Noren said while secretly pointing to Taron. "I saw you guys boarding together this morning."
"Yes, why?" Ning asked.
"Well, the woman he's with is called Pamella, and she is just like me, a delegate from a big school called the Thousand Summons school. I believe she's trying to scout your friend as well," he said.
"Why would she? My friend doesn't have any spiritual energy. He's not a summoner," Ning said.
"No spiritual energy?" the man looked at Taron once again. "But he's full of it."
"He is?" Ning looked at Taron, but he couldn't sense anything on him. "Are you sure?"
"I'm using a summon to look at him and he's full of it," Noren said. "Unless that man has eaten dozens of Spiritual Pearl, he's definitely a summoner."
"Ah!" Ning said as he finally understood what was happening. Taron had in fact most likely had his nanosuit eat a bunch of spiritual pearls and that was making him look like a particularly strong summoner.
"Hehehe," Ning chuckled a bit. "She's going to have a particularly bad time when she realizes he's not one."
"Anyway, I've said what I wanted to say. I will leave you two alone now," Noren said and left.
Saphandra as usual didn't understand the conversation, so Ning had to explain to her it all again.
"It's not like he's weak," Saphandra said. "Even if they do take him, they will have succeeded in their search for finding strong individuals."
"You're not wrong there," Ning said. "But he can't summon. At least not for a long time."
"Huh?" Saphandra gave a weird look. "Are you saying he can learn to summon even if he can't use Spiritual energy?"
"No, he will learn to use spiritual energy. As long as you stay in a planet long enough, you will get acclimated to the energy there."
"In fact, for some of the energy like Qi, you don't even need to get acclimated to the energy before you can start your journey in it. Only you won't get very far with just that," Ning said. "I wonder if Spiritual energy is the same. Although there is no absorption technique for it, so we will never know."
"I am going to act like I understood most of what you meant and shut up," Saphandra said.
The two of them quickly finished the rest of their meals and walked out of the dining hall onto the deck.
Vira was up in the sky, lighting the world around them in her silver colors.
"That moon is quite close," Ning said.
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"Is it?" Saphandra asked. "My world didn't even have a moon. We only had a large ring of floating rocks around our planet."
"Well this planet has two of them, so you are in luck," Ning said.
He looked back at the water and the sky that was nothing but silver in color and remembered Kumia and its moon.
He was starting to miss it again. More exactly, he was starting to miss its people.
'I never got to see such sights back in Kumia since cultivators had such good vision,' Ning thought. 'This world wouldn't look as majestic if I could see everything as well.'
Ning silently activated his vision skill to see the world as if it was a bright day. The water looked clear and the sky bright blue.
He could see the dark and light clouds and off in the distance he could see some other ship on the water.
Nulwurn was massive and mostly covered in water, so seeing ships in the sea from time to time wasn't so rare. However, this ship in particular was a bit weird.
Ning closed his vision and suddenly the ship disappeared as well. It was invisible in the darkness of the night as there was no light aboard it.
'What the hell?' Ning thought as he zoomed his vision to look at the ship more clearly.
The ship was definitely moving in the water. "An abandoned ship?" Ning wondered out loud.
"A what?" Saphandra asked.
"That ship, there's a ship right there," Ning said as he pointed in the distance. "I think it's abandoned but it doesn't seem that bad and looks maintained. I wonder why there aren't any lights there."
"Maybe they ran out of glowing pearl?" Saphandra asked.
"In the ocean? Yeah right," Ning said. "I think I will go check."
"Wait, I'll come with you," she said and started flying. However, before she could lift much further away from the deck, Ning grabbed her leg and directly teleported onto the other ship.
Chapter 666 Vanishing People"Huh? What the hell?" Saphandra was spooked at the sudden change of scenery and nearly attacked Ning.
"Calm down, we're here," Ning said and let go of her leg. Saphandra slowly drifted back to the ground and looked around before finally seeing the bright ship in the distance.
"That's our ship?" she asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
"So this is the abandoned ship we saw just how?" Saphandra asked as she looked around the massive boat that was surprisingly in a stable condition.
If left alone, it could probably go on for another few years with no problem.
"How did we get here?" she asked.
"What do you mean? I teleported us here," Ning said.
"You can do that?" Saphandra was surprised.
"Of course," Ning said. "Oh right, you haven't seen me do that before."
"Yeah," Saphandra looked back to check the distance between their two ships. "I'm surprised how far you can teleport. That was instantaneous too."
"That's nothing," Ning said proudly. "I can go around the world with this skill. It's honestly awesome."
Saphandra's eyes narrowed. "Only by yourself right? You can't take anyone else along."
"No, I can take anyone," Ning said simply.
"But it has to have some downside if you take some other people with you right? It doesn't just let you take just about anyone," Saphandra asked.
"No, the skill is based on the distance of what is being transfered, not the weight, so whether I go alone, or take someone else, it requires the same amount of energy," Ning said.
"Really?" Saphandra asked.
"Of course," Ning said.
Just then, Saphandra's face started to get red as Ning saw rage build up in her.
"What is g—"
"YOU COULD TELEPORT US ANYWHERE, AT ANYTIME AND YOU CHOSE TO LET US TAKE A SHIP RIDE?" Saphandra asked angrily. "HELL! YOU COULD'VE TAKEN US OUT OF THOSE VILLAGE AREA IN A SECOND AND YET WE HAD TO WALK AROUND FOR 3 DAYS!"
"Uhh… but this is a new planet we're on. Don't you want to go on an adventure? See the sceneries, visit different places," Ning said.
"We could've just teleported there," Saphandra said.
Ning shook his head. "Journey before destination, my friend. You will miss half the fun if you just skip around to places," he said.
"Now come on, let's go check this ship out."
Saphandra harrumphed, but reluctantly followed him onto the ship.
Ning walked around on the deck that was shone bright in the moonlight and he could vaguely see the outline of stuff there.
"Well it does seem lifeless," Saphandra said. "Although you might want to use some beasts to sense if its totally lifeless or not."
"Beasts?" Ning thought to the snake that could sense the different life in the forest and wondered if he should summon it.
However, the snake was too large for that.
"We will be fine without any summon. Let's just check it like normal people would," Ning said.
"What do you think happened to the crew? Saphandra asked.
"I don't know. Maybe they died and this is a haunted ship now?" Ning said. "Ooh, what if the spirit of the dead are going to come after us soon?"
He turned around to see the scared look on Saphandra's face, but she didn't have any. "Seriously? Am I supposed to get scared by spirits? Me?" she asked.
"Right," Ning said and turned around to continue looking for any sign of life, even if it was just the bones of the people that died.
After walking through the top of the deck, Ning went underneath the deck and it was completely dark.
"Oh god this place stinks," Saphandra said as she closed her nose. Ning thought he could handle, but he was forced to do the same.
"What is up with this place? It smells of nothing but alcohol," she said.
"Maybe they were a group of people that liked to party a lot," Ning said. "Careful, don't step on that hole in the wood. It looks weak."
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"What hole? I can't see anything," Saphandra said.
"Wait, let me bring out some light," Ning said brought out a bunch Spiritual Pearls that were full. He handed some over to Saph and they used it to see the path forward.
They walked along the hall underneath the deck and still there was no sign of fight. "What do you think happened here really? A party gone wrong? Maybe a summon killed them?" Saphandra asked.
"Well, I did overhear some people talking about humans mysteriously disappearing in the other part of the world. Maybe this was a victim to that?" Ning said.
"Are you serious?" Saphandra asked.
"Yeah. It's quite a big news around most important places. I heard some quests in the circle that was about finding these people," Ning said.
"Did you take any?" she asked.
"It was above my rank," Ning said. "On that thought, I should upgrade my rank on the next location."
"Why do you think those people disappeared?" she asked.
"I don't know, I could… " Ning trailed off as he noticed something on the wall.
"Weird," he said. "That light cage is open."
"Light cage?" Saphandra turned her pearl towards the wall and saw the metal cage, where the pearls were stored to shine light, was wide open.
"That one is open too," Ning said. "And that one too."
He quickly found all of the light cages were empty.
"Why would people who disappear need pearls?" Saphandra asked.
"Oh, I don't think that's the case anymore," Ning said as she quietly looked around. He opened the doors around the room but there were no people there either.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Missing people, lightless vessel in the sea, headed straightly towards a ship in the night, what do you think I mean?" Ning asked.
"You mean…" Saphandra's eyes narrowed as she looked around her as well.
"Yes," Ning said. "I think these people are hiding somewhere on the boat, ready to loot the ship when the opportunity comes."
Saphandra's eyes glowed. "Pirates."
Chapter 667 Don't Kill"No way there are pirates right?" Saphandra asked. "If they are here then they should have heard us already and come for us."
"That's true," Ning said. "You did shout quite loudly back then. If they didn't hear us then they must be quite a bit further away… or in a place with a lot of noise."
"What place has a lot of noise?" Saphandra asked.
"What place is furthest away from us?" Ning asked.
"The back of the ship?" Saphandra asked.
"Yes," Ning said and immediately ran in the opposite direction. When he reached the back of the deck, he started furiously opening doors throughout the underdeck.
When he finally reached the end of the ship and opened the final door, it led to a massive room that was unfortunately empty.
