Finally, something exciting happened with my achievement page. I was quite disappointed with what I gained after the dragon fight. Yes, the class levels were okay, but I only got a few levels for my skills and abilities. The worst part was the two traits for empathy and intelligence.

Both traits were swallowed by the giant amongst men. For the 320 milestone, they were disappointing. One made my nervous system a bit faster while the other allowed me to sense the mood of living creatures better. I guess I have had some good lucky pulls previous times and now it was just time for mediocrity.

I also thought that I should perhaps do some more baking as that was quite close to ranking up and I had left my trapping skills unused for quite a while. Perhaps I should stop wasting time and do what I came here to do.

I took out my greatsword and a knife with the shatter enchantment. I was incredibly nervous. I took a deep breath and hit the knife against the sword, putting a small amount of energy into the enchantment. The moment they came into contact two things happened. A chip flew off the knife and the enchantment worked like it should. An energy wave exploded from the contact point that was supposed to shatter my sword, but it didn't look like it had any effect.

I let out a huge sigh but I knew I would need to test it again and stronger, but first, I spent quite a long time examining the sword as closely as possible to see if it took any damage. I couldn’t detect any with all my abilities activated so I concluded that it really didn’t do anything to hurt the sword. But now was a moment of truth. I was scared.

I started to use all the power I had. I needed to keep the knife from disintegrating and I even started to use a lot of my core energy. I didn’t care if the knife survived but I did try to make the enchantment work as best as it could. I used all my strength to hit the sword.

This time the knife broke into multiple pieces from the impact. It was also harmed by the intense energy coursing through it almost completely destroyed the knife but it did its job as the enchantment worked as intended. This time there wasn’t a single shock wave but it continued to ripple like a small pond continuously bouncing from one side to another.

This continued for a few seconds but eventually, the enchantment stopped without having damaged the sword. I was so relieved that I actually laid down on the floor as I let my adrenaline slowly subside. That was more nerve-wracking than being inside the dragon fire.

But my job wasn’t done. This time however I also used my abilities to monitor how this enchantment worked on my sword. I now know what it wanted to do. It created a resonance that would literally vibrate the blade into pieces but whatever properties the dragon metal had, it was most definitely immune to this sort of damage.

An evil grin appeared on my face. Perhaps I should go to the arena and get myself a winning streak. I dismissed that idea almost instantly. This sword was a trump card and a really good one. There was no point in revealing it so soon.

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But going to the arena might not be a bad idea. I still had today and tomorrow free before I needed to meet with Luana and it would be a good idea to test myself against other rank two fighters. But I don’t really feel like fighting today. Watching fights might be a good idea. I went and joined others in the Tavern who were just hanging out and watching some fights.

It was quite an amazing experience as you were able to see fights quite close up and whoever was controlling the viewing angles was doing an excellent job. Today passed quite quickly but during the night I had little to do so I just meditated.

I also seem to now be accustomed to the Tropic heat which was good news. In the morning after breakfast, I decided to go towards one of the arenas where new fighters could sign up. There I found a large crowd of people, most waiting not to get into the arena to watch the fights but in line to sign up for new fights or to sign up as a new fighter.

After I had waited in line for about 20 minutes I found out that I needed to go to a different arena as they didn't accept rank 2 fighters here. That was a bit disappointing but luckily I didn’t have a long walk and the registration area outside the arena for the rank two fights was empty. But this place was a lot larger than the previous and had two more arenas right next to each other so there were a lot more people around and me approaching the rank 2 registration booth did draw a lot of attention.

“I’m here to register as a rank two fighter,” I said to the attendant who was already quite alert from me approaching. “Yes, of course, I will get the paperwork started immediately. I just have a few questions that I need you to answer. Let’s start by what’s your name and main occupation?” Let’s hope that this isn’t that comprehensive. “My name is Rich Dirt and I guess my main occupation would be a farmer.” My words made the attendant stop writing and slowly look up while I heard laughter coming from the crowds of people around here.

The attendant looked at me curiously like he wanted to say something but after looking at me for a little while he just finished writing and continued. “Now I will need to know what stat block you fall into, are you 1500 to 2000?” But before he could continue I interrupted. “Yes, that's the one.” He nodded and continued.

“OK, good. Do you have any previous experience in arenas or tournaments?” I shook my head and he continued to write some more and then put the paper into some sort of a machine that spit out a token.

“OK, here is your fighter ID. You are currently only qualified to fight in the open beginner rank 2 qualifiers. Everyone needs to go through this qualifier so you could face any kind of opponent. Just remember that you can always surrender before the fight if you believe it to be a bad match up. You can never die in the arena but you can certainly be hurt enough that you might never fight again so always be mindful of your opponents.” And after that speech, he handed me the token which I took and left. Now I need to once again wait in line so I could register for a fight.

Everything here worked like clockwork which I would suspect as they had a long time to perfect how things worked. Fighters can earn quite a lot of money. Every fight would pay you something and the higher you climb the more you can earn.

The arenas themselves earn money three ways. If you want to watch the arenas from the screens you need to pay a certain amount every month which is then distributed to arenas by the watch time they have gotten. The second way is by selling arena seat tickets, that is the lowest income they make. The highest income, however, is made from betting.

After I registered I found out that I would be making quite a lot. One fight would already make me enough that I could stay in a decent inn for a few days and have enough left over to start putting aside for better equipment. It took me an hour until I was let inside and then out into the battleground.

I had expected sand but found a solid surface that was quite grippy. I tested it a bit and found it to be extremely durable. This was a pleasant surprise but I guess they had figured out the best surface for fighting. Looking around, I found myself in a similar place to a Colosseum and I wondered if the gladiators saw the same sight as I currently did.

I was in full armor with my shield out and my one-handed sword held tight as I listened to the referee whose job was to see if anyone used any illegal enhancements. Apparently, there was quite a large list of banned enchantments and so on.

The fighter that I was against was in leather armor and wielding a slightly longer spear than usual. He looked quite mean. I could also see that he was intimidated by my size and equipment but his arrogance didn't seem to allow him to think straight. Now all that was left was to wait for the signal to begin our battle.