"… Is it just me or did that brat kickstart a new trend?"
"Alisana… what the hell are you grumbling on about?
Can't you see that piece of shit is about to cause us a huge loss!!"
With a sly grin across her face, she turned to face the ignorant fool to her left as she said, "… I'm not the one who placed a 10 thousand Credit bet against the man."
Sensually she blew out the smoke gathered from her electronic pipe-pen, as it filled out the V.I.P Cabin of the Arena.
"You fucking… bitch."
"Boohoo, Alexicro… I never planned to join you in this stupid venture to steal something that is clearly not yours…
Tell me… what if other party retaliates?
Do you believe anyone will come and support you?
No.
We will all wait like hungry, blood-thirsty monsters… waiting for our prey to weaken further.
At the end of the day, you're giving us the opportunity to gain more assets.
You should have listened to me, little brother, and never involved yourself with those stupid fools of Zyriasun."
Alisana wasn't willing to help her little brother anymore, after saving him countless times in the Retail Market World when he wouldn't listen and cause countless problems that would affect their strength.
Of the whole family…
Alexicro understood this deeply because his past antics around a decade ago nearly caused their entire family to die.
It was at that time his eldest sister had to reveal herself and save the family from death.
She was considered a powerhouse on their homeworld, but after he became aware of the Retail Market World, Alexicro learnt his homeworld was nothing but junk.
He thought it would be possible to live his life to the fullest, just as he had on his homeworld but that wasn't possible once he came across a Lord of the Retail Market of sorts.
Alisana saved him from death because she had a title of her own that translated to a Lord of the world as well.
But after that, she decided to leave her brother on his own after setting him up with a small business of his own.
It wasn't difficult to manage, and it brought in a stable income.
Still… her brother blew it all.
Now he aligned himself with the wrong crowd, further dragging himself deeper into the dark side of the Retail Market World.
Alisana wanted to help him out, but she refused because the prize this time was too value to ignore.
She had her eyes on Esmond, especially after she saw a glimpse of his face when a creature clawed it off his face.
Esmond easily caught it and covered himself up, but Alisana's personal drone caught the side of his face, which instantly melt her heart and soul into gooey happiness.
For some reason, her mind started to react in a unique method that also affected her System's Operational Matrix.
It all happened in the span of a few seconds and indiscernible to anyone nearby, but once it was all complete, the effect of Alisana's aura changed drastically.
Her typically cold and sadistic nature turned warm, loving, and stunned.
Similarly, her eyes blew wide open as it stuck onto the figure of Esmond as he fought in the depths of the deep mountain valley.
'M-My love…
How is this possible?
WHERE AM I!!?!!
AHHHHHH'
Alisana was stasis for a couple seconds as her mind adjusted to the past, and present at once.
It was like the peace and love she always expected within herself had finally appeared, because she found the source that channelled it like the sun.
…
..
.
'ESY, I SWEAR, IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO ME, I WILL LEAVE YOU DUMBASS TO DIE HERE ALL ALONE!!!'
"Hehehehe…
Come on… lets sing together, bro.
Ah-hum…
🎝But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles
To fall down at your door🎜"
'*Sigh*… Da da da (da da da)
Da da da (da da da)
Da da da dun diddle un diddle un diddle uh da…
God… I hate you.'
Esmond smirked as he launched himself into the mouth of a creature, bursting through its body while gripping its spine.
In a swift motion it would be sent directly to the Space Ark.
To Esmond it appeared really simple and basic, like it was a muscle reflex, but for those watching, they all watched on in horror as they'd never seen someone with great control over the Space Element at such a young age.
One of the young men watching from his Arena Cabin was lost on what to do next.
He hoped to somehow gain Esmond for himself and his army, but it was near impossible at this point.
Esmond demonstrated too much skill and strength for his age, making it impossible for the man to secure Esmond for his own benefit.
Plus, it didn't appear that Esmond was the type to join another person's cause so easily.
'Should I call on the annoying Zyriasun?'
.
"AACCHHOOO!!
Why the hell am I sneezing?"
'Ohh I don't know, maybe because you're covered in blood and guts to the point there isn't a single spot of you that's clean.'
"… Why are you harming my buzz?"
Carter snickered now that he'd finally stopped the constant badgering and could return it back to Esmond.
Right now, Esmond was leading in points without a single kill of a fellow participant, with his money solely on killing the creatures of the Arena Map.
