Now that I had aura, the group stage was too easy.

Well even without it, my opponents weren’t all that hard. If these people were easy to fight against then would the rest of the tournament be easy?

That first fight though, where I was knocked out so quickly, I don’t think even with aura I could’ve won that. If that guy didn’t win on his first run through, then it’d be concerning. I didn’t have any way of knowing what happened.

I was teleported back to the arena after the group stage ended and stood there with three other people who must have been from the other groups.

“Welcome group stage winners. You have successfully moved on from the group stages and won’t return to them. The rest of the tournament will be explained once we have a change of venues.”

It was the same woman who gave the instructions the last time

She never introduced herself though, or she did, and I just forgot about it.

She snapped her fingers; we were suddenly in an enclosed room. There was a large chalk board behind her on a wall with a bracket drawn out.

“Alright, lets go over this quickly.”

She pulled out a pointer stick and points to the lower rung.

“Now that you’ve exited the group stages you will be slotted into the gaps in our current line up. If you make it past the round of sixteen, even if you lose in the quarter finals you will have cleared the floor requirements.”

She smirked.

“But you will not get any rewards if you can’t even make it to the semi-finals. If you lose in the quarter finals you will be given the choice to join the next round of sixteen. You can try as many times as you want, but if you win in the finals you are immediately taken from the floor to the rewards room.

“Any previous attempts made will not be taken into consideration when your rewards are calculated after you chose to leave us. An idiot before you asked a stupid question… so I’ll give an example. If you lose in the semis, decide to stay and try again only to lose in the quarter-finals and give up, the fact that you had made it further last time doesn’t matter.

I heard the person to my left mutter something in common that I didn’t understand.

“As before there will be down time between your fights. Until you lose you will remain in the stadium quarters. After you lose you will be randomly slotted into a new training ground. This will be the same one until you leave the floor. Is that all understood?”

I nodded and she snapped her fingers again.

We were now in a slightly similar waiting room to the one from the group stages.

This one was much larger. The ceiling height was pretty standard, but the size of the room itself was hard to tell. The distance between the wall nearest to me and the one across from it was about the same as the last room but it was the walls in the opposite direction that somehow felt nonexistent. Between me and the wall across from me there were two stone pillars, and there was one behind me. There were lanterns attached the walls at seemingly equal distances but as the walls extended at a certain point, I just couldn’t see them anymore. There were also ones on the pillars but I couldn’t see them at a certain point either. It wasn’t like There was a large amount of people in the room.

In total it was about thirteen, and after we had teleported here, they started spacing themselves.. No one seemed to know each other, or if they did, they were hiding it. . I found a spot of the room that was pretty far from others and took a seat.

While I got the gist of the circulation that Cyrus explained, I hadn’t gotten very far in it. Only the points in my wrist were opened slightly. And even though I could isolate the feeling of the aura in my legs I couldn’t move the two at the same time.

Working on just the ones in my arms seemed enough for now, at least. I hoped that they would naturally open up more while I fought. I wanted to show Mezu how cool I am. I missed the little guy, I hope my aura paths opening doesn’t mess with the taste, but we wouldn’t know until he tried it and let me know.

I didn’t know where I was placed in the bracket, and unlike the group stages there wasn’t a board in the room anywhere that I could see telling us that information. After it seemed that the crowed had thinned a bit, I heard a soft ding before being teleported.

The arena was rather loud, and it was much larger than the previous one. How did they manage to fill this one too? Was the audience just an illusion? …. Did that even matter though? If the noises were simulated or real, it didn’t change the fact that they were really annoying.

Across from me stood a human holding a short wooden staff. They gripped the staff and as soon as we heard the ding of a bell he started speaking.

I sprinted at him.

When I go close, I unsheathed my blade. With an upwards clean slice, I cut through his staff and into his chest. The crowd roared even louder as my opponent collapsed to the ground. Three dings sounded, my victory. And just as we got there, we teleported away.

I was back in my spot as if I had never left.

I didn’t even use aura, I just got to him fast enough. How did mages make it far if they couldn’t cast fast enough?

I didn’t even have time to sit back down before I was teleported again.

This time I stood across from a human with a great sword. I really hoped I could test my aura against some physical enhancement mana.

“What a small thing to fight against,” The guy said laughing.

I guess he thought my muscles were too small. Height wise though, I’d say we were pretty similar.

