Xavier stared at the noticeboard. At the dragon that was described on one of the notices.

Am I really contemplating something this insane? Do I really want to steal an egg from a C Grade dragon? One that hundreds of powerful D Grade denizens weren’t able to defeat?

Xavier smiled.

Gimble frowned over at him. The dwarf looked from Xavier, to the notice, then back to Xavier, his beard swaying side to side as he turned his head. “Oh, lad. You aren’t thinking of doing what I think you’re thinking of doing, are you?”

Xavier looked down at the dwarf, still wearing the same smile. “Whatever do you mean, Gimble?”

“You’ve got gold-gaze if I ever did see it, since the moment I mentioned the dragon egg.”

Xaver blinked. “Gold-gaze?” He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never heard that expression before.”

“Aye. Not surprising, that. It’s an expression among dwarves.” Gimble tugged at his long beard, looking somewhat sheepish, which—in the short time that Xavier had known him—was a bit unusual for the dwarf. “There is a stereotype about dwarves that we can be… a little greedy at times.” Gimble shrugged. “There is much truth to that. Gold-gaze is when one of our kind finds an obsession. Whether it be a whisper of an ancient treasure heard in a tavern tale, or word of a rare ore buried deep under a mountain where a dangerous beast lies… dwarves have gone to the ends of the universe because they’ve been caught by the gold-gaze.”

Xavier looked at the notice again.

The dwarf sighed. “I’ve no idea why this beastie has caught your attention, lad, but I hope you heed my warning—no good can come from going after that.”

The usually good-humoured dwarf grabbed a notice from the board and stalked back to his party, giving Xavier a disapproving look over his shoulder.

Xavier scratched the back of his head.

Was the dwarf… concerned about him? Based on Gimble’s actions, it certainly seemed that way. Xavier could see from the dwarf’s point of view how insane he must look, eyeing a goal that was—to the dwarf—absolutely impossible.

Xavier stared at the notice for a little bit longer. He wasn’t about to take the notice down from the board. He might be ambitious, but he wasn’t crazy enough to think he could take on a C Grade beast yet.

Maybe I could steal the egg without having to engage the dragon. I do have the ability to manipulate time, after all…

No, that would be foolish. Xavier wasn’t even D Grade himself yet, the last thing he needed to do was go and get himself killed. Even if he could get his hands on the egg, there was no guarantee he’d get out of there alive.

Besides, as far as he could tell, the C Grade beasts from the board weren’t relegated to instances like the other beasts he’d faced. The Nightmare certainly hadn’t been.

Patience, Xavier thought. Summoning the Spirit of Vengeance into a corporeal form wasn’t something that was going to be quick and easy. It was something that he could wait for—something that he could work toward.

He filed away the information about the C Grade dragon and the egg it was protecting into his mind, keeping his thoughts as ordered as possible. It wouldn’t do to dwell on something he couldn’t change right now.

An ordered mind is a free mind.

Instead, Xavier focused on his next step. Having a drink with Gimble and his party wasn’t on the cards at the moment, as the dwarf’s party was currently heading out the door. Xavier could use a short training break, but he wasn’t going to find it with them.

Xavier walked back to the bar, nodding at Liana and Felicia, who were deep in conversation. Xavier had seen them chatting with his Farscope ability, but hadn’t heard a word they’d said—even their mouths had been blurred, to stop others from being able to read their lips. Xavier had seen the same thing before in this place. He supposed with everyone having superpowered hearing, there was little chance of privacy just from whispering alone.

He frowned, stopping short as he looked at the two of them. They glanced at him conspiratorially.

“What are you two up to?” Xavier asked.

Felicia drummed her fingers on the immaculately clean bar. “That’s our business, not yours.”

Xavier looked at Liana.

“I was… placing some bets.” Liana winked at him.

Xavier’s frown only deepened. “And what exactly were you betting on?”

“You, of course.” She quirked her head to one side. “Isn’t that obvious?”

Xavier sighed. Part of him wanted to know what exactly it was that the woman had betted on him—or against him—about. The rest of him didn’t much care one way or the other. It was just some harmless fun, after all.

“You have some more winnings,” Felicia said.

