The female fighter crouched in front of me a few paces away. She seemed surprised at my strike. I was unsure what she was surprised about, but I knew I hurt her since she was rubbing her chest in pain.

Her surprise quickly faded into a scowl of anger that scrunched her face up. She stood up and fluidly moved into a fighting stance that worried me. I had no idea how to respond to it.

She had a slight tilt forward in her hips. Her back leg was bent at the knee, and her right was straight forward with only her toes resting on the ground. Her arms were spread wide in an almost opposite manner as her legs. Her back arm was raised high at an angle, and her forward arm was low. The position made her look as if she was bowing before a dance.

My DTA program highlighted her form in red and placed little dots on her critical areas, not that I needed it. The woman started to move toward me, but it wasn’t in a straight line. Her body twisted and flowed in an intricate pattern that the DTA program had difficulty tracking.

Her erratic movements were so distracting that I wished I could turn the program off. I was able to work through it, though and continue to follow her. My ability to do so frustrated her because her angry scowl seemed to grow as she moved.

I was tired of waiting as she moved around me, and I thought I saw an opening in a move she had done previously. I jumped forward to attack with a roundhouse kick. Like water, she flowed into a different position. She grabbed my leg, twisted it around, and then brought her elbow up to strike down.

The area buzzer blared, signaling the end of the match. Thankfully, she paused her attack and dropped my leg to the ground.

“It’s over already?” I absently said aloud. I had been spending too much time with my own thoughts. That, coupled with the ability to have CoreLink answer my questions, I was building a bad habit.

The female warrior didn’t seem to care, though. She was already walking away toward the stairs that brought us to the stage. I looked around and confirmed that only ten of us were standing. It was such a quick melee that I found it inconsistent with the time it took the novice fights to end.

I was about to follow the female fighter in walking off when I was stopped short. On the other end of the arena was a fighter surrounded by unconscious foes. At a quick glance, there had to be at least ten. I hoped that I wouldn’t be facing him first.

That made me wonder about the placement of each of the fights. What would happen if I was theoretically the second-best fighter but faced the best fighter in the first match and lost? There had to be some way to make sure I got the chance to face him again. I should have read through the instructions I had in my bag back at the hotel. I decided that reading the packet would be my fallback plan. I would ask the official off to the side before leaving the arena.

I looked at the others who were still in the competition. There was the man surrounded by downed opponents. He appeared to be the biggest threat. Then there was the female I fought; she got the drop on me at the end. I would have to watch out next time.

Another person left standing on the stage was the sizeable hammer-wielding fighter. Even without his hammer, he looked formidable. He also had a few unconscious people around him. The guy saw me looking but didn’t seem bothered by it. He actually started laughing and gave me a huge thumbs-up.

I didn’t know what to do, so I gave him a quick, if nervous, thumbs-up right back. The remaining fighters didn’t have anything specific to make them stand out. Most of them were on the edges of the fighting ring.

We walked down the steps and back toward the arena locker room. We stopped off quickly to gather everyone’s weapons. I was going to shift back into Companion Mode, but I wisely noticed no one else had yet, so I decided not to either.

With the adrenaline wearing off, I could hear the crowd cheering, even if it was still light. When I looked up at the crowd when we were walking underneath, I saw a girl smiling down and waving at everyone.

She was practically dangling off the side with her silver hair hanging near to edge. As she stood up, her hair flipped high into the sky and sparkled in the afternoon sun. Her face was tanned, and I could see her light brown eyes practically light up with mirth. I may have been staring a little too closely.

I ran into someone in front of me. They hit the person in front of them, then a huge pushback had me lying on the ground after tripping. I could hear the girls laughing at the situation, but it wasn’t in derision. I looked up again, and she was smiling down at me with a shining smile.

“Sorry, everyone,” I said, scratching the back of my head.

I helped everyone stand, and we moved further into the bowels of the arena. I wondered if I would ever see the girl again when we made it back into the locker room. They must have taken everyone who was disqualified out a different exit.

“Shouldn’t the people be leaving now that the match is over?” I questioned out loud once again. The official who was already there waiting answered my question.

“There is an expert-level match next. There were only four contestants, but with all the other fights, we only wanted one headlining match. After your briefing here, you will be able to go watch it if you wish.”

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I was going to ask a question about the novice matches, but the others started to change into Companion Mode. I stepped to the side and followed suit. Once everyone was changed back, we waited on the official. He handed us another packet similar to the one I received when signing up.

“I don’t think the country bumpkin kid can read,” quipped the female I had fought against.

I stared silently at her, my anger flaring. She didn’t call me a hick, but that was close enough. I was in a good mood before. I was even looking forward to facing her again, but after that, I vowed to crush her.

I knew she meant what she said too. There was no apologizing or saying that she was joking. She just stared right back at me. The official cleared his throat to break the tension.

“The packet contains all the information that you will need for tomorrow. I expect everyone to read it.” He pointedly looked at me. “Congratulations all for making it to the next round.” The official turned and began heading toward a door at the side of the room.

