Chapter 202

Three Minute Crime Spree

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Was all I said in three echoing voices before my body moved on reflex.

My use of three different slightly modified version so Voice Amplification magic should be explained here. Imagine three different tubes leading to three different and unique sounding wind instruments being placed right in front of me. I can choose to blow into any one of the three different tubes to come up with a unique sound that in this case represents a character that I am trying to bring to life. What I just did was the equivalent of blowing into all three different tubes at the exact same time with the same amount of pressure, which led to the chorus of voices all saying the same thing.

I know there is likely some form of rhythmic chanting magic that might be possible from this, maybe some way to invoke a sense of magical music similar to what one might feel while listening to Benedictine monks perform Gregorian chants, but that thought is quickly had and then dismissed as I react swiftly towards the perceived threat of the defending Cultivating Champion charging right at me.

My Danger Sense is not going off, but it is only due to the fact that this is a defending Champion that I decide to take this threat significantly. As such, the moment the warrior charges towards me, I reflexively enact Celerity, causing the world to slow down as I move in and around the charging warrior.

My fingers instantly know where to strike out, as all I need to do is target the five manifestation points that allow this cultivator to extend his internal Qi externally.

Honestly just touching the spots of energy lets me feel and experience the energy at a much more defined level than I could ever get from just observing. While I likely would have been able to mimic this capability in the future, the fact that I can touch and feel the way the denser Qi is forced out in a controlled arc shows me the power and skill of this cultivator.

Sadly, I feel slightly jealous that this cultivator learned to do something so complex before me. Though I know now that this is a sort of fools gold for cultivating. Yes, it is great for disrupting mana, but basically it forces the cultivator to cultivate outside their body, outside their natural support framework. While this might be a good skill to have in reserve when going against a mage, something you would pull out as a last resort, the long term effects of this have to be staggering.

Especially as the number one importance of Qi is cycling the Qi within the body and having it there to constantly strengthen the body.

With this forced external cultivation method you effectively make yourself a non-existent cultivator, incapable of improving, as you are forcing your Qi to act like mana should.

At this, I finally began to understand just how much denser Qi was than mana. I always kind of understood this concept, but it wasn’t until now, until I directly felt Qi being forced out like this that I realized how much denser it truly was.

Then I realized just how much Willpower this Cultivator must have to be able to focus their Qi out like this, all of which was impressive and would have been even more so, had he focused on improving more aspects of himself other than just this one trick.

I almost want to lambast him and the others, before I remember where exactly I am. To me now, this is the same thing as seeing the monsters in easy zones. Seeing their sharp teeth, their piercing red eyes that would haunt you for days when you first arrived, only to see them for what they are. Monsters that long ago stopped being both scary and relevant.

Sighing, I only make five quick taps to the muscular torso of the defending champion, then give an incapacitating blow to the side of the head, before cancelling Celerity, knowing that even this much might be too much.

I am not mistaken as the second time resumes its pull around us, my would be attacker, Mr. Defending Champion himself is staggers forward, before he appears to reach up to his torso. Then finds himself spinning out wildly as his body sprawls out on the stage.

“Disqualification!” I yell out in my referee voice, the middle tube for anyone keeping track.

“Oh, that has to hurt. Losing the match on account of a technicality. This one too counts as a draw meaning that both the defending champion and the thirty-second challenger have both been disqualified from advancing.” Bob, my cultivation expert persona states, from the tube to my right.

“That has got to hurt, though it means that whoever would have been their opponent in the next round would have an automatic win to get to the Elite Eight.” Jean adds from the left.

With that the thirty-second challenger and former referee for these events just stares at me, lips moving like a puckering fish.

Then while everyone is watching, I make sure to use Healing Magic to perfectly heal the wounds caused to the defending Champion.

“See Jean, there we go again. Due to the Healing Magic going in through the back, where this cultivator is clearly open to magical attacks, the spell can land easily.” Bob states.

“I see, and there does not appear to be any real deviation in the terms of mana loss, quite impressive. Or should I say, not very impressive for a cultivator?” Jean adds.

“No, you are correct. This is the problem with min-maxing, particularly at early levels. If you don’t have at least one other ability to counter your glaring deficiency, you will be taken down by a pacifist.” Bob replied.

“Those weren’t really passive fists there, Bob.”

“No, no they were not, Jean.”

With that, the defending Champion began twitching as they came back to consciousness. There is a moment of shock on the Champion’s face as he looks down at the ground below him. Then back up towards me.

A look of anger and indignance crosses his face as he looks like he is going to say something. Fortunately, I beat him to this punch as well, “you, challenger. Get him off the stage and tell him what happened.”

