Throughout the Baronies, I had gained a lot in terms of Attribute levels, but the gains in Skills were average. In comparison, it had taken me two weeks to level up from Level 26 to Level 28 before the competition began. In the last four days, I had managed to gain nearly three Levels, shooting from Level 28 to Level 30. And I was two Attribute points away from Level 31.

The biggest gainer was [Vitality], gaining four levels to rise to 28. I attributed the majority of those levels to the amount of beating I had taken in the fights, which had been a lot. The higher up the Rounds I got, the more the beating I seemed to be receiving. My last opponent had had me dropping my Health faster than I had ever seen it drop. Then there were the crippling injuries I was receiving for the first time; the arrow through my torso, the near severing of my hand, not to forget the mangle incident. Though that hadn’t been during a fight, it had still contributed to the [Vitality] gains.

Next up was [Constitution] with three levels to 31, that was easily understandable. I had been under constant exertion since the competition began. The fights were not as long as the hours I spent working in the farm back in Yange, but they were just as taxing, if not more so. If I understood [Constitution] properly, then not only were the constant fights helping gain the levels, but also the body’s efforts in recovery from such abuse was also helping push it ahead. If the trend continued so, I might make it past level 33 in [Constitution] before the Baronies were over. That was under the assumption I made it to the finals, and the last two opponents proved even more of a threat than the ones I had already faced.

Then came [Endurance] with two point gains. I had thought with how I felt the previous two days, [Endurance] would have gained a lot more than that. But it seemed I needed to be pushed more for it see any more substantial gains. But I wasn’t that concerned with it yet, I had yet to meet anyone with a considerable edge on me [Endurance] wise. The one who had had higher [Endurance] had gone through it faster than I went through mine, I still thought of that as a win for me.

[Wisdom] too had gained two points. The new Skills had to come from somewhere, and [Wisdom] seemed to be the Attribute for that. Even after all the reading I had done, [Intelligence] had not gained anything. I guess reading on how pretty to make a shield isn’t considered a point [Intelligence] wise. Seriously, with a Mana-reliant opponent next, I should have really tried to understand shields a little better. But I was weak to cool pictures, and I had seen some cool pictures of shields. If only I could recall if those where mere decorations or actual shield properties.

[Agility] was at the bottom of the gains barrel, together with [Strength]. Somehow, I had managed to gain a point in [Strength] through my encounters in the arena, even Clare had claimed it to be an arbitrary gain altogether. The fights had somehow pushed me to employ more and more power from my muscles, which translated to me gaining the necessary experience in them to eventually gain a point. Clare pointed out that I wasn’t anywhere near gaining another point that way. If I wanted to make actual gains in [Strength], I would have to put in the work necessary for that. I had already decided to work on it after the Baronies, so that meant that it would have to continue waiting.

[Fast Dash] was in a way working against me in terms of leveling up. Every time I felt the need to push myself in terms of speed and agility, [Fast Dash] was always employed instead of actually pushing myself. And it was understandable, I was in the middle of a competition; I couldn’t afford to go for an inferior Skill when I had a more potent one that could work way better. But [Fast Dash] wasn’t all encompassing, and I had gained experience in the dexterity side of [Agility], helping it level up. Albeit by only a single point. Was that how much my opponents had pushed me? Had no one made me twist, turn, duck, jump, and all the other things that would be considered [Agility] experience?

But as I went through them in my head; the twists, turns, ducks, jumps, and the others, they sounded a lot more like the Skill [Acrobatics]. Had I somehow redirected some of the experience I could be gaining for [Agility] into [Acrobatics]? The two shouldn’t be so closely entangled, there should be a kind of individuality, things that set them apart from the each other.

Speaking of Skills, I had only gained the one Skill throughout the competition; [Enhanced Hand]. And even it didn’t feel like a new Skill at all. Some aspects of it where present in the Skill [Staff Strike], and others came from [Fast Dash]. If I looked at it that way, I didn’t really gain any new Skills in the competition. And not for lack of trying.

I had tried all the new cool things I had seen other fighters do, to no avail, chief among them was the retrieval Skill of the archer. The shield Skill too was another attempted but failed Skill, but for that one, I blamed my easily distracted mind by pretty pictures. If I had actually read the appropriate areas of study during my sting at the library, I was sure I could have managed something, it might not have been as strong as Shota’s, but it would be better than the ones I already had.

Some of my Skills had not even gained anything at all, no matter how much I used them, the biggest culprit being [Staffs]. I mean, come on, I used the damn stick in all my fights, from start to finish, if I could. If I expected any Skill to gain a lot during the competition, [Staffs] had been it, but it had laid dormant. A lot of my Skills had, no matter how much I used them. I still didn’t understand what the issue was, nor did I have the time to do an in depth research on what might be the cause.

Some though had seen gains, especially the newer ones. Skills like [Enhanced Hand] had skyrocketed to level 6 in a short period. [Fast Dash] had seen similar gains, going from the arrival level of 6 to 8. [Acrobatics] had even fared better, from 4 to level 7. Most of the others had either gained nothing, or just a level.

The same was happening with the General Skills, only [Mana Manipulation] had gained anything. And that was only a level, or maybe two, I couldn’t recall, but it didn’t seem to have gained much to me. My new General Skill, [Health Regeneration], had gain nothing, still stuck at level 1 like the baby it was. I had yet to see any of its supposed benefits. I was of a mind to lose it and take [Stamina Regeneration] instead.

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I would do some research on the matter before making a final decision. But if [Health Regeneration] didn’t contribute as I expected it to, then it would vacate the spot for [Stamina Regeneration].

