Gathering of talent
The gunshots continued to ring out, tens of bullets flew through the air. The commotion caused a small group of people to gather and look, something as excessive as this was clearly against the rules no? At this rate the man with the assault rifle would kill his opponent. The referee on the other hand continued to look as if nothing was wrong about this scene, his hands were even behind his back and looked at the dust cloud that was caused by the man's unending firing.
*Click* *click* The man was out of bullets, he had fired his entire clip at his opponent. One second later realisation kicked in and he was afraid he had accidentally killed his opponent, he looked at the referee to explain himself when the dust cloud disappeared and against all odds his opponent was still standing there. Apart from his shredded clothes there wasn't a single injury on his body, everyone was stunned seeing Ron unscathed. "M-Monster!" The man uttered completely shocked.
"Is it my turn now?" Ron asked, his clothes were slowly mending due to the enchantment he had gotten by the tailor back in the desert town. As Ron was getting ready to charge in, the man quickly threw away his rifle and put his hands forward "W-Wait I give up!". Ron nearly stumbled forward hearing the answer, ('he had nothing else just the gun? And thought he could win with just that?') Ron was stunned that someone like this even dared to enter the tournament. The referee also didn't like that the man cut Ron off the moment he was about to show off but did his job anyway "Winner number 486!".
"HAHAHA! He won without even lifting a finger" The yellow robed man on the stands broke out in a laughing fit. "Too bad his opponent was such trash, we couldn't even see how he would've attacked" The black robed woman spat in disgust at Ron's opponent. The other scouts didn't seem to have any good word on Ron's opponent as they all agreed. "My best guess would've been the whip by his waist" The purple robed man accurately spotted.
"Speaking of people, how come there are so few people here?" The blue robed woman didn't like to speak ill of people. "1,033 people is indeed quite low, we've had some reports on the goblins in the south expanding viscously" The green robed man said. "True, however such an environment will only cause the talented to come out on top" The purple robed man commented.
Jumping off the ring Ron walked to Jacob who didn't seem to be that scared of Ron. "Well what do you think?" Ron asked Jacob. "About what? You've clearly become stronger however so have I and I don't plan to lose against you" After seeing Ron being immune to bullets Jacob still held confidence in his skills, Ron was interested in seeing why he was still confident.
Before Ron could ask for more details the same referee who just called out Ron's number called out another number "102 and 546!". "What a coincidence it's my number" Jacob spoke as he jumped on the ring, the referee was surprised at the coincidence but was glad to move along quickly. A moment later Jacob's opponent came and was revealed to be a muscular adult man, Jacob's opponent laughed when he saw Jacob's guns and said "I'd recommend you give up guns will not work on me". Jacob just smiled and said "We'll see".
"It looks like his friend is up next, how do you think he'll fare?" The yellow robed man asked the other scouts next to him. "Looks like another gunslinger however something about him feels off" The green robed man responded he could feel that Jacob was further into the first level than other gunslingers. "His opponent on the other hand feels to be at the same level but unarmed, I wonder if he's something up his sleeve" The black robed woman commented.
The referee gave the signal to begin and Jacob drew his guns and pointed it at the man, before he could fire however his opponent stomped the floor hard and a piece of rock came out the ground and floated in front of him. The man then punched the rock and shot it straight towards Jacob, Jacob quickly jumped out of the way and took a few shots at his opponent. His opponent on the other hand raised his hands in the air and a wall came from the ground stopping the bullets.
('Interesting, it doesn't feel like magic so that must be earthbending') Ron quickly deduced how Jacob's opponent was able to control the earth. ('Jacob on the other hand probably doesn't know what it is') Ron had noticed Jacob's lack of supernatural knowledge on their first meeting when he fell into the same beginner trap that many others fell into, guns being the gold standard. Ron was curious to see how Jacob was going to win this one, if it was Ron he would've multi-stepped around the walls or just smashed through them.
Jacob ducked and weaved through the rocks that were coming towards him, Jacob still had a calm expression on his face as he hadn't even broken a sweat. Jacob fired the occasional shot here and there but they were all caught in walls, suddenly Jacob swiped his gun as he fired at his opponent. The wall came the same as usual however a blood splatter came from the man's leg as he cried out in pain. ('What the-!? How did it just hit him?') Ron didn't know how Jacob just hit him.
Jacob's opponent was equally stunned, so much so that he lost focus for a minute and didn't see that Jacob had already ran around the wall and took advantage of the opening to shoot more shots. The gunshots brought the man back to reality as he hurriedly brought up another wall, he was however a little too slow as bullet holes formed on his shoulders. If the no killing rule wasn't effective the man would've been dead by now. Now however with multiple bullet holes in him and leaking a lot of blood it was obvious who was going to win, unless the man had another ace in the hole to finish Jacob off.
