CH 10

Ning Chu made a lot of money in the past three days. He became so famous that before he could pick his next target, dozens of challenge letters were sent to him one after another. Ning Chu sat across from Donald and went through the challenge letters one by one.

He didn’t know any of the people on them, and the challenge letters were printed with the opponent’s rank, most of which were similar to Ning Chu’s current ranking, while there were some with lower rankings.

“Trying to pick one, right?” Donald smoked a leafy rolled cigarette, “If you can afford it, pick three.”

The arena had a maximum of three matches scheduled each night, and as long as Ning Chu wanted, they could temporarily cancel the one that was randomly selected.

Ning Chu didn’t want to make too much of a splash, but on the other hand he was really short on money.

After a few moments of agonizing, he chose two of the top 40 and gave them to Donald, “Let’s do these two.”

The challenger’s reward for winning the match was less, only 200 gold coins, but if he could earn 400 a day, it was still a significant amount.

Ning Chu bet on himself to win yesterday’s match, and because he was a newcomer, the odds were as high as 1 to 30.

At the end of the night, Bowen came back in a trance with a handful of purple gold coins, “Hugh, we’re rich.”

Bowen also bet that the newcomer would win. He originally wanted to bet on Goran, but when he was about to put in his money, he remembered Ning Chu’s smile before he left, and his outstretched hand changed direction involuntarily.

He only bet 2 gold coins, though not as much as Ning Chu, but enough to keep him happy for a while.

The next day’s first match was at 7 PM and the second at 8 PM. Bowen had to go, so Ning Chu asked Donald to place his bets for him.

The odds weren’t as high today, but they were still significant, as one of the challengers to Ning Chu was a student of water-based innate skill.

Ning Chu used fire magic yesterday, and fire against wood was like water against fire.

In the eyes of the crowd, he was able to win against Goran yesterday for this reason, but that wouldn’t necessarily be the case today.

Ning Chu didn’t panic at all. Before he went on the field, Donald asked him, “Do you need a weapon? I’ll lend you one.”

Donald had never seen a student like Ning Chu before and was very interested in him. Yesterday, he even took out 100 purple gold coins to bet on his win.

Ning Chu hesitated, “Is there… Is there a shield or something like that?”

A few moments later, a round iron shield was handed to Ning Chu. He didn’t know how to use a sword or anything, and it would be a nuisance to carry it, so it would be better to bring something to defend himself with.

Ning Chu walked into the arena with the shield, attracting everyone’s attention.

The shield in his hand was so conspicuous that some people gloated, “What a loser, huh? I told you he must have gotten lucky yesterday…”

“Lucky?” The person next to him interrupted, “Can you beat a spotted tiger with one move by luck?”

After a short handshake and other formalities, Ning Chu gripped his round shield tightly and prepared for the fight. The student on the other side released his contracted beast, a long-necked white crow, snow-white without a trace of color, with long tail feathers floating in the air.

Ning Chu sighed in his heart at the beauty of this contracted beast while waving his shield to send it flying. The audience outside the arena was still discussing fiercely who would win, but gradually quieted down at this scene.

The water magic was no threat to Ning Chu, who was so strong that the shield in his hand was turned into a weapon. This battle was also a quick one, and Ning Chu won.

Back in the inner room, Ning Chu took off his mask and received 200 gold coins from Donald. At the same time, he won 20 points and moved up one place in the rankings.

With a long time to go before the second match, Donald kindly handed him a glass of warm water, “Going to the training room? Or should we go back and rest?”

Ning Chu took the glass and thought for a moment, “I’ll go to the training room.”

He changed his clothes, put on his first year uniform and went to the back of the arena.

The Cloud-Winged Dragon was placed in a compartment inside the arena, and Ning Chu walked a little further in before finding it. He was still in the cage, and Ning Chu bought medicine from the game for its trauma recovery and quietly fed it to him.

Although Third Cub wasn’t there, the cloud-winged dragon could smell the familiar scent on Ning Chu’s body. It circled around the pill and watched it for a long time before carefully eating it. He was obviously doing better, and the people at the farm were interested in taking good care of him, putting several pieces of raw meat in the barrel in the cage, but the Cloud-Winged Dragon didn’t touch any of it.

Ning Chu picked up a pair of tweezers and put a piece in front of him, “Why don’t you eat, aren’t you hungry?”

The Cloud-Winged Dragon had just eaten the medicine he was given, its wariness had been reduced by half, and only then took the meat with his mouth and shrank to the corner of the cage to nibble on it.

“It will actually eat the food you feed it?” Donald’s voice sounded from behind, he approached, his face full of incredulity, “This dragon was almost dead when I brought it back, but somehow it got well again.”

Yet too wary, it refused to eat and refused to be touched by anyone, let alone be tamed.

“I thought it would be the only hungry beast I had here,” Donald marveled, “You’re close to it, why don’t you try to make it your contract beast?”

