Soph slowly peeled her eyes open as a yawn escaped her lips. "Mmm? Lone?"

A bit confused to not find him laying next to her she looked around the room only to find him sitting at the end of the bed hunched over with his chin resting on his clasped hands.

"Lone?" she asked as she crawled over the bedsheets to lean against his side.

"Morning," he responded a bit absentmindedly.

"Are you okay?" Soph asked in concern.

"As okay as I can be considering the tournament starts today," Lone answered. "I'm just going over the skills I'll be using today. I'm trying to come up with some game plans considering what I'm capable of."

"Ah..." Soph's eyes opened wide in realisation. "T-That's today?"

"Yup," Lone answered plainly.

'He seems so stressed... Of course he is. He wants to defeat that sorry excuse for a living organism called a 'hero' but he is conflicted since he knows it would be wise to simply lose in the first round then immediately flee... Yeah, but then he's also worried if Duke Malik and the king will try to kill us anyway even if he loses,' Soph replied to Sophie.

"W-Why don't we just stay here and ignore the tournament?" Soph asked Lone.

"I mean, we could," Lone answered, "but what difference would it make? Gilbert's already sent for help from the main headquarters of the guild, yeah, but what's stopping the king from getting so pissed at the disrespect of me not showing up that he brings his dukes and his armies to destroy the guildhall and kill us? It was a miracle in the first place that the guildhall was even given permission to establish here in Milindo."

"But that seems like a safer bet than showing up and actually trying during the tourney," Soph protested.

"I know... Signing up for the stupid tournament without first learning that no-shows get the death sentence was probably my biggest mistake to date," Lone admitted. "How was I supposed to know that the king would be so petty? Even if it's an outdated tradition it's so stupid... Then again, people have been killed for less by royalty back on Earth."

Soph frowned sadly upon hearing that. "Yeah, they have."

Her tone told Lone that there was a story hidden behind those three words. A story she would perhaps tell if probed but he didn't want to bring up dark memories in the girl he cared so much for if he could avoid it.

Instead, he sighed. "... Anyway, I think the best choice is to show up and see what happens. I'm going to keep you unsummoned so you're safe no matter what happens. I know you don't like it in there but you'll have Kyuubi with you and I'd feel better knowing you're safe and sound."

Soph nodded. "Okay. I, uh, I trust you, Lone. Just... don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"I'll try my best, haha," Lone answered before giving Soph a loving kiss.

He then unsummoned her and the sleeping fox that was curled up on the bed. Now alone, his eyes narrowed sharply as his hand reached into his pocket and grabbed the pitch-black ball silently sitting there.

"One day, Daisuke, I'll kill you. Thank whoever you pray to that I'm too weak to pay you back for everything you've done or tried to do to me right now. Today, I behave then flee. We'll see how this goes in a few years though," Lone mumbled as he got up, got dressed, then left the room.

"It's all rather simple," Gilbert said as he led Lone to the arena where he'd first signed up for the tournament. "The king will open the event with a speech then all non-seeded participants will fight in 4 separate battle royales, each hosting around 250 people. The top 16 from each royale move forward. Those 64 will then fight each other until 32 are left, then 16, then 8, then 4, then 2. At that point, they merge with the seeded individuals and go from there."

"Let me guess," Lone said with no amount of pleasantry to his tone. "Daisuke is a seeded individual."

"Indeed. Both he and the crown prince are seeded. It's an event hosted by the royal family, after all," Gilbert answered happily. "Ah, you do have the participation badge you were given when you signed up for the event, right, Son?"

Lone reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver badge of a kite shield that had two swords crossed over its front. "Yup."

"Great, well, I'll leave you here then. As one of Milindo's few double-S-rankers, I have other responsibilities to attend to, unfortunately. Someone has to help my staff make sure all insurance forms are filled out and that every necessary legal proceeding is taken care of in case one of our adventurers dies today. It's all very stressful," Gilbert sighed.

Lone nodded quietly.

Gilbert frowned at that and put a hand on Lone's shoulder. "I understand how you feel, I truly do, but you are a smart lad, Lone. You know what not to do today, yes?"

Lone gazed right into the dragonkin's eyes and he spoke no lies. "I know. I value my life more than I do my revenge. He'll get his one of these days."

Gilbert smiled. "That's my boy. Make sure you win at least the battle royale and maybe one or two following matches, okay? I can't have Henry breathing down my neck saying that a famed 9-tailed Golden Foxkin couldn't advance even slightly in a simple fighting tournament."

"Haha, I wasn't training for nothing," Lone responded with a chuckle.

"Good, good. If, Primals forbid, you do somehow end up fighting the hero, go no further than hitting him once or twice. Do not win. Winning is perhaps the worst thing you could do, even worse than killing him," Gilbert warned as his grip on Lone's shoulder tightened.

'... He really cares about me, doesn't he? Man, if only my real dad could have been even half the man you are, Gilbert...' Lone nodded. "I know. I have some levels in the Acting skill. Push comes to shove, I just throw a match in the 32-set or something."

"Smart lad. Well, this is really it, Son. Fingers crossed it all goes peachy and you and the girl can live a nice cushy life in the guildhall until the reinforcements come to escort you out of Milindo, huh?" Gilbert joked before tapped Lone's shoulder.

