Chapter 23: The First Day of the Tournament
“Welcome, to the [Inter-School Fall tournament!” The crowd goes completely wild again, and the students around me join in the cheers. After everyone quiets down a bit, the principal continues.
“As you all know, this is a bi-annual event that tests the abilities of students that wishes to become an adventurer in the future. This first tournament, will only allow students of their first and final year of education within their schools to take part. This is to show the potential of all our newer students, and the results of the students that have been here for all six years of education.”
“Beforehand, these tournaments had several rules to ensure safety and no death. Now, after 44 years of enforcing these rules, we now have the support of the [Duel System]. So no longer will these children have to hold back in these battles! No longer will it end during bloodshed! Now, they can battle to their hearts content, and show us the power that they hold within them!”
“For the next 10 hours, we will host 11 events in total. The first five events will be separated into events for the rookies and for the experienced students. The final event is a unique one that does not require a team to join. The rules will be explained as it comes. So for now, everyone, welcome to the 45th [Inter-School Fall Tournament], no holds barred! Let the tournament begin!” And the entire colosseum explodes with cheers, everyone excited to finally see these battles fought without restriction.
All the participants that aren’t joining in the [3 v 3] event is brought into the underground rooms of the colosseum to wait and warm up. Students from every school occupied a huge majority of the rooms. They occupy them as teams, groups of friends, and cliques that have the same classes. Heck, even students who weren’t participating in the tournament in general were here, and students ranging from all six years are occupying these rooms. I go to the lowest underground floor and head to the room farthest from the stairs, room 7025.
When I enter the room, I turn on the lights and lock the door behind me. I pull both weapons that were being kept in my bag, and stand in the center of the room. I take a stance, before casting [Light Magic] on the room around me. It turns into a dark, icy cave that resembled the [Dungeon Master]’s room in the [Kazaric Ravines]. Shadows appear behind the thin, icy walls, and monstrous growls begin to surround me. The spell I just used is called [Replicate Memories], which allows me to recreate scenes of the past so I can live through them again. It’s not a perfect spell, there are many flaws to it, but it suited purposes related to combat practice such as this.
I aim my [Magnum] at the closest shadow behind the walls of ice, before they burst through and attack me just like that day. A [Strongarm] bursts through the wall of ice that I’m aiming at, and I fire at the head accurately before it even gets the chance to roar. It dies immediately, and I turn behind me to fire at another [Strongarm] that came through the walls. One of the flaws of this spell is that it won’t recreate anyone that has access to the [System], therefore, I can only replicate monsters in this spell. So right now, I don’t have Thoth behind me to cover my back.
I kill two more [Strongarms] before the wave of Felines come along to try and circle around me. I fire at them as well, and whenever they were able to get close, I would thrust the dagger in my left hand right into their throats and slam them onto the ground. I continue on with this manner, taking out the horde of Rats, the swarms of bats, and the rest of the monsters that came to kill me. At the end of it all, I killed over 40 of these monsters without suffering a single wound.
Now, the grand finale came. A loud roar resounded throughout the entire dungeon, before a large figure crashes through the wall of ice behind me. In front of me, light emerges from the center of the room, summoning the [Dungeon Master] of this dungeon. Before hand, I fought against the [Dungeon Master] alone and nearly died for it. Now, this time, I will slay both the [Frozen Viper], and the [Yeti] on my own.
The snake hisses at me, and right away, I fire an [Inferno Bullet] right into it’s mouth. Behind me, I hear the [Yeti] running straight at me. I turn my body around immediately, and fired at the [Yeti]’s leg using [Stone Shrapnel Bullets]. The bullet bursts mid flight, turning into a cluster of flying, stone shards that shreds the legs of the [Yeti], stopping the charge and causing it to fall.
I run up to it, and leap on the [Yeti]’s back, before thrusting the [White Edge] right into the neck and causing a deep incision. In the corner of my vision I can see the [Frozen Viper] has already finished repairing itself, and about to charge at me with high speed. Before it could, I thrust the barrel of my [Magnum] right into the incision I made, and fired it using [Fire Bullets].
