Chapter 405 The Bet
"He is a member of the Thousand Bodies Refinements Dojo? How is that even possible?" The young human asked when he saw the Dojo's insignia hanging down from Nial's neck.
Nial had turned the insignia into a necklace to carry it around, but it was still easy to decipher to which organization the insignia belonged.
"Weren't their Dojo master and their Elders against accepting other races in their Dojo? I thought they wanted to focus on teaching Valxians because they are not aware of the anatomy of other races, and some other bullshit… Was all of that a lie, to begin with?" Another human Original asked, feeling just as confused as the others were as he looked at Nial's back, not sure what was about to happen.
"Yo, can you guys shut up for a moment?" Nial asked in a low voice as he looked at the bunch of Valxians and Heligav in front of him, but none of them seemed to hear him.
This caused Nial to sigh deeply and he got on Ryu's back before he cleared his throat.
"You braindead idiots, shut it!" He bellowed while using his Essence of Darkness to amplify his voice in the direction of the Heligav. As for the Valxians, they received a slap on the back of their heads from Ryu, who had used his darkness affinity to do so.
The buildings behind the Heligav started to tremble when Nial's voice reverberated through the alley while blood trickled down the ears and eyes of the weaker Heligavs.
He attracted everyone's attention within seconds, especially Khain, who was looking at Nial with an incomprehensible expression.
'What was this gloomy and weird power that accompanied his voice just now?' Khain wondered, while clearly recalling that Nial didn't use this type of power or ability when they had been fighting.
'Is that what the Dojo Master was referring to when saying that Nial was holding back?' He asked himself and his expression turned grim for a moment.
"Nial, what are you doing here?" Khain asked nonetheless, his voice much calmer than his expression.
"I just saw you guys and wanted to have a nice chat," Nial answered, not bothering that nobody believed his words. He was blind, so how was he supposed to see anyone, to begin with?
"You wanted to chat with us? Right now…why?" The other two Valxians were as confused about Nial's commentary as Khain. However, they didn't dare to say anything right now because it was obvious that the Heligav was far from pleased about the attitude both Khain and Nial showcased when facing them.
They chatted calmly while ignoring the Heligav with whom they had been fighting until now, even if it had just been a verbal fight.
"I just want to know if it would be better to complete Guild missions with multiple people, or if completing missions alone will provide me with more contribution points," Nial made up something on the spot, ignoring how weird his words sounded.
He could sense that the Heligav were getting more and more annoyed. Nial felt like making use of this opportunity, which was why he acted as he was doing right now.
"Or maybe it would be better to join the Colosseum? A few rounds should reward me with a bunch of contribution points…hmm…I wonder what I should do?" Nial sighed helplessly and he shrugged his shoulders acting as if he had no idea what he should do right now.
Ryu chirped in confusion in response. The wingless Gryphon wanted to leave Alliance City for a while to fly around and do other stuff. He had felt caged in Nial's room but stayed nonetheless because he didn't want to leave his master's side. Thus, the change of the situation was far from pleasing.
"Don't worry, Ryu. I will take away some trash from the streets and we can leave the city to complete a few missions from the Guild afterward," Nial tried to reassure the wingless Gryphon before he sat down on Ryu's back once again. He patted him lovingly, making the confusion and anger of the wingless Gryphon disappear rather easily.
Ryu demanded only a few caresses to be content with his life, which was what Nial provided without hesitation.
"You want to earn contribution points?" One of the Heligav asked all of a sudden, looking deeply at Nial. In return, Nial smiled gently at the Heligav before he nodded his head.
"The more the better. I have yet to earn some contribution points, so I'm dirt poor," He answered rather calmly while continuing to caress Ryu's fluffy plumage.
The Valxians frowned for a moment when they saw the kind way in which Nial spoke to the Heligavs, which didn't seem to make any sense. Nial would have to be a dimwit not to realize that the Heligav were one of the biggest threats to the Thousand Bodies Refinements Dojo.
They actively restricted the Dojo's progress and many of their members had been injured due to the actions of the Heligav race. It was quite troublesome, yet, Nial treated the Heligav with kindness as if he was too stupid to read the room.
Even the Heligavs were a bit astonished about Nial's weird and eccentric behavior. At first, he told them to shut up using a weird power and now he was treating them with kindness.
It looked like Nial had actually used his power to shut up everyone just to talk to Khain and the other Valxians, rather than joining the verbal fight against the Heligav.
However, it was not as if the Heligav would accept this so easily.
"How about I tell you an easy way to earn a large amount of contribution points?" One of the strongest present Heligav asked, forcing himself to speak nicely.