Xavier raised an eyebrow at the barkeep. “What do you mean? How can I have more winning?

You told me the Stone Bear wasn’t worth betting on.”

Liana stared at the barkeep a little open mouthed. “Did you really tell that to him?”

Felicia shrugged. “I didn’t want him to shy away from the fight. You know how rare it is for someone to go after a Stone Bear as their second kill? Especially someone doing it solo?” She shook her head. “If I’d told him more he wouldn’t have done it.”

Liana put her head in her hands. “If he’d been someone else, you could have gotten him killed!”

Felicia nodded. “Yes, the odds on that were actually rather high.” She gave Xavier an appraising look. Though it seems I keep underestimating him.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Xavier gazed at the barkeep. He’d clearly been wrong about this woman. He’d gone to her for help in finding someone to teach him how to use his Time Alteration spell, and the woman had certainly sent him in the right direction.

But this barkeep wasn’t someone who had his best interests at heart. He was used to dealing with Sam, and although the man had ulterior motives, he definitely wanted Xavier to live.

“You would send me into unknown danger for the sake of a bet?” Xavier asked, his voice flat.

“Every time you step out that door you’re in unknown danger.” Felicia nodded at Hunter’s Home’s door. “There’s no knowing what you will find on the other side. I’m merely…”

“Profiting from it,” Liana muttered. She sighed. “I almost feel guilty about the bets I just made with you.”

“Almost?” Xavier asked.

Liana shrugged. “I’m confident in the bets I made.”

Felicia placed her hands on the bar and leant forward. “You do seem rather confident. Looks like you know something about this man that I don’t. Care to share it?”

Liana smiled. “Not my secrets to tell.”

Xavier wasn’t worried about what Liana may or may not say about him. She was tied to a privacy contract, after all. Xavier slid onto one of the stools at the bar and ordered a mug of coffee. Ever since he’d had that coffee given to him by… himself—or, well, an older version of himself from an alternate universe—he’d been craving the stuff, but also hesitant to drink another cup, as he knew it would never be able to live up to the best coffee in the Greater Universe.

But he had spent far too long without drinking coffee. Felicia produced a mug of the beautiful, dark liquid and… it wasn’t half-bad, if he were honest. Actually, it was pretty good. He sipped at his coffee and wondered if now was a good time for him to accept his Hunt Quest reward.

No point waiting around for it.

Though before he did that, he tilted his head to the side. “I think I know how to make these bets a little more interesting,” Xavier said innocently. He hadn’t even seen the winnings he’d made, as the barkeep had been making the bets on his behalf, but he figured it mustn’t be a bad sum.

Felicia waved a hand. The sounds around them, of the other patrons in the tavern, became a little muffled. The barkeep had a gleam in her eye. “Do you now? And what, pray tell, would make the bets more interesting? I would have thought you’d be annoyed at me. You’re not playing some trick, are you?”

Xavier thought he would be annoyed at the woman too. She’d said the Stone Bear was one of the weaker beasts on the board—clearly, that little bit of information hadn’t been…entirely honest.

But in a way, looking at the board, he knew it hadn’t been a total lie. It certainly was one of the weaker beasts.

Especially if you took into account that there were C Grades on there.

All she’d really lied about was that it wasn’t worth betting on it. She was a sly one, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t still be useful.

“I would have gone after the Stone Bear even if you had warned me about it,” Xavier said. “I don’t tend to be one to back down from a fight. Though a little warning about The Nightmare would have been nice. I hadn’t expected to encounter a C Grade beast on my travels.”

Felicia chuckled. “I was wondering if you were going to bring that up. The Dark Mountains are a treacherous place—people were betting on whether or not you’d even make it to the Stone Bear.” She inspected her fingernails. “They were going to start looking for you among the infected soon.”

Xavier shook his head. Were there really that many people in this place invested in the bets? And so uncaring about whether he lived or died? Then again, when he’d walked in, he had noticed a few more looks than usual—some disappointed, some with guarded smiles. It wasn’t what he’d been focusing on, so he hadn’t thought twice about it.

They must have been thinking about the outcome of the bet… Gimble might have even made a bet on it.

“Well, no need for anyone to look. The Nightmare didn’t pose much of a problem,” Xavier said, thinking, except for when it nearly took over my mind.

