Jude watched the other duels and was quickly getting a better understanding on how Wizards fight and the skills they used.  But wizards weren’t the only class that was here.

On the other end of the field, he found Valice fighting some other wizard.  Shaman magic seemed to be more wide spread and area of effect rather than a single target.  But all the same, Valice was holding her ground well.

Looking for others, Jude found that Jorgan finished almost as quickly as he did.  This was a little disappointing as he would have liked to see how Jorgan fought. 

Not long after, Jude found Morcheron.  Morcheron was the exact opposite of Jorgan; he was purposefully drawing the duel out.  Morcheron’s magic was different than most other water element mages.

It looked like Morcheron stood in the middle of a sea rather than on a small block of marblite.  He was defended by waves that would rise up out of the water to block his opponent’s attacks.  Not that his opponent had the opportunity to attack as waves of water were continually overturning him.  Normally, this would have knocked him off the dueling block, but Morcheron would create another wave from behind to counter balance the push from the first wave.  Not only did this keep him on the block but also caused more damage to be inflicted.

Morcheron was torturing his competitor.

The wild glee on his face made those watching feel sorry for the victim and even scorn him for his methods.  But Morcheron wasn’t bothered by it in the least.  He was too caught up in the ecstasy of his actions.  But at the same time, he wasn’t completely overcome by this feeling.

He noticed Jude watching and with a movement of his lips Jude heard a whisper in his ear, “See what I’m doing with this one?  You better pray that I don’t meet you in this fight.”

Somehow, Morcheron remembered Jude’s face and that he was with Jorgan, but somehow completely forgot his name.  This all made Jude smile; he couldn’t wait to see Morcheron’s reaction when he found out that he was actually number one on the seed list.

“It’s your luck that Yorik is in charge of this competition. Otherwise, I would have arranged for you to be my next sacrifice.” Morcheron continued.

Jude was curious at how Morcheron was talking to him from such a distance so clearly.  There were still quite a number of duels happening around him, which generated a bit of noise.  Not to mention Morcheron’s magic sea was quite noisy as well.  Yet Morcheron was able to whisper so precisely to Jude; he figured it had to be some sort of skill.  He began to examine his Modicuit to see if there was a reaction when Morcheron spoke next.

“Then again, it would be an honor to lose against me.  Besides, just one of my lackeys would be enough for you.”

Jude felt a ping ring through his Modicuit, but it wasn’t on the regular skill layer that had been burnt.  Nor was it on the layer that worked on.

“But I doubt you will last long enough for one of us to put you in your place.”

Now Jude was getting a handle on where it was coming from.  worked on a plane above the standard Modicuit.  But this was on a plane below.  Using the fluctuations of magic as a beacon, Jude narrowed down where the plane was.  His consciousness arrived on another layer of the Modicuit that Jude had yet to find.

“What could a country hick like you do anyway?  Don’t think that some unique class will get you anywhere.  I’ve personally buried a few myself.”

This plane of the Modicuit was much darker than the other ones, and it was harder to determine the circuitry lines.  But with active likes flashing, it wasn’t hard to find the skill that Jude was looking for.  Circulating his mana through the circuits revealed their full layout of the basic skill.

[Unlocked Whisper common skill]

Morcheron slapped his forehead, “I forgot you are a country hick and you don’t know how to .  Ha ha, do you even know what is?”

Jude activated the ability and clearly sighed through the connection, “Could you be quiet?  You are only embarrassing yourself.”

“What?” Morcheron was both angry and surprised. “How am I embarrassing myself?”

This last part came out as a shout, and nearly everyone heard it, but apparently, Morcheron himself didn’t realize what he did.

“Besides the fact that you are one of the last ones still dueling in the first round,” Jude stated, “You also have to move your lips when you .  Are you some sort of amateur at it?”

It was only then that Morcheron noticed that Jude didn’t think so much as open his mouth when he whispered back.  Only years of practice could someone get this good.  But he also looked around and saw that most of the other duels had ended. 