His muscles were considerable, and they really seemed to fit with his whole get up. He was shirtless with just a strap around his chest for his sword sheath. His face and body were heavily tanned, and he had a shaved head and a thick beard. He wore tight yet lose shorts, they were really tight at his knees but seemed pretty loose otherwise. Did he just steal them from someone? Why wouldn’t he use something that fits?

“I hope you’ll make this even slightly fun.”

I felt something strange in me, I really couldn’t put a name to it, but it was new.

I gripped the hilt of my sword and as soon as we heard the ding, we lunged towards each other.

I encased my sword in aura and swung up as he swung down at me with his sword.

They slammed into each other with a force that made my muscles tremble. He chuckled and pushed down against me.

I held on, much better than I was expecting and as the ground beneath me started to feel like it was succumbing to the force, I felt my sword jerk upwards slightly.

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I didn’t get a chance to see why because he pulled his sword away and kicked at my stomach throwing me backwards.

“That’s some solid mana you got there kid, I haven’t met someone who broke through mine in quite some time.”

He grinned.

I got up from the ground as he came at me swinging from the left this time.

I caught it with my sword digging my feet into the ground more deliberately.

I pushed more than earlier against his blade focusing my aura on the length of my blade that was in contact with his. As I pushed, I felt the sword give a bit but before I could get even further into it, he tried to pull his sword away.

I glanced at it quickly and saw that it was pretty wedged in there and saw a crack forming right above where I’d hit it.

As he pulled, I felt myself get pulled along with it.

Weird.

I dug my feet into the ground more and gripped my sword as tightly as I could with one hand before covering my other hand in aura and slamming my fist into the sword at the crack.

“Oi you little-“

He put his hand on my shoulder to try and get some leverage to get his sword back.

I swung and hit it again as I felt my sword slip slightly from its position.

He threw himself backwards slightly and my sword came completely lose. I fell onto my back since my feet were firmly in the ground.

I tried to recover quickly and pull my feet from the ground, but I heard three dings to signal that the fight was over.

I looked around and at him to see his sword completely broken in half. There were cracks going down the bit still attached to it. The crowd roared.

“Much better than the last fight we had with this scrawny kid wouldn’t you say crowd?”

The voice rang out and the crowd cheered in agreement.

There was an announcer? I looked around trying to find the source of the voice but didn’t see anything. Had they been there before?

“Alright let’s move on to the next quarter finals match!”

And I was back in the room.

This time though I sat down and worked on my circulation. Luckily, the gap between fights was longer and my circulation was able to become a bit smoother. I hadn’t broken through anything else but after clearing out my wrist points it didn’t move as jittery as it had been.

The pressure at all my other points was annoying but I was getting used to it just being there. I couldn’t wait till it wasn’t there at all, but I don’t think I’d clear it out that quickly.

The next time I teleported I stood across from an elf. They were tall and thin with long hair and a blade neatly tied at their waist. I couldn’t tell their gender though; I haven’t seen a lot of elves in my time, and I wasn’t expecting to see many in the tower. This one must be young, though.

They raised an eyebrow at me before placing a hand on their hilt.

“It’s the second and final round of the semi-finals! We have two sword users here, though I’d say one of them might not be considered that with how his last fight went. This is where the excitement is finally!”

A small kid ran out into the ring with a flag and held it up.

“When the flag drops the match begins, Cheser, will get out quickly don’t worry.”

Even though the announcer said that the kid was trembling.

“3… 2… 1!”

Cheser dropped the flag and turned, sprinting away. I didn’t move though; I knew their comment was about me, so I didn’t want to go head-first into a loss. I just took my blade out and stood ready.

“Let’s get this over with.”

They pulled their sword out and ran at me swinging their blade sideways once they were within reach. I parried covering my blade in aura.

If they were surprised at all I couldn’t tell, and they came at me again with more force.

I was able to block their moves somewhat consistently but there was never a chance for me to counterattack.

The more I blocked the more effort it took to cover my blade with aura. My muscles started to ache but there was a new much deeper ache-like feeling in my wrists.

I knew I didn’t have much longer in me to fight, not that I knew why.

They swung upwards and across my body. While stepping back to avoid as much of their blade, I caught it thinking I had put aura into my blade, but I couldn’t hold strong against it.

My arm gave away, my blade slipped, and their blade slid into my chest. It was a large gash that wasn’t so deep that he hit my ribs. A familiar uncomfortable feeling of wind on open flesh distracted me long enough for him to follow up with a slash in the opposite direction.

There wasn’t anything for me to do to stop him and with two gashes like that there was no reason for me to continue fighting.

