[Round 2]

[Qualifying Condition: A single Party Member must reach the end of the Arena within 10 seconds. The Party Member will be matched with an opponent.]

[Competition Type: Race]

[Race Condition: All energy pools unusable.]

[Reward: 1 Point]

Rainer glanced over before suddenly sinking into thought. How did the Flameborne Guild pass the last Stage? He didn’t get a close look at their party, but he figured their strongest had joined with other strongest from allied guilds. But even then, that meant a small portion of their party helped them pass it. Not that Rainer could complain about that.

Perhaps they had been matched with particularly powerful people?

“Who’s up?” Rainer asked. Looking across the arena, and at the glowing line at the end of it, he guessed it would take someone travelling at least half the speed of sound to cross it in 10 seconds. The feat wasn’t necessarily impossible for most here, but only if they got a running start. Even Rainer himself needed time to get [Eldritch Flight] going. That was, of course, ignoring just teleporting to the other side.

They needed someone who could cross the distance and yet wouldn’t be disadvantaged without pools. The weakness of their group became obvious: they had no peak Aura users. Kara, while certainly powerful, had only a single Tier 2 class. Not to mention her transformation required Aura. In a fair fight versus her father, or even a race, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Me,” Mira said, stepping up, “I just wonder whether I’ll be able to get across this distance quickly enough.”

Rainer raised an eyebrow and Mira explained to the group how a Fae’s flight ability functioned. It relied on both physical and magical Attributes. In other words, a hybrid warrior of Mana and Aura like Mira could fly quite fast without a single use of either. Though without room to get up to speed, it might not be enough to accelerate to half the speed of sound fast enough.

And he had a feeling the nearly-omniscient system would notice any attempts to circumvent the 10 second limit. If it could erase minds so accurately, it wouldn’t be a surprise for it to be able to read them as well.

“I may as well give it a try,” Delilah said, having been buffed quite a bit by her long sleep. The [Ice Wolf Queen] had absorbed a large amount of Draconic resources. While the physical effects wouldn’t be immediately effective, all her inherited abilities saw instant improvement.

That said, the Aura-based monster drew much of her strength from innate skills related to Aura use.

Ready to make her own try, Mira’s Body Enchantments lit up as Aura poured through them. No longer having as much use for her innate Fae given talents for Mana, she had a few passive spells, one of which included a leveled [Passive: Zan Haste].

A set of wings unfurled magically from her back, and Rainer gave them a weird look. Luna’s were shaped and patterned like a butterfly’s, but had dark colors of black and violet and sharp edges more reminiscent of a bat’s wing.

But Mira’s, the fearsome and experienced Aura warrior, were a picture perfect baby blue and looked like a standard butterfly’s. They even had a slight sparkle to them because of several crystal-like lines going through them. Ready for the challenge, it wasn’t long before per her request she wore as many non-conflicting enchanted items as possible, going so far as to add an extra piercing to her ear, that would increase attributes relating to her flight speed.

As if sensing his gaze on her wings, the Fairy sent him a glare before rushing off, stepping onto the arena. She dashed forward quickly building her speed, Delilah starting shortly after.

But just like Rainer thought, it wasn’t the speed that was the issue, but rather the acceleration. Thankfully, it took Mira just a few tries to adjust, and using her wings in combination with her steps to reach the speed needed. Every step followed a flutter of her wings, sending her speeding forward.

Rainer watched almost entranced at the magic that worked to make this possible. How it drew strength in such a manner from both her magic and body was beyond him. He committed it to memory nonetheless with [Arcane Revelation].

It seemed they were the late ones this time, as they were teleported the moment Mira completed the qualification.

Rainer barely held back a chuckle as he saw the party they were faced with. It seemed the system might be matching them with similar Races. Glancing down at the competitors, he guessed the black-snake-bodied Lamia was the Serpent King. Given his interactions with the slave trade, it wasn’t a surprise to see their party mixed.

As it was, Mira was unable to retain her mocking laugh as she unfurled her wings. Even if the conflicts ended centuries ago, they held no pleasant feelings towards the the Flameborne Guild or the line of the Serpent King.

A massive mountain, stretching far beyond what Rainer could easily see, appeared in front of them. It was only moments later Mira flew upwards. The middle-aged man with the half-snake body let out a long sigh, before slithering way, not even bothering to compete in climbing with an incredibly fast flying Fae.

A few minutes later - which showed just how high the mountain was - they were teleported back out of the Arena, another point gained.

Several more Rounds passed, ones that were easily won against parties they didn’t recognize. When it came to individual strength, it was truly hard to beat their group. That was compounded by the last stage where many of them spent their extra attribute points on the awarded Attribute. The effect on most people’s combat ability was not small.

