I moved around the coliseum’s spectator stand trying to find a seat. There were many men and women that I would rather avoid in this place, so I was trying to look for an isolated area to sit in. Spotting a rather lonely spot, I hurriedly rushed to get to that wonderful spot.

“Ouch!”

As I moved, I accidentally stepped on someone’s feet. I quickly lifted my foot off and looked at the angered man. His glare stared at my clothing – A gray mage’s robe made from glass-woven threads and my similarly made pointed wizard hat.

“Keh, damn bitch. Watch where you are going,” The man clicked his tongue and fumed before going back to not acknowledging my existence. He clearly looked like a veteran sorcerer who had seen and fought many magical creatures with his magic alone so I was afraid that if he wanted to, he would simply turn me into dust.

I gulped, said my apologies and continued my way. Sighing with relief, I reached my seat and made myself comfortable. Looking around, I really do stick out like a sore thumb. Seated all over the place were some of the best sorcerers of the Sorcerer City States. I figured that if these sorcerers were to someday put aside their differences and band up into one nation, the continent would have no choice but to bow down to their new overlords.

I could feel some glares coming from my surroundings so I pulled my wizard hat down to cover my face. Out of habit, I also adjusted my bangs towards the front of my eyes. Nervously, I just prayed that the event I came here for would start soon.

As if some divine being answered my prayer, the entire coliseum went silent as a man walked into the field. Holding an orb used to amplify his voice, he raised his free arm and the crowd cheered.

“Enchanters, mages, wizards, sorcerers and the whole lot! Once again I thank you for coming to this auspicious day! I’m glad to be chosen as master of ceremonies and I know you have much to study in regards to magic but this day is also important for your research so remember that!

Anyways, for those new to this, today we’re here to evaluate potential candidates to become ‘Grand Sorcerers’! Mages from every state come here to prove themselves worthy of holding themselves above others!”

The crowd cheered and applauded as the announcer raised both of his arms into the air.

While the meaning of ‘mages’ or ‘sorcerers’ remained the same for thousands of years, the Sorcerer City State was different. Hundreds of years ago, the plains in where the city states would be formed were a land full of tribes. Two major tribes contested for the plains until one day, a king managed to unite both. However, there was the problem of…

“Ladies and gentlemen! I don’t care if you’re ready or not, because I know the first candidate coming up is ready and he’s veeerrryyy excited!” The announcer interrupted my thoughts as he exaggeratedly raised his arms towards one of the coliseum entrances.

“Mages and witches, put your hands up foooooorrrr…

SKULLFUCKER!”

The crowd erupted in cheers as a bald man with bare chests ran out into the coliseum fields. He was wearing extremely tight leather pants and he had spiked bracers. His eyes were lined so heavily he looked like he was trying to paint his eyes black.

Upon reaching the center of the coliseum he flexed his muscles, causing explosions to erupt in the air. While he did that, the coliseum audience chanted ‘Proteins! Proteins! Proteins!’ repeatedly.

“Skullfucker here, as many of you would know, is from the city state of Romganna – The City State well known for their ‘Arm Muscles’ branch of muscle magic! He has a new magic theory which will blow the fucking deadlifts off your gym schedules!”

“OOOOOOHHH!” The crowd erupted, flexing their own body in response. The men, women and…whatever the hell these people were wore clothing which would fit an era where the world had ended and only tight leather monsters existed.

Many had piercings, tattoos and tight black pants to go along their leather jackets. Of course, these were to help emphasis how huge their biceps are.

Sigh…Where was I? Right, I was wondering to myself how the hell did the old, intellectual sage-like sorcerers turned into maniacal, psychopath muscle heads. If I could remember, one of the two tribes was dubbed the ‘Brain’ tribe which consisted of logic-first people. The other tribe was dubbed the ‘Brawn’ tribe which consisted of people which I suspected to be only made of muscles.

There had been historical records of the two tribes warring until the king of the Brain tribe convinced the Brawn tribesmen that ‘magic will help you become stronger’. In the merge, the scholars of the Brain tribe didn’t take in the fact that the Brawn tribesmen would outnumber them in a few hundred years.

By a twist of a sick joke by the Demon Gods, the Brawn tribesmen managed to make a magic unique to making their muscles bigger and shinier. Worse still, the new ‘Muscle Magic’ outperformed traditional magic by a hundredfold.

The only reason why the entire continent didn’t suddenly start using muscle magic was that muscle magic required a special mana created only in the Sorcerer City States called ‘protein’.

Protein in its purest and magical form made into powder which could be mixed with water, liquefied protein or even digested directly, was created by the first Brawn King Flexius Maximuscles.

I shook my head to keep myself from dozing off. I went back to concentrating on the sorcerer who was performing his evaluation test right now. A hydra, a snake-like beast which had multiple bodies that made it look like a flower petal, was thrown into the coliseum field.

Knowing the hydra was a tough opponent since even cutting one of its bodies wouldn’t kill it, Skullfucker took out his mage tool equivalent to the standard staff.

“Ooooh! We can see that his weapon is one with high quality! It’s a mithril barbell!” The announcer raised his voice from the announcer box and the crowd went wild.

“Damn! A mithril barbell! I wonder how heavy that is! Damn, my triceps are tingling to know! I must do push-ups right this moment now!” A sorcerer shouted and he proceeded to do what he said.

The hydra slithered across the field with its multiple lower bodies, keeping its one head covered by its upper bodies. Skullfucker prepared his spells by lifting his barbell a few times before chugging down a bag full of protein bars.

