Flashy Adventurer System : Show Off to Get Stronger!

"Your bets, please." spoke the elderly gentleman clad in the distinguished black uniform of Nookbury Arena, his arms outstretched with a small basket, awaiting the 90,000 silver coin wagers from the participants.

Hearing the old man's words, the two participants retrieved a few sack bags containing the said amount before extending their arms to drop the bags into the old man's basket.

Now, whoever wins will have the right to claim the contents of the basket.

Returning to the middle of the arena amidst the fervent gazes of an unexpected crowd suddenly growing to a whopping 10,000, Shye and Jason stood behind their respective lines, looking at each other with vastly contrasting expressions.

Jason had an irked yet eager look on his face while Shye was calm and nonchalant—a shadow of a smile visible on the corners of his mouth.

Just from the face-off, the few emerald-ranked adventurers who decided to watch the duel already had an inkling of who would win.

The ashen-haired young man appeared way too calm in their eyes, and based on their experiences, it was always the calm ones who were sure of themselves.

The guy named Jason reeked of insecurities.

Unbeknownst to Shye, he was already the favorite in the eyes of the experienced adventurers.

Meanwhile, Jason repeatedly glanced at the stands, checking if Shirley was watching them.

Noticing a slight smile on her face as she seemingly daydreamed, Jason's mood slightly improved.

'Watch me, my Shirley.' He inwardly thought, forcefully dragged back to reality by the referee's voice.

"Please draw your weapons." The assigned referee said, prompting both Shye and Jason to draw their blades out.

Jason took out a shortsword and shield while Shye retrieved one of his greatswords from the system's inventory.

"Hoh…so you're a greatsword user huh? Too bad you're a bit disadvantaged in our match-up." Jason taunted as he looked at Shye with a mocking smile.

As per common knowledge amongst adventurers, greatsword users are rather disadvantaged in a duel against a sword and shield user.

The reason for this is that the usual common shield skills like [Shield Bash] and [Fortress] could easily absorb and deflect most sword skills.

And because the typical greatsword user had high strength and low dexterity, it was simply too easy for the sword and shield users to sneak in a few compact attacks, whittling down the greatsword user's vitality slowly but surely.

Unfortunately for Jason, Shye was nowhere near the word common—he was a huge anomaly amongst adventurers.

"Hahahaha! I see your goals now. You plan to capture Miss Shirley's heart by making her laugh to death! A feasible scheme!" Shye retorted, assuming his battle stance shortly after.

Shye's rather sharp reply made a few people laugh, causing Jason who had just recovered his mood, to be furious once more.

"You bastard…" Jason gnashed his teeth in utter fury, no one had ever dared mock him to this extent.

Luckily, he didn't have to wait for too long.

"Begin!"

Right after the referee announced the start of the match, Jason stirred up a cloud of dust as he madly dashed towards Shye, a rather fierce expression emerging on his face as his heavy armor and shield clanged loudly.

He looked daunting, prompting his underlings to cheer vigorously upon witnessing his valiant disposition.

'This! This is what a true man is!' They thought. 'The sole individual worthy of the ice queen's affections!'

They've been following Jason around since they were young and he had always been a fierce man, always willing to spar even the toughest of true elites back when they were residing in Valenzia City with their parents.

Consequently, Jason earned their respect.

They were aware that their boss wasn't among the strongest of true elites, however, his manly acts impressed them, making them inwardly vow to follow him for life.

To them, Jason was a great role model, a great friend, and a great boss.

The two of them saw him lose against the top true elites, however, never once did he lose in a humiliating manner.

On the other hand, Shye was as cool as a cucumber, looking extremely serene as he waited for Jason to arrive in front of him.

Why would he exhaust his stamina by moving when the idiot was furiously charging at him in a straight line?

If he were to miss his next skill while his opponent attacks in the most straightforward manner, he might as well end his own life.

Upon arriving at the optimal distance, Jason used one of his gap closer skills, [Shield Charge Lv.4], in an attempt to push Shye off his feet and make him look extremely wimpy, stirring up clouds of dust as his charging speed significantly increased.

Unfortunately, as swift as the charge was, it was still not as fast as the staple warrior skill, [Dash].

Hence, Shye easily reacted to it.

*ROAAAAR*

A primal draconic roar reverberated across the arena, making Jason, who was hit squarely by the skill, tremble as his mind was consumed by fear.

Now standing still, Jason became an easy target for Shye, who suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind him using [Blink Lv.3].

Then, just before the trembling guy could recover, Shye rotated his greatsword and ruthlessly whacked the back of Jason's head, causing the wind to violently part as Jason flew across the arena.

"B-BOSS!"
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"Boss Jason!!" The two lackeys exclaimed worriedly.

Witnessing it firsthand, for the very first time, the stalwart and resilient Jason was sent flying with a single blow, crashing face-first into the edge of the Nookbury Arena with a loud bang.

[Congratulations! You've earned 9,824 points!]

"W-What? Just like that?"

"T-There's no way…this very same Jason? Who made the top-ranked rookie in our branch sweat?"

"T-The ferocious Ice Queen barely won against this guy…Is this the true strength of top-tier academy graduates?"

"Hahahahaha! I told you! All of you! Don't mess with top-tier academy graduates!"

Naturally, such a swift victory stirred up a huge commotion amongst the Nookbury branch guildmates.

Having observed Jason's toughness firsthand during the rookie admission exam, they found it hard to believe that he could be defeated with just one blow.

"Hahaha! Get up. I didn't hit you that hard."