Yi Qiang rolled his eyes at the judge's pandering. He behaved like an announcer, saying everything in a booming and exciting voice, and trying to incite passion in the crowd as much as possible. It was extremely annoying, but there was little the marksman could do.

As Yi Qiang started walking to the edge of the stage, dropping down to pick Shenyu back up, the judge began. The archer, almost unwillingly, paid attention while he plopped the fully-recovered Shenyu back on his shoulder. His rightful spot.

"Now that we've significantly reduced the numbers, we can move on to the next stage of the competition. This will be simple, just as cut-and-dry as the preliminaries. All that will be going on are duels; of course, I say that, but it likely won't be such an easy matter for you. Nevertheless, without further ado, let us begin!"

With those words, the colossal arena stage actually started to tremble. It was only when that movement didn't stop after ten full seconds, though, did Yi Qiang begin to worry.

That wariness only increased when Yi Qiang spotted the minute cracks forming on the surface of the arena, growing exponentially large by the second.

While the experienced marksman's facial expression didn't change, his mind grew more alert, paying attention to every minute change. When he didn't know a threat's location or origin, Yi Qiang was at his sensory peak.

The strangest aspect of this process, though, was that Yi Qiang's instincts didn't warn him of any danger at all. As such, though Yi Qiang was, of course, wary, he suspected that whatever was causing this stage to undergo such a dramatic change wasn't exactly life-threatening.

This conjecture was further supported by the fact that no one in the audience seemed worried about the development, and everyone was instead cheering loudly. At that point, Yi Qiang was almost certain he had nothing about which to worry.

The cracks on the floor grew ever more extensive, and the shaking only became more and more violent, but it seemed that the Chosen were the only ones who were worried. Of course, the preliminaries weeded out the weak and useless, so the reactions weren't that of fear, but caution.

Finally, the process finished, Yi Qiang staring at the new arena in astonishment.

I know magic is real in this world... and even enchantments... but this is simply obscene...

All around Yi Qiang lay eight stages, each equally sized and ready to house their own battles.

In short order, new judges walked onto every stage, even the central platform that everyone was still standing on. The gaudy judge spoke up.

"As you can see, we have one stage for each pair of participants waiting to fight! Now, I will split you up into eight groups of two and direct you to your arena, where you will fight. The loser will walk out of the tournament, and I will pair the winners up again, this time into four groups of two. That will mean four remain. Those four will go on... to the last stage!"

The crowd's reaction to the end of the judge's speech clearly meant to be dramatic was satisfying to Yi Qiang - they just sat there, mute. Almost as if dealt a physical blow, the man staggered back, visibly distraught; this was an ending even more to the marksman's liking. Maybe that'll tone him down some.

He coughed awkwardly, then straightened his back. "Alright," he took a cursory glance at every contestant. "You go with you over there, you go with you over there, you go with you over there, you go with you over there, you go with you over there, you go with you over there, you go with you over there, and you go with you over there. I'll... take my leave until all of you are done."

With that, he walked off the stage and into a door at the side, retreating to wherever the judge spent his time.

Meanwhile, Yi Qiang was shocked. Is that judge such an expert?

Looking at the pairings, he perfectly matched up everyone so that the more powerful contestants would get the ranking they deserved, while the weaker contestants would be eliminated earlier on. That's impossible to do with sheer luck, but the alternative... I doubt I could do that without significantly more time.

What the hell?

Yi Qiang could only mutely walk over to the stage to which the hidden expert directed him. Somehow, the judge managed to accurately judge everybody's power almost instantly, without any visible effort, and rapidly pair people up perfectly using that information.

This round, Yi Qiang was paired up with someone he was quite sure to be an easy match. That distribution was everywhere when Yi Qiang scanned the contestants. That system meant that, for example, someone who had enough power to be in third place wouldn't get eliminated in a battle against the person strong enough for first place, which would be a tragic outcome. So, for ranking to represent combat strength more accurately, the judge arranged the duels specially. And if someone was so unique the judge couldn't get an accurate reading, it would be irrelevant, as such power would almost guarantee first place. I think I'm starting to see why they chose such a seemingly useless judge.

Yi Qiang put all of these thoughts out of his mind when he stepped onto his stage. He had to focus.

Just lie a lion spent all of its power hunting even a mouse, Yi Qiang wouldn't toy with enemies. Many times, he had been on the opposite side, taking advantage of an enemy's overconfidence. Ever since his first time using that to his benefit, Yi Qiang had vowed never to be on the receiving end of such a move.

As such, Yi Qiang, after setting down Shenyu at the very edge of the stage, summoned a shining bow of golden Qi. Together with the materialized arrow, Yi Qiang was ready.

The nondescript man who was to serve as the referee of this match spoke up.

"For this match, there's no need to worry about killing your opponent. Just fight like you would in a life-and-death match. These stages are enchanted to stop any killing or crippling blows, so fight without fear. When that enchantment comes into play or a fighter is rendered unable to fight, the match is won. Ready? Fight!"

