Even after the festive lights had finally settled, darkness still couldn't pry into the Kingdom of Luxury. Even so, a different kind of darkness started to finally bare its fangs.

Adam settled everything he needed which gave him enough time to look around for a while. Whether it was to enjoy himself or to find something lurking behind the shadows is something that has yet to be seen.

From going from store to store and purchasing items so for the sole reason that he had nothing else that piqued his interest at that time, the sudden alert in his head made him look to the side where he saw a glimpse of Mathias' shadow.

Adam saw that this certain boy's shadow was going to a more obscure part of the kingdom. He saw that Mathias entered the same building that Abel and Gabe went to earlier. Adam followed him undetected, unlike his purposefully noticeable presence earlier.

After entering the establishment, he finally understood what the place was all about. The smell of blood and money in the air, the sound of flesh hitting flesh. It was actually an underground fighting arena.

Adam took a glance at the people fighting on stage right now and saw Abel and Gabe fighting against two other men of the same size. From how it looked, it seemed that Abel and Gabe were slightly winning since the other two contenders were obviously starting to get weary.

Mathias ignored the fighting happening and just kept on walking towards the stage.

One of the two contenders couldn't believe that they were going to lose and sneakily brought out a knife as a way to turn the tides. Abel and Gabe didn't notice the knife on the enemy's hands since they were too busy focusing on tiring them out.

One of the two enemies rushed in and went for a rash attack towards Gabe pinning him down. This caused Abel to turn and rush to Gabe's aid while one of the other fighters brought out the knife and tried to strike Abel's heart.

Adam saw this and simply manipulated a bit of mana around that person's body and shifted the trajectory of the knife to only slash Abel's skin.

The onlookers had different expressions, one side was one of joy and glee as they had won the bet against the odds while another side was filled with disbelief on how this happened. One person even started frantically bashing stuff around since he spent a lot of gold to let them have that little knife.

The fight quickly finished right after signified by Mathias' appearance by the side of the stage. After the two unconscious fighters finally left the stage, Mathias jumped up and made an unexpected appearance.

Everyone was baffled.

The announcer had a questioning look, "Who let the kid in?"

The majority of the audience also shared the same sentiment.

Mathias ignored the announcer and took out his sigil, "I'll cut straight to the point. Who's running this entire operation I need to talk to him."

No one laughed nor mocked Mathias since everyone very well knew what that sigil and being that young meant. The person in front of them was the genius that the Kingdom of Clouds had sent out for experience.

Even though they knew who he was it didn't mean that they knew why he was here. A genius that was supposed to go and explore the world went to one of the kingdom's sketchiest places.

Adam, on the other hand, had a theory. Mathias' stay at the Kingdom of Ore alongside royalty could simply mean that they were generous and were extremely welcoming but Mathias appearing here meant that there was something else going on behind the scenes.

Security finally showed up and kindly asked Mathias to leave but he simply refused. If possible, they didn't want to start a fight since Mathias was a very important person but it didn't mean that they wouldn't use force if need be.

One of the men in the security team reached out to guide Mathias away but Mathias swayed that man's hand away with a claymore that suddenly appeared in Mathias' hand. With this move it made everyone understand that Mathias was firm in getting what he wanted.

The announcer had to think quickly to deescalate the current situation, "Wait, Mathias sir! We don't have to go down this path so I suggest we talk it out."

Stolen novel; please report.

"So you can get me to whoever runs this place?"

The announcer made something up on the spot, "Yes, I could but only tonight's champion can meet someone that important!"

Mathias narrowed his eyes and obviously knew that this was a bluff but he still jumped on stage committed to meeting the head of this place.

"Just to remind you of the rule, the champion can impose a restriction upon this fight. Since this is the case you won't be able to use mana-"

Gabe spoke up, "Nah, I'd rather have no weapons."

The announcer was dumbfounded at what Gabe was saying, Mathias was a genuine magician that has broken records at his age. Letting him use mana was the worst move that they could've done.

Mathias also found this quite odd but chalked it up to someone trying to test themselves. Nonetheless, the three of them were all facing each other on this stage. The crowd was tense, they didn't know why Mathias was here but they knew that it was something detrimental to them.