Ning Chu shook his head, “I can’t.” He picked up another piece of meat and threw it over, looking at Donald, “If I want to buy it outright, how much would it cost?”

A dragon was worth at least 600 purple gold coins, but this Cloud-Winged Dragon was brought here with serious injuries, so the price was greatly reduced. Donald replied, “A friendship price of 200 purple gold coins.” He added, “If you can take it as a contracted beast, it can be a little cheaper.”

The trade of contracted beasts was quite fast, since contracted beasts and their owners were the result of mutual choice and fate. The price would be different than selling it directly.

200 purple gold coins… The money of the commission house he hadn’t finished paying back yet.

Ning Chu sighed silently and stood up, “I don’t have that much money at the moment… Can you keep it for me for now? I’ll definitely buy it.”

Dragons were wild and untameable, unlike ordinary magical beasts, and Ning Chu felt they weren’t suitable as contract beasts. This Cloud-Winged Dragon, Ning Chu wanted to release it, or find a way to bring it back to Dragon Island. He had limited ability to do more than that now, but since he met it, he couldn’t just sit back and watch.

“Sure,” Donald was quick to notice the Cloud-Winged Dragon eating the second piece of meat Ning Chu threw at it and couldn’t help but say, “Do you have special dragon taming skills?”

This Cloud-Winged Dragon had just been here for two days, many students have come to try to see if they can take it as a contract beast, but unfortunately it was all in vain.

In a life-threatening situation, magical beasts become easier to tame in order to keep themselves alive, but the Cloud-Winged Dragon seemed to be the exact opposite. Donald had long given up hope that it would ever be domesticated or fed, and would rather give up its life than become a human contracted beast.

Dragon taming skills? Ning Chu shook his head. It was most likely obedient because Third Cub had been mean to it last time. But… Ning Chu pondered, “I know what he likes.”

For example, the hay at the bottom of the cage, although it looked soft and comfortable, the Cloud-Winged Dragon didn’t like it, preferring dry, hard wood, which could be used to sharpen their claws.

At Ning Chu’s suggestion, Donald ordered someone to find wood, and once again had a new perception of Ning Chu, “May I ask how you know this?”

Ning Chu spoke nonsense, explaining that hay was already shaved and Cloud-Winged Dragons only scratched the bottom of the iron cage, so it was a guess.

Donald listened to his suggestion and thought Ning Chu had a point, but felt that something wasn’t quite right.

The second match was about to start when his subordinates headed their way to look for Donald and the conversation was forced to break off.

Before he left the farm, Ning Chu looked at the Cloud-Winged Dragon in its cage, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The second match was still won by Ning Chu, and together with the next two days, he had fought 7 matches without a single defeat since he joined the arena. Because his challengers were all ranked below 20, Ning Chu hadn’t gained many points, and was currently only ranked 39th.

But the students had been talking about who would win if this mysterious newcomer and Wuuth were to face each other.

Wuuth had always been the undefeated god of the arena, and although Ning Chu had less than ten matches under his belt, he beat his opponents too quickly and easily and as if he wasn’t really exerting his strength, almost like a second Wuuth.

So everyone was waiting to see if Ning Chu would challenge Wuuth, who was at the top of the rankings.

And it so happened that Wuuth came back at this time.

In the principal’s office, the teacher finished reporting the results of the outing to the exchange and took Wuuth away.

In the hallway, Wuuth asked, “What happened to Enigma Forest?”

The teacher was flipping through the school’s recent logs and said, “I heard that some humans broke in and angered the fire dragon there…”

Wuuth thought, Impossible.

There were many dragons in Enigma Forest, and even if the Scarlet Flame Dragon had no sense of propriety, it wouldn’t set fire to the forest. He wanted to take a look at Enigma Forest and look for Scarlet Flame Dragon’s trail.

Wuuth quickened his pace, and his teacher pounded the ground with his magic staff behind him, “Stop right there! You can’t go to the forest because it’s blocked off by the church,” the teacher said, guessing what he wanted to do, and rambled on, “What’s there to see if you always like to go to these events? Go back and study for your homework!”

Wuuth frowned and turned his head in another direction, “I’m going to Crow Market.”

He had to find Scarlet Flame Dragon and ask about the situation, Crow Market had the most people coming and going, so he might be able to get some information. When he arrived at Crow Market, the first thing Wuuth heard was the news about the newcomer in the arena.

Seeing Wuuth appear, a brave student had the courage to ask him, “Wuuth, did the newcomer send you a challenge?”

Wuuth wasn’t interested and didn’t look away, “No.”

There was a lot of chatter in the crowd and someone said, “Who’s the new guy? Does anyone know?”

“He’s not even showing his face…” Another person shook his head, “I asked several seniors, they all said they didn’t know this Ning person…”

Wuuth turned around with a beat in his step, “What’s his name?”

