"This should be good enough right? I mean, it's pretty tough around the edges, but it's job is to cover myself, and it should do that just fine."

I finished inspecting the wooden mask I had made from the wood of some random tree I cut down and put it on my face. It was no masterpiece—it didn't even have any special patterns—but at least it shouldn't attract too much attention.

I was currently moving north without any specific destination, although I had asked [Olden Knowledge] for what cities were on the way to the frontier, and one of them was the second most populated city in Fairland, other than the capital.

It was called Illisium and was basically the heart of the country's military, with a huge section of the city especially meant to train Sacred Corps and the Holy Knights that led them.

They apparently had quite a lot of controlled dungeons inside the city (or below it, I guess), and they used the endless supply of monsters to quickly raise the levels of the weaker troops until they were strong enough to go out on extermination missions all throughout the country.

There was even a place called the Illisium Tower where they trained up Grace Bringers, which were basically healers, to send them along with the Sacred Corps or even squadrons of Inquisitors. Sometimes they stationed them at cities to heal the people too, but they always charged extortionate prices.

Anyway, I was debating whether or not to go there. Of course, it was a completely stupid idea and seeking my own death, but it might also be my only chance at getting a class in a long time for, you see, throughout the whole of Fairland, Illisium was the only place other than the capital with a Class Crystal, at least as far as I knew.

It had been frustrating me to no end not being able to get past level 10, and I really wanted to change it. Attributes didn't really matter to me a lot right now, since I could only improve the magic-related ones and that didn't mean I'd be able to use magic without tutelage, but I did want to get some proper combat skills. I was dead tired of fighting by stumbling all over the place and randomly swinging a blade.

'I mean, I could always wait until I get out of Fairland about a month from now and then pay to use a Class Crystal at one of the big cities of the bordering empire...'

That was the conclusion I had arrived at after extensive umming and arring, but the question I asked to [Olden Knowledge] that day made my plans do a comete 180.

It had been a fairly obvious and vanilla question;

"[Olden Knowledge], what's the fastest way to get a class?"

But the answer knocked my nonexistent pants off.

The fastest way is participating in the Tournament of Grace, an annual event held at Illisium where masses of civilians at level 10 gather for a chance to get a class. They have to go through three different challenges, and there are always 8 winners. Other than a class, they also get to choose if they want to join the ranks of the church. This year's tournament will happen in three days.

"Oh, my dear [Olden Knowledge], I love you so, so much! What would I ever do without you!?"

I was extremely happy, but after the first bout of delight, I did my best to calm myself down, as I had to think about the viability of going there.

I already knew the general direction of the city, but I had no clue of how far away it was, not of how fast I could go.

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Lastly, even if I got there, I didn't know if it required some sort of identification or what the security procedures were, not did I know what the trials would be about.

'Well, I'll leave those questions from when I can ask them. For now...

I just gotta run.'

And so, I ran.

I dashed through the paths, cutting through woodlands and rivers to not deviate from the shortest path. I sped through grasslands at a speed not unlike that of a cheetah (or at least that's how I felt like), mercilessly cutting through the air and zipping past any and all stupefied local wildlife, killing the odd monster that appeared here and there.

My mana reserves rapidly exhausted themselves from the continued usage of so many enchantments, but I fixed that by dumping 40 points into Capacity, making it reach well over 100, and another 40 into Intelligence, more than doubling it. The effects were apparent, with me gaining a much more minute and detailed awareness of the now much bigger amount of mana inside me, constantly being condensed inside my core and flowing out to all the enchantments in an endless loop.

I was a bit saddened by the complete depletion of my saved-up attribute points, but it had to be done.

Now was not the time to hold back.

My actions were proven correct when I was finally allowed to ask a new question to [Olden Knowledge] (It refreshed every midnight) and discovered that I was currently a bit under 400 kilometers away.

I still didn't know when exactly the tournament was, other than that it would be the day after tomorrow, but if it was in the morning, I was pretty skrewed.

My mana regen wasn't quite enough to offset what it took to run at max speed, so I had to stop to recharge for about an hour twice a day, but all the rest of the time was spent dashing forwards.

The night turned to day and the ball of fire once again gave way to the moon, and I was finally allowed to ask another question to [Olden Knowledge].

"What is the latest I can arrive at Illisium and still be able to participate in the Tournament of Grace?"

All the participants will have to be gathered at the Charred Hill, just south of the city, by this sunrise.

"Well FUCK ME! There's no way I'm making it! There's probably still over 150 kilometers until I get to Illisium! Getting there in 6 hours? It's just not doable!"

I said that, but I hadn't slowed down for even a second. I racked my brains, but the only solution I could come up with that would give me any chance at all of making it on time was leaving by my backpack in a secluded spot and gunning for it with all my might.

'Fuck it, I'm doing it. I'll just come back to pick it up later. Let's see...'

I found a fairly heavy boulder at the edge of a forest, dug a small pit and stashed my 50 Kg backpack inside it, summarily covering it up.

As I was leaving, I saw a horned bunny pop its ears out of its burrow, and as a test, I assigned it as a neutral unit with [Map].

Much to my delight, a yellow dot appeared where the rabbit was, something that would allow me to know where my bag was at if I was withing 20 km of it.

'Neat'

As I thought that, I was already sprinting at full throttle, much faster that before thanks to both my decreased weight and my ever increasing familiarity with this bod—with my body.

I did my best to shorten the distance between me and the city, and it finally popped into my [Map]'s range just when the horizon was beginning to turn orange.

I redoubled my efforts, but I hadn't even bridged half the distance when the sun started popping up to my right.

But, out of unwillingness, out of sheer frustration, I did not stop. My mana reserves were dwindling severely, but I could not just give up now.

And, yet, my heart shook at the scene that unfolded before me when I got past the last hill.

A line, easily containing a hundred people, stretched in my direction, slowly moving forward. And at the front, quite far away, a guard was doing some sort of test and letting almost anyone who took it through, to a giant space with completely blackened soil and where almost a thousand people were gathered.

Then I remembered. I didn't have to reach the city at all, just a place called Charred Hill which was south of it.

And, by the looks of it, I didn't even have to arrive before sunrise.

'Dammit, [Olden Knowledge] you bitch! You tricked me! After all the love I've given you, you treat me like this!? This will not be the last you hear from me!'

While I had a fit of childish rage inside my mind, I obediently lined up at the end of the line, waiting for my turn to come as I regenerated some mana.

'Well, I shouldn't complain too much. Judging by the fact that barely anyone else arrived after me and that I'll only have to wait for about 10 minutes in line, I wouldn't have made it had I not left my backpack behind. Still, that was pretty anticlimactic.'