Guso became a superstar overnight, he became the most coveted Expert in Martial Citadel.

Institutions drooled at the prospect of having a young unaffiliated Ranker join their group.

All the top Martial Organizations in Martial Citadel had at least one Genius Disciple to brag about.

To the Martial Leaders heads this Guso guy was probably a once in lifetime talent.

They exhausted a lot of resources looking around the City up and down for him.

But in the end the result was the same for everyone, he was nowhere to be found.

Guso meanwhile slept the five nights in his room and started to think of his next move.

***

I really wanted to find a place to learn Martial Arts, but I was almost certain the duel I had in the City Square would bring me nothing but trouble the moment I showed my face.

I realized walking the streets and asking questions wasn’t the smartest idea.

I would only put myself in a position where I could get taken advantage of.

A number of scenarios went through my head, I took into consideration the strength of the Heavenly Hop Disciple, how much I struggled against him, and how it was almost a guarantee that there were people stronger than him whom I had already offended.

As a Ranker, I was now a target.

The fact that I rose in Rank also meant that Fittino dropped in Rank.

Fittino himself might be looking for me in order to avenge his defeat and regain his Rank.

I had also revealed myself as a Ranker, and people who might be looking to rise in Rank or become a Ranker, were probably looking at me as a wolf stalks a deer, waiting for the right chance to strike.

The things I identified as areas of improvement, after the high level Ranker battle I witnessed, were things I needed to address as soon as possible.

My recent battle with Fittino gave me a better idea of what power and combat skill level I was compared to other Rankers.

Not only that, it also gave me valuable battle experience that definitely helped improve my strength by a good amount.

My goal to grow as a close combat fighter was being achieved faster than I thought.

I now knew how to accelerate the process, unfortunately it implied putting my life at risk, as only through real and live combat would I reach the level of a Master, in most facets of the Art of Fighting, in the fastest time.

I had already tried to address my lacking power output either through weapons or moves, by crafting my own weapons; but as was demonstrated by my recent fight, relying on weapons wasn’t always possible; I needed my own Innate Power.

Whether by weapons or skill, it was obvious the only other way I had a chance to get my hands on any of these was by truly connecting to the Ranker World.

Up until now I had only gotten glimpses of such a universe.

I felt like I was a bird who had lost track of the migrating flock.

Or a wolf late to the hunt.

I felt completely out of the loop.

I knew things such as Ranker gatherings and events existed; they were the legendary places of dreams, for all aspiring commoners who followed all things Ranker related.

A place where you could find the strongest weapons, the best foods, things of legends and myths, ancient artifacts, the latest technology, the sky was the limit.

But now even after becoming one I still didn’t know where to find such a place.

Suddenly an idea Dawned on me.

I remembered the special Guider Ihad; an amazing Map that had kept me safe in my travels until now.

With it I might be able to find clues on a Ranker Gathering or Trade outpost through its search function.

I took out the Guider and immediately pressed on the [Dual System Updated World Map] option in the Main Menu.

Afterwards I pressed on the [Localized Network Map] option, and soon the face of the Guider was full of a Map of Martial Citadel as well as its surroundings.

Despite Martial Citadel being classified as a City it was definitely on the small city end of the spectrum.

By studying it only for a couple moments, I managed to get a good idea of the city’s structural layout.

I made notes of important places to keep in mind to visit later.

I noticed outside the City to the Northwest was the North Coast Road, surrounded by the Northern Wilderness, to the West was the West Coast Road, and to the South was Will City highway as well as the northern edge of the Western Wilderness.

To the East was Mistfall Valley, a place that was labeled as dangerous by the Map.

I accessed the Guider Systems search function and looked for “Ranker Gathering '', immediately the map started to update zooming in and out, and showing what seemed to be scans of the land shown in the map.

My intuition was right, through the map I found what I wanted.

It gave a list of four options that were the closest in proximity and date all labeled “Ranker Information System Network Gathering”.

I was surprised to find the Guider was able to gain access to such information.

From what I could tell two of the gatherings were outside the Western part of Will City, one was going on right now, while another was going to take part in a year and a half.