Yi Qiang raised his bow, levering it at his opponent.

The serpentine-looking man the judge had paired Yi Qiang against was stronger than most Chosen the marksman had encountered, standing at Level 51, according to Analyze, so Yi Qiang had formed his bow using a solid 200 points.

That turned out to be overkill, as one arrow was all that was needed to end the match. Right as the glistening golden shaft arrived at the man's forehead, perfectly angled to enter his skull, it just stopped. That must be the enchantment. Impressive.

The serpentine-looking man had yet to move, incapable of even drawing his sword before the match was over. When his brain caught up to the present, he just blinked before staggering back, the arrow exploding into tiny particles of Qi seconds later.

Even the judge seemed disconcerted by the speed at which Yi Qiang wrapped everything up, the man's eyebrows slightly furrowed at the underwhelming ending.

Eventually, though, he just shook his head slightly and announced, "Yi Qiang's victory!"

I wonder how he got our names.

"Good job, brother! He was weak, wasn't he?"

Most people are weak by those standards. Yi Qiang shot a glare at Shenyu. The man he had just fought was passable; most likely, the average Chosen wouldn't come close to matching up to him. Yi Qiang supposed the impossible standards Shenyu seemed to judge everyone by were partly his fault, but the dragon would need to learn that just because someone was weak compared to him didn't mean they were worthless.

After all, Yi Qiang was not omnipotent. He had high stats, but that was just from training. The benefits of such hard work only revealed themselves at higher levels, where he would hold a massive lead on people his level, but this early in the game, the value of his actions had yet to reveal themselves fully. If there were a Chosen who was not only skilled in combat but spent all their time leveling up, chances were that they could fight toe-to-toe with him, if not overpower him. Yi Qiang was also, due to the nature of his training, very general in his strengths. However, a Chosen could hypothetically focus all of his free stat points from leveling up into one stat. That would result in ridiculous power, but only in one aspect.

Yi Qiang himself planned to use such a strategy, but since he had yet to reach the self-imposed benchmark of training his stats with his Strength(last time he checked), Yi Qiang held back on dumping his points into the stat. Of course, just putting everything into one stat was stupid - more than one factor made up combat, and against real, experienced fighters, that strategy would be picked apart.

If his Strength reached 250, though, Yi Qiang would place most of his free points into the stat, making his damage skyrocket.

Before continuing down that road, Yi Qiang sat down, intending on waiting for everyone while planning out his future development.

Let's see. What's the ratio I want to spend my free stat points in?

Strength needs to occupy the majority. I'll put in 45% of all my stat points into that stat.

Agility is also important if I want to move quickly enough to keep up with enemies. Not as important anymore, though, because the way I see it, Shenyu will serve as my shield in combat. That means I don't need to dodge as much; I need the Agility just to keep up with higher-level battles in the future, and so I can consistently shoot faster. 10% of my stat points, I think.

Dexterity is crucial to keep up with more Agility, but I don't need to match it up point-for-point. 5% should do.

Vitality affects maximum Health and Stamina, so pretty important. However, I'm focusing on Stamina and Health recovery, so it's less important. I don't think I need to put any of my stats into it.

Constitution. Oh, that's a crucial part of my fighting. Unfortunately, I need a lot for Vigor, so I'll put a solid 15% into it.

Then, the remaining 25% into Vigor.

Solid plan. Now, what stats can I use my free points on; which have I trained over 250?

Surprisingly, it looked like two stats had surpassed the 250 benchmark - Strength and Agility. Yi Qiang grinned. I'll be getting a lot stronger, then.

The calculations were comfortable, too, as Yi Qiang had an even 400 stat points.

So, bracing himself, Yi Qiang put 180 free stat points into Strength and 40 into Agility. The bonuses to both stats, especially Strength, were nothing to scoff at, either, considering that, if Yi Qiang's observations were correct, a single stat point was worth more at a higher value than at a lower one. So, 190 points into Strength at 250 were worth a lot more than 180 points at 10.

Yi Qiang felt the difference.

Sheer power coursed through his muscles, feeling almost as if pure energy was infused directly into him. He resisted the urge to lift his head and roar at the ecstasy of the new power in him all at once, instead just silently trembling. I could get used to that.

Yi Qiang had never felt the rush of adding points. This fact, should it be known by any Chosen, would be found extremely strange, since almost the entire Chosen population of Ascend was extremely familiar with that sensation.

It was a fact, though, that none of them had experienced the bliss Yi Qiang was undergoing that moment since the combination of the sheer quantity of stat points and quality intensified the sensation to almost unbearable levels. All of that was, of course, due to the remarkably high initial value of Yi Qiang's Strength.

The feeling died down, eventually, much to the dismay of Shenyu - the young dragon had been rejoicing in Yi Qiang's ecstasy as well through their mental link.

A grin appeared on Yi Qiang's face, though, when he watched the battles going on all around. It looked like all the fights were close to being finished, and Yi Qiang was raring to test his new Strength on some more formidable opponents.