Eddie's audience eagerly anticipated his response. When he finally spoke, his words floored everyone.
"Actually, I didn't do much in there. I just took a nap. Time flies, huh? Three hours passed just like that?" Eddie feigned innocence as he faced the baffled crowd. The Golden Armor Captain, upon hearing Eddie's casual response, felt an urge to throttle him. Who else would choose to sleep in the daunting Twelve Zodiac Chambers, especially in the White Ram Chamber, shattering the captain's hard-earned record?
"You didn't venture further in?" Yehken questioned, perplexed. Could it be that Eddie lacked curiosity about the fearsome Chimera?
"I did enter, but since I couldn't find a way out, I ended up taking a nap out of boredom," Eddie replied, keeping his lie consistent.
"That's impossible!" A Golden Armor guard objected loudly.
"If you had really gone in, the Chimera would have devoured you. How could you possibly come out alive?" A skeptical mercenary leader added, "Even with a ten-minute invincible shield, you couldn't have stayed there for three hours. It's just not possible!"
"The ten-minute shield was enough for me to look around. As for the Chimera, it ignored me completely, and I did the same. We just minded our own business," Eddie said, mixing truth with fiction seamlessly.
"What does the Chimera look like?" Another guard asked, still doubtful.
"It has a dragon head on the left, a lion head in the middle, a ram head on the right, and a snake tail. Oh, and there's a golden bell hanging under the ram's neck," Eddie described, skillfully weaving his lie with elements of truth, leaving no room for doubt.
"How did you manage to come out?" A bald mercenary inquired.
"Grey the wolf lured away the ram-headed monsters. They didn't dare enter because of their fear of the Chimera. Grey took his time clearing the corridor, and I got bored waiting," Eddie explained, causing the crowd to shake their heads in disbelief. They couldn't fathom that Eddie's pet wolf had accomplished such a feat.
"A single wolf couldn't possibly kill all those ram-headed monsters. There were dozens of them!" protested a warrior who had lost a bet on Eddie's survival.
"How can you prove you slept inside and not just at the teleportation array?" someone else challenged.
"No matter what, it's good you're back," Yehken interjected, unconcerned with where Eddie slept. His primary concern was Eddie's safety, knowing the consequences if anything happened to the young master of the Yue family. Yehken had been tormented with worry during Eddie's absence, even contemplating suicide. Now that Eddie was safe, Yehken felt a huge weight lifted from his shoulders.
"Let's head back. We've had enough excitement at the Twelve Zodiac Chambers," suggested Lyqeen and Lyken, visibly relieved, eager to leave the place.
"Yes, yes, let's go!" Yehken quickly agreed, still shaken by the ordeal of worrying about Eddie's safety. The thought of Eddie re-entering those chambers was more than he could bear.
"Wait! You guys are in cahoots, trying to deceive us!" An infuriated mercenary leader, who had lost his bet, accused loudly.
"It was your bet, not ours! And why are you so interested in what we do anyway? We can sleep wherever we want, can't we?" Yehken retorted, clearly frustrated by their mocking and accusatory tone.
The bystanders exchanged sheepish glances. Indeed, they were the ones who initiated the bet, and Eddie's actions had nothing to do with them.
However, the mercenary leader wasn't ready to let it go. "Let's make another bet then. I bet he just slept near the teleportation array and never entered the White Ram Chamber. Who's with me? I bet two gold coins!"
Despite their doubts about Eddie's three-hour stint inside, no one was willing to take up the bet.
The Golden Armor Captain furrowed his brow, aware of a secret that only those who had repeatedly challenged the White Ram Chamber would know. If one didn't enter the chamber within half an hour, the laws of the place would expel them, rendering it impossible to stay inside without confronting the challenges.
"I'll take your bet!" Eddie's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Do you dare to wager?"
Had the elegant Lady of Luohua City been present, Eddie would have ignored the mercenaries. But seizing the opportunity to assert his dominance, he decided to use this moment to intimidate them, showing off Grey the wolf's newfound prowess.
"You think you're brave? Show us proof then! If you entered the White Ram Chamber and defeated the ram-headed monsters, where are their weapons? What evidence do you have? If you're so sure, show us something!"
The mercenary leader was confident, seeing Eddie empty-handed. Even if Eddie had truly entered the chamber, he doubted he had any tangible proof.
Eddie's response was about to turn the tables on the mercenaries, revealing the fruits of his daring adventure in the Twelve Zodiac Chambers.
