The violent clash of the weapons reverberated throughout the Arena. People were loudly cheering on the fighters, excitement sweeping through the stands. Christopher was looking at the fight that was currently unfolding with a greedy grin on his face. He could hardly believe his success with this second Arena round; To think that he had already won three out of four bets. There was no denying that he was burning some luck. Two of the fighters had won only barely, one of them getting lucky with a last desperate gambit.

He was now watching the final match that he had bet on. His chosen fighter was pressing an advantage. Soon, with an overwhelming blow, his good mood was complete. His chosen fighter was victorious, meaning that he had won all four of his bets. Christopher felt like he was burning up his luck in one go.

Making this money was kind of important though. He wanted to do things on the next turn, and this money would be essential in realizing some of those still half-formed plans. If he could keep increasing his wealth at this pace, then he could start putting some of that wealth towards new ventures that should aid Lumen against the Blight. All of it was only possible because [Soul Mark] synergized with his [Bookmark] ability.

Christopher eagerly made the calculation on what he had just won, working out the math in his head. He had put seven silver and ten bronze coins on all four bets. The one that paid out 1.9 would pay him fourteen silver and five bronze coins. The one with 2.5 odds would pay him eighteen silver and fifteen bronze coins. The one with 3.2 odds would pay him twenty-four silver coins. And the final bet with odds of 3.7 would pay him out a total of twenty-seven silver and fifteen bronze coins. Christopher added it all up and came to a whopping total of eighty-four silver and fifteen bronze coins. Now that was what he considered a return on investment.

He was not sure that he would get another opportunity in this loop. The next Arena event would be a lot more difficult to bet on than before. All of the matchups in the last two events would soon be determined. Unfortunately, now things would start changing a lot more. New matchups would be drawn based on the new positions on the ladder, and the fact that quite some winners had changed in these last two Arena events would throw things in disarray.

Christopher would still keep an eye open for promising bets, but he fully expected that he would have more difficulty next time around. At least the first two events would have the same matchups on every loop.

Christopher made his way to the Lucky Goddess after the event had concluded to cash in his earnings. He successfully exchanged the betting slips and received his new fortune of four gold, four silver, and fifteen bronze Venarian coins. This amount was apparently not enough for the Lucky Goddess to pay too much attention. He did expect that there might be a limit to what he could win without any raised brows. He pocketed the coins, not wanting others to see him with this much wealth. Lumen was pretty safe from theft due to the strict banishment laws, but it would not do to tempt any people watching.

Christopher had never before had this kind of spending money, but he would need to save most of it for the next round.

——————<>——————

Christopher sat cross-legged in a darkened Soul Force training room. It was one of the many rooms that contained dense Soul Force to regenerate his reserves with. This room had removed any tempering from Soul Light infused metal, allowing students to entirely focus on their own Soul Force while training. He did have to share the room with a few others, which somewhat diminished the effect.

The air in the mage district contained a higher level of Soul Force, but even here some rooms had a particularly high concentration of the magical substance. These rooms were made entirely out of metal and had been constantly soaked with Soul Force due to generations of people training there. As a result, the metal rooms held the Soul Force a little longer before it dissipated through the walls, thickening the air. It was the perfect environment to practice his new [Soul Sense].

The best way to describe the insanity of [Soul Sense] was information overload. The information that flooded his brain when he used the skill was frightening and nauseating. That was why he was not yet able to look all that closely at the source of his power. Christopher took some calming breaths, steadying himself for the strange new sense.

He opened his [Soul Sense] and carefully looked inward to keep it from overwhelming him. He focused only on his hands and the Soul Force clinging there. This exercise was all about control, he needed to move it without it dissipating from his body. Christopher was told that this exercise was the key to imbuing things from a distance. It was also apparently one of the key steps towards many further developments.

He practiced by slowly rotating the blue mist around his hand, the rotation helping him keep his Soul Force connected to his body. This was his own spin on this exercise, and also different than how his teacher Fulla did it. Christopher used it as an intermediary step. The rotating Soul Force looked quite magnificent in the darkened room; the Soul Force put out its own light which made it starkly visible when rotating around his hand. He only managed to keep it rotating for a second or two before he lost it to the air. Christopher was not discouraged. This all looked cool as hell and he was satisfied with his slow but steady progress. Time passed by quickly when practicing, and soon he was running on fumes despite the much quicker regeneration that the room provided. Well, there was enough to do, and he could always come back.

——————<>——————

His games of Force of War with Tinos were something he had started to look forward to every evening. The game had quite some depth to it and was easy to get lost in. While he played, he forgot about everything else for a moment which was very welcome. The games had become somewhat of a ritual, and he made sure to get back to their lodgings each evening to not miss out.

Christopher had some experience when it came to strategy games, which helped him adapt to this new game relatively quickly. He was not that bad at playing chess and some of the principles in this game were the same. Christopher knew from experience that you needed to put in some dedication and time to get really good at such games. In the past, he had been terrible when he had played his first game of chess. Not letting that get him down, he had put in a lot of practice, quickly resulting in a much more respectable performance. There was no reason to think that he could not get much better at this game as well.

