The Adventurers started dispersing outside the arena. Most of them were ecstatic to move on, but some of them weren't as excited as the others.
"We're still too weak."
"We couldn't even move to an island."
"I lost all hope now."
Elliot looked around and felt pity to those guilds. He knows that everyone has the capabilities to get stronger, but not everyone has the right opportunity to do so.
He was lucky enough to have found The Manual and become a member of Azure Scorch, but for the others, they weren't as lucky as him. They needed to get stronger on their own, building everything from scratch.
The arena started to disperse, the islands vanishing as the white cloaked people around the cylinder forcefield deactivated their magic. With one last look at the arena, Elliot sighed and walk with his friends.
"Everyone!" Lance was waving his hand in the air a few ways from them. He seemed to be alone whole waiting for them. "Congratulations! Tomorrow you'll get a rest and the day that comes after, you'll have a more gruesome battle."
"We didn't do much today," Connor groaned. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but then argh. I thought after this, I'll be so exhausted and would fall on the floor right after."
Lance's expression changed, becoming serious in a matter of seconds. "That's because you're not even half of the competition. It's better if Round One was easy, because the succeeding rounds will not be. Imagine if you had to use everything on the first round. What will you use on the rounds after?"
"O-Okay," Connor gulped, looking around to find a distraction. "Who wants grilled pork?"
"Me!" everyone chorused and they all went to a grill house. For the whole time the Championship of the Greats is held, Solaguer will become a place full of nightlife. Most events are held at night and the audience would need refreshments or food after watching it.
The streets near the town square up was filled with stalls of food and just about anything. It was essentially a festival for them that they celebrated yearly. A festival where their saviors would compete and show who the strongest is.
"I want to eat grilled beef," Hope said. "Or raw beef. I want to eat them all!"
He was hopping to the door, the first one of the group to get there. He then opened the door and accidentally bumped into another person. It was a man with the same build as him, but was much older and had scars in his face.
"Watch where you're going!" The man yelled and tried to push Hope. His hands found themselves on the younger boy's chest, pushing him with as much as he could but the boy didn't even budge. "W-What?"
"I'm sorry," Hope said with a wide smile, he bowes lightly and apologized. "It was my fault, but"
Hope gripped both the man's wrist with his right hand. The people behind the man started to act up but Hope silenced them by letting his heterochromatic eyes glow. "You didn't have to be so rough, mister. Asking for an apology would be enough. You didn't have to push me away."
"I-I will never do it again. I promise!" the man started to cry. "Let go of my wrist, please."
Hope heard the man's plea and let go. He leaned in front of the man and tapped his shoulders, letting the older man stare into his different colored eyes. "Next time, be good. Okay, mister?"
The man yelped and ran away, crying as he rushed out of the establishment and into the streets.
"Guild master!" His subordinates called out for him, running after the man who was now nowhere to be seen.
"Well that was interesting," Hope chuckled. "Let's go eat meat!"
Behind him, his teammates were in pure shock. They haven't saw Hope bring out a hostile intent like that. He was slowly getting scarier as days pass by.
"Elliot!" Alice's voice rang from the other side of the grill house. The woman came running towards them, her plump breasts bouncing that made all the men look up and down to.
"Men," Midnight scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"You are a man too," Aquarius deadpanned, flattening his lips at Midnight. "Do you keep forgetting that?"
Midnight rolled his eyes again and let Elliot stand to speak to Alice. They had minded their own business, or at least pretended to mind their own business. In reality, their ears were focused in the two conversing people.
"Hey, Alice," Elliot greeted. "I didn't get to see you there."
"I was banned. But I saw you," Alice said. "You were so cool. I had a friend fail to defeat a vine golem like that. And she also used physical damage too, only to fail again and again. But you, you looked incredible."
"It wasn't much," Elliot scratched the back of his head to calm himself. "S-So, are you guys here to celebrate?"
"Oh, yes, actually," Alice took a step sideways and gestured to her friends. "They're there. From my guild, Scarlet Moonlight."
"T-That's a very good name for a guild," Elliot chuckled awkwardly. "Are you going to participate in the next round?"
"Yeah," Alice nodded. "Silly Elliot. It's a team fight. Everyone is participating."
As the two continued talking, Minos's eyes stared at a familiar man on the other side of the room. A pair of dark sunglasses and a scarf.
Although the scarf wasn't covering his mouth this time, and his sunglasses were stuck on his shirt, he was still familiar.
"Hey, do you know that kid?" Minos asked his best friend.
Aquarius turned to where he was looking at and knit his brows. "No. Why?"
Lance lost interest with Elliot and Alice's conversation and opted to listen to the best friend talk. Minos was staring at the young boy, his pupils dilating after feeling a mixed of something inside.
"He looks familiar, yet he doesn't," Minos confessed. "Something about him is odd."
"Maybe you've seen him before on a mission," Aquarius said. "You're in a lot of missions."
"The day we went to Solaguer" Minos trailed off. "Just before I was knocked out. I saw that kid."