"Well, I guess my guesses aren't entirely correct today," Ning said.
"Let's check," Saphandra said and immediately threw the pearl into the large room.
The pearl flew through the door, into the room, and suddenly hung in mid-air.
"What are you doing?" Ning asked.
Saphandra smiled. "I am doing nothing," she said.
Suddenly, Ning felt moving through the floorboard beneath him and realized that someone was moving toward him.
He took a step back and suddenly a massive saber swung in front of his face, nearly hitting him.
Surprisingly, the saber was only visible once it was out of the room and not while inside.
Ning's vision changed as in a sea of black and blue, he saw human-shaped figures that were green, yellow, and orange.
"Ah, I should've known. They're invisible," Ning said.
"Kill them!" a voice shouted from inside the room and suddenly people started charging toward them.
The moment they left the room, their invisibility wore off and the two of them saw the pirates.
Long, scruffy hair, unkempt beard, faces that looked like they hadn't seen water for days, and clothes that were worse than all of those three combined.
Swords and Sabers struck at the two, but Ning simply stood in front of the pirates and took all the hits without taking any damage.
"Should I deal with them or do you want to work on your frustration so I don't have to get scolded once we go back?" Ning asked.
"You aren't getting out of it either way," Saphandra said. "But I will like to deal with them."
"Sure," Ning said and walked away.
The pirates that were attacking him were already surprised at how strong he was. So many sword slashes fell on him and yet not a single one was able to draw blood.
"He's a summoner, a really strong one. Be careful," someone shouted.
"Take his girl, he can't attack us then," another person shouted.
Ning looked at the rowdy bunch and then at Saphandra and smiled. "Don't kill them," Ning said.
"Why not?" Saphandra asked.
Just then a person swung a sword at her.
Saphandra moved her hands and the door swung open to slam directly onto the man's face. The man's nose was broken and bleeding, and it looked like the man was unconscious after that single hit.
However, Saphandra's eyes weren't on that man, but instead on Ning, waiting for an answer.
"I mean, they haven't done anything to us, so…" Ning said.
"They're trying to kill us," Saphandra said.
"Trying," Ning said. "You know they can't do it. Do you really feel right killing a bunch of weaklings when we can just get them arrested?"
"You killed many weaklings yourself," Saphandra said. "Why are you suddenly a saint now?"
"What do you mean?" Ning's eyes narrowed in a serious look.
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A floorboard below Saphandra broke open and splinters of it were sprayed onto the pirates. Everyone that was in the front was stabbed in different places by those splinters.
They all cried out in pain, but Ning ignored them and looked at Saphandra. "What do you mean?" he asked again.
"Back in Genesis, you killed so many people that were just trying to survive. They were a million times better than these low lives that were going to kill and steal from us in a few hours."
"And yet you killed so many of them," Saphandra said.
"That is different," Ning said. "This is not Genesis."
"How is that different?" Saphandra asked while making a small group of people kneel on the ground and grovel in pain.
"I was forced to do what I did there. I'm not proud of it," Ning said. "Most of those people were just trying to survive and their blood is on my hand."
"But that was something that was out of choice for me at the time. It was Do or Die, in a sense," Ning said. "But this is different it's simply Do as there is no chance we die here."
"That's why I don't want to kill," Ning said. "I'm not saying we need to let them go. I'm not trying to be a saint here. I'm just someone trying to not get his and his friend's hands bloodier than it needs to be."
Saphandra stayed quiet for a second and attacked the men without looking at them.
Ning looked at her and asked, "Were the 3rd round to continue and you were going to be pit against me, would you have killed me?"
Saphandra stared at him. "Yes," she said.
"What about now? If you are angry at me now, will you kill me?" he asked.
"Of course not," Saphandra said. "I'm not a bloodthirsty… monster."
"Exactly, so maybe don't kill them just because you want to," Ning said.
"Besides," he looked at the group of pirates. "We don't really know what exactly they have done. For all we know, they are just people trying to feed their family and they attacked us simply because they felt threatened."
"Fine," Saphandra said and gestured her hands. In a single instant, Ning heard every single pirate in the hallway collapse to the ground.
Then, there was silence all around them. "They're unconscious now," she said.
"Great," Ning said. "I'll grab some rope and we can turn them in to the ship guards."
Chapter 668 SwimAfter tying up the unconscious pirates, Ning and Saphandra decided to wait for the ship to get close to their ship before getting off.
"What about the beast that made them invisible?" Ning asked. "Is it gone?"
"Someone here most likely just summoned the beast's abilities rather than the entire beast," Saphandra said.
"Right, I keep forgetting that's even possible. Like how you are using Little Blue's skills," Ning said.
They waited for a while longer and the pirate ship was noticed by the others. After making sure that the pirates were truly unconscious, Ning left giant notes that read 'PIRATES' on the boat and teleported to the far side of their own ship.
There was already commotion in the night as the ship guards had realized they were being attacked by pirates.
So, when they got ready to attack and instead noticed a bunch of people tied up on the deck, they couldn't help but be confused.
Ning and Saphandra acted like they weren't aware of anything and mingled into the crowd.
It took a while for the whole thing to be done with, and they decided to send a few of the guards onto the pirate ship to sail it.
By the time everything was settled, it was time for people to go to sleep.
"Alright, I'm off to go read some more," Saphandra said and left.
Ning was about to leave too when he noticed Taron with the girl that was apparently named Pamella.
'Should I say something?' he wondered, but he wasn't sure what to say. Besides, it was rude to simply interrupt them when they were in such a deep conversation from the looks of it.
'System, send a message to Wendy and tell her what the girl is up to. She should be able to warn him lest he gets his heart broken,' Ning said.
Taron's face shifted for a moment and Ning knew the message was sent. Now he had done what he needed to do and did not care more than necessary.
Taron was an adult already, and he could take care of himself.
Ning returned back to his room and directly went to sleep.
The next day, Ning woke up early in the morning and couldn't help but feel bored.
'Let's go for a swim,' he thought and directly teleported out of the room and into the water nearly 100 meters below.
The cold water woke him up way more than he already was and he could finally see the many fish that swam around him.
It wasn't just fish, but other aquatic beasts like squids, octopus, jellyfishes, and other creatures that swam in the ocean.
Using his vision skill, he could see the ocean with a clarity that was otherwise impossible for normal people.
He swam underneath the shadow of the boat in hope that some beasts wouldn't come and provoke him.
At the same time, he looked underneath the ship and saw exactly 7 different fishes swim alongside it.
'Are those the beasts that the ships employed summoners are summoning to fend off the attackers?' Ning wondered. The fishes swam giving no attention to him, so Ning looked the other way as well.
'I should probably get those Pearls charged,' he thought and brought out the 100 or so dull Pearls he had.
He then tied them up in a metal cage and went to the pirate ship to attach the pearls to it.
Ning swam for a bit longer and finally decided to return back to the ship for some food.
He teleported back into his room and searched for a towel in the closet to dry himself.
Just then, he heard a knock on the door and quickly went to the door to see who it was. When he opened it, he saw a deathly-looking Saphandra haggard around the door while holding a hand to her mouth.
"Oh shit!" he thought and quickly brought out one of the sea sickness medicine and quickly fed her.
Only after eating the medicine did Saphandra finally feel better.
"Tha-Thank you," she said.
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"It's alright," Ning said. "I'm sorry I forgot to give you the pill. I thought it would have lasted longer."
"I thought so too," Saphandra said while taking deep breaths. "What were you doing? You took so long to open the door."
Saphandra then finally looked at him and made a weird face. "Why are you so wet?" she asked.
Ning started drying himself with the tower and said, "I was taking a swim in the ocean."
"Why?" Saphandra asked.
"No reason. I was just bored," Ning said. Then he remembered something and said, "oh right, you don't know how to swim right? Want to try?"
"What? No, I don't want to," she said.
"Come on, it will be fun. You can swim with the fishes," Ning said.
"No, no, no, no, no," Saphandra said and tried to run away but Ning close the door.
"Come on," Ning said and grabbed her before disappearing. When they reappeared, they were in the air a few hundred meters away from the ship.
"Alright, time to go swim," Ning said and let her go, but Saphandra kept on flying.
"Come on, just get in there. It's just water. I won't do anything to you," Ning said.
"No, no, no, no, no," Saphandra said and tried to run back to the ship when suddenly a giant tentacle emerged from the sea and wrapped itself around Ning before dragging him in.
"Save me!" Ning shouted as he was taken in by the monster.
"What?" Saphandra was surprised and scared, but she knew Ning could save himself. He was strong after all.
However, even as she waited Ning never came out at all.
As seconds went by, she started to get worried. When she saw no movement at all, she realized he was in trouble and would need to save him.
So, she steeled her resolve and pushed back her fear before plunging into the dark and cold water to save Ning from the clutches of the monster.
Chapter 669 PamellaSaphandra plunged through the ocean and rocketed herself down the water in search of Ning. She couldn't know how far down Ning had gone, so she continued going down, forgetting her fear.
Ning stayed in the water and freely watched Saphandra swim through the ocean trying to find him.
The monster he had summoned to grab him was already gone, and he was waiting by himself.
After seeing Saphandra go down further and further, he was a little surprised. 'I thought she would be a little more scared,' he thought, but he could see no hint of awkwardness in her swimming.