Christopher sat in front of Tinos, studying the board, trying to think of the optimum strategy. At the recommendation of Tinos, he exclusively played with the red monster pieces, He was starting to understand the rules and was more easily able to see the traps that Tinos set out.

They had people spectating during most nights, but Christopher had gotten used to them, not letting them affect his focus. This current game was proceeding much better than all his previous attempts. He had recognized Tinos his plan just in time and had managed to stop his ballistae pieces from taking out many of his weaker monsters in one fell swoop. He was pleased that he had managed to see through the danger, and it proved that he was getting better.

He spotted an opening for some of his monsters, but quickly recognized the folly of that tactic, Tinos had clearly left that space open on purpose. Instead of falling into the trap, Christopher made an attack that traded pieces, giving a way through for his piece representing an aberration. Tinos quickly recognized that he had been seen through again, but was not in time to remove all of his pieces from the danger zone. This allowed his aberration to blow up three of the Tinos his pieces while taking itself out as well. This evened out the game again, or so he thought.

Tinos chuckled “Nicely done, I am surprised that you managed to spot that strategy.”

Christopher did not have long to be pleased with his move; Tinos pulled out some small but difficult to rebuff moves. After about ten more turns it became clear that he had lost once again.

Christopher was slightly frustrated. “Interesting moves, I will have to remember those for next time.”

Tinos smiled. “Good game, you are getting better. And some of these strategies are pretty interesting.”

Christopher appreciated the praise, but it was clear that he was hardly challenging Tinos at the moment. He did not believe for a second that the old man was sweating even a little.

It would probably take some time before he could make the man nervous. He had plenty of loops though, and Christopher did like a challenge.

——————<>——————

A neatly dressed man walked through the tunnels of the underground in the dead of night, trying to keep his footsteps as light as he possibly could. There should be nobody treading the outer Academy tunnels at this late hour, although that was no guarantee. the expensive silk fabric of his trousers and vest gently shaved against the man’s skin. He hated these dark passages with a passion, but there was no denying the call. A man had to do what he needed to survive.

Despite the relative cold, he felt perspiration on his brow. He banged his foot against something while he was searching through the dark. He had to suppress himself from cursing, not wanting to break the silence. Where was that damned opening! The man pondered for a while whether he had entered the wrong room. That worry disappeared when his hand slipped through a hole in the wall, which had been well hidden behind some old stashed equipment. He fearfully squeezed himself through the small opening, before slowly making his way through the pitch-black tunnel.

The passageway had not been made for comfort. Motto kept scraping his body against all manner of protrusions, his fine clothing soon sported small tears due to some of the sharp edges. Motto was hit with a terrible sense of claustrophobia when he had to crawl through a particularly narrow piece of the tunnel.

The path eventually widened and he followed the twisting paths towards his destination. There was not much of a choice, he could not afford to refuse this summon; They had made sure of that.

Eventually, an ominous purple light could be seen, appearing as snaking strings from somewhere in the distance. It was kind of like lightning, only with smooth and curved paths. The strings just remained hanging in the air, only slowly snaking around. The strange purple light somehow did not light up his surroundings, but he could guess the end of the passage due to where the strings stopped. He carefully stepped around these strings and soon entered some kind of cavern. The shifting strings showed him the outline of the space, which indicated a surprisingly large cave.

A gravelly inhuman voice called out from the shadows, sending a cold shiver down his spine.

“You shall remain there.”

The voice was alarmingly loud and it reverberated through his ears in a painful way. He had probably traveled quite some way, but he could almost imagine that voice traveling all the way to the surface.

He fearfully tried to catch a glimpse of the creature that had spoken but it was well hidden in the darkness. He could however guess the location, since the light strings seemed to originate from the same shape at the far side of the cave. The dark outline of the creature was gigantic.

“My lord, how can this humble man be of service?”

The creature spoke somewhat softer this time, although still with that inhuman grating tone.

“You and the others have failed me! The defense is stronger than projected!”

“Survivors brought word of the destruction of Stonehill, which send the city in a frenzy. We have stalled, but that made our job difficult.”

The creature let out a grating growl, and the man took an involuntary step back from fright. He stood there for what felt like a minute, realizing that his life could end at any moment. After some time, the creature spoke again.

“It was not unexpected; this has the scent of creation.”

“The scent of creation?” The man dared to ask.

He had to wait for another nerve-wracking long time to get a response.

“You have a new mission. Identify any newly-arrived individuals that are trying to stop our advancement. Failure shall not be an option.”

The man would not even dare refuse the unknown creature.

“It shall be done, is that all?”

“That is all, you shall succeed!”

It was clear that this was meant as a command and that it was not positive reinforcement. He would be expected to produce results. As he was contemplating this new mission something very large seemed to move away, grinding against the stone.