Art Duel

"Hmm… How about Mr. Wraht here?" Abraham suggests.

Mr. Wraht frowns, clearly confused. "What's going on here? What am I judging?"

Abraham pipes up. "Oh, Mr. Wraht! We want you to be one of the judges in our bet. This kid over here is pretending to be what he is not, and is sullying the name of artists, so I have to show him what a real one is!"

Mr. Wraht glances at Lin Ke, and then back at Abraham. Mentally, Mr. Wraht was shaking his head. How could Lin Ke be a fake? That badge in his hand was clearly the real deal. Plus, for this man to be together with a person with that card, why would he stoop so far?

'Forget it.' Mr. Wraht thinks. 'I'll just play along with it. Maybe I'll even get onto the young lady's good side.'

"Alright, I will help judge." Mr. Wraht nods his head. "However, I need you to know that my knowledge of art isn't all that large."

"Now, now, Mr. Wraht! There's no need to be so humble! There's a reason you managed to become the manager of the Artifact Hall's first floor! Your appraising skills must be second to none!" Abraham says.

"You overestimate me, Mr. Abraham!" Mr. Wraht said sheepishly. "Besides this, you still require a few more judges right? I know just the right people! They should be arriving here soon. I can ask them to see if they wish to be the judge of this bet. However, I can't guarantee anything."

Then, Mr. Wraht's eyes get drawn to two people walking through the marketplace without really taking a look at the goods. They both looked to be around fifty years old. One of them had a short beard and sharp eyes, whereas the other was cleanly shaven with his hair neatly gathered into a man bun.

Quickly, Mr. Wraht strides over and extends a bow to them. After a little bit of conversing, the two nodded and headed over together.

"Allow me to introduce you guys. These two are B-class artists! This is Mr. Mast Altier." Mr. Wraht introduces them as he gestures to the man with the short beard. "And the other one is Mr. Yotzal Altier. They are brothers."

Abraham bows deeply upon hearing that they were B-class artists. "Ahh, so it's Mr. Mast and Mr. Yotzal! I've heard a lot about you two! I'm a big fan of your paintings! Especially the [Grayed Summer Nights] painting!"

The two men, upon hearing that, immediately brightened. "Ahh, so you recognize our paintings! Very good, very good." Mr. Mast compliments. His voice was very lighthearted and gentle.

"Mast, this isn't what we're here for. We have work to get done." Mr. Mast's brother, Yotzal says. Yotzal's voice held a tone of impatience and showed that he probably had a short temper.

"Now, since we're here already, why not watch this interesting show?" Mr. Mast tells his brother. Turning back to Abraham, Mr. Mast asks. "I understand that you challenged this young man over here to an Art Duel?"

"Yes! I challenged him because of his outrageous attitude, of not admitting his mistakes, as well as threatening innoc-"

"Yeah yeah. I don't give a damn why you challenged him. Let's get on with it." Yotzal interrupts.

Abraham bows. "I apologize. Alright then. Where should we do this?"

"Follow me, there is quite a large room in the back you can use for this." Mr. Wraht said while gesturing for them to follow him.

Mr. Wraht brought them to a corner of the indoor market, where there was a large door locked with a padlock. Taking out a set of keys from his pocket, Mr. Wraht inserts one of them into the padlock. With a click, it opens.

Mr. Wraht pushed the doors open and with a wave of his hand, the lights turned on, illuminating the room.

It was a large, empty room with white tiles on the ground and walls painted green.

"This is a room we just recently cleared out. We were going to use it to store other goods and stuff, but we still haven't gotten to it yet. Feel free to use it for now. I think I have a few chairs in my spatial ring...:"

Mr. Wraht pulls out six identical looking chairs from his spatial ring. A table also follows suit. They land on the ground with a thud.

"I assume you have your own easels, brushes, and supplies?" Mr. Wraht confirms.

Abraham nods, while Lin Ke freezes.

Lin Ke looks over at Lily, who had been quietly listening in on the conversation in his head. "Lily, can I have some painting supplies?" He says in his head.

"Sure, 5 Low-grade Chaos Stones." Lily says casually. Apparently, her money hoarding nature was still the same.

However, Lin Ke nods. His train of thought was that, if he won this bet, he would be earning back much, much more than 10 Low-grade Chaos Stones.

"Alright." Lin Ke answers.

"Your products have been deposited in your spatial storage space." Lily says quickly.

Checking his spatial storage space, Lin Ke sees canisters of paint neatly piled up like a small mountain. Each of them were color coded and organized. Next to the canisters of paint was a few tables with multiple different palettes of different sizes and textures. On the ground was multiple white, neatly folded wooden easels and stools. There were also many different canvases of different sizes in the mix. All the canvases were exceptionally high quality, seeming as though made from linen, or perhaps some material like linen, except better.

Looking at all the supplies sitting in his spatial storage space, for the first time, Lin Ke feels as if he hasn't been ripped off.

"Alright then, please begin. You will have an hour to finish a painting of something of your own choosing. After you are done, the judges will determine whose painting is superior." Mr. Wraht says. From his spatial ring, he pulls out an hourglass and turns it upside down.

With all that said, Abraham immediately got to work bringing out his supplies. On his palette were many different colors, of blue, of green, of a multitude of different hues.

While Lin Ke was preparing his palette, Lin Ke was still thinking. What should he paint…

As Lin Ke looked through the mountain of supplies in his spatial storage space, Lin Ke's eyes got drawn to one particular supply. Slowly, a smile spreads across his face. It's almost as if a light bulb went off in his head.

Lin Ke puts away the canvas he had brought out earlier, causing Lia, Mr. Wraht and the two B-class artists to frown in surprise.

"What is that kid doing?" Mr. Mast whispers to his brother.

"No clue, just watch. Maybe we'll see something interesting…" Yotzal replies. "Wait hang on… Is that… paper?"

That's right. Instead of the canvas, Lin Ke pulls out a rectangular piece of poster paper. Most often, acrylic and oil paintings are done on a canvas, a clothlike surface that has a rough texture to it.

The poster paper Lin Ke pulled out was not for painting. Once Lin Ke secured the poster paper, he pulled out a normal pencil. The pencil was sharpened well, but aside from that, it was just a normal pencil.

"There's no way… He's making a black and white drawing?" Mr. Mast exclaims.