The boss watched everything that took place in the arena from his spot high in the arena.
"Did you see that?" he asked the assistant that stood next to him.
"Yes," the girl said. "Not being able to control their own beast is a really bad sign for a fighter. Do you want me to cancel his earnings? Or maybe just kick him out."
"What?" the boss's attention wavered when he heard that. "Why would you do that?"
"He put the audience at risk," the assistant said.
"That he did," the boss said. "But I was talking about something else."
"I don't understand," the assistant said.
"Did you see the crowd go wild when he fought his own beast? In fact, I've never even thought of putting a human against a beast before," the boss said as a wide smile appeared on his face.
He turned to his assistant to his side and said, "I think we have a new scene for us. Man Vs Beast."
* * * * * *
Ning was notified that someone had requested to battle him in a week. Remembering that he too had a chance to challenge now, he decided to challenge someone too.
Ning found someone higher up in the Beast fight ranking and challenged them.
After that, he had a week to himself where he could do anything he wanted.
With nothing else to do, Ning went back to the Summoning Circle to look for some quests to do in the meantime.
He looked through the quest board for anything that would catch his interest. However, nothing seemed fun at all.
Just as he was thinking that a person came next to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Yes?" Ning said when he noticed that it was one of the clerks working in this place.
"Sir, are you looking for some quests?" the person asked.
"Yes," Ning said. "But I don't think I like any of the quests in here."
Ning looked back at the quest board that was mostly about helping take people somewhere or helping with finding something or some much more mundane activities like gathering some plants and ores for the people.
Other than that. There was also the global quest about finding the missing people, but since it didn't originate in this place, Ning didn't bother taking those.
"Sir, there is a special quest that has been directly requested of you," the clerk said.
"A special quest? What is it?" he asked.
The clerk looked around and said, "let us go to the back room for more privacy."
Ning nodded and followed the clerk to the back room where no one was there.
"There is a direct quest issued by the royal family of the kingdom themselves," the clerk said.
"The Darius family did? How do they even know about me?" Ning asked.
"They didn't ask specifically for you, but rather the strongest person in the Circle. As far as we know, that is you," the clerk said.
"I see, what's the quest?" Ning asked.
"Starting immediately, you are to teach the royal princess about summoning," the clerk said.
"I... what?" Ning was confused. "Teach her about summoning? Why would I have to teach a princess anything? Doesn't she have a million tutors for that?"
"The King apparently wants someone really great at it to teach her," the clerk said.
"And I am that person?" Ning asked.
The clerk gave a confused look. "Are you not?" he asked.
Ning sighed. "Fine, whatever. How long is this task supposed to last? What's my payment?" he asked.
"Well…" the clerk hesitated. "It's supposed to last until she can summon a Rank 2 beast. As for the payment…"
"Rank 2 huh? Everyone should have that sort of rank already in this world. Just summoning is hard," Ning thought to himself. "I should be able to do that."
"Right, what did you say about the payment?" Ning asked the clerk.
"The payment is… you get to marry into the royal family," the clerk said.
"Sorry, I get to marry into the royal family? What the hell kind of payment is that? Who would I marry? The princess?" Ning asked.
"Umm… I don't think you can marry the princes--"
"I don't want to marry anyone," Ning said.
The clerk flinched a bit at Ning's sudden shout. He quickly turned around and ran to a table before pulling open the drawer to look at a quest.
"Actually, if you don't want to marry anyone, then by default your payment will be 5 thousand full Pearls," the clerk said.
Ning's frustration lowered a bit when he heard the number. "5 thousand huh? I barely earned a thousand from my own match the other day. So this is like 5 fights at once."
"If I can get her to summon immediately, that's an easy 5 thousand pearls," Ning thought. 'Or actually, if I get dull ones, I can easily get 10 thousand of those.'
One couldn't simply keep that many pearls in the ocean as there wouldn't be enough Spiritual energy in the water to fill them all up. However, Ning could simply teleport away to the boat and tie the pearls at its feet.
Ning didn't need Pearls, but somehow knowing that he could earn a lot of them still made him happy. It was like knowing he could earn gave him some worth that he wouldn't have otherwise.
"Okay, I will take the job," Ning said. "When do I start?"
"Immediately," the clerk said. "Let me set up the paperwork, and then you can go over to the palace."
Ning nodded and waited for the clerk to be done. Once he was done, Ning got a letter of introduction that he could show to the palace gates to gain entry.
After realizing that there was nothing else left for him to do in the building anymore, Ning walked out of it.
Then he turned towards the Western side of the island where the Royal family lived and walked towards them.
