Blood Assimilation

At the Coliseum.

Randy stood before Gutz, resolved in his decision as he relayed it to him with a profound expression. Gutz stared into Randy’s eyes with a solemn expression as he silently observed him.

“Are you certain of this decision, Randy?” Gutz queried with a hint of doubtfulness.

“Yes, Gutz. Although it’s a bit sudden, I am quite certain about my decision.” Randy affirmed with conviction.

“Is that so?”

Gutz was unconvinced and asked: “Are you really not willing to change your mind, no matter what, even if I said you should stay for a while before departing?”

“That’s right. My mind is made up.” Randy replied firmly.

‘He seemed more talkative today than his past self. It seems his situation is much more urgent than I thought. Just what happened to him out there? He only set out to sightsee around the city for about an hour, and then he suddenly wanted to leave?’ Gutz mused to himself in bewilderment.

.....

“What made you have the sudden desire to leave the Imperial City right after arriving, anyway? Don’t you know that you won’t be able to level up faster elsewhere if you leave this city? Not to mention the possibility of you being put on a long waiting list when you return to the Imperial City next time by yourself. This possibility would be very high because as we speak many people are applying at this time.”

Gutz didn’t want Randy to miss out on an opportunity critical for his future growth and suggested in good faith: “You should really stay a while and apply for the position of an army recruit as well as the dungeon quota acquisition. What do you think about that?”

“...”

“Never mind. I won’t pry any further into your affairs, nor will I try to change your mind either. Just ensure to check in at the Society upon your eventual arrival. Anyway, I’ll have to inform Vairon and the others of your situation as well.”

As Gutz was feeling slightly disappointed about his sudden departure, Randy thought of something and said: “Actually, I’ll likely return to the Imperial City within a period of three days.”

“Oh, then I’ll be waiting for you here!”

Gutz was pleasantly surprised and said: “I have to integrate my attributes as soon as possible. However, it seems I will have to fight Gladiators for a few more days for that to happen. It should take two to three days at my current pace. Five days at most, based on my estimation. By that time, you should’ve already finished with your affairs and arrived in the Imperial City, am I right? After all, you still don’t know where the main branch of the Society building is located, right?”

He thought that Randy, his self-proclaimed rival after witnessing his prowess in combat, was leaving for good, but it didn’t seem to be the case after hearing his surprising words. With that being the case, he decided to wait for him to arrive.

He initially wanted to challenge Randy to a friendly Gladiator’s match once he had fully integrated with his attributes. This was because he wasn’t confident of being able to defeat him in his present state. However, he was confident that he would be able to tie against him if he fully integrated his attributes.

In the meantime, he would also handle his own business in the Coliseum before his eventual arrival in three days. Once Randy returned to the Imperial City, he would issue a challenge to him right away before anything else.

With that in mind, he made up his mind to complete his attribute integration as soon as possible. Afterward, he would use the combat analysis he visualized alongside his memorized fighting style to prepare for their match, as that would boost his chances against him.

“Alright then. I’ll see you when I come back!” Randy turned around and took a few steps away from Gutz before stopping.

Gutz wanted to convey his thoughts to Randy in order to not surprise him when he eventually returns.

“In that case, when—”

Whoosh!

Before Gutz could finish his sentence, Randy instantly vanished from the scene, leaving behind spatial ripples in his wake. This phenomenon shocked Gutz, who recognized the implications of Randy’s instant teleportation.

He felt numb in his brain as he stared at the place Randy had vanished from. Moments later, he instantly concluded that Randy was indeed not an ordinary person to have received a personal Safe Zone to train. That was something that only some famous Dungeon Hunters that later on became Apostles had the privilege of acquiring after they supposedly cleared a Dungeon all by themselves.

‘That guy is too monstrous. I can’t compare myself with him at all.’

Gutz couldn’t believe the sight before his eyes despite what he had directly witnessed.

He received two heavy blows as a wake-up call in just today’s event alone. The first blow was when he attempted to compete with Randy by fighting multiple Gladiators at the same time, which he failed to accomplish. Randy had made it look so easy that he thought he could also accomplish such a feat, but sadly he failed in the end.

The second blow he received was what happened just now. He just found out that Randy could already solo clear dungeons, something that he couldn’t do simply because he would run out of stamina as he was a close-quarters combatant.

Unlike magicians, he didn’t have any flashy spells to instantly eradicate the small fries in the Dungeons he visited. As such, he had to brute force his way out of almost everything.

Though he had many skills to assist in combat, they still required physical exertion to display their full potential in combat. Therefore, he would inevitably get tired quickly if he didn’t have potions to recover his stamina.

However, things such as potions were an expensive commodity, even for Dungeon hunters, who made a lot of money clearing Dungeons. After all, it wasn’t worth it to squander their money on potions when they could upgrade their gauntlets and armor instead.

Gutz, particularly, preferred to use his money to buy new gauntlets or repair existing ones.

Regardless of whether Randy was a monstrous genius or a talented combatant, he refused to yield to his brilliance. He would give it his all and strive to catch up with him as soon as possible.

‘Randy… Just you wait, Randy! When it comes to pure combat, I am very confident that I won’t lose to anybody. Not even those pretentious Royal Guards could compete with me on that front. Your existence is the only wake-up call I need to strive for greatness.’

Gutz silently declared his heart’s desire with a resolute expression. Afterward, he further hardened his resolve as he got up from his bed and undid the bandages on his body, revealing the sculpted muscles underneath the bandages that appeared to tense up with his boiling determination.

Moments later, Gutz came out of the medical room and headed outside to continue his challenge. This time, he planned to only take on one Gladiator at a time. However, he would be challenging those with a higher level than him.

According to his previous experience, fighting stronger opponents yielded more chances of integrating with his attributes. Earlier, he was only taking on those with the same level as him to imitate Randy’s feat. However, now that he knew his limits, he decided to return to employing his previous method of challenge.