radicalducati Page 459
Page 459
Therefore, its pride grew with each passing year. After traveling for many years with the best sword it had obtained from its birth village, it resolutely embarked on its journey to the arena.
In Zote's heart, this was its pilgrimage... no, it should be said, the "path to sainthood." It never doubted whether it could become the champion, because it felt that it should be the most powerful monster in the underground... or even a god!
"Hehehe, just wait and see... You'll be shocked..." Zuo Te chuckled as he picked up a hammer, stuffed the metal material into the mold, raised the hammer high, and smashed it down on the material in the mold.
boom!
The auspicious coin pattern in the mold is lightly imprinted on the metal material. Once the pattern is fully engraved, it will be handed over to the arena for final polishing before being put into use.
Zuo Te tapped the raw material a few more times, lifted the mold to observe the depth of the pattern, tapped it on the table to pour out the semi-finished product, and then took out new raw material from the side.
"Congratulations, Zote, on your first victory."
A familiar voice sounded from behind, and Zot immediately turned around alertly. Upon closer inspection, it saw that it was Latis, and a proud smile immediately appeared on its face. It said:
"Evil human, have you come here to voice your resentment after witnessing the glory of the great Zot? Or have you sincerely repented and wish to offer your knees to Lord Zot? Heh heh... Although I disdain to associate with evil humans like you, I will still be pleased to see you reform! Kneel down, and I will bestow upon you the title of knight's follower. As my first general, you will have the opportunity to bask in one percent of my glory..."
Latis's lips twitched. He had only been polite for a moment, but this Byd Zote was still going on and on. Seeing that Zote had no intention of stopping, Latis took a deep breath, clenched his fist, forced a ferocious grin, and said in a deep voice:
"Aren't you overthinking this? I'm just here to tell you that I appreciate your hard work in contributing to the prosperity of the Colosseum, and I'm very satisfied with the audience's performance today."
"...What do you mean?" Zote frowned immediately, gripping his hammer tightly. "What audience performance...and what's this arena? Isn't this an arena?"
"The arena? That's only for overconfident challengers like you. To the audience, you're just caged beasts in the arena."
Latis crossed his arms and shook his head, feigning pity, saying:
"Since you've asked so sincerely, I'll mercifully tell you that this arena is nothing more than a place that uses the ridiculous performances of people like you to manipulate the audience's emotions..."
As Zote listened to Latis's calm conjecture, his empty eye sockets slowly widened, and the hammer in his hand loosened, falling to the ground with a thud.
However, to Latis's surprise, Zot didn't shout or rebuke. After listening to Latis's explanation, it calmly picked up the hammer, put it back on the table, glanced at Latis, and said in a deep voice:
"Do you think I'd believe your tricks? You wicked human."
It snorted coldly, pressed down on the wooden splinter at its waist, and said:
"It's nothing but a futile attempt to undermine my confidence. The great Zote was born to win the arena championship, and that's something you can't stop."
"Oh? You have quite a strong will."
Latis raised an eyebrow in surprise, re-examining Zote through the cage. It seemed that Zote, though ridiculously weak, wasn't exactly a coward.
He pondered for a moment, glancing at the "Life Terminator" at Zuo Te's waist. With the elven abilities within him, he could easily discern the unremarkable material of the wooden spikes. Using such a weapon to fight other challengers would be impossible, not even breaking through their defenses.
"How about this."
Latis thought for a moment and then said:
"Although manipulating the arena to make you win is very rewarding, it's not very exciting. No matter how much you respect the fight, it's still just a performance in the eyes of the audience. Therefore, to improve the viewing experience, I can give you two options. First, I'll give you an invincible wooden spike that looks the same but is extremely powerful. Second, I'll teach you some combat skills, but with your aptitude, it will probably be very difficult for you to learn them."
"Heh, a gift from an evil organization?"
Zote crossed his arms and said very decisively:
“I choose second. A true knight never relies on external things, even if it's just a piece of rotten wood. It is still my most trusted ‘life terminator.’”