Morcheron’s face turned red, and he waved his hand causing a wall of water to envelop his opponent, sweeping him off his platform.

Jude wouldn’t admit to Morcheron that he was right about one thing, he just now found out about .  But with his ability to analyze the direct source of magic made him able to completely understand the magic on a level that Morcheron could only dream about.  And for Jude, it only took a few seconds.

“Was Morcheron to you?” Jorgan asked through a whisper of his own.  From his point of view, it was clear that Morcheron was shouting at Jude and guessed that Jude laid down some sort of insult.

“Nothing more than a buzzing fly,” Jude whispered back.

Jorgan laughed, “That he is.”

***

Up above the arena field, in the judge’s podium, stood Yorik and the other elders that managed the competition, plus a few aides.

The elders had broken up into small groups quietly discussing the duels down below.  The majority of the people here were from the Wizards Guild and the Court of Wizards.  Almost all Wizards belonged to the guild in one fashion or another, but only the truly exceptional would enter the Court of Wizards.

Those who lived in the Core City where naturally the ones that would one day lead the wizards or Riwa in the Court of Wizards.  People like Morcheron and Jorgan were being carefully paid attention to, to see how they would rank against the others.  Of course, each small group on the podium held their own favorites.

The Court of Wizards was well aware of all the upcoming magical talents in Riwa and other countries.  People like Valice being seeded was no surprise to him.  But what did surprise him was a nobody who gained the maximum score.

He could even hear the grumblings from the other wizards on the podium.  No one wanted to lose first place in their own competition, especially to someone that they didn’t know about.

Yorik tapped a few runes, and a red light flashed in his eyes.  His eyesight changed to allow him to see the names above all the competitor's heads.  His skillful eyes quickly found Jude, and he wasn’t surprised that the already finished the first round.  But it still disappointed Yorik a little; he wanted to know what kind of magic Jude specialized in.

What was strange was that Jude didn’t have a last name.  Was he a commoner?  But how could that be?

“Get me the information on this Jude,” Yorik commanded a nearby aide.

The aide returned quickly with a marble like an object and handed it over to Yorik.

Yorik squeezed down on the device and trickled a bit of mana into it.  A small screen of light appeared before him showing the person’s name, class, and titles.  Seeing the titles, his eyes widened.

This Jude was no simple character.

The last few titles had him the most worried.  Demon Slayer and Heroes of Longdale meant he played a pivotal role in defeating the demon upraise to the south.  Anyone would commend these actions, but then there was a strange title at the end.  Unconventional Conqueror.  Yorik was unsure if this title would spell doom or not, for this young character named Jude. 

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Any title of conqueror would be meet with rejection from any kingdom who wanted to keep their borders.  But every time he thought about the title and Jude, he was befuddled by the strange context of the title itself.  Perhaps this title didn’t mean the usual ideology of conquering.  Maybe it meant something else.  Yorik wished he knew how Jude got this title and what it meant.

(Reminder: Unconventional Conqueror has a befuddling effect)

Yorik put the matter of the title aside for now.  He could always look into it after the competition.  What was important was that Jude was a resident of Riwa and not another country.

“Yorik,” a middle aged man came up to him, one of the younger people of the Court of Wizards, “Have you investigated this Jude yet?  We are all very interested to know.”

A smile shown on Yorik’s face as he turned around, “Do not worry everyone.  This young lad is from our own Kingdom of Riwa.  He seems to have been involved in suppressing the demon invasion last year and has a unique class I have not heard of before.”

A few questions were asked of Yorik, but he didn’t expand much on what he already said.  There were too many factions here vying for power.  Inside the Court of Wizards, many wanted to get their hands on the , and each backed their own candidate.

