Chpt. 29) Opportunities

I munched on a sandwich and walked up the stairs to where my team sat. I also collected my winnings from the fights. With Orrins’ win and my current win, I collected 2,250 Lucre, bringing my total money to 7,020 Lucre. I felt very rich at the moment, and I wasn’t sorry about it. I heard the familiar excited yelp of Yuki and smiled as I saw the little furball jumping up and down excitedly. The rest of my team saw me approaching and began to congratulate me.

“Well done, Zeana!!” Scarlet cheered.

“Good fight! Good fight!!” Jax cheered.

“Very well done,” Xiao said calmly.

“We knew ye cud win!!” Leila and Shersha cheered.

“YEAH! THAT’S MY ZEANA!!” Cami yelled louder than everyone else.

“I COULD’VE DONE BETTER!!” Shiro yelled, still pissed that his fingers were broken and his eye as black and bruised as ever.

I chuckled and finished my sandwich, casting a healing spell on Shiro as I passed him. I picked up Yuki and sat down, her tongue going a kilometer a minute as she licked my face. I chuckled, “Stop licking! Hahaha! Stop! It tickles!” Eventually, I had to grab Yuki’s mouth and hold it shut until she calmed down.

“So, what do you think you could’ve done differently to win the fight faster?” Haze asked from beside me.

I sighed, “Million different things.”

“Name as many as you can.”

I sighed again and thought for a moment, “I could’ve tried avoiding more of her attacks, especially when she did something new like the poison attack.”

“Good. What else?”

“I could’ve met her on the same level when she created armor. Or even started with that to win the fight sooner.”

“Yes, why didn’t you?”

“Because I didn’t want to reveal my hand to everyone else watching. I wanted to keep some things close to my chest.”

Haze nodded, “Good. You’re at least thinking ahead. What else could you have done to win sooner?”

I thought for a moment, “Use more spells to fight her. Or even create more clones to fight.”

“All correct. Now, let’s go back to our room and rest,” Haze instructed and stood. We all followed her down the stairs and out of the colosseum. I scratched behind Yuki’s ear as she lay on my shoulders, already drifting off to sleep.

***

The following morning, I woke up early and prepared for the day. Scarlet was scheduled to fight at noon-ish, and I wanted to kill some time. I gave Yuki a half portion of the food I usually give her cause she was getting a little heavy. I got dressed in my blue gi with the golden belt. I left my room with Yuki on my shoulder, went to the training building, and started training.

I mostly just practiced spells and made spell combinations. I didn’t do anything that would scare Yuki, nothing big and loud. But I did try making summons. Using a level two spell with water, dark, and summon. I filled the summoning circle with a fox and created a fox ice golem. It was much bigger than I expected since it was the same size as me. I guess the size of the circle determines the size of the summon. It would make sense since the circles I made were the size of my torso. All well, Yuki liked the golem anyway.

Anyway, after a few hours, I had exhausted my stores of chakra, and Fengbao suggested that I stop for a while. I agreed, toweled the sweat off myself, and gathered Yuki before leaving the training room. As soon as I closed the door, I turned and came face-to-face with Orrin in his signature white suit, hat, and black cane, “Hello, Zeana!”

I jumped back in surprise, and Yuki yelped just as surprised as me, the air around her cooling several degrees as she shook. I cursed, “For fucks sake, I told you to stop doing that! What do you want?”

Orrin straightened with a slight frown, “Is that how you greet your friends? How rude. Anyway, do you remember the conversation we had yesterday?”

I nod, “Yeah, about a job you wanted me to do.”

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“Correct,” Orrin confirmed, a smile brightening his face again, “I need you to retrieve a package from a town to the northeast. The town’s name is Zhi Gong.”

“Okay, but—”

“I know. Why would I ask a fellow cultivator to do a job as mundane as this? Well, you see, there’s a monster horde between here and there.”

“Hold on, wha—”

“Why won’t I do it? Well, I could. But it’s spring, and the snow on the mountains is melting and turning the ground muddy. Do you know how hard it is to get the mud out of white, Phenix-viper silk? I’ll tell you it is insanely difficult.”

“Wh—”

“And don’t get me started on how expensive it would be. Plus, it takes time to find the correct certified dry cleaner to handle such expensive clothes as mine.”

“I don’t—”

“I know Father always nags me about my expenses, and it becomes quite a hassle to convince him that it is a necessary expense for all the trauma I go through on a daily basis. I swear if I have to explain it one more time to him, I’ll have to pass a law. And that’s a whole other trauma that requires a week of spa days and—”

“FINE, I’LL TAKE YOUR STUPID JOB! JUST SHUT UP!!”

Orrin blinked at me, confused, “Oh, it’s not yours to accept. Your master has to approve it,” He turned to his right and said, “What do you say, master Hazaizil?”