For a person who was scared of swimming, she was swimming quite well.
'I should go get her before she goes too deep and ruptures her ear drums,' Ning thought and teleported next to her before grabbing her and teleporting her out of the water.
"Huh? What?" She looked around in shock and saw Ning. "You're… fine?"
"Sorry about that," Ning said. "I had to get you into the water."
Suddenly, she punched Ning in the chest with all the force she could muster. Her hand hurt as if she had just punched an iron wall.
"Don't ever do that," she shouted at him.
Ning healed her hand silently and said, "but why are you afraid? You are an amazing swimmer."
"I am afraid," she shouted. "I am afraid if I swim I will… you won't understand."
She shouted at him and flew towards the ship.
Ning sighed and apologized as he flew along with her. She was still annoyed at him, but her anger had dropped after Ning promised not to pull off a stupid stunt like that again.
When they landed on the ship, a few of the people that were on the deck stared at them stupidly.
Ning saw the green-haired Noren amongst the people and Noren couldn't help but try to explain it was just a coincidence.
Ning ignored him and brought out a towel, surprising the people again before putting it around Saphandra to dry herself.
He also brought out a towel for himself and walked towards the kitchen with Saphandra behind her.
They took a few fruits from the dining area and went back to their room. Ning apologized once again and Saphandra was finally no longer angry.
After a while, lunch came around and they went to eat. Once again, Taron was with Pamella and seemed chummy with her.
"Does he know what he is doing?" Saphandra asked.
"Yeah, I let him know already. Whatever he does now is his actual choice," Ning said.
"Well, if that's what he wants then who am I to care," Saphandra said and got a tray to grab some food.
Ning grabbed a plate behind her and took some of the food as well. Once they got their food, they looked around to see an empty table, but there was none.
Every table was occupied, even if it was just a single person sitting there. So, without any choice, they had to go and sit with their friend.
"Hey, will we bother you if we sit here?" Saphandra asked.
"Yes." "No." Two conflicting answers came from Taron and Pamella respectively.
"Uhh…"
"Pam, these are my friends I'm traveling with. Saphandra and Ning," Taron introduced. "Guys, this is Pamella, my new girlfriend."
"Oh my god, I'm sorry. I thought you were random passersby. Please sit," Pamella said.
Pamella was a blond-haired beauty with a small face and curly hair. She was on the shorter end when it came to humans on this planet, but that didn't stop her from seeming mature.
"Thank you," Saphandra said and sat down.
"Girlfriend?" Ning couldn't help but be surprised. "In 2 days?"
"What can I say? Girls can't resist my charm," Taron said smugly.
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"Really? I must not be a girl then," Saphandra said and chuckled to herself. "Sorry, I'm just joking."
"Oh my god, I love your hair," Pamella said to Saphandra.
"Really? It's a little wet because someone decided to dunk me in the ocean, but other than that I guess it's good," Saphandra said. "Your hair isn't bad either. My hair could never get that curly."
"Oh no, I was talking about the color," Pamella said. "It's so vivid and violet. Can you tell me what dye you use?"
"Dye? I—"
"He is responsible for all the dyes around here," Taron quickly interjected. "He's the one who dyed my hair black too. Otherwise, we would've had matching blond hair."
"Ye-yes, I'm the one who dyes their hair," Ning said, going along with the lie. "Do you need me to dye your hair too?"
"Oh no, I can't," Pamella said. "My job won't allow me. We require to have our color visible for everyone to see."
"Oh, what job do you do?" Saphandra asked.
"Aww, it's nothing big really. I'm just a small scout for the Thousand Summons School," she said proudly.
"Thousand Summons school?" Ning asked. "I'm sorry, we don't know much about the world. What is this Thousand Summons school?"
"It's only the 2nd biggest Summoning school in the whole world. How could you have not heard of it?" she asked.
"Sorry, we come from a place where it felt like we were the only person alive in the entire world," Ning said with a genuine smile.
Saphandra held her laugh and Taron got a little scared that Ning was going to screw it all up.
"If you're from a big school like that and you're scout, what are you scouting for?" Ning asked.
"For a talented individual like my boyfriend here. We are searching for people like him with unlimited Spiritual energy so that we can teach them to harness it and become one of the better summoners in the whole world," she said.
"Oh, you scouted Taron for that task huh? It's surprising really. He's usually shy about showing off his summons in front of everyone. He showed it to you?" Ning asked.
"Yes, I saw it, and he's amazing," Pamella said.
"I see, that's great then," Ning said. "I'm happy my friend is going to go to such an amazing place like the Thousand Summons school."
Chapter 670 StorageThe four of them finished eating and stood up to leave. Just as they were doing so, Taron took Ning and Saphandra to the side to speak in private.
"You guys aren't mad that I'm doing this, are you?" Taron asked.
"Not really," Ning said. "As long as you know what you're doing, I see no problem."
"I couldn't care less either," Saphandra said.
"Thank you," Taron said.
"Right, do you want me to dye your hair? I can make it so that it doesn't wash off," Ning said.
"Yes, if you can, thanks," Taron said. "I will visit your room tonight. Also, I have something else to say."
"What is it?" Ning asked.
"We won't be dropping off at Darius. I will take a connecting ship directly to the Thousand Summons school," Taron said.
"Well, that seems a little hasty but sure," Ning said.
"What will you do when you find a spaceship coming? How will you let me know?" Taron asked.
"You don't have to worry about that. There is nowhere in this planet that you can go to that I won't be able to find you in," Ning said. "Also if you ever need any help, just let me know."
"How can I do that?" Taron asked.
"Just ask Wendy, she can send me messages," Ning said and walked away.
Saphandra quickly followed him and went back to their rooms.
While Saphandra read up on the language, Ning read up on the summoning circles again.
These things were so complicated that Ning couldn't understand much on a single read-through.
Ning came and they went to dinner again.
Later at night, Taron came to Ning's room and got his hair dyed all yellow. Ning made sure to use something that would last forever and not wash away.
In fact, he made it so that no matter how much Taron's hair grew out, it would forever remain yellow.
Once that was done, Taron returned back to his room and Ning went to sleep.
The next morning, he was awakened by some violent bangs on the door and he lazily got to the door to open it.
As expected, it was a seasick Saphandra that was here to ask for her medicine. Ning sighed and handed her medicine.
"Thank you," she said. "I should really keep some for myself."
"You should," Ning said as he yawned. "I'm going back to sleep, bye."
"Are you that sleepy?" she asked.
"Kinda," Ning said. "You might want to go sleep as well. You don't want to be lethargic when we disembark later today."
"Oh, we're reaching today? Yes, finally," Saphandra felt glad. "Yes, I'll go rest too then."
Ning only woke up again at noon for lunch. Saphandra was already awake by then and was reading her books again.
"Wanna go eat lunch?" Ning asked her from outside the door.
"Sure," she said and walked out in one of her newer dresses.
"You look nice," Ning said.
"Thank you," she said and walked together to the dining hall. They were some of the last people to come for lunch so the hall was quite empty.
They finally got to eat in peace and then went by the deck to wait.
"Look, I can see land," Saphandra said as she pointed to the distance.
"Oh, there it is," Ning said as he saw the land too. "Darius Kingdom. At this rate, we should be there in half an hour. Let me go grab my stuff."
Ning teleported away from right where he was and appeared back in the exact spot 5 seconds later.
"Where did you— why are you wet?" she asked him.
"I had to go get this," Ning said as he showed her the hundreds of pearls in the metal cage that he had just ripped off from underneath the pirate boat.
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"What's this?" she asked.
"I put it in the water to recharge it while we were in the ocean," Ning said. "Come on, let's get ready to leave."
Saphandra sighed and went back to her room to pack all of her stuff and handed them over to Ning who conveniently stored it in his storage.
"Dammit, I wish I had a storage too," she said.
"It's a shame you can't. Most places I've been to have some sort of storage," Ning said.
"No, people do have storage here too," Saphandra said. "Most people can summon a monster that can store objects into the void."
"Oh? They can?" Ning asked curiously. "Why don't they do it then?"
"It costs quite a lot of spiritual energy to keep a monster or its skill summoned, you know."
"Imagine walking around an entire day with a monster summoned. You know how much energy it would consume?" she asked. "It would take a person nearly a week or more of continuous seclusion with many pearls to get back their Spiritual energy."
"If their rank is high, then they might be able to afford a low-rank monster, but for people with low rank it's pretty much impossible," Saphandra said.
"That… kinda makes sense," Ning said with a thoughtful expression. "Especially considering that people can't just use techniques to absorb spiritual energy."
"Anyway, it's time to leave, let's go," Saphandra said and walked out to the deck.
A few minutes later, the port was visible with a lot of other ships coming and going, and a few minutes after that, the ship stopped.
A ladder came down and everyone started leaving the ship one by one. Ning and Saphandra left along with Pamella and Taron, who now had flowing golden hair.
"This is it, guys," Taron said. "I'm leaving with Pam in one of these ships right now."
"Alright, good luck," Saphandra said.
"See you later then," Ning said and waved his hand to Taron and Pamella.
"Take care you two," Pamella said and walked away with Taron.
"What do you think will happen when she finds the truth?" Saphandra asked.