Funnily enough, Esmond found the creatures in the deep valley of the mountain were incredibly vicious and poisonous to the point he discovered a source of incredibly potent poison that helped strengthen his body.
It was a startling discovery during the crazed, but it helped Esmond learn another method to use Blood Magic by turning someone's own blood into poison.
Bored and excited to try it out, Esmond turned part of his blood into poison, which coursed around his body, affecting his organs in a dangerous way.
However, his own body fought against it incredibly well that it purged the poison and affected cells before reconstructing everything from the molecular level.
Esmond discovered his strength increased by a decent sum for a random discovery, especially with his current strength level.
Storing the poison pool source found in the dark valley for the Space Ark, Esmond continued going deeper into the darkness to find the strongest monster.
And it happened to sense the incoming Esmond, who wanted nothing more but to fight.
A brutal fight that would be bloody and deadly…
'Interesting… what a unique monster… ahahaha!!
Shall I finally find gain some freedom?'
A half asleep black scaled Dragon chuckled to himself, while his thoughts about freedom popped up again after several millennia in the darkness.
Memories of the last 3 millennia were in darkness that both fed him to grow into the adsorb size it was now, but it also left a deep scar on its soul that desire to see light above all else, which was odd for his specific kind.
The Dragon thought it would be wise to check ahead to see the strength of its opponent but to its horror and delight, Esmond greeted him with his own message by conducting his Mental Energy.
'Don't worry, friend.
I'll free you soon enough, just like the others.'
Esmond said nothing else and closed of his mind as he quickened the pace to kill everything in his way.
The Dragon could only watch on in silence, somewhat stunned and confused with what to do, but believed it would be best to meet the young human child.
'Interesting…
Let's see if you can take me away from the Retail World.
Many have tried and failed…'
.
After another hour or so for Esmond, he finally killed everything in sight and around him that he could sense.
All the creatures were dead and shredded apart by Esmond to those watching him, with many people being afraid of the man standing alone in the darkness.
Thankfully for their souls, they couldn't see the smile across Esmond's face, who felt quite relaxed and well spirited.
Because it was time to face the true monster of the valley.
The Dragon.
"Hey!
Are you ready for this?" Esmond shouted as he summoned some water to waster over his body to clean himself before using the Clean Spell through Refined Light.
For a few seconds, Esmond glowed as bright as the sun in the middle of deep space.
The Magic Spell cleansed his body, mind, and soul into a calm temperament for the battle, instead of charging in recklessly.
Esmond decided to try out the spell because Carter continued to complain nonstop, but it happened to attract an overly eager black dragon that felt like his goal in life, his wish was finally being fulfilled.
And it happened perfectly, just as a battle between monsters was about to begin.
But surprisingly, it gained insight from the Refined Light of the Clean Spell that didn't just affect its Dragon Soul, body, and mind, but many other people who watched on from around the Arena and further on.
Because all sorts of System Users were watching in, they found insight from the Refined Light that powered the Clean Spell.
It shocked a great number of Martial Artists in Cultivation Worlds who practised the holy elements that attuned with Light and purity.
A number of Buddha Martial Artists found harmony in the Refined Light, while Mages with an affinity to Light, helped established another ring around their Mana Cores or improved the purity of their elemental affinity and constitution.
.
By the time the Dragon noticed the source of the Light, after its constitution and aptitude improved marginally from the presence of the Refined Light, its eyes focused solely on Esmond.
"Human… You were the source of that Light?"
"Yeah…
I just used a Clean Spell, which draws on Refined Light Elemental Energy.
Anyway… are you ready to fight?" Esmond didn't want to waste time talking because it was going to take him some time to leave the valley.
The Dragon sensed the impatience in the young child and decided to give the human exactly what he wanted.
A battle.
Drawing on all the strength in its lungs, the Dragon let out a deafening roar that escaped the mountain valley and reached the ears of each System User still alive in the round.
All the creatures that heard the mighty roar of the Black Dragon, raced away in the opposite direction in the hopes to get away from its vicious fury and violent tendencies.
Esmond watched the antics of the Dragon with a smile on his face.
Not because of the battle that was about to occur.
Rather Esmond was fixated on taming the Dragon for himself.
He wanted another tamed beast and the Black Dragon appeared to be the best monster for him, especially since it was intelligent enough to hold a conversation.
Frigus would just blow and ice shard at his face once it got bored and would look for someone to play with.