Casting hundreds of spells is not a cheap or easy endeavor. Being able to pull something like this off was the culmination of all of my experience so far wielding magic. My focus was entirely bent towards keeping up the onslaught as the spells worked to eliminate both of my opponents. Of course, none of this would be possible if it weren’t for my innate skill giving a helping hand.

Dimensional Duel (5/5)

Effect 5: Enter a dimensional rift, taking any targets marked with an arcane tag with you. Upon activation, the user’s aura is instantly replenished of mana. Within the dimensional rift, space is stabilized and all dimensional magic is cheaper to cast. Escaping the rift is difficult, but not impossible. Drains the user’s mana and energy for the duration of activation. Allows unrestricted access to the mana within the user’s aura. Requires a long recovery period between uses due to the strain this skill puts on the soul.

There were several things in that skill description that were very important. For one, the drain that the skill mentioned was immense. If I simply stood still and did absolutely nothing for the duration of the skill, it would drain all the mana from my aura in about a minute.

Of course, I wasn’t just going to stand there and do nothing. This is why I had decided on a good balance between time spent in the rift and spells cast. In total, I only planned to spend 20 seconds in here. The other 40 seconds worth of mana would go straight into the unparalleled destruction being sent towards my two opponents.

Speaking of said unparalleled destruction, this was only something that I could achieve thanks to what was probably the single most important facet of the skill, being that I had no restriction on accessing the mana within my aura.

My aura had long ago outclassed the mana capacity of my body several times over. Thing is, that mana could only be used for powering passive skills such as my mana barrier and empower. With a lot of effort and concentration, I could extract it from my aura to use for active spells, but it was such a slow process that there is pretty much no hope of it becoming applicable in combat.

Now though, I could use all of it to rain hell upon whoever I pleased. It was working quite well as the spells smashed through every wall of earth and shield of magic the two managed to conjure. About five seconds after the onslaught had begun, the archer had been killed.

The earth mage looks around frantically for a second before his entire body becomes encased in a dark stone. It looks quite similar to when he trapped me in a ball of rock, but judging by the fact that my spells were failing to penetrate it, this was clearly a much stronger version of that.

I couldn’t stop now though, and many of my spells were now becoming arcane spikes to chip away at the nearly impenetrable defense. The seconds ticked on as more and more spells slammed against the stone, each taking very small chips off of the surface.

By the ten second mark, I’d made it halfway through the shell. By the 15 second mark, I could see the mans arms. By the time 20 seconds had passed and the rift began to collapse all around us, I had managed to utterly destroy his right arm and deal significant damage to the other.

The blue dome that surrounded us cracked and shattered like glass, and soon we were once more standing in the arena with a crowd of spectators all around us. I have absolutely no idea what that looked like from the outside, but I’m sure Blair is up there with meticulously written notes that I can read through later.

The fight is now in the home stretch, that much is certain. I am positive that the skill the man used to survive was his innate skill. The King had even mentioned that most first innate skills are akin to get out of jail free cards. I guess mine is pretty similar in that regard, as since it replenished the mana within my aura it was most effectively used once it was completely empty.

The wounds on the mages arms fill in with sediment and pebbles. They form themselves to match the missing flesh, and he readies himself once more to run towards me. He isn’t in great shape, but I am definitely not in peak condition either.

My innate skill was not without drawbacks. The biggest one by far was that I could not deactivate it. It simply kept going until my aura is once more completely empty. That meant that right now, I only had my mana pool to rely on. I knew that it might come to this point, so for the first half of the fight I had been pretty sparing with spells and other wastes of mana.

The mage sprints towards me once more, his stone fists balled up and ready to beat me to a pulp. I didn’t have my mana shield or empower to rely on here, meaning that this is a very tricky position for me.

I channel the mana within my staff, using two of the three charges. Two gauntlets of mana appear on my hands, and I quickly store my staff away in my aura.

This was an idea I’d had shortly before the tournament began. If I could store spells in my staff, is there any reason I couldn’t store a use of arcane arsenal? As it turns out, no there wasn’t. There’s of course a limit to how big of an item I can store, and these gauntlets barely fit within that limit.

