During the match between Jude and Valice, Yorik and the other judges looked on intently.

“There is something strange about this kids magic,” one judge said.

“You’re right, at first I thought he relied on a lot of magical items to perform spells, but now he seems even more proficient at spell casting.” Another said.

“Maybe it has something to do with the staff he now wields,” said yet another.

“Out of everything that the kid has done so far, the staff is the most interesting.”

“Where did he get such an item? It has to be Legendary at least. How could such a poor kid get such a good thing?”

“His class is unique, and he’s quite adept at inscriptions, this combined with the numerous unique items he has, it is most likely a dungeon drop that he’s upgraded.”

“Him, make a Legendary item?” another judge scoffed, “I’ve been making items for the last sixty years and have only made two Legendary items. How could a kid make one that easily?”

The others nodded their agreement. Then someone said, “He does have the title Demon Slayer and Hero of Longdale. It is most likely an item that the demon lord dropped during the invasion we got notified of right before that sandstorm lit up.”

“That seems more reasonable to me,” another agreed.

The eyes of the judges started to gleam with greed.

Yorik finally interjected as he saw where this conversation was going, “If you kill him and the item is soul bound then you will have lost out. He has real potential, and we may gain more with him alive than dead. Even if he didn’t create the staff, he most certainly created the other items and these alone should show his worth.”

“Who said anything about killing him? I would pay him handsomely.”

Yorik scoffed, “You really think any wizard would give up that item for any price? I can already see it play out. You offer something that seems reasonable in exchange, but he rejects you (as he should) and claims that the staff is soul bound. Whether it is soul bound or not doesn’t matter, the point is he will claim it to be so because he wants to keep it.

“Irritated at his response, one of you will kill him over it, just to see if it really is soul bound. Then you will have gained a single Legendary item in exchange for the life of someone who could possibly produce multiple Legendary items. Or you get nothing, and Riwa loses someone who can create a multitude of Legendary items.”

After this, no one seemed to have anything else to say.

***

After getting a quick heal from the arena Priest, Jude returned to the contestant seating area to find Serena already done with her match. He hadn’t paid particularly close to any of her matches, but he knew that she specialized in the wood element.

Morcheron continued his flashy way of doing magic. His use of water magic didn’t look very efficient to Jude as it seemed to focus more on visual effects rather than actual substance, but even with the flashy way he used magic, he was still toying with his opponent. This was the complete opposite to Jorgan.

Even though Jorgan used the fire element, his actions were more subdued and to the point. If he hadn’t been fighting another Core City resident, he would have most likely already finished by now. What astonished Jude the most was the elements that Jorgan and Morcheron had chosen for themselves. They both seemed more in tune with the other's element. Fire is fierce and showy while water is subdued and calm. But that is just how life is; there is no telling how and why things come to be, sometimes they just are.

It didn’t take long for Jorgan to finish his fight, but Morcheron continued to oppress his opponent while laughing like a madman.

“To think that this man is the person that many want to lead the Court of Wizards one day,” Jorgan said quietly as he sat down next to Jude.

“Let him fight, I need the time to recoup mana,” Jude replied softly.

Jorgan was shocked, “You don’t have Meditate?”

“I did, but the skill got destroyed at one point,” Jude replied casually.

This time Jorgan nearly fell off his chair, “Destroyed? Did I hear right? How can a skill get destroyed?”

Jude sighed, and with a bitter smile he explained, “Not only is my meditate destroyed, but all my skills from Wizard, Healer, Rogue, and Warrior are gone as well.”

“I don’t understand, how can skills and magic be destroyed? I’ve never even heard of someone losing a skill, for them to be destroyed seems impossible.”

“I lost meditate early on, but the rest of my skills got burned out when I was fighting the Demon Lord's army. To deal a critical strike I had to overload my magic to the point that it caused a mana fire that raged inside of me, burning up everything.”

Jude didn’t want to go into great detail about the Modicuit, but for some reason, he felt like he needed to share this. Even though he had put up a strong front at the time, losing his magic had been a big blow to him. Maybe it was because Jorgan was his first friend who was a Wizard or maybe it was just Jorgan’s calm personality, but for the first time, he decided to share his pain.

Jude continued to share his pains and struggles with losing magic, including replacing it with item skills. Jorgan listened silently, but on the inside, he was astounded. Magic was Jorgan’s life; he couldn’t imagine living without it. Yet, Jude had not only suffered its loss but had made an incredible comeback with a class that wasn’t even combat oriented. Furthermore, Jorgan was touched that Jude would share something like this with him.

“Morcheron wins!” the announcer finally said.

Morcheron had taken so much time with his battle, that Jude was now back to full MP.

“There will now be a one-hour break between matches,” the announcer stated, “to give the competitors time to recover fully.”

When Jude heard this, he nearly laughed out loud. He had been worried about his mana recovery, yet it was not a problem at all. But it remained a weakness that he would have to deal with in the future.

“Yeah, I should have mentioned this,” Jorgan said, “They always give an hour between the matches at this point. It’s not only for recovering mana, but the mental fatigue of battle. There’s also one other thing-“

Jorgan had been talking to Jude while the announcer was still speaking, but at this point, Jorgan got cut off as the announcer shouted, “Commence!”

The whole coliseum shook as the sound of great locks opened. But the looks on everyone’s faces showed that they were not startled in the least. Then Jude felt the same pull downwards like when riding an elevator up.

Jorgan continued to explain, “Both the black and white coliseum's are built on a special material called Sky Stone. It is incredibly rare and is very hard to make use of, but it can cause large objects to become weightless and gain the ability to fly.”

