Chapter 94: A Bet.
After receiving their rewards, Felix and others kept them inside their pockets carefully and looked around the room of the base.
Mr.Dealer slightly smiled and responded to them.
"It'll be a temporary goodbye for now, but I'll be waiting for you guys until you've finally advanced to the first rank. And then, we'll be having more deals between us coming up in the future."
His words made them smile as they all nodded looking at each other.
The time they spent together was short, and they've also not talked much with each other, but fighting against the same enemy always brought people closer, just like them.
Falcon looked at the other three and said.
"Well, it's nothing much, but if you ever want someone to show you around in the underground, then you can count on me.", he said at the three as he was the most experienced with this place.
The three nodded at him, thinking it would be good to take a good look around the underworld as even they hadn't gone to those facilities like the forbidded library or such.
Mr.Dealer looked at his pocket watch and whispered something to the grey robed man before bidding them bye.
"Alright guys, I'll be leaving now. I have some work to do."
He gave them a last nod and walked out of the building before disappearing into the streets.
The four of them also didn't have any work left here, and infact couldn't wait to go home and start cultivating.
So they bid each other goodbye and left the base one by one before moving away from there.
*****
Felix arrived back at the guild and quietly entered his room without alerting anyone.
After taking a quick shower, he took out the limit removing potion and drank it within seconds.
A few minutes later when he had completely absorbed the potion, he started to meditate with a focused mind.
After a few hours, he stopped when he had reached the peak of concentration with a relaxed mind and body.
Taking out the red vial potion which glowed in the dark room, he swirled it around.
"Should I advance to the first rank right now? Or should I not?"
He pondered as he recalled that he can only obtain skill points from killing being higher than his own rank.
So if he advanced, then he won't gain skill points from killing Rank 1 beings.
"But then again, even if I want to kill Rank 1 beings, the guild wouldn't allow me to go out of the city..."
As he wondered what to do of his situation, he remembered the time when he had come across the circus like place back in some deserted area of the city, when he had gotten lost on his first mission.
"I wonder if there's more places like that inside the city."
His mind drifted in thoughts about several things as time slowly went by.
"Knock Knock!", suddenly there was a sound at the door which jolted him out of his thoughts.
Raising up from the floor, he walked to the door and asked.
"Who's there?", there was no way he was going to open the door without knowing who it was.
"Open up Felix! It's me!"
Felix heard a sound from outside, and if he didn't recognise the voice, he wouldn't know who was 'me'.
Opening the door, he saw a boy with bright eyes and dark green hair smiling at him enthusiastically.
"What took you so long? Were you doing something naughty?", the boy asked suspiciously while moving his clenched right hand up and down.
Felix gave Steve a blank stare before closing the door right on his face.
"Bam!"
The door hit the boy on his nose as he rubbed it painfully, before knocking on the door pitifully.
"I'm sorry Felix, I was just kidding! Please open the door."
This time around, Felix took his time as he slowly cleaned and sorted the room, then opened the door a few minutes later.
"Come on, you're no fun Felix....", muttered Steve as he entered into the room with a sightly red nose.
As he took a seat, Felix asked him curiously.
"So, what's the occasion?"
Steve appeared hurt as he looked at Felix with a sad face.
"Should there be a reason for me to come see you? Aren't we friends??", he sounded really tragic like he had lost his....no, actually he looked pretty stupid to Felix right now.
With a sigh, Felix scratched his head and said.
"Haa, of course you can come here whenever you want. But I just wondered if there was a special reason to it."
Steve happily smiled at that and replied.
"Nothing special. It's just that I came back from a long and boring mission, and the moment we arrived here, Roven went to sleep while Eric locked himself inside his room, not responding to me."
He said with a sigh, as his teammates weren't the most energetic ones, while he was someone who couldn't sit in one place.
Steve then smiled and pointed at Felix.
"And that's when I remembered my pupil, you."
Felix raised an eyebrow hearing that and questioned in confusion.
"Pupil? When did I become your pupil?"
Steve shrugged and replied.
"Well, I thought you many things and also trained you, so that makes you my pupil, and I am your master."
Felix nodded at that and suddenly had an idea as he smiled evilly.
"I don't think that's possible. How can a pupil have a master who's weaker than himself?"
Steve widened his eyes and stood up from the chair while pointing at Felix.
"Y-You!! What do you mean by that!? Me? Weaker than you? That's not possible!"
Felix too stood up as he shrugged nonchalantly.
"Well, why don't I prove it to you at the training hall then?"
Steve bit his lips with a thoughtful look before his eyes lit up.
"Fight? Yeah sure, lets go right now!"
He didn't wait for Felix as he dashed out of the room to bring his weapon and equipment.
Felix also changed into a suitable combat outfit and took his weapon before walking out of the room.
He saw that Steve was already ready with a perked up look, standing beside the stairs that led to the upper floor.
They together ascended the stairs like they were going for war and entered a training room.
Both of them remained silent on the way as one wanted himself to be the master, while the other wanted to prove him wrong.
It was silly, but they weren't going to go easy on each other as they wanted to prove their strength.
"If you lose, you'll have to call me Sir Steve from now on.", Steve said with a confident face as he already imagined the boy calling him by 'sir'.
Felix smiled and responded on his part of the sudden bet.
"And if you lose, you'll have to answer my every question for today."
There were many things he was still unaware of this world, and he thought of using this opportunity to get his answers.
"Deal.", Steve agreed without breaking a sweat as he didn't even give his request a thought.
As a chatterbox, it was his specialty to talk without getting tired, and answering some questions was as easy as breathing for him.
"Oh wait-" Steve suddenly raised his hand and said with a troubled look.
"You can't ask me questions like Miss Elsa's three sizes okay. That would put me in troub-"
He couldn't end his sentence as a shortsword came flying through the air at a speed that made his heart beat faster.
'Are you serious!!', Steve shouted inside his mind at the sheer speed and power that was packed into that attack.
He quickly used everything in his power to block the power, but the attack was still too powerful for him as he was pushed back several steps.
Widening his eyes, Steve was about to shout 'what the fuck was that!', but he saw that Felix was already within his arm's reach with his sword slashing at him.
Getting focused, Steve narrowed his eyes and started taking the duel more seriously.
*****
A few hours later.
Steve was found lying at the corner of the room with a beat up body and unfocused eyes.
He looked absentmindedly at the ceiling while muttering unbelievably.
"H-How is this possible....Did I just l-lose to my pupil?"
Felix who was standing on the other side with a tired and bruised body looked slightly guilty.
'Did I went too far?'
His experience in the underworld had turned him from an amateur to a skilled swordsman within a few days, as instead of just training by swinging his sword, he was fighting with his life on the line there.
Walking toward Steve, Felix squatted down and tapped on his body.
"Hey, wake up and let's go to my room. You've got to answer my questions now."
Steve was still under depression with his quick defeat as he muttered slowly with a lost look in his eyes.
"No.....I won't tell you Miss Elsa's three sizes....."
Felix rubbed his forehead with a sigh and left the guy on his own, as he knew he would recover from the depression soon and come knocking on his door after some time.
Instead, he started thinking about the various information he should get out from the chatterbox's mouth.
'Hmm...What should I ask...'