Chapter 440: Rarin' up for a duel

Dicky looked at Michael's face and saw bold confidence in his eyes.

After everything that they just talked about, the boy was still hellbent on trying to conduct his business.

It was admirable!

"Hahaha! You're one-of-a-kind, Michael. And since I admire your confidence, I will play along with your hypothetical.

With the Reborn company still at its infancy, you are not qualified to deal with any one of us. However, the feats that you achieved during your permit test is enough for you to be able to graze the ceiling of one of my subordinates.

His name is Chucky. And although he is not talented enough for a managerial position for me, he is still quite strong enough to be an employee for my department.

He's a janitor. But, he's a Hepheastaus just like you wanted."

Michael immediately nodded. "Can you arrange a duel between us?"

Dicky raised his hand to stop Michael's excitement. "Wait a minute, hot stallion. I must warn you that despite being only good as a janitor, he is quite a skilled fighter within our ranks. In fact, if he weren't so useless in a desk job, he would have gotten my job instead."

"I'm fine with that," Michael replied.

Dicky took a deep breath and looked at Michael. He kept opening and closing his mouth, as if hesitating to say something.

There was one aspect about Chucky that was important to know about in a duel. However, this particular trait was something that was kept a secret from ordinary people.

What was it?

It was none other than the fact that Chucky was a Maugnetic.

Having a Diva was a well kept secret that was especially kept away from civilians and ordinary people.

Dicky couldn't reveal that Chucky was a Maugnetic. However, it wouldn't be fair to Michael because he wouldn't know what he was getting into. It wouldn't be a fair game for a Maugnetic to go against someone only armed with magic spells.

He wanted to relay all of this to Michael, but he simply couldn't reveal the existence of a Diva to him.

"Please reconsider this, Michael. Chucky is not someone that a normal person can defeat."

But all of his attempts seemed to be slapped away by Michael's insistence.

"I'm okay with that. I'm pretty strong myself."

Dicky sighed. "If this is what you really want, then I can't stop you."

"Great! How does a duel start?"

"First, we have to ask a Montgomery to supervise the whole proceedings. If we send a letter to their estate, then we can get a diplomat here in about a week," Dicky replied, still thinking that Michael would rethink his decisions at a later date.

Of course, Michael couldn't wait that long. "Can't we just ask someone like Claudia to oversee this?"

This almost made Dicky laugh out loud. "The

Claudia Montgomery? You want to ask her to supervise the duel? Don't you know she's the manager of the entire Metropolis Association?"

It was akin to using a sword to cut a paper. This duel was far too unimportant in the grand scheme of things for her to care about.

"Wait here. I'll go ask her," said Michael as he quickly left the room, leaving Dicky completely speechless.

And about twenty minutes later, someone knocked on Dicky's door. He got up and answered it himself, seeing Michael back again. Not only that, but the person beside him was none other than Claudia Montgomery herself!

"C-c-Claudia?!"

Claudia ignored Dicky and glared at Michael. "I had more important things to do, you know?"

"What other things? Didn't I shorten your work by completing my permit test early?"

As the two bantered, Dicky was left speechless in his own home. It was only when Claudia asked permission to go in did he finally realize that this was not a dream.

"Are you really going to supervise the duel?" Dicky asked, still in disbelief.

"Yeah," Claudia said exasperatingly. "He promised to give out a box of ballpoint pens to my building, so I had to."

That was the truth. But Claudia was also personally curious about Michael's duel. He proved himself to be a great businessman. But can he prove to be a great fighter? Claudia wanted to know because dueling was a major part in growing a company. If he didn't have what it takes, then this would be the limit for Reborn.

"Michael, I don't know how you convinced her, but good job. Having her supervise the duel is an assurance for both of us," Dicky said, patting Michael's back.

Now that they had an arbiter, they could start the negotiations of the duel.

Dicky asked for the main fighter to arrive.

And surprisingly, Chucky looked exactly the same as Dicky, except he was a lot taller and a lot more buff. He looked like an evolved version of Dicky.

"Yo bro! What do I gotta do?" asked Chucky.

"This here's Michael. And he wants to have a duel with you? Are you fine with that?"

Chucky immediately agreed. "I'm always up for a challenge. Hey little bro! I'm not going to be pulling any punches, so I hope you're ready!"

The large man came over to Michael and asked for a high five, which Michael promptly delivered. Chucky was just a loveable goofball.

"First of all, I would like to ask everyone in this room a vow of silence. Everything that happens in our discussion, as well as in the duel, will remain only for us, and us only," said Dicky.

This was standard procedure, especially since Dicky thought Michael had no idea about Maugnetics and Diva.

Michael had no problem with secrecy, so he nodded along. Chucky, of course, agreed as well.

With all parties in agreement, Claudia recognized the vow of silence.

"Now, let's get down to business. Michael, I want to know why you wanted a duel with us anyway? What do you want to achieve?"

"I want to know how to use my Soo."

Dicky nodded along. "I see, I see. You want to use your Soo. Well, like I said, is such a thing really important for you that you want to fight someone like Chucky—wait, wait, wait. Say that again?"

Michael repeated his words with a shrug. "I want to apply my Soo to my Mithril Artifact."

"WHAT?!" Dicky shouted, toppling the glass of wine in his hands and onto the carpet below. "Soo? You know about Soo?"

Even Claudia eyed Michael with disbelief. It was already unbelievable enough that he was a Maugnetic. But he was also in possession of the Spirit of Old? She knew very well that the Vanderbilt family had no help in that. It meant that he achieved all of that alone!

"Yeah, I know about it. I need to know how to use it on my weapon and you're the only ones who knows how to do it, correct?"

"Yes, the formula has been passed down to us in the Hephaestus line...do you really have a Diva?!"

Dicky still couldn't get over that fact. It finally made sense why Michael was so confident getting into the duel!

Meanwhile, Chucky seemed even more fired up for the duel. He looked at Michael with wide, excited eyes. "You have a Diva?! This is even more exciting than before! I can't wait to fight you!"