“Aa..aahh! I can feel the lactic acid building up! Yes! YES! SHOW ME THE POWER, MY BICEPS! COME ON MY TRICEPS! SCREAM!” The crazed sorcerer screamed as he lifted his barbell with one hand harder and harder.

“D-damn! Skullfucker’s putting too much strain in his muscles! He needs to give it time to relax in order to build up his muscles!” One of the spectators nearby commented.

“You fool! He’s obviously going for a huge one!” Another one berated the mentioned spectator.

The hydra jumped and used its flower-like body to glide around the field, its eyes fixated on the person who wanted it dead. The hydra spat a stream of acid towards Skullfucker but he flexed his muscles, making his bare chests take turns in jumping.

The ground in front of Skullfucker rose up to intercept the poison, slowly melting in the process. However, the hydra simply took this opportunity to flank the sorcerer. Slamming Skullfucker’s side with one of its body, Skullfucker used his barbell to take most of the shock. Despite that, Skullfucker still flew into the air while posing.

Landing roughly while cracking the ground with his toned body, he stood up with the help of his barbell. Feeling his power building up, he threw his barbell to the side.

The audience gasped as the test was about to reach its climax. Though short, the purpose of the test wasn’t to be a glorious battle to the death. It was simply to test, as simple as that. There was no need to show off or kill the opponent. All one had to do was to show the magic the candidate had developed.

“Muscle magic – Intensify forearms!” Skullfucker pressed both his knuckles together in front of his stomach, posing. His shoulders glowed with an orange light as the hydra charged at him. In an instant, the hydra suddenly smashed onto the floor when the gravity around the beast intensified.

Following that, the hydra flew up, then back down. This repeated as Skullfucker bent his body and imitated weight lifting. It was like the hydra was being lifted by an invisible giant.

“T-this combo!”

“Indeed! While he’s training his legs by pretending that there’s a weigh bench behind him, he’s also training his upper body by lifting!”

“Truly a sorcerer worthy of being called a ‘Grand Sorcerer’, even if he’s not from my city state!”

My head just ached as I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Damn it, why was this magic so complicated? Bicep, tricep? What the hell? Don’t you just train your entire arm just like that?!

Unlike these muscle head nations, one city state remained true to the old ways. The Sorcerer City State of Cahalot remained ever vigilant against the rest of the Sorcerer City State. The relationship between Cahalot and its many neighbors remain tense as the other states see Cahalot as a state of ‘puny, scrawny book nerds’.

I pushed my glasses up as I observed the evaluation test. Skullfucker managed to smash the hydra into a pulp, passing the test by showing the new muscle magic. I bit my lips as I tried to identify the logic behind the new magic but I couldn’t as traditional magic and muscle magic was truly just too different.

I always came to check these tests to figure out the meaning behind the muscle magic, but as always, my research was fruitless.

Aaah…I’m such a failure as a mage. That reminds me…

As I leaned back on my chair, depressed, I thought about my old student. Oh Kendra…

You had so much potential but I couldn’t help you grow. Nobody knew what was keeping you from reaching higher grounds. I tried so hard for so long but in the end, I just tossed you into the hands of the heroes’ party in hopes that you would surpass your limits through combat.

Now that I thought about it, that idea is so fucking dumb! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

Kendra might be dead right now! I also heard there was a lot of commotion in the Kingdom of Angolia…What if she…?

Recently, she had stopped sending me letters so what if she really was dead?!

I punched myself hard and used magic to heal myself, cooling my head off. As depressed as I may be, I had a task to finish. Although these muscle heads were hopeless, by steering people off from muscle magic and into traditional magic, I could very well start the revolution to throw off muscle magic once and for all!

It’s such a shame that people were only interested in learning this branch of magic, though…

From my huge sleeve, I took out a skull and tapped some mana into it. I then pressed my palm against the top of the skull.

“Tell the acolytes that lessons would be delayed by one day,” I spoke to the skull. A pair of green flame flickered in the eye holes of the skull indicating that someone was listening to my message.

“Hmm? What happened? The students are excited to learn about how to command zombies to do menial work so they might be somewhat upset…”

“I don’t care. I have a headache.”

“Are you in Rallas? I keep telling you that going to the evaluation test every year is useless,” I heard the voice in the other side grumble.

“That’s true…but…”

“Bah, I don’t care. Just do whatever. Recently, an order of lunatics using shovels as weapons had been spotted near the borders of the Sorcerer City States so you be careful,” The voice from the skull said in a tired manner.

“Again?”

“Yes. Another thing I’d like to note is that they’ve been hunting down some specific groups of undead lately.”

“Specific?”

“I don’t know but I have a theory that there’s some undead roaming around…”

“There’s always undead roaming around. Are you blind or living under the rock?”

“No, I mean…Special types of undead. You know, the…Damn it. I can’t explain it. I still need more information on them.”

“You should get some rest, too…” I said and ended my conversation by lifting my palms off the skull. The skull’s top was soaked in blood and I groaned as I felt slightly anemic. Well, now…

As much as I hated these tests, I still wanted to learn more or at least observe some of them. Without a choice, I decided to continue sitting as a new candidate walked into the fields.

“Here’s Rallas’ own champion! It’s Twelve Pecs!”

The crowd cheered and I rubbed my forehead at the absurdity of the mentioned man.

Haaaah…

Kendra…I hope you’re well because I know I’m not.