He then walked down a staff-only hallway, leaving Lone on his own. Immediately he felt dozens of sets of eyes land on him, none of which held kindness.

"That's him, isn't it?"

"Yeah. The slave who disrespected the king."

"I wonder why it showed up? Damned filthy animal. I half expected it to try to run."

"Would have been better that way. Then we'd get to see Duke Malik execute the beast for treason."

"Haha, yeah. Well, I guess this is a decent enough compromise."

'Fucking speciesist nobles,' Lone cursed inwardly.

He could see how well dressed his mumbling aggressors were. Their chained demi slaves were clear as day, waiting silently behind them.

'In a world where magic and technology like steamforging exists, how can speciesism and racism be so rampant? Then again, Earth was pretty technologically advanced but racism was pretty healthy there too,' Lone thought.

It wouldn't be good for his mental wellbeing to dwell on this much longer in case he lashed out either verbally or physically. He was here for a reason, after all.

He quickly got in the participants' line and tried his best to ignore the ridicule coming his way. Thankfully, that was something he was used to doing both due to his father and his life as a 'loser'.

It wasn't too long until he had handed his silver badge in and had been given a number. He was then dismissively directed to a hallway labelled as 'Waiting Room 3'.

The waiting room in question had over a hundred people standing or sitting around. Naturally, his appearance drew a lot of attention but most of it seemed to be genuine curiosity.

He did get a few mean-spirited glares, but they were rare. Most of the people here were uncaring as to his presence which suited him just fine.

Lone found a corner to sit in and sit in it he did.

No one approached him to speak to him or to try to rile him up, which, again, suited him just fine. As he waited for his room's battle royale to start, Lone chose to go over what skills he would be using today once more.

He would be primarily using 3 passive skills and a single active skill. First, he looked at the passive ones.

Passive Skill: Polearm Mastery

A skill that allows the host to wield polearms with a decent level of competence.

All polearms used by the host will pierce and cut their targets 15% more easily.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 9 [up by 8 levels]

'I never managed to reach advanced rank with this... It was only 2 levels away...' Lone shook his head in disappointment. 'Well, I suppose it makes sense. Despite how cheaty my Growth Accelerator is, Polearm Mastery is still a very vague and difficult to learn skill. I should be happy with the 8 levels I did manage to get.'

Passive Skill: Swordspear Mastery

A sub-skill of the skills, [Sword Mastery] and [Spear Mastery] which is critical for swordspear-users and passively allows for better handling and control over swordspears.

All swordspears used by the host will cut and pierce their targets 30% more easily.

Grants the talent [Pierce]. Say the word [Pierce] and the host shall perform a piercing strike with thrice [up from twice] the host's maximum force on the desired area.

Cost: 800 SP to perform the talent [Pierce]. Mastery: Advanced Level 8 [up by 3 levels]

'A useless 3 levels. Thankfully, they were a byproduct of me levelling Polearm Mastery otherwise I'd have wasted a lot of potential training time only to gain nothing tangible to show for it,' Lone thought in reflection.

Passive Skill: Evasion Mastery

A skill that assists the host in their attempts to evade attacks.

Improves the host's subconscious instinct to evade dangerous situations by 30% [+15%].

[New!] Allows the host to use the talent [Momentum Shift] to completely change the trajectory of their moving body instantly.

Cost: [New!] 1,000 SP to perform the talent [Momentum Shift] Mastery: Advanced Level 2 [up by 6 levels]

'I feel like this will be my most important skill today,' Lone thought.

Grimsley and Gilbert were one thing but letting even more people know about his unique skill, Basic Regeneration, would be downright foolish.

The Church of the Primals were huge fans of healing magic, particularly of the holy variety. Lone had no idea how they might react to his unparalleled passive healing but he'd rather not find out given their distaste of beastkin.

Needless to say, displaying the unique skill could also give certain individuals very dark ideas regarding him. Lone wasn't going to ignore the possibility of some very powerful people having torture fetishes. It was a thing on Earth, it could be a thing on Altros as well.

The fewer people targeting him the better. Lone was already intent on forcefully suppressing the passive healing, as tough as that was, so if he could forcefully change his trajectory to avoid taking damage mid-fight, then all the better.

As for active skills, most of the ones he owned consumed MP which ruled then out immediately. Tail Spears was specifically for killing, so again, he couldn't use that either. All he could rely on was Weapon Block.

Active Skill: Weapon Block

A common skill for non-shield using warriors.

Allows the host to nullify 15% [+10%] of the force of an incoming attack if blocking it with a weapon.

Cost: 4,000 SP [ -1,000 SP] Mastery: Intermediate Level 2 [up by 11 levels]

'I only have a bit over 37,000 SP. I'll use this when I need to but I can't be frivolous with it. If I'm using my SP on anything it should be Evasion Mastery's Momentum Shift,' Lone decided with a nod.

He began running simulations with his imagination into various scenarios he may encounter in the tournament. Lone continued to do that in silence until finally all of the room's occupants were called on to take the stage.

"Here we go, I guess," Lone muttered as he got up, grabbed his swordspear and joined the crowd flooding towards the gates that led to the massive colosseum's open battle stage.