Felicia had a half-smirk on her face. “You want to tell me what you had in mind? How you might make things more interesting?”

Xavier leant forward. “Have you ever encountered an E Grade Champion on this floor?”

Felicia laughed. “An E Grade Champion? That would be impossible. This is no place for someone so weak!”

Xavier stared blankly at her, waiting to see if she would put two-and-two together and realise why he’d asked that question. He’d been mostly guarded about his identity on this floor, but the more he thought about it the more he realised he didn’t really need to be.

The more he learnt, the more he fought, the more his confidence was returning. It had been stripped away when the System had sent him forward through the tower and dropped him straight into the one hundredth floor.

But now, after he’d seen what he could do even here…

If word gets back to my sector that I’m on the hundredth floor already, that’s only going to do more to aid in the protection of Earth. Earth is only protected based on the future threat I pose, if they know I’ve been holding my own on his floor, that will only increase my potential threat in their eyes.

Why should he hide his accomplishments? He wasn’t about to tell the woman his specific level, but he could share this…

Felicia stopped laughing as Xavier’s face remained blank. She looked at Liana. Liana gave a slight nod. “You’re… you’re kidding me?” Liana said. She ran her fingers through her hair. “You mean to say… that you... you’re E Grade?” The woman shook her head in total disbelief.

“Yes,” Xavier said. “I’m E Grade.”

Felicia was still shaking her head. “No. You’re lying. That’s a stupid lie, too, because no one around here is going to believe that you’re E Grade. They aren’t going to keep placing bets for or against you if you just make up lies—they’ll stop trusting me, too. I’ll lose all my credibility! I may have lied to you about the Stone Bear, but I never lie to my clients about the information for a bet.” The barkeep straightened as she spoke, as though she took pride in that.

“He’s telling the truth, Felicia,” Liana said. She nodded at Xavier. “Make a truth contract. Show her it isn’t a lie.”

Felicia looked a little bit stunned. “A truth contract. That’ll… that’ll prove you’re lying.”

They went through the motions, drawing up the contract with the System with each of them accepting it.

Xavier repeated what he’d said before—that he was E Grade—and now he had the System backing him up that it was the truth.

The woman went through a whole series of emotions all at once. Stunned disbelief mixed with sheer shock. Denial even though she could no longer deny it. Then, slowly, the gleam returned to the woman’s eye and more than anything else she looked… hungry.

“You’re E Grade,” Felicia said with a predatory grin.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” Xavier tilted his head to the side innocently. “Do you think that will make a difference to the bets?”

Felicia thew her head back and laughed. “Do you think it’ll make a difference? Betting on you was already an attraction as a solo Champion, now…” She steepled her hands together, and despite the fact that she looked nothing like the character, all Xavier could think of in that moment was Mr Burns from the Simpsons.

“Excellent,” Xavier muttered.

Bets, on himself. It was the perfect way for him to boost his funds back up to where they’d been before—actually, it was the perfect way for him to boost them far beyond what they had been. Besides, he’d been making bets on himself since the moment the System had come down to Earth.

Why should he stop now?

He was sure he would have earned a good deal of money if he sold off all the D Grade corpses he’d collected from the beasts he’d slain on this floor, but he was saving those corpses for… other uses.

Damn, that sounds sinister.

All he meant was that sometime soon, he would be getting his hands dirty working on his Dismantle skill.

He didn’t know how long he’d focus on these bets for. He wanted to make his way to D Grade while he was on this floor, especially if he was going to start going after C Grade beasts—which was most certainly a goal for him.

There has to be some sort of title for a D Grade taking out a C Grade, and there are probably even better titles for them doing it on their own. And if that dragon is as powerful as Gimble says, there’s a chance that it has never been defeated before…

He added defeat the dragon to his ever-growing list of goals, then decided it was finally time to redeem his Hunt Quest.

He wondered if he would be able to gain another spell, like he did from the first Hunt Quest he’d completed. Hover Dodge had certainly come in handy.

The spell I received was based on how I’d fought against the Magma Bull. Against the Stone Bear, I heavily relied on Time Alteration. If I do get a spell, maybe it will have something to do with that…