At the sound of the bell, Abel and Gabe both rushed in towards Mathias in hopes of landing a hit but as expected Mathias simply created a barrier that protected him from their hits. Mathias' thoughts started to wander off on his discussion with this place's head since this fight seemed to be an overwhelming victory but to his utter surprise, Abel's fist shattered the barrier hitting Mathias in the stomach.

The crowd that had been quiet were shocked by Abel's punch, none of them expected for Abel to shatter that barrier at all. With this one move, the crowd cheered for Abel and Gabe as they continued on their advance.

Mathias coughed up and clenched his stomach in pain as he groaned at this unexpected development. He looked up and saw Gabe immediately going in for another hit but Mathias unexpectedly used magic and pulled himself away from the attack.

Mathias regained his composure but was still feeling the impact from Abel's punch. Mathias tried to create distance between them by going back while subtly using his Trait. Mathias' speed increased drastically and gave him enough time to be able to thoroughly assess the situation.

Abel and Gabe weren't slacking off either, from their constant fights earlier they developed a strategy and could somewhat read each other's minds. Abel went forward and just rushed in towards Mathias while Gabe was waiting by the side waiting for Mathias to be in a vulnerable state.

"Thunderbolt."

Mathias cast a bolt of lightning hurling towards Abel aiming to at least incapacitate him but when it hit Abel it simply bounced off him only leaving a bit of marking on his clothes.

Mathias took this fight even more seriously and muttered to himself, "Mana Reinforcement to this degree. I guess I'll just see how strong it really is."

Mathias gathered mana from the environment and coated his body with it. Unlike Abel's nearly imperceivable Mana Reinforcement, Mathias' was clearly visible to the point that there was a bit of crystallization on his skin.

Abel wasn't discouraged by his enemy's sudden increase in combat capability and just went in and threw a punch fully knowing that this move would be the deciding factor whether they win or lose.

Mathias also threw a punch meeting Abel's fist.

The clash between their fists caused a small shock that caused Abel to tumble back but Gabe immediately came up and immediately assisted Abel by attacking Mathias. Mathias saw Gabe's fist from his side and also threw a punch meeting his fist which also brought Gabe tumbling back.

Although both of them were sent back tumbling they didn't suffer any major injuries.

Mathias was now starting to question his enemy's strength. He hit them with his full force yet they were only slightly injured at best but from his current state, he could tell that the grand mage really did improve his mana capacity and affinity. He couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Meanwhile, Adam was looking alongside the audience and slightly applauded himself, "Good to know that it works. At this point, he's considered a Novice Tier 3 against everyone else other than me and my people."

Mathias couldn't understand it but with Abel and Gabe in front of him getting up and readying another coordinated attack he decided to use a lethal move.

"Flowing Flame."

A flowing river of fire appeared all around Mathias which turned up the heat in the entire room which led everyone to believe that he was going be using actual skills right now. Adam, Abel and, Gabe, on the other hand, were completely fine and couldn't feel the heat at all.

Mathias guided the river of fire to engulf Abel and Gabe in flames. As the flowing river of fire neared Abel and Gabe, that was the only time they started to feel the heat, knowing that continuing this was futile, Abel decided that they should give.

Abel yelled out, "We surrender!"

Gabe wanted to say something else but Abel's authoritative gaze made Gabe scoff but follow him nonetheless.

Mathias promptly stopped his spell as soon as they gave up, this spell was something he shouldn't have been able to use but with Adam increasing his mana capacity and mana affinity he was barely able to use it twice. Since he didn't fully commit to his spell, he still had roughly 70% of his mana remaining.

Right after his victory, Mathias now looked directly at the announcer's eyes and firmly stared at him. He was now waiting on how the announcer will react to this.

The announcer who was still recoiling from the heat of that spell earlier now had to clear his mind and find a way out of this situation he had set up for himself.

"This... you see our current head is out right now and-"

A well-dressed man appeared and had an air of nobility around him, "Out? Then what am I doing here?"

"Boss!"

Mathias looked at this well-dressed man, "Well, if it isn't the prince of the Kingdom of Luxury coming to personally meet me. I should be honored, right?" There was obvious malice within Mathias's words as he spoke.

Adam also glanced at the man who just appeared and realized it was the same person who stopped him earlier.