Elise put in a search for Charles, but none of the computers could track him. It would take time to find Charles, but Elise found out where he had been last seen, so she started from there.

State-of-the-art iron soldiers were deployed for the search, and Charles private security guards were no match for them. If Charles ended up being more powerful than the iron soldiers, Junhyuk would intervene.

After starting the search for Charles, they froze all of his assets. The U.S. government agreed with that request.

The U.S. government was risking a lot in freezing Charles assets, but because the worldwide media was going crazy over the story, the government agreed to the demand.

They had not caught Charles yet, but since his assets were frozen, Charles would have to show up eventually.

Junhyuk entered the training facility. The terror of the attack was over, and now, he could focus on training. Elise delegated her duties to others and visited the training facility as well. Sarang was also there, and the three trained together.

Their next battles would be harder, and they wanted to be ready.

Both women had support powers. They needed to work on using their powers in conjunction. They were training on how to stop their enemies before they could even attack.

Junhyuk would start off by decreasing the number of enemy heroes against them. If that didnt work, they would attack together. With a combination of Dimensional Slash and Thunderstorm, any regular hero would die.

They trained hard, and suddenly, it was Friday. Junhyuk invited Helen and Eunseo to the facility as well. When he saw Eunseo, his eyes widened.

When did you activate another power?

During the terrorist attack.

What is it?

Ill show you.

Junhyuk chuckled and took a few steps back, saying, Anytime.

Eunseo had the basic items they gave champions. Those items didnt really boost attack stat.

He was a decent distance from her, when suddenly, Eunseo disappeared.

Boom!

Junhyuk was pushed back. He hadnt received a lot of damage, but he had been pushed back. When he checked on the amount of damage, he saw that he had lost 3 percent of his health. Considering the difference between their items, it was a good amount. In fact, it was a surprisingly high amount of damage.

Junhyuk stared at her and asked, Can I check on your counterattack damage?

She nodded, so he punched at her. Eunseo disappeared and kicked him in the back of the head. Junhyuk grabbed the back of his head and checked out the damage. Hed lost 5 percent that time.

His item were far superior to hers, which meant that her attacks had the capacity to deal incredible damage. However, she would be facing strong enemies, and just damage wouldnt be enough.

Junhyuk wanted to make her more powerful. For that, she would benefit from dying in the battlefield.

Those are nice powers. Youll need a weapon to increase the damage of your kicks. Lets see what Bebe has.

Sure.

Eunseo nodded, and Junhyuk turned to Helen. She seemed despondent, as if she had committed a crime.

Dont look that way. You have nothing to do with the terrorist attack.

They were arresting people associated with the Rockefeller family, but very few of them had actually known of Charles plan. Charles had been thorough in his preparations, preparing even for the worst outcome.

Most of the people responsible were new acquaintances of Charles. Arrests were being made. Helen had done her best to stop the monster waves. She had nothing to feel guilty amount. Since she had joined Guardians, she had had little contact with the Rockefellers.

Focus on the battlefield.

They ate and waited. The world turned bright, and the surroundings changed. When Junhyuk saw Ariel, he smiled and asked, Ariel, how are you?

[Fine. Were finally at the quarter-finals!]

Junhyuk chuckled. He thought about his items. With the exception of his rings, he had done basic upgrades to all of them. For that reason, he wanted a new ring.

Junhyuk would upgrade all of his items.

He stood by the exit, and Ariel shouted with her hands making a cone around her mouth, [Hero Junhyuk Lee deployed!]

He stepped outside and realized he was early, so he went through the minions and waited. The heroes appeared one by one, but Layla looked different.

The look in her eyes was sharper, and seeing that, Junhyuk smiled and said, You were training in seclusion. Did it help?

Of course! she said with a smile. I cant defeat you yet, so Ill train some more.

Right.

Sparring with Layla would help him as well.

Gongon looked at him and asked, How is the investigation going?

The culprit is in hiding, but well find him soon.

Earth was a large place, but Charles couldnt hide forever.

Gongon turned to Eunseo then and asked, What?! Youre an expert now?

You can tell? Junhyuk asked, and Gongon smirked.

Im a dragon.

Right.

Junhyuk was jealous of Gongons perceptive nature, so he turned and said, Now that Eunseo activated a new power, shell move with me.

Then, will the teams be the same as before?

He looked at the group, and then at Elise and Eunseo and said, Elise, Eunseo and I will head middle.

Helen and I will take the left, Gongon said.

Layla and I will go right, Sarang said.

Junhyuk smiled and added, Lets go see Bebe first.

The group entered the store, and Junhyuk pulled out the items he had acquired. He had had fun killing Abel, but he didnt expect much from the items the hero had carried. Bebe inspected the items dropped by the ice golem more closely and said, You have many items this time. Ill give you 780,000G for all of them.

It was more than he had expected. Junhyuk sold Bebe everything, which gave him a total of 3,200,000G. The winnings he got from each round were high, and his bet on the Champions Battlefield had come through. He was earning a lot of gold between rounds.

The items the ice golem had dropped had been rather expensive. He would make sure to kill more heroes and earn more gold from now on.

Junhyuk asked to see rings, and Bebe opened the book on the counter. The projections of countless rings appeared. Junhyuk was willing to spend 1,000,000G on a ring.

He thought he would even go up to 1,500,000 for a pair of rings, so he went through the legendary items in search for something balanced. He was wondering what to get when he found something interesting. However, the price for the ring was 2,200,000G. It was even more expensive than an item from the Vampire Lord set.

Still, the stats were great. He had been thinking of getting another pair of rings, but he settled on that one.

Give me this one and twenty enhancement stones.

Pay me first.

Junhyuk paid Bebe and inspected the ring.

Frost Ring

Attack +30

Health +200

On successful strikes, the rings bearer has the chance to freeze the opponent. This ring is a legendary item passed out from the Frost Spirit.

Freeze: Movement speed and attack speed decrease by 10%. (Doesnt stack.)

Even without stacking, the debuff could be fatal. Elise could buff him, doubling his attack power. Now, he would be able to debuff the enemy. It was a great passive, which he was willing to pay for.

Junhyuk applied the enhancement stones to upgrade his items. He used all twenty stones, upgrading his armor by two and the rest of his items by one.

He was spending a lot more gold on upgrades than ever before. Once he was done shopping, he noticed Eunseo checking out the items Bebe was showing her.

She was looking for a pair of attack boots. Her main form of damage was through her kicks, so thats what she was checking out.

Junhyuk scratched his chin as he watched her. Eunseo had stayed mostly within the castle, so she probably didnt have a lot of gold on her.

How much do you have?

Ive been saving up, so 4,000G.

He scratched his face and looked at how much he had left. He still had 480,000G, but he actually needed that gold. Still, he wanted to help her.

He looked at the items Eunseo was looking and searched for a pair of boots. He found interesting ones: Gladiator Boots. The defense they gave was crap, but it cost 54,000G.

It gave the wearer a 5-percent chance to ignore the enemys defense, which was not much, but he still liked the passive.

The boots also increased attack speed, and attack stat was actually high.

They looked nice as well.

Take this pair. Ill pay the difference.

Bebe whistled and asked, Are you lovers?

Junhyuk chuckled and urged her to buy the boots. She did so with her cheeks blushing.

Put them on.

Eunseo took the monster leather boots off and put on the new ones. She was very satisfied with them. Her boots looked elegant, but the rest of her items were made of monster leather, so her appearance was terrible.

The boots are pretty.