Screams of horror and yells of fury-fuelled anger filled the arena, all of which were directed at Lone or in response to how he had treated the prince - who, at this point, had lost consciousness.

Lone felt both massively satisfied and completely overwhelmed with regret. 'The cunt deserved it but I'm dead now... I'm so fuckin' dead... I need to tell Soph to teleport away the second I resummon her. Well her g-'

His thoughts were stopped by an overwhelming pressure suddenly enveloping his body.

"Gah..." Even grunting was a struggle when he felt the full weight of 5 SS-ranked auras press down onto him quickly followed by dozens of S-ranked auras and innumerable A and B-ranked ones.

The king, the 4 dukes, many of the gathered nobles and their knights were locking Lone in place and threatening to tear his body limb from limb with their rank's aura alone.

He collapsed onto his knees and tried his best to simply breathe. His clothes and equipment -swordspear included - were starting to rip and break from the collective pressure.

The host has developed the passive skill: Aura Pressure Resistance.

The massive weight on his body lessened ever so slightly but all Lone could think of was how bloody negligible the endurable percentage was.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Aura Pressure Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Aura Pressure Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Aura Pressure Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.

Lone felt frustrated. 'So this cunt can try to kill me but if I just stab him and cut his arms off - both things that I know for a fact healing magic can fix - then you try to crush me to death? Motherfucking hypocritical cunts!'

The black orb laying within his pocket hummed joyfully in beat with the rhythm of his rage-fuelled thoughts. Surprisingly, the thing wasn't affected at all by the massive pressure coiling around it and everything else in close proximity to Lone.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Aura Pressure Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Aura Pressure Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Aura Pressure Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

'You know, I'd really like for this shit to rank up, all things aside... Hahaha, what the fuck's wrong with me? Here I am, being publicly executed by a group of speciesists for standing up for myself and all I can think of past my anger is wanting to rank up a new skill?' He would have laughed out loud if he wasn't trying his best to not lose consciousness.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 1.

'Yay!' Lone thought sarcastically. 'It only took dozens of vastly stronger people trying to kill me with their raw auras alone for that stupid fuckin' skill to break the expert barrier.'

One thing of note though was that with the pain he was experiencing now being considerably more tolerable Lone found himself able to move a little bit.

'Can I see the king from here? Oh, goodie, I can. May as well go out with a bang, huh? We never did figure out if I could kill a double-S-ranker by spamming Mental Destruction, now did we?' Lone thought as a grin spread across his lips.

Sadly, just as he was about to enact his plan for swift revenge, the pressure on him disappeared as a warm and motherly sensation replaced it. "This is... Gilbert's aura?"

Turning his head he saw the guildmaster stood next to him with sweat dripping down his face and no small amount of emotion showing on his expression.

"Should I take this as a declaration of war against The Adventurer's Guild, King Heidron? Grand Guildmaster Sarah has been informed of your actions today via communication orb and she is not best pleased," the dragonkin declared.

He was using gravity magic to only project his voice to Lone, all present adventurers as well as every single nobleman and their knights.

The common folk didn't need to know why he had appeared. Honestly, war was not the option he wanted to pursue if at all possible since it was the worst one. 'You stupid boy... Ha-ah... I can't fault you though. As soon as they started forfeiting I knew something like this would happen... This is as much my fault as it is yours, Son. I've had a whole century to try to erase the systemic speciesism in this cesspool of a kingdom... I've really been rather lazy, haven't I?'

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The king seemed to speak into the ear of one of his personal royal mages who then projected his voice in a similarly private way as Gilbert had. "That beast has broken the rules of the tournament. Do you expect us to follow the every whim of your guild when our royal son has been hurt so viciously?"

Gilbert scoffed. "If you delay any longer he'll bleed out. His arms can still be reattached if you can find a B-rank healer. How is the guild meant to interpret your son's clear attempts to end the life of one of our adventurers, hmm? There is a clear difference between an accidental murder and one of intent."

A long silence followed before the king made his reply. "Only once. This is in respect to Divine Persistence. Be thankful, beast, that you did not cause permanent harm to our son or, Primal's forbid, kill him. We warn you now though, Guildmaster Elksworth, there will be consequences if he does anything untoward before the tournament ends. We also expect our son's weapon to be returned when we come for it."

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty," Gilbert said as he nodded respectfully.

The king raised a palm and all of the pressure flooding down into Gilbert receded, giving him room to relax, physically, at least.

"'Let's return to your waiting room, Son. We have a lot to talk about," Gilbert said as he helped Lone get up.

Nodding mutely, Lone walked alongside the man. As they made their way to the waiting room he saw no reason to not inspect his recently acquired skills and newly ranked-up Physical Pain Resistance.