“Sir, I did have some questions really quick,” I said quickly before he escaped.

“Only if it isn’t in the packet,” he replied.

I wasn’t expecting that response. Since I hadn’t read the packet, I didn’t want to look even more foolish than I had already. I was going to ask how the brackets would work if we lost to the first person we fought. Something like that was bound to be in the packet. So, I thought quickly of something else to ask.

“Well, I was just wondering why it took us so long to start our match when it didn’t last too long.”

“There were a lot more people in the novice bracket,” he replied. “About ten times as much, actually. We had ten matches where only the top winner was advanced.” Suddenly the clerk sighed deeply. “While it is in the packet, the novice and intermediate matches will take turns. The matches aren’t timed, and sometimes they can take a while, which is why the tournament is scheduled for multiple days.”

“That explains why there were so many people outside.”

“Indeed.”

I looked around after that. I wanted some privacy to ask the next question, but there were still a couple people milling around.

“One more question?” I hedged. The clerk merely nodded his head. “How do the brackets work if we lose early to a superior fighter but are better than others?”

“Fortunately, sir, that is covered in the packet,” the clerk said with a smile. “Anything else?”

I replied in the negative, and the clerk took his leave from the locker room. Not needing to gather anything up, I quickly headed out the way I came.

“Ay, kid,” the beefy man with the hammer asked before I could make it out.

I was annoyed that the others hadn’t bothered to leave the locker room even though they had just as little reason to be there as me. They were clearly eavesdropping on my questions.

“Yeah,” I said snarkily but pausing.

He walked closer to me and bent his head down while turning away from the few others in the room. “Can you really not read?” he whispered.

“What?” I replied. My head then quickly jerked in anger at the woman who mentioned I couldn’t.

“It’s okay if you can’t. I can-”

“I can read just fine,” I interrupted whatever he was about to say. “I just didn’t have the time.”

I stormed off toward the exit. My anger was getting the best of me, and I didn’t want to do or say something I might regret. Sure, I didn’t read the information packet, but I didn’t think it was that important. I loved to read – as long as whatever I was reading had a good story. To think that I couldn’t was insulting.

I continued outside back into the city proper. I still had a job that I could do to make some more money. I wanted to continue to have a decent place to sleep and food in my stomach.

After I left the arena, I placed the packet back in my hotel room. Once it was secure, I went to the job I had lined up to get some extra spending money. It was a simple job of helping to move crates in a warehouse. My cultivation gave me an advantage over others since I didn’t have to change modes to match some other workers. Most people thought I was already in Symbiotic mode when I wasn’t.

The work actually made me feel better. I always despised the idea of a Labor Class, but I realized it probably wasn’t so bad. For one, if my father or I had been a Labor Class, I probably would have never been wandering around the mountains in constant danger and fearing for my life. There was something pleasant about getting lost in the job and returning to relax – although the pay wasn’t that good.

Later that day, I sat down at a small diner serving a fantastic stew. I was thinking about the next day’s matches and how I would deal with them. I needed to get into the top three, but I was starting to worry about my prospects. I might be able to defeat the female fighter I had battled against, but she was much better than I had assumed others would be.

The other two fighters would probably be even more difficult. I needed every advantage I could get. I considered heading back out to my campsite so I could cultivate. I could use my Augmented Reality Training Program for extra cultivation time. It probably wouldn’t be enough to get to another level, but it might help.

The next day, the matches were going to be with weapons, which might give me an advantage. Although I wondered how they would allow contestants to fight with weapons and how they would keep people from dying.

I groaned at the information packet I had to read when I returned to my room.

After getting back to my hotel room and cleaning up, I dove into the packet. The packet did reveal all the information I needed and answered most of my questions regarding the matches the next day. Unfortunately, it was extremely tedious to read. Yet, somehow I made it through.

By the time I reviewed all the information, I had realized that it was entirely too late to head out to the campsite to cultivate. I would have to rely on the power I already had. It wasn’t so bad since I got to get extra sleep on the nice soft bed the hotel provided.

The day before, I paid for an additional day at the hotel. If the fights went to the next day, I would need the soft bed, plus I could safely keep my bag and extra clothes I bought with my wages. After I won the tournament, there was no point in being pessimistic; I would reevaluate my stay. Until then, it was a convenience.

I left the hotel in the early morning. Usually, I ate some breakfast, but my stomach was twisting in knots, and I couldn’t get it to stop. I hadn’t been that nervous the previous day, so I was unsure why I was then. Perhaps because I had already made it past the first step, the likelihood of making it to the top three and securing a trip to the capital was closer than before.

Another reason was that the packet informed me that the tournament would be an all-play-all style of matches. Winning the fight was worth a point, and losing the fight gained none. In case of a tie in points, the contestant who bested the other would come out on top.

At least I didn’t have to worry about the setup of the matches being unfair. If it was single elimination, a bad match-up could cost the tournament. I would hate to go against either the fighter standing around the multitude of downed opponents or the giant guy who carried a hammer. I would have wanted to face them last in another type of match, but with fighting everyone once, the order didn’t matter.