Reaction to Ryker's Strength

After the judge announced the winner, the crowd remained silent, unlike the previous matches. How could they when the person who was supposed to lose immediately was the one to come at the top, breaking every single belief they had about him.

  Without caring for the crowds, Ryker went directly to the judge's table, where one of the judges gave him a storage ring containing the prizes he had won. He gave a nod before leaving the arena, though avoiding to converge with his family, lest they be targeted by any fools.

  By the time he was long gone, the crowd seemed to be broken from their trance, where they began to whisper to one another. The topic of their talk is none other than the mysterious winner.

  "That person is really strong. To think he could beat all of those people and come out on top,"

  "Yeah, I thought for sure he doesn't stand a chance. Probably that's why he was put there alone. If not, it wouldn't be a fair fight at all,"

  "I wonder where he comes from. He definitely didn't come from the Barony, or at least he had hidden himself well. He is definitely not from one of the Great Families or Noble Family as they would have paraded such talent,"

  "True. I think he comes from outside the Barony. Maybe even outside the kingdom. Maybe he traveled around the world to experience life itself,"

-x-

  As the rogue cultivators and spectators talked about the young winner, the forces from inside and outside the barony began to talk about his existence.

  "Try to find any information on the young man. If we could pull him to our family, we would be able to get some stronger members, even getting someone at the Genesis Source realm,"

  "Sent people to follow him now! We just gave him an offer he couldn't refuse!"

  "Seek what is it that he likes. If he wants women, find the best one. If he wants riches, offer him half of our treasury!"

-x-

  "Young master, should we-"

  "Not yet," Guro said, eying the path that the young man took. "We can always contact him in the treasure trove. Right now, he likely didn't want anyone to bother him so we would not do such a thing,"

  The servant nodded before disappearing from his sight.

-x-

  "Interesting," Miyon exclaimed, looking at the disappearing figure with interest.

  "Should we try to find him? If he joins our force, we could get some that equal your father, maybe even equalling the duke in strength," one of the handmaidens said, looking excited at the prospect.

  "Try to find his residence. Then establish contact. We try to entice him with some rewards so he would join us and not some other group," the handmaiden made a noise of agreement before leaving the young woman.

-x-

  "Young master, what is our next course of action?" one of Horo's subordinates asked, seeing that the rest of the entourage couldn't form a coherent thought regarding their situation.

  "Find his information. Every single one of them. We going to bring him down it's the last thing will do." he said, gritting his teeth as he looked in Ryker's direction.

  "If we let him get stronger, he could even threaten my father,"

-x-

  "To think someone so talented could be found in this new nation," a young man looked at Ryker in interest. The people surrounding him nodded in agreement.

  "Well, there are plenty of geniuses out there but rarely do they come from such remote places. It would be best if he is aligned with us, but, we will see how it goes,"

-x-

  "You are saying he's a member of the Adventure Guild?!" an old man exclaimed, looking at Rota, who merely gave his superior a wry smile.

  "I did not wish to get someone likely going to the capital involved in the branch's competition," he replied, making his superior gnash his teeth in annoyance. 

  He couldn't even be made with his subordinate as, while competition is allowed, a full-blown rivalry that could lead to the destabilization of the branches of the Adventure Guild would lead to severe punishment from the higher-ups.

  "Get some information about him. At least we could be in his good grace if he became someone important to the Adventure Guild,"

  -x-

  "Looks like those guys are clamoring to find information about the boy," the ancestor of Hal Family exclaimed, looking at some of the more powerful forces, one that could crush the entire barony with a single thought, with some trepidation.

  "Yeah, his performance is excellent. The fact he didn't get hit at all shows how strong he truly is. He will definitely go beyond this small place," the ancestor of Gurdon Family replied.

  "Not just him, the little one is the one that comes up with this idea. Although he mostly wanted to profit from the betting pool, it is still incredible that he was able to come up with several other reasons, one we couldn't disagree with why showcasing the boy's strength would be beneficial for us all," Maza Family's ancestor gave his piece of mind, remembering how a mere child told them of ways to use Ryker's strength to their advantage.

  "With him being one of the 'leaders' of the expedition, the others would think twice about butting heads with our groups. If their Genesis Core experts couldn't defeat ours quickly enough, their groups would be the ones to suffer a defeat. After all, there would be no one to hold the boy," the Maza Family's ancestor continued.

  The others with him nodded. While they would still compete with each other for the treasures, they would mainly stay as one huge group for protection. Ryker would also join in with the group from the Great Families and Noble Family, as part of their agreement.

  With him around, unless their opponents gathered experts from other groups, they would likely have the advantage with their strength plus Ryker's reputation. 

-x-

  While the great forces tried to find out more about him, whether to get him to join their faction or in the case of Horo, to kill him, Ryker currently looking at the two perpetrators with a scowl.

  "So let me get this straight. You, somehow, convince the Great Families and Noble Family to get me to join in the special match so that you can bet in my name. And because most people logically assumed I was going to lose, they bet against me, resulting in us getting loads of treasures, from resources and coins. Am I missing something?"

  The two shook their head, not wanting to earn his ire even more. Ryker sighed while putting his hand on his forehead. "Esran, no books for a week," when the young boy was about to protest, Ryker added, "If you complain, it will be two weeks," the boy clammed up at that.

  "As for Miriam," the smile he gave her made the young woman feel outright terrified.

  "I have special punishments just for you,"