It was a little too late for Layla at this point. Whether she truly believed if Nate had a skill that allowed him to master all the elements or not didn't matter, there was no way she could be prepared for such a turn of events. She was fully aware of how difficult this match-up might be, especially after witnessing Nate's match with Zane and the others. Besides, the fact that Nate still had more to show was threatening, who was to say that's all he had? it opened up an undefined number of possibilities.

"He has grown a lot..." Kenny accepted while nodding his head.

From the beginning, Nate was always to himself, compared to the other players he barely killed any mobs. He spent most of his time in the Academy and seldom went out to explore and do the things other players do. He didn't particularly enjoy it but at some point, it had become a ritual for him, as soon as he logged in, he would enter the spatial pod on the second floor and practice for hours and hours together until he would have to log off and head straight to bed, some may call it dangerous for health but it was something he was serious about.

Slowly as weeks and weeks passed by, he learned to understand mana on a deeper level and had no help whatsoever. Perhaps it was due to his exploring that he thought of the anatomy of a player was important while comprehending mana manipulation. Of course, now that he had crossed that stage he thought it was stupid he didn't think of it earlier.

After all, it is like comprehending blood without learning about the vessels and the rest of the body. However, even when he was approached by Hecate, Nate had one doubt in his head, it was an interesting one at the time but if it were anyone else, they might've called him stupid. He always wondered why he was chosen. The probability of him being the only one to overwork in and for the game was negligible, more than half the population played the game, of course, there were going to be other players who worked just as hard as him. And out of those players, there's a good chance that there existed a group of individuals who worked just as hard if not harder than him for the skill mana manipulation.

What did he do differently? What was it that attracted the attention of a Divine and Forbidden being?

"He certainly has....I can say for sure if he were to utilize his skills properly, especially his Bloodline skills, then he has a huge chance of beating Night...." Reed agreed.

*SLURP*

"Haaah," he let out after the satisfaction he got from the cold drink, "all that talking drained me, this drink really saved me hehe"

"....I agree, he does indeed have the power to win against Night but that's assuming Night doesn't grow anymore, he still can develop in his own ways. Most importantly the martial arts of his, compared to him, most of the players are nothing but a speck of dust. While Nate does have the power and skills to win, Night has the experience and the monstrous ability to adapt to change. Not to mention that's only an extremely unfair judgment of him, while we are assuming that Nate has the ability to fully utilize his skills, which by the way is going to take him sometime in my opinion...."

"He still has to win this fight as well as the next one, so we can only wait..."

"You've been holding off well, I have been using four elements at once so I have to give you credit," Nate told her as raised both his hands.

"You....*pant* how....I can still *pant* win..." Layla said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.

Was there any counter to someone who could use four elements efficiently? even if there was, Layla knew for sure that she hadn't reached that level yet. Perhaps only sheer force would be the best option to counter such a user. So far Layla had been dodging the spells and even then it was hard, most of the attacks connected and took off a good chunk of her health.

'Shouldn't have gone glass cannon....'

"It is pointless, It was definitely a fun match, to be honest, if you used Bolas and Invisible arrow, the situation might be different...of course, it's not going to help to try and do that now, you still have a few minutes before you can use any skills..."

As soon as Nate mentioned the names of her skills, Layla's eyes lost their hope. To be able to see another player's skills was essentially the same as exposing them. All their cards were on the table, even the ones hidden up their sleeves. The surprises never stopped, first Nate managed to change the course of an arrow that flew at nearly 250 feet per second, next he could control four elements at once, and then finally he had the ability to see the opponent's skills.

"Bah...I give up...." Layla sighed as she sat down and dropped her weapon.

"Go ahead... finish me," she added.

"Good choice," Nate said as he sent a fully charged mana blade to slice her head off.

.

.

"Can't say I enjoy seeing my own sister getting killed...." Valerian muttered.

"Well if she won then you would have to beat her hahah....that is assuming you won of course..." Leo chuckled.

"I guess that's better...." Valerian said, "Aurora...you've been quiet for a while....are you alright? just so you know, your match with Ken was intense, please don't beat yourself up for that..."

"Hmm...no that's not it, I'm satisfied with how my match ended up but I was thinking about this Nate guy....he is a mage just like me. He does not have the same control over the fire element as me but it's still excellent, but that's not it, he has the same quality control over the other three basic elements as well, and then there's the fact that he can control mana itself....of course, not to mention he has that weird ability where the crescent moons appear."

"W-wait...he can control mana? What does that even mean..." Valerian mused.

"The very source of all our spells and magic, it's mana, the mana that flows through us is converted into the spells. However, he is able to utilize it without allowing it to take the form of any spell, meaning it's a neutral element. It has no weakness. At least that's the short version of it.."

"The fact that he's able to use that allows him to waste no mana at all....but how...that's my question....assuming that he spent all his time in-game on comprehending mana manipulation and he somehow managed to learn the skill, just that much would make him a peerless genius but that's not all. He has smooth control over four...FOUR elements and is level 100. Such feats would easily take a few years, EASILY."

As Aurora continued explaining, the expression of the others slowly turned to one of awe. It was absurd to think someone could achieve all this, it's true, it's impossible IF he actually did all of this. The only thing Nate worked for was Mana Manipulation, the rest of it was more or less a gift of sorts for working hard. He couldn't tell the world about Gaia's curse or Hecate's blessing, at least not yet, and as for the leveling, he simply got carried by the strongest leveler in the game.

"Anyway...you're up Val.." Leo patted Valerian's shoulder, "Layla should be back soon, I just saw her coming up to the VIP rooms.."

"Good luck bro!" Noxx added.

"Yeah good luck Valerian," Aurora said while she was still in a daze of some sort.

"Thanks guys...I'll be back soon,"

His next match was against a player called Everzone. Normally there would be no reason for him to be anxious when he was going to fight a random player but ever since Nate and Night made their debut, nobody could be certain. Judging someone by their popularity was stupid, of course, not that it meant those who were well-known were weak players, it just meant that the famous ones aren't the only strong players. As far as the public knew, Mocha was a random player as well, Valerian didn't plan on revealing his identity just yet. Everzone was a druid which was funny in a way, considering the fact that Valerian or Mocha was a Saint. They didn't have any connection but they were still the only two primary support classes. Who would've thought a druid, a basic-primary support class made it all the way to the final few rounds. It was almost like it was out of a novel.

"I'm looking forward to this...don't disappoint me," Valerian said as he changed his outfit back to the character he was cosplaying.