‘’Huh? The building that collapsed? I didn’t notice the people inside at first, but I was naturally aware when I looked for Travis. They were all alive, though. Why you ask?’’ Justin said with a confused expression.
‘’You didn’t notice them but you knew the damage that move would cause, and that there might be people inside,’’ Ethan stated. ‘’And even after you saw the victims of your actions, you did nothing to help them.’’
Justin stared at him for a moment, not knowing what to say. ‘’Ethan… Are you one of those guys with a hero complex?’’
‘’Hero complex? I think your understanding of heroes is a little skewed,’’ he said, getting a little angry. ‘’I actually hate heroes. They are self-centered bastards who impose their own point of view on everyone, using righteousness as an excuse, which is just another bullshit concept that could be expounded variously under different conditions. No. What I’m talking about is being mindful to not hurt others and taking responsibility for your blunders. This could only count as being decent. Don’t you think?’’
‘’Well, at least you’re not that bad,’’ Justin said, leaning on the armchair. ‘’Let me ask you this then. What could I get by being mindful to not hurt others and taking responsibility for my blunders?’’
‘’I don’t know,’’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘’A clear conscience? A better world?’’
‘’My conscience is always clear. Even if those guys were to die, they’d join the Elisium just like one day I would. Even if they lived for a decade while I lived for thousands of years, why does it matter? We would all be dead. One of your problems is that you overestimate death. All living beings are born and die constantly, it's no big deal. And the weak have no right to blame the strong, that’s your other problem,’’ Justin stated, ignoring Ethan’s dark face. ‘’If I were to change, if everyone in the Elisium were to change, do you think it would make a difference? No. The vast universe would just continue the same pattern. The strong always prey on the weak. It’s the rule of nature. So, no matter what you do, you can not create a better world without creating better people. Then why bother in the first place? Why fight against the tide?’’
Ethan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘’I fucking hate unreasonable people. Let’s forget about your clear conscience that is caused by a lot of fucked up ways of thinking. I didn’t say, a better world, because I want to create one. What I’m talking about is being a decent human being, remember? Have you ever heard the saying, change yourself before changing the world? The only thing we’re responsible for is ourselves. You asked, ‘what could I get?’, can’t you instead ask; what would I lose?’’
Justin stood up with a smile and walked over to him before putting his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. ‘’You’re definitely not the type I hate, but I guess you lack experience. Let me change my question. Why should I bother when no one cares?’’
Ethan gritted his teeth, but before he opened his mouth Justin interrupted.
‘’Your girl is coming up. I’ll let you have the room. I hope one day you unburden yourself from the troubles that don't belong to you.’’
Ethan watched Justin’s dissolution into the air speechless before turning at Beet with a defeated expression. ‘’What more could you tell someone like that? He is not a bad person, but his ignorance is making him worse than the evil villains, and I have a feeling that these kinds of people are the norm at higher tiers. It’s like talking to a wall. What else is there to do?’’ As he lamented to the confused mantis, he remembered the words Evelyn said when they were on their way to the Wish Well.
‘’If you are strong enough, everything you say gets listened to, everything you do leaves an impact. You might even change the priorities of the people who live at the top.’’
Ethan shook his head with a bitter smile. Is that what they need? A good ruler? A tyrant?
With the knocks on the door, he came to himself and opened it up.
Candice walked in with a smile. Other than a few small cuts on her robe, she was in good shape. ‘’Are you okay, Ethan? What happened?’’
‘’Yeah, I am. Just had a conversation with someone which gave me a headache, that’s all,’’ he informed and forced a smile. ‘’I did watch your fight, though. You’re pretty good. I’m not sure about the top 10, but the top 100 is almost guaranteed.’’
‘’Thanks! My opponent wasn’t that good, I hope I’ll keep being lucky like this,’’ she said and gaily made her way to the chair. ‘’Did you watch the fight at the second stage? I didn’t pay attention, but everyone was talking about that when I was coming up.’’
‘’Yeah, a monster-blood with damn good archery skills. She was a bit predictable but those skills were really one of a kind. Though, I didn’t see the end of the battle either. I hope she fights again soon.’’
