The instructor guided us to an outdoor arena area. It was in the shape of the modern colosseum, and had a few powerful looking Magus in the seats. After briefly surveying my surroundings I turned my attention to the instructor.

“As I said earlier we will be testing the applicants in ability in this portion of the application process. We have a detailed list of each of your powers, so we have set up an area for each contestant. Some of you will be tested in single combat, others in solo exhibition. It will completely depend on the powers you have discovered thus far, and the ability with which you have used those powers in the past.”

He waved his hand, and several copies of himself sprung the ground. Each copy grouped people together, and led them to other areas. Most people were in groups of two, but some were by themselves, and a few were in large groups.

I was coincidentally in a group with just Garren. The instructor led us over to a small table, where a chess set was already set up. It was interesting to watch him play. He seemed more interested in protecting his pieces than taking mine.

The plebeian was actually giving me a run for my money. At one point I sacrificed my queen to take out his queen and a rook, but he took a pawn and bishop right after. The game ended in a tie. Garren rubbed the back of his neck.

“Ya know, I never had someone that could get a stalemate with me. It’s kind of a new experience to not win. But like muh dah always said, ‘Humility is the foundation of a good mage’. I guess I got too arrogant right there. Sorry about that.”

I looked at his with a thin veil over my scornful feelings. The pathetic cretin actually thought it was because of his skill that he tied!? HA! Right when I went to challenge him to another match the instructor came over.

“Alright you two, time for the next test. Both of you know two of your magical abilities. Go now and test them against each other. The battle will continue until one contestant forfeits, or falls unconscious. No killing each other.” He showed us to an area that had a wide area open. We were amid several other fighting pairs.

I took a ready stance after procuring two short swords from him. Garren only took a small dagger. Is this boy under estimating me? Is he gloating? Does this little dung heap think because he tied with me he can win a real battle!? Oh how wrong he is!

From the time I could hold them, I was taught to fight with a medley of weapons. My favorite was the twin-blade style. It boasted one of the highest offensive and defensive capabilities if one had the mindset. We were placed 100 feet apart, so as to give us time to prepare our respective magic.

As soon as the battle started he pointed his hand at me. I began running at him at the highest speed I could. My magic abilities didn’t help unless I could come in close contact with him. The two magics I knew were pure life magic, and pure blood magic.

By giving me the ability to regenerate these were the magics I obtained. Normally your passive ability is based on the magical abilities you had, but in my case the magical abilities seemed to be based around my passive ability.

Pure life magic allowed me to delve into other peoples life force, and use my own to heal them. Pure blood magic allows the user to steal mana from those around them. I needed to use my blood magic to take the mana he had before his life force replenished it. That would guarantee my victory.

I began to feel heavy, but I only decreased my speed a little bit. Whatever he was doing wasn’t working as well as he wanted. As I got closer I began to feel heavier. Anger began to boil up from the pit of my stomach. This charlatan thinks to outshine me!?

I put all of my strength into running towards him. He was obviously having a difficult time keeping the magic up. His body began to shake as I got closer. He was increasing the gravity! The closer I got the more he increased it. Each step felt like a hundred. Though skinny I had trained in places with higher gravity before.

Stolen novel; please report.

One such place was the ‘gravity well’. The alleged home of the Precursor of Gravity. It was a series of tunnels that spiraled towards a central point. The gravity there was such that it increased the further you went in.

Though my muscles were lacking compared to some of the others in that abominable place, my passive ability kept me going. My muscles refused to build after a certain point. Jerald wasn’t sure if that was because of my passive ability, or some other result of the modification he had done to me while I was in my mother’s womb.

I learned early on that I could still push my muscles passed the point that normal people could. It might have been because I no longer feared the pain at that point, or it might have been that I would just regenerate the muscles once I pushed them too far and they tore.

The idea was that I could hold my body upright, and still walk forward, until the gravity was about five times as much as usual. The most the tunnels went to was 100 times. At least that was the highest anyone had managed to get to.

The Garen kid was doing something similar. He was increasing the amount of gravity around me, it seemed controlled. The grass that was five feet in all directions of me was flattened, but that was it. The gravity slowly increased as I got closer.

The closer I got, the more he increased gravity. I didn’t know if that was because he was trying harder to get me to go down, or if he could only produce greater effects at closer distances. It was a battle of wills. One I refused to lose. He was rapidly growing tired from sustaining his magic, and the magic was getting too heavy for me to continue in.

Garen knelt as the magic began to become too much for him. I was only ten yards away from him, but walking was getting almost impossible. The gravity was so intense my vision began to narrow. I could only see a few feet ahead of me. Just keeping my eyes open was tearing them eyelid muscles dozens of times a second.

I quickly pictured the arc I would need, and threw one of my swords. Throwing the sword took the rest of my energy. I fell down just as I witnessed the sword sink into his abdomen. He fell as I did. Then everything went black.

I awoke while two men were picking me up. I shook my head to clear it, and looked around. Several healers were pulling the sword out, and healing him at the same time. I looked for the instructor. Determined to learn the winner.

When we locked eyes, he shook his head and smiled. “It was a tie. You both fell to the ground at the same time.”

Indignation consumed me. There was no way this little ball of nothing could come close to how great I was! There was no way! I just smiled and nodded though. Never let them see you mad. Never let them see you anything but superior.

I gently shook myself free of the people that were ‘helping’ me stand up. The filthy mongrels. Why was everyone so obsessed with touching me? Do I have a sign on me that says: I’m lonely please touch?

I promised myself at that point to destroy Garen. Utterly and completely. If I don’t then it might get spread that I’m not the best. I won’t have that.

Still though, it has to be said that I did not condone murder or anything underhanded. That would just start rumors of me being sly. I wanted to appear as innocent as possible. Jerald no doubt knew I was lying, but to all others I had become an introverted, kind, and compassionate warrior mage.

I smiled at the two people that were holding my arms. “Thank you. I’m alright now. I give my thanks to you for your assistance.” I nodded slightly at them, and walked up to the injured person.

By placing my hands on the wounded Garen, I began to heal him. My mana was exceptionally high. I used a tiny portion of it to instantly heal him, after carefully pulling the sword out of his gut.

I decided to wait with the healers near him until he awoke. That way I seemed like a good advisory instead of a sore winner. I had to keep up appearances.