When I opened the envelope, it helped relieve a lot of my stress.

The envelope held instructions for my next day's matches, and I found that I didn't have to be there first thing in the morning since I didn't have the first match. What really lightened my mental load was a check from the tournament organizers.

A letter attached to the check indicated that it was a stipend for my participation in the tournament. It wasn't an enormous sum, but it was enough to pay for my hotel room for a couple of weeks and enough for food and incidentals. I could get used to fighting in tournaments if I continued to be paid like that.

Since I had extra time, I used it to my advantage. After ensuring I was good for another night in my room, I headed for a big breakfast. Once I was done, I headed to the bank to deposit the money into my account.

With my only chore complete, I made my way to the arena. When I was halfway there, I realized I was going too slowly, so I picked up the pace. It was good because I was nearly late. I still had to get used to the size of the city and how long it took to travel around it.

My first opponent for the day was Eduard Dara. If I remembered correctly, he had a Martial Class robot, but I didn't know the subclass. It didn't stick out too much against the backdrop of all the others, but I had recently realized I had a terrible habit of ignoring others' robots.

Eduard's skin was dark, blending well against the equally shadowed metal of his robot, which made it difficult for me to find where his armor ended, and the exposed area began. He held two short swords that were equally dark. When he attacked, it was almost as if his entire body was covered in shadow. It was possible it did have shadow abilities if that was offered to him.

His swings were fluid and polished. It was clear that he was highly trained. My spear's reach and additional stats through cultivation were the only things that allowed me to win the fight. Those and that the fight was during the day. Regardless of my stats, I didn't think I would have much chance if I fought him at night.

Good thing I had a DTA program to help me.

The fight ended with a thrust of my spear into his gut. My attack didn't finish the fight immediately, though. Eduard grunted in pain but swung out with one of his swords. It was a horizontal slash that I barely saw approaching, but my DTA alarm blared in my head.

I shoved my body back and the spear forward. His sword slashed across my chest, leaving a long red line. The attack burned, and I was sure blood would be pouring from the wound if it wasn't Augmented Reality. The force of my push caused Eduard to fall back and my spear to dislodge from his stomach. When he hit the ground, the red light from the AR system flashed brightly, and he was plagued with the overwhelming shock of the system.

With the fight done, I stepped back and waited for the obligatory interview. I kept my answers short and already started focusing on my next fight. It seemed like only a short time had elapsed before I once again stood in the arena, waiting while the timer counted down.

The next opponent was more challenging than the last. He was more cautious. I guess at least some decided to take me seriously. It couldn't be avoided if they watched the matches and knew I had won all but one of my fights.

My next opponent's name was Kadek Trueman. He wielded a longsword, and his armor shone in the mid-morning light. When the timer was done, I slowly moved forward but quickly stopped as he advanced.

His style was unique and is what caused me to pause. He wasn't moving straight forward but made many side steps with a gingerly, skipping gait. It wasn't something I could easily match. He could clearly use it due to years of honing the skill.

I felt it would have been a superior technique against people with shorter weapons or swords. Fortunately for me, I had neither. His style forced him to be in constant motion. Therefore, he needed to continually advance while I just held my ground, continuing to point my spear in his direction.

The DTA program barely made a peep the entire fight.

When he did pause to catch his breath or goad me into advancing, I did so slowly. I didn't want to give him any openings while I moved. My tactic clearly enraged and frustrated him. He always kept me from advancing all the way into range. Before I reached him, he would again start to skip around to look for openings. Ultimately, his style only worked for a short time, and my spear found its mark.

Kedek moved into the edge of my range, but it was a mistake. He had mistimed his bouncing steps and meant to be a half-step farther back. He quickly adjusted, though, and leaped to the side. It would have been devastating for me if I had struck out at his misstep, but I had learned from following him the entire fight.

I followed his leap to the side, and I was already striking out before he paused to change his footing. Even though he was breathing hard with sweat pouring from his brow, his skill showed, and he parried my thrust. His unadjusted foundation meant he couldn't counter-strike, though, and I was far from a one-trick fighter.

Many forget that the spear is not only dangerous at its point. After the parry, I used the back end of my spear to hit him in the shoulder. He stumbled forward from the blow. I spun my spear in the opposite direction, swinging it like a club and clobbering his trailing leg.

The red coating from the Augmented Reality rose from the point of impact and spread across his entire leg below the knee. He fell and turned, whipping his sword around in a flurry. Had I rushed to his downed form, it would have sliced me apart.

I simply stood back out of his range, and I thrust forward to end the match once the attack was over. Without his fancy footwork and erratic movements, it was a quick end.

My next fight was against Thales Brenton, another Martial Class that used a longsword. Instead of the singular longsword, he also had a small buckler strapped to his opposite forearm. The shield wasn't part of his robot, but he used it with fluidity and skill.

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The fight started slowly, with us circling the other and looking for weak areas. I stayed out of my opponent's range, and when I attacked, he managed to block my quick strikes with his shield.

I had trouble finding any openings in his style. It helped that he kept his movements down to only necessary ones. His finesse with his shield impressed me and made the fight difficult. Even though it was small, he caught my strikes on the flat portion and turned it away.

Eventually, we were both breathing hard from multiple attempted but failed combination attacks. I thrust forward to find my spear deflected. Fatigue made me put too much into the attack, and I found myself in an awkward position with my opponent's sword flashing downward toward my neck.

My DTA program sang, and somehow, I managed to swing my spear around in time to block the kill. I followed the block up with a spin in Thales' direction to slam into him with my shoulder. I heard Thales grunt from the impact, but his only other response was a knee to my face. My arm was in the way, so I was thrown back but not knocked unconscious with a broken nose.

