A week had passed since Rianna had taken Rufus, Eren, and Jeane into the Dueling Arena to earn funds for their Hunting Party.
The teenagers didn't always win, but their losses were still at an acceptable level.
Rianna was still able to profit from these matches, and as the days went on, her other slaves—errr subordinates, also opened up to her.
Most of them were just ordinary teenagers without any grand family backing. Some of them didn't really want to fight, and that was understandable.
Those who didn't want to join the Hunting Party were then delegated to take care of the warehouse and handle chores such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry.
Thirteen didn't lift a finger nor raise a voice to order Rianna's people around. He had given her complete authority over them and focused all of his attention on helping Cristopher get stronger, as well as making Percival hate him more.
Percival had now become famous in the Dueling Arena, and he even gained some patrons who would always bet on him whenever he appeared to fight.
Due to his insistence on making things difficult for Thirteen, he wouldn't always win and suffered losses as well in the hopes that the seven-year-old boy would bet on the wrong person, making him go bankrupt.
However, in this scheme, the first one to break was Percival.
Regardless of whether he won or lost, his Master always gained tens of thousands of Silver Coins, almost making the Tigerkin go crazy.
It was as if Thirteen was able to read him like a book, and no matter what he did, the only winner at the end was the seven-year-old boy.
"It's a pleasure doing business with you, Raldo," Thirteen said as he received three Red Coins from the Duel Manager.
"You know, you should take it easy on your betting," Raldo replied bitterly. "It's hard for us if you always win, you know?"
"It's not my fault," Thirteen replied. "Regardless of what I do, Taiga always earns me money. I'm so lucky to have him."
These words almost made Percival puke blood then and there, unable to refute it. He didn't know why Thirteen was able to accurately guess whether he was going to win or not.
It was as if the bastard boy had some kind of "future sight" that allowed him to guess the result of the battle.
What the poor Tigerkin didn't know was that everything that was happening was only a farce.
In order to stop Thirteen from continuing to bet in the gambling den, Raldo cooperated with the boy's plan to make Percival's life miserable.
In truth, the seven-year-old was no longer placing bets in the arena.
The Red Coins that Raldo was handing to him every time Percival finished a battle was Thirteen's own money that he had placed in the Duel Manager's hands for safekeeping.
This was why every time the duel ended, he would hand Thirteen exactly three Red Coins, returning the boy's money to him.
In short, the boy was just trolling his slave, making Percival think that his Master could read him like an open book.
So no matter how hard he tried or no matter how unpredictable the ending of his duel would be, Thirteen would always receive three red coins from Raldo.
In the end, the Tigerkin finally grew numb and stopped playing mind games with the boy.
He just focused on his battles to vent out his frustrations and sharpen his battle style.
Percival received training when he was young, but he had never faced someone who fought him seriously.
This made the Duel Arena the perfect place for him. Here, no one cared who you were, who your family was, or what kind of backing you possessed.
Once you step on the arena, you either won or you lost, and that was all that mattered to the fighters, as well as the spectators who gambled using their money.
Seeing his progress, Thirteen rewarded Percival his own room and the right to eat at the same table as him, Cristopher, and Rianna.
"Is your Hunting Party ready to start hunting, Rianna?" Thirteen asked after they finished eating dinner.
He had ordered Percival to return to his room so that he could talk to Cristopher and Rianna in private.
"Yes," Rianna replied. "My team is composed of nine people, and everyone is now fully armed and ready to fight."
"Good," Thirteen nodded. "Don't visit the arena anymore. I don't want you to develop a gambling addiction. Don't forget that all of us are Wanderers. You need to gather Cores, as well as Monster drops.
"We still don't have a clue as to what Lighting the Beacon of Hope means, so it will be best to just prioritize getting stronger for the moment. I will ask Jubei to accompany your group to ensure that you will not be harassed by the Barbarians outside."
"What about us, Young Master?" Cristopher asked. "Should we just stay in the city and wait until the Auction for the Five Leaf Clover starts?"
Thirteen shook his head. "We will also form our own Hunting Party. You bought two Ogres, plus Brutus and Bruno, so we have Four Brute Monsters. Taiga will also join the fight, which gives us plenty of frontline fighters.
"The two Tigerkin Ladies that you brought will also accompany us, but they will not fight. They will just focus on cooking and doing other miscellaneous chores during our journey.
"Our goal is to hunt and return before the Auction starts, so prepare everything you need because we will leave at sunrise."
Cristopher nodded his head in understanding.
Truth be told, he was also very excited to start hunting Monsters again.
Right now, Thirteen was giving the chubby boy all the Monster Cores from the Monsters that they had killed in order to prepare for his eventual breakthrough.
The seven-year-old wasn't in a hurry to collect Cores for himself.
Why?
Because he was confident that he would be able to collect 200 Cores for himself even after Cristopher finished collecting his quota.
There was also no guarantee that he would finish his 13 Trials before Cristopher completed his Quest.
Taking this into consideration, he decided to strengthen Cristopher first. The stronger the chubby boy was, the more useful he was to Thirteen.
After finalizing their plans for the morning, the three returned to their own rooms to rest for the night.
Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, so they wanted to get as much rest as possible before they embarked on a journey to fight against Monsters and farm Monster drops, which would aid them all in their First Wandering.
