CHAPTER 131: RISING IN THE RANKING

Being so exhausted, Anna took him to his room to rest.

He slept through the night.

The next day looked like it would be a long day for him. His muscles still ached, but nothing exaggerated.

So he started his day in the Combat Arena on the wrong foot.

He lost the first three bouts, out of 15 for the day. That brought him to 60 points, and with 8 wins and 5 losses, he is a total disgrace.

The problem was that they were putting him against some powerful people. With so many restrictions, it was complicated.

Besides, they had more experience than he did in these arena fights; they knew how to take advantage of those advantages well.

But with determination, he won the fourth bout and then the fifth. Both gave him 15 points each, so he was back at 90 points.

In the sixth bout, he faced the person who had defeated him yesterday, the person he had underestimated. And this time he had a really tough fight.

Because he was constantly guarding his good judgment, Elliot seemed to complicate himself initially, but in the end, he managed to pull the match out and win, finally reaching D Rank, with an 11-5 win/loss record.

Subsequently, he won the next five bouts.

He was justly left with 99 points. The greatest misfortune that could happen to him.

But it was nothing to be alarmed about. The next one he lost and dropped to 79 points. The next one he won and...

’99 points again?’ he groaned inwardly. He was stressed, but nothing alarming happened. He managed to win the next bout and, finally, reach C Rank.

Some things changed here. The way to move up was no longer the same. It was no longer by score but by a system called "Ascended."

You must find a way to beat the entire Ranking and reach the Top 10.

Once in the Top 10, they will be promoted to Rank B every week, allowing them to follow the path.

And to avoid dropping out of Rank C, you must avoid falling below the Top 500 (or maybe 1,000).

It currently looks like this:

[Rank C.]

[Ranking Position: 450.]

[24 Games Played.

18 Games Won.

6 Games Lost.

WinRate: 75%.]

If he wanted to reach the Top 10 of this Ranking, Elliot would have to maintain a winning percentage higher than 65% and maybe play about 40 more matches.

That’s why it was so complicated. But he won the next and last fight of the day. That way, he was 19-6 and moved up a few spots in the rankings.

His day ended in pain, and soon another one began—the last day in the arena.

That day, he had the longest winning streak by anyone in the Loen City Combat Arena.

It was so impressive, there was an announcement at the Awakened Association:

[Elliot Clark just won 20 straight C-Rank Fights, 18 in a single day.

C Rank Ranking: 8.]

It was impressive. And because his morale was so high, he immediately played the last two, but...

He was up against 2 B Rankers.

And he lost both bouts.

But it’s still a fantastic day.

[Rank C.]

[Ranking Position: 10.]

[45 Games Played.

37 Games Won.

8 Games Lost.

WinRate: 82.22%].

If someone were to ask him... he had become a bit addicted to watching this Ranking rise. Thanks to it, he could ignore the terrible pain in his muscles, although today it wasn’t so much. So when Anna went to look for him, he was a little disappointed.

She smiled at the sight of him.

"I saw the announcement. 18 wins in a row, huh? That’s amazing, how many wins do you have, and what’s your WinRate?" she asked.

"Haha. That’s 37 wins. 8 losses and an 82% WinRate." He replied.

"Few achieve such an overwhelming winning percentage. That’s impressive, congratulations. You can go get your betting awards then."

"Hm? What bets?" He looked at her, confused.

"Obviously, the bets in the arena. There always are, and when someone has a good winning percentage, people are betting for and against you. Didn’t you know that one of the biggest draws of the Combat Arena for the Awakened is the amount of money that can be made from these?"

Elliot frowned. He seemed to remember something like that.

The Combat Arena is frequented by those who want to have fun watching solo or group combat.

In fact, he remembered something...

Several of the sponsors who had made it possible for him to collect over 10 million dollars a month now had, as a condition, to participate in this Arena.

All the members of all the guilds do it because, depending on the contract, a percentage of his profit goes to the sponsors, to the guild, and to him.

’And I got a very good deal... Was it 70% that I got? It was higher than Jenna’s percentage.’ Elliot quickly ran inside the Arena. The muscle pain seemed to disappear, as interest in how much money he had won emerged.

He then went to take it back, and after a very short process with the Combat Arena staff, it was mentioned to him that his last few bouts had received ridiculously high stakes, to the point where he averaged out to $9 million wagered on each of the 45 matches he played.

Of that, the percentage that the player and his sponsors, as long as they belong to a registered Guild within the global Awakening System, is 15% of the total bet, just for participating.

It is not a percentage that comes out of the bets entirely. 10% is sponsored by the Combat Arena; it is the most effective way for the System to support each registered Guild. The remaining 5% comes out of the total bets.

According to the contractual agreement, Elliot gets 70% of that 15%, which in this case is $60.75 million, for the total of the 45 games.

That same day, 42 million dollars were credited to his account.

The rest belongs to the guild and his sponsors.

He never imagined he would make that much money.

But it’s true.

He is not the same as before.

Now, his status is not easy to hide within the City. He is known to be capable of beating anyone of his same rank of strength.

Although he was not seen using his summonings this time, all his fans had full confidence in him.

Thanks to those fans, whom he didn’t even know he had until today, he had suddenly earned four months’ salary in three days.

Even Anna was surprised that he had earned so much.

--

Inside Angelic Wave.

Steward suddenly hit a scream and jumped.

"Hahahahaha!" Unhinged laughter erupted from his office, immediately attracting the attention of many people.

Still, with the quick arrival of the Second Master and Joferth, who had recently been very close to Steward, all the curious people went to their jobs.

"What’s wrong with you, old man? You’ve alerted the whole guild." Said the Second Master as soon as they entered.

Steward looked at them and smiled. He turned away without answering him.

He searched through his drawers for a bottle of wine and some glasses. Then he poured them for each of them.

The second master looked at him in shock.

"Did something really good happen? You never usually bring out your longed-for vintage wines."

Even though he said that, he was the first to grab the glass of wine and taste it.

’As expected from the wines of an elegance junkie.’ He thought.

Steward smiled even wider.

"Haven’t you seen the news?"

"What news?"

"You mean the Elliot Clark news, sir?" Joferth asked from the side, afraid to grab that wine.

Steward nodded.

"Yes. Elliot Clark has recently been participating in the Combat Arena. It was 45 bouts, and I’ve taken advantage of them all. The bets...hahahahaha!" He suddenly started laughing once more, but stopped midway through.

He seemed to be going crazy.

"They have left me a lot of profit. The Guild has earned several tens of millions, the same as my own pocket. Plus, just from their bets, an additional 9 million just came into the Guild. How can I not be happy?"

His glee could not be hidden, and he burst out laughing again. At one point, he was almost begging for money from the main guild so he could hire Elliot and Jenna, and now, Elliot was bringing in million-dollar profits from the Combat Arena alone.

That would make everyone happy.

Elliot. To the Guild and to the Sponsors, who are surely going to call for a meeting soon.

Everything is wonderful when investments start to pay off!

The 2nd Master looked at Steward. "You were gambling with Guild money?"

"And for 45 bouts?" Joferth added.

To which Steward shrugged.

"I have to support my guys. He has suffered these last few weeks, and to increase his power, I have to make him win a lot. Besides, I didn’t bet too much; I just did it according to Lady Anna’s guidelines, so it’s all good. It was supervised by a superior." He replied, smiling and giving a thumbs-up.

They were both shocked.

’Even Lady Anna was in on this...’

There was supposed to be an unwritten rule about not being able to use guild funds for gambling...

Both the 2nd master and Joferth held their hands to their heads.

They could only be thankful that everything went well.