Unlike Rallakadia, the other towers were less willing to let outsiders into their towers. The guards were also cautious of us since word had spread that I was able to compete against the Tower of Arm’s head sorcerer in a battle of arm strength.

“So you won’t let us in?” I asked the six guards who blocked the entrance of another magic tower. They stood their ground while crossing their arms and simply looked at me.

They all wore bright red tunics that looked like they were about to rip any moment with how their muscles were trying to escape from its confinements. Their tunics bore the insignia of a bearded man deadlifting a dead dolphin.

“No. Please leave,” The head guard shooed me.

As much as I wanted to get into the magic towers, I didn’t want to force my way in. That simply wasn’t my nature. Also, that’s too much work. Perhaps that’s the only reason.

I’ll remember this disrespect against me! Just you watch your back, ‘bearded man deadlifting a dead dolphin’ magic guild!

“You should give up trying to get into a magic tower. Even if you went back to the Tower of Arms, Bicepticus will just force you to do a few gym reps,” Satel remarked.

“Now what? I want to know how the musclemen do magic…” I stroked my chin as I tried to think of a new plan.

“It’s no use. Cahalot had spent decades or even centuries trying to study musclemancy to no avail. If we had figured it out a long time ago, we would’ve found a way to counter the spread of musclemancy among the Sorcerer City States, you know?” Kendra interjected.

“I bet you losers only think about how musclemancy works. Always calculations and nothing else. How do you guys even keep your population up? Do you guys have set schedules on when to procreate?” I asked.

“N-…” Kendra spoke but cut her words short and thought for a bit. After a few seconds of contemplation, she continued, “Maybe? N-never mind that! What do you mean ‘how musclemancy works’? Isn’t that the only way to study things?”

“Not exactly.” I fished out the letter Bicepticus gave me. It was the invitation to the yearly evaluation tests for the sorcerers, by the sorcerers. I started walking into the direction of the large coliseum in the middle of the city as I led my group.

“You have to understand ‘Why?’. Tell me, do the Cahalotian sorcerers go to the yearly evaluation?” I asked Kendra.

“My teacher does when she’s in the Sorcerer City States.”

“But what about the other Cahalotian sorcerers?”

“…Not that I know of.”

“I bet those Cahalotians are too antisocial or arrogant to attend the musclemen’s tests.” I shook my head disapprovingly.

Speaking of Cahalot, I remembered that a necromancer I interrogated in Angolia said that there was someone teaching necromancy to idiots in Cahalot. Perhaps I should go investigate while I drop the kids off in a magic school…

“By the way, you said your teacher attends the tests? Do you think we’ll meet her?” I turned to Kendra while looking friendly.

The Cahalotian borders would be heavily restricted and guarded so if I could get Kendra’s teacher to get us a free pass, it would save me the hassle.

“Now that you mention it, I hope we do! I want to show her my new powers!” Kendra’s hand promptly glowed with a green hue before I smacked her in the head.

“You idiot! Don’t forget that the sorcerers are followers of the Path! If they see you use necromancy, they’ll mob you faster than a Lycan smelling a good price!” I hissed at my idiot apprentice with a hushed tone.

“Ah, right. I forgot…This power is just…Ehehehheh…” Kendra’s face looked flushed while she muttered to herself. My apprentice might be sick in the head. I hope the new girl in the party isn’t as bad as this idiot apprentice.

Looking behind me, I noticed that the new priestess, Inez, was getting along with the other heroes. Inez was chatting happily with Blackhair but was blocked by Aera. It would have seemed that someone was getting a bit too jealous.

Inez wasn’t displeased and continued to be friendly with the heroes. How could someone be so innocent and kind? It would be in my best interest to keep my distance from that potential Goddess-loving crazy.

“Ex-excuse me, teacher?”

Speak of the Abyss. I turned back to Inez who ran to my side.

“What do you need, newbie?”

“Ah, I was just confused as to why you picked me. A-are you sure you’re fine with this lowly priestess? I am sure there many others who are more capable than me…” The gray-haired girl twirled her long hair with her finger as she went on and on about how she might be a burden to the heroes.

“Look, kid. Do you want to be in the heroes party or not?”

“B-but…what do I have to do? I can’t fight…I was taught in the hymms of the Goddess that…”

“Yes, yes. I’m not interested.” I fanned my hand dismissively to cut her off before she bore me to death. I continued, “I will explain it to you fully. If you look behind you, there are two idiots. One is black-haired and another is a blonde. There is another accident-prone member of the party that will replace me someday as teacher. Kendra is dependable but she’s currently my apprentice, which means that she won’t be with the heroes all the time.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand…”

“The only thing you need to understand is that these heroes will be hurt a lot.” As I said that, I noticed that Inez had a questionable aura about her. Her eyes twitched and she almost cracked a grin, but she returned to normal within a split of a second.