"Seems like it's over and the gunslinger won against the odds" The black robed woman commented, it was refreshing to see guns being represented correctly. "That skill he pulled off was probably curving shots" The blue robed woman wasn't too familiar with guns however that didn't stop her from identifying it. "It seems like he still has more tricks in the tank left" The yellow robed man noticed from Jacobs relaxed face, he doubted they would see them this time around.
And indeed the rest of the match went as expected with Jacob dodging the man's attack and letting him bleed out. Jacob didn't even shoot anymore and purely focused on evasion, the man eventually went unconscious from blood loss and the referee declared Jacob the winner while performing a quick heal on the man. The referees would only heal when necessary after the fights, Jacob himself didn't require any healing and didn't even seem out of breath from moving around the entire fight.
('Seems like an stamina based build with agility as a close second') Ron deduced from Jacob's movements and lack of tiredness. Jacob jumped down and walked next to Ron completely unphased by the fight, "I assume you have more tricks up your sleeve but I won't pry" Ron told Jacob to which he only chuckled and replied "You're also hiding more tricks" as he looked at the whip on Ron's waist.
"You interested in a trade, I've got guns for sale" Ron wanted to get rid of his guns, he was never going to use them and he's trained the muscle guard technique as much as possible. Jacob looked at him quizzically, "Why do you even own guns?". It was a valid question Ron didn't use them at all so why have them? "I encountered some thieves who didn't take no for an answer" Ron didn't elaborate on the story, he didn't enjoy killing people however sometimes it had to be done.
Jacob didn't pry further, he's the last person who was going to morally question someone on killing instead he asked about the guns "What kind of guns and do they have enchantments?". "Three assault rifles and one pistol, no enchantments" Ron took out the weapons for Jacob to inspect, he didn't know much about guns. Jacob looked at the guns and commented "Three M4A1's and one Glock 17, sorry not interested" Jacob only held interest in pistols and not in rifles. "Oh well worth a shot" Ron wasn't too disappointed, he knew selling these guns would be a long shot.
"Excuse me, are you selling those guns?" A third voice suddenly came from the side belonging to a man in his thirties and was dressed plainly. "Yes I am, do you want to trade?" Ron replied, he didn't care who to sell them to only if he sold them. "I am interested in the M4A1 however I'm unsure of what you want" The man brought up a good point, what did Ron want? Wish points obviously however he doubted someone would actually trade that.
Ron thought about his current needs; Vitality was still the lowest stat not counting magic and his boots were useless in any terrain other than the desert, speaking of equipment Ron's only equipment were the boots and necklace. The necklace boosted his vitality albeit invisibly. "Depends, what equipment can you trade off?" Ron wasn't going to tell his need for vitality or the fact that he can use magic to a random stranger. "Oh, in that case I don't have anything to trade" the stranger sadly responded with a negative and left. Just when Ron was considering if he was too greedy with his response another voice popped up.
"I have something that might interest you" Another voice popped up and this time it was a female voice. Ron turned to see a dark skinned woman dressed in all black however one look at the woman gave Ron chills that were sent down to his core. Whoever this was was someone not to be messed with, "Can I ask what it is?" Ron carefully asked. The woman smiled and palmed a ring "This ring has a skill that can identify whatever it is you're touching, there is a cooldown of 1 hour though" the woman explained the ring. "Why do you want to get rid of a ring like that?" Ron was confused, why get rid of something that good? Was he getting scammed?
The woman laughed a little and said "Because I learned the skill myself, no need for it anymore. In return I would like all four of those guns". Ron thought about it and it made sense, if she really learned the skill herself the ring would become obsolete. Trading all four guns wasn't an issue to Ron even though he knew he was taking a loss here; however there was still something he needed to confirm. "How do I know the ring isn't a dud?" It was a valid concern and one that needed to be addressed.
The woman however expected that question and said "I'll give you one free use, don't try to run with it" She gave Ron the ring and uttered the last sentence with some bloodlust in there which made Ron think twice about running. Not that he was ever planning to run. "Think in your mind 'identify' and touch what you want identified" she explained. Ron touched the ring and tried activating the skill to identify the ring itself. 'Ring of identification. Can identify items not protected by special means. Recharges once per hour.
The ring was real and would work perfectly, the woman was a little surprised at Ron's carefulness ('Has he already met people like them?'). "Works perfectly, deal the weapons are yours" Ron gave the woman the weapons, he didn't notice her surprised expression when he tested the ring. The woman smiled and accepted the weapons "Pleasure doing business" she said and left Ron and Jacob alone. Ron tried to follow her with his eyes but once she entered a crowd of people she disappeared like a ghost.