The Boundless Necromancer

Chapter 64: Arena (2)

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“The arena…?”

Lee Sungjin asked with his eyes wide open as messages started flooding in.

「 Administrator ‘Glutton’ is disappointed that you’re not accompanying his contractor.
」 

「 Administrator ‘Black Devil’ is amused at your unpredictability.
」 

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ is satisfied with your decision.
」 

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ is delighted to see you perform.
」 

Mostly positive reactions.

However…

“The challengers at the arena are mostly assholes.
And they specialize in fighting other challengers since most of them chose ‘strategy’ at the divergence.”

Lee Sungjin seemed overly worried compared to the admins.

‘Hm…’

He genuinely seemed to believe that nothing good could come out of there.

But that wasn’t enough to scare me away.

“I’m not too worried about it.”

The Chinese challengers I just went up against didn’t put up much of a challenge.

Lee Sungjin rubbed his chin while listening to my monotonous response and finally nodded.

“Hmm… well, if you say so.”

It seemed like he’d seen enough to know better than to worry for me.

“Well, I’m heading out then.”

“Ah, okay.
I’ll be going to the auction house then.”

「 Administrator ‘Glutton’ says he’ll be back to spectate later.
」 

I guess he was going back to looking after his contractor.

‘I was hoping to get something more out of it but… oh well.’

But the other administrators didn’t seem to agree with me.

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ smiles graciously and tells Glutton it’s okay to not come back.
」 

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ nods in agreement.
」 

‘They don’t want to share me, huh?’

I’d have to ask why in more detail once I got back to the waiting area.

***

The arena.

One of the establishments of the public area where users could challenge each other for rewards.

First impressions…

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‘Stranger than I thought…?’

It was not at all what I’d expected.

“Ah, goddammit why did he lose again…! Why the fuck is he so weak if he’s a high ranker?”

“Why the fuck are these Korean players so damn strong? How the hell does a rank 300 win against 100?”

“FUUUUCK! I lost again! Holy shit! Stop fucking losing!”

All the fiery passions of an illegal horse racing arena.

People from all over the world came together to curse out their fates while staring at a scoreboard.

‘This is the arena…?’

You couldn’t even see the fight itself.

Everyone sat in their seats and just furiously tapped on their screens.

But…

‘I don’t think I accidentally came to the casino…’

「 Welcome to the arena.
」 

At least not according to the system message.

「 Administrator ‘Black Devil’ smiles nostalgically.
」 

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ is disgusted at this sight.
」 

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ is exhilarated by all the excitement.
」 

Even the administrators were calling this place the ‘arena.’

‘What’s going on?’

I took one of the empty seats to figure out what was going on.

And then…

「 Activating the arena system.
」 

「 Click on the screen to choose ‘betting’ or ‘battle.’ 」 

「 For additional information, please click the ‘help’ button.
」 

Tat!

The black screen turned on and a couple of messages popped up.

And I finally figured out what all the rage was about.

‘Betting and battle…’

「 Help 」 

「 1.
The arena is made up of a ‘betting’ and ‘battle’ system.
」 

「 2.
Upon choosing ‘betting’ you can bet points on other challengers’ battles.
」 

「 2-1.
Upon placing the bet, the result of the battle determines the number of points you get back.
」 

「 2-2, It is also possible to lose all the points depending on the result of the battle.
」 

I can see why they would be so enraged.

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But this wasn’t what I came here to do.

「 3.
Upon choosing ‘battle,’ you can place an item to bet and challenge other players.
」 

「 3-1.
The challenger’s name and rank will be revealed to the challenged player, and the challenged player’s name and rank will be revealed upon the acceptance of the battle.
」 

「 3-2.
All battles are one on one and do not start unless both players bet a ‘skill’, ‘item’, or ‘power’.
」 

「 3-3.
If the two rewards aren’t equal in value, the battle may be canceled.
」 

「 3-4.
Upon the start of the battle, the two challengers fight in the colosseum.
The battle ends if a player surrenders and both challengers return to their seats.
」 

‘High risk, high return.’

I could keep fighting as long as we had something to bet.

