Chapter 118 - The Strongest Wizard's Fearsome Magic
Albion was wholly taken aback by the enthusiastic welcoming.
\'Why does everyone seem to know who I am? It\'s like they anticipated my arrival.\' He silently mused before the newcomer portal suddenly flashed.
A new figure walked out of the portal, dressed in a wizard robe and hat, looking like a real magician before he was similarly stunned by the crowd.
"Why are there so many people here? Is there some sort of welcoming party for newly ascended newbies? Why haven\'t I heard about this?" the newcomer inquired with surprise.
The crowd immediately shifted their attention to the newcomer.
Albion also glanced over, checking out the person\'s outfit before comparing it to his own outfit—which was the same black clothes he wore in reality.
"Strongest Wizard, I want to challenge you! Accept my challenge!" The Hunters began making their challenge declarations to the newcomer.
The newcomer was bombarded with hundreds of battle invitation windows in front of his eyes before he was shocked silly.
"Oh sh*t! Is this the rumored newbie hunting? Why are there so many newbie hunters? You guys are all insane!" The newcomer exclaimed in shock.
At the same time, Albion patted the person\'s shoulders and said, "Well, I don\'t really know what is going on, but good luck."
Shortly after, Albion squeezed his way through the crowd and left the newcomer for himself before the crowd quickly filled the gap and surrounded the newcomer on all sides.
"Challenge me! Challenge me! Challenge me!"
"Fine, fine! I\'ll challenge you all! But I only accept 1V1 challenges! Don\'t think that you shameless pricks can bully me with your numbers, hmph!" the newcomer quickly lost his temper and said snappishly, radiating a valiant battle intent.
"Hmph, don\'t you guys dare to look down on newbies!"
After accepting a single challenge, the newcomer and one of the Hunters disappeared into light particles, teleported to a different map called Battle Arena, where Hunters competed against each other.
"Dammit, why didn\'t he accept my challenge first? I wanted that first blood on a level 5 user!"
"With this many of us spamming challenge requests all at once, we would be considered lucky to even get picked in the first 10 challenges!"
"Sigh! Seems like we can only wait until they finish their duel first!"
As the Hunters complained, Albion continued to walk away without a clear destination, uncertain of what he wanted to explore in Hunter World first.
Ding!
<Battle Arena Alert!>
<Lv.2 User, IronFistVillain, has issued you an invitation to duel>
<Do you accept? Y / N>
The sudden notification made Albion paused his steps before IronFistVillain patted him on the shoulders with a firm grip without any intentions of letting him go.
"Hey, newbie. You\'re not going to walk away from a challenge, are you?"
"You want to challenge me?" Albion asked nonchalantly, turning his head to the side for a glance at the challenger, who exuded an arrogant air.
It was not hard for Albion to guess that this person was a real newbie hunter.
"Of course!"
Albion gazed at the person calmly and asked, "And? What\'s in it for me? What are the benefits of winning these challenges?"
"Kek, you really are a newbie." IronFistVillain smirked before saying, "Alright, let me explain it for you to understand. Each time you win against a different opponent, you gain 5 EXP, which contributes to upgrading one\'s access level in Hunter World."
"Usually, Hunters also compete with bets for extra prizes, but I doubt a newbie like you has made any virtual wealth in Hunter World to bet with me. I will make it easy for you and not set any bets, how about that? Consider it a friendly exchange of sorts."
After listening to IronFirstVillain\'s explanation, Albion casually asked, "And? What\'s in it for you?"
"As I mentioned before, I get 5 EXP from beating you. Also, it will look good on my battle record."
"You\'re that confident in beating me, huh?" Albion muttered before his lips curved into a smirk, "Sure, I\'ll play with you."
"Accept!"
Ding!
<Lv.5 User, TheStrongestWizard has accepted your duel invitation>
IronFistVillain\'s eyes widened with a pleasant surprise by the notification before the both of them disappeared into similar light particles.
Shortly after, the newcomer reappeared near the newcomer portal with a discouraged expression after losing the battle in five short exchanges.