What else better was there to do when he felt like a child being brought to the headmaster's office at school for beating the crap out of a bully?

Passive Skill: Physical Pain Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist physical pains while still being aware of their existence at varying levels based on mastery.

All physical pain shall be weakened by 60% [+30%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Expert Level 1

'This doesn't confirm anything but the evidence is mounting, isn't it?' Lone wondered. 'This is my second resistance to reach expert-rank along with Mental Pain Resistance and that didn't get a new effect too. I guess resistances just work differently from other skills when it comes to additional features. Well, it's a solid theory, at least.'

Passive Skill: Aura Pressure Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist the pressure of auras generated by a person's rank at varying levels based on mastery.

All aura pressure applied to the host shall be weakened by 15% [+10%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 3

'Huh... I gained 6 more levels between last reading my notifs and when Gilbert stepped in... Honestly, this skill seems incredibly useful. I wonder why I didn't gain it when Duke Malik blasted his aura in our meeting a few weeks back or when the prince showed off his C-ranked aura only 5 minutes ago? Maybe I wasn't put under the pressure long enough with the duke and the prince wasn't directly applying it to me?' All good ideas worth giving merit to, Lone felt.

Active Lightning Magic Skill: Amplified Current

A standard application of the lightning magic school where the caster focuses the element of lightning into a condensed stream of pure lightning that persists for 5 seconds in any conductive material it strikes.

Cost: 10,000 MP Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'A bit on the pricey side MP-wise... Not like that matters when my MP is sealed for a year. Still, 5-seconds, huh? Was that how long the current spread through my body? I can't really remember but it wasn't overly long. So the prince has this skill at beginner or intermediate rank... Nice to know, I guess,' Lone thought in a bit of an uncaring manner as he sat down on his bench of choice in the waiting room.

A snapping sound pulled him from his thoughts. Looking up he saw Gilbert standing over him as he clicked his fingers.

"Got your attention now have I, Son?" Gilbert asked.

Lone smiled awkwardly. "Sorry. I was lost in thought."

"Yeah, that was clear." Gilbert brought his hand up to his face and sighed deeply. "Look, as things stand I can only see one way you'll live through this."

Lone chuckled. "Really? 'Cause from what I've seen I'm dead no matter what. I meant what I said. If I'm gonna die I may as well do it on my own terms. Preferably bathing in the blood of the 'hero'."

"Just because you're feeling suicidal that doesn't mean that all of the nobles and royals are. Even if the king wants to kill you, after what I said he physically cannot without further justification. There would be a rebellion if he did," Gilbert said with some anger in his tone.

'What? A rebellion? Even if I'm a very unique race of foxkin, I'm still just one 'slave'... Ah... Politics, right? Damned good thing I joined The Adventurer's Guild and not some obscure mercenary band, huh?' Lone thought self-mockingly before nodding.

Seeing him nod a bit uncaringly, Gilbert clicked his tongue and added, "That story I told you about the grand guildmaster destroying a kingdom overnight after a single adventurer was unjustly killed? That's a bloody true story, Son. Against demihuman equality or not these nobles don't want to die just because their king has a personal issue with you. In a twisted way your life is as safe as it could ever be."

"... Okay, so, what now? I go out there, let Daisuke humiliate me, maybe cut me up a bit, then I turtle up at the guild until my and Sophie's escort arrives to extradite ourselves from this shithole of a kingdom? That's the plan?" Lone asked as his bright golden eyes stared right into Gilbert's pure white irises.

"Well, yes. More or less. I know it isn't great forcing you to let that arrogant and lustful boy vent his frustrations on you but he will not be allowed to kill you. If you just put up with it and come back to the guildhall with me today then it'll all be behind u-"

"Okay. Fine. I will tell you now though, Gilbert, when I get powerful enough I will come back here and destroy this kingdom's government. I'll kill that scumbag hero and I'll free all of the slaves," Lone declared with power in his voice. "Make that last one a global effort."

Gilbert felt a well of emotions spring forth within him. 'This boy... I swear, being able to see lies is such an annoying racial ability... He and Grand Guildmaster Sarah would get along well, I feel. With views like that, at least.'

He crouched down and hugged Lone. Patting him on the back softly he said, "Oppression is impossible to fight against without a sufficiently loud voice or a fist that holds enough strength. I am deeply sorry for failing you as I have. When the day comes that you do come for your revenge, I will help you, but please, Son, don't let your anger consume you. You're better than that."

'This mess is of my own creation, Gilbert. The way this kingdom works only made it easier for me to fuck up. You aren't at fault... Damn... I don't deserve this much kindness...' Lone couldn't find the strength to voice those thoughts.

Instead, he simply returned the hug and said, "Thanks, Gilbert."