Haze leaned against a wall, pinching the bridge of her nose and looking annoyed. “How long is the trip?” she asked.

“It’s a two-week journey by foot, and you’ll have to clear the monsters along the way, so let’s say three weeks. By airship, it’s only a couple of days,” Orrin answered.

“How much will you be paying for the services?”

“Five thousand on acceptance and another ten upon completion. Traveling expenses will not be provided.”

“Is this really that important?”

“It is as important as the law I’ll pass for emotional distress expenses. I think I’ll call it-”

Sighing, Haze said, “Fine, we’ll leave tomorrow.”

“Excellent, I’ll take care of all the necessary paperwork for you,” Orrin said excitedly.

“Good. Zeana, let’s go,” Haze ordered and began leaving. I quickly followed after her waving goodbye to Orrin, who bowed in farewell. And we went to the colosseum to watch Scarlet fight.

***

Scarlet’s fight was amazing to watch! Her opponent was so evenly matched with her that the fight lasted nearly five minutes before she finally landed the finishing blow. Once she returned to where we sat, Haze didn’t lecture her about the fight or anything like that. Just congratulated her on the victory and moved on.

After a few more fights, Haze led us out to a really nice restaurant with fancy tables, dinnerware, and chandeliers, and she intimidated the doorman into letting us in to eat. Once we all sat and ordered our food, I ordered a nice roasted chicken, and Yuki got some fish. Haze got down to business.

“All right, now that the first rounds of the tournament are over, we have a month to waste. And we will be doing that with jobs,” Haze explained, and everyone groaned.

“Do we have to?” Cami whined.

“Yes, you do.” Haze pulled out a couple of folded, crumpled pieces of paper and unfolded them, flattening them out on the table, “Now, here are our jobs.”

I reached over, grabbed one piece of paper, and read it.

Search and Destroy

Description

Destroy a goblin den and return with proof of completion.

Location

Six hundred kilometers southwest in the Verdant forest.

Reward

L 800

Haze snatched the paper from my hand as I finished reading it and handed it to Scarlet. “This is your job. You, Shiro, and Jax will go there and take care of the goblin den,” She said to Scarlet before turning to me, “You, Cami, Xiao, and I will be taking the job Orrin gave us.”

I grabbed the other sheet of paper Haze had before her.

Retrieval

Collect a package from Zhi Gong village and clear the road of the monster hordes. The package is in possession of a master Lii Huwei.

Location

Eight hundred kilometers northwest at Zhi Gong village.

Reward

L 15,000

I finished reading the paper and passed it to Cami, who choked on her water as she saw the reward for the job. “So, we go tomorrow morning?” I asked.

Haze nodded, “Yes, just bring a few spare clothes.”

Looking up at Haze, I said, “I don’t have any spare gis—”

“Of course, you don’t,” Haze said, cutting me off. She shook her head in exasperation and said, “We’ll get some new gis for you after dinner. We need to get you a green gi anyways, so….”

I smiled, “Yes, I am now green.”

“You’re just jealous ‘cause you’re not a red yet!” Shiro bellowed jokingly.

“Oh, counterair Mon friar,” I countered, “As everyone should know, the redshirts always die first.”

“OH!” Scarlet exclaimed, “I got that reference.”

Cami and I both shook our heads in disappointment. “I should’ve known,” Cami said, disappointed.

“How could you not have? You’ve been with her for so long,” I silently berated.

“I know, I know. The failure is on me. I should’ve seen the signs.”

I shook my head again and looked at Scarlet, who looked very confused by us. “I thought you were better than that,” I sighed.

“Better than what?” Scarlet asked, confused.

“For shame, Scarlet! For shame!” Cami exclaimed, pointing accusingly.

Scarlet shook her head and gave up, “Whatever. I’ve lost interest.”

“Anyway,” Haze said, taking over the conversation, “We leave in the morning and must finish the jobs within a month. So, for tonight, relax and enjoy the food.” And as if on cue, servers exited the kitchen with two trays of food. They stopped on either side of the table and began handing out our dinner.

The waiter closest to me placed my whole roasted chicken in front of me, and the smell hit my nose immediately. I could smell all the spices and food used to create this dish. Cumin, lemons, limes, onions, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, and more. The smell made me salivate as I beheld the golden-brown texture of the crisp chicken skin. Next to the chicken was a side of mashed potatoes and gravy.

I pulled one of the juicy and tender legs off the chicken and bit into it. This has to be … the driest chicken I’ve ever tasted. And they put so much work into making it look presentable and tender. But they let it cook for a few minutes too long. All well. Food is food. I dug into the chicken with ravenous hunger and chuckled as Yuki hesitantly nibbled at her grilled fish. I enjoyed this moment as we ate together, for it will be a long month ahead of us, and I couldn’t wait to explore a little.