They chatted about the contestants leisurely, and Ethan tried to teach her how to look for a weakness, but it wasn’t something that could be proficient in such a short time. Not to mention, without fighting himself, it was hard for him to detect too much.
This time Candice stayed for a bit more than half an hour before it was her turn again. Like this, she came and went constantly, sometimes happy, sometimes haggard. The time she matched with a guy about whom Ethan warned many things, she actually finished the fight in under a minute and was on cloud nine afterward.
Meanwhile, Ethan watched every fight with bored eyes, but he noticed five people that he had no idea if he could take on. They were all hiding their true power and still didn’t have a battle that’d make them go all out.
Ever since coming to this world, he mostly fought with monsters. At first, he was terrible at it. Even the average fighters like Oliver or Nuvian were better than him, but as his experience grew, he started to get used to it. He still didn’t consider himself a good hunter, but the progress was clear.
Regardless, he was kinda missing the times he’d fought against humans. The spars with Michelle were all close calls, and they both had their fun, but if he were to use his skills, it’d be over no matter how many bracelets he wore.
So, he couldn’t help but wonder; how would it be to fight these five while going all out? Justin was right about one thing. Pushing himself against people like this would be a great opportunity for breakthroughs, but he would rather fight them when no one else was watching.
[Fabric Tear] and [Shadow Spikes] were the perfect skills for sudden attacks and they worked best when the enemy had no idea. While [Blink] and [Void Wrap] were excellent sneaking and escape skills, once again, if the enemy was aware of these skills, he’d lose all the advantage.
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Ultimately, no matter the breakthroughs, showing his worth in front of the masses was a loss for him. Maybe I should corner these guys in an alley and ask for a spar. I bet Michelle would approve.
By noon, the top hundred were decided. Among them, more than half of them were coming from the influential families of the free cities, but strangely, Ethan learned that only one of the five he was watching belonged to a big family, while the others were strangers to the locals.
Candice also managed to stick around, but the battles were getting heated. Ethan guessed that the top fifty was possible for her, but any more depended on her luck. She still didn’t use any potions but started to meditate and fill her reserves whenever she could.
Just as he was about to go out to search for some food from the stalls, he noticed that two of his favorite five matched against each other. Intrigued, he sat back excitedly and got himself a beer.
One of them was a spear user with a metal element who so far beat everyone with a few moves, while the other was a petite girl and a terrifying earth mage. The judge gave the signal and their battle started. The boy charged directly, but at every step, he encountered a different obstacle. As he avoided a bump, there was only a hole beneath his feet. He used a movement technique to change his position, but the hole widened, covering a large area.
Without any choice, he fell into the big hole and tried to jump right away, but with the new movements on the ground, his jumps were pathetic, barely a foot high. All the while the hole was changing shapes, covering his way outs and trapping him inside.
Ethan’s eyes lit up as he watched. An elemental! There is no way these are separate skills. I wonder if I could use [Blink] inside of that hole. She’s playing with it like an extension of her body, it should be all covered and blended with her mana.
Despite being like a fly in a spider’s web, the boy was still calm and collected. He started attacking the ground with his spear. It was affected at first, but once the earth spikes entered the equation, he had no choice but to go all out.
His armor thickened layer after layer until it was practically a mech suit, almost at the size of Abraham’s golems. The spear also got bigger to match the size and he started his destruction without holding anything back.
Just above the giant hole, the girl was still standing where she was. She moved her hand to make a grabbing motion and snake-like earth constructs started wrapping the mess of metal. More of them appeared only to merge with the existing ones and make them thicker and more solid.
Once the arm which held the spear was restricted, the wrapping process increased ridiculously. In ten seconds or so, she managed to bury the guy completely, but she was still applying mana to the ground to make it more resilient. Since she wasn’t able to penetrate that armor, the only thing left was to keep him under there to suffocate. The moment she let go, the guy would have freed himself. But how long could they keep this up? Ethan had no idea.
It looked like the judge had some ideas because he announced the victory of the girl, and the crowd went wild with cheers and screams.
He stood up and passed by the meditating Candice to look for some food while thinking about how scary elementals are. I think she would block my [Blink], but the [Fabric Tear] is a good way to fight her. And although she is quite strong now, wouldn’t she be weaker if we’re all above tier-5? Or maybe she could create some small mound and fly around with it? What about the boy? Can I penetrate that armor with Devi? Whatever the case, I need more variety of skills to fight weirdos like these.
