The Grand Duelist

Chapter 22: I Knew From the Start

"Parry."

[ The Grand Duelist's Parry Lv 1. ]

[ The Grand Duelist enters a defensive stance. Every debuff, damage, and all forms of hard crowd control abilities are parried and rendered useless within the duration of the defensive stance.

Furthermore, every damage, debuff, and hard crowd control abilities received within the duration of the defensive stance can be recycled by the Grand Duelist in a single devastating attack.

*The Grand Duelist's Parry is absolute. Everything can be parried as long as the timing is right. *

Skill Usage Conditions: The Grand Duelist.

Skill Cost: None.

Skill Cooldown Time: 3 minutes.]

When the paw of the Voliwolf neared Joseph.

He activated Parry and a formless barrier formed around Joseph which blocked damage from the incoming paw.

Joseph's defensive stance soon ended. His sword shone in an ominous crimson light as he jumped towards the skies and slashed.

"Discharge!" He cried out loud and his sword unleashed a devastating slash that contained all the damage that he absorbed from the Voliwolf's attack...

When it descended, the clear sound of torn flesh resounded as Joseph's sword buried itself on the Voliwolf's left shoulder before coming out of the monster's right torso.

[You dealt 22,132 damage!]

Bang!

The Voliwolf couldn't even scream in anguish and pain. Everything was going good for it, but in just a blink of an eye. The tables were turn and now...

It suffered enough damage that it couldn't do anything other than widen its eyes in disbelief.

No matter how much it commanded its body to move. Its life had ended. In the end, the Voliwolf crumbled to the ground...

Lifeless.

[Corrupted by darkness, the leader of the pact has been defeated.]

[The Hidden BOSS, Voliwolf has been defeated!]

[The Level of the Party Leader 'Joseph' has increased by 5.]

[Your level has risen.]

[Your level has risen.]

[Your level has risen...]

[The Party Member, 'Rika' has acquired Thick Wolfhide 10x]

[The Party Member, 'Nina' has acquired Thick Wolfhide 11x]

[The Party Leader, 'Joseph' has acquired Thick Wolfhide 30x]

[The energy of darkness that surrounds the Wolf's Den has dispersed!]

[Reputation within the 69th Village of Baguhan has increased by +100!]

[Your reputation within the 69th Village of Baguhan has turned into 'Respected'.]

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[You will easily be acknowledged within the Village and the Villagers will trust you with quests. Every resident of the Village knows your name!]

[You acquired, "Battle Memories: Voliwolf".]

[The souls of the audience members within the Arena of the Gods are delighted by the Grand Duelist's victory against an opponent that is stronger than the Grand Duelist!]

[Quest: Raid the Wolf's Den has been completed!]

[If you told the Village Chief Fausto about the true difficulty of the quest, then you may earn greater rewards than what was stated within the quest rewards section of the quest!]

[The fight is over and you are now being banished from the Arena of the Gods, Colosseum.]

[Returning, please wait...]

Joseph wore a light smile on his face as he stared at all of these system notifications.

"Thankfully I didn't lose... If I did, who knows what would've happened? Would the game company take away my special class?"

"But a Mythical Class, I wonder how strong this class is... After all of these are done and over. I'll make sure to read more about how Victory works."

"It's quite pathetic not knowing how the game works when I've been playing for so long now..." Joseph bitterly smiled.

A ball of brilliant light appeared right above his head. Tentacles made of light emerged from that ball of light and they covered Joseph's body as Joseph slowly, yet certainly disappeared from the Arena of the Gods and returned back to the world of Victory.

Joseph appeared above the cave once again, an explosion and a shockwave welcomed his arrival. He also received a bunch of private messages from the two sisters at once.

'Where did you go?"

'Why can't we locate you on the map?'

'It says here that your location cannot be pinpointed, what is going on?'

'What was that explosion?'

'What was that strange skill?'

'Come on, reply! We know that you're alive. You're still shining within the Party Member List and you're still listed as our Party Leader so you can't fool us! Just reply!'

'Hey, where did you take the Voliwolf? Did you manage to kill it?'

'Just come back already!'

Joseph once again wore a bitter smile on his face. He was afraid of revealing any details about his true class since he didn't want any trouble...

Since he still doesn't know too much about the two sisters. Joseph knew that he must subterfuge his way of explaining what happened to the two.

"Joseph!" A scream rang out.