With that the thirty-second cultivator stares at me for a moment, then after staring at me in the eye for a second, I begin to open my third eye.

“Cheaters!” Some of the mages called out.

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That call from the stands was the final straw needed to induce change, as right after he saw the glowing third eye awaken he immediately went to work, bending down and practically dragged the defending Champion away.

As the two left, more boos and jeers came from the stands. Oddly enough, the boos came from both sides of the tournament, as both sides were angered by the seeming actions of the two.

“Well it seems like there is a new sheriff in town and her name is Referee.” Bob noted, his voice booming over the crowd and drowning out the noise.

“I’ll say, I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to test her again.” Jean replied, her voice too causing some of the unruliest patrons to calm down.

“I for one did not expect this to come from the first two matches.” Bob continued his banter.

“I’ll say. We have an unmistakable upset with the Healer from last tournament completely upending the Mage’s brackets by defeating the defending champion. Then we have both the former referee and the defending Champion both being disqualified.” Jean highlighted the takeaways from the first two battles.

“Yes, this will throw a bit of fire on the old legacy, and likely call into question at least some of those victories from the five previous tournaments.” Bob shot back.

“Spectators, our next match will pit the defending runner up to the mage’s bracket for the last tournament going up against the thirty-first mage to sign up for the tournament.” I state in my referee voice.

And like that, the almost unruly mob got quelled by a few magical spells that all focused on misdirection, and the promise of visually enhanced violence.

Honestly, I would almost be offended by having to watch this, other than the fact that I knew this was a way I could both guarantee that everyone who participated was safe from any injuries sustained during battle. Though the main reason why I wanted to be this close to the action was so that I could feel the energy, the raw flowing mana. The way Qi radiated from bodies with skills and precise striking movements that would be hard to normally see under such optimal conditions.

Here in this role, I was at ground level for everything that was happening and I could see everything boiled down to the most succinct components. It was amazing, and sadly lacking in the drama that the first two fights had.

Yes, there were upsets, particularly when the fifth mage lost to the twenty-eighth place mage, due to being disqualified for trying to summon an asteroid that would fall from the sky and miraculously only crash into the cultivator half of the stands. Or when the ninth cultivator lost to the twenty-fourth placed cultivator with a one-handed core splitting palm strike.

Don’t worry in both cases I was on hand to Dispel the portions of the asteroid that went outside the arena, followed by restoring the core of the ninth-place cultivator who subsequently withdrew after the strike. Due to the contestant withdrawing due to obvious personal reasons, I decided to let the withdraw happen without protests from my side.

Though I apparently did get noticed by a few cultivating families who wished to see me after the match was over, no doubt to regrow or heal broken or leaky cores. When mages found out I could do the same for their cores, some of the audience wished to cancel the tournament right then and there. As it was, we ended up going through all thirty-two matches, sixteen apiece for the Mages and Cultivators alike before calling it a night.

Then just before I was about to make my move and finally use my Confidentiality merit the way it was supposed to, disaster struck. In this case it was in the form of my daughter, who no doubt must have expected me to be ready to both have a free moment to myself, and to about to be doing something I found fun or enjoyable.

Tug, tug, pull.

Yep, just before I was going to get a moment to myself to finally relax, Gwen struck. I appear and before I can say anything, she hits me with the four words that instantly let me know today will be a wasted chance with Confidentiality.

For the words she spoke, are the words no parent wishes to hear from their children.

“We need to talk.”

I try to call off the others, but then realize it is now or never.

“Okay fine, but realize you just made yourself an accomplice.” I state, then realize this might not be that bad. “Actually, better yet, you are an accomplice and now my alibi.”

“Alibi for what?” Gwen asks.

“Good, keep that up, that was very convincing.”

“Mother, I mean it, are you doing something right now?”

“Me? No, clearly not. My baby calls and needs my help, and I come. Simple at that.”

“Mother, I mean it, what are you doing?”

“Consoling my pregnant daughter, as the head physician I take this matter very seriously of course.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“Am I? Or am I just answering the loosely worded question you posed in a way that doesn’t implicate me in any nefarious actions.”

“You know this is not making me feel any better.”

“Well of course not, here we are talking about me, when really we should be talking about you. So how are you?” I pose.

By this point a solid purple rift in space opens up, clearly showing one of my Simulacrum on the other side of the randomly opened portal. Before Gwen can say or do anything, the Simulacrum extends two glowing books to me, which I readily accept and put within my leather satchel. Then as soon as the books are delivered, that Simulacrum pops out of existence.

At this point Gwen’s eyes are open wide with shock. Ironic as she can’t see with them.

“What was that?” Gwen asked.

