Ball of Nothing

When Truen saw the lady of the assassin guild again, he was impressed by the line-up of the matches he received.

"You work fast," he mused and Desert Lily rolled her eyes.

"They are all men who have been known to be troublesome. I didn't fix the catch but I secured a good reason for Grey Legion and Green Hawk to bite the bait."

Truen looked through the profile for the five men that he was scheduled to go up against in the Dirt Ring. Three of them were B ranks and Truen passed them to Desert Lily, uninterested in scrubs. They wouldn't even be decent warm-ups. The other two proved to be slightly more interesting.

One of them was a notorious A rank magic-fighter who had a two hundred kill record with the Dirt Ring and made himself a name. They called him the Griffin and his signature move included the use of fire magic when he propelled himself into the sky or used it to enhance his movement speed. Truen didn't think that he had to be too cautious of this man even though he was strong. The archer was faster than him. If he could match with Ruth in terms of speed, the Griffin was nothing to worry about.

The second man who was also his last opponent was interesting. Nobody knew his name or where he came from but he would often come to Deadman Town to trade in some magical beast corpses for money and information.

"He was the only one not recommended by Grey Legion or Green Hawks. This man offered to be your opponent when he heard about a newbie requesting for a challenge to make big money in the ring. Although nobody has seen him fight before, there is no doubting that he is an A rank expert or above. The kind of corpses he trades in can sometimes be wyverns or emperor scythe scorpions."

"Emperor scythe scorpions?" Truen asked. He knew wyverns but he didn't know what could be so deadly about those insects.

Desert Lily nodded. "They are considered A ranked monsters. Emperor scythe scorpions are poisonous and getting scratched by one of their scythed tails will result in instant death. They have two of those and two pincers so hardly anyone can take them down without a team. The innkeeper might be an exception but not even I will be able to do it. This is the man who took it down single-handedly or so we suspect and he wants to fight you."

The archer smirked. "He might be interesting to fight after all. What do you think my chances of winning are?"

Desert Lily wasn't too sure. "Between you and him? I would pick him. You're a ranged warrior. Being enclosed in a ring with a levelled terrain is to your natural disadvantage."

Truen didn't disagree on her analysis and asked if she could find out a little more about this mysterious man. Desert Lily made a face. "He has been our regular customer for a while now but not even we know anything about him. Green Hawks do business with him regularly but I doubt they know more than us. All I can tell you is that you shouldn't treat him lightly. He might not use magic but nobody knows for sure if he is merely holding back or if he cannot use it at all. Still, it is very admirable he can take down these monsters by himself with or without magic."

Agreeing, the wood elf thanked Desert Lily and tasked her to find out more about the desert. He needed to know about the places they should start searching for the gnome city. Without any leads, they would be stuck in it for a long time.

"Oh, the man told me to pass a message to you. He says that if he wins, he wants to ask for your help. To be more specific, he wants to ask for your brother's help."

At that, Truen froze. "What kind of help?"

Desert Lily tensed as the murderous aura leaked. Truen's killing intent was so strong that even she had to be cautious. "He didn't say."

There was a moment of silence before Truen turned around to leave with the man's profile. "I will see that he doesn't win.

Those words were like a promise. Although Desert Lily didn't know Truen very well, she now knew who not to mess with. Despite looking like the heartless killer, the wood elf had a soft spot for his younger brother and anybody who harmed the boy would be asking for a death sentence. After Truen left, she would spread the word to the rest of her guild to look out for the younger brother. Gaining Truen's favour was better than getting on his bad side.

Now that the match was fixed with Green Hawks and Grey Legion playing into her hand, all Desert Lily needed to do was stay out of it and wait for Truen to bring in the profit. At the same time, she gave the word to double up efforts on gathering all intel they could about Derby Desert, gnomes and the desert poppy. This was a customer they couldn't afford to offend and even if she hadn't confirmed if the map that he drew her was accurate, it was no longer important.

The match was scheduled for that afternoon when the sun was its highest and Truen will face all the first three of his scheduled opponents today for the elimination rounds. After winning all three scrubs, he would move on to the semi-final rounds and lastly, the final round. If he won all three rounds, Truen would be crowned the new champion of the Dirt Ring.

There wasn't a specific thing that Truen wanted so he didn't intend to go all the way for the championship. However, it was agreed that for each opponent he defeated arranged by Desert Lily, he would receive a 60% cut from the betting profits. Hence, it was ideal for Truen to not go all out and show his real strength in the elimination rounds and entertain the audience as much as he could to raise the excitement for the future rounds.

Now that things were rolling, Truen wondered if Zero would be up for some hunting missions. He checked the Green Hawks' auction hall and was told by the appraiser that they accepted monsters of all kinds. Monster parts that were well preserved would fetch a higher price and Truen didn't want Zero loitering too much in this dangerous town so going out on an excursion would be a fantastic way to kill the time until his scheduled matches.