Kai met with Arson near the gladiator arena, while Droozle had opted to go to a library for the simple reason of not enjoying fighting against NPCs or players.

"Level twelve already? Nice, my dude." Arson said when noticed Kai's increase in level. "What skill is it?"

"You're going to hate this, it's not one skill, it's two. And they're both new." Arson's mouth dropped open, but before he could speak, Kai continued. "Mana manipulation, and a skill called Stormbound mana. Neither has a cost, so I could keep on experimenting and learning to use them."

"That's… you increased two skills to novice 12 in a day?"

"Absolutely, but don't forget my double experience gain. And the two skills really go hand in hand. One makes my mana lightning-like, and the other is just using that mana."

"And what exactly do you mean 'lightning-like'?"

"Increases the speed of whatever my mana is concentrated in my body. And since it's me controlling the mana to focus it in my brain or some such, I can keep it under my control." Kai lifted his hand, and brought about one point worth of his mana above his palm, "It makes my mana literally more electric too."

"That's… I honestly don't know what to say. How did you get it?"

"I merged lightning reflexes, thunderspear dance, and mana manipulation."

"Didn't you just say you have mana manipulation at novice 12?"

"Yeah, I learnt it twice, first by accident when I unlocked the nana recovery pool, and updated lightning reflexes to passive lightning reflexes. Second time was on purpose." Kai said, grinning at Arson's baffled Expression. "A lot has happened, so what if we just go to the arena?"

"Yeah, sure. There's just one thing, the bottleneck between skill stages. The experience needed is much higher than what's needed to get a skill just a level higher, and you need to have a sort of epiphany. With each stage, the skill slightly changes, it's the same skill, just more suited to your purpose, and your epiphany affects that."

Kai had read a few mentions of such a thing, but he hadn't really focused on it. "Thanks, that's good to know."

—

Arson and Kai met with the same man as the day before, beneath the arena. They had quickly been given the details on their upcoming match, a team battle against waves of monsters, before receiving a similar quest to the day before. It had the same rewards, only for waves survived instead of opponents defeated, and with a different title. Once they'd equipped themselves with their gear, red bands around their arms to mark their team, and the small sigils that stuck to their bare skin. Once they were finished with preparing themselves, there was nothing to do but wait with the rest of their team members beneath the stage.

"Alright, we're going to be facing hoards of monsters together, I imagine it'll be useful for us to know each other's abilities." A woman carrying a large net on her shoulder said. "I'll start. I can trap and deal damage to large amounts of small creatures, or a few larger ones. I can also blast fire."

"Sounds smart enough, if we can work as a team, we'll be able to get more money." A second person said, and soon enough everyone introduced themselves with a simple explanation of their skills.

When it was Kai's turn, he'd explained being "fast in shadow, and heal by throwing someone," which had earned a few puzzled and curious glances.

After that, it had been Arson's turn, and Kai was slightly curious. While Kai did know of Arson's healing skill, he was still very much unaware of Arson's other skills. "I can heal, and do high damage to single targets." Arson said, which told disappointingly little to Kai.

Once everyone had told a little of themselves, the group ended up discussing various tactics they could use in the upcoming battle. None of them had much experience fighting however, as all of them were beneath level twenty. Those in the adept stages fought in more planned out events than a collection of ten people fighting against monsters.

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Eventually, they decided on the great plan of "winging it" when the time to enter the arena came upon them.

"Give welcome to the ten brave fighters, who will be doing their absolute best to survive through waves of dangerous monsters, and creatures!" Words echoed through the arena, quickly drowned out by the masses. Exactly how large was the city to host such events for thousands each day? Kai thought to himself, as the ramp behind him slowly closed.

"For the first wave, we have a rare treat. Fetched from the deepest caverns, I introduce you to… the Shard Crawlers. Crystals formed through mana infused water, and given life over the course of millennia!" A second ramp opened on the opposite side of the arena, revealing six clear crystalline clumps two feet tall, walking with the use of odd, irregular bending crystals.