The news of Wuuth’s return was also heard by Ning Chu from Bowen’s mouth. Bowen was a big fan of Wuuth’s and kept mentioning him to Ning Chu during theory classes, speculating whether he would face “Ning” in the arena and who would win.

Ning Chu nodded as he listened and seemingly agreed with Bowen, “Then Wuuth definitely has a better chance of winning.”

What he was thinking was that he wouldn’t challenge Wuuth, and Wuuth probably wouldn’t challenge him either.

On the one hand, he didn’t know Wuuth’s true strength, and on the other hand, it was because of Wuuth’s dragon. Even if others didn’t know it, it was indeed a real dragon, and Ning Chu didn’t want to go up against a Dwarf Dragon in the arena.

That afternoon, however, Ning Chu received a matchup letter from the arena. The two people who were randomly selected to participate in the matchup this evening were him and Wuuth.

Ning Chu first found Donald, his expression was incomprehensible, “Did you do that on purpose?”

Donald’s face was innocent, “How could you think that? The selection is completely random, this is the will of the gods, no one can manipulate… Do you want to abstain?”

Ning Chu really had this intention, and he said helplessly, “I’ll think about it.”

He went back to the dormitory, but Bowen wasn’t there.

Third Cub was lying on the box under the bed with the dragon egg. Ning Chu took him out and rubbed his head, “San San, I’m so nervous.”

Third Cub let out an “aowu” and pressed his chin with his paw.

“I’m going to fight a very powerful man,” Ning Chu said bitterly, “and I’m afraid I’ll lose.”

He had a strange instinct that Wuuth was different from all the other students.

“Aowu—”

There was no way he was going to lose!

Ning Chu squeezed the dragon horn in his hand tangibly, when Third Cub in his arms suddenly lifted his head and broke free of his hand to scurry under the bed. There was only one thing under the bed that would make him care this much, and that was the dragon egg.

“What’s wrong?” Ning Chu pulled the box out and opened it, the dragon egg inside lay peacefully, the pattern on the egg shell was much brighter than before.

Third Cub was lying on the side of the box, staring at the egg, and Ning Chu couldn’t help but feel nervous. Ning Chu gently picked up the dragon egg and looked at it carefully, when the egg seemed to move in his hand.

Ning Chu, “!!!”

He wasn’t sure if it was his illusion, but he repositioned the dragon egg on the hay, watching it with unblinking eyes.

One man and one dragon watched the dragon egg with bated breath for a long time, but the dragon egg was peaceful and quiet, without the slightest difference.

Ning Chu opened the game data card, but the status of Fifth Cub was still “hatching”.

He was slightly disappointed and picked up Third Cub, “We’ll have to wait a little longer.”

But if the dragon egg really moved just now, it proved that Fifth Cub was about to hatch.

After the shell was broken, he had to prepare sufficient food, vitamins, supplements, etc… He not only needed money for raising the dragon cub, the Cloud-Winged Dragon at the taming farm was still waiting for him to buy it.

The odds must be very high for him to win tonight’s battle with Wuuth… 

Ning Chu made up his mind, looked up at the magic clock on the wall and rubbed Third Cub’s little head again, “I’m going out, wait for my good news.”

The news of the newcomer’s battle with Wuuth spread and the Crow Market was packed to the rafters today. Ning Chu struggled to make it to the round table and paid 30 purple gold coins for his win.

Afterwards, he went backstage to the arena’s inner room. Donald was waiting for him and was not surprised to see him appear. He handed Ning Chu’s clothes and mask to him and patted him on the shoulder, “Good luck.”

Ning Chu changed his clothes and took a deep breath. He turned up all the game’s values by a few points, and carried a few walnuts in his coat pocket.

Facing the Dwarf Dragon, Ning Chu wasn’t completely sure, but he might be able to use these to distract it.

With everything ready, Ning Chu entered with his shield.

Outside the arena, the crowd outside the viewing platform was still very lively, and the cheers were louder than ever. To Ning Chu’s surprise, Wuuth entered the arena before him and was looking at him from across the fighting ring.

Wuuth never wore a school uniform, always dressed in black with a cold expression, and there was no dragon beside him, probably because it hadn’t been released yet.

Ning Chu was looking at Wuuth as Wuuth was also looking at him. The man in the distance was wrapped up tightly, thin in build, and wearing a mask that looked a bit bulky.

Could it be him?

The staff asked the two men to shake hands and bow, and Ning Chu had just taken a step when Wuuth said, “Let’s get right to it.”

Ning Chu was stunned and nodded in agreement.

After the staff retreated, Ning Chu was ready to fight with all his might. He raised his shield in front of him with his left hand, and a flame rose from his right palm.

Wuuth was staring at the flame in Ning Chu’s hand, but he didn’t move and didn’t release his contracted beast.

While Ning Chu was wondering, he suddenly heard Wuuth say, “I admit defeat.”

The room suddenly burst into a frenzy, and Ning Chu was confused.

What did he just say? Did he admit defeat?