The challenger appeared beside him before cussing to everyone, "Dammit! Everyone, this person isn\'t TheStrongestWizard! We got the wrong person!"
"What?!"
The crowd quickly broke into outrage before one of them spoke, "Don\'t tell me it was the other newbie we saw before instead?!"
"Most likely!"
"Dammit!"
"Quickly look for him! He must not have gotten far!" A Hunter spoke before the crowd quickly tossed aside the newcomer, preparing to begin their blind search.
However, a Hunter suddenly exclaimed, "Everyone, quickly check the battle lobby on your screens! There\'s one room called TheStrongestWizard, and it\'s open for spectating!"
"Seriously? Let\'s check it out!"
Shortly after, thousands of Hunters began pouring into a colossal ancient amphitheater-style map with a max spectator capacity of 100 thousand people.
Albion stood on the old battle arena in the center with IronFistVillain with a calm expression before raising an eyebrow at the influx of spectators.
"You enabled spectators?"
"Un."
IronFistVillain nodded before asking with a grin, "Does it bother you? Don\'t worry. I also enabled the handicap feature to bring my physical quality down to your level, so you don\'t have to worry about getting bullied too much."
A sudden discomforting feeling made Albion feel weak like all strength was drained away before he thought with amusement, \'This person spoke like he had done me a great favor, but he just saved himself from an instant kill.\'
"That\'s strange… I don\'t feel any changes. Seems like we were both at the same level. How surprising," IronFistVillain said with surprise before adding, "Oh, you won\'t be able to use any magic since I also disabled the use of special abilities. We will be competing in pure martial arts."
IronFistVillain gave an evil grin while Albion casually glanced at the holographic screen of the duel settings with a disinterested look before noticing the pain receptor setting was set to 100%.
"You talk too much. I don\'t need special abilities to perform magic." Albion shook his head before nonchalantly stating, "Just start the match already. You\'re wasting my time."
"Hmph, fine! If you are in such a hurry to get beaten up by me!" IronFistVillain snorted coldly before initiating the countdown for the match.
At the same time, the 6 thousand spectators had entered the spectator map and seated themselves before one of them spoke, "It\'s starting!"
"Wow, the special abilities have been disabled. That newbie hunter is too mean. How can \'TheStrongestWizard\' fight without his magic?"
"Seems like this will be a pure martial art battle."
A few spectators commented before keeping silent after hearing the countdown.
<3…>
<2…>
<1…>
<Fight!>
The match started, but no one made a move.
Despite standing upright with a calm look, IronFistVillain felt excited in his heart by the growing crowd of spectators.
It was a rare chance to show off.
"Since you said you can use magic without relying on special abilities, let us see it then. I will give you the opportunity of having the first strike." IronFistVillain gestured with one hand behind his back.
"Sure. If you want to embarrass yourself that much." Albion cracked a smile before lunging forward with a warning, "Watch out for my Magic Fist!"
"Hmph, rookie mov—"
Ka-cha!
IronFistVillain\'s prized jewels suddenly exploded after preparing to counter Albion\'s amateur punch—only to be kicked in the nuts instead.
"Ahhhh!"
IronFistVillain was immediately floored, rolling on the ground in pain while frothing for some time.
Shortly after, he recovered just enough to shoot Albion a venomous glare.
"Goddamit! That was a kick, wasn\'t it?!!"
"That\'s what makes it magical." Albion chuckled shamelessly.
…
In the spectating area, thousands of spectators were dumbfounded by the turn of events, having not expected the Lv.2 User, IronFistVillain, to be trounced in an instance.
"Holy sh*t! No wonder he is called the Strongest Wizard! But can that really be called magic? What kind of magic is that?!"
"The eunuch-creation kind of magic, I guess… But damn, this person aren\'t playing games. He sure knows when to kick where it hurts."
Dozens of male spectators immediately felt their little brothers shivered slightly before one of them muttered with fear, "Magic is scary…"