Blood is a flammable substance, and considering that the [Yeti] was a living creature, setting fire to blood inside any creature’s body will cause it to combust from the inside. Of course, because it’s a [Hidden Boss], this won’t easily kill it, but it will slowly cause its body to burn into ashes if he doesn’t find a way to extinguish it. I leap off the monster’s back as the snake flies right through the area I was just standing in, and I fire at it consecutively using [Inferno Bullets], destroying a huge portion of the body along with burning the fur of the [Yeti] which was right underneath it.
The snake is shattered into several pieces, and I stop all of them from healing by firing an [Inferno Bullet] at every single one of them. The [Frozen Viper] that nearly killed me was defeated in a single minute, and I still haven’t suffered a wound. The [Yeti] that Thoth tried so hard to kill was laying on the ground, rolling back and forth in pain, unable to extinguish the fire. I walk up to it while it was rolling wildly, and before it tried to roll onto me with its flaming body, I slam the [White Edge] right between its eyes, all the way to the hilt. I hear the sound of its skull shattering from the force of the thrust, and its movements stop immediately.
Behind me, lays thousands of shards that used to be the feared [Dungeon Master] of the [Kazaric Ravines]. In front of me, was a burning corpse that was an existence stronger than the [Frozen Viper], the [Yeti]. Both of these [Immortal Tier] monsters fell in a short amount of time against me, despite the fact that I only activated one out of the hundred marks on my back. [Gun Magic] was truly a powerful thing.
The scenery around me dispels itself, and reverts to its original room which is now in a state of rubble and destruction. There were several holes in the wall from gunshots, a pile of stone shrapnel at the edge of the room, and several craters in the ground from my [Inferno Bullets]. Well, the magic I used only placed an illusion around me, it doesn’t exactly protect the real world from my attacks. I didn’t expect to deal this much damage though, to the point where I can destroy a room which is supposedly durable enough to handle a fight between two [A-ranked] adventurers.
From what I’ve been told, though, the rooms can easily be repaired with magic, so I decide to just leave the room this way and grab my bag in the corner of the room. Surprisingly, it was completely unharmed from the destruction around it. I put my [Magnum] and my dagger into the bag, and unlock the door to exit the room. Leaving behind destruction from my warm up, I leave the room and proceed to the stairway.
Every other room besides mine had a red outline on the door, meaning that they were occupied. It looks like the lower floors are finally being occupied, but I’m already done with my warm up, so I don’t need a room now. As I reach the stairs, a group of students from another school sprint down, and one of them sees the green outline of the room I just left.
“Lucky! There’s an available room for us, guys!” One of them yells, and for some reason, they begin racing to get to it, ignoring me completely. Only one person calmly followed them from behind, walking down the stairs slowly. As I ascended the the stairs, our eyes met as we passed by, but I don’t think anything of it.
“Stop.” He suddenly says out loud to me. I stopped ascending the stairs, and turn to face him, wondering what he wants.
“You’re participating in the tournament?” He asks me. I nod in reply to him, and I can see his mouth curving slightly upwards.
“Are you strong?” Well, I’m the strongest person in existence, but I can’t say that. I also can’t say I’m weaker than him, because I’m definitely not.
“…check room 7025.” I tell him, before ascending the stairs again.
As I do so, I hear the voices of the other students that raced to the destroyed room. I focus my hearing with [Enhanced Detection] as I walk up the stairs, listening to their reactions.
“Holy crap, what the hell happened in here!?” I destroyed the room, duh.
“What in the world could have possibly destroy a training room this badly?” My [Magnum], and [Gun Magic] was the reason for that.
“It’s like an [Immortal Tier] adventurer just walked in here, tore the room apart, and walked away!” Well, I’m not even an adventurer at all yet, so you’re completely off the mark.
“…that girl...” The voice of the boy who called out to me muttered that quietly, and I couldn’t hear the rest of what he said. Well, it seems like he found his answer, even though I wasn’t able to hear what it was. I stop eavesdropping on them and head to ground floor, and watch the current event in the colosseum.