I still wasn’t sure which was faster, the floor’s healing mechanics or my own blessing. Finding that out in front of an elf probably wasn’t the best choice. I don’t know how they determined the winner, all I thought to do was drop my blade and hold my hands up.

“And not a surprise, the trained wielder bests the rookie! Let’s give him a hand!”

The crowd cheered and I was teleported away. This time I wasn’t back in the room but in a stone-walled bedroom.

It wasn’t bricks or stones stacked with purpose, but it looked more like a solid rock surface. I looked down at my chest and felt the familiar healing process. There was a slight delay before the healing changed and I could feel it moving quite a bit faster. I don’t think I was able to tell the difference before. I did feel more in my body than I had in a while. I don’t think there really was an effective way to describe it but I was just aware of the difference. I at least knew that it was different than before.

It was clear now that my healing started faster than the floor’s mechanism. Which means, if someone was paying attention during our fight, they would be able to see it. If the elf managed to notice, I just hope I don’t run into them again.

My body was exhausted though, even if I healed quickly, I wasn’t going anywhere just yet. That deep feeling I had, could now be associated with my aura pathways. I think I’d heard of mana exhaustion before when you use too much of your core. If aura and mana are different, would it still function the same way?

Cyrus explained mostly about awakening my aura and just briefly about circulation. He didn’t mention anything about being exhausted, or whatever I was feeling.

If you were in a life and death situation maybe you would manage to break all your pathways open and have full access to your aura. The theory would be that you’d want to survive so you’d push yourself past the breaking point.

With this floor’s healing, my healing ability, and with the fact that Alcoroth wouldn’t let me die, I guess it wasn’t actually life-threatening enough for that to work. There probably wouldn’t be a point in time where that would even happen. It’s a shame, it’d be so much faster to do that than what I’ll have to do.

It still didn’t make sense though I felt my aura now and the amount didn’t seem any different. I tilted my head to get a better look at my arm and turned my sight on. It was a bit hard to see my aura, but the amount I could see was enough for me to notice something.

The aura in my arm that’s blocked away was glowing much stronger than the aura in my wrists and hands. It’s a shame, if I had been put back at the first training center, I could’ve asked Cyrus about it. Now I was in this new place.

I turned back, staring up at the ceiling annoyed with my tired muscles. That elf must have been using mana to augment their strength, otherwise, I don’t think I would’ve been this tired after fighting them. Even after a whole day of training with Cyrus I never felt this tired.

I guess Cyrus hadn’t been trying to kill me like the last two people were. The floor would’ve stopped things before I died, but fighting without having to worry about killing your opponent just made it more unlike the spars I did with Cyrus.

Come on idiot think, we can try to figure out why we’re so tired.

I stared up at the ceiling and nothing came to me. This was just frustrating. I used to think aura was for muscle-brained idiots but Cyrus’s comment about circulation being a bit intellectual kind of changed that for me.

I mean we figured it out and I learned it in the most dumbed down way possible.

Ughh.

Screw it, stop trying to think about it in a smart way. Think about it in the dumbest way possible.

My muscles are tired because I don’t have enough stamina to work that hard for that long. Maybe it’s just the same for my aura. I’m just not used to using it that much and for so long.

A good long sleep and I’d feel better.

Only problem is, I’m not tired, like I wouldn’t be able to just sleep. Yeah, sure my muscles were tired, and my aura pathways ached but that wasn’t enough to put me to sleep.

I groaned and sat up.

I still had my daily task to do, maybe I’d feel tired after doing that. If I could even do that.

I left the room and went down the short hallway. With a solid wall a foot from my door on the right it wasn’t hard to know what direction I needed to go in. I only passed one or two more doors before the hallway ended and it opened up into a small dining space. There was a door at the wall opposite me with daylight shining through the small window set in the top of it.

I went through it and stepped outside and found myself in a crater-like place. The setup otherwise was similar to my past place but just surrounded by tall rock walls. The sky was clear, and the sun was just about to head over the far rock wall.

I looked behind me and saw that the door was just set into one of the rock walls. A lot different than the last place and even quieter. I was alone here, well no other contestants, at least. Since Cyrus was able to leave his place, I guess if there was someone in charge here they could leave too, so I didn’t want to assume just yet that there was no trainer.

Either way, I was alone and free to do my extremely entertaining exercises. Halfway through when the light from the sun no longer reached any part of the crater lanterns all around the space lit up.

Was I that oblivious that I hadn’t noticed them before?

I looked around to see where they were and saw an earth-kin sitting in a chair just outside the sparing ring.

“Hello there.”