There was no way he was going to tell them what Jude’s titles were as Yorik wanted them to expend their resources in trying to lure Jude in.  Once they found out his titles, they would be left with wasted effort.  Even if this fellow managed to win this side of the tournament and earning the , the Court of Wizards wouldn't settle for it.  They would put pressure on the Artemer Court to seize Jude and his assets for his conquering title.   Or they would offer Jude the safety of the Court of Wizards for the low price of the .

Regardless, Yorik planned on being ahead on both fronts. 

Many in the Court of Wizards believed that the clues to a deeper magic could be found from the shard.  History showed that the shard was from some ancient broken quest chain that could no longer be completed.  But legends said that the shard itself was an artifact of divinity.  Divinity!  The legends weren’t the only reason why the wizards wanted this item.  Yorik himself once visited the dark vaults of Geonar’s Castle.  At the time he had seen the shard but didn’t know what it was.  Its outward appearance didn’t look anything special, but those of the Archmage level could tell otherwise.  The legends were in no way false.

The other wizards up on the podium were starting to get agitated.  They were already starting their plans on how to rope Jude in.  Yorik wanted to smirk but made no moves of his own.  Once he did, the others might figure out that something was wrong with Jude and Yoriks plans would be for naught.  Instead, he continued to watch the competition.

***

Jude couldn’t help but yawn as the second rounds started.  His high spirit stat meant that he could stay away with no problems for a day or two without feeling tired.  But he already had done that quite a bit over the last month getting his staff ready.  And this day wasn’t much better.  He had spent the whole day passing test after test, and now it was already the night, yet it still wasn’t over.

Another two rounds, only two. Jude reminded himself.  Then it will be over.

The white cubes reorganized themselves, and now Jude had two cubes to walk on.  In front of him was his next opponent who also had two cubes.  This guy wore dark robes of black and gray and a hood that completely shadowed his face.  Jude could only see a bit of skin on his neck, and it looked like an unhealthy shade of gray.  All his other skin was completely covered.

The duel had not yet started, so Jude used to see what kind of magic this person used.  Dark magic unsurprisingly covered him like a fog, but Jude was able to see past that to the magic behind it easily.  What he saw there was… strange.  It appeared to be death magic.

Or it is necromancy? Jude pondered.

The man spoke in a graveled voice and initiated the dueling sequence.

Jude had wanted to test some defensive magics but was unsure if he should do it against someone with death magic.  Testing against direct damage was easy and straightforward.  But death magic would be a little bit trickier.  He wondered if he should just push this one off straight away like the last one.

Jude accepted the duel and immediately launched a powerful strike with .  But before it hit, a wall of bones erupted from the ground.  The two skill clashed causing a shower of bones to rain down everywhere.  The bone wall had successfully neutralized Jude’s attack but didn’t survive either.

So it really is a necromancer, Jude thought to himself.  Necromancers were an advanced class of Wizard, but one rarely seen in Riwa.  Jude knew that one of the southern kingdoms had a strong necromancer presence, but even there, people tend to disdain them.

The necromancer started frantically waving his hands as skeletons clawed their way out of the ground.  Since he survived Jude’s first hit, Jude decided to test out his defense ideas.

Frist, he wrapped himself in a formed from his bracers, then he overlaid that with .  His real goal was the . 

When was watching the fights from the first round, he noticed that all the contestants of this level had a rather high ranking in the .  This, along with other types of defense magic, proved to be a real barrier against most offensive magic.

defended mostly against but could also be used to reduce other damage types.  But what Jude wanted to know was by how much?

Jude had combined and before and it provided to be an excellent defense.  But he still wanted to know how good was by itself.

A group of skeletons closed in fast surrounding Jude.  Their bony hands were like claws as they scraped at him.  Jude had done nothing, so the necromancer was becoming confident.  Casting another spell, he launched a bone missile at Jude that contained frightening speed.

Jude watched the whole process with little worry until the bone missile was launched.  The skeletons couldn’t get passed his .  Their strength was incredibly weak, and each swipe they took was redirected by the telekinetic power of his armor spell.  The missile, however, had incredible power and was too quick for Jude to dodge in time.  It easily passed through the and even burst the , the remaining bit of power that it had left wounded Jude.