It was the [10 v 10] for the sixth year students, and the [Arena] was separated into 4 smaller sections to have four matches going on at the same time. Each section had a different environment or location, which was probably created using the same method I saw at the castle for the mock battle. I watch the mayhem through one of the many arch gates of the colosseum, but watching them from the ground strains my neck so I stop.
I decide to check the leaderboards of the tournament on the [Duel System]. I recite it in my mind, and the green screen appears in front of me. Large scale tournaments with several events like these often had points to score the students and have them compete against each other on the leaderboard. Right now, two particular students were dominating the leaderboard, but they were both from different schools. [Zellaroth Orium], and [Pyrion Genada], they both have participated in the first two events, but Pyrion skipped the [10 v 10].
If I recall from [Adventurer’s Studies] correctly, points are given out by the [Duel System] based on the amount of damage you deal to the enemy team, and how much you contributed to the objective. By default, a kill is 10 points, while points related to contribution is based on the objective. Considering that these two were in the lead with about 100 points each, they were definitely stronger than the rest of their age group.
I heard Zellaroth’s name being mentioned by Peria, but I don’t recall hearing about a Pyrion. There are several possibilities of who he might be. He could be a dark horse among the sixth year students, he can be an overpowering freshman, or he could just be a total bastard and steal the final blow on every kill so far. That seems far more unlikely than the first two, but those options aren’t the only possibilities.
I can’t be bothered to think too deeply about this, I’ll just crush him if he joins the final event. That’s just how it’s going to be, and there really isn’t anyone who could possibly stop me. I may sound completely overconfident about myself right now, but confidence is important when it comes to these events. You got to believe that you’ll defeat your enemy, or else you’ll just stand there too worried about losing. Instead of worrying about that, I’d rather worry about how to kill the enemy. It seems far more efficient that way, and it was how I was in my previous life.
“Ladies and gentleman, now is the finals to the [10 v 10] for the sixth year students! Team 6 has been crushing all their opponents without losing a single one of their own, due to the efforts of Zellaroth! Team 4 on the other hand, had quite a few close calls, but they’ve managed to persevere through every battle so far with their astonishing team work! Who will win the match this time; the lone wolf, or the wolf pack?” The announcer yells with an excited voice.
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The battle field in front of me begins to shift, cracks emerging in it as the earth shifts to change the appearance of the combat area. The temperature begins to cool down, and trees begin sprouting from the ground, as the area above the arena begins to darken. The stone platform turns into dirt, and grass begins to sprout from it. The combat field has now completely transformed into a forest in the middle of the night.
“And here we are! The location for this battle will be the [Shadow Forest]! The selection already isn’t looking too good for Zellaroth, because Team 4 will easily be able to set up a trap against him!” This guy is annoying. I’d like to shut him up, but I can’t.
Both teams enter the forest through opposite sides, and a nostalgic ringing occurs throughout the arena to start the battle. The ringing was very similar to the [Bell of Atalin], which was placed in an extremely large clocktower that was erected in the previous capital. I heard that bell many times during a tournament there, so hearing it now really calms me.
“It looks like Team 4 has already begun working on an ambush, waiting for Team 6 in the center of the forest. Unaware of this, Team 6 is walking right into their trap!” I watch as this happen, and from what I see, there was a lone man leading a large group of people into the center of the arena. I assume this man was Zellaroth.
He was man with a very large figure, with red hair and a scruffy beard that looks as if it had been grown for years. Honestly, if I didn’t see him in here, I’d think of him as a blacksmith rather than an adventurer. I was surprised that he wasn’t holding a weapon, though even though he looked like the type who’d carry around a war hammer and smash his enemies to death with it.
Team 4 has prepared an ambush up, setting several lethal traps in one single area, in hopes that Zellaroth will walk right into it. It looks like their gamble was about to pay off, because Zellaroth walks right into center of all their traps and activated them. Several hidden explosions went off, and a magic trap created a pillar of fire that engulfs the man in flames. Stone spikes emerged from the ground around him, all aimed toward his upper body. Several stone walls were erected around the man, separating him from the rest of his team.
