The next morning after that night, Elias got interrogated and chewed out mercilessly by Evelyn and Elysia, who felt he’d been disturbing resting guests and had ditched them in the middle of the night.
Elias was genuinely grateful he didn’t get anything too dangerous thrown at him as punishment.
His pay got docked for the month, even though he hadn’t even received his first paycheck yet.
Still, as far as he was concerned, that was a whole lot better than whatever punishment Seraphina had received.
That afternoon, while Elias trailed after Evelyn and Elysia through the city park, he spotted Seraphina walking around with bandages wrapped around several parts of her body.
Strangely enough, her own parents seemed to treat the whole thing as completely normal.
They’d probably beaten Seraphina up for breaking Elias’s arm.
You could tell just from how much of her was wrapped in bandages.
Honestly, this was the first time in his life Elias ever felt grateful his pay had been docked.
That evening, Elias went to visit Seraphina to apologize for leaving her alone that night.
As a way to make it up to her, he handed over a few healing potions and extended the loan period on his book too.
Seraphina genuinely didn’t hold what Elias did against him.
She’d already gotten used to being beaten up by Evelyn and Elysia since childhood, after all.
To her, it was just bullying that had become routine at this point.
Truth be told, though, Evelyn and Elysia only ever beat her up because of something she’d done herself.
Still, watching Elias look so guilty he was crying and sniffling, Seraphina wasn’t about to pass up the chance to score a few more potions from Auntie Centipede and extend the loan on that guidebook while she was at it.
The second night wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary.
Everything ran about as usual.
Some young nobles danced, talked politics, worked on their connections, or just gossiped, same as Evelyn and Elysia were doing with a few other Ladies.
Meanwhile, Elias and Felix were locked in a competition to see who could put away the most food.
The contest had been going on long enough that a small crowd of young nobles had gathered to watch.
As the crowd kept growing, someone eventually suggested putting money on who’d come out on top, Felix or Elias.
“Beat him! That filthy commoner!”
“If you lose, I’ll be living on the streets!”
“Take down that lucky bastard! I want to dance with two gorgeous girls in one night too!”
“Don’t stop! Keep eating until your stomach explodes!”
“Watching them eat like that’s making me kind of hungry too…”
“I’ll introduce you to Lady Rushia if you win, Felix!”
Even with the crowd getting louder and rowdier around them, both of them stayed dead focused on winning.
Neither cared about any prize money, this was purely about pride.
Since Elias and Felix shared the exact same belief, both of them would’ve felt genuinely humiliated losing an eating contest.
To them, a man who couldn’t eat a lot was basically the same as stripping naked in public and then putting on women’s clothing instead.
“Give up, bro! Just so you know, they call me the Kitchen Ace back in the city!”
“I don’t have a nickname. But I’ve decided to call myself the Champion Crusher.”
Felix opened his mouth as wide as it would go.
Like a vacuum cleaner, the food on his plate got sucked straight into his mouth in an instant.
“That’s cheating! You’re using Magic!”
“Hmph! This is called technique, you idiot!”
Not willing to back down either, Elias whipped out his own little “trick” to try to win the contest.
He swallowed a Magic Talisman that Auntie Centipede had given him, setting it to inject a small trickle of Mana into his body.
With this, no matter how much Elias ate, his stomach would stay strong and his eating speed would pick up too.
“You’re using a magic item! That’s not allowed!”
“Hmph! You’ve got your own tricks and I’ve got mine!”
“Uwogghhh!!! Things are getting intense! This match is heating up fast!”
Right as the crowd started getting even louder and more heated, one of the young noble lords suddenly showed up.
He walked straight to the front with an arrogant look on his face, and the young nobles around him started clearing a path without needing to be told.
For a moment, everything froze, all eyes shifting toward the young lord.
Even Elias and Felix went stiff, food still frozen mid-air in their hands.
“How embarrassing. You’re all making this much noise over some sloppy eating contest?”
“Well… just because we’re nobles doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy a little entertainment.”
“Exactly! We’re even betting on it to make the match more exciting.”
“Why don’t you watch it for yourself first, Young Master Bram?”
The young lord’s face twisted with disgust at first, watching Elias and Felix eat like an absolute mess.
He probably would’ve turned around and walked off right away if no one had told him to actually watch.
“Tsk… What’s even interesting about some cheap spectacle like this?”
* * *
“Hahaha! Beat that commoner, you son of a bitch! Beat him and I’ll hand you ten Grade B Mana Stones!”
“Uwogghhh! Young Master Bram’s the best!”
“Young Master! We’re on the same team here!”
“Get serious, commoner! If you lose, I’m going broke for real!”
“Hey, Elias! Eat the bones too! Don’t leave anything behind!”
After watching the match for a while, for some reason Bram suddenly got fired up and started betting on Felix’s victory too.
He ended up placing the biggest bet of anyone there, and his laughter easily rang out louder than everyone else’s.
Watching the ruckus unfold on the other side of the room, Elysia could only let out a sigh, pressing a hand to her forehead as she spotted Elias smack in the middle of all the attention.