"No idea," Ning said as he chuckled. "Come on, let's go find a place to stay."
Chapter 671 Darius CityDarius kingdom was a collection of 12 different islands, each with a city on it.
Darius's capital, Darius City was at the center of it all and was the largest island of the kingdom. It was about 20 kilometers wide and 40 kilometers long.
The majority of the island was inhabited, except for a small patch of land in the south that was a desert.
Ning and Saphandra landed at the eastern port of the city and walked in. They took a small carriage to a hotel in the city and registered themselves there.
Once done, they went out into the city to check it out. They ate some local delicacies, bought some clothes, and overall had a great time.
It was evening when they returned back to the hotel and went to their separate room.
The next morning, Ning met up with Saphandra down in the lobby.
"Come, you have to try this tea. It's so… cooling," Ning said when he saw Saphandra.
"Ning, I want to talk to you about something," she said.
"Oh, this seems serious," Ning said. "What is it?"
"I… I'm kind of feeling like I'm being spoiled right now," She said.
"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean," Ning said.
"You know. You pay for my food, you pay for my clothes, you pay for where I stay at, you pay for my travels," she said. "Hell, you're just one step away from making me your wife."
"Oh… no…" Ning said. "Look, you're a beautiful woman, and any man would be lucky to be with you, but… I already have a woman."
"I… wasn't coming onto you, but good to know," Saphandra said. "What I'm trying to say is… I need to be independent. I can't just rely on you all the time."
"Oh, sure… I don't mind helping you, but if you feel bad about it, sure, go ahead," Ning said. "What exactly can you do though?"
"I… " Saphandra thought for a second. With how bad her language was, anything that required communication was a no-go.
"Can you create stuff you can sell?" Ning asked.
"Ye… no," Saphandra said disappointedly. "I can't cook, I can't create. I can do labor work, but I don't know if I want to do that or not."
"Well, what exactly are you good at?" Ning asked.
"Fighting!" Saphandra said without hesitation.
"Remind me again what exactly did you do back on your planet?" Ning asked.
"I…" Saphandra sighed for a second and said, "I was part of a law keeping group."
"Oh, so police. Hmm… you can't do that here without your language fixed up."
"Maybe the Circle will take you here if we explain to them," Ning said. "Can you really not summon at all?"
Saphandra shook her head. "Little blue takes away all the spiritual energy," she said.
"You made such a bond?" Ning asked.
"Kind of like that," She said.
"Well, can't you just unsummon her? Or are you afraid of losing your skills?" Ning asked.
Saphandra still shook her head. "I can't really explain it," she said.
"Well, I guess then we should go to the Summoning Circle. I have to go there anyway to rank up in any case," Ning said.
"Alright, let's go," Ning said.
The two of them left the hotel on a cloudy day and reached the Summoning Circle not long after.
Ning walked in and saw that this place was quite a lot better looking than the one in Tyrana city.
The building was large, the room was spacious, and it was a lot more crowded than it was back there.
"So many people," Ning said as he looked around. "Do they even have quests here for folks like us?"
Ning walked over to the quest board and saw that it was at least 3 times larger than the board back in Tyrana city. Starting from the right with rank 1, the quests got more and more difficult as it moved towards the left, ending with quests that required one to be Rank 5.
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"That's the best?" Ning wondered.
"Come on, let's go," Saphandra said as she looked around and noticed the dirty gazes of the men around her.
"Sorry, you're right," Ning said and walked over to the clerk.
"Hello, my friend here would like to register into the circle, but she already has a beast summoned. Can she still register?" Ning asked.
"Yes," the clerk said. "We just need to check the rank of her summon."
"Great," Ning said.
"No, not great," Saphandra said. "Little blue isn't a beast with a rank. I can't show her around."
"Eh?" Ning said. He quickly turned around and said, "My friend here has only summoned the beast's skills and not the beast itself. What can she do?"
"Just unsummon the beast and summon it again," the clerk said in a monotone voice.
"You can't unsummon little blue, right?" Ning asked her.
"I told you before, no," Saphandra said.
"I know, I was just checking," Ning said and turned around. "That is not possible either. My friend cannot remove her bonds. Is there any other way?"
"If she can't summon a beast to show us, then she can't join the circle," the clerk said.
"Is there any other way then? I can assure you she's super strong, she just can't summon any beast right now," Ning said.
The clerk finally got angry. "If she's so damn strong then take her to the damn arena to fight and stop wasting my time," he shouted at Ning.
Ning didn't get offended at the clerk's outburst. Instead, he got curious. "Arena? Care to tell us more about it?" he asked.
"How do you not know about the arena? It's where you go to fight and earn money from fighting. If you're strong, go there," he said.
"Oh, thanks for telling us. We'll definitely go there," Ning said. "But first, I need to change my rank."
Ning took out his summoner's card and asked, "What do I need to do for that?"
Chapter 672 Re-RankNing quickly filled up the form he was handed and was taken to the back area which was a massive training ground where many different people and beasts were fighting each other.
"Woah, this is huge," he said as he was made to stand in a line. He looked to his left and saw another line next to him.
"Hey, do you know what there are two different lines?" Ning asked the girl in the line before him.
"Those are for people that are newbies or looking to upgrade their color. You must be here to change your rank. Since you are still only red, you get to skip your hair being washed," the girl said.
"Oh," Ning said as he realized it all made sense.
He looked around while waiting for his turn and saw the different beasts. 'They are training, huh? I should probably get in tune with the beasts I summon and train with them too,' he thought.
Just because a beast was strong, didn't mean it was going to absolutely go to win every battle. As long as there was a chance it could lose, one would have to minimize the chance.
The training was the best way of doing so.
For 15 minutes, Ning watched a bunch of people succeed and fail at summoning a monster above the rank that was written on their card.
Finally, it was his turn. Ning handed over his card and the tester saw it.
"Summon any monster that is above rank 2," he said.
Ning nodded and closed his eyes. The moment he did so, he disappeared into the darkness and saw the many bright spots of light all around him.
He searched around for a bit and saw a very bright star in the distance. Ning grabbed it and spoke, "Come to me and be tamed by me. In exchange, I shall give you 20% of my Spiritual energy."
He waited for a few seconds but nothing happened. When he opened his palm, the light wasn't there anymore.
'Did I fail?' he thought. 'But why? Was the bond conditions not good enough?'
Ning wondered why it happened, but there wasn't much thinking he could do. He didn't have the time.
He grabbed onto another bright, but dimmer than the first one, light and attempted to say his bond condition.
Before he did so, he made sure that the conditions were most suitable for the beast was would be summoned.
"Bond with me and be controlled for in a danger-less area for 5 minutes. In exchange, you may have 50% of my spiritual energy," he said.
The beast took a deceptively long time to consider the conditions. So much so that, Ning thought he had messed it all up again.
However, just as he was about to try again, he was brought out of the darkness and a summoning circle appeared in front of him.
Ning looked at the summoning circle and before the beast even came out, he knew a few things about the beast just based on the circle.
Given the thickness of the outer lines, the beast was a Rank 6 beast. It was a beast of the lightning attribute and was also a carnivorous beast.
Between being a Physical, Elemental, or Mental focused beast, this one was mostly elemental with not bad physical capabilities.
That was all Ning managed to figure out in the split second it took for the circle to send out a beast.
In a crackle of lightning, a majestic fox with azure fur appeared in the midst of the summoners. Its eyes were glowing orbs of white that shined as if they were a source of light.
The fox had a long, furred tail that crackled with electricity as it moved around. From time to time, the electricity crackled around its body too.
As if it had intelligence, it looked at the humans around it in disdain and turned to the sky to cry like the fox it was.
The surrounding grew darker for a moment as clouds full of lightning began to gather in the sky, which turned away a moment after the fox stopped crying.
"Holy shit!" a man shouted from the side.
"What rank is that?" another girl asked.
A bit of murmur began with the fox as the subject of the conversation. People kept wondering what it was and what rank it was.
"D-did you summon this thing?" the tester asked.
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"I sure did," Ning said. He knew that he had to have the fox do something to prove that he had control of it, so he decided to ask a few things about the fox.
"Run in circles around me," Ning said.
The fox grunted a bit but quickly followed the orders as it was bonded.
"Now, jump over me," Ning said.
The fox obeyed, albeit reluctantly.
"Now attack that rock with your lightning," Ning said.
"Grrr," the fox looked toward the rock. In the next second, the fox's entire body was covered in lightning that in a single instant shot at the rock and broke it into a hundred pieces.
"Good," Ning said with a proud face. He then turned around and looked at the tester. "This means I pass right?"
"Wh- yeah, yeah. Absolutely, you passed… but…" the tester didn't know how to bring the next sentence up.
"But what? Is there something wrong with the beast I summoned?" Ning asked.
"No, nothing is wrong on your end," the tester said. "I… I just don't know what this beast's rank is."
"Ah," Ning said as he understood. The tester himself was only a Rank 4 summoner, so anything above his own rank would be vague at best for him.
"He's a Rank 6 beast," Ning said.
"Is… is that so?" the tester asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
The fox was unsummoned very soon and Ning was sent back into the circle.
"Did you do it?" Saphandra asked.
"Yeah, I'm just waiting for the card to be updated," Ning said.
