Ning found his way to a mostly empty room as he was directed here by an employee.
"Is this where I register?" he asked the guard.
"Yes, sit there, your turn will come," the girl said.
Ning nodded and sat in the waiting area that had about 4 other people aside from him.
One by one they went to the man that was registering them and soon it was Ning's turn.
"Name?" the man asked.
"Ning Ruogong," Ning said.
"Age?" he then asked.
"Uh… 18," Ning said.
The man looked at him and wrote the rest of the information. "Do you have any sort of identification?" he asked.
"Does this work?" Ning asked as he brought out his Summoner's card.
"Yes, it does," the man said. "Let's see… Rank 5? Is this true?"
"Absolutely," Ning said.
"Your hair is still red though. Let me guess, you're taking part in the one with beasts?" he asked.
"Yes," Ning said. He didn't want to bother fighting on his own.
The fee to register in the fights was 20 full Pearls, and that was only the cost of a single day. Ning was surprised, but he still paid it.
"Alright, you are all set up. Go to the left room next. You will be put on a waiting list and will get your chance to fight soon enough," the guy said.
"Thanks," Ning said and walked through a hallway before taking the door to his left.
When he arrived, he was immediately handed a piece of paper with the number 212 on it.
"What is the current number on?" Ning asked.
"Well, the arena only opened up 2 hours ago, so it's around 100," the guard said.
Ning thanked him and sat down in a waiting area as he looked at the nearly 100 different people that were waiting for their turn to come.
Ning saw many beasts that were already summoned prior to the fight as people waited for their turn to come.
He saw the guy in red that he had Saphandra bet on there as well. 'So everyone is here huh?' Ning thought.
He saw people get called for their turn as well as people coming back from the fight and going straight to the guard to get their ticket for the next turn.
One such person sat next to him with the number 243 with him.
"Did you come back from fighting?" Ning asked him.
"Yes, I won," the man said. "Are you a newbie?"
"Yes, I just joined. Anything I should know about?" Ning asked.
"Uhh… let's see," the man thought for a moment. "I don't know how strong you are, but it's better to take things slowly at the start so that people don't instantly start betting on you."
"The more they don't bet on you, the more you earn," the man said.
"Oh, how does that work?" Ning asked.
"The betting house always gives a percentage of your enemy's bets to you if you win. If you appear strong from the start, not many will bet against you and you won't earn," the man said.
"Oh," Ning said. "But won't it be fine if I bet on myself?"
"Your bets are valued based on the two fighter's bets. If you get a lot of bets made on you, the profit won't be nearly as good as what you would get if they put money on your enemy."
"Not only will you earn a lot from the payment alone, you will also earn from the bet," the man said.
"Although, be absolutely careful not to lose a match just to earn money. You don't want to be found out by these people that you are fixing your match," the man said.
"No problem," Ning said. He wasn't planning on doing so either way.
After an hour of waiting, it was finally Ning's turn. 'The fights are getting faster and faster huh?' he thought as he walked out.
Along with him walked the number 211, a girl with a bright orange hair that he could tell was a Rank 2.
'Already an orange hair in Rank 2,' Ning thought. 'When the hell am I going to get my hair changed?'
Fortunately, hair color didn't play any part when it came to beast summoning. It only affected when one had to summon just the power of a beast.
Next to the girl was a wolf of silver and brown patches, which was also a Rank 2 beast. As a Rank 2 beast, Ning knew it didn't have any skills yet, so he would just have to summon something of Rank 3 to win it.
'No, I can't have my beast show off its skills at the very beginning. I need to slowly increase my skills,' Ning thought.
Once he was on the stage and ready to fight, he took a quick glance over at Saphandra by the betting room and knew she was ready.
Then, he closed his eyes and reached into the sea of darkness to call for a Rank 3 beast with superior physical abilities.
When the bond was formed, a summoning circle appeared with patterns that said the beast had strong physical skills as well as being a Wind elemental beast.
When the beast was summoned, Ning saw that it was a giant mantis that was at least 4 feet tall.
It just looked like an oversized Mantis, but it did have strong-looking arms.
The referee saw that the two were ready, so he asked them to prepare, and a few seconds later started the match.
"Kick the wolf softly," Ning ordered mentally to the mantis that immediately dashed forward and kicked the wolf that was barely starting to move.
The wolf staggered but managed to keep standing and came at the mantis.
The mantis was ready to defeat the wolf but Ning told it to take the hit.
The mantis didn't understand why it had to be hit, but it obeyed what Ning told it to do and took the hit.
"Alright, I think we sold ourselves as weak," Ning said softly. "Time to win the fight."