Rainer himself knew that if he had chosen differently and picked, [Elemental Synergy], combined with enough attribute points, his strength could have seen a significant increase.

Even in the single Round where it was a two versus two, they dealt with few issues as Art and Frederick both qualified and won easily. He wished there was some sort of scoreboard to mark who was in the lead. As it was, with no losses, there was no need to be worried about it.

[Round 7]

[Qualifying Condition: A single party member must put out all flames within the forest within 50 seconds.]

[Competition Type: Destruction]

[Destruction Condition: None]

[Reward: 4 Points]

Rainer glanced at the burning forest that now covered the Arena in front of them. It was strange to look at as the fire burned but didn’t seem to actually accomplish anything, stuck in a weird sort of stasis. That it was a magical fire was not a surprise.

“Do you think the forest needs to be alive?” Rainer asked, quickly seeing himself as the obvious choice. He hadn’t competed since Round 1.

“Might as well try,” Furtak said, being the only other obvious option for this round. He could control the flame, and snuff it out. But it would take him most of the time-limit, assuming he could do it at all.

Rainer thought for a moment if Luna might be a better choice before shaking is head. They had already confirmed familiars couldn’t participate, at least in the single competitor rounds, and there was no reason to put her in harm’s way. Especially if she didn’t show any interest herself.

Rainer stepped forward, slapping his palms together as a frigid compressed packet of Mana and Arcane formed between them.

With all the practice with [Soul Presence] and [Sleep Learning], Rainer knew exactly how much power he needed to cover this small forest entirely in frost. A quick look with [Arcane Revelation] ensured the flame would be entirely put out.

A word of magic later and the frost snuffed out the fire, leaving a still forest covered in a violet ice.

[Goal: Destroy the largest amount of the forest within 60 seconds.]

Rainer only spared a quick glance to the five people behind him, each facing a different section. He quickly Void-walked away as two instantly started fighting amongst each other.

With a quick thought as to whether freezing this entire arena counted as ‘destruction’, he went a different route. If that counted, he wouldn’t have passed the qualifying condition. Streams of Arcane-Fire extended from his outstretched arms as he overpowered [Cone of Arcane-Fire] with his manipulation.

The Arcane-Fire rapidly spread, and Rainer brought all of it under his control as he powered more and more power into it. He sunk his Soul into the manipulation with [Soul Presence], spreading the destruction outwards.

Every movement of the flame became noticeable to him. Gaining inspiration from last round with how the Dungeon stole his [Absolute Frost] covered ground, he tried to manipulate hounds of flame throughout. There seemed to be a natural sync with his use of [Soul Presence], as the hounds acted almost normally, burning through the forest.

Runes entered his mind, but as time passed Rainer didn’t gain any particular spell as he sent dozens of hounds through the forest with his rapidly burning soul. The Arcane-Fire spread and spread, but he still lacked what he felt was one final step before turning these manipulated caricatures of hounds into an actual spell.

The round ended, and it surprised Rainer not at all to have won it.

The next few rounds were won quite easily. As it turned out, passive spells didn’t count in rounds where you couldn’t use magical energies. It made both Mira and Sarah, among others, far stronger than they should be. As the qualifying challenges grew stranger and more varied, such an advantage was huge.

[Round 11]

[Qualifying Condition: A single Party Member must destroy the statue with Will alone.]

[Competition Type: Round Robin Duels]

[Duel Condition: No Will usage]

[Reward: 5 Points]

Rainer stepped forward, not bothering to confirm with his party. He easily vanished the entire statue with a use of [Void Call].

From what Rainer understood about ‘Round Robin’ there would be numerous competitors, so he waited patiently as the 10 minute timer ticked down. He hoped that each round would restore the Arcane-weaved circles he kept in [Arcane Awakening: Spatial Storage]. Or if it didn’t, that energy levels weren’t restored either. Even if he lacked in Mana, the ability to convert it to Arcane Power gave him a huge endurance advantage.

[Human, Male, Auraweaver lvl 24(2nd), Aural Soulformer lvl 24(2nd)]

[Title: The Imperishable]

Teleported to the Arena, Rainer glanced at the long-blonde-haired human across from him. His eyes widened as he realized he recognized this man’s unique Aura, and one of his classes. Two Arcane-weaved circles of [Arcanum] appeared behind Rainer as he readied for a fight. Without his Void Will, Rainer wondered just how things would go. He could only hope his opponent’s strength was as dependent on Will as his was.

With [Arcane Revelation] covering his eyes, he hoped to catch any secrets of Golden Aura. This wasn’t just a fight for victory. What sort of secrets could he glean as he tore this opponent apart?