Out of instinct and a healthy warning from my robot, I raised my spear and blocked another swing aimed at my head. I kicked forward and pushed my opponent back with a solid strike. His robot armor helped him not take any damage, but I didn't care about that.

I was happy that we were again facing off and that I wasn't in a compromised position. However, it took only a short time for the fight to continue in the same manner, with me taking the only chance I was given and him blocking. When he did, it almost always put me in an awkward position where he was able to counter.

My head was almost digitally severed from him on numerous occasions.

I realized that I was being overzealous due to my previous wins. My skill and experience were far lower than all my opponents. I didn't have the luxury to leap in and attack blindly. I calmed my mind and tried to think of a better way to beat him. He was dictating the fight even though I was the one attacking, and I had to change that.

I managed to beat him through his slow footwork. He was too adept at countering my body and head strikes, so I focused on his legs. My program lit up with multiple green-hued dots all around his lower body. I began pressing that line of attack. Thales had a solid base, but his sword work suffered when I took that away by causing him to constantly dodge and move.

I finally finished the fight by landing multiple fast strikes to his legs, bringing him to the ground. I circled around and continued attacking relentlessly from every angle until he was tired and overwhelmed. My spear slammed into his chest, sending a red wave across his body. He fell in minor convulsions, and the match ended.

I returned to the locker room with a light heart, but I still had a heavy mind. My next match would be against the person who was probably the strongest opponent in the tournament. He was also one that my spear was no advantage over.

While in the locker room, I felt my nerves getting the better of me. My opponent was Arthur Piston. He was the person that was surrounded by numerous defeated foes in the preliminary fight. Additionally, when I was focusing on the De energies, I could feel the spark of cultivation inside him.

It worried me that I felt it. I had no way to tell how strong his cultivation was because I hadn't sensed it in anyone else. I could somewhat sense that my cultivation level was higher, but I wasn't sure about that either. I didn't know enough to gauge the differences. I thought about looking the information up on CoreLink, but I was too tired from my previous fight to search for anything.

In the few days I fought, I caught a few matches from the person who was probably the favorite to win the tournament. He fought with a spear like me, but unlike me, he clearly had extensive training. I often practiced with my spear while on my farm, but it was primarily straight thrusts, blocking and batting maneuvers. Also, it had been highly dependent on my imagination.

Arthur was on a completely different level of skill.

The opponent I had just defeated was easily handled by him while I struggled to end the fight. I hoped that Thales had just learned from fighting Arthur, which was why he did so well against me, but the fight didn't last long enough for him to get that much better. So, to find anything to help me defeat him, I nervously thought over Arthur's other matches that I watched.

I didn't discover any hidden signs or weaknesses that I could exploit. Rotating between intense introspection of the fights I watched and a mixture of meditation and cultivation, my assigned attendant was knocking at the locker room door before I knew it. I didn't have any choice but to get up and head out.

The walk through the hallways seemed more laborious than the other times. The artificial lights housed in the glass above seemed dimmer than usual. The hallway had a light chill in the air. It made me imagine that I would be blasted by frigid air from a winter storm after I exited the confines of the hallway.

After my spear was scanned into the AR constructor, I braced for the air as the door opened, but it was a warm breeze from the summer sun. It wasn't even that late in the day. The sun shone in the sky and still had a few hours of light left. What hit me the hardest was the sound of the crowd.

Hearing it was a magical experience. The power of the crowd engulfed me with energy that filled my legs with strength and made me feel lighter. My steps became more sure, and I shook my arms to expunge the cold that had seeped in.

As I walked up to the raised platform, my troubles left my mind, and I could think clearly again. The time for introspection and planning was over. It was time for action.

I walked to the designated square and held out my hand to summon my weapon. In a display only made possible through the advancement of alien technologies, my spear appeared in a shower of red light. I gripped it tightly, the feel of it comfortable and familiar.

After, I waited in my assigned spot for my opponent to show. I had barely turned around when he came striding up the step. His armor gleamed in the mid-afternoon sun. His helm covered the upper portion of his face, but I could see the focused stare piercing through.

Like all the other contestants, he wore an amalgamation of robot and non-robot armor. It would take an insanely high compatibility percentage to cover the whole body. No one at our level would have that much. His was at the limit for his percentage. He could probably increase his compatibility at any time he wanted.

Besides his helm, he had a protective layer of flexible plates running down his neck. Those were connected to his shoulder pauldrons. It looked as if his robotic armor ran all the way down his arm, covering his chest and some of his sides. While his exo-skeleton ran all the way down his legs, the armor on his legs was clearly not of the same level. Still, the amount of robotic armor adorning his body was impressive, especially compared to my mask.

Standing in the weapon manifestation square, he held his hand out in a reverse grip. I didn't even know that would work. As his spear appeared, it looked like it materialized out of his hand instead of on top of it. It was something I would remember for the next time.

Arthur whirled his spear in a showy display that caused the crowd to explode in cheers. His eyes fell on me again, and I could feel the intensity of his gaze. I almost felt as if he was going to leap forward and attack me before the match started. My heart pumped extra blood and adrenaline through my body at the perceived threat.

I didn't even consider how being affected by a stare was even possible.

My heart rate increased, and I could feel the beginning of a cold sweat break out on my brow. Still, I gritted my teeth and set my feet into a fighting stance to wait for the timer to count down. I sent my own glare back at my opponent just before the timer dropped to zero.

When it did, I rushed forward with every ounce of speed I possessed.