Strongest Mage with the Lust system

Chapter 868: Maid Nia, Issuing A Challenge

”Hm?” Rima stopped in her tracks, turned around and saw a young girl in servant’s earthy yellow robes running over.

”You are?” Rima found her somewhat familiar but didn’t recognise her.

Huff! Huff!

The servant girl took a few deep breaths before respectfully bowing, ”Greetings, Milady. I’m your maid, Nia, reporting on duty.”

”Oh, so you are the one they assigned to me.” Rima nodded in realization. When she got her identity badge and other things, the lady in charge had told her she would get a maid to handle some minor tasks for her.”

”Yes, It’s me, Milady.” Nia nodded.

”Sorry, I was in a hurry to begin my cultivation, so I didn’t wait for you to arrive.” Rima apologized, realizing she had made her wait outside her courtyard for several days. Seeing her disheveled self, she knew she hadn’t probably eaten or bathed for several days now because she couldn’t risk leaving and missing the chance to report to her.

Nia hurriedly waved her hands in a panic, ”No, no, Milady. Please don’t apologize. It’s my fault that I couldn’t report in time.” She then bowed deeply again, ”Please forgive—”

”It’s alright.” Rima shook her head and Nia found herself rising up and standing straight. Her eyes widened because she was sure Rima hadn’t used mana to help her up.

”Come with me.” Rima said, turned around and resumed walking, each of her seemingly slow steps taking her several meters away.

Nia hurried to catch up with her.

Not long after, they arrived in front of a large, silver building with a silver plaque hanging above its main gate—Silver Arena.

This building was a coliseum with the capacity of several thousand people and the area, constructed from several durable magic alloys and reinforced by multiple formations, was strong enough to bear the multiple attacks of a peak King Mage. Due to this, the disciple fighting for the Silver Ranking could go all out.

Beside the main gate was a counter where a grey-haired old man was reclining in a chair, his eyes closed—at first glance, he appeared to be sleeping but if one looked carefully, they would notice he was breathing in a strange rhythm which indicated he was cultivating.

On his lap was a black cat that didn’t look any different from a house cat, but Rima knew this wasn’t the case.

When she approached the counter, the cat opened its eyes and looked at her. A moment later, a broken voice sounded in her head.

[Are you here to watch, or challenge the rankings?]

”Challenge.” Rima responded.

[Alright. Give me your identity badge.]

Rima took the badge hanging on her waist and placed it on the table. The cat jumped on the table, took out a silver badge and pressed it onto Rima’s before throwing the latter back to her.

[I have registered you. Whenever you are ready, drip a drop of your blood on your badge and it’ll issue a challenge. But remember, if your opponent has already fought a battle in the last three days, they can reject the challenge. Now, go on, nya~]

The cat jumped back onto the elder’s lap, yawned and closed her eyes.

Rima nodded and walked toward the gate. Nia followed her.

Just then, the cat’s voice sounded in Rima’s ears, [Servants aren’t allowed inside the ranking coliseum. So, unless you pay a fee of 5 Merit Points, she stays outside.]

Rima furrowed her brows hearing this. While she had over fifteen thousand Merit Points—15,013 to be exact—and paying 5 out of them wouldn’t be much, she didn’t want to spend even one of them before she had enough for the minor realm.

This was why, even when she was preparing to break through, she only relied on the resources her master had given her and the monthly resources she got from the Beast Emperor Hall.

But then she looked at haggard Nia and sighed.

At the gate, the disciples on the guard duty stopped her. After seeing she was an Inner Hall disciple and was here to participate in the ranking battles, they allowed her entry but stopped Nia.

”She goes in with me.” Rima said and gave them her identity badge. One of the disciples took it, scanned it on a box type magic artifact which ejected a wooden badge, similar in shape and size to Rima’s.

The disciple handed it to Nia and said, ”Keep it on yourself at all times while you are inside the coliseum and this is valid for just one day. You have to pay again if you want to extend your stay.”

”Yes, I understand, sir. Thank you.” Nia nodded and accepted the badge. She then followed Rima inside the coliseum.

Immediately, the air around them shifted. It went from being calm and peaceful to being charged with tension and excitement.

BOOM!

The next second, a loud explosion rattled their eardrums. Rima’s expression turned a bit solemn because based on the sound, she could tell this explosion could easily kill a mid-stage Five Star mage.

Behind her, after Nia’s ears stopped ringing, she looked at the Arena in front of her with bright eyes and murmured, ”It’s really true. The Arenas are really durable. Even such a powerful explosion didn’t cause any harm and even blocked the shockwaves from leaving it.”

”Let’s go up, Milady, and watch the battle.” She added excitedly, looking like she was about to rush away.

Even though mages had better eyesight and they wouldn’t miss anything even if they watched the battles from several hundred meters away, many still liked to be as near as possible.

Due to this, to prevent people from crowding the coliseum entrance hallway and the area around the arena, there was a specialized formation in the arena which obscured the sight of everyone below the Emperor realm if they were within a hundred meters of the arena or were in the entrance hallway where Rima and Nia were currently.

This was why, even though they were less than a hundred meters away from the edge of the arena, they weren’t able to see anything.

Rima concentrated her mana on her index finger’s nail and slid it across her thumb. Then she squeezed out a droplet of blood and dropped it on her badge.

Weng!

Immediately, it shone with a dim light and vibrated.

[You have issued a challenge. Please wait half an hour for your opponent to respond.] A voice sounded in her ears.

In the resting section reserved for the Silver Rank holders on the coliseum stands, a thin young man with triangular green eyes was watching the ongoing battle on the arena felt his identity badge vibrate and injected his Divine Sense into it.

Immediately, a voice sounded in his head.

[Rima Garfield, the new Inner Hall disciple, has issued the ranking battle challenge. You have half an hour to respond.]

Immediately, a voice sounded in his head and a surprised look flashed in his eyes briefly before his expression became overcast.

”What is it, senior brother?” A beautiful woman sitting beside him, noticing this, asked in a coquettish voice. Others sitting around them also looked at him, curious.

Before he could respond, a man suddenly asked, ”Has someone else challenged you again, senior brother? A newbie?”

The triangular eyed man nodded, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.

Then his lips curved upwards into a malevolent smile and he muttered, ”It seems I went easy on the previous two.”

Hearing this and seeing his smile, everyone felt chills run down their spine and pitied the unfortunate soul who just challenged him.