Chapter 358
The three other legacy fighters start tapping the blue panels that pop up, ordering food and drinks at a rapid rate.
I'm too focused on the moving picture display of my fight being analyzed on the nightly Valor City News Program like it's no big deal. After a few more seconds pass, the images shift again and one of the sword moves that Ace used to defeat his final opponent shows up on the screen.
He chuckles and turns to Max.
"Hey, look at that, my finishing move of the Red Ogre made the news."
Max crosses his arms to reply.
"Not bad, not bad."
He turns to me, and I'm still staring at the blue boxes that float around my vision in a dazed state.
"What? You're not gonna order anything?" He leans over to look into my status view, and the only thing playing now are the fight matches. I reply in a low tone, still captivated by the screens. "I'll get whatever their most popular item is, and uh- a few of their strongest drinks."
Max lets out another laugh, opening his own menu boxes up again and pressing some on the item options.
"Sure, I'll throw in a few orders for you. Did you-" Sia leans over too to see what I'm looking at, finishing Max's sentence.
"Did you not know the event was being recorded or something?" She pauses...
"Hey, that does beg the question, how'd you use all those skills? I know your main element is fire, but the ground clearly moved beneath some of your opponents' feet, I know better than anyone that is earth magic."
Ace jumps in too.
"Your buffs also come from a skill too. That red and golden glow, it's the same as the bloodhounds speed buff and the red ogre's strength..."
Max finishes off the sudden array of questions in a hushed tone.
"You're a multi-skill user, aren't you?"
I let out a long sigh, turning my head from the screen while X'ing out the remaining blue boxes. Meanwhile, I'm thinking whether or not coming to dinner here was a bad idea.
I assumed I'd get an unfiltered conversation while everyone was drinking, but the heavy questions have already started and we've hardly been sitting down for half a minute.
Instead of completely outing myself, or resorting to violence like usual, I decide to just deflect the question with a few additional details and hope that's enough to curb their interest for now.
"It's complicated. You're right though, I had no idea it was recorded. I would have probably fought differently had I known prior... how many people see this news program?"
Sia smiles and looks at me with a very curious gaze.
"Everyone in the city of course. A few thousand people minimum, I'm sure you caught some attention from the investors and guild members in the platinum district."
I raise an eyebrow and reply.
"What about the Royal Coin Sector? Would anyone there be watching?"
There's an awkward pause, then Sia replies.
"Well, I wouldn't know that."
Max replies too.
"Not our business."
Ace shrugs and doesn't say a word, his eyes dart around for a moment then the awkward silence continues.
I'm at a loss for words at their reaction, but the calming sound of a woman's voice cuts through the air to alleviate the tension.
"Welcome back Legacy Fighters. You all put on quite the showing tonight. Please, enjoy your stay as always."
A woman with smooth white skin and long white hair to match walks over to us with many circular golden trays of food and bottles of drinks floating around her in a slow-moving circle as if she has a telekinesis skill.
She looks very similar to the woman that greeted us at the door, almost as if they're related. The only difference is her eyes are much sharper and her curves are far more mature.
The woman wears a red dress and points her finger down toward the table in a gentle manner as our orders find their way in front of us before she turns to leave and disappears into the darkness of the restaurant's privacy before anyone can say a word.
The moment she does, it still feels like her eyes are staring right through me. Her image is burned into the back of my mind.
I'm left speechless, but Max hits me on the back in a friendly way while grabbing one of the bottles to pour us all a drink.
"That's Elen, the owner of this place. Kind of her to stop by and say hello, I haven't seen her in ages."
Ace and Sia take their drinks, so I do too.
*Clink*
We tap our glasses together and begin to enjoy the meals.
Any thought of the previous conversations about my skills and the question about the royal coin are in the past. The only thing that fills the table now is laughter, drinks, food, and talks of what kind of matchups they think will be in the 5th and 6th rounds tomorrow.
Apparently there's a pretty normal rotation of 3 or 4 monsters per stage. Meaning there's a limited amount of dungeons they capture the monsters from.
I take a sip of alcohol, but just like usual my poison resistance passive ability kicks in and it's negated instantly. Still, I keep up with their drinking speed and slow my speech while widening a smile to play the part and not sour the mood.
Once I take a bite of the premium cut meats and incredible cooking however, the euphoria that hits my body and mind is one that I can actually feel.
Light plumes of mana flow through every bite, and a notification pops up on my status window once I finish the first plate.
[Congratulations! Elen's Dish consumed.]
[Temporary Buff Added: 30 Minutes: +5% Strength +5% Mana Regeneration]
I smile at the sound of this. If it was harmful, my poison resistance buff would have negated it already. The woman that came over earlier must have some kind of mana imbument abilities. It makes sense why this restaurant is so expensive.
Maybe I could pull something like this off with my crafting skill if I tried.
The 4 of us drink and eat for about 45 more minutes. An interesting phenomenon I find is that every time a new dish is finished, the 30-minute buff timer is reset. The buffs don't stack as I initially expected they would.
I turn to Sia as Max starts pouring a 3rd bottle out into glasses. Each of us drinks a considerable amount.
"Could you tell me more about this city? As I said before, I'm pretty new here. I'd like to know as much as I can if I'm going to be here for a while."
She smiles and responds as we all clink our drinks together again.
"Well sure, what do you want to know? This is known far and wide as the city of commerce, but in reality, it's the city of gambling. The only ones that make any money in this place is the city itself."
She looks around and whispers under her breath.
"Until you land a commerce contract, work for the royal guard, or live in the monastery; there's no way of walking out of this city with more money than you came in with."
Ace keeps his mouth shut, staring up at the shimmering purple and white tree with glossy eyes and a smile uninterested in our conversation. Max, on the other hand, overhears what Sia has to say and jumps in.
"It wasn't always like this you know. My father used to work in this city as a merchant before the..."
He gets in close to me just like Sia did before whispering again.
"Before the mercenary guild came to town about a decade ago."
He leans back up to sit straight.
"The city used to run just like any other, with taxes on merchants, and relaxed security that let citizens of any financial class explore wherever they pleased."
Ace finally turns to us with his arms crossed.
"That was before our time. Who cares about the good old days. We're succeeding in the system that exists today, so it doesn't matter."
Max shrugs and lets out a sigh, then decides to pour another drink.
"I guess you're right. I just think it's sometimes a bit unfair. People are lured in by the shiny walls and stripped of every dollar they have before they're thrown out. Most of the gear, services, and items here are overpriced; but the only other places to find stuff like this would be in Sector 4 to a certain extent. For real luxuries, they would have to go outside the dark continent. That's not an option for almost everyone here."
*Clink*
We say cheers and the strong liquid consumed shifts the conversation in an instant back to a more mundane topic.
Another 30 minutes or so of the fight arena talk and meaningless gossip about their lives outside Valor City goes by. Their laughter gets louder, and their words get slower. Now is the time I'll get to start asking some much more serious questions.
As I'm about to interject again, a ding sounds in my head and a blue text box pops up in front of my eyes. By the reaction of everyone else at the table, they have received it too.
My heart skips a beat when I read the message.
[00:00 Midnight Tax: Golden Gates Area: 1 Gold Credit has been deducted from your account.]
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