"I should have done this before... System, all assistance modes down!" With his shout, the world around him suddenly changed. The constant updaters filling his vision disappeared, as did his sense of security and power.

Without the system, he was really nothing in this world. Yet, he realized it was where he had to start. He would never be able to make progress if he wanted to stay where he was with magic. Tier 4 could not be his starting position.

Pushing his hand out and envisioning the simple triangle that was Floga's spell module, he mumbled the word, "Floga," and nothing happened. Not a spark, not even an itch.

Yet, unlike last time, he kept at it. Kept trying to envision the spell module as perfect as he could and cast the spell. Unlike Eldrian, a Magic Crystal had given him no help in doing this. It had not pulled his mana out of him, like now, nothing had happened.

'Which means I am missing something. Is it the race?' Constantin thought, but did not rush into trying to make another avatar. Instead, he decided to continue trying for some time more. Locking himself up and doing his best.

...

Joining the others in Elizabeth's virtual home, Eldrian found that the air felt heavy. Everyone was clearly upset, but no one was arguing. Instead, the air was dead quite.

His appearance didn't change this, and for a moment Eldrian joined them in the silence.

"We did out best, next time!" Zyviss broke the silence, pumping his fist into the air in decleration.

"Yes! Next time!" The others joined him, and after quickly everyone got over the loss.

It wasn't like they had ever expected to really make it as far as they have. Unlike most of the teams that had made it thus far, they were just a thrown together team. The others were more professional, clearly focused on trying to win and supported by a guild.

While guilds themselves can't do much for a team, a group of people behind a team would still massively increase what they had access to.

"Now, Eldrian. Where are we going to drown our sorrows?" Therdul asked, catching the poor man off guard. Luckily, he had asked his sister already.

"My sister recommended Silver Glade. It is a mix between a club and a bar."

"Then, let's go!"

"No, not yet." Nikki pulled back the dwarf, "We should at least watch the next match first."

"But that is not until the afternoon!" Therdul complained.

"Exactly, it isn't even noon yet."

"Right, right." Quickly Therdul backed down as he realized he was setting a bad example for the younger ones. "Hey, are you guys going to join us?"

The two thought about it for a moment, but decided against doing so. They both felt their time was better spent in the game. And that was precisely what they did.

...

In the game, Eldrian was not even a quarter done with his journey, but he was almost there. Taking a rest to give his trusty steed some time to recover, Eldrian took a short walk to also get over the shakkiness over his entire body.

'There are actually quite a number of beasts.' He noted, having fought of three and just run away from dozens. Those he had fought had caught them by surprise, luckily, none of them were strong. A quick spell or thrust was enough to end them in most cases.

'Luckily they were all loners thus far, but it can mean trouble.' Eldrian thought, continuing to try and learn the Tier 3 version of Frost Needle, Konos Pagou. It was tricky, and he couldn't concentrate fully while riding. Hence, his practice time has been limited.

He could get the spell to form, but not cast.

Attempting it again, a ice cone around the size of a fist form before him, but once it was done forming it shattered into thousands of pieces. 'So, was that too little cold or too much?' Eldrian wondered, attempting it again and this time changing the amount of dark element he added.

This time, the cone didn't shape correctly. Small, droplets of water formed on the sides and froze. Making its appearance nowhere near as clean as it was supposed to be. When it finished forming and was launched forward, it shattered on impact. An improvement, but not right either.

'Well, time to get moving again.' Eldrian thought after failing three more times. He wasn't in a rush to master the spell, and in fact he was also experimenting with trying to improve weaker spells. Thus far, no success. But he felt he knew what he was missing, he just couldn't figure out that last piece.

Eldrian took a break to watch the second semi-finals. The fight between Zinopia and Dragonfly was intense, but ultimately the versatility of Zinopia allowed them to win in the end. All their members being able to fill two roles was just indispensable.

More time passed, and the finals also arrived. Like before, Eldrian took a break to watch the finals, but for two reasons this time. He had reached the Chaos lands and had to wait until the next day. He knew how dangerous nights were in this part of the world, and he didn't want to get stuck there at night.

'It will be close, but I should make it if we don't rest.' He thought, making sure that his steed was well rested for tomorrow was also important.

The finals was quite the show, Agrerian focused on the defense and their two assassin players poisoned three of Zinopia near the start. Yet, Zinopia had expected it and in fact it was part of their plan.

Those three members had managed to not just keep the assassins busy, but also the tanks. Allowing their other 4 members to rush the archers and mages. Yes, 1 had fallen to the combined arrow and spell attacked.

In the end, Zinopia had claimed an ugly victory. With just 1 of their members surviving. The entire match lasted near 30 minutes. Which might not sound like much, but half an hour of straight up fighting is an absurd amount of time.