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Another Ranker gathering was going to take place in Mistfall Valley in half a year, but that area was marked as extremely dangerous by the mapping system.

The last option was the one that got me the most excited.

There was going to be a Ranker gathering to the north of Martial Citadel in a year.

It was right on the Southern edge of the Northern Wilderness not far from the North East gate of the City.

I had planned to head to Will City after accomplishing all my goals in Martial Citadel, but heading there after visiting this Ranker gathering wasn’t too much of a sidetrack.

I started making plans, at the moment I only had 41 platinum coins.

I had a feeling that amount probably wasn’t much in the Ranker world.

Here in Martial Citadel I knew there were a lot of Rankers.

I knew this was the reason the City had maintained its political status in the Country.

Just looking at the Map of the City, I had an idea of where they most likely gathered, and where the headquarters of some of them may be.

As Kemoro had mentioned in passing, I noticed in the map that Unyielding Martial Will’s main headquarters were located right in the most influential part of the City.

The amount of territory they owned within the City was astonishing.

It was obvious they were the biggest dogs in town.

It was probably important I never offended them if I even wanted a chance of staying here for any extended period of time.

That being said, all of these Ranker presences in town were my ticket to more Ranker wealth.

They probably circulated a certain amount of Ranker wealth within the City and I just had to figure out a way to get my piece of that wealth.

Despite most of the Martial Artists here not using weapons in Martial Duels, I knew most of the Experts here ultimate goal was to become a Ranker like me; and a Ranker could not be without weapons.

After visiting the largest weapons shop in the City I wasn't too impressed with the arsenal they had there; I had a feeling a weapon crafted out of a high quality beast parts, and perhaps even with magical qualities, might sell for a pretty penny here.

Seeing the abundance of Martial Medicine, and food/nutrition shops in town, I also saw the need for quality raw ingredients.

From the old Doctor's words it seemed they were lacking good quality Hunters in town.

Although I wouldn't call myself a professional Hunter, I definitely had the ability to meet their needs with the resources I had available.

I would of course make practicing Martial Arts my priority, but a little bit of side hunting as a hobby wouldn’t be bad either.

There were plenty of options around that looked like I could find good game.

If I could establish a long term residence in the City, I didn't have to worry about carrying a load like I did when I was traveling, and I could stock up on valuable beast parts, parts that I can preserve in the Toltemic fashion like the flesh, organs, bones, and sinew or tendons.

I didn’t know if I could find Magic Beasts around this area, but there was no harm in trying.

Because the City didn’t get very many visitors, I figured that was the reason there weren't that many Marketplaces.

But after looking at the City Map, I did notice there was a place where citizens could sell stuff during designated days of the week.

I definitely planned on setting up a small stand there, once I managed to accrue the stuff that I wanted.

***

All martial schools, dojo’s, clans, academies, and institutions continued to hunt for Guso.

But during the process of looking into his whereabouts, information that had lay neglected about Guso’s duel came to the forefront of the Martial Leader’s attention.

Guso’s victory against Fittino, was achieved through a weird and dirty Ground Fighting Technique.

Once all Organizations, who were residents of the Citadel for a good amount of time heard this, a certain person came to their minds.

They remembered the disgraced B Ranked Martial Arts Master, who was a dropout from Unyielding Martial Will Dojo.

He had caused unending amounts of trouble for the City in the past, and was hell bent on ruining the spirit and tradition of the Martial Arts World.

One of his favorite methods of fighting was a barbaric ground based set of combat techniques that brought humiliation to the user, the victims, and to Martial Arts as a whole.

Most Clans' interests turned to disgust, a couple of Clans even got malicious thoughts, they figured this guy was a disciple of that old bastard Kemoro!

After this vital piece of information was brought to light, the excitement and bustle of the City was brought to a screeching halt.

Despite Guso being a Ranker, the Martial Arts Organizations knew of the bad blood Kemoro had with many of the powerful individuals in the City.

One low level Ranker was not worth the possible calamity their group might go through if they associated themselves with this kind of person.

And so most of the players in the City decided to wait and see what kind of storm the arrival of Kemoro’s disciple would bring.