662: Challenge

Challenge

Leonel's words seemed to come with an air of calm around them. Despite the fact he didn't explain any detailed plan, they somehow felt at ease.  0

If others knew of this, they might find it to be quite baffling. Leonel's words effectively amounted to telling them to wait patiently and nothing else, yet they gobbled it up like naïve children. 

But maybe this was just a product of how broken their spirits were. Any small light of hope they could get was enough to calm their hearts. It might have been as the saying went, ignorance was bliss. Maybe by choosing to live in ignorance, they would stave off this pain for just a small bit longer. 

"Do we really just have to wait?" Kaela asked softly. 

Her eyes were still puffy from her tears, but she still gathered herself up for long enough to say these words. Unlike the others, she couldn't afford to just accept everything at face value. It was exactly this passiveness that she felt landed them in this situation to begin with. 

Leonel smiled reassuringly. 

"We just need to wait for the honeymoon period to come to an end. It might take a week, it might take a month. But once we hit that tipping point, it'll be time to make our move."

Kaela opened her mouth to respond, but she really didn't know what to say. At this point, she could only take Leonel's words at face value. 

"Then what do we do in the meantime? We don't have any resources and our merit points became useless before we even got a chance to use them. All I managed to buy were some rations to fill up our empty fridge, but I didn't really expect that to last more than a month."

In this new system, even something as simple as good had be scratched and clawed for. 

The so-called 'rations' Kaela bought in the past were only a result of her own quirks. She didn't like spending money, so she often bought dry rations that most only bought for the sake of missions. 

Most of the time, the group would rather eat at the free lunches given by the freshman quarters or the Peaks, but now there would be no such thing. Even the freshmen would begin to starve unless they had the capital to trade large amounts of Urbe Ore. Either that, or they'd have to go hunting on their own. 

Basically all freshmen perks had been stripped. The only 'benefit' they had gained was that now they were allowed to travel outside the mountain range on their own without first passing any Peak Exams. 

But, that was about as good as telling them that they had the right to go and die now. 

Thinking of Freshmen, Leonel couldn't help but be keenly aware that Radlis was nowhere to be seen at the moment. However, he only spared it a fleeting thought. 

"I sent him away since he was never really one of us to begin with…" Kaela said softly as though she could read Leonel's mind. 

"That's not a problem. He might be even more useful when he isn't here. 

"As for food, don't worry about it. I also plan to take no small number of missions quite soon. But as for what you can do now…"

Leonel flipped his palm, secretly communicating with the Segmented Cube as he sent out one ore vein after another. 

"… How about train?"

Leonel grinned. 

He might have used up much of Camelot's high level ores, but Leonel had a city's worth of low level ores he had yet to use, all of which he got from the hive during his time with the Slayer Legion. 

For Leonel's current needs, these low level ores were too weak to build anything that could be useful to improving his strength. However, his strength wasn't what would need help very soon. 

"I'm going to impart some low level Force Arts to you. With your current level of skill, you should be able to grasp them quickly and it should help solidify your foundations. After that, we'll be able to start preparing."

"But…" Litia's twin sister, Madia, couldn't help but speak up in her soft voice. 

Though she didn't say the words, they hung at the tip of her tongue. Even without her bluntly stating it, everyone else was already aware. Though they were happy to learn new Force Arts, what good was it when no one would buy from them? Even if someone was willing to take the risk, who would dare to offend the members of Hero Peak? 

Though the Peak system had been dissolved, only the naïve believed that they would all be one happy family now…

Toward this question, though, Leonel only smiled mysteriously, not explaining further. 

**

Three days later, Leonel left the small abode under the shadow of Brave Peak and headed toward the former location of Valiant Hall. He walked hand in hand with Aina, not caring in the slightest for what looks he might receive. 

He strolled through the front doors, walking into the hustle and bustle. Compared to when he first entered Valiant Hall, it felt even rowdier. The excitement of the new changes still hadn't quite settled just yet so everyone was still hopping around with mad joy. 

A few recognized Leonel and gave him hostile glances, but it wasn't exaggerated enough for everyone to stop what they were doing to look toward him. 

Without a care, Leonel made his way to the front counter. There were many receptionists manning the long curved desk, but one didn't need to go through them to accomplish their goals. One would only need a receptionist upon handing in a mission. But, as for accepting them, it was a simple matter. 

Leonel reached forward to open a catalogue of missions, only for a large hand to slam onto the cover before he got a chance to open it. 

Leonel gazed at the hand for a while before his eyes traveled up to the face of its owner. On the end of it, he found a young man with a patchy beard he could probably do with shaving clean. Despite being a head shorter than Leonel, he had the haughtiness of someone twice his height. 

"Is something the matter?" Leonel asked calmly. 

"Obviously. You're not welcomed here, scram."

The words immediately drew far more attention than Leonel silent appearance had. 

"Oh?" Leonel raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"Did you not hear me? Scram!" The sneer of the young man only deepened. 

"Interesting." 

Before the young man could react, Leonel tapped his identification ring onto his. 

A small light spread out between the two of them, immediately forming an illusory dueling stage. The only oddity was that this dueling stage was split in half by a receptionists desk. 

<Challenge issued and accepted

<Leonel Morales

. <Halgo Warine

The words hovered in the air about the two, making their names clearly visible to all who were around. 

Leonel reached a hand forward and caught the front outline of Halgo's hair. 

BANG!

Halgo found his nose smashing into the catalogue, a dizziness he had never experienced before making his sight blurry. 

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