"Sure, let's raise the stakes to ten gold coins. Do you have the guts for that?" Eddie's fox-like grin was evident as he taunted the mercenary leader.
The leader hesitated, fearing the possibility that Eddie might indeed have proof. "In this world, there are plenty of bluffers, but few who truly dare," Eddie quipped, looking down on the leader as if he were an emperor staring at a lowly servant. The condescension in his gaze was unbearable, igniting a fierce urge among the mercenaries to shut him up.
"Eddie's too arrogant. We need to teach him a lesson," they muttered among themselves, pooling their money to challenge him.
Most bystanders chose to watch from the sidelines, not daring to bet against Eddie, who had somehow managed to stay in the White Ram Chamber for three hours.
"I'll act as the witness!" The Golden Armor Captain volunteered, certain of Eddie's victory.
"Show us your proof! How can you prove you've been inside the White Ram Chamber?" the leader demanded, banking on the chance to deny any evidence Eddie presented.
Eddie casually pulled out a piece of stone that emitted a faint white light. To the untrained eye, it was unremarkable.
"What is this?" everyone wondered, baffled.
The Captain gasped in recognition. "You actually got the Blindness Stone from the White Ram Chamber? How did you manage that?"
The crowd murmured in disbelief. How could Eddie, a novice, obtain the Blindness Stone, guarded by dozens of formidable ram-headed warriors? And with just a Thorny Flower, considered one of the weakest beasts, at his side?
"Impossible! He can't have the Blindness Stone. He's just a beginner, a complete novice. He must be a fraud!" the mercenary leader raged, his disbelief evident. His demeanor resembled that of a frustrated gorilla, rejected and ridiculed by its peers.
"Silence! This Blindness Stone is unique to the Zodiac Chambers and only works within the Tower of Trials. Once removed, it becomes a mere rock. You've lost, leave the ten gold coins," the Golden Armor Captain interjected sharply, cutting off the leader's frenzied protest.
The leader, his heart bleeding from defeat, couldn't accept this reality. "It's impossible for him to obtain it, he's just a first-level novice!"
Eddie, with an air of smug satisfaction, raised the stakes. "I have proof. If you're brave enough, why not raise the bet to ten gold coins?"
The mercenary leader, despite his initial bravado, hesitated under Eddie's taunting gaze. The crowd, although skeptical of Eddie's claim, couldn't help but be intrigued by the unfolding drama.
The Golden Armor Captain, aware of the Blindness Stone's significance, confirmed its authenticity, further shocking the already bewildered mercenaries.
In a show of frustration, the leader accused Eddie of deception, unable to fathom how a mere novice could possess such a rare artifact.
Eddie, nonchalantly showcasing the Blindness Stone, left the mercenaries dumbfounded. The Captain, recognizing the stone, was visibly moved, especially upon receiving a wedding ring among the artifacts Eddie had found.
It belonged to his brother, who had perished in the chamber years ago. His gratitude towards Eddie was profound.
Eddie, ready to leave, was halted by the leader's desperate challenge to a duel. Dismissed by the others as futile, given the evident superiority of Eddie's Gray Wolf, the leader's challenge was met with ridicule.
Eddie, amused by the turn of events, watched as his Gray Wolf, previously underestimated, stood up, revealing its formidable presence and leaving the crowd in awe.
Upon witnessing Gray Wolf's fierce demeanor, every beast owned by the mercenaries retreated in alarm, some even collapsing in fear.
When Gray Wolf let out a triumphant howl, the mercenary leader's wolf immediately submitted, bowing its head and tucking its tail in a gesture of defeat.
Eddie, seemingly unimpressed, casually gave Gray Wolf a kick, half-jokingly reprimanding it for showing off. "Save it for when there are ladies around," he remarked, to the astonishment of the onlookers who were baffled by his nonchalant treatment of such a formidable creature.
Yehken, along with Lyqeen and Lyken, had grown accustomed to Eddie's antics and chose to ignore this latest display.
Seizing the opportunity, Eddie asked a question that revealed his unfamiliarity with certain basic facts about beasts.
"What exactly does it mean when you say a bronze-level beast is stronger than a regular one of the same rank? And how much stronger are silver and gold-level beasts?"
While Eddie had a general understanding of the hierarchical strength of beasts, he sought more detailed information. He was cautious about revealing his lack of knowledge on this subject to his sister, Sophia, not wanting to give away his true lack of common knowledge in this world.
The intricacies of beast strength and classification remained a point of intrigue and learning for Eddie.