CHAPTER 128: WHO WOULD REFUSE AN APPRENTICE?

Carlotta smiled, "I really want to make a move. I can’t miss my ten chances every day, right? The number of times resets at midnight. I still have ten chances today."

If possible, it would be more appropriate to finish reading the intel before deciding whether to challenge someone adjacent, but as Carlotta said, she didn’t want to waste today’s chances.

"Aren’t you afraid of failing?"

Amelia asked.

The General Soul Reaper ranked 985th was obviously not a viable opponent, so Carlotta’s target could only be the person ranked 987th for now.

That person was named Zebus, likely just a surname.

Carlotta was unhurried and said, "It’s okay if I lose. 24 tokens are not that many, so I can make up for it later. But if I win, it will be a huge gain."

She mainly had confidence in the intel and believed she would receive satisfactory information at midnight, so she wanted to be bolder now and cherish her ten challenge opportunities.

Amelia said, "I won’t stop you, but remember to surrender promptly if the opponent is too strong, and don’t get injured. We can’t go back to find that person who knows healing magic to treat you."

She hadn’t even considered the possibility of Carlotta’s challenge being rejected. Since she could transmit her own rank, Carlotta would definitely do so, and who would refuse a challenge from a ninth-tier apprentice?

This sort of thing couldn’t be done by a proxy.

Carlotta immediately selected Zebus, ranked 987th, chose to challenge, and voluntarily displayed her rank.

...

John Zebus was a baron of the Brandon Kingdom. After Sky Island appeared, he rushed over with his guards. Unfortunately, because his territory was relatively far away, he arrived many days late, thus only collecting 24 tokens by now.

Currently, their group of over a dozen people was traversing a forest, cautiously guarding against their surroundings.

John stood in the center. Although his rank wasn’t very high, being only an early tier Listener, his guards were strong, which was his capital for venturing into Sky Island.

He was tall and slender, dressed in fine clothes, and surveyed his surroundings leisurely.

Suddenly, he seemed to sense something. He took out one of his tokens, and a light emanated from it, displaying a line of text: someone was challenging him.

"Tsk, someone else is challenging me."

John shook his head and chose to refuse without hesitation.

He didn’t want to fight strangers because he lacked confidence in his early tier Listener strength, but he also didn’t want to entrust the tokens to his guards; it was better to keep them with him.

The previous challenger was ranked 988th. Just as he refused, he noticed that the adjacent person ranked 986th had initiated another challenge.

John was about to refuse as usual, but then his eyes widened.

"Moon, ranked 986th, wishes to challenge you. The challenge token is 24. Do you accept it? Moon’s rank is ninth-tier apprentice."

Unlike the challenge information from others before, this person named Moon revealed more details, even exposing their rank as a ninth-tier apprentice.

"An apprentice dares to challenge someone? They’re truly insane."

John couldn’t help but exclaim.

It could only be said that humans were complex and unpredictable, and there would always be some reckless lunatics.

Then, John, with a smile, accepted the challenge for the first time.

Who would refuse an apprentice’s challenge?

"An apprentice challenged me, I’ll go handle it. Rest here."

John didn’t forget to say to his guards.

The numerous guards heard this and their expressions turned strange.

An apprentice dared to challenge someone proactively? Were apprentices this bold nowadays?

"What good luck."

John exclaimed, then disappeared from his spot amidst a wave of teleportation.

...

After teleporting, Carlotta found herself in an unfamiliar arena.

It resembled a coliseum, shaped like the bottom of a pot, with densely packed spectator seats on all sides. However, there wasn’t a single spectator in those seats.

The entire arena exuded a sense of desolation, as if it were an ancient ruin that had existed for thousands of years.

"It’s a girl?"

A voice came from not far away.

Carlotta turned and observed John Zebus.

John was also observing Carlotta.

In fact, once they entered the arena, the battle was considered to have begun, but neither of them was in a hurry to make a move.