5 minutes later, the card arrived, and to Ning's surprise, he got Rank 5.
Chapter 673 The Arena"Um, is there a mistake with my card? It says Rank 5," Ning said.
"Yeah, there was a problem with the testing," the clerk said. "You summoned a beast that our staff couldn't rank properly, so we only had you to go by to say that it was Rank 6."
"While it probably was, without concrete evidence, it's hard to rank you as such."
"However, do not worry. Even as Rank 5, you will lose no opportunity here as Rank 5 is the highest quest we ever receive anyway," the clerk said.
"Well, that sucks," Ning said. "I guess I can't help it then. Thanks for upgrading my rank."
Ning turned around and left with Saphandra. He didn't even bother looking at the Quest board as there was something far more interesting that was occupying his mind at the moment.
The two of them quickly made their ways through the city as they arrived at the northern end of the city next to the ocean.
There was a massive cliff on that side and on the cliff was a giant arena. It was far away from the edge that it wasn't a disaster waiting to happen.
When Ning arrived outside the arena, he couldn't help but be shocked at the sheer size of it.
It wasn't much vertically, but horizontally it was massive. Ning wouldn't be surprised if there was more than just a single arena in there.
And that was exactly what it was.
Inside that giant arena was 4 smaller arena. Ning and Saphandra decided to first check out the fights instead of directly joining to fight.
When buying the entry ticket, Ning and Saphandra were asked a few questions.
"Beastless or with beast?" the man asked.
"Uh… with beasts," Ning said, unsure what that was about.
"Pros or newbies?" the man asked.
"Let's start with newbies," Ning said.
"Alright, here you go. Two tickets for beasts newbies, 16 Pearls," the man said.
'That's quite expensive,' Ning thought, but he payed the pearls anyway.
He was made to go through one of the 4 doors, so Ning and Saphandra followed the people that went ahead of them and soon saw an opening to a massive arena.
The quickly found two empty seats and sat down as they watched the fights in the stages below them.
There was exactly 4 stages down in front of them and each of them had two humans sitting on the sideline as two beasts duked it out in front of them.
"Oh," Ning said as he realized what the 'beastless or with beasts' choice at the front desk was about.
"The other arena must have people fighting without beasts," Ning said.
"Wow, they really are newbies," Saphandra said as she watched the young people on the stage fight.
Ning didn't want to say it out loud, but he agreed too.
On the stage that was titled 'B' on its ground, one of the beasts vanished as it was unsummoned.
The crowd erupted into a shout of 'hurray' and 'boo'.
"That's a strong reaction for someone who's watching newbies fight," Saphandra said as the people around her confused her.
"True," Ning said and focused on the people talking to eavesdrop and see what it was all about.
"Yes!" one man shouted while pumping his fists in the air. "I got 30 pearls."
"Dammit!" another man shouted. "I should have known not to trust a goddamn beginner to win this match. I lost 20 pearls."
"I told you. I earned more than your lost," the first man said. "Imma go bet on that guy again with my profits."
"Oh," Ning said as he realized what was going on. "These people are gambling. There's probably a bet going around— there!"
Ning saw a caged room where people were going to and from with pearls on their hands.
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"Do you want to bet? Its an easy way to make money," Ning said.
"Well, who will I bet on?" Saphandra asked as she looked down below. "I can barely tell if they have spiritual energy or not from up here."
"Hm… let me see," Ning said and looked at the people down below. "That guy in red, he's rank 3, while that guy in orange is just rank 2. If you bet on the guy in red, you should win."
"Alright, let me try," Saphandra stood up and walked over to the betting area. Ning walked along with her just in case.
Using her broken language, she managed to bet 10 spiritual pearls on the guy in red. She was handed a slip of paper that mentioned her bet and said that if she won, she would gain 1.5 times as much as she bet.
Saphandra watched hopefully at the battle that then commenced. However, it was very quickly apparent that Ning was right.
So, when the man in red won, Saphandra wasn't very surprised. However, she was happy at the fact that she just won 5 pearls all by herself.
She quickly received the 15 Pearls and handed 10 back to Ning before keeping 5 for herself.
"Who should I bet on next?" she asked.
Ning looked around and frowned. "Everyone is rank 2 down there now," he said. "There is nothing definite you can bet on at the moment. Do you want to put it to chance?"
Saphandra looked at her 5 pearls and shook her head. "These are the first things I've ever earned, I'm not going to waste them on a bet I'm not sure about," she said.
"Well, then you will have to bet them on a person you know will win, right?" Ning said.
Saphandra looked down at the 8 people that were getting ready for their fight. "Who do you say I should bet on?" she asked.
"I wasn't talking about them," Ning said.
"Not them? Then who?" she asked and turned to look at Ning. However, Ning only had a stupid smile on her face.
"Umm… you aren't saying that…" Saphandra asked.
"I'm saying exactly that," Ning said.
Somehow, Saphandra started feeling a little excited. "Alright, go register. I will wait for your turn."
Chapter 674 RegisteringNing found his way to a mostly empty room as he was directed here by an employee.
"Is this where I register?" he asked the guard.
"Yes, sit there, your turn will come," the girl said.
Ning nodded and sat in the waiting area that had about 4 other people aside from him.
One by one they went to the man that was registering them and soon it was Ning's turn.
"Name?" the man asked.
"Ning Ruogong," Ning said.
"Age?" he then asked.
"Uh… 18," Ning said.
The man looked at him and wrote the rest of the information. "Do you have any sort of identification?" he asked.
"Does this work?" Ning asked as he brought out his Summoner's card.
"Yes, it does," the man said. "Let's see… Rank 5? Is this true?"
"Absolutely," Ning said.
"Your hair is still red though. Let me guess, you're taking part in the one with beasts?" he asked.
"Yes," Ning said. He didn't want to bother fighting on his own.
The fee to register in the fights was 20 full Pearls, and that was only the cost of a single day. Ning was surprised, but he still paid it.
"Alright, you are all set up. Go to the left room next. You will be put on a waiting list and will get your chance to fight soon enough," the guy said.
"Thanks," Ning said and walked through a hallway before taking the door to his left.
When he arrived, he was immediately handed a piece of paper with the number 212 on it.
"What is the current number on?" Ning asked.
"Well, the arena only opened up 2 hours ago, so it's around 100," the guard said.
Ning thanked him and sat down in a waiting area as he looked at the nearly 100 different people that were waiting for their turn to come.
Ning saw many beasts that were already summoned prior to the fight as people waited for their turn to come.
He saw the guy in red that he had Saphandra bet on there as well. 'So everyone is here huh?' Ning thought.
He saw people get called for their turn as well as people coming back from the fight and going straight to the guard to get their ticket for the next turn.
One such person sat next to him with the number 243 with him.
"Did you come back from fighting?" Ning asked him.
"Yes, I won," the man said. "Are you a newbie?"
"Yes, I just joined. Anything I should know about?" Ning asked.
"Uhh… let's see," the man thought for a moment. "I don't know how strong you are, but it's better to take things slowly at the start so that people don't instantly start betting on you."
"The more they don't bet on you, the more you earn," the man said.
"Oh, how does that work?" Ning asked.
"The betting house always gives a percentage of your enemy's bets to you if you win. If you appear strong from the start, not many will bet against you and you won't earn," the man said.
"Oh," Ning said. "But won't it be fine if I bet on myself?"
"Your bets are valued based on the two fighter's bets. If you get a lot of bets made on you, the profit won't be nearly as good as what you would get if they put money on your enemy."
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"Not only will you earn a lot from the payment alone, you will also earn from the bet," the man said.
"Although, be absolutely careful not to lose a match just to earn money. You don't want to be found out by these people that you are fixing your match," the man said.
"No problem," Ning said. He wasn't planning on doing so either way.
After an hour of waiting, it was finally Ning's turn. 'The fights are getting faster and faster huh?' he thought as he walked out.
Along with him walked the number 211, a girl with a bright orange hair that he could tell was a Rank 2.
'Already an orange hair in Rank 2,' Ning thought. 'When the hell am I going to get my hair changed?'
Fortunately, hair color didn't play any part when it came to beast summoning. It only affected when one had to summon just the power of a beast.
Next to the girl was a wolf of silver and brown patches, which was also a Rank 2 beast. As a Rank 2 beast, Ning knew it didn't have any skills yet, so he would just have to summon something of Rank 3 to win it.
'No, I can't have my beast show off its skills at the very beginning. I need to slowly increase my skills,' Ning thought.
Once he was on the stage and ready to fight, he took a quick glance over at Saphandra by the betting room and knew she was ready.
Then, he closed his eyes and reached into the sea of darkness to call for a Rank 3 beast with superior physical abilities.
When the bond was formed, a summoning circle appeared with patterns that said the beast had strong physical skills as well as being a Wind elemental beast.
When the beast was summoned, Ning saw that it was a giant mantis that was at least 4 feet tall.
It just looked like an oversized Mantis, but it did have strong-looking arms.
The referee saw that the two were ready, so he asked them to prepare, and a few seconds later started the match.
"Kick the wolf softly," Ning ordered mentally to the mantis that immediately dashed forward and kicked the wolf that was barely starting to move.
The wolf staggered but managed to keep standing and came at the mantis.
The mantis was ready to defeat the wolf but Ning told it to take the hit.