Shortly after, he returned to the booth with ten different skewers. Each of them had three different juicy meat and even more vegetables on it. Seeing that Candice was awake, he passed the plate promptly. ‘’Try it. It’s so good that I already talked with the guy to buy in bulk. I’ll be stocking these like crazy before my trip.’’
She took one with a smile. ‘’Trip? Where will you go?’’
‘’Oh… I’m leaving tomorrow for Mirasatra kingdom. It’ll be a long while before I return.’’
‘’I-Is that so?’’ she asked, her smile falling a little. ‘’Is it something urgent? I could’ve shown you around if you stayed more.’’
‘’It’s both urgent and not, but the more I delay this, the more I’ll be anxious and stressed,’’ he said with an apologetic face.
‘’T-Then you should go,’’ she said, biting her lip. ‘’M-Maybe you can come back after handling your business?’’
‘’I can’t promise, but if I return, I’ll make sure to visit you.’’
Her face brightened a little along with her badge. ‘’Ah! Another one. I’ll be back right away,’’ she said, running away. ‘’Leave some of that food for me!’’
Ethan sat in his seat and saw that with good matches coming up, even Beet started to watch with half interest. He also felt a bit sad about Candice before shaking his head and murmuring to himself, ‘’She’d get over it in no time, a week or two at worst. In a few months, she won't even remember my name.’’
On stage 7, one of Ethan’s favorites was fighting against a bulky monster-blood. It was an unlucky match because the monster-blood had some kind of fire immunity, and the fire was the other’s primary way of fighting. Still, even after losing this advantage, the guy didn’t seem to be losing. With his bare hands, he was giving a good beating to the guy whose muscles were even scarier than his mighty-looking horns. What’s more, the slippery blond guy, who was enjoying himself with a smirk, looked like he was still hiding more, to the point of making Ethan focus more to see if he was holding back punches.
The loud cheers of the crowd woke him up, he turned to look at Candice and found her lying on the ground with a hole in her chest. Horrified, he immediately [Blink]ed next to her. The injury was fresh but half of her heart was gone. Just when he fetched his emergency high-grade potion, Candice’s eyes became lifeless. He still made her drink without a delay, but it did nothing.
In shock, he kept kneeling next to her without saying anything and waited for her to wake up. She had a look in her eyes like she wanted to say something, but nothing came.
Only the words of the referee reached him, ‘’I said get out of the stage!’’
Ethan didn’t move. He started thinking about alternatives. Could master Ruth save her? Katherine, maybe? Anyone? Realization slowly dawned on him. Nothing, there was nothing he or anyone else could do.
Among the loud noises of the spectators, her killer spoke in a mocking tone. ‘’Maybe he wants to fight? He is at tier-3 right?’’
‘’Last chance, get out or I throw you myself,’’ the referee said, irritated. When Ethan didn’t respond, he pursed his lips and glanced at the other guy. ‘’Make it quick, then you can rest through the next match.’’
The guy licked his lip and took a step toward Ethan. A [Fabric Tear] appeared in front of his face and a [Shadow Spike] penetrated his eye, reaching into his brain. On his second step, he collapsed to the ground, and the crowd started cheering even more.
The referee was mildly surprised, and added casually, ‘’First warning for the kill. Next time, you’ll be disqualified.’’
Just the claps and whistles from the masses were enough to make Ethan crazy, but the casual tone of the judge pushed him even more. He stood up and turned back with a twisted face as his [Mana Aura] flared up. ‘’Say it again.’’
The tier-5 referee took a step back, while Ethan took a step forward and called Devi. ‘’Go on, say it again.’’
He was intensely staring at the lips of the man, but before their movement, Justin appeared next to the guy, and with the back of his hand, he slowly nudged him. ‘’Go take a break.’’
Ethan’s crazed eyes locked on Justin, but his next words managed to calm him down.
‘’You should bring your friend’s body to her family.’’
Family… Right, the family she fought for. He hesitantly turned back and stared at her for a moment. In a daze, he stored his dagger back and gently picked Candice’s body up, carrying it to her family.