Team 4 jumped into the area within the walls, trying to determine if the trap got him. They kept their guard up, while surrounding the pillar of fire that begins to extinguish itself. In the center of all those stone spikes, all those explosions, and the pillar of fire, was a crater. Within that crater, stood a lone man with his clothes in tatters. His entire body was completely colored dark red, and not a single wound was on his body.
“Oh my god! He actually survived every single one of those traps! What a monster he is, there isn’t even a single wound on him after all of that! His body is red, though, for some reason. Is it some sort of skill that allowed him to endure everything Team 4 had to offer? He’s never used anything like this before!” The announcer yells out.
“What’s exactly going to happen now, though, now that he’s separated from his team? Right now, he’s locked up all alone against 10 other adventurers with abilities equivalent to any [A-ranked] adventurer!” Right now, I’ll search a spell that allows me to block a specific person’s voice.
“No, it’s not Zellaroth that’s locked in there with them. They’re the ones stuck in there with him.” Another announcer, who sounded much more calmer, began talking. Thank god he was here, I’d rather listen to him instead of the first guy. Anyway, what he just said was completely true. I knew the skill that Zellaroth just used. I was the one who developed it, after all. It was the skill, [Titan Strength].
Titan StrengthMultiplies and increase the caster’s strength by 50 times their original.
Due to the high mana cost, many people can’t afford to use it beyond a minute. It’s a skill that was made for emergency situations, and it can be used for offensively, or defensively to survive through dangerous attacks. Zellaroth in this case, used it to endure the traps that were set on him, but I doubt that he had the mana pool to keep it up for beyond thirty seconds. Enduring for five seconds was all he needed, though.
His skin fades back to its original color, and suddenly, everyone in Team 4 is put into a state of fear. Most likely, Zellaroth released an aura of bloodlust that they’ve never experienced before, because I can see a bloodthirsty look in his eyes as he takes a step towards the nearest person. He tries to escape, but can’t because of the stone walls that surround them. Just like the second announcer said, they were locked with him, and they were going to pay the price for it.
He ruthlessly killed all of them, making sure they all died a bloody death somehow. Having their limbs torn, using the stone spikes to stab and cut them, he even punched through someone’s chest, his bloody fist visible on the other side. Even though the [Duel System] guaranteed that participants will live in the end, I don’t think it nullifies the pain from these deaths. This was a bit cruel to see.
After this three minute scene of him killing Team 4 on his own, the bell rings again, marking the end of the battle. There were mixed reactions from the crowd. Some cheered for the bloody ending that Zellaroth gave, while others were remaining quiet due to fear of what they just saw. I was used to this kind of sight, so I didn’t really feel anything myself. During the war, it wasn’t uncommon to see a powerful demon massacre several soldiers on his own just like Zellaroth did.
After that was over, the team events came up. Neither Pyrion nor Zellaroth joined these events, so other people were finally given a proper chance to win. Though in the freshman teams, Thoth’s team was the dominant figure in the tournament. Thoth was strong, that was true, but unlike Zellaroth, she actually worked with her team to defeat the enemy. She was a captivating figure on the battle field, dancing around with a rapier in hand, defeating her enemies in a rush of thrusts. At the end of every battle, she’d wave to the crowds and get several cheers for it. She was truly a charming person, I kind of wish that I was like her in my previous life.
She participated in both team tournaments, winning both times and putting her name in third place on the leaderboards. I wasn’t very surprised to see this, instead, I was pretty happy to see her doing this well. It looked like her stats were finally correcting itself to what they should be, because her speed and strength seemed much higher than what I saw in the [Kazaric Ravines]. She still hasn’t shown her ‘secret weapon’ though, most likely keeping it a surprise when she sees me.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen! Now, for the final event of the day, the unique event you are all looking forward to, the [King of the Hill]!” The crowd roars as the field shifts itself again, changing forms to match the event.