The mantis didn't understand why it had to be hit, but it obeyed what Ning told it to do and took the hit.
"Alright, I think we sold ourselves as weak," Ning said softly. "Time to win the fight."
Chapter 675 Number 266The mantis and the fox fought for a few minutes longer until Ning was sure it was enough time for the match to be full of bets.
Then, he ordered the mantis to defeat the wolf.
In the most uninteresting fashion, the mantis swiped its claws at the wolf and defeated it.
Even then, many people jumped up and down as they clapped at the end of his match.
"Evacuate the stage," the referee ordered, and Ning walked out of the stage.
Along the way, one of the staff handed him a piece of paper that looked exclusive to the arena and had two numbers written on it.
106 and 33.
"What is this?" Ning asked the girl.
"Your earning," the girl said.
"I earned… 106?" Ning asked, unbelievingly.
"No, no, that's the match number. You earned 33 Pearls. You can go get it cashed in if you are going to leave," the girl said.
"Oh no, I still want to fight," Ning said, slightly surprised at how much he had earned.
He would have to do at least 2 different tasks of the Rank 2 variant to earn this much in the Summoning Circle. Somehow, the Arena was a much better place to earn in.
Ning went back to the waiting area with his mantis and got his next number, 265.
'That's not very far off,' he thought as he looked at the 50 or so people in the room. 'I guess most of them are repeat fighters. No wonder the number didn't increase much.'
"Hey bro, how did it go?" the man who informed him before asked.
"Great, thanks for the tips. I managed to earn quite a lot more than I would probably have thanks to you," Ning said.
"No problem," the man said.
Ning sat down somewhere with his mantis staying guard for him and waited for his turn to come.
'Uhh… this is so slow,' as even after half an hour, they were barely at 250. He was still 2 sets of fighters away from it being his turn.
As he waited, a man came next to him and sat down.
"Your mantis looks quite strong," the man said.
"Thanks," Ning said, not sure why the man started a conversation with him.
"Did you already fight before this?" the man asked.
"Yes," Ning said. "This guy here helped me win it."
"How long did the match take?" the man asked.
Ning started getting suspicious after the man's relentless question.
"It took a while. About 10 minutes," he said.
"That's quite a long time," the man said.
'What's this man's number?' Ning asked the system.
'No wonder,' Ning thought.
"It is a long time," Ning said. "That girl's fox was strong and kept defending my mantis' attacks. It took me a lot of hits to defeat that thing."
"Wow, that beast must be strong as well then," the man said.
"Yeah, it was Rank 2, just like my Mantis here," Ning said.
"I see," the man said. "I should go now."
Ning watched the man leave and soon a smirk appeared on his face.
Half an hour later, it was his turn to fight.
When Ning stood up to leave, the man appeared from the other side and looked at Ning with surprise.
"What a coincidence, I didn't think I would have to fight you," the man said.
"Oh that is a coincidence, isn't it?" Ning said.
"Well, good luck," the man said and walked ahead of him.
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'Where's this guy's beast?' Ning wondered as he looked around, but it didn't look like there was one.
Ning went up to the stage and waited for the referee to ask them to prepare their beasts.
Ning's mantis was already out, so he sent the mantis forward. At the same time, the man ahead summoned a beast as well.
A massive bear that was near twice the man's size in all dimensions appeared on the stage.
It was a black bear, furred from top to bottom. Ning checked the bear and was surprised when he realized the bear was still at Rank 2.
'It must be one of the strongest beasts in rank 2 if that guy is so confident then,' he thought.
His eyes zoomed in his vision as he turned toward Saphandra to see her excited look.
'Looks like she had bet her money on me then,' Ning thought and turned back to the match.
"Start!" the referee said and the both of them ordered their beasts.
Ning ordered his mantis to mostly dodge for now while the man ordered the bear to destroy the mantis in front of them.
In his eyes, Ning's beast was a weakling in front of him which could barely even win against a fox.
In front of the bear he had summoned, there was no way for it to defeat them. It wasn't just him that saw it, but the whole audience. So, there wouldn't be much bet on Ning anyway.
As such, the man wanted to end the match and go on to the next one.
The bear slammed its paws at the mantis, or at least where it was. With the mantis jumping around, it had a hard time catching up to the mantis.
Ning had the mantis take a couple of close calls and even a hit to the side. However, no matter how many times the bear tried to hit it, the mantis never really took any damage.
Ning understood that slowly the betting would start to shift for the other side, so he decided to end the match.
The mantis suddenly stopped dodging and dashed straight toward the bear. The bear was caught off-guard and tried to hit the mantis back, but it was too slow.
The mantis' attacks hit the bear so hard that a summoning circle appeared below the bear to immediately summon it back to where it came from.
Very few people cheered for Ning's victory this time. 'That's weird,' he thought. 'Wait, did they not bet on me?'
Ning quickly returned to the lady that handed him his slips and saw two numbers written on them.
For match 133, he had won exactly 79 pearls.
Chapter 676 RestaurantNing fought multiple times the whole day and he never once had to swap the mantis out for anything else.
By the end of the day, he earned about 240 Pearls. He had earned quite a bit around the first half of the day, but on the second half, people realized that he was strong and stopped betting against him.
Still, he earned quite a bit and he was not mad about it.
Once he left the arena around evening time, he met up with Saphandra outside and excitedly told her how much he earned.
"What? 240?" she asked in surprise. "I barely got 100. I earned maybe 2 or 3 around your latter matches."
"Yeah, I think if you want to earn more, you should join the arena and fight on your own," Ning said.
"Yeah, I will do that," Saphandra said. "For now, let's go eat something. I'm hungry and the arena's food is quite expensive."
"Alright, let's go back to the hotel," Ning said.
"No, let's go to a restaurant or something. I earned money today, so my treat," Saphandra said.
"Sure," Ning said and the two walked through the night street. However, before they reached any sort of restaurant, it started raining heavily and they needed to take a shelter.
They found a hardware store and took cover for a while to wait out the rain, but it didn't seem like it was going to stop.
"Come on, I can keep away the rain," Saphandra said and was about to use her powers when Ning stopped her.
"Do you want to go through the same thing as in Tyrana city? Using powers in public space is against the law," Ning said.
"Then what do we do?" she asked.
Ning looked around the road and saw a bunch of people walking around with umbrellas. "We can use those," he said and created two of them for each of them.
"How do you keep making stuff? So easily too," she asked. "Does it have to do with that system of yours?"
"Kind of, yes," Ning said. "I don't want to go into detail. Let's go this restaurant of yours."
Saphandra nodded and the two of the walked away from the place. Not far away, they noticed a small restaurant that was not so crowded and got in.
The food wasn't the tastiest, but it had heart, so Ning and Saphandra ate a lot of it.
As they did, they got to talking and soon enough Saphandra asked a question that had been on her mind for a long time.
"How did you get your system?" she asked.
"My system?" Ning was amazed she even dared to ask such a thing. "I didn't really get it, I guess. Its more like it just came to me."
"Yes," Ning said. "That's how most systems go. You don't go out finding them, they come to you. I mean, look at Genesis. He only gathered us because he didn't know who to choose."
"If he did, one of us would've randomly had a system, while the rest of us would be living all alone in a word without life," Ning said.
"Besides, don't think about getting a system. Systems are really bad. I know I sound like a hypocrite, but my situation is a little different. Just trust me when I say that you will be a lot better without any system with you," Ning said.
"Don't worry, I wasn't going to ask how I could get one," Saphandra said. "I don't think I would want one, considering…"
"Considering?" Ning asked.
"Never mind," she said. "So, systems are rare huh? Since we're in a new galaxy, maybe there is another tournament going on here with another system."
"I doubt it," Ning said. "Genesis was a special case."
"So there are no systems in this galaxy?" she asked.
"Well, let me check," Ning said and asked the system. "Apparently there are."
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Ning's eyes then shifted for a second as he came up with another set of information. "But none on this planet. So you can live your life without worry."
"Sigh, alright let's talk about the Arena then," she said.
"Oh right," Ning said as he went on to explain everything he learned in the arena today.
"Oh, so I have to appear weak? That's going to be hard," Saphandra said.
"Well, no need to show off in front of me," Ning said.
"What? No, that's not what I meant," Saphandra said. "I am only strong offensively. While I could restrain my powers, if I get attacked, I will be done for."
"How do you usually survive your fights then?" Ning asked.
"I use my powers but I can't restrain my offense and defense separately," Saphandra said. "If I have to do the two at the same time, they will be equally strong."
"Hmm… well, I'm sure you'll think of something," Ning said and continued eating.
Half an hour later, the rain had subsided the two of them walked out. Saphandra's eyes were wide open with shock as she realized that the meal the two of them had just now was worth 20 pearls.
That was a fifth of what she had earned in total today. If she had to include another meal and maybe some lunch and snacks, she would lose nearly half of what she had earned today.
"Damn, why are things so expensive?" she asked.
"You will get used to it," Ning said and started walking.
The wet smell of rain still lingered in the air until they reached the hotel. Then, the two of them separated to go to their own rooms.
Saphandra studied the language, while Ning studied the circle. He knew everything by now, but he had a hard time recognizing all the litte details that were in a circle at a single glance.
