Chapter 39
A martial contest for marriage among the youths.
Chu Ke left the Magic Guild in high spirits and stretched lazily toward the sun.
Opening his right hand, he saw a red ticket in his palm.
Central Arena Front Row Ticket
This was a voucher given to those who spent a certain amount at the Magic Guild.
Watching duels at the Central Arena was a high-end form of entertainment for ordinary people in this world.
Regular tickets were not expensive, but because the Central Arena was enormous, the seats assigned with ordinary tickets were random. If you got a seat in the back, there was basically no viewing experience at all.
This voucher, on the other hand, let you freely choose a front-row seat and obtain the best possible view.
Of course, it was not truly free. It was like the discount cards merchants gave out in his previous life; its true purpose was to encourage further spending. After using this voucher to sit in the front row, people would surely think, Since I'm already sitting up front, I might as well order a fruit platter to save face, and spend more there. Then the Magic Guild could collect a kickback.
But Chu Ke did not care. He had plenty of money at the moment, and watching a match when he had nothing to do was not a bad idea. Besides, he was here to travel in the first place. Since the so-called final boss was himself, it was not as if he could kill himself.
Outside the Magic Guild was a small street, somewhat like a marketplace from his previous life. It sold all sorts of interesting items—some might be useful, while others were merely fashionable little pieces of junk. It all depended on one's eye. Walking straight along this street would lead to the Central Arena.
Chu Ke browsed as he walked, occasionally buying things he found interesting. Most were decorative items, though. After all, the design styles of this other world differed from those of his original world and carried quite an exotic charm.
Chu Ke also discovered with surprise that combining these little tools could produce some very amusing things.
For example, a potion that powerfully induced sleep but gave you diarrhea as a side effect; poisoned darts that made women feel their breasts itch, swell, and heat up, only for nothing to happen in the end, leaving them with nothing but empty anticipation; powder that, after being inhaled, made a random spot on your body itch without revealing the exact location, leaving you unable to scratch it no matter what; and an amulet that forced you to manually control breathing, swallowing, and blinking after looking at it.
They were all such loving, gentle, cute, harmless little tools.
Suddenly, Chu Ke's gaze was drawn to a small trinket. He crouched beside a stall and looked at a little straw doll. "What's this?"
The stall owner was an elderly woman dressed like a witch, her face impossible to make out. She sized Chu Ke up, then cackled. "It's a cursed doll, my proudest creation. It can catch people off guard by attaching magic or prayers to the person opposite you."
This young man looked sunny and cheerful. He was definitely the sort who disdained underhanded tools like these, the kind who talked about "knightly spirit" every day. How disgusting.
"Oh?" Chu Ke's eyes lit up, and he flashed a bright smile. "Do you sell the crafting method for this?"
The old woman froze, seemingly not expecting that question. Her face filled with disdain. "What witches fear most is our techniques leaking out. This is my signature alchemy. How could I possibly—"
A moment later, Chu Ke left contentedly with a crafting manual purchased for three gold coins.
What voodoo dolls? That was an outdated way of doing things. Chu Ke had a new idea.
As for whether he could learn it? What kind of joke was that? Light Red! Let me see your limits! He threw ten allocation points at it, instantly mastering the entire process.
In simple terms, the method was this: use a secret art to create a medium, infuse it with magic, then have it target an enemy locked onto by Spiritual Power. It was exceptionally simple. The witch called it her proudest creation because she had improved the target-selection method. There was no need to obtain a medium such as hair; as long as the target was within sight, it would work.
He immediately got to work. Chu Ke found a small stall, bought some wood, and began carving with his fingers.
Before long, an ironwood magic cube appeared in Chu Ke's hand. Each of its six sides bore a different pattern and was painted a different color.
He then engraved upon it the strongest specialized offensive magic he had invented, along with a few modifications. For example, forming different patterns would produce different effects. The more complicated the pattern assembled within a shorter time, the greater and more lasting the damage would be.
The inspiration came from an animated series he had watched in his previous life, something called "Qibo Youth," if he remembered correctly. It had been quite interesting.
"Ah, if only someone would come along and test it out," Chu Ke muttered.
As though his luck had exploded—like rolling a critical success in a tabletop game—a voice drifted into Chu Ke's ear.
"Heh heh, with these gauntlets, he definitely won't be a match for me."
Chu Ke turned around and saw a short-haired youth in fitted clothes standing before a stall that sold armor and weapons. The youth happily muttered to himself, "This way, I'll be the one who finally gets to marry Xiao Zi!"
"Interesting." Chu Ke cast Appraisal on him.
The results of the Appraisal skill were based on the level difference between its user and its target. The higher the user's level compared to the target's, the more information would be revealed.
Chu Ke had looked at his own status panel before, and it seemed he did not have a level at all.
It seemed his true body's rank was simply too high. Now, whenever he cast Appraisal on someone, it was practically like doxxing them. He could strip away every last secret they had.
Rhode (Title: Lionheart Youth) Martial Artist Lv. 17 Constitution: 31; Resistance: 39; Recovery: 29; Magic Power: 5 Skills: Lionheart: Temporarily increases all personal attributes by 30%; Martial Aura: Increases martial damage Lion King Fist: Increases damage by 30% Recent experiences: Made an agreement with Garo, who was from the same village. Whoever defeated the other first would earn the right to marry their shared childhood friend, Xiao Zi. He is currently doing everything he can to improve himself and desperately needs a way to increase his strength. He would give up anything to marry Xiao Zi! Relationship chart: jpg
"A classic martial contest for marriage plot?" Chu Ke followed his relationship chart and found the so-called Garo and Xiao Zi.
"Huh?"
Garo's information was broadly similar to Rhode's. He was also a Martial Artist, also utterly obsessed with Xiao Zi, and also willing to give up anything to marry her.
But Xiao Zi's status panel was even more interesting.
Violet Vega (Title: Violet Archmage) (Gold) High-Level Element Control Archmage Lv. 89 Constitution: 80; Resistance: 170; Recovery: 1730; Magic Power: 13000 Skills: Super-Rank Magic - City Collapse, Super-Rank Magic - Legendary Puppet. (Expand to view the remaining 877 skills) Recent experiences: With astonishing talent, she had reached the limits of this region in her study of magic. She wished to go further and dreamed of becoming a member of the legendary Hero's party. Recently, her two childhood companions from the same village seemed to like her, but she had no such intentions. Because of their past friendship, she found it difficult to say so directly, which troubled her greatly.
Chu Ke fell silent for a moment, then looked at the hot-blooded youth before him. "...That's a Big Daddy. Who gave you the confidence?"
All kinds of support appreciated.