Wizards didn’t have a lot of HP and Jude wasn’t an exception.  In contrast, they had a high amount of damage that they could put out.  It wasn’t rare for a wizard’s duel to end in one move.

Jude drew out his sword and a erupted out destroying the buzzing skeletons around Jude.  The with another flick of his wrist a shot towards the necromancer.  In return, the necromancer lifted a gloved hand and snapped his fingers.  Jude instantly recognized that these gloves were a magical item embedded with a skill.  This thought was soon confirmed as the bone wall erupted once again from the ground.

The spark hit the wall and burst into flame.  This time the wall held, but that was only because a different skill had been used.  Now that the bone wall was covered in flames, Jude smirked as he used to launch himself up into the sky.

Much like he had done against the Barbarian, Jude launched a multitude of new up in the air, then back down to the ground.

The necromancer hadn’t noticed any of this as he had been sending death bolts over his wall, the bone missiles apparently lacked the flexibility to go around the flaming barrier.  Unfortunately, these death bolts passed by harmlessly while Jude was still up in the air.

Jude landed back on the grounds as the necromancer was finally able to force dispel his bone wall.  The fire from the had made it more difficult as the flaming wall was no longer solely made up of his magic.

The necromancer was surprised that Jude escaped his barrage of death magic unscathed and still had yet to noticed the falling from above.  But Jude couldn’t blame him for that; there was simply too much magic be cast with all the duels going on.  But he decided to be a good sport, and he pointed up so that that the necromancer could see his doom straight on.

Apparently, the necromancer had been silently chanting his next spell, as he looked up to see the sparks falling down he finished it with a shout, “!”

Thick chunky bones grew out from behind the necromancer encasing him in armor fashioned like a skeleton.  But in the end, it was useless, as the dozen converged into a wave of terrifying power.

From Jude's perspective, the bone armor seemed to boost the necromancers HP and resistance to magic.   The armor could have successfully repelled one , but against twelve of them, the damage was just too much.  This was the advantage of an item skill.  It could be cast so fast that multiple spells could overlap.  The disadvantage was the lack of flexibility, but since Jude had created these items himself, that disadvantage did not apply to him.

The duel ended with Jude the winner and the necromancer with a charcoal exterior.  The damage was superficial because it was a duel, so Jude didn’t worry about it.  But even so, a medical team rushed over and carried the necromancer away.

Jude looked around and found that he wasn’t the first one to complete the round this time.  Both Jorgan and Morcheron had finished before him.  Jorgan’s expression was a little surprised, and Morcheron scowled.

“That sword is amazing,” Jorgan whispered to him. “I didn’t expect it to be able to cast so many times in a row.”

“Yeah, it’s not half bad,” Jude commented back.

“But won’t you lose all of its charges for the day if you use it like that?” Jorgan questioned.

“Charges?  What is that?” Jude asked.

“What?! You created that sword and didn't even know what charges are?!” Jorgan nearly yelled out loud.

He paused for a moment to regain his clarity, “Weapons with amazing skills like that all have a limited amount of charges.  Weaker ones like scrolls can only be used one to a few times before they become useless, but higher grade items can be used a number of times each day.  How can you build such an item, yet not know this basic of a thing.”

“Ah, I see what you mean.  My scrolls only last five to ten times before I have to recreate them. But this-“

Jorgan interrupted Jude, “Your scrolls last five to ten times?!”

Jorgan was especially shocked at this news; most scrolls only last a single use.  Only the highest grade of scrolls could be utilized more than once, but for ten times? Even five times would be considered the best of the best, but ten times was astronomical.  Jorgan was very thankful that he befriended Jude rather than what Morcheron was doing.

Jude continued, “Yeah, but my weapons don’t use charges.  They use mana like regular magic.”

“…” Jorgan was speechless.