He stared down at his creations and had them all approach one end of the arena after which, Mash had Jill teleport the two of them down there. Mash went around breaking as many as he could out of the sight of the audience and had Jill help in destroying his creations. It was annoying but they got it done relatively quickly.

After Mash’s second fight he knew that he was done for the day. Even if it was unnecessary, Mash stuck around for the remaining fights. Any one of the winners could end up being his opponent, not to mention he wanted to see more of the hero’s abilities. However, he didn’t end up getting that as the man’s fight ended just as quickly as the previous one. The weapon seemed near invincible as orbs of fire blocked any spells, and a single attack was enough to devastate the entire arena. Not to mention the person continued to wear a full set of armor that covered their entire body. If possible, Mash would hide his dragon form until that fight, but he knew that wasn’t likely. There was still the melee fighter that he wanted to test his power against, so his plan would only work if he fought the hero first.

The fighters were given a day of break before their next fights, so Mash didn’t have any fights scheduled for tomorrow. It was day of relaxation, though he didn’t know what to do during it. For now, he wanted to hear about what his friends had gone through. The walk home was a bit different from the walk to the guild, a lot more people accosted them for recruitment. Mash was a bit surprised and confused, by the nicely dressed men and women that approached him and his friends to join them. They were apparently competitors to the adventurer’s guild or at least trying to compete with them. They were funded by nobles and tried to offer incredibly large sums of money to get their group to join them, but Mash just ignored them.

Some of the people had hounded them all the way back home, but they didn’t approach as his presence scared them. They tried once, but Mash saw them grow tense when they entered his draconic domain. Mash had realized what the trigger was for the skill, treating the recruiters as enemies. With that activation, he created a space around him, and the rest of the journey was uninterrupted.

Once they returned, Mash was going to ask them about the dungeon but was interrupted by the head butler handing him a letter. Mash considered ignoring it for later, but the butler told him that it was from the colosseum. Deciding that it was important, he opened the letter and quickly skimmed through it.

Congratulations on the rank-up! We were surprised to hear that you had already reached the next rank. Truly you are someone most gifted and driven. Your path is boundless, and I’m certain your journey will be a long one. Of course, I only wish to provide you with more opportunities like the ants and have prepared an even grander fight for you. As I mentioned before you will be fighting a creature a rank above yours, and I am certain it will be enough to give you a few levels.

Your fight is scheduled for the morning of the 21st day of the 16th month. I realize this may be abrupt, but I have no doubts that you are eager to test your new capabilities. Especially considering your grand display at the tournament today. Well, I look forward to seeing your best effort.

Mash read through the short letter and sighed. The colosseum organizers had scheduled his fight for tomorrow and had the gall to treat it like they had given him days to prepare. Though, Mash wasn’t too worried, confident that he could use his draconic transformation to beat most monsters the Colosseum had. Honestly, he could probably manage it with the imitation skill alone and wouldn’t even need to use the transformation. Despite being saddled with another fight; he was excited about it.

The colosseum organizers would probably find a powerful monster for the fight, and he was eager to get some new transformations. Mash did have other transformations and had tried a few of those, but none of them were particularly powerful. The best other transformation he had was one of the lizards from the labyrinth dungeon. It was the one that could become invisible and cling to walls. He had been given those abilities when in that form, and he learned that it was a function of their scales that let them do both, and as it so happened, his transformation of those gave him its scales. He tried a few other things too, like the ants from his second colosseum trial, but that was a worthless transformation. His skin had hardened, and he got a bit stronger, but it was so much weaker than his other transformations.

All of that only made him eager to find new monsters, and he wished he could go back to the beastmen city. Not for the city itself, but because that was the only way to meet the world carrier again. Mash was certain he could get a small piece of the creature’s scales and wished desperately to consume it. He didn’t know if it was the class that was giving him the desire to eat other creatures, but he didn’t fight with it for that one. Even just a drop of the creature’s power would make him unstoppable. Sadly, the contract was still in place, and he wouldn’t be able to go back for another four or five months.

He had already decided that he was going to leave the capital before the contract ran out, but that didn’t mean he was planning on breaking it. There was still the one other local dungeon that he would visit, but there were dozens of other dungeons he wanted to go to. Even if he didn’t get a piece of a scale from the World Carrier, he was certain he could find some other powerful creatures to consume. He decided he could push off hearing his friend’s story, far more eager to get some sleep. He didn’t really need to sleep for that long, but it would make time go by more quickly.