Carlotta judged John to be someone of high status. She had spent a considerable amount of time in the capital of the Wendell Empire and could naturally discern some people based on their external appearance.

John smiled and said, "You’ve come to Sky Island at such a young age and even dared to enter the inner region. I must admit you are very brave. But I’m curious, where did you get your tokens?"

Carlotta replied, "Most of them were picked up from corpses."

John realized then. He wondered how an apprentice could have so many tokens, and he couldn’t help but admire Carlotta’s luck.

Humans hunted monsters and obtained tokens, but monsters killing people wouldn’t bother with tokens. Looting corpses was indeed a feasible method.

John shook his head and said, "Regardless, the inner region of Sky Island is not a place for you. After you fail, go back to the outer region."

Carlotta smiled and said, "Uncle, you’re quite kind. I’ll go easy on you later then."

Uncle? Hmph.

John touched his face, then smiled, "You’ll go easy on me? Don’t forget, you’re just an apprentice. Alright, enough with the nonsense. My guards are waiting for me, I can’t keep them waiting too long."

His expression turned serious, then he pointed at the ground. The area suddenly cracked open, and a large mass of stones flew out, automatically assembling into a giant stone golem.

Carlotta mused, "Manipulation Magic?"

This was a relatively rare type of magic, said to originate from ruins in a certain Brandon Kingdom. It could manipulate anything. Stones would become stone golems, wood would become wooden golems, and if cultivated to a high level, it could even turn light into light beings, possessing considerable combat power.

John made consecutive moves, conjuring five stone golems in front of him, then sent one of them charging towards Carlotta.

Each stone golem was three meters tall and, due to its stone body, was immune to ordinary attacks, making it difficult for a normal ninth-tier apprentice to handle.

John’s strength was actually quite good among early tier Listeners, but unfortunately, he encountered Carlotta.

Carlotta’s figure merely shifted slightly, and she dashed past the stone golem, directly reaching John’s side.

When Carlotta moved, John, who had been calm, suddenly changed his expression.

Too fast!

He found Carlotta’s speed to be too fast, making his somewhat clumsy stone golems unable to keep up. Was this the speed an apprentice should have?

John quickly had the remaining four stone golems surround him, guarding against Carlotta’s approach. However, before this encirclement could even form, Carlotta was already standing beside John.

She raised her Rose Cross and placed it on John’s neck, "Uncle, shall we end this?"

John’s expression froze.

The surrounding stone golems also stopped, not daring to approach further.

John never imagined that when facing Carlotta, he wouldn’t even be able to last one round.

"You... are you really a ninth-tier apprentice?"

John asked incredulously.

"That’s right."

Carlotta smiled.

"Since when are ninth-tier apprentices this powerful?"

John still couldn’t believe it.

"Have you heard of geniuses? Without a doubt, I am one."

Carlotta said without modesty.

John was speechless. If this was considered a genius, what were the so-called geniuses he had met before?

"I concede."

John’s expression was dejected.

An apprentice daring to challenge someone might not be because they were crazy, but because they possessed considerable strength.

He felt that today, he had truly learned a lesson.

Although John chose to concede, a flash of light occurred, and both of them disappeared from their spots.

...

In the woods, John’s figure reappeared.

Before he could say anything, the guards around him spoke up one after another.

"Congratulations, Master, for obtaining another 24 tokens, greatly increasing your ranking."

John looked at the many congratulatory guards around him, his mouth twitching, unsure of what to say for a moment.

After a long silence, until the surrounding guards felt the atmosphere was a bit off, John finally said, "I lost."

The guards: "???"

An early tier Listener, lost to an apprentice?

Is our Master this weak?

...

Carlotta also returned.

Looking at the additional 24 tokens, she felt refreshed.

"Challenging adjacent ranks is quite an interesting thing. Isn’t it more efficient than hunting monsters for tokens?"

Carlotta said with a smile.

Amelia asked, "What was the rank of the opponent this time?"

Carlotta replied, "An early tier Listener."

Amelia understood. An early tier Listener would naturally not be Carlotta’s opponent.

She continued, "Actually, when facing challenges, if the challenger has too many tokens, most people won’t dare to accept the challenge. And if the challenge is refused, it still counts as one challenge attempt. So, gaining tokens through challenges isn’t particularly efficient."

"That makes sense."

Carlotta nodded.

She looked at her current ranking, and her expression became somewhat subtle.

Rank 648: General Soul Reaper, 50.

Rank 649: Moon, 48.

What? How did she become adjacent to General Soul Reaper again?

Carlotta was speechless. She guessed that she had refused General Soul Reaper’s challenge, but the person ranked above General Soul Reaper had accepted the challenge and lost, with all their tokens going to General Soul Reaper.

Who was that guy? How could he dare to accept a challenge from someone named General Soul Reaper? Had he never heard of the reputation of a Pirate General?

Rank 650: Vanessa, 47.

Carlotta looked at the person ranked below her and pondered whether to challenge them. Now that her ranking had increased, her opponent’s strength had likely also increased.

Amelia suggested, "Perhaps when you choose to challenge, you can not wager all your tokens, leaving some room for yourself."

"That’s true. If I encounter someone I can’t defeat, I can keep some tokens and still fight my way back by challenging others."

Carlotta agreed and nodded.

She chose to challenge Vanessa with 20 tokens and displayed her rank.

However, shortly after, Carlotta was stunned because her challenge was rejected.

"What is this person doing? They don’t even dare to accept a challenge from an apprentice? How can there be such a timid person?"

Carlotta’s eyes widened.

Amelia also didn’t expect the challenge to be rejected. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Perhaps the other party is very cautious and rejects all challenges, regardless of who they come from, wanting to improve their ranking in a steady manner."

This wasn’t strange. There were always some people who were particularly steady.

This put Carlotta in a difficult situation. She wanted to use up her challenge attempts, but the person below her refused, and she felt she couldn’t defeat the person above her, making it impossible to challenge them.

Challenges could only be made from adjacent opponents; one couldn’t skip them.

Seeing this, Amelia said, "Sky rankings can change at any time. Let’s go do something else and wait for the rankings to change."

Carlotta nodded.

She just hoped that the two adjacent people would switch places quickly.

For the next few hours, Carlotta and Amelia moved rapidly through the forest, searching for monsters to hunt.

What gave Carlotta a headache was that no matter how many monsters she hunted or how her tokens increased, the two adjacent rankings remained General Soul Reaper and Vanessa.

As her tokens increased, their tokens also increased, and the amounts gained were surprisingly similar. Thus, the three of them maintained the same rate of increase, unable to shake each other off.

"It seems no one is accepting General Soul Reaper’s challenge, so she can’t move up."

Carlotta was very frustrated.

During this process, she even issued two more challenges to Vanessa, but each time they were still rejected. She didn’t know why the other party dared not accept the challenge.

As midnight approached, and she had seven challenge attempts left, Carlotta decided to go for a big gamble.

"I want to challenge General Soul Reaper."

As soon as Carlotta said this, even Amelia was startled.

Amelia earnestly warned, "Don’t mess around. We still can’t confirm if this person is a fake. If it’s the real deal, she’ll be terrifying."

Any Pirate General was synonymous with terror and bloodshed, not someone to be dealt with lightly.

Carlotta smiled, "Don’t worry, I won’t fight her for real. I plan to challenge with 3 tokens. The moment I enter, I’ll concede and withdraw, so my ranking will be out of this range between these two people, and then I can challenge others."

Amelia was stunned, "This works too?"

She had to admit that Carlotta’s courage was truly immense.

Carlotta whispered, "It’s also a good opportunity to determine if that’s the real Pirate General."

She had seen General Soul Reaper before, and if she saw her again, she would definitely recognize her.

As for herself, for safety reasons, she would definitely wear the Illusion Mask and change her appearance.