“That guy…”
“Goodness. It’s fine, right? He looks like he’s having fun anyway~”
“That’s not the issue, Big Sis. But still, eating like a total mess and using Magic to do it is kind of…”
“There’s nothing wrong with it! If anything, I’m glad my coming-of-age party’s turning out so lively because of them.”
Seraphina stood up from her seat.
“You two wait here for a second. I’m going to go place a bet on Elias too~!”
Seraphina left Evelyn, Elysia, and a few other Ladies behind to go join in on the excitement.
“Hey, eat properly, Elias! Or I’ll break your arm again!”
Elysia let out another sigh, shaking her head at Seraphina’s antics.
Meanwhile, Evelyn and the other Ladies just laughed quietly at how worked up Seraphina had gotten.
“That girl…”
* * *
A few hours later, once the second night of the party wrapped up, Elias made sure Evelyn and Elysia were safely back in their room.
As usual, after that, he headed off to train for the night.
Once he got to the training field, he pulled out a large pouch stuffed with coins and Mana Stones, his winnings from the eating contest.
Honestly, Elias hadn’t expected to get any prize at all for winning.
But the people who’d bet on him ended up handing over a cut of their winnings to him anyway.
At first he genuinely tried to refuse it, since he was a true, honest man who didn’t expect anything in return.
He’d already been more than happy just getting to eat, entertain himself, and help liven up the second night of the party.
But since they’d insisted so much, of course Elias wasn’t about to keep turning it down.
“Goodness. And here I genuinely didn’t want any of it.”
His words were the complete opposite of the expression on his face right now.
He was practically licking the pouch itself until it was soaked with his own drool, a few drops even splashing down onto the ground.
‘Hehehe…
I’m rich!
With this, that month of docked pay is nothing at all.’
After licking the pouch for a good while, his tongue started feeling dry and his jaw began aching from holding his mouth open so long.
Just as he started transferring the contents of the pouch into his odorless storage pouch, a system screen suddenly popped up in front of him.
[Ding!]
You’ve received a Side Quest!
Head to the hill north of the Aurelle mansion and wipe out the Iron Wolf Fang pack!
Reward: 5 Stat Points, 500 Exp, 10 Grade C Mana Stones.
Elias tilted his head, scratching his cheek, since he’d never even heard of this monster before.
“Iron Wolf Fang?”
[Ding!]
A wolf-type monster with long fangs as hard as iron, capable of crushing a human skull with ease.
This monster always lives in packs and remains fiercely loyal to its own group.
Grade: D
The system seemed to pick up on Elias’s confusion and offered a basic explanation of the monster.
Elias got the gist of it, but looking at the monster’s Grade and the reward on offer, he honestly wasn’t convinced it was worth it.
“5 Stat Points, 500 Exp, 10 Grade C Mana Stones? Are you kidding me, that’s even worse than fishing, which nets me 2 Grade B Mana Stones a day!”
Elias scrunched up his face.
“Boring. Bump up the reward! Come on, give me something that’ll actually make me stronger!”
[Processing…]
[Processing…]
[Ding! Approved!]
[System Reward Updated!]
Head to the hill north of the Aurelle mansion and wipe out the Iron Wolf Fang pack and the Devil Apes!
Reward: 5 Stat Points, 500 Exp, 10 Grade C Mana Stones, and…
Three Easy Ways to Discover Your Arcana for Beginners, No Password!
Elias raised an eyebrow, since the quest had just gotten bigger instead.
It used to be just Iron Wolf Fangs, now Devil Apes got tacked on too.
“Hey! Are you trying to screw me over here, huh?”
[Ding!]
[Nothing in this world comes free. Nothing in this world comes easy. There’s a price for everything, and quality comes with it. Everything’s been calculated based on your own capabilities.]
“Eh? Is that how it works? Alright then, what exactly is Three Easy Ways to Discover Your Arcana for Beginners, No Password?”
[Ding!]
[Exactly what the title says. It’s a guide on how beginners can discover their Arcana.]
Hearing that, Elias crossed his arms over his chest, one hand propped against his chin, brow furrowed.
This was a tough call for him.
He could easily turn it down, but seeing that reward, “Three Easy Ways to Discover Your Arcana for Beginners, No Password”, made it incredibly hard to say no.
On the flip side, the quest itself had just gotten a lot harder too.
Honestly, this was actually a pretty good deal for Elias, who still hadn’t figured out how to shape his Mana into Arcana.
Watching everyone else casually use Magic genuinely made him jealous!
Sure, he could use Mana just fine, but Mana’s applications were a lot more limited compared to Arcana.
He could channel it into his legs or his sword, but he couldn’t release it outward the way Arcana worked.
After sitting with the dilemma for a bit, Elias finally made up his mind.
If he wanted to get stronger, he still needed real hands-on experience and a whole lot more effort.
Besides, better to die getting eaten by monsters than die at the hands of Evelyn and Elysia.
“As for this last reward… I’ll admit, I briefly thought this might be a scam, but seeing that red text at the end saying No Password, all my suspicion just vanished instantly.”
[Ding! You’ve accepted the Extermination Side Quest!]