He handed the letter to Red, before telling them he was going to go to bed and would hear about the dungeon after the fight tomorrow. In the time it took them to read the letter he was already out of sight. Even if he wanted to head to bed immediately, he was distinctly aware that he should have a bath and clean the clothes. The seamstress would get him all the clothes by the end of the week, but for now, this was all that he had.

After finishing a quick bath, he found the head butler and asked him to have the clothes cleaned for tomorrow. However, the butler told him that it was unnecessary, the Seamstress had dropped off another pair while he was at the tournament. She had been quite adamant in making sure you didn’t wear the same clothes for multiple days. Well, that was a good sign and he nodded towards the butler. The man still took the clothing to have it cleaned.

The morning came quickly as he expected, and Mash spent little time in the morning eating a meal. He didn’t eat a lot because if the fight was truly dangerous, he didn’t want to risk vomiting. Afterward, he meditated while he waited for the time of the fight. His friends had come down the stairs and Mash stood up when Luke entered his range. Instantly his eyes flicked towards Luke scanning him for differences. His appearance didn’t change much though his hair was now a clear white and his eyes were similarly so. They stood out considering the darker tanned skin that he had. It didn’t make him look old, instead of giving him the visage of eternal youth.

Mash had been too self-centered last night, and it seemed like he missed out on Luke’s class advancement. Mash didn’t hide his petulance as he spoke like a child would.

“You should’ve woken me.”

Luke only rolled his eyes, before sitting down and responding.

“You needed the rest. I hear you’ve been training without much rest before the tournament. Plus, you have another fight today.”

His concern stopped any callous remarks from Mash, and he only nodded. It was true, Mash had trained nonstop the day before the tournament. Even with pushing his skills in all kinds of directions, he didn’t manage to improve any of his stats. He guessed that he had passed the point where a days’ worth of training would change anything. They talked a little more as the others arrived, but Mash left before Jill and Red had been ready. They would be able to get to the arena before his fight, and he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t late.

As he approached the Colosseum, he realized this was the first time he was fighting this early in the day. His fight always seemed to be later in the day, so this was a pleasant surprise. There was that freshness of a not yet started day as he walked through the streets. The air was unpolluted by the smells of restaurants and vendors, and the air was filled with a faint fog. It was a wonderful feeling as he headed towards the colosseum. When he got near the building, he realized that there was another reason for the emptiness thus far. The building was surrounded by a small crowd of people, and Mash realized that his fight was early so that the audience would be large even in the morning.

Thankfully no one noticed him sneak over to the fighter’s entrance. It was the same attendant that he had seen the last two times here. She beamed when he appeared.

“Welcome, you made it right on time. Follow me and we can get started as soon as the colosseum fills up.”

Somewhat expecting the response, Mash had already known what to do. He followed the attendant as she led him towards the arena. There was not much different now than his other trips, except for the glances the attendant kept shooting at him. Eventually, he just asked her about it.

“Why do you keep looking at me?”

“I’m sorry it's just that, I’m surprised at the sudden change in appearance. I mean just a few days ago you wore a creepy mask, and now you look like an average kid.”

Mash didn’t know how to respond to that, after all, he had done a lot of things to hide his appearance before. He should probably care more about his appearance, but after his class advancement, he just didn’t want to bother with it. The mask could still be used though as he could incorporate it into his armor easily. Maybe he would investigate putting some enchantments on it. Well, that was a concern for later.

“Not that you look bad or anything I was just expecting something more exciting, considering how you looked before.”

The attendant must have assumed that she had offended him, but he just waved his hand in a placating gesture. He didn’t really care and had been the one to ask her about it anyways. Instead, he refocused on the fight at hand and started taking his arms out of the sleeves of his jacket. This was one of the designs where he only had a jacket and a pair of pants from the seamstress. Beneath the jacket he had a simple grey shirt, that was meant to leave attention on the jacket. The jacket was a flashy mix of reds and yellows with his house symbol on the back.

As he stepped onto the rising platform, he had removed his hands from the sleeves of the jacket. Letting the jacket rest against his back, he was careful to make sure it didn’t fall as he rose to the arena. Only once he fully reached the ground did he move his arms so that the coat fell onto the ground. he scanned the gates as his coat fell onto the ground but didn’t see any monsters. That only lasted a second thought as a creature descended from a cage in the sky. It crashed into the ground in front of him causing the whole arena to quake from the force. Looking up towards the head of the monster, Mash's eyes trailed the muscled legs of the beast that were adorned with a light golden fur. Finally, he met with a large but human face on an otherwise monstrous body.

“What in the world was he looking at?”