Chapter 506: Bet
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Ning looked at her with an awkward face and said, "I would rather not reveal
that piece of information."
"Eh?" Merasi said with a bit of confusion, while Waxil looked at Ning like he
had lost his mind. He couldn't understand why Ning would ever refuse to
answer a question of a Supreme.
Ning stood his ground. "As I said, I did it all because of what the apostle did
with spreading knowledge about the scrolls regardless of who it helps and who
it hurts."
"I don't want to do that. I will rst make sure that it only helps and then start
spreading it. Even then, I won't tell anyone about the mineral itself," Ning said.
Merasi looked stunned. Her face frowned as she said, "But I came all the way
from the headquarters for just this."
"No," Ning said. "You came here to conrm whether this exists or not right?
Well, there you go. It's real."
Merasi wasn't convinced. She wasn't about to leave the Freelands without more
knowledge on how to create Aether. This would be a large help to the
headquarters to remain above everyone else.
Now that the Apostle had spread absorption techniques that were better than
the tower's, there was a chance of someone strong coming up to create an
Aether organization of their own that would far surpass the tower.
She couldn't let that happen. She had a duty to not let that happen.
She thought for a second and said, "Is there any way you can tell me about the
mineral? I can't leave without learning about it."
Ning shook his head. He was adamant about not letting anyone know.
"How about a bet?" Merasi said after thinking for a while. "If I win, you tell me
what the mineral is."
Ning's eyes narrowed. "What are we betting on?" he asked.
"Whatever you want," Merasi said. She was desperate.
"Ok, what's in it for me then?" Ning asked.
"What do you want?" Merasi asked him. She didn't really care as she was
looking to win whatever they would do.
"Hmm, how about... you get me admitted into the Headquarters?" he asked.
"You want to be part of the battle force?" Merasi asked with a surprised look.
"You can be part of it if you just tell me the mineral, you know?"
Ning smiled. "I want to join it without revealing the mineral."
Merasi thought for a while and saw nothing wrong with this request. "Very
well, I will accept it," she said. "So, what do you choose we do for the bet?"
Merasi expected him to choose something that would clearly be in Ning's favor.
However, when he said what they were going to do, she looked surprised, even
shocked.
"Fight? You want to ght me?" she asked. 'Is this guy mad? Does he not realize
the dierence between Aether King and Aether Supreme?' she wondered.
She loved ghting and would ght anyone that she met, but this was too
serious of a situation for her to care about that.
"Don't you like ghting?" Ning asked.
Merasi listened to his words, searching for some hidden meanings behind it,
but she couldn't nd any.
"You do know you can't win against me if we ght right?" she asked.
"Yes, but that's only true if you were to use Aether," Ning said. "We will be
ghting without using Aether. You have quite the body that would make anyone
feel inferior, but is it even of any use?"
She could see him try to get on her nerves, but that didn't mean it wasn't
working.
Anger ared on her face and a smirk appeared on it. "You want to ght? Very
well," she said.
Ning smiled. He was nally going to go to the headquarters, making part of his
plan move forward.
Merasi stood up and walked. "Come," she told Ning who followed her outside.
Once again, she became the focus of everyone's gaze, but she ignored them and
focused only on Ning who came up to her.
"Are you sure you want to ght me?" she asked once more. She couldn't
understand how Ning could ever hope to defeat her, especially if she wasn't
using Aether.
Waxil cleared up the area, pushing back to the crowd to give the two ghters
space.
"What counts as a win?" Merasi asked.
"As long as one of us surrenders or falls unconscious, the other one wins,"
Ning said.
"Okay," Merasi said. "What about weapons?"
"As you wish," Ning said as he brought out a wooden sta with no design or
texture on it.
It was a simple sta about 2 meters long and 5 centimeters wide. He wanted to
bring out a spear, but... he decided not to. A sta would suce.
Merasi saw the sta and put her hands forth. Around her sts, two pieces of
metal appeared that slowly changed their shape to become a metal gauntlet
that snugly t into her hands.
Then, she metallic chain mail appeared around her, as well as a helmet. Aside
from some joints here and there, she had covered all of her body parts in some
sort of armor.
Ning hadn't expected this.
'A dual awakener,' he thought. He hadn't expected her to be one of the rare
Dual Awakeners in this world. The fact that she made it to Aether Supreme as a
Dual Awakener meant that the tower must have put a lot of resources into
getting her there.
He had thought she would have just fallen fall for his bait and fought him
recklessly to give him the opportunity to become a part of the Tower's Battle
Force, but it looked like he had underestimated her.
'I judged her based on her body and personality,' he thought. 'Anyone who can
make their way to Aether Supreme wouldn't be a reckless fool.'
"You look unsatised. Am I not allowed to have my own set of weapons and
armor?" she asked.
"Yes, you can," Ning said. What was done was done. He needed to move on.
"Alright," a smile showed through Merasi's helmet as she said. "Come!"