Joseph turned around and found Nina running towards him with a smile on her face.

"You finally came back!" Nina had a smile on her face, but Joseph couldn't help but step back for he felt something strange about her eyes while she's smiling.

"Uh... What's wrong?" Joseph asked in a hesitant manner.

Nina's smile turned sweet as she walked towards Joseph's back and hugged him from behind.

The shocked Joseph couldn't even react as Nina suddenly exerted strength and displayed an excellent German Suplex that broke common sense.

No- it also broke Joseph's back.

The broken common sense was just how did a young woman that looked as delicate as Nina exerted strength comparable to the wrestling gods of the previous century.

Unfortunately, Joseph didn't have the time to think about common sense as Rika walked towards him, pinched his cheeks and stretched them outwards...

"AH! THAT HURTS! RIKA STAPH, STAPH IT RIKAAAA..." Joseph who thought what she was doing was quite comedic, instantly regretted it when Rika infused the Fire Element that she could manipulate as a Magician into her index and thumb fingers that held Joseph's cheeks in place.

Poor Joseph had to suffer since the two sisters wanted to vent their anger and worries at him.

In the end, the two sisters managed to calm themselves down when they saw that they also received rewards from the death of the Voliwolf.

Joseph rubbed his roasted cheeks before saying in a wronged manner: "Don't the two of you have something to say to me?" His eyes swept at the two sisters who trembled in shock for a moment before Rika replied with a crooked smile on her face.

"What are you talking about?"

"If you want to lie to someone you must control your facial expressions! Rika, you look like a clown right now!" Joseph pointed out Rika's crooked smile and Nina lightly chuckled after hearing what Joseph said.

But she didn't expect that she would also be under Joseph's verbal attacks.

"Also, you. Nina! Don't just laugh right there, explain everything to me! The two of you! What are your motives for approaching me?" Joseph glared at Nina and Nina awkwardly laughed.

"Motives, you say? We don't really have any bad intentions when we approached you... We just wanted to have fun..." The one who replied was Rika who hung her head low in shame. She was caught red-handed while lying. Who wouldn't be embarrassed by that?

"The two of you just want to have fun? If that really is the truth then why did you have to hide your levels to me? You could've just told me from the start about your circumstances and I wouldn't be like this..." Joseph looked disappointed.

The two sisters gave him good impressions, especially Rika who gave him that advice back at the Beginner Village.

Rika who saw his disappointed expression couldn't say anything, while Nina who often acted strong and stubborn also turned speechless.

Joseph was right...

If they just wanted to have fun with Joseph then they didn't need to hide their levels.

They could've had more fun if they told Joseph the truth!

Wouldn't their hunting trip to the Wolf's Den be more laidback if Joseph knew the truth?

Nina shook her head. She dispelled her thoughts before finally coming forward and saying.

"I'm the one that gave Rika the idea of deceiving you. I'm sorry... As an apology, I will tell you about our intentions..."

Nina glanced at Rika as the latter nodded her head before Nina continued on her sentence.

"We did hide our levels at first, but we had the intention of slowly revealing it while we're within the dungeon. When that happened then, we will defeat all the enemies for you as if you're in our taxi." Nina explained and Joseph's expression changed as he loudly laughed.

"Ah, I see! I see... I see! So that's the plan that the two of you intended on using! Once the two of you carried me within the dungeon, like you were my taxi then the rice would've been cooked by then! When that happens then both of you could freely charge me for your service, and if I didn't pay?"

Joseph purposely lengthened the syllable at the end of his sentence before he viciously continued.

"I bet that the two of you will report me to Victory and when the employees of Victory found that both of you were truly in a party with me and had the liberty of killing the monsters while I had few to nothing contributions in battle..."

"Victory will deem your taxi service as valid and they will charge me automatically then give that money that they charged from me to both of you... " Joseph paused for a moment, and after taking a deep breath. He continued.

"Can't both of you find a more stable and honest source of income? Why would both of you resort to deceit? Can the two of you eat your food peacefully knowing that the money that both of you used on buying that food came from basically stealing?" Joseph said in a vicious tone of voice.

Joseph shook his head and he lost all the good impression that he had with the two sisters. Joseph never had any good experience with people who often used deceit in order to achieve their goals.

That bastard agent from Easy Cash named Robert was a great example.

