Strolling around, I look for someone that looks to be around 18 so that their voice won’t seem out of place when matched with my mask. Eventually, I find someone that fits the description walking towards a clothing store. I walk in right after him and spot him lounging near a clothes rack, and since I need to be within a certain distance of him to record his voice I make my way to the other side of the rack.

While he talks to someone working in the store, I record his voice into [Slot 1] of the Ring of Speech. It’s a success! With a voice successfully recorded, I activate the special effect of the ring and I can feel a change occurring with my vocal chords.

[Voice has been successfully altered to mimic . Your voice will go back to normal in two days.]

To test my voice, I started speaking to myself quietly and I confirmed that my voice had indeed changed. Instead of the somewhat deep voice I used to have, it was now more high pitched with a kinder tone than before. Now that my final task was finished, I could just go find an inn and relax for the night.

“I think we should go to that one,” Othidas told me while mentally pointing towards a fairly small building that was worn down. “It’s better to stay low key in these areas even if no one recognizes you, we don’t want your disguise to exposed this quickly.”

Taking my friend’s advice, I headed into the rundown inn which was unexpectedly crowded. The reception desk was surrounded by two pockets of chairs and tables which were occupied by burly men and a few women. As soon as I entered, everyone stopped talking and looked at me, but after realizing I wasn't anything special, they went back to their conversations. Slowly walking up to the reception desk, an old man with greying hair greeted me with a forced smile.

“How may I help you,” he asked politely.

“I need a room for the night and food,” I said.

“That will be 10 copper since the inn has been busy lately and the demand for rooms and food has been high,” the old man explained.

“Ok then, 10 copper it is,” I murmured as I acted like I was grabbing the money from my pockets when I was actually forming them from darkness energy. Damn does this energy have so many uses!

After paying for my room and food, I waited as the receptionist went to get the key to my room. While waiting, I overheard the other residents of the inn talking loudly over dinner.

“Have you guys heard about that tournament that Sir Josan is hosting?” one of the men asked.

“I’ve heard the reward is a position in the King’s personal guard but that means that competition will be fierce,” another man said. “But many people are so desperate for money that they are rushing here from nearby towns and villages just to enter.”

“No wonder there are so many people living in inns like this.”

“My friend told me that the legendary Golden Spear will be attending the tournament!”

“Then we definitely have no chance of winning, I thought about participating but I may as well give up now.”

Their power levels were less than 50 so I didn’t care if they participated in the tournament or not, but I am happy that the word has spread this much and supposedly legendary figures like the Golden Spear are joining. I was prepared to take my key and leave before I heard one of the men say something that caught my interest.

“One of my friends told me something about the host of the tournament,” one of the men whispered under this breath. He then motioned for his friends to come closer but I could still make out what they were saying due to my enhanced hearing. “He mentioned that Sir Josan isn’t actually the one who had the idea of the tournament. It was someone that wanted their identity hidden that thought up of the tournament instead!”

“As expected of you! You never stop impressing us!” the men laughed while raising their beers for a toast.

They had sure gotten some details right but I feel like these men were too drunk to understand anything and were just spewing out random bits of information related to the topic. I turned my attention back to the receptionist who had with perfect timing, arrived back with a key to my room.

“Room 204, enjoy your stay,” the old man said with a smile. He seemed friendly, maybe it was because of all the business his inn was getting but I decided not to probe any further.

My room only had the bare necessities, a toilet and a bed that was as hard as a rock. It seemed more like a prison cell than a room in an inn, but it was all I needed anyways. I could've chosen to go to a more expensive inn, but for the sake of staying lowkey and hidden, this inn was the right choice. Lying down in an actual bed, even if it was rock hard, was still better than sitting in an alley for the night. With relaxation, I drifted into unconsciousness spread eagled on the bed, full of excitement and anticipation for tomorrow's events.

***

The next day, I awoke early so I could make it to the registration table before anyone else at the Official Tournament Arena. It was located relatively towards the center of the city, just outside the gates that led to the Royal Family’s castle grounds. Even though I had left 2 hours earlier to sign up, there were still hundreds of muscular men and women bustling about, talking to each other. They all had some sort of paint marking on their forehead which probably signified their acceptance into the tournament. The arena was shaped like a circle, kind of like the Colosseum in Rome but more sturdy, decorated, and colourful. You couldn’t enter yet, you had to go through the registration procedure first and if you weren’t a participant and only a spectator, you would have to wait until noon to be let into the arena.