Chapter 445 Halftime
"Demon...devil!"
Zote collapsed to the ground with a thud, weakly gripping the wooden splinter and shaking it. Looking at Latis, he cried out in slight terror:
"What have you poured into my body! You filthy, vile, evil human! I will surely raise my sword and destroy you!"
"Damn it, don't talk like I did something to you!" Latis clenched his fist in annoyance and shouted.
"It's just that I used the resonance of bloodline power to leave the trajectory of a few combat techniques in your body. What are you talking about!"
"No matter how sweet your words are, they cannot cover up your heinous crimes against the great Zote!" Zote sneered and said, "Once I become the champion, I will repay you for this humiliation! Just you wait and see, you evil human!"
"...Whatever you say."
Latis's forehead vein throbbed. He pulled out ten gigacoins from his pocket and flicked them at Zot's head with a thud. Seeing Zot fall headfirst to the ground, Latis spat and clapped his hands, saying:
"Here's ten yuan to cover the entrance fee. I'm leaving now."
He turned and started walking, and hearing the sound of Zuo Te struggling to pull his head out behind him, he smiled smugly. However, before he could smile for long, Zuo Te's shouts made his smile freeze on his face.
"Evil human! You did such a thing to me, and you think you can just get rid of me with a few coins?! I will bring what you left inside me into this world!"
"...Fuck you."
Latis silently wore the expression of an old man using a cell phone on the subway, finally unable to hold back and loudly complained:
"That's enough, let's stop making a fool of ourselves in Nantong!"
……
……
As noon approached, the morning's matches came to an end. Latis, sitting in the stands, glanced at the more than three thousand ringgit in his hand and shook his head.
Compared to those monsters who often go all in, the amount of coin he had was less than a tenth of their turnover. However, Latis didn't care about that. He only placed small bets each time, focusing on participation.
If Jennifer were sitting here, she would definitely go all in and have a blast.
Latis put away the coins, looked at the two challengers slowly leaving the stage below, and stroked his chin as he reviewed the morning's schedule.
The Fool's Arena doesn't have a fixed match duration; usually, one match ends and the next one begins immediately. Therefore, challengers in the waiting area are basically available whenever needed.
After teaching Zote combat skills during the brief break, he also took the opportunity to check on the girls. Seeing that they were in even better spirits than before they arrived, Latis used magic to restore their strength and heal their scratches before returning to the audience seats with peace of mind.
Throughout the morning, the girls participated in three matches, and their ranking on the ladder settled at seventy-eighth. Although it wasn't very high, the enemy monsters were already at the third ring level, which was quite dangerous for the young girls.
Latis wanted to persuade them to give up one or two matches. Without a winning streak that would cause them to skip levels, the girls should be able to consistently encounter monsters with a rank of three or higher, so the pressure wouldn't be too heavy.
The girls' resolve gradually strengthened, and they planned to take advantage of their winning streak to skip a grade and continue challenging themselves. Latis thought about it and respected their decision. After all, with him around, he could provide timely assistance if they encountered any danger.
However, what was both surprising and not entirely unexpected was that Zote's ranking soared to 65th despite only participating in two ranked matches. The girls had originally hoped to challenge Zote along the way, but now it seems they can't catch up with his ranking.
Zote didn't use the combat techniques taught by Latis in its second match, which wasn't surprising to Latis, since Zote's combat awareness might not be able to execute them. However, even so, it still won the match once again with a crushing defeat.
Latis looked uneasy. He had thought the scheme was just a joke, but now it seemed that Zote had really been set up by capital.
After this match, some of the more cunning monsters also noticed something was amiss. One comeback might be a coincidence, but two in a row could be intentional for the sake of the show.
Therefore, Latis heard some monsters nearby discussing trying to win the Zote match by going all in. Although this drew a lot of criticism from the monsters, quite a few monsters still decided to take out some coins to give it a try.
If Zote is framed, to what extent does the Colosseum's management intend to push him?