The mage finally reaches me, and soon we are exchanging punches. He doesn’t look to be using any skills, probably because that innate skill of his had drained most of his remaining mana. I wasn’t yet using any of my spells, worried about the fact that I only had about half of my mana pool remaining. If I win this fight, it is going to be by the skin of my teeth.

Each attack that the man lands on my armor leaves small dent, but those are quickly adding up. My body is getting bruised and it feels like some of my bones are close to breaking. My attacks aren’t quite as devastating to him, but small chunks of stone fly off of his body every time I land a hit.

At the very start of this fight, I knew that if it came down to an exchange of blows I would be at a disadvantage. That was before I knew that the mage was also a monk hybrid. If nothing changed, I would lose this fight. The damage to my body is piling up faster than I can deal it, and the exhaustion from using my innate skill was slowing me down slightly.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to rely solely on my capabilities as a melee fighter. I have an advantage here that my opponent doesn’t. Despite the fact that I often get up close and personal with my opponents, and often use swords in a fight, I am still a mage at the end of the day. I use magic to supplement my shortcomings, and right now I had a major shortcoming that needed to be fixed.

Mana burns in my arms, firing out my shoulders and elbows as mana thrust activates. My arm flies forward, slamming into my opponent’s chest with a loud cracking sound. Some of the noise came from the stone on his chest being reduced to pebbles, but I knew that some of it came from my bones. They did not like taking impacts like that, but right now it was the only real option I had.

My other arm flies forward, slamming again into the man. He stumbles back from the impact, giving enough time for my fist to slam into him again. My arms go numb, but even then I continue to use mana thrust to slam them into the mage.

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With one final punch, the man falls to the ground. His body is littered with cracks and his face is completely covered in blood. He disappears in a flash of light a few seconds later, though I still remain in the arena. I look around at the crowd and at the people watching, and a moment later the King’s voice echoes through the entire arena.

“We have our winner!”

Cheers erupt from the crowd all around. I want to raise a hand or something and wave to the crowd, but neither of my arms can move of their own accord anymore. I just look around at the crowd, taking in the applause. After a few moments when it dies down, my body is fully restored and my mana reserves are topped off. It hits me like a truck when it happens, and I need to take a few deep breaths. I don’t know why this couldn’t have been done right after the fight ended, but whatever.

In the middle of the arena, a podium with ten spots appears. A second later, I am teleported onto the top of the highest podium, with each of the other ones being filled by the other top competitors. A screen appears before me, and I read it.

Select a name to be displayed on the final leaderboard. Displayed title will be included with your name.

I choose to just be shown as “River”, since I don’t feel the need to go by an alias. People knew me by River, so there was no need to confuse anyone. I am kind of curious how everyone else will choose to display themselves though.

After a minute, massive screens appears above the podium, as well as another appearing in front of me. On it is the final leaderboard for the tournament with everybody's rank and evaluation score put right next to their name. A bit of exploring the screen reveals that it shows everybody’s rank, all 2 million of them. As it turns out, the lowest rank person is rank 2,385,392 with an evaluation score of 73. How they got one that low, I have no clue. I don’t bother reading anything other than the top ten after that.

#1: River the King Killer (31,025)

#2: Granite the Earth Mover (30,000)

#3: Sharp Shooter Jane (29,243)

#4: Unseen Shade (28,974)

#5: Fionna the Rotten (28,563)

#6: Flynn the King Killer (28,398)

#7: Deadeye Blair (28,056)

#8: Unstoppable Ryker (27,684)

#9: Jeremy the Chilled (27,579)

#10: S Tier Pioneer Iris (27,523)

Well, I’d have to make sure to stay at least 10 meters away from Flynn. Having the same displayed title felt like wearing the same outfit to a party. I’d also need to tease Ram about that name later, because “Unseen Shade” sounded edgy as hell.

On a more important note, I had not been the only one to cross 30,000 points in my score. The earth mage, who I assume isn’t actually named Granite, just barely managed to get that score. Apparently his performance was admirable enough to deserve it.

The King spoke up once more as people finished reading through the top ten.

“Rewards will now be distributed to all who have participated in the tournament in order of rank.”

The entire crowd flashes a bright green for a moment. A much smaller portion of the crowd flashes blue. A much smaller portion than that flashes purple. After that there are only small blobs of people that flash a cyan color.

“And now,” the King continues, “the top ten participants will receive their rewards.”