“Oh, this is my leather satchel that Penelope made for me. Like that famous explorer. She was going to go with a fedora, but then everyone said it would be so fedorable for me to wear one, as such I then refused.” I state, as the next portal opens.

This time it is King De’Arcaneri who stands at the other end of the portal. He hands me an imperial seal, after which we fist bump, allowing him to switch forms to that of Princess Octavia De’Arcaneri.

Then that second portal closes, as a third opens up, this time with another Simulacrum who hands me two more glowing texts. I put everything, the two new texts, and the Deolarian Imperial seal into my Satchel.

“Is that everything?” Gwen asks.

“What, I can’t very well use the gains from the fourth Simulacrum that you had me misplace a moment ago.” I add.

“Wait, what were you going to steal from around here?”

“I don’t know, that seems like it would be pretty self-incriminating to admit to something like that. Right now you still have plausible deniability that everything you saw was completely legitimate.” I pose.

“You already told me that I was now your accomplice.” Gwen hissed out, trying not to scream as a way to draw attention to the two of us.

“Well yeah, every time I am with you, I always feel like I stole something precious from the world, and only I will be able to fully enjoy it.” I admit.

“You, what… never mind. I take it your three minutes are over?” Gwen asked.

I hold up five fingers and then count them down slowly while nodding and answering, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Then just like that, my closed fist goes down and it is just Gwen and me.

Pausing, Gwen takes a deep breath to calm herself, then begins to speak. “Mother, I find myself needing your assistance again…”

“It’s not me turning into the creepy old elf again, is it? I told Mallory that I was done after the last time.”

Cringing, Gwen replies, “no, we don’t need to try that again. What I need from you is something different this time…”

And like that I remember why I like Gwen so much, she never got rattled despite my best efforts. This was why she always made the best accomplice, or alibi, depending on what I needed at that particular moment.

***

By the time I was done talking to Gwen it was already past midnight. Which was good, as it meant that I could see Gwen, give her and her baby the quick acceptance love tap they needed to keep their balance and gave me until four AM on Monday before I would be needed for anything else, that was Guild related.

This meant that for the next day, all I had to do was govern the second round of the tournament, where I only had to preside over a total of fifteen matches, thanks to the defending cultivator champion being disqualified from his round.

When I arrived, I was sort of relieved to see a very sleepy Zero just floating there.

“Hey, you stayed up for me?” I asked.

Zero just yawned and bobbed his head in agreement before slinking over to me.

“Thank you,” I say as I cuddle his floating form in both arms for a moment.

“Any time.” Zero replies groggily.

“Did you find the source?” I ask.

Of course in this case, we are talking about the source of corruption. Here on floor 210 is the possible root section for the great corrupting vines that have been spreading the Blight through both this floor and the five or so floors below this one.

With how intense the Blight is on this floor, it was necessary that we stop here and try to find out where it began, so we can ultimately burn it out in one go. Otherwise, this whole process will take a lot longer and be a lot more labor intensive than what I am currently able to provide.

“No, I thought I might have seen something to do with the source of corruption on the Cultivator’s side of the tree, but I wasn’t able to understand much of what I was seeing.” Zero speaks, and as he does, I feel that same odd tingling sensation coming from him. The same one that I think has to do with quests and the like.

Again, I am angling for and hoping for some sort of Quest Sensing skill, as that would be amazing. Though I know that is mostly just a pipe dream at this point. Still, I can’t help but feel that this is a lifeline I have been given, one that is definitely worth investing.

“Was that everything?”

Nod.

Zero nods groggily before slinking into my arm and appearing as a coiled dragon around my upper right arm.

With that one hint out of the way, I decided to go over and see what I could actually gain from investigating the happenings from the Cultivators side of this floor. Were they behind this in some way? Did they know and not tell anyone? I don’t know. At the very least I don’t think all of them knew as many of the cultivators are starving just as much as the mages are. The fact that they have won the past five tournaments has likely only helped them out recently, for if the Blight really began on the Cultivator’s side, then they would have likely suffered far longer than the mages.

I still hate the entire idea of using starving family members to force others to cheap thrills of participating in violent sports, but I can’t say that I haven’t learned anything from this whole ordeal. At the very least I now have ideas for how to cultivate outside my body, and how to use that cultivation to possibly stop magical attacks. Again, all good things to consider.

While I’m out, I also make a note to search for the things that Gwen might need for her additional task she asked me for. These were the items she no doubt needed to remain quiet as my alibi.

"Daughters," sigh.

That’s as far as I get, before my thoughts are pulled away as I notice something far to beautiful to pass up. For there on the Cultivator’s side of the floor is something I have been dreaming about for a bit now. Then just as I noticed it, disaster struck.

“Can I help you…”