"While blind and deaf, they make up for the lack in abilities with their unparalleled ability to sense mana, their incredible durability, and ruthless hunger for more mana. No blade can cut them, no arrow can pierce them, and even with a hammer, most men can't break them!"

Kai glanced at the sword at his hip, and the spear in his hands. Well, crap. That alone left Kai pretty much entirely out of commission. Three of the ten gladiators set off running towards the moving crystals, the woman with a net, and two others who both used large sledgehammers. Their weapons seemed effective enough, with the net trapping the clumps, and the hammers cracking bits of them off.

Moments later, the groaning grind of a second ramp opening was heard. Behind the remaining seven, all of whom used bladed weapons, more crystalline clumps walked up a ramp. The clear crystal monsters quickly approached, as everyone prepared to attack.

A burst of orange fire spread towards the creatures, then a cone of bright white light erupted at one crystalline being. Then, everyone charged, each facing their own foes.

Kai stabbed at one crystal with a spear, only for the attack to weakly clink against the crystal. Kai quickly spread his mana into his arms, enhancing the speed of his muscles, before whipping the spear, and slamming it to the crystal's side with all his strength, only to see a miniscule crack in the hard mineral. But it was proof Kai might get through the first wave without using most of his mana with shadow stride.

The crystal suddenly jumped towards Kai's face, and with his mana spread in his arms, Kai's reaction was barely fast enough to dodge. Kai quickly retaliated, smashing his pear in the side of the monster with a crack, before moving some of his mana into his head. Ever so slightly, the world around Kai slowed down, enough for him to notice his spear had snapped in half.

Quickly grabbing his sword from his sheath, Kai rolled to the side as the crystal stabbed at him with its legs, before he slashed at the overgrown rock. The slash did nothing to it, only managing to dull Kai's blade. He would need something closer to a hammer.

The crowd cheered loudly, as something had occurred somewhere else in the arena. Kai dared to give a glance, and he saw Arson holding his longsword, holding it from the blade to use its pommel as a hammer. Kai had no other ideas, so he followed suit.

Before he was once again attacked, Kai flipped his sword upside down, squeezing the flat of his blade tightly, to prevent it from slipping and cutting his fingers. Kai moved his mana to his hands once again, and struck with everything he had.

The blade went flying, having slashed the palm of Kai's hands, leaving him weaponless. "I could use some help!" He called, only to notice he had moved away from the others, who were either smashing stones until they stopped moving, or doing their best to survive. Kai was alone at that moment, with nothing but his fists, and mana.

Running wasn't much of a possibility, since Kai was too far from any shadow to get away from the crystal before being attacked in the back. But that didn't prevent him from walking backwards towards the nearest shadow. So much for not using his mana.

The crystal jumped once again, faster than before. This time, It managed to collide with Kai's armored chest, bringing both of them to the ground. In his panic from being pinned on the ground, Kai punched the crystal monster. His hand hurt from it, but Kai needed to get rid of the weight above him.

Kai tried pushing it, but failed as the crystal stabbed one of its legs through his armor. But then Kai had an idea, a desperate idea. Kai knew mana could be used for telekinesis, so he grabbed the living crystal with both hands, and tried lifting it up as he pushed his mana at the thing. It was painful, and as Kai pushed his mana against the crystal, it started wriggling in his grasp. Then the wriggling stopped, and the weight disappeared from Kai's abdomen. The crystal had been teleported to safety before it was killed, the same way the sigils teleported the gladiators.

Looking around to see what had caused the Crystal's disappearance, Kai found nothing. He saw seven gladiators fighting against nine remaining crystals. The only explanation was that Kai had nearly killed the crystal, and the only explanation for that, was his mana.

With a grimace, Kai pushed himself off the ground with his hands, healing most of the damage he'd received. With his hands healed, and abdomen no longer bleeding, Kai gathered some of his mana around his fist, before pulling it back so as to not waste it. His weapons hadn't worked, but maybe he could destroy the crystals by punching them. Picking his sword from the ground and sheathing it, Kai ran towards the nearest crystal.