Latis pondered for a moment and thought it was very likely that he would push the game to the championship match and let the confident Zote be tricked again. In that case, the doubts and expectations that the audience had in the previous matches would be instantly ignited.
"Tsk, what a hassle... Zote's ranking has risen too fast. I wonder if we can get his position in the dream world adjusted before the championship..."
Latis muttered to himself, planning to find an opportunity later to use the Dream Nail to see if he was still a spectator in Zote's dream.
But for now, let's take the girls to visit the amphitheater area first.
He touched the lucky coins in his pocket, stood up, and walked towards the waiting area.
……
"Hey, Lazi, you saw how the kids did, right? How was it? They've improved a lot, haven't they?"
Jennifer chuckled, her arm around Latis's shoulder. She pointed to the girls behind her and whispered:
"When they saw that their opponent was a level 3 monster at the start of the third match, they were so scared that they were sweating profusely and their legs were shaking! Fortunately, they won in the end without any major incident."
"Master! Don't speak ill of us in front of Grandmaster!"
Leafa was already familiar with Jennifer's behavior. Seeing Jennifer muttering something under her breath with a mischievous grin, she instinctively leaned closer. Hearing what Jennifer said, she immediately exclaimed:
"Our image is also very important!"
“Exactly!” Geeta nodded in strong agreement. She glared at Latis, who was laughing heartily, puffed out her cheeks, and nudged Holnet beside her, calling out, “Teacher, say something!”
"What do I have to do with this?"
Holnet withdrew his gaze from Latis, glanced at Geeta, rolled up his cloak, and stroked his chin, saying:
"What's the point of appearance? Monsters won't stop attacking you just because you look good."
"Gaia! Teacher!" Geeta angrily pulled out her sword-sharpening stone from her pocket and threw it at Holnet. Holnet easily caught it and threw it back at her. She clenched the stone tightly and said sullenly:
"I used to be a lady from a respectable family; my image is very important!"
"Really? Watching you swing your longsword wildly at monsters, I don't see how much you care about your image..." Holnet muttered, then, seeing Geeta's blushing expression, she changed the subject without batting an eye:
“Look, Snyder hasn’t said anything yet.”
“Snyder?” Geeta turned around and glanced at Snyder, who had been following behind.
"W-what?" Snyder clutched his mask, covering his face tightly, and said somewhat embarrassedly.
"I also care a lot about my image in the master's eyes..."
"Seriously? A bunch of kids, why are you so concerned about saving face?" Jennifer scratched her head, puzzled. "When I was your age, I was still brazenly patrolling the streets every day with a longsword."
Leafa snorted, then blushed slightly and retorted, as if she had just thought of something:
"I think Master, you simply don't understand a young girl's heart..."
"Huh??" Jennifer's eyes widened in shock as she looked at Leafa, then turned to Latis and complained:
"Look, Lazi! This apprentice is no good! I'm not even twenty years old, and she actually said I don't understand a young girl's heart!"
"Uh, um..."
Latis pondered for a moment, looking at Jennifer's incredulous eyes, and forcefully suppressed the urge to nod.
Putting everything else aside, the fact that he always gets teased back after teasing Jennifer is really not very girly...
He coughed twice, looked away, and said:
"Little girls, it's normal for them to be hard to understand. I've never been able to figure out what they're thinking... Oh, by the way, before the afternoon's match starts, is there anything you want to eat or drink? I got some money from the audience."
"Huh? You can make money in the audience?" Jennifer took the small bag of coins in surprise, glanced at it, and suddenly a thought flashed through her mind. "Could it be a betting scheme?"
"How come you always react so quickly when it comes to things related to playing..."
While complaining, Latis handed out several hundred ringgit in change to the other girls, then turned to Jennifer, who was eager to try, and sighed, saying:
"You also need to be their midfield coach."
“…Damn it!” Jennifer immediately showed a disappointed expression. She crossed her arms and looked at Latis, saying: