"Woah!?" The crowd went to the uproar when they heard what the man said. Not because of his claim over the matter, but because he was one of thirty-one Platinum Rank in the city.
He was quite famous in the city, he and his party were known in the city. White Tiger, a party formed by seven people with three Platinum Ranks as a member, and Deril was one of the three.
Tang Shaoyang glanced at the badge that hung on his neck. While his badge was made of wood, Deril's badge was coated with enhanced platinum.
"Interesting, Platinum Rank tried to bully the newbie, are you not ashamed, oh my friend, Deril?" A voice echoed from the second floor. Everyone glanced to the second floor, a man with a red robe that covered his body to the leg was leaning toward the rail.
The man had reddish-brown short hair that combed neatly to the side, holding a glass of red wine in his right. From the man's age, he was about the same age as the man with the blue plate armor.
Deril glanced at the man on the second floor, but he ignored the taunt.
"Kill Steal your Dire Wolf King?" Tang Shaoyang looked at the man with interest, "Do you have any proof to back your claim?"
"I don't need proof, my words are the proof." Deril was straight claiming the Dire Wolf King as his, "Also, stop bluffing me, you are not expecting me to believe that Wood Rank killed the Dire Wolf King, right?"
"Does it matter, the rank I mean? The adventurer is ranked based on how many quests they have taken, not a strength. How do you know a Wood Rank like me can't kill the Dire Wolf King? Your claims are full of holes," Tang Shaoyang grinned, "If your words can be used as proof, then my words will be my proof as well. I killed the Dire Wolf King."
"I and my party have been doing a quick sweep in Orin Forest before the Beast Stampede, and we have encountered many packs of Dire Wolf, including the Dire Wolf King," Deril told a story to the crowd.
Tang Shaoyang massaged the space between his eyes. He was someone who did not finish his junior high, but at least, he could come up with a more convincing story than this man called Deril. The opposite party was just like a kid that forced his opinion on others.
"I requested a trial, Guild Master Carlos." The blue armor man once again repeated his request for trial.
Tang Shaoyang was new to the guild so he did not know what the trial meant. He thought the trial was something like the court to judge whether he was guilty or not, "What is this trial?"
"A duel between two adventurers to solve their conflict. It is a tradition of the Adventurer Guild. But the trial had to get consent from both parties and the Guild Master," Carlos explained in a whisper.
"I see, I see," Tang Shaoyang did not know who this Deril was and how he offended him despite this was their first time meeting face to face. But he could connect the dot after dot that this was related to the Tigre Party.
Avoiding the trial was easy actually, he had the Dire Wolf King's body and the testimony from Chief Rick and the Ropina Villagers to be his witnesses. However, he did not want to avoid the trial, he wanted to agree with the trial. He wanted to measure his power to the people in this world.
On top of that, if Deril claimed he and his party killed the Dire Wolf King, they should know the wound and also how they killed the Dire Wolf King. He could clear the accusations easily, but he did not want to. Carlos also could help Tang, but he did not meddle immediately. In fact, he wanted Tang to fight against Deril so he could see how strong Tang was.
"What happened to me if I lost the trial?" Even though he wanted to have the duel, he wanted to get the benefit from the duel as well as the risk.
"If you lost your reward from the bounty, the Dire Wolf King's body would be taken by him. On top of that, your reputation will take a hit. The clients will not want someone who lost in the trial to take their quest as well, and also you will be prohibited to take the quest for seven days," Carlos explained patiently. From the question, Tang seemed to want to take the trial, and that was what he wanted too.
"This is straight bullying," he muttered as he finally understood what the red-robed said, "That's why the trial could be held only under both parties' consent, as well as my permission," the old man responded.
"If I lost, I would lose a lot of money, but what about you? Aside from your worthless pride, you don't have anything to lose," Tang Shaoyang confronted the man.
Deril was surprised that the Wood Rank Adventurer did not cower under his challenge. He was not expecting the opposite party to accept the challenge, he just wanted to shame the opposite party, "What do you want?"
"Simple, 100 gold bet! If I win the duel you compensate me for 100 gold!" Tang Shaoyang maintained his grin.
The adventurer crowd sucked a cold breath when 100 gold was mentioned. 100 gold was certainly a lot for most of them, it would take them years to save 100 gold. But of course, 100 gold was a normal number for Platinum Rank. It was the number he could afford to pay.
"Fine by me, but you have to apologize and kneel to my brother if you lose the duel," Deril finally revealed his true purpose behind the duel. He motioned his hand to the crowd and a long-haired young man came forward.
Tang Shaoyang recognized the young man, he was not surprised though. He had expected this thing related to the Silver Rank he beat up.
"On top of that, you have to disband your party too!" Deril added more stakes to the bet.
"Wow! Wow! Wow! Calm down man, when I agree with such a ridiculous stake? We agree 100 gold for the Dire Wolf King's kill, now you add more stakes for me, so shouldn't you increase your stake too?" Tang Shaoyang looked at the man with a shocked expression.
"Fine, 200 gold!" Deril doubled the stake, but Tang Shaoyang shook his head, "Then let's cancel the trial, you basically want everything I have with only 200 gold. That's not worth the risk."
"How much do you want!?" The long-haired young man asked, to the point he almost shouted. Anger and hatred could be seen from his expression, it was as if Tang Shaoyang was his parents' murderer.
"Let see," Tang Shaoyang rubbed his chin before he nodded his head, "I will be fair, triple the amount your brother offered, then we can start the trial of the duel right away."
"300 gold? Then let's go with that!" The long-haired young man agreed in the stead of Deril, but Tang Shaoyang shook his head, "Are you deaf? I said triple the amount your brother offered which is 600 gold."
"Fine, we accept the stake!" The long-haired young man instantly agreed without caring about the number. As if he was afraid Tang Shaoyang would back down. "Alpen!" Deril called out his brother, "Are you insane?" 600 gold was not a small amount even for him, that was a lot.
"Yeah, it's between me and your brother, the kid should not have meddled," Tang Shaoyang smirked at the young man, further provoking the long-haired young man, "I am not taking kid's words seriously, but a word from your brother."
Alpen, the long-haired young man turned around toward his brother, "Why are you afraid of, brother? He just Wood Rank, just agree and win the duel. There's no way you will lose to him, right?"
Alpen had blinding confidence in his brother who was Platinum Rank. Deril could not refute his brother, that's right, the opposite party is just Wood Rank. He just needed to win the duel so he did not need to pay 600 gold.
Deril looked toward Tang Shaoyang's eyes, the guy was calm and composed. This made him uneasy, 'False bravado? Overconfident? Or does he have something that can win against me?'
"Brother!" Alpen pleaded to his brother. Deril let out a sigh, "Alright, 600 gold, I agree."