He needed to train that part of his mind. Surprisingly, however, it was really easy for him as he trained everyday.
The talent he bought was surprisingly working better than he could hope for.
Once he was done, he went to sleep and woke up early next day as another adventure awaited them.
Chapter 677 Saphandra's First battle"What is he asking me?" Saphandra quietly asked.
"Your age," Ning told her.
"Oh, uh… 21," Saphandra said to the person in the registration room. "Did I say that right?"
Ning nodded.
The man asked a bunch of more questions that ended up with her double-checking with Ning to make sure she was saying it all correctly.
"Alright, I will need to check if your hair really is Orange or not," the man said.
"What is he saying?" Saphandra asked again.
"He's… oh to hell with it." Ning grabbed the man's head and used Supreme Domination. "You don't need any more information."
"No, I don't, master," the man said.
"Alright, let's go in," Ning said.
"What did you do?" Saphandra asked with a surprised expression.
"Just a little persuasion, nothing else," Ning said and pushed her along.
"Alright, you go that way. I need to go this way," Ning said.
"Okay, see you later tonight," Saphandra said and went to the waiting room for newbies that were fighting without beasts.
Ning watched the orange-haired Saphandra walk towards that room. He couldn't help but agree that it wasn't a very good look on her, but that was what they needed at the moment.
He was just happy that she didn't stubbornly stick with her violet hair and bring attention to herself.
Ning quickly forgot about everything and went to his own room to wait for his turn.
Saphandra reached the waiting area and just as Ning had told her, she took her waiting number and sat down by the table.
She looked at the number on the paper and then tried to remember what it was. 'That's a 7 and that's a… 3?' she thought. She quietly pulled her sleeve back to reveal an arm full of words and numbers that were there to help her with quick translation if she needed it.
'Yes, 73. So I'm the 73rd,' she thought.
"Number 17 and 18," the person by the door at the other end of the hall called out.
It took more than a second for Saphandra to understand what the two numbers were, but she got there. 'So I have about 5 more collective rounds to go through before it's my turn,' she thought.
As she waited, she looked around and could see a few guards standing all around her, continuously checking to see if any of them were using their powers in the room.
'They sure are careful,' she thought. As she waited, more and more people joined the room and soon there were nearly a hundred people in there.
'What the hell? Didn't Ning say he only had 50 people in his? Is it because I'm too early perhaps? Or are these people so conscious about the spiritual energy that they don't want to summon the entire beast?' she wondered. 'Goddammit people, there is an ocean near you. Just go take a bloody dunk if you're that worried about spiritual energy.'
As she thought that, Saphandra remembered what would likely happen to her if she went to the ocean and quickly got rid of all thought.
'Deep breaths. Nothing will happen to you. You don't have to go back to that place,' She calmed herself. She imagined something moving on her back, but of course, there was nothing there anymore.
"I'm fine," she said to herself. "Everything is fine."
Not long after, she was called as her turn came up. So, she stood up from her bench and walked confidently to the door.
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Her opponent turned out to be a boy that wasn't even 18 years old yet.
'How the hell are your parents letting you do this?' she thought for a second before remembering that anyone above 16 was considered an adult in this world.
She shook her head and walked over to the stage. The referee said things that she didn't understand at all, but she did know the word 'fight', so when she heard it, she got ready.
The young man in front of her jumped at her from a very far distance and punched her in the face. Except, Saphandra was too quick about it and simply moved her head to the side and the young man completely missed it.
She punched back to hit him, but the man was physically strong and so she missed him as well. She didn't really care about not hitting him however as she barely had any physical strength herself.
She was just doing whatever she could to drag on the battle for more people to vote on her opponent.
The young man came back flying again and kicked her in the head. Saphandra ducked and proceeded to punch, but she had to stop in the middle as she realized she was this close to hitting the man's… jewels.
'That's most likely out of rule,' she thought. That was the only reason she stopped at all.
The young man stepped on the ground and using the same foot sent himself rotating at Saphandra while trying to kick her hard.
Saphandra brought up her palm and released a bit of pushing force through it the moment the young man's legs landed on her.
She made sure to have the strength be weak, but even then the man was stopped.
She heard the crowd cheer and kept the fight going for a while. After nearly 5 minutes of fighting, she realized that it was time to end it.
So she decided to attack him with a bit more force. However, just as she thought so, the young man did something she couldn't have believed.
He suddenly sent out a fireball from his hand. Saphandra was surprised to see the fireball and realized that she hadn't examined the young man correctly as he definitely was not Rank 2.
Instead of dodging the fireball, however, she used her powers and pushed it back directly onto the young man.
She pushed it back so fast that the young man didn't even have time to dodge. The young man was then sent flying out of the stage.
She dumbly looked at the referee and waited for him to speak. She heard him say something and the crowd cheered.
She had won.
Chapter 678 Promotion BattlesSaphandra walked over to the guard that handed out slips of paper for the winners. She took hers and went back to the waiting room to get another ticket.
After finally sitting on the bench, she looked at the paper.
"37 Pearls for match 133?" she read the slip of paper. She was happy to earn so much money, but something didn't make sense.
"Wasn't I 73rd? How were there 133 matches already?" she wondered. That was when she realized she read it wrong.
"Could it be?" her mind went wild in surprise as she realized what the slip said. Instead of 37 pearls, she had actually earned 133.
That was a third more than what she had earned yesterday, all day and it hadn't even been time for breakfast yet.
She got excited and looked forward to her next fight.
Ning and Saphandra were both really strong for their group, and soon everyone knew.
After 3 days, Ning had started to earn basically nothing and fighters conceded before it was even their turn to fight.
While there were newbies every day that got paired up with them, Ning wasn't making much money now.
Even earning 40 Pearls a day was luxury by the 5th day.
However, as a form of silver lining, the Arena was considering moving him to the Pros section where he would fight against people that were equally or stronger than he was.
At least they claimed so.
So, both Ning and Saphandra kept fighting normally for a little while until it was time for the test that would promote them.
Ning and Saphandra went to the Arena and went their separate path to the waiting room for each of their promotion.
When Ning arrived, he saw a few other people waiting there already. When he entered, they all turned to look at him with weird looks on their face.
"Haven't seen you before," one of the men said.
"Same here," Ning said with a light smile.
"Are you new?" the man asked.
"A week or so, yes," Ning said.
"I've been here for half a year, but haven't been fighting for the last month or so in preparation for this match," the man said.
"Oh, good luck," Ning said.
"Only a weakling requires luck to get ahead in life. Keep it, you'll need it," the man said and left.
"Rude," Ning said, but quickly forgot about the man and started focusing on the various other things.
More people came and soon there were about 16 of those. No, there were exactly 16 of them.
'Tournament-style matches huh,' Ning thought after seeing the numbers.
A man walked into the room and walked over to the center and started talking.
"I will be your judge for today's promotion. The idea is simple. You guys will fight one on one until there is only 2 person remaining. Those two will be promoted," the man said.
"However, if I think any of you don't have what it takes to get the promotion, I will cancel it immediately. I'm not here to promote a bunch of sissies that can barely fight."
"If you all turn out to be just that, you will be going back to the kiddy pool," the man said. "Alright, let's start. You two, go fight."
The two people pointed swiftly stood up and walked out of one of the doors. The other 14 of them looked around, a little unsure what to do.
The man disappeared somewhere leaving them by themselves and only returned after a while as one of the 2 people that had left returned.
Behind him was a 3-meter-tall gorilla that didn't even fit through the door and had to stay outside.
Next up, 2 more people were called and they went out.
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About 15 minutes later, Ning's turn finally came up and he was going against the arrogant man that spoke to him today.
Ning walked out of the room and went through a few beasts that stayed outside before finding out that he was going to have to fight amidst a whole slew of audience.
"I didn't know we were going to have to fight in the open," Ning made a casual remark.
"What? Scared?" the man asked before making his way to the other side of the stage.
Ning shook his head and stayed on this side.
"Summon!" the referee said and both of them closed their eyes to focus.
"I need someone to fight for me all day today and beat anything that comes my way. I will give you 50% of my Spiritual energy for that," Ning said.
A bunch of light moved closer to him and Ning grabbed the brightest one amongst them all.
The summoning circle appeared which surprised Ning a bit. The beast was not only physically strong but also Elementally and Mentally.
He saw symbols that meant fire as well as symbols that meant the beast was something that could fly.
'A bird?' Ning wondered when he saw the 'Aerial' symbol.
A bird with fire forever burning on its head and tail feathers arrived on the stage.
His opponent summoned a giant salamander and looked smug for a while before seeing what Ning had summoned.
Even without being close, just from the beast's aura, he could tell the Ning had summoned at least a Rank 5 beast. Against his rank 4 Salamander, the bird was easily going to destroy it.
Ning looked around and wondered if there was any point in holding back. 'It's better to gain a reputation,' he thought and decided not to hold back at all.
"Go beat his little lizard until it disappears," Ning ordered the bird.
The bird screeched and flew with incredible speed as it arrived next to the salamander. Before the Salamander could respond, a burning wing struck it on the stomach, leaving a charred skin.
The bird then came back around and scratched it on the head with its talon.
In just these 2 attacks, the salamander's summoning circle appeared and it disappeared away.
Chapter 679 Finalist"How?" the man looked with a stunned expression and Ning and his bird returned back to the waiting room.