He deceived Joseph in the same manner as what these two sisters did. Back then, when the rice was cooked Joseph had no way of refusing Robert's arrangements.

He had no other choice but to bow his head in regret and bitterly sigh.

That was the reason why right now, Joseph lost his goodwill towards this pair of sisters.

"It will take too long for me to explain for the two of us, but I'm really sorry. We had fun with you, but now. We cannot face you anymore..." Nina repeatedly bowed her head in apology, while Rika had her head low in shame.

Joseph stared at the two sisters. Joseph was someone that had a great deal of stock knowledge.

He knew that even though the schemes of the two sisters could work...

Joseph could easily reverse their scheme by submitting an appeal to the company behind Victory.

When that happened, then the two would be permanently banned from the game.

But why was it that even though the two looked like they were doing this kind of a scheme for a long time already, why were they still in the game? Why weren't they permanently banned already and locked-out from the game?

Joseph who planned on not giving them anything.

Now looked somewhat relieved...

But he couldn't help but inwardly chuckle and think: 'What a rollercoaster of emotions...'.

Some goodwill that was lost when he realized the plans of this pair of sisters returned.

After all, it's not like he also didn't have his own plans against them before everything even started.

A small smile lifted on his lips.

His eyes that stared at the two changed as he sighed and chuckled: "It's okay, It's okay. Even though the two of you did something bad to me. It's not to the extent that it's really harmful. I mean, I also benefitted from the two of you as my taxis so I am also grateful..."

"In fact, if not for the damage that the two of you dealt to the Voliwolf before I arrived then I wouldn't be able to kill it alone in the first place." Joseph approached the two who still looked anxious and the small smile on his face deepened.

"That's why both of you have nothing to apologize to me..."

"In fact, the truth is... I also lied."

Joseph's smile turned mysterious and the anxious two looked visibly shocked.

Joseph turned around to leave: "I knew everything from the start... I lied about not knowing about your schemes so that I could thoroughly reveal the truth..."

"But now that I know about everything then I won't blame the two of you. I mean, if both of you were really that evil, then wouldn't the two of you be permanently banned from this game already?"

"Since the two of you can still play the game without any further repercussions from your schemes. That could only mean that none of those whom both of you deceived in the past, reported you two for abuse..."

"This happened because I think, they must've thought that the money that both of you charged from them was reasonable for the quality of service that the two of you rendered."

"In short, both of you charged those that you deceived fairly. But there's still something that I don't understand." Joseph finally started walking towards the exit of the cave.

"I don't understand why the two of you wouldn't use dedicated applications for that kind of a job, instead of resorting to schemes and deceit." Joseph shook his head, he stopped in his tracks for a moment and stared at them before saying.

"But it doesn't really matter to me right now. Thanks for the taxi service, I appreciate the help that both of you gave to me and don't worry about the payment. I will surely pay the two of you at the end of the day even if I suffer an early withdrawal penalty."

Joseph bitterly chuckled when he talked about the 'Early Withdrawal Penalty'.

Afterward, he finally walked away and disappeared from the eyes of the two.

[Party Leader, 'Joseph' has left the party.]

[Party Member, 'Nina' is now the Party Leader.]

Joseph walked away and left a single system notification that served as evidence that he accompanied the two in a party.

Rika had an indescribable expression on her face. She stared at Rika whose expression also couldn't be depicted as she said in a small voice: "Sis... I think that we... should stop this."

Her voice sounded small and as weak as a candle wick in the middle of a storm, yet when Nina noticed the determination within her sister's voice...

A light smile lifted on her lips as she replied with a smile.

"Yeah, let's show those bastards that dared to blacklist us from their apps that both of us are someone that they shouldn't have messed with..."

"But before that..."

"It really is better that we should stop these plans of ours before we end up getting hurt."

Nina's eyes radiated warmth at the prospect of an unknown future that the two of them would face afterward.

Rika nodded her head and she buried herself into Nina's shoulder. The two silently cried for a few moments, but as tears left their eyes, they also left their former selves.

In the near future, these two money-hungry sisters would become a huge variable for Joseph when he established his money-making empire. But for now, these two sisters needed to face the harsh reality of the outside world.

Even though they knew the difficulties about what they were going to do. They found solace in the fact that they worked honestly than how they worked before...

And they also found strength from the existence of one another.

Both sisters were weak as individuals but as one?

They shouldn't be underestimated...