There is a small flash of purple in front of all of us, and purple orbs floats in the air in front of all of us. I use identify on it, and my eyes go wide.

Upgrade Orb (Epic) (Soul bound)

Upgrades any item to epic rarity. Weapons and armor will be upgraded relative to the users level up to level 99.

An instant epic rarity item seemed like it could be quite useful. Getting one of these was pretty cool, but every single one of us got 3 of them. I store mine away in my aura, and a few seconds later a cyan flash summons two cyan orbs in front of us. I look around and notice that the people who were lower than rank 5 only got one of these orbs.

Upgrade Orb (Special) (Soul Bound)

Upgrades any item to Special rarity. Weapons and armor will be upgraded relative to the users level up to level 99.

It is the exact same thing, except it upgrades to a rarity higher than the previous one. Like before I store these away in my aura, and two more orbs appear in front of me with a yellow flash. Everybody got one of these, but only me and the earth mage got two of them. This was the exact same thing once again, but for legendary rarity.

Honestly, I thought for a moment that might be it. I was already very happy with what I had gotten, but it seemed that for at least two of us the rewards were not done coming.

In front of me and the earth mage appeared a silver token. Its appearance was not accompanied by a flash like the others, but instead it just kind of faded into existence.

Floor bypass Token (Legendary)

Bypass any floor within the Tower of Nixtias, including any Champion Floor. All rewards for the floor will be given as if it had been completed through conventional means.

What a champion floor is, I have no idea. What I do know is that I am going to be holding onto this thing until I absolutely need it. To top it all off, I got one more reward, one that nobody else had earned.

Title Gained!

Earth’s Champion

You have proved yourself the strongest inhabitant of Earth. +10% to all stats. This title can be stolen in the event that you are killed by another denizen of Earth.

Yeah, all in all I would say that this tournament went pretty damn well. On top of all of these rewards, the fight I had just been in was intense enough to earn me a single level.

You are now level 97

We stand on the podium for another minute or so before they all lower to the ground, leaving the ten of us standing to just kind of stand there awkwardly. A screen appears in front of me, and as I read it people all throughout the stands start disappearing.

Floor Event concluded. As you have already completed the chain floors 6-10, you will be ejected from the floor in 5 minutes. You may also exit early if you desire.

I close the screen, deciding that it is for the best that I stay all 5 minutes. I walk up to “Granite” and stick my hand out.

“That was a good fight.” I tell him.

He looks at my hand for a moment, and instead of shaking it his hands move up to the hood of his cloak. It comes down and for the first time I can see his face. It’s nothing remarkable. He just looks like a normal guy. Still, it feels like a meaningful gesture.

He finally reaches forward and shakes my hand. His hand still feels coarse and rocky, and when I look down I see that it is still made of stone.

“Yes it was.” He says. “I guess after that I should at least introduce myself properly. My name is Grant.”

“River.” I say. “So, is your hand always like that?”

The question is pretty blunt, but I just couldn’t help myself.

He rolls up one sleeve of his cloak, showing that the skin all the way up his arm has a rock-like texture to it. “Most of my body is. I am an earth kin after all.”

“Earth kin? When I use identify on you I see you as a human.”

He tugs his sleeve back down. “That would be the cloak at work. I had it made for me shortly after hitting level 50 when I got the opportunity to change my race. It hides my real race when getting identified.”

“What is it like not being human? Was it a difficult adjustment?”

“It was a bit much to get used to, yeah. As for not being human, I don’t really think about that much. My body feels just as natural as it always has. Still, learning to shift the rocks around my body was like learning to walk again.”

“Sounds difficult. Anyways, you have any ideas for what you are going to use those upgrade tokens for?”

“Honestly, I have no clue.” He shrugs. “At least one of my legendary tokens is going to this cloak. As for everything else, I don’t think I will be using it for personal equipment. I assume you know that items of a high rarity are more valuable when they aren’t weapons or armor?”

“Yeah, I do know. I wasn’t planning on any of my tokens going to my equipment since the upgrade will likely be irrelevant after we evolve.”

“So what will it go to?”

I don’t respond for a few seconds, thinking about what I have that would benefit from such an upgrade. After a few seconds, something finally does come to mind.

“You know, I can think of at least one thing.”