Ning let the bird stay outside with the rest of the other beasts and he alone went in.
Another group fought and a single person returned from her battle. After that, the first round of matches was over and only 8 people remained.
"Alright, we are going to start the 2nd round of battle," the host said. "You two, you are up."
The man chose two people and they went to fight. While they waited, the host then told them who else they were going to fight.
Ning was paired up with a Rank 4 summoner that had summoned the giant gorilla. Ning wondered how strong the gorilla was, but there was no need to worry as his bird would always be stronger than the gorilla.
After all, it was a Rank 6 beast.
As the matches continued, Ning's turn came up and he went to the stage.
Against the gorilla, his bird had no problem and they easily beat them. The crowd seemed to recognize him as they cheered quite a bit for him.
Once Ning returned back to the waiting area, there were only 3 more people there and 2 of them were going to go out.
Ning didn't worry much as he knew he was going to win either way.
Finally, two of the 4 people in the room were taken away and Ning was left with a girl that had a Rank 4 summoned beast.
"Hi," the girl said now that they were both alone.
"Hello," Ning replied back.
"I… overheard you talking when you came here a while ago. You said you were new right?" she asked.
"Yes, I am," Ning said.
"Just a month old?" she asked.
"More like a week," Ning said.
"Oh, that's good," the girl said. "Would you mind listening to my request?"
"I don't mind listening to it," Ning said.
The girl fidgeted a bit as she said, "Can you give up the next match please?"
"Uh… why would you ask that of an opponent?" Ning asked.
"I'm so sorry. It's just a little important to me," the girl said. "I have a sick mother that I need to take care of and I need a lot of money very soon to heal her."
"I was hoping to earn that by fighting in the Pro scene," she said.
"I don't know if you're telling the truth or not, but I'm sorry I can't help you in that matter," Ning said and ignored her.
The girl tried to speak again but the match was over and their turn was up.
"Already?" the girl worried. All she could do now was hope to win this match. However, even as she walked out, she realized just how much her little turtle was scared of the firebird that was standing by it.
The barely a meter-tall turtle made its way to the stage and stood in front of the firebird.
Ning looked at the turtle and sighed. There was no point in this battle as it was practically in his hand.
"Go defeat it," Ning said and the bird took to the sky before flying down at such speed that the turtle didn't even notice it.
When the bird's beak hit the turtle's shell, Ning heard an audible crack as the turtle's shell was damaged from the attack.
A summoning circle appeared below the turtle but the damage was a little too high for the girl's spiritual sense to handle the fight.
'I'm done,' she thought and slumped to the ground.
Ning turned to walk back but the host appeared, bringing along another man that was the victor of the previous match.
"Congratulations, you two. You will be going to the pro scene now. Come with me," the host said and took the two along with him.
Ning looked back at the girl who was slumped on the ground with a sand face, but there wasn't much he could do for her here.
The girl stayed on the stage for a while longer before another match was to take place here.
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At that time, she was forced to walk away. She would go back to the newbies' area, but she didn't have any spiritual energy at the moment.
In the last attack, all of her energy had been spent on protecting the turtle as much as it could.
So, without any choice, she left the arena and walked toward the ocean.
It didn't take her long to visit the beach as it was close by. When she did, she jumped into it and submerged there for a little while, absorbing the Spiritual energy in the water.
Aside from Spiritual pearls, this was the best way to absorb them. Given how important pearls were for her at the moment, she couldn't afford to use them up and have them be dull.
Who knew when an emergency came for her mother that she would need to take the Pearls out to pay for her.
After spending nearly half a day in the water, and then a little longer drying herself off, the girl returned back to her house.
"Mom, I'm home," she said as she went to her mother's room to check up on her. However, she wasn't there at all.
The girl's heart skipped a beat. "MOM! Where are you?" she rushed out of the room screaming.
"Stop making so much noise. What happened?" A voice came from the back of the house.
The girl quickly went out to find a woman that looked like her mother, standing in front of an outdoor fire, cooking something.
That woman looked like her mother, but… could it really be?
"How could you send someone to cure me alone? Shouldn't you accompany them?" her mother scolded her.
"What?" the girl asked.
"That young man that healed me. I asked where you were, and he said he didn't know," the woman said.
"What young man?" the girl asked. "Wait, are you saying you are healed?"
"Yes, did you expect him to fail? Honey, you should do something on impulse if you are not sure ab—"
The mother's words stopped in her mouth as her daughter suddenly hugged her. She could hear her daughter crying and her lips stretched into a gentle smile.
"It's alright. I'm fine, honey," the mother said. There would never be another day when the girl cried more, nor would there be a day when she laughed more.
Chapter 680 Boss and BarryA man sat in his room working on a bunch of papers that were on the table in front of him.
There were other people in the room, but he was in charge here.
"This is all the pearls we got from the pro beast fights?" the man asked one of the people working on the sofa.
"Yes, boss," the person said.
"Including the earnings from the betting house?" the boss asked.
"Yes," the man said.
"Sigh, why is it so low then? Have people really stopped coming to watch the pro matches?" the boss asked.
"I think I know the problem, boss," one of the girls said.
"I know the problem too. I was just venting," the boss said. "These goddamn pros don't want to fight at all. Either that or they want to switch to the beast fewer matches."
"I can't even blame them, I guess," the boss said. "It does cost quite a bit of spiritual energy to summon beasts instead of just the beast's skill itself."
"At least there are newbies joining, but they too see the chasm and jump ship. Maybe we should end the beast scene for pros," the boss contemplated.
He looked at the file that had a picture of Ning and the others that successfully became a pro today.
He brought the file to check Ning's information and was hopeful when he saw Ning's rank was 5.
Just then, the door slammed open as someone barged in.
"Hey, you can't just—"
"Stop," the boss shouted at his staff who was speaking and looked at the man that had just walked in.
"Brother Barry, how many I help you?" the boss asked.
"My hairdresser ran away again," the man saw as he moved his fabulously fluffy hair around.
"Your… hairdresser, huh," the boss said. "You all, leave the room."
The staff paused for a second or two before standing up to leave the room.
The man named Barry closed the door and walked up to the boss. "Yes, she ran away. Goddamn bitch was so ungrateful," he said.
"What did you do?" the boss asked reluctantly. 'Hairdresser' was just a code they used for women that Barry would try to add to his harem.
While he did say Harem, due to Barry's relentless domestic abuse, the girls always ran away.
"Nothing really. She was being a bitch so I hit her a couple of times, that's all. Just because she lost some teeth, she decided to run away," Barry said. "I need another one to play with for a while."
The boss frowned. He could have most likely looked the other way if these were any women, but every single girl that Barry wanted was a pro that was a great attraction for money.
"Brother Barry, do you think you could maybe try to…"
"What? Try to stop beating them? If they're being a bitch, I will hit them. Is that so wrong? Or are you trying to say that's wrong?" he asked.
"I—"
"Be careful. If my feelings hurt, I might just leave this place. That would be so bad for the arena since I just registered for a fight coming Saturday," Barry said.
The boss frowned. Barry was the strongest fighter in the arena amongst all the pros, whether they fought with beasts or not. The arena was packed to the full whenever it was a high turn to fight.
He had a natural ability to put on a spectacle for even the most uninteresting of fights. As such, the crowd went mad for him whenever he was on stage.
If he was going to fight, then he alone would bring nearly a month's worth of pro-scene money.
He was one of the most valuable assets, so the boss couldn't get rid of him.
"I… I will see what I can do," the boss said reluctantly.
"Great, I will see you… what's that?" Barry asked.
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"What? This? It's the newly promoted newbies. They just entered the pro scene today," the boss said.
"Ooh, such a cutie joined the pros?" Barry asked as he picked up the file that was in front of the boss.
"Sa… fander? No, Saphandra. She's quite pleasing to the eye," Barry said.
"Ye-yes she is," the boss said.
"She joined today huh? That means she hasn't chosen an opponent yet," Barry said. "Why don't you make sure she picks me for her next opponent?"
"That's… I…" the boss tried to refuse, but he didn't know what to say.
"What? Are you saying you won't? Aw, that breaks my heart. I might have to cancel my upcoming match then. Maybe I should move to another arena that would appreciate me more," Barry said.
"Fine, fine, I'll do it," the boss said.
"You're the best," Barry said and walked away from the room.
The boss slammed the table in anger and made the bunch of papers on top of it scatter around. "That damn bastard!" he said softly. "Goddammit, if he wasn't such a moneymaker, I would've killed him myself."
The staff returned one by one and got to work, but the boss's mood was way too ruined to care about the finances at the moment.
The Arena already lacked female fighters, and now he was going to have to force another one to destroy herself as well.
He left the room and went over to the registration area. A person worked on it and immediately got up to greet the boss that walked by.
"Sit down," the boss said. "The newly promoted came by to register yet?"
"2 of them did," the staff said. "The other two seem to want to take their time."
"Oh, 2 did? Which two, show me," the boss said.
The staff showed the register and the boss read through it. When he saw the names of the two people who registered, Saphandra was one of them surprisingly.
When his eyes moved to the right to see who the opponent was, he couldn't be more shocked.
Without any involvement of his own, the girl had chosen Barry to be her first opponent.
:)
