( Leo's POV )
Dressed in the black and black themed clothes that the old tailor sewed for him, Leo looked like a Hollywood celebrity ready to walk down the red carpet.
Although he had explicitly requested that his suit have no splash of colors that stood out, the tailor still went ahead and stitched golden buttons for his outfit that gave him a polished and regal look, although foiling his camouflage abilities should he wish to hide in a shadow.
Nonetheless, although he was given golden buttons, Leo loved how he looked overall, as the luxurious fabric and well fitted clothes elevated his looks from that of a street assassin to a dark mafia lord.
In what was a first, he received a notification from the Terra Nova Game, informing him that he did not need to log out of the game or report for his work duties today and could continue enjoying uninterrupted gaming for the next 24 hours.
[ System Notification - It has been detected that the player 'TheBoss' has been invited to the 'Special Event - Royal Gala' and hence does not need to report for arc ship duties for the day.
Please enjoy an uninterrupted gaming experience for the next 24 hours ]
Before this, Leo had never seen or heard about such a provision within the game, as the last time that he played the game for 24 hours straight was when he entered the Arc Ship for the first time ever and was allowed to play for a full day before reporting for duty.
Nonetheless he was very happy for this break as he was prepared to skip work and use MP otherwise.
But while the system notification saved Leo from having to spend MP on work leave, he was still forced to spend 5 MP to resolve two questions that he had.
The letter that Jerome gave Leo after his match ended, outlined two proposals for Leo to ponder about.
In the first proposal, the West Duke Family was prepared to pay Leo a salary of 80,000 Gold Coins a month for being an intern at the family, learning subjects such as Battle Strategies, Military Communication etc for a period of 6 months.
After these 6 months, based on his performance, the West Duke Family was prepared to offer him a raise of 50 to 100% in his monthly salary and a job as a Captain or a Legion Commander within their army.
It was a very lucrative offer where the West Duke Family hoped to develop him into a proper commander that could lead their forces into battle in the future.
However, they also attached a second proposal below the first one for Leo, where they promised to give him a starting salary of 170,000 gold coins a month and the position of Legion Commander, if Leo felt that he was already proficient in things such as battle tactics.
While Leo was an excellent fighter on his own, the West Duke Family were unsure about his skills as a troop leader and hence offered him a dual offer to either develop him into a proper commander or directly place him as one, depending on his experience.
For them, they did not require a pure brawler or an assassin that Leo was, but rather wished for more well rounded talents such as Luke that could adopt the role of a proper battlefield commander.
Unfortunately, with Luke already pledging allegiance to a guild, the West Duke Family now wished to search for back-up candidates, where Leo's excellent battle skills caught the Duke's eyes.
Initially, Leo did not know what to make of the offer as he felt unsure as to whether or not he could even join the West Duke Army, however, after spending 5 MP to ask his doubts to the system administrator, Leo received the answer that he was free to join any faction as long as he did so as an individual entity forming a mercenary contract with another organization.
In other words, while Leo was not officially allowed to become a member of any guild or organization, he was free to sign official mercenary contracts with them for a specific role.
With this newfound clarity, as Leo made his way to the Royal Gala, he had only one clear goal in mind for the dinner tonight which was to find the best organization to sign a mercenary contract with in the future.
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( The Royal Gala )
The royal gala before the start of the quarter finals was a grand affair attended by all of the most important individuals in the Empire.
Annually there were only two grand banquets organized by the Emperor.
Firstly on his birthday and secondly for the quarter finalists of the Grand Tournament, so it was an important social event on the yearly calendar for all nobles.
While this seemed to be a charity event, where the Emperor felicitated and acknowledged the top upcoming talents of the Empire. In reality the banquet was anything but a charity event with blatant power plays and dirty politics taking place.
Attended not only by Masters, Major Nobles, Prominent Artisans, Guild Leaders but also by the Leaders of Non-Human factions such as the Elf Kingdom, The barbarian tribe etc, it was the one event which brought together all the biggest heads of the Empire under one roof.
Under such a tense social setting, everyone tried to rope in the most excellent upcoming talents of the Empire for their own cause, trying to strengthen their faction to prepare for a major shake-up when it occurred.
Just a single master level warrior could dramatically change the outcome of a major battle and hence warrior's with the potential to become masters in the future were highly sought after by all factions.
Amongst such tense social settings, Leo was supposed to hide his identity, negotiate future prospects and align himself with the right faction, all without disrespecting or making enemies with other factions in what was sure to be an impossible task.