Chapter 26: Provocation

The sun rose as it always did, lighting up the tower with a rosy light. Stretching, Fang got up and washed, then headed down the stairs. Surprisingly, Valeria had prepared breakfast – although it wasn’t complicated, the simple tastes were pleasing.

As well, instead of having a chef, Fang noticed that she had cooked this whole time. She must be extremely busy as the head of commerce, he thought, but she still took the care to prepare meals for him.

Breakfast was soon over, and Valeria led Fang into the peak of the tower, where he would be able to gain energy. Though this tower wasn’t designed solely for the purpose of gathering energy, it had the function as an energy tower nevertheless. Unlike the training camp tower, the concentration of energy didn’t seem to be as compact, however, Fang was the solitary occupant using it without the time limit of an hour.

Practicing the endless method, he was stunned at how fast it seemed to greedily absorb. Even in the past, it was never as fast as this. It surely wasn’t the effect of the energy tower – it must have been the energy bath that accelerated his growth so much.

Damn, no wonder that the wealthy were able to become so strong, “ordinary” people that tried hard could never match up to this huge, looming gap!

Valeria had said energy towers were available for anyone to use, but people who gained energy could only stay for two hours appropriately, as staying longer could potentially pose a burden on the body. However, with the use of the endless method, Fang stayed for three hours before exiting. He headed towards lower floors, where some techniques were described and training machines were elaborately setup.

It was late in the lethargic afternoon when Valeria and Fang dined again. Before Fang prepared to head back, Valeria took out a card. “Fang, here’s a card with access to a little gold usable across the country, please take it.”

Though Valeria said it was a little amount, judging from her past generosity, Fang didn’t think there would be a small quantity.

He waved his hands. “Valeria, thank you, but you’ve helped me enough. For living costs and tuition, I’ll make my own, plus, the experience from hunting monsters should be useful.”

“Well, okay.” Valeria didn’t try to force the card on him, her eyes enjoyably glinting. It seems that she had chosen correctly.

Fang bid farewell to Valeria, then returned to camp with Rhodes. He headed back towards his residence, where Blue surprisingly discovered that Fang didn’t come back in the night, and had to ask as soon as Fang entered, “Fang, where were you last night?”

Fang slightly hesitated as he hung up his coat on the stand. “In Lady Valeria’s home.”

“What? Did Valeria let you stay for the night?”

He nodded. “Yes, it was really late when we finished talking, so she asked if I wanted to sleep the night over.”

Puzzled, Blue stood up. “Why is she so good to you?”

Fang awkwardly replied, “Well… I don’t know.”

From Fang’s tone, Blue knew there was something up, but if Fang was reluctant to tell her, it probably involved some private matters that even she wouldn’t pry into.

She frowned. Last holiday, which Valeria invited Fang was strange itself, but to go once again and stay the night? What was so attractive about this guy?

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A week later, in the dim moonlight, two figures were present on the practice grounds.

One of them was Fang, with undisguised joy on his face as he felt his energy desire to expand, this was definitely a welcome sign, because it usually preceded an upgrade.

If nothing else, in another couple of days, I should be able to become a 2nd grade intermediate!

Typically, it should have taken an additional month and a half or longer to advance from a 1st grade to a 2nd grade as an intermediate, but in less than a month, Fang was on the verge of advancing. Nevertheless, the rate would soon slow down; compared to a week ago, the energy bath had worn off considerably.

The second figure was Blue, depressed. Every day, she had followed Fang around, and clearly recognized the insane speed that he was progressing at – she even felt this was inhuman.

This originated when Fang came back from Valeria’s place… could it be that she gave him an energy bath? It was the only explanation that Blue could come up with, as time progressed, due to the decrease in his speed.

But Blue couldn’t understand at all. Why would Valeria give him an energy bath? The used materials were really expensive, and should be more valuable than average for it to have this much of an impact. It couldn’t be that the head of commerce, after rejecting the countless advances, never having a boyfriend, suddenly wanted to get a pet?

No, it couldn’t be, Valeria wasn’t that kind of woman, not to mention if she wanted a cute pet, it would never be Fang. After all, look at Fang, he wasn’t ugly, but had some handsome points that could be considered quite agreeable… No, not at all, he was simply a nuisance that needed to die!

Because of that event, I’ve been depressed all this time and yet he goes about with a good mood every day? Right, let me play a bit with Fang once, hit his self-confidence extremely hard and put him trembling in fear, which would be nice…

However, if I did that, a small portion of my strength might be revealing, and doing it this way means I couldn’t demonstrate the majority of my skills…

What the hell, Fang’s a freak, so he should deal with freaks, let’s just do it!

“Fang, we’ve known each other for such a long time, but we’ve never practiced against each other, would you like to compare pointers?”

In schools, it was relatively common to have students perform practice fights to enhance their combat experience. Fang couldn’t see anything wrong with that suggestion, so he agreed.

“Sure!”

“I’m pretty weak, please don’t go so harsh on me!” Having said that, Blue almost let out a laugh.

Fang, it’ll be a great expression as you feel embarrassed when you humiliatingly get defeated by someone weaker, and I’ll feel infinitely better.

Unable to sense the incoming danger, Fang comforted Blue. “Blue, don’t take this too seriously, it’ll make you too nervous. After all, as a fighter, winning or losing is a normal thing in a duel, and sometimes failure will help us become aware of our shortcomings!”

Blue was speechless, the way this guy talks made sense, and felt eerily similar to that old man.

Bothered, Blue was about to protest when someone suddenly called out, “Come over here!”

Two men quickly approached the practice grounds – it turned out to be the same aggressive people from that first day, Garret and his friend.

Seeing Fang, Garret was a little bit surprised, and let out a curse. “It must be your lucky day. Regrettably, I’m not looking for you today. Instead, I’d like a ‘friendly’ talk with a certain someone next to you.”

From Garret’s tone, it was clear that his goal was to challenge not Fang, but Blue.