I would have broken a sweat if I could sweat. Was that my imagination? My thousand-year old sight honed to detect even the slightest movement couldn’t have failed me, even if the undead does have poor senses…

Inez with her upturned eyes looked at me innocently and said, “T-that’s horrible!”

...Maybe it really was my imagination?

“Indeed. But that is the fate of the heroes. They will get hurt many, many times.” I paused and peeked to check for anymore reactions before I continued, “Broken arms, gaping wounds, lethal stabs…Not just from the heroes, but also from many bystanders and belligerents.”

“S-so…I only have to heal people?” Inez looked away from me.

“Yes.”

“That’s good.” Inez placed a hand on her chest and let out a relieved sigh. Relieved from what, though?

As much as I would love to think about that, my thoughts were cut short by the fact that I had finally arrived at the city’s coliseum. It was a large open dome, with marble pillars holding up most of the structure. There were floating boxes in the air, probably exclusive magic seats for high-ranking sorcerers.

The entrance was heavily guarded by topless muscled men wearing tight black pants and a pointed blue hat. They were all armed with enchanted steel hand grippers, which they all loved to use at this very moment.

There were many people going in through the normal entrance but since I had the invitation from Bicepticus, I could get special treatment.

Or at least that was what I thought…

“Wait, you puny scrawny man! Why you get to cut but me wait here?!” An enraged muscleman howled at me. Looking at his red tunic, it had the insignia of the bearded man deadlifting a dead dolphin.

Looks like payback time was earlier than I planned…

A mob of angry muscleheads got on my way and surrounded my group. I looked around for the guards but couldn’t find any. I was making sure there were no guards around so that I wouldn’t be hindered from retaliating ‘too much’.

“Haha, puny man. Cannot call guards. Me friends challenge them to muscle competition. Me is smart. Me thinker. Me bestest thinker. Because you not as good as thinking as me, you get beaten!” The biggest musclehead threw a punch in the air, but not to hit me.

His punch conjured a rattled the mana in the air, conjuring a fire elemental. A small mound of lava popped out of the ground and the first bit of the fire elemental came out.

“T-this is…” I chattered.

“Muwhahaha! Yes! This is muscle magic! Be afraid, puny man!” The muscleman laughed as his monster slowly came out.

“W…Wh…” I kept trying to get the right words. My thinking was jumbled by how confused, scared and pissed I was.

“Why is your fire elemental a fucking benching press?!” I raised my head in utter confusion and pointed down at the benching press made out of lava that came out of the mound.

My confusion was further fueled when a scream came from above.

“HI HOOOOOOOOOO!”

The ground between the elementalist and me was smashed by a familiar figure of a certain head sorcerer of an ‘arms magic’ branch. The dust formed by the crash slowly dispersed and a manly figure walked up to the stunned elementalist.

“PROOOOTEEEIN!” Bicepticus moved faster than the elementalist could react. Grabbing the musclehead’s neck with one hand and his waist with another hand, Bicepticus lifted the elementalist up into the air. Bicepticus crouched then proceeded to lower the musclehead on his back. With great precision, Bicepticus worked out on the spot using the musclehead as a barbell.

The mana in the air intensified and the stone pavement started to crack at the sheer weight of the intense magic power. The air violently thrashed around Bicepticus as if a typhoon had suddenly invaded the sunny day.

The surrounding crowd started to panic, with some, knowing what was coming, clutching onto anything to hold on to.

I had the cover my face as leaves, stones and other musclemen started to fly around. I had to use my own magic to lock my group’s feet onto the ground lest they join the musclemen currently flying in the air.

Bicepticus slowly raised his replacement barbell and a vein popped on his head as he puckered his lips. The air that was circling around Bicepticus started to fly up while remaining violent. As Bicepticus stood, raising his replacement barbell to the highest, electric statics started to appear in the air.

My passive defensive magic shields started to go crazy. It was as if it was defending me from a thousand different attacks, but there was nothing attacking me! Perhaps my magic was reacting wildly to the muscle magic?

Bicepticus finally threw the musclehead down onto the ground. Almost instantly, the air calmed down and the electric statics disappeared. The once-arrogant musclehead now lay on the cracked stone pavement, unconscious and drooling.

Bicepticus grinned from cheek to cheek, moving his mustache up and down like a seesaw, as he approached me.

“Well, then, friend. Welcome to the evaluation tests!”