It was a busy day for the people in the Manor Palace as they progressed with their casting business. Slowly but surely they pushed through with their merchandise and took a high market share in the whole of the Chaotic Region. Meanwhile, the Dahlia Palace was on the move, too. Even though they never had an experience with weapons and casting, they surely did a risky move to open a shop and compete with the Manor Palace.
Just like any other newbie in the business scene, most people would underestimate one's products and assume that they were in a much lower quality than that of the prime merchant. To the customers' eyes, the Dahlia Palace's weapons were much inferior to what the Manor Palace, Ricky's organization, made. Only a few people trusted and bought weapons from the Dahlia Palace because in the field of casting in the Chaotic Region, Ricky was lauded to have made remarkable masterpieces that anything that he did not make was marked as rubbish.
People started to get curious on what the Dahlia Palace had to offer. More and more people came over to check on the new weapons mainly for two reasons. One, some others went to them only because they could not afford the prices set out by the Manor Palace and two, they just wanted to check out how horrible and flimsy their products were. But to their surprise, they might have just hit the jackpot. A weapon of the advanced Mortal Level made by the Dahlia Palace was far cheaper and was in far better quality than the ones offered by the Manor Palace.
The people experimented to settle the quality check. Some warriors engaged in combat while using a weapon of their choice from each palace. And to their surprise, the weapons from the Dahlia Palace were far stronger and had only sustained minor damages.
Soon after their discovery, more and more people began switching their patronage from the Manor Palace to the Dahlia Palace when they needed to buy high grade and high quality weapons. After all, the deal was quite a steal-- cheaper and better!
This was bad news to all the weapon shops controlled by the Manor Palace because less people came to them after finding out that there was a better option.
This sudden increase in market and the superior quality of Dahlia Palace's weapons alarmed many large organizations. They sent out their men to find out why and how could the Dahlia Palace develop extraordinary weapons when in fact, they had never done one before. This competition between the Manor Palace and the Dahlia Palace was such a juicy gossip for everyone in the Chaotic Region. It was like a suspense movie that everyone was all ears on any updates regarding the inspection.
Some people had a generally good theory--a stronger casting master, more skilled than Russell, created the weapons in the Dahlia Palace. They never knew who this master was, and they never had a name for her. Whenever they talked about her, they referred to her as 'Miss Who.'
But the mystery was difficult for everyone. Even people from the Dahlia Palace never talked about their new casting master. Some of them didn't even know how they were able to sell such high grade weapons and they didn't know where they came from and who made them. The investigation became harder since they weren't able to dig up new information on this certain 'Miss Who.'
...
Meanwhile, Ricky and some core members gathered around in the meeting room of the Manor Palace to sort things out. All of them discussed the issue with such heavy hearts for none of them really expected things to work this way so suddenly. All of them bore the same visage--furrowed brows and frequent fidgeting as stress engulfed their minds.
"Ugh, damn the Dahlia Palace! They are obviously against us. How could they steal away our business? This is our livelihood. I checked our weapon stores today and guess what? There were only one or two customers during the whole business hour! And what's even worse is that they compared the weapons in our store with that from the Dahlia Palace and finally left and went to their shop. We can't just sit around and do nothing!" Tyson exclaimed as he banged the table with his fist out of anger. "I've done some research and found out that they had never run the casting
ace! I thought he was going to be welcomed by being rejected! I just can't believe my eyes! What is the chief of the Dahlia Palace up to? Hmmm... so strange." The crowd began to whisper to each other in shock.
"He is a casting master at the advanced Mortal Level, after all. Wow, Miss Who must be really humble for doing this. She still respects him!" a warrior sighed as he shrugged in disbelief.
...
Upon entering the palace, Ricky saw numerous girls practicing their moves with their swords. When Ricky came into view, they all stopped and turned their eyes to him, checking him up and down. As a legend in the Chaotic Region, he always drew attention wherever he went.
"Oh, it's Russell. Isn't he the casting master of advanced Mortal Level? My oh my, I can't believe he is this young! Oh, how I wish I could talk to him!" Some of the women began to giggle with excitement. Turning into a die-hard fan was not far off because they rarely had the chance to get so close to such a handsome young genius.
"Humph! So? Our weapons are much better than his and even our very own chief is superior to him! He's probably here to kiss ass over her, and beg her to give him and the Manor Palace a chance to survive! Ha-ha! Poor boy!" Some other different voices disagreed at the sight of Ricky in the palace.
Ricky kept all of what he heard in mind. The praise and the hostility seemed to not bother him. He wouldn't want to waste his time with such nonsense. After all, he wasn't there for them; he was there for the chief of the Dahlia Palace. She had the final say in all this and it would be more productive to channel all his energy to their meeting.
Ricky brought his A game to this one-on-one with the chief. Not long after, they have arrived at the hall of the Dahlia Palace.
The moment he stepped into the hall, he felt a strong vibe that filled the space. Needless to say, it was given off by the chief of the Dahlia Palace.
"Why hello there! What took you so long? You do know that I've been waiting for you for quite a few days. And finally, here you are. I'm very glad to see you, Russell." Ricky looked around to find where the charming voice was coming from.
At the same time, a storm-like seductive smell began to fill Ricky's body up. The scent went straight up to his brain, and just like an aphrodisiac, it attracted him so much that he was already about to lose himself from the charm.
But he would not let this happen, not now. He knew what was good for him so he immediately initiated his two zones to protect himself from the oozing attraction that he felt from the lustrous fragrance.
Suddenly, a beautiful woman, about twenty-five years old, with a perfect body in a red dress, walked towards to hall from behind. And there she was, right in the flesh-- the chief of the Dahlia Palace.