The wind was now whistling through the large arches that lined the coliseum’s outer walls. Then another loud lock opened up, and the whole place started opening up.

“Once every ten years, these two coliseums will join up in the sky and create one giant coliseum. This is why the Elitist Tournament is head here at this time. When the announcer said 'commence', he really wasn't giving the command, but notifying the people what was about to happen.”

Jude watched as the place continued to open up creating one-half of a much larger coliseum. He could see out across Geonar, the outer city, the inner city, the core city, and the very center. The very center lay a grand castle and palace. Inside its formidable walls lay a land large enough to easily swallow Longdale. Tall towers and gilded buildings lay there, the true center of the city.

Ahead of them, in the sky, was a black castle floating in the air. The White Coliseum rapidly approached this dark castle, but as they got closer it became apparent that it wasn’t a castle at all, rather it was the Black Coliseum.

The Black Coliseum was designed much differently than the White Coliseum. The White Coliseum looked very much like the traditional Roman Coliseum. But the other arena was made more like a castle with ramparts and parapets. There was no graceful arches or beautiful designs carved into the stone; rather it had harsh hewn stone and thick walls. There was no artistry, just the savage, brutal feeling of raw war.

Over the great city center, the two coliseums finally met. Even though the two were completely different styles, the met up like a perfect match. Then the white blocks that made up the fighting stages moved to join up their mirrored counterparts from the other side. The new blocks were much like the coliseum they came from, black and rough. But even so, they fit in with the white cubes with no gaps creating a chessboard tile layout. Though, this new stage was much larger than any he had seen before. It could easily fit at least one football field in it if not two. To Jude, it seemed more appropriate for a large battle rather than just duels.

But the more Jude thought about it; perhaps it did make sense. Jude’s Blink magic could already cover a large distance quickly before he had been considerably confined by the limited amount of space before. He imagined that most of the Warriors would have a similar skill at this level of the competition. There were also those other massive area effect spells, like the one Morcheron liked to use. A stage like this was perhaps the most appropriate size to determine the full skills of each party.

After all, this was the Elitist Competition. Its purpose is to find those who were about to advance to the Elite class and those who were on the rise.

On the opposite side of the newly combined coliseum, Jude could see a massive golden throne. The steps leading up to it were made of marble, and large gemstones of every type were placed in mosaic designs across the sides.

Sitting on the throne was an old man with white hair and a wispy beard. But contrary to the color of his hair, his skin looked young and fresh, not a wrinkle in sight.

When Jude saw him, he felt an odd sensation. It was like something he had felt before, but had now forgotten. It was an ominous feeling, but Jude couldn’t say why.

“Can you believe it?” Jorgan sounded excited, “The King has been in such poor health for so long that this is the first time I’ve ever seen him! It’s a miracle that he’s well now, I wonder how he did it?”

Jude remained silent, as he didn’t want to voice his own opinion. Besides, what could he say other than he had a weird feeling? This was the king, and they don’t take lightly any sort of criticism, especially unfounded criticism.

A new announcer took over once the stadiums combined in the air. This man was located near the king and was much older than the last. Even so, he had a vibrant voice that contained energy and passion.

“The Black and White coliseums have combined earlier than usual," he stated, "This can only be credited with the revival of our great king’s health! This is the first time in many years that the king will observe personally.

“To celebrate the return of our king, we will be using the Blood Will Flow rules. This will take off all restrictions of the duels and protections of the audience. If anyone feels that they are unable to comply with this regulation, you may leave now.”

Jude felt like this was a bad joke, who would agree to such terms, especially the crowd. Even if they didn’t agree, where could they go? They were up in the sky!

But contrary to Jude’s thoughts the crowd cheer enthusiastically. Perhaps they viewed themselves safe now that the arena was twice as large, but has he looked at the other contestants, even they seemed excited.

“These rules are usually reserved for the very last fight,” Jorgan told Jude, “It’s a great honor to be able to use them now.”

“But won’t people die?” Jude asked.

“Of course some will, but only when your life is on the line will your genuine skill come out.”

This competition was the first time Jude had ever fought with any safety conditions, and he was beginning to like them. Since coming to this world, his life had always been on the line. Whether it was running from Abaud to fighting the Demon Lord, Jude had rarely been in a safe place or an easy fight. But what he liked most about the safety conditions of the duels was to protect the lives of his opponent. These people had yet to turn into Demons or Bandits, so he considered their lives worth something.

Jude had been through a lot, so his reaction seemed natural. What confused him was everyone else's response. He had thought these people were somewhat coddled by being in their big city far away from troubles. But perhaps their experiences were broader than he had suspected. There was a whole continent of beast lands up north that was a constant threat to all the civilizations that remained. It was possible that everyone in this crowd had experience danger throughout their life.

The more Jude thought about it, the more it made sense, as civilized as the capital of Riwa seemed to be, there was also an underlying brutality. Humanity had learned to cope with the hardships of this world. Longdale was another example of that, many people died in the newbie area, and it was considered normal. Life was cheap in this world, and this disappointed Jude a little. He harbored no thoughts of being gentle to his enemies, but life, in general, should be treated with respect.

Still, all this meant one real thing. If Jude met Morcheron or Serena on the stage, neither would hold back their punches and they would surely be aiming to kill him.

The older charismatic man who was now making announcements stated, “The first match in the honored presence of our King will be…”

He paused for a dramatic effect. The crowds became silent, and they all leaned forward with anticipation.

“Serena Ganish vs. …”