Pure bullshit!

"How may I repay you, Shira?" Henderson smiled to the bald Phina.

"I..." Phina tried to deepen her voice.

"Please. I insist." Henderson looked Phina in the eye.

"C-Can you tell me where the closest place I can rest in is?" Phina chose her words carefully. In arenas, there were many different types of civilizations. Some only had towns, while some were as big and untied as nations! If she mentioned cities when the arena only had towns, she'd die as quickly as she arrived in this place.

"Of course! I'll even take you there personally!" Henderson smiled at the young woman. 'Looks like the child of a rogue...poor thing.'

"T-Thank you." Phina thanked as she grit her teeth. 'The more I am near him, the higher the chance that I will mess up. I need to get away from him immediately after I get to a town!!'

"I-I'm sorry, I am quite beat up right now. Can we rest a little before I take you?" Henderson smiled apologetically.

"Sure." Phina bit her lip. 'CRAP!'

The two sat in silence for a while before Henderson turned to Phina. "How did you end up here, Shira?"

"I was..." Phina hesitated. 'SHIT!! SHIT!! SHIT!! SHIT!!'

"I'm sorry." Henderson sighed. "It must be hard for you."

Phina looked at him with surprise. He looked at the woman. "Only rogues cover their faces in the Dull Dessert. It's plenty obvious from your Life Energy that you're pretty young. Your parents left you there, right? The situation of someone's birth shouldn't make them feel ashamed."

"I see." Phina sighed in relief.

Henderson took it the wrong way and continued. "I'm serious. Look at me for example. I tried to kidnap the Angel Successor for ransom, yet I was caught. The Angel Monarch at the time decided that I was to be punished by unpaid labor. He made me guard the Successor!"

Henderson started laughing. "Hahaha! To think that a little thief such as myself would end up as the Angel Monarch's third aid!"

"I...I see." Phina furrowed her brows. Every person in the arenas was either a criminal or a descendant of a criminal. Everyone in this place would be of noble birth! Yet, here they were. A noble thief, a noble rogue, abandoned nobles...did any of these people deserve this? After all, it was their ancestors that committed the crime.

"S-Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what's the reward for the bounty?" Phina asked nervously. It was stupid move to mention anything about it, yet curiosity killed the cat.

"You didn't hear it? Everyone did." Henderson thinned his eyes. Phina could feel his Life Energy start moving within his body.

"I-It woke me up, so I panicked and started running! I didn't focus is all!" Phina hurriedly explained.

"You have sharp eyes." Henderson commented as he noticed Phina's eyes glued onto his Life Energy's exact location in his body.

"I sorta have to..." Phina prayed that this would be enough of an excuse.

"You're not wrong." Henderson sighed. He then returned his Life Energy to a distribution suitable for travel. "Alright, I've rested enough. I need to go back and report to my Monarch, so let's go."

He picked Phina up, not giving her a chance to react before he zoomed through the sky.

BOOM!!

A sonic boom appeared behind him as he arrived at a town in the matter of seconds! He smiled while flying. "It should be safe where I drop you."

Phina moved her lips, but no sound arrived. He dropped her and moved south. She then felt someone scream in her ear. "THANK YOU!!!!!"

It was her own voice catching up to her body!

"That's was too close." Phina whispered to herself as she heard a ringing in her ears. Her Life Energy was a mess too.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Hello, young traveler! I see you don't have a mask, would you like to see my collection? We have a sale on currently!" a short old Elf smiled at Phina as she was walking through the town's main street.

"S-Sure." Phina said. The shirt around her face was not exactly comfortable.

"Of course! Come in, come in!" he smiled as he led Phina to his store.

It was a small store. It only occupied a 4 by 5 meters area, yet the things on display were of great diversity. There was stuff ranging all the way from perfumes to Life Energy pills. The old Elven man chuckled, "As long as you have money, you can exchange for anything!"

"W-What currency do you use?" Phina asked.

"What a strange question! We trade for Beast Repellants, of course! But we do accept manual labor sometimes, as well." the man smiled as he went to the back. He came back with a beautiful pristine black jade mask, covered with red runes. "The best we have! It might be a little expensive, but it can cover you from even Expert-rankers!"

Phina beamed. "How much is it?!"

"We only accept Beast Repellants for this item! It's worth 52 Beast Repellants." the Elf smiled at seeing a customer willing to do business with a smile on their face. A lot of people criticized him for his prices, yet they didn't have a choice. He was the only person selling quality items in Lonely Strife Town.

"Give me a moment, I'll be right back!" Phina smiled. She left the store and entered an alley before looking around with Piercing Sight. The closest person to her was a High stage Infant-rank man coughing 20 meters away. She quietly called out. "System, I want to buy something."

Phina could be considered quite rich among the Cadets, only the graduated Senior Cadet Zeke could compete with her in terms of wealth. She currently had 38,800 EPs from all the Skill days. A simple Beast Repellant was sold for 20 EPs by the system. Even the highest quality of Beast Repellant which would work in a radius of 2 kilometers sold for 500 EPs. If Beast Repellants was the main currency of this arena, then Phina was practically a wealthy tycoon!

"Your account has been frozen until you have finished your punishment."

The system's cold voice dampened her mood. She looked at the ground in despair, then looked up and took a deep breath.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BULLSHIT?!?!"