“Alright, by my calculations, you’ll need to win 20 matches to earn enough cred to challenge the Catgirl of Doom. If you defeat her, you’ll have enough to make your announcement and recruit people.”

“What is cred? Seriously, is it a currency?” I asked, fidgeting with the mask on my face.

“I’ve already explained, cred is the amount of popularity you have… and stop playing with that! If people learn you’re a lord before earning the cred, then you’ll immediately lose the ability to earn cred.”

“If I reveal I’m a lord after earning the cred, then won’t I lose the cred anyway? In fact, won’t they be angry because I lied to them?” I asked, dropping my hands.

“That’s not how cred works!” She responded indignantly. “It won’t matter once you have the cred. They’ll come to respect you for acting on their level. Do you understand?”

“I don’t…” I admitted.

This whole thing sounded arbitrary to me. Either I should have their respect or not. Whether I can knock a few heads or not shouldn’t even come into it, let alone be the most important contributing factor.

“Look, I spent years in the underworld. You’re just going to have to trust me that this is how it all works. If you want to see that catgirl up close and have a chance to meet with her, this is the way.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Still, twenty fights. I only have less than a week now.”

“If you can handle four fights a night, then you can have them all done in five days. They recommend you don’t sign up for more than two. Even more than one is considered extremely cocky. Most will only compete every other night so they have one to rest. You’ll be fighting back to back. This kind of stuff is exhausting for most, but since it’s you…” She bit her lip awkwardly.

“I’m a white mage. I can heal all my wounds and continue. I understand.”

It would be five nights for me to earn my cred and find Lydia, and 2 nights to recruit whomever else would fight. Of course, I still had the days to manage everything else. This seemed to be the best I could do.

“Alright.” I agreed. “In that case, let’s begin.”

I was eager to get this out of the way. Was I a bit overconfident in my abilities? After all, I was agreeing that I could defeat twenty matches in a row from skilled fighters and gladiators. Some of these people were undoubtedly adventurers or mercenaries too. I didn’t think I was overestimating my abilities though. Most of these people were likely in the 2nd tier of their jobs, while I was in the third to fourth-tier inability. There were only a handful of people, Kings and Dungeon Masters, who might have the ability to give me significant trouble.

If I presumed that Carmine and Bernice, two of the victors from the gladiatorial match from a few months ago, were near the top of contestants at the time inability, then the current me should be able to hand that level at least.

“Our next match, it’s Rex the Hex versus a newcomer who just signed up, Deacon the Dragon!”

“Seriously? That’s the name?”

“You said just come up with something. Isn’t that your name in another world?” Bernice demanded.

“It’s fine.” I coughed.

I just wasn’t used to hearing my real name. It was weird having that name to hide my identity. It was fine though. Maybe Lydia would recognize it and this would all be over quickly. One could only hope.