Osric felt unsettled by the fact that this strange masked man knew his name.
The masked man chuckled.
"No need to feel nervous."
"If I didn't know that much, I wouldn't be very good at my job."
Osric frowned before calming down.
'He's right.'
"So what brings the up and coming adventurer that everyone's talking about, to such a dark place?"
"I want personal information on every underground fighter in Lowbrook."
Osric couldn't see it, but the man was smiling behind his mask.
'Smart move.'
"What kind of personal information?"
"All of it. Their living situations, what they do in their private time, the reason they became underground fighters and past history."
"Interesting. What about their combat abilities?"
"No need. I can check that myself. Their personal information is more important to me. Can you do it?"
"Of course, but there's a few hundred underground fighters in Lowbrook at least. It will take some time."
"How long?"
"Hm, it might only be a couple days now that I think about it."
"We already have information on most people capable of combat, not just in Lowbrook, but the whole of Ashbrook."
"It will still take those couple days, since there are a lot of unknown people who didn't catch our eyes for different reasons. Most of them are either too new or just very lacking and therefore not worth our attention."
"Alright. I don't mind a couple of days."
"Great. That information will cost you 6 silver up front and an additional 6 at least when the job is done."
Osric once again couldn't hide his surprise.
"That much?"
"Yes. Among those fighters are some people whose names carry a lot of weight. Also, depending on what we find, the second payment could be more than 6 silver, but I doubt it."
Osric sighed.
"Alright. So when should I come back?"
He handed over the silver coins.
The masked man took the coins and answered.
"Come back here in three days."
"Understood."
Osric stood up and turned around.
The muscular man in front of the door stepped aside after the masked man nodded at him.
'I hope the information will be worth the price.'
'But I am closer to reaching some of my smaller goals.'
He left the underground basement without issue.
—
Before heading home tonight, Osric visited the largest underground fighting ring again after a while.
But this time only as a spectator.
'I plan on fighting tomorrow, so checking out the current fighters won't hurt.'
He paid the few copper coins to the guards that didn't seem to recognise him and entered.
The smell of iron, sweat and blood hit him the moment he was inside.
'It's still the same.'
'Somehow it feels like it was very long ago since I was here, but it's only been a couple months.'
A lot had happened in those months.
Osric decided to watch from up closer this time and took a seat.
There were a few dozen spectators in the building, a lot of them yelling.
"Kill him!"
"Yeahh!"
"What are you doing?!"
"Come on, give me my money!"
The current fight between the two men in the middle of the huge room, inside the ring was bloody and intense.
"Pah!"
"Bang!"
Spit, sweat and blood flew everywhere after each hit.
'What the hell is this?' Osric asked himself.
'They both suck.'
'With so many openings, I could've knocked them both out within seconds.'
He decided to wait and see how other fighters did after them.
Forty minutes later.
'This is ridiculous.'
'They're all terrible.'
'Did I really struggle against such people?'
Osric started to put things together.
His countless real combat and near death experiences had made him grow an incredible amount.
He now realized just how much both his skills and instincts increased.
'My plan was to make a big show tomorrow anyway, but it will be much easier than expected.'
'If I want to recruit capable people, I need to show them what I am capable of first.'
Osric decided to stay for one more fight and was surprised.
The top fighters had only now started coming out.
They were on another level compared to the ones before.
Those fighters not only had a lot of experience, but also either had much better technique or bodies.
Osric knew that they could give him a real fight.
But he was still confident that he would do well against them.
That was until the last few fights of the night started.
These were the guys who actually made good money for both themselves and the organization that ran this place.
'Fighting them will be dangerous.'
'Even though they aren't using weapons, some of them look more dangerous than Elliot.'
This wasn't the first time that Osric stayed until the last fight of the night in this place—
But before he wasn't skilled enough to understand just how impressive each movement of those fighters was.
Osric left with a lot to think about.
'Tomorrow will be exhausting.'