Nial faked an even brighter smile than he had had before and he clasped his hands together lightly, showing how exhilarated he was.
"There is something like that? What is it?" Nial asked in a seemingly innocent voice and the expression of all the Heligav lit up as they began to understand that the human was naive and pretty dumb.
"Of course there is. You can challenge other people in the Colosseum while placing a bet by using the contribution points!" The leader of the Heligav group said as he lightly added, "but because you don't have any contribution points, you would have to bet something else…such as your little mount there…or your life!"
'Do they really think that I'm that dumb?' Nial asked himself in his head while he maintained a foolish look on the outside.
"Betting my life…or Ryu? I can't do that…" Nial said quietly just for the leader of the Heligav to start laughing lightly.
"The higher the bets, the more you can gain. If you dare to fight against my friend right here, we will bet 500,000 contribution points if you bet your mount!" The Heligav said while pointing at another Heligav, who was at the Lower Prometheus rank.
Nial's mana core rank was already higher than the Heligav, who seemed to have been appointed as his opponent and Nial made it seem as if he was faltering.
'They want me to lower my guard by telling me to challenge someone with a weaker mana core. But that Heligav is obviously one of their Assassins with the invisibility trait,' Nial concluded as he turned his head to look at Ryu.
"Only 500,000 contribution points…that seems a little bit low…" He mumbled while caressing Ryu and added "...low for the chance of risking my mount if I were to lose…he is my trusted partner, after all…"
It would be weird if Nial were to accept the bet immediately. Thus, Nial was trying to make the Heligav raise the bar.
The group of Heligav were not many but the eyes of each of them were overflowing with greed. They could tell that Ryu was a rare existence, especially since most mutated Gryphons would awaken a light, or holy affinity rather than a darkness affinity!
It might be a bummer that the Gryphon was born without wings but that could also be considered a rather rare trait. Ryu was worth a fortune to most monster tamers, and even more so breeders.
Thus, the Heligav were ready to risk their fortune if it provided them with the chance to get their hands on the wingless mutated Gryphon.
"500,000 contribution points is already a high enough bet. You'll be able to focus on training your mana core, body, and mind for an entire year before your contribution points will run out!" The Heligav emphasized his point again but he could see that Nial was shaking his head, disagreeing with the Heligav's comment.
'This fucking human bastard!! Is he willing to bet the Gryphon or not?! Why is that dumb idiot trying so frustrating???' He thought in his mind before he turned to the others.
"How many contribution points do each of you have right now?!?" He asked the other Heligavs around him. His eyes were bloodshot and the others couldn't help but feel that their leader was slowly losing his shit.
Most Heligav looked at the insignia of their organization to manifest a holographic screen where their individual points were revealed to everyone around.
Only one of the Heligav didn't do as their leader said as he began to doubt their leader's sanity.
"Sir…all of us have accumulated these points throughout the last few months and based on the achievements we made before we came to the Origin…if we lose them the Elder will punish us severely…" He tried to convince his leader to not be foolish in a pleading voice. But it was just a moment before he finished his comment when his leader's hand shot out toward his head.
A huge hand covered his entire face and he was lifted from the ground as the Leader's voice resounded in his ears.
"Do as I said, or die!" He bellowed before letting go of his subordinate, who slumped to the ground.
When he got up with shivering legs, he revealed his contribution points as well, just for the leader to turn around once again.
"I will give you just one opportunity to make it big, little human!" He said with a bright smile on his face as he offered the deal, "You will bet your life and your mount and we will bet three million contribution points as long as you fight Jivam!"
Nial couldn't hide his frown anymore as he looked at the Leader of the Heligav with furrowed eyebrows.
'Does he want to kill me that badly? Is that because I'm a member of the Thousand Bodies refinements Dojo and because I look foolish, or does he know who I am and what I did to the settlement near the Forest of Life?' Nial wondered, just to discard the second theory.
It was unlikely for the Heligav to know him especially because he was a mere 'human', a seemingly weak race with only few powerhouses, which meant that Nial was just a scapegoat in the Heligav's eyes which they wanted to use to ruin the image of the Dojo.
This was quite interesting, especially since the Heligav had gotten greedy enough to offer him three million contribution points to make him bet his life and Ryu as well.
"What do you say, Ryu?" Nial asked in a slightly concerned voice. He was not worried if he would win or not, but if Ryu would agree to the bet or not.
His query was answered a moment later as the wingless Gryphon chirped out loudly.
"He agrees to the bet…and so do I!"
**
If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.
You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain
More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:
https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ
Link also in my description.
Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!