Chapter 270: Skyrocketing [General Concept Reputation Value]

Chapter 270: Chapter 270: Skyrocketing [General Concept Reputation Value]

Standing directly across from the Iron Throne were their rivals, the Golden Lion Cross, currently ranked third.

This team’s style was completely different from the grim and somber air of the Iron Throne.

The Golden Lion Cross was an Elite Knight Order composed almost entirely of the scions of the Kingdom’s Great Nobles.

Leading them from the front was a young man named Felix.

He wore a set of expensive Lion King Heavy Armor.

Beside him, Deputy Captain Cecil was dressed in a refined Mage Robe, holding a silver tome that radiated with the fluctuations of a Spell.

The family crest of each member was conspicuously engraved on their armor or clothing.

They stood there with an air of elegant arrogance, looking completely out of place among the commoner Adventurers around them.

「Finally.」

Lance’s gaze fell upon the second-ranked team, the Silver Hand Guild, with whom he was more familiar.

Compared to the two dazzlingly-equipped teams before them,

the members of the Silver Hand looked somewhat dirty and disheveled.

Even from a great distance, Lance could clearly see the dried Demon bloodstains in the crevices of their armor.

These three top teams stood in a triangular formation, implicitly dividing the entire inner circle into three separate, non-interfering camps. The unaligned Adventurers surrounding them didn’t dare to get too close.

Just as Lance stood on the slope, searching all around for Nieve,

"Mr. Lance! Over here!"

A call suddenly cut through the crowded throng.

Lance turned his head.

He saw Bazzer, the Minstrel in the multi-pocketed vest, standing unceremoniously on a wooden crate for a better view, waving vigorously in his direction.

Lance smiled and walked quickly toward him.

The last time they had met was a few days ago.

「At that time.」

A beaming Bazzer had come to tell him that the first draft of the biography he’d sent over had been officially published by a periodical in the Royal Capital.

Hearing this news, Lance had been completely dumbfounded.

’A draft? What biography draft?’

He had been totally confused.

He only remembered that he had casually sent the event details to Bazzer via his mark.

But since then, he hadn’t received any reply from Bazzer about reviewing the manuscript.

He had assumed the event he’d triggered wasn’t exciting enough and didn’t meet the standard for publication.

’But now, from the sound of it, it not only passed but was even published?’

Filled with doubt, Lance immediately took a moment to check his panel’s logs.

Only then did he discover the truth.

It turned out that Bazzer had indeed sent him the completed first draft for review right away.

But, as fate would have it, at that very moment, Yvette had pulled him into a dream.

This had left him in a deep coma in the real world, completely unable to review the draft himself.

And the detailed logs on his system panel clearly showed that,

during his coma,

his Source Material, Foreigner, had very thoughtfully acted on his behalf, automatically completing the review and clicking ’Confirm’!

Seeing this log entry, Lance breathed a sigh of relief.

However, out of curiosity about the story, Lance couldn’t help but ask Bazzer what kind of image he had been painted in for the manuscript.

But before he could even finish his sentence,

the second half of Bazzer’s next statement completely blew Lance’s mind.

He said the publisher in the Royal Capital was extremely optimistic about the biography’s market potential.

The owner behind the publishing house had even skipped the haggling and directly offered an astronomical 20% cut of the net profit for the first five manuscripts in the contract!

When he heard that number, all Lance could see was a glittering golden light, his vision filled with shimmering Gold Coins dancing in the air.

Whether in his past life or this one,

to get a 20% net profit share from a publisher right at the start of a book’s serialization...

That was the kind of preferential treatment that only the greatest literary masters could ever hope to enjoy!

Lured by the sheer amount of money, Lance was hooked, line, and sinker.

He no longer cared in the slightest what Bazzer had written in those manuscripts.

’Besides, according to the Star Realm’s principle of truth, no matter how much he embellishes it, it can’t stray too far from reality,’ he thought.

He remembered just sending over details of his monster-grinding trip.

As long as he got the money, he would hold his nose and accept it even if Bazzer wrote about him being held down and ravaged by a Demon.

The fact that the man could secure such an absurd profit share from an Ordinary monster-hunting event was in itself a perfect demonstration of Bazzer’s terrifying skill as a veteran Minstrel.

It made Lance suspect that Bazzer was a powerhouse in disguise.

Back then, Lance had not hesitated to shower his exclusive writer with approval and praise.

He had even pounded his chest on the spot, promising that he would never interfere with Bazzer’s creative freedom and would give him free rein to write as he pleased.

And Bazzer, with reddened eyes, had expressed his profound gratitude for Lance’s absolute trust.

He had solemnly sworn,

that he would pour all his effort into polishing the manuscript.

He would make sure this work forged a true Legend!

Once Lance successfully obtained a title from the Underground City,

those Legends could be materialized and concentrated onto that title, forming a special bonus Effect.

And in the days that followed,

Lance had discovered that Bazzer truly had not betrayed his trust.

In just one short week,

the [General Concept Reputation Value] on Lance’s system panel had shown what could only be described as explosive growth.

The rush from that soaring number was more thrilling than any roller coaster from his past life.

In just these few days, his [General Concept Reputation Value] had unbelievably skyrocketed by more than 6,000 points!

To put that in perspective,

during the Heroic Spirit Baptism, he had "toiled away" for a whole month,

and at the final tally, his Reputation Value had only barely increased by 4,000 points.

It now seemed he had severely underestimated the terrifying reach of the Minstrel Profession once it had access to official distribution channels.

With this influx of over 6,000 Reputation Value,

he could forcibly strip at least one piece of equipment with a Resistance Threshold of over 10 points!

「Returning to the present.」

Seeing Lance approach, Bazzer, still standing on his crate, immediately greeted him with enthusiasm.

He knew Lance’s approximate position on the individual leaderboards and understood how brutal the upcoming competition would be.

As Lance’s exclusive Minstrel,

Bazzer wasn’t just responsible for writing books; he had also taken on the role of an intelligence analyst.

So he lowered his voice and began to give Lance a detailed breakdown of the powerful competitors he might face in the arena.

He meticulously detailed each person’s professional traits, their preferred weapons, and their potential weaknesses.

Lance stood beside him, nodding with a grim expression.

He silently and quickly committed this critical information to memory, categorizing and recording it in his mind.

However, while Bazzer was still rambling on, analyzing the tactical situation,

he suddenly felt a cool hand land abruptly on his arm.

Before Bazzer, a support Profession utterly useless in a fight, could even react,

the hand applied a bit of force and simply shoved him away from Lance’s side.

The Power was astonishingly great. Bazzer stumbled from the push, taking two steps back before he managed to steady himself.

Only then did he realize that a young woman in Light Armor had taken his place.

Nieve had appeared out of nowhere, arriving as silently as a ghost.

She reached out with both hands and wrapped them tightly around Lance’s arm in a perfectly natural motion.

Then, just like always, she habitually leaned most of her body weight against his shoulder, even giving it a couple of comfortable nuzzles.

Then, the Snow Lady turned her head and fixed her cool, quiet gaze on the displaced Bazzer.