HOW I BECAME A MILLIONAIRE
"Hugo, how much did I win this time?" I asked Hugo who came back from the gambling house a third time.
"Well, less the commission that is promised to me, here's thirty silver ingots, 3,000,000 silver, that's your winning, hahaha", Hugo said as he handed me my winnings while laughing.
"Don't give me back the money yet. Bet it all on me winning the next match", I asked Hugo again as I handed the silver ingots back to him.
But he didn't choke on his laughter this time because he sorts of expected it. I was a crazed overconfident gambler in his eyes.
"Are you sure that's three million silver and the next match you are up against a Mercury Tier", Hugo asked me to reconsider again.
"Don't worry, as long as he's not a Venus Tier it should be fine", I told Hugo who shook his head and walked away.
There wasn't a Venus Tiered Templar at our age and in fact, there weren't that many Venus Templar adults in the entire town for that matter.
-----
My next competitor was Klaud who was another sixteen-year-old genius from another noble family, the Strout Family. Klaud was an early Mercury Tier, and he was one of the favorites to win this competition.
Klaud was different from my other competitors who treated me as an underperformer, garbage even. Klaud was careful with me.
"If I won once it may be luck, twice maybe coincidence, three times then I must be a pretend fool", Klaud thought to himself, but he wasn't deterred because the distance in Templar magic between us was too far and he had quite a few magical items on him that he could make use of.
There was no way that I would defeat him, according to Klaud, if he was careful.
In terms of Templar stars, I was definitely ahead of Klaud even though he was a Mercury-Tiered Templar, but he had a few pieces of good stuff on him like the gauntlet on his hand, armor on his body, and the boots he wore.
Before the match, I asked Hugo to spy on Klaud's previous match to jot down his magical artifices and estimated their magical worth.
Klaud's gauntlet gave him +4 Power, his armor +4 Constitution stars, and Boots about +4 Momentum. That made Klaud a monstrous component against me that was almost double my Templar abilities.
"Battle Commence"
For most of the match, I avoided direct attacks from Klaud as I ran around the stage, waiting for him to slip, but Klaud was a careful competitor and opportunities for me were few.
"There is no way for me to make this guy slip by himself", I told myself.
"Elephant Punching Strike"
Suddenly Klaud landed a punch that was infused with templar magic that mimicked the slamming of an elephant trunk as the punch struck. The strength of the elephant punch pushed me toward the ledge of the arena.
"Arrrrgghhh"
I screamed in pain as Klaud flew into the air to execute a flying kick toward me.
Klaud was a careful fighter and he avoided exerting himself unless he was certain of victory. I purposely allowed him to strike me with a punch that threw me to the ledge of the arena.
Klaud was now confident of winning, and he came right after me to finish me off, not expecting me to turn the tables on him. But the table was turned on him.
"This is the end of your luck", Klaud screamed at me to finish me off but suddenly Klaud was thrown off the stage by a shocking move.
"Rings of Growth"
The last time I cast the vines, it was so quick that most people failed to catch a glimpse of it. This time multiple vines were cast that grabbed Klaud's feet while he was in the air that threw him a dozen feet away into the ground and out of the arena stage.
"Emm..Orion wins", the referee announced.
"Silence"
The crowd was silent as the battle ended in my favor.
Nobody criticized my performance and cheating after this round, but they knew now why I won so many rounds at such a low Awakening Level.
"He's a Conjurer"
"No wonder he could defeat all those more powerful opponents. He could conjure magic at such a young age"
"He's hiding his true potentials"
The audience now knew why I won all my matches. I was a natural Conjurer with some cool magic tricks up my sleeves.
-----
"Hugo, how much did I win this time?" I asked Hugo who came back from the gambling house a fourth time.
"Well, less the commission that was promised to me, here's 10,000,000 silvers, that's your winning, hahaha, you are the wealthiest boy in town now", Hugo said as he handed me my winnings and laughed.
"Are you going to bet on the last match?" Hugo asked me this time without prompting from me.
"Of course, All in", I told Hugo who smiled at my lack of prudence.
But he didn't argue against my lack of judgment this time although he merely replied to me, "I'll have difficulty betting all this money though. I'll see what I can do".
-----
"Amelia, how did you find a conjurer at this young age in your family? It's not possible for someone so young and at such low levels of Awakening to conjure magic", Kedrix Strout asked Amelia.
"He's not from my family. He's an apprentice of a Conjurer of the Conjurer's Court of Drachia who asked me to field him in the competition", Amelia told Kedrix.
"No wonder he won all those matches and we thought they were flukes, he's an apprentice, of a real Conjurer from Drachia?" Gordon asked Amelia.
"Yes, he has the seal from the Conjurer court, it can't be wrong", Amelia replied to him.
"Apprentice or not, he'll not win the next match. It's against the Burgess family and this year their talent is not bad at all", Kedrix said to them.
"We'll see", Amelia said to them before she whispered to herself, "The Ring of Growth"
Amelia was confident of me winning at least a few matches in the competition because I have the Ring of Growth that she sold to me. With the ring, it was impossible not to win a few matches against these, most of which are spoilt children of the families.