The ground begins turning black, as random black obelisks began forming around the battle field. A pyramid erects itself in the center of the arena, which I assume is the hill, and there were stairs built into the pyramid itself to help ascend it. At the top of the two story pyramid, was a large, square arena which I assume is the area of competition.
I recognize the material for this battle field. It was [Demon Glass], a material that most demons used in their buildings. Its durability was higher than any human structure, and in order to create it, you need to have magma and [Shadow Sand], two very dangerous substances that many would dare not to touch if they weren’t a demon.
The strength required to even crack it was 1,000. When destroyed, its shards are amongst the sharpest materials found in Sykerion. Many blacksmiths have tried forging a sword with this glass material, but the material in its liquid form released a deadly poison due to the [Shadow Sand] it’s made from. There was only one piece of equipment ever forged with this material, but it costed the life of the blacksmith. It was the gloves that I wore in the battle against the [Demon Lord].
This arena was using a dangerous material for the battlefield, but no one was capable of dying under the [Duel System], and not many actually knows what the glass is, so they weren’t worried at all. All the students participating in the event are currently standing at the edge of the [Arena]. I had both of my weapons holstered, and my hand was on the [Magnum], ready to pull it out.
“Everyone from both the freshman and the sixth years are allowed to join in on this event. Here are the rules of this game mode. First, at the center of the arena, is the [Hill]. The first person to get to the top of the [Hill] is the [King]. Only the [King] can get points for killing another participant. For every second a person spends as the [King], they gets two points. When someone becomes [King], they are required to stay on top of the [Hill] for it to have any valid effect. If the current [King] leaves the [Hill], or is forced off of it, the title is granted to a random participant standing on the [Hill]. In order to take the title of [King] from someone, you need to kill the title bearer. Participants that are killed will be revived 15 seconds after death to return to the battle. The event will last a whole 10 minutes. The points gained in this event will be added on to the leaderboard scores at the end.” The announcer explains the rules, which sounded really one sided against the [King]. Suddenly, I get an idea. This will definitely attract attention, and expose my powers, but it sounded like fun to me, so I don’t really care.
Everyone around the [Arena] begins prepping themselves, ready to take over the [Hill]. The announcer began counting down to start the event, and as soon as he said one, the bell rung. Instantly, every participant began sprinting straight to the hill, using every method they can. But when the first person reach the very bottom of the hill and look up, he was completely shocked. The same reaction came to every other person who reached the stairs. Even Thoth’s expression was that of surprise.
“What just happened!? There’s already someone at the top of the [Hill]!? It’s only been five seconds since the bell just rung!” So the announcer can be heard by the combatants? That sounds stupid. Maybe it’s exclusive to this event.
“Who is this mysterious girl!? She has not participated in any of the prior events, is this the first time she’s entered!?” He yells.
“It appears so. This girl is from [Krystalis Academy], who has an unknown reputation among the students. Her ability in combat is also unknown, the only thing on her profile is that she’s capable of magic.” The second announcer says calmly.
“Let me see that! Okay then, I got her name! Right now, the first [King] of the [Hill], taking it over on the sixth second since the start, is Aria Brynhildr!” He really does yell too much, this guy...
What he said was true, though. Right now, I stood at the top of this pyramid, staring down at every other combatant below me. At the same time, I released my [Aura of the Heartless], an intimidating aura gives a warning of immediate death to all those that approach. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Zellaroth or Pyrion were joining in this event, so I couldn’t destroy their pride. But right now, I have about a hundred other students, all ready to be massacred upon reaching the top.
As I stand at the top of the pyramid, I pull out the [BLC-90] holstered on my belt, and aim it down the pyramid at the boy who arrived first. I say four words slowly, and emphasizing each and every one of them. These four words will remain true until the end, and it will be how I show my resolve to everyone watching.
“I. Am. The. King.” I pull the trigger, fully prepared for the 10 minutes of bloodbath that's coming up.
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Sorry about no updates yesterday guys, I’m considerable busy during the week ends. I’ll try to get 2 or three out within the next 2 days, so stay tuned!