Chapter 186: The Stage Is Set

Soon, Dorbish found the duo, delivering Zera’s money. He earned a thumbs-up from Basil and a "Cool shit, Dorbish bro."

Barrett started sorting everything and the names all over again on a new page. Since Colten’s money was now on Moon, unlike the original plan, it was no longer needed; thus, they started a new, clean list.

"I’ll go and try taking some money from the guys who got their asses sealed last week." Basil stood, ready to move.

Barrett nodded. "The guys who lost the last bet gave us money trying to win this round; soon enough everything will be ready."

Basil nodded. "All that’s left is Boss winning, and all the money in this branch will be ours." He rubbed his hands together excitedly.

Dorbish watched them, smiling. "I’m glad Moon has guys like you, though winning this round won’t be so easy."

Basil nodded. "Yeah, yeah, though I believe no one could outdo Boss without Echo," he said with a considerable amount of weight in his voice, unlike his usual demeanour.

Dorbish turned around, walking away from them. "Those of higher clans are built different," he said in a way someone gives a reminder for the future before leaving.

Basil sighed. "Bastard still didn’t drop any money after chasing after my ass all day," he lamented before heading off to finish whatever was left of the plan.

Time ticked by, and the night before the round came.

In the ring, Moon was facing Ed. Moon was panting heavily and drenched in sweat, while Ed was only drenched in sweat.

There were quite a few knives on the ground between them.

"You’re getting trickier to fight," Ed said, sheathing his blades.

"You’re getting better at cheating," Moon retorted. "I almost had you this time."

"You’re a few hundred years too early for that," Ed shook his head. "Anyway, you ready for the round tomorrow?" he asked.

"Sure thing." Moon nodded, sheathing Liquid Mountain and walking around to pick up his knife and Colten’s sword.

"Don’t think it’s just another casual skirmish where you can smash your way," Ed said lightly, not pressuring Moon.

Moon raised an eyebrow. "Welp, I’m pretty much confident when it comes to fist fighting," he said while straightening his back, with all his weapons back.

Ed took off the golden artifact, unsealing his body. "It won’t be just fist fighting," he said.

Moon blinked, watching his Echo retrieve his blades as well. "What’s up with you about?" He paused for a beat. "Ah, she’ll cheat?... or..." He rubbed his chin. "Is it about ladies can’t be punched in the face?"

Ed ran his sleeve over his forehead, chuckling softly. "Girls can be punched in the face just fine, but it’s not very gentlemanly to punch one randomly."

"Oh." Moon nodded in understanding. Uon had spent many hours teaching him about interaction and etiquette, so he connected the dots right away, which left out one single conclusion.

"So she’s cheating?" he asked.

"Not that either." Ed shook his head, walked closer to Moon, and placed his arm around his shoulder, and they started walking out of the ring.

"Imagine if you were born in a very rich place, where there are too many good things to eat; some make your body stronger without even training," Ed said casually.

"She’s doing drugs?" Moon’s face cringed.

"Imagine, with that, you get trained to fight perfectly by the best masters out there since you are a brat this small," Ed said, leaning forward closer to the floor, with his hand a few feet away from the floor, the height of a very small kid.

"There were drugs like that on the first floor, but whoever took them went crazy and died before the battle ended," Moon suddenly said for no apparent reason.

Ed blinked before he shook his head. "How did you know not to take them?" he asked.

"Zeroth bro said it was bad, made sure we never got to touch these things," Moon answered. He had never gotten the chance to introduce his brothers to Ed.

Ed also felt the minute change in Moon’s tone as he spoke, the slight shiver in his chest. He couldn’t help squeezing his shoulder. "You had good brothers."

"Yeah, they were the greatest." Moon nodded.

"Anyway, sleep well. Make sure you don’t test your raw strength against her." Ed changed the subject as they headed back to their rooms.

The next morning, Moon woke up excitedly.

As usual, he took off his shirt, rolled up his pants, and got ready to move barefooted.

He tried to tie his hair, but it got shorter thanks to the fight against Dara. Now he couldn’t do it even if he wanted to.

Before he headed out, Moon remembered something.

Slap~

He facepalmed himself. "Dammit, how could I forget for so long?" he questioned himself. Even after Ed reminded him, he still forgot.

He opened his status window, where the last quest reward had been hanging since last week.

He accepted the reward.

The pieces of armor fell one over the other, filling his room with metallic noise. They were entirely black and lusterless. Moon carried each piece and ran his hands over the engraving.

"Beautiful," he couldn’t help exclaiming. Watching them as an icon on his status window and holding them within his own hands was completely different.

It felt heavy, but it was rather light. The tempering made it very thin.

Moon had seen many things scattered around Hall 3 that were crafted by Ed. He knew most of them were just random things he had made casually.

The two blades he used in his spars, the Liquid Mountain replica he had.

There was also the knife he got from the first round.

Moon was starting to look at these items in a different light now that he was learning smithing himself.

The amount of time and effort Ed went through, the hours and days... Moon understood now how much they took.

Holding a knife or armor was a normal event to a warrior; breaking them was also a common event.

But to the smith, it was entirely different.

Moon sat down and studied them for longer than he expected himself to.

"Damn, will I ever make cool shit like these too?" he said, dropping the armor on his bed gently not to get it scratched.

He shook his head. "I’ll feel guilty wearing these to battle."

Moon looked at them one last time; he pursed his lips and walked out of the room.

He headed toward the ring. "Let’s see how strong my vice-commander is," he whispered.

On his way, unlike every round, he didn’t see people running to the ring, nor did he see people standing or gathered in groups.

This time... "Where the hell did everyone go?" He didn’t see anyone.

He made his way to the ring, but he still didn’t see a single soul around the branch. "Did they oversleep?" he guessed casually. "Like hell would an entire branch oversleep," he retorted right away.

Before long, Moon finally arrived at the ring. "Holy..." he exclaimed.

"HE’S HERE!" Someone screamed all of a sudden.

"AT LAST!"

"GET STARTED ALREADY!"

"LADY TALIA FOR THE WIN!"

People started shouting, saying some obvious things, while others said things that he couldn’t even catch.

"What the hell is going on?" Moon frowned back at the unusual sight.