“Hm…”

Of course, it’s still a 1v1 so there’s a limit to how much you can get but…

Change starts one step at a time.

I clicked into ‘Battle’ and found someone to challenge.

And…

「 Katheryn Benett 」 

「 Server – America 」 

「 Rank – 6th 」 

「 Reward – Skill ‘Gust Blade (C+)’ 」 

「 Wins – 17 」 

「 Losses – 0 」 

It didn’t take long to find an appetizing opponent. 

***

Katheryn Benett.

The A-rank hunter once referred to as the ‘Blaze Witch’ stared into space with her red hair draping down her pouting face.

“Is it my number of wins…? Why is no one challenging me anymore…?”

She sighed as her eyes stayed fixed on her unchanging screen. 

It’s not like nobody was challenging her but…

Everyone who challenged her put up a pretty useless reward.

And she didn’t even count those as a challenge and rejected them immediately.

‘Why do they even have to show the wins…’

‘And they can also see that I’ve had 0 losses.’

Hence, she was undefeated…

With the addition of her rank, there was basically no one coming in for a  decent battle.

They must already know that the ‘Blaze Witch’s real name was Katheryn Benett. 

Not to brag but she was easy enough on the eyes to grant a couple of media appearances and…

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She even had a fan base in other countries.

「 Administrator ‘Fire Sovereign’ smirks at their languor.
」 

“Yeah.”

Katheryn silently agreed with her contractor.

“Damn scaredy cats too scared to take a risk…”

She believed that you always had to take risks to gain anything.

When she was a hunter she always took those risky battles and ended up becoming an A-rank hunter.

Those who don’t can’t get stronger.

But she couldn’t stay angry for very long.

‘I guess it’s about time I head out…’

She was getting bored of waiting around anyway.

She had tried to challenge other people, but they always ended up refusing her after seeing her rank and win streak.

And then—

「 You’ve received a challenge.
」 

“…?”

And…

「 Han Sungyeun 」 

「 Server – Korea 」 

「 Rank – 3 」 

「 Reward – Skill ‘Demon Slayer (C-)’ 」 

「 Wins – 0 」 

「 Losses – 0 」

“He just got to the arena…?’

Her opponent had neither any wins nor losses. 

‘And he still picked me…’

Korea was one of the countries with the highest amount of her fans.

There’s no way he couldn’t think of the ‘Blaze Witch’ after seeing the name Katheryn Benett…

But this challenger didn’t seem to care.

‘Interesting.’

He was probably the most reckless player she’d seen since she entered the tower.

Even if his rank was high, it took guts to send her a challenge like that.

‘Han Sungyeun…’

She’d never heard the name before.

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Korea may not be her home country but she did know a decent amount of A-ranks…

But she couldn’t even get close to recognizing the name.

‘I’ll have to look them up once I go back.’

She didn’t know who this was, but the fact that he challenged her was extra points in her book.

So Katheryn accepted his challenge and…

「 The battle has been established.
」 

「 Moving to the colosseum.
」 

In a blink of an eye, she was transported into the middle of the colosseum. 

And…

She was joined by a man covered in a black robe.

Katheryn flashed a smile at her challenger and started speaking.

“I admire your courage for choosing me for your first battle but…”

「 Challenger Han Sungyeun vs Challenger Katheryn Benett 」 

「 Battle starting.
」 

“You should have done a bit more research.
Think of this as a lesson learned.”

「 Activating power ‘Creation of Fire’.
」 

Explosions erupted from her hands as soon as she stopped speaking and spread fire all around her vicinity.

KWAWKWAKAING…!

‘It’s over.’

This fire was a ‘power,’ unmatched by normal magic.

She was so sure that the ‘Victory’ message was going to pop up…

“…?”

Sssst—!

Until she saw the blue sword ki splitting her flames in half.

“What the…?”

Seeing someone fend off her attacks shook Katheryn for a bit, and—

“A lesson, huh?”

Fzz, fffft…

The challenger tossed off the half-burnt robe and finally said something…

“It’s definitely nothing to scoff at but…”

It was then that she realized who controlled this battlefield. 

“It doesn’t seem like something I can’t deal with.”

The Korean challenger had already taken over the pace of the battle.

——