…

My fight was scheduled for later in the day, with the first semifinal taking place in early morning. I had planned to spend the time in the Junior Arena preparing myself for the upcoming semifinal, but the group convinced me to watch the first semifinal. After all, if I somehow managed to win, I would be facing the winner in the finals. And if I lost, I would be facing the loser in the fight for forty golds.

Oki was still complaining about that, five days after we had learnt how the competition would go. Apparently, during the previous competition, there had been no fight for third place, and the two losing semifinalist had only gotten a meager fifteen golds. He claimed that he would have proved that he was good enough to be in the finals by defeating the other semifinalist.

We were currently in the Main Arena’s special viewing area, yes, the one for special people. The competitors were part of that group, the others being Sjuma’s Council Officials, six of them, and then a noble and their family. I never asked what they were, their title, name or holdings, or even how they fit in in the whole Barony of Sjuma.

“Is this where you were during all my fights?” I asked Paul. He had admitted to having watched all my fights since he lost, which was only two. “I had always pictured you in the terraces with the other spectators, screaming and oohing as I got myself beaten up.”

“For someone who is in the semifinals, you talk about being beaten up a lot. I don’t think that would be the case, otherwise you wouldn’t be.” Oki said, four seats to my right, and directly behind the noble’s family.

The viewing area had two rows, with the second row on a raised terrace behind the first. The noble’s family occupied the first row, together with the Council officials and some of the competitors. They must have heard him, cause one of the children turned their head to look at us. A boy, if I was right, around ten years old. He swept his gaze over the five of us, probably looking for the semifinalist. I shuffled in my seat, leaning back and slouching. I waited until he looked forward again before I could answer.

“Wait until you watch one of my fights before making that statement,” I hurriedly whispered to him. I don’t think he heard everything, but I was sure he got the gist of the message.

“They should have had your fight first,” Tes said.

“No. This is better; he gets to study the fight style of his opponent. Win or lose,” Lina countered. “The competitors in the first fight will not be able to watch the second fight.”

“That isn’t necessarily true. If they finish up the fight fast, and don’t spend too much time in the recovery room, they might make it in time to watch the second fight,” Oki offered.

They continued on with their conversation as the announcer introduced the competitors. I had missed the early part and only began paying attention as they took their potions from the healer. I had always taken all the offered potions, as much as they could let me take, and I was yet to see anyone do it any other way. Unless they were filthy rich, I didn’t know why else anyone would pass up the chance for a free potion. I had not learnt the cost of potions, especially the ones we received for the fights. Another thing to add to my list of things to research about. Maybe selling the saved up potions could earn me a few gold coins.

The contrast between them was telling. Dawkins was a big, big heavily armored thing, in shiny gold and bright blue, or was that silver on green? The light was playing tricks with me. And of course the cleaver was still there, being swung around like it weighed nothing. At least, he didn’t have a shield on him, but that didn’t necessary mean a Mana shield wasn’t accessible to him. His opponent was a small lean thing, wielding two swords from what I could tell and they didn’t appear to have that much of an armor on them. Maybe light armor? It was all black, even the headgear, with the silver of their swords as the only other color on them.

The black figure began circling Dawkins as the announcer called the fight. Dawkins turned in a small circle, keeping the black figure always in sight. And then they moved, and the crowd roared.

I nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard that. Other than the announcer’s commentary, it had been relative silent that I had forgotten that I was in an arena, with thousands of spectators there to cheer on their favorite fighter. It was a stark contrast to what I felt while in the arena itself, and I was glad all that noise was kept out of the arena. I would have lost the first fight had I been hit with all that noise. It was loud and incomprehensible, and through it all, the announcer remained loud and clear. The workings of that public address system was something I would love to unravel.

And in the arena, the two fighters were clashing mercilessly, with speeds that left them nothing more than blurs of movement to my eyes. I rubbed them a few times, checking to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Yap, definitely real. There was no way I moved that fast, not even with [Fast Dash]. Looking around, everyone was watching as if it was all normal, making side comments as the two fighters engaged and disengaged.

There was nothing for me to comment about, other than the fact that if my opponent moved just as fast, then there was no way I was winning any more fights. Had I somehow been thrown in the weak group? While the big names went to the big leagues? Was that why we had been thrown into the so called Junior Arena?

“What’s wrong?”

I turned to Paul then, he must have noticed my horrified expression. “Too fast, them.”

Great, just great. Even my wits were leaving me. And Paul looked confused by that statement, throwing the newly engaged fighters a glaze. Wasn’t he seeing what I was seeing? The two had to be going at super human speeds. Dawkins was visibly slower, but his reflexes were fast enough to avoid the lethal attacks from the black figure.

Looking closer, even to my untrained eye, it was clear that the two fighters weren’t on equal footing in terms of skill. The black figure was clearly a better fighter. His armor and sheer size were keeping him in the fight, but Dawkins was clearly struggling. And as the minutes stretched on, it became more and more clear.

The black figure was easily dancing around Dawkins. Slash after slash were offered as they dashed in, weaving around Dawkins’ cleaver as he tried desperately to fend them off. I couldn’t even tell whether they were using any Mana attacks or defenses in their confrontation, to me, it was all physical. A big sword and armor, versus two small swords. Speed versus strength.

“I wouldn’t be able to keep up with that speed.” I finally managed a coherent sentence.

“I would say that wouldn’t be a problem for you,” Paul said, returning his attention fully to the fighting duo. “Maybe even faster. And I’m not talking about your Skill.”