Chapter 422 - The odds (1/2)

After Roki had finished dealing with the crowd of people in front of him, he decided to rush off onto the arena floor. He didn't know why, but something in his gut stomach was telling him that he should go check out this mysterious person. Once entering the stands, there were far fewer people than he had expected which he thought was a little strange.

Then on the opposite end of where he was standing a large black chalk board like thing looked to have a few numbers written down, and those were the odds for the next contestant. Seeing the numbers that were written down, he was quite taken aback.

'Was my instinct off this time?' Roki thought.

The odds weren't just bad, but they seemed to be extremely bad for any average contestant that would take part in an event like this. Now Roki understood why there were fewer people than usual. Even with new contestants, many would usually stay because they could watch an existing match or it was a chance for them to make some big money as well.

Roki himself had quickly changed out of the equipment he was wearing before. Not many knew what he actually looked like, underneath all his armour. He had a short grey beard that went around his mouth and short grey hair to go with it on top of his head. If others knew that he was quite the old middle aged man, they wouldn't believe how quick and fast he could move.

He decided to sit down in the area next to a wealthy looking large rounded belly man with an odd shaped hat that slanted off to the side. Living in the empire himself, he knew which ones were wealthy or not, but the dead giveaway. More than anything was the young man who was by his side, taking all his orders. A smaller scrawny looking man, still well dressed but clearly not as nice as the other.

”So I brought you the betting odds of the next contestant.” The scrawny man said. ”I also managed to get information of his adventurer rank and the equipment he would be using.”

After having a look over at the details, the large bellied man laughed, and allowed his belly to jiggle up and down. ”Ha, ha, ha, this is an easy one if I have ever seen it. We can make a killing with this fellow. Put the maximum amount available on him winning against the basic tier and the intermediate tier, then place a bet on him getting beaten by the advanced tier. That is, if he even decides to take on the advanced tier.” The man said.

”What makes you think he will beat the intermediate tier?” The scrawny man asked. ”It looks to me based on his adventurer rank he might struggle.”

”You might be right.” The large man said, ”But the only reason I think he will succeed is due to his equipment. You can see it is a high tier, and that is probably why he decided to take part in the tournament in the first place. But he will quickly learn that good equipment can only take you so far.”

Usually, although Roki would hate to admit it, he would have agreed with the large man. The empire was a rich place, so there were many who were able to afford high levels of equipment. They would often believe in this too much and often lose at a certain stage. But for some reason, Roki still couldn't shake the feeling, and the smile he had seen from earlier.

'This one is different.' He thought.

”Everyone, our next contestant Nes Delon, will now be trying the first stage.”

The first stage was the basic tier beast, and it could really be anything. Standing in the centre of the field, Ray pulled out his black raven sword that was at the advanced tier level. Even though his gauntlets were a higher tier, he had chosen to practice his sword as much as possible and only use his fists when necessary.

The metal cage opened and a beast the same size as a lion came in. It was a strange plant looking type beast, but it clearly had a head. Around its neck it was decorated in what could only be described as petals. It was slow in movement as it had two thick legs. Its body was green in color and it seemed to have no eyes.

But that didn't matter, for when it opened its mouth a flying seed was shot out right at Ray. Choosing to do nothing, he allowed the seed to hit his chest armour and fall to the floor in place doing no viable damage. This was expected, Ray's chest piece was at the advanced tier. Two levels higher than the basic tier level. The plant thing stood no chance.