The registration table already had a long line in front of it consisting of a few dozens of people. Imagine how long the line would have been if I had came right before the deadline, an hour before the tournament started. I guessed it was about at least 3 hours until noon, so I had plenty of time to roam around after my registration. Perhaps I should get to know some of the participants like Dochet did at that Battle Royale or I could go looking for that sibling duo.

I leisurely waited 45 mins until it was my turn for registration. During that time, more and more people arrived at the square like they were competing with each other to get here first. There had to be at least a few thousand gathered in this square right now, who knew the incentives I told Josan to put up as a reward would garner this much attention!

“Hello, are you here to register for the Dueling Tournament hosted by Sir Josan?” the receptionist lady asked.

I nodded and waited as she asked a bunch of questions in order to fill out my form.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Is there an option to be anonymous?” I said, trying my best to keep myself hidden from others.

She looked up with one eye in a somewhat annoyed manner before writing down something on the form. After this, the lady asked several other personal questions so I just made up a bunch of relatively believable pieces of information to pass on. Eventually, the questioning ended and the lady drew a red line on my forehead.

“Enter that large gate right there to head into the participants area,” she said, already looking at the next person in line.

Now that I think about it, everyone that had that line on their forehead were already gone from the outside square and had no doubt entered inside the arena already. Doing the same, I entered the gate, passing by two armed knights standing on either side of the entrance. They didn’t even glance at me but I could see the arrogance glinting from their eyes. I didn’t mind though because I could easily squash him like a bug.

I walked down a short hallway before it opened up to a large courtyard filled to the brim with people wearing armour with weapons strapped to their waist. There were a few women that looked like knights as well with the classic armour with a sword getup. The majority didn’t look like that though, about 2 thirds of the crowd were either wearing run down clothes or even rags. They brought nothing except rusting weapons and even a few bought whips. Some of them had spears while others had bows, there were many varying weapons of choice but the sword was the most used. I had set the requirements to be lax, anyone over the age of 12 could participate and you could bring any weapon you wanted. Of course, traps and other miscellaneous items were allowed if it were to be your fighting style, but absolutely no killing. You had to agree to all these terms during registration or else you wouldn’t be allowed to participate.

So far, I have not spotted Sefton and Ciarah anywhere—I even tried looking for that Legendary Golden Spear to check out his power level but it seemed like he hadn’t arrived yet. There was still time before the tournament started so I decided to just find a corner so stand in by myself. I might even be able to get some shut eye as Othidas kept watch. Since we both occupied this body, when I would lose consciousness, Othidas would keep watch, but when I’m awake, Othidas would occasionally lose consciousness for a little nap. I didn’t know this before but it seems like Demons need very little sleep. A Supreme Demon King like my partner didn’t even need to sleep at all, which came as a surprise when I first heard it.

I crossed my arms and close my eyes, trying to have a little nap but suddenly a man that was talking to a woman bumped into me as he tried to show off his muscles.

“Hey, watch it kid!” the man said with an annoyed tone.

“But you bumped into me,” I retorted, disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to take a small nap.

“Shut your damn mouth kid,” the man growled, glancing at the woman who had just been talking to him out of the corner of his eye. “If you know what’s good for you, apologize and scram!”

“It seems that you don’t understand what I’m saying,” I slowly worded out. I had to stand my ground, to show that I wasn’t easy to mess with even though I wasn’t playing on showing off my strength here and now. Hopefully if this situation played out right, I would be seen as a kid that stood up for himself even though he isn’t necessarily strong and that man would play out to be the bad bully. I firmly declared, “You bumped into me first, so you should be the one apologizing.”

It seems a fight would break out in an area that was loosely monitored. If I play my cards right, I won’t suffer any consequences and will still be able to participate. I resolved myself to keep my emotions in check and not retaliate in full force, and play the role of the victim. What was about to happen next would definitely be a juicy, cliché situation and I planned to enjoy every second of it.