The following fighters fought valiantly, but collectively couldn’t take down the ruthless warrior that was Warin.

Arthur was the final fighter to remain, wrestling him with every ounce of strength that he had left. Cael even used the last of his mana in the form of a mana stream, invigorating him and allowing him to resort to even more energy blasts.

Warin was hurt by the blasts since that his armour had been worn down by Cael and previous damage.

However, he wasn’t even close to being defeated. Slamming Arthur into the arena wall and launching a dual blast of green energy at the fallen warrior, he was left down and eliminated.

Regardless of their loss, as the medics rushed into the arena, the crowd applauded their efforts and even Warin nodded at them all with respect as they were being pulled out the arena.

Cael was surprised by his face of praise, because he seemed like he had no care even for their lives.

It was now clear to him that he was just fighting in that way to make sure that he could see the very most from these fighters. They really left it all in the ring, as all of them were either gravely injured or far too exhausted to continue.

Cael couldn’t even activate his powered gauntlets if he didn’t want to run the risk of freezing up his exosuit.

The fighters were simultaneously healed, and the event was brought up to a close.

The fighters and watchers were given some nice souvenirs of the event to take home with them, along with the quarterfinalists being given a special feast for themselves.

The parents were in the room with them to praise their efforts, while Uncle Asher watched on with envy as he couldn’t try out any of the food on display. Cael could almost feel his piercing gaze on the back of his head, along with his grunts of dissatisfaction and just chuckled as he ate.

“You know what, you actually did some good work there. I mean, how could a Breckenridge be weak, there was bound to be something inside you waiting to be revealed.” Avery said to Cael, stuffing a mouthful of giant chicken into his mouth.

With the advancement of technology, humans were able to genetically modify animals to the level where they could form chickens about as tall as legs, along with cows that resembled minotaurs from their massive, fatty muscles.

“Thank you. I guess so.” Cael replied, genuinely grateful for his respect.

“Well, you’re not all that.” Preston quickly said to the two, receiving more support from the other banqueters.

Cael wasn’t a fan of such disrespect, but could tell that there was a hint of acknowledgement of his power. Most people of Preston’s type would mock him with far more hurtful, contemptuous remarks, so this somewhat neutral comment meant progress was being made.

After this long, tumultuous event, Cael returned to his hotel room and fell to sleep soon after, exhausted from the intense battling of the day.

Upon waking up, it was soon time for him to return to Carlo City but as he was packing up his things, he was met with a few notifications from his system.

[Quest Complete!]

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

[New Title!]

[Warrior I]

[Ability Upgraded!]

[Ability: Lv. 2 Extra Profit]

[The user receives gears from matches within the vault, within all game modes and the number of gears received are higher for matches of the same difficulty and quality.]

[New Item!]

[File: introduction-file-key.wcmKEY]

Upon seeing these notifications, Cael was then surprised to see that his projector was suddenly activated once again.

In his downloads folder, he could see that something had happened with the previous file that he received from the helmet fragment.

The two files were no longer displayed individually but displayed in a folder, now holding a single file.

This introduction file that he believed was the key to unlocking the original file now no longer existed, with only a single file remaining.

[File: introduction-files-for-system.wcm]

What followed then, was a new projection from his projector as the file was automatically run without any interference from him.

“Hello there, system user. If you’re managing to see this video, I must say that you have made astounding progress.” An old, croaky voice commented.

In this hologram, all he could see was the upper half of the person that he deduced was the creator. He had long, white hair with incredibly wrinkly skin, along with a long white beard and even long eyebrows.

“The reason that I can’t thank you in person is because of those that are scared of my expertise. They wanted me to hide this system – they wanted me to destroy it! Now, that you have this power and are continuing to harness it, beware of the threats that will soon come to you. I am terribly sorry that I cannot be there to protect you.”

“However, with this system, you should be strong enough. Within this file will be information about various theories of mine, along with a useful prototype. Keep on advancing your abilities to see more about my marvellous creations. You will see me again. Creator signing out!”

As he said this, the message fizzled out into nothing and vanished. As this message was removed, the folder contained various new text files with different titles.

[File: book-1-mana-fusion-reactor.wcmTEXT]

Cael felt a little overwhelmed about all of this information. What was he supposed to think about people soon coming for him because of his system? I mean, it was a technology that eclipsed every other creation that he had seen in this world.

It didn’t surprise him that this creator managed to acquire many enemies. He was more than grateful to himself for hiding this system of his so that others aware of the creator wouldn’t associate himself with him.

This allowed him to stay covert and to continue advancing his powers in secrecy.

Hearing from this creator made him want to actually see him so that he could thank him for transforming his life. However, from the style of message he wouldn’t be surprised if he was killed not long after recording that.

Not letting himself get bogged down in his deep thought, he moved onto the list of files now displayed in this folder. He clicked on the first file listed, which had the unique file type of wcmTEXT.

Upon opening it, it did resemble a text file but had some unique formatting to it. It managed to contain several videos and separate projections, even though he was just running it using a simple notepad-like application.

This sort of technology fascinated him, and made him excited to continue reading the text that was being displayed.

The initial part of the file explained how, in ancient times, the idea of nuclear fusion was discovered after an event known as World War 2. It was a time before the technological revolution – there was a great divide between life before that point and life after.

Pretty much everybody, including Cael himself, after that technological revolution had grown up around tech. Those before lived more traditional, industrial lifestyles.

The scientist went on to explain what the idea was, which Cael was vaguely familiar with from his studies many years ago. Those foundational studies didn’t give him a very good idea of what it was, but he could understand the idea quite well from how it was being described to him.

Throughout this section of the paper, there was a hologram showing two atoms of hydrogen fusing together to then form helium, which was incredibly detailed and almost looked real in a way.

What followed was basic description of mana; this was something that Cael was far more versed with. Being in a cadet institute, this stuff was his bread and butter.

After, Cael started reading on and was blown away by the theories that were being described. As he continued to read on, it only made him question just how smart this creator had to be to come up with such innovative ideas.