Zane walked onto the black sand and saw very few people on it. He found it very baffling. On a normal day everyone would be practicing their skills, sparring and seeking advice on how to improve, but today was different. There was no system message or any announcements, but everyone knew that today was a day for challenges. It wasn’t difficult to come to this conclusion given the nature of champion and challenger quests, but Zane didn’t hear anyone speaking about it during the past few days. Zane started to wonder if people were holding secret meetings somewhere.

After taking a few seconds to look around Zane stopped and pulled out his ranking orb. On the orb was an arrow pointing in the direction he needed to go. The arrow made small adjustments as he walked forward until he arrived at an area on the black sand. Once he was there Zane sat down and waited for his opponent to arrive.

While Zane was choosing an opponent Shane left to fight his challenger and the others left to watch him. Zane spent some time thinking about who a good opponent would be, but he quickly realized he had no way of knowing their strength. He decided to challenge the first person on each page of the rankings. The eleventh person on the rankings wasn’t at the training ground so Zane challenged the twenty first.

Only a short amount of time passed before Zane received a message about the champion accepting his challenge. He received another message telling him there was a fifteen-minute window to begin the match and how to get to the location where the match would take place. Before Zane set foot on the black sand, he received a mental message from Shane letting everyone know he won his match. Zane and everyone else congratulated him on his victory. Shane replied that he would spend some time recovering and watch Zane’s match before he issued his own challenge.

Less than two minutes after Zane sat on the black sand the ranking orb started to vibrate. Zane was holding it in his hand watching the fifteen-minute timer go down. The message he received from the orb told him he would win if his opponent didn’t arrive in time period. Zane sent some of his mana into the orb after feeling the ranking orb vibrate. The orb sent a message back telling him that he could use the orb to observe other fights.

The creation of this new feature was a bit surprising to Zane. Everyone could see the fights happening on the black sand from the seats above him. Watching the fight through the ranking orb seemed unnecessary and he was confident that there were some people without a ranking orb. With nothing to lose Zane decided to take a look at the fights on the ranking orb.

Given the nature of the starting village Zane was unsurprised when he had to pay village points to watch the fights. However, he was surprised by the option to watch public matches or private matches. Zane looked at the list of public matches and looked at the people sitting, standing or fighting on the black sand. The number of names on the list of public matches and the number of people he saw on the black sand was very close. The list of private matches had more names than the public matches and each match was different.

I really didn’t expect this, Zane thought to himself. It seems like I really haven’t paid enough attention to how the training ground works. The private matches are probably being held in the private rooms. I thought those rooms were only for learning skills from the experts in the training ground or for private spars. Zane shook his head in amazement. I can’t believe I missed this. The number of names on the private list shows that a lot of people knew about this function. The only reason I don’t know about this is because I’ve been unobservant. If I wasn’t so focused on training, I probably would have found this out sooner. Or maybe, those people knew about the private matches from a secret meeting. Yeah, that sounds right to me.

Zane told himself to stop focusing on his lack of awareness and start looking to see who was participating in the private matches. He scanned the list of names and it wasn’t long before he saw a familiar one. Zane was surprised to see that Old Saber knew about the private matches even though Zane never saw him at the training ground. Before Zane could pay to see his match, he heard someone call out to him.

“You’re Zane right”

Zane looked up and saw a dark skin man with short dark hair. His name was Mike and he was wearing dark metal armor with a red outline. He had a sword sheathed on the left side of his waist and was carrying a rectangular shield on his left arm. Checking his ranking orb, Zane saw the countdown had disappeared. He stood up put away his orb and respectfully greeted the man standing in front of him while using identify.

Human Lvl 38

“Not a bad cloak but your clothing looks like level one gear. It’s definitely not as cool as my armor. Hey, where are you from? If we’re from the same place I don’t mind lending you a helping hand.”

Zane found Mike’s words very amusing. He insulted his clothing and then offered to help him. Only people from Brad’s world acted in such a manner. Zane decided to have some fun and pretend to be from Brad’s. He quickly thought about the few details the Brad mentioned in passing about his world.

“I’m from the same world as you. I grew up in Jamestown.”

“That’s cool! I grew up in peddler capital, but I’ll still help you out. What class are you going for? I’m trying to get the knight class. I hope that I can upgrade to the dragon knight class and ride a dragon into battle. Judging by the way your dressed I can guess that you’re going for the rogue class.”

“That…that’s right. I guess I’m pretty easy to read or your extremely perceptive.” Zane was a bit stunned by what Mike said.

I’m beginning to think that all people from Brad’s world have some degree of mental problems, Zane thought to himself. Frank and the others aren’t as bad as Brad, and Brad definitely isn’t as bad as this guy. What stories did he hear on his world that made him believe he could ride a dragon? Did he think dragons were horses?

Zane wanted to start the fight, but Mike was very talkative. After a few minutes Mike asked Zane a question he wasn’t able to answer. Zane was forced to admit that he wasn’t from the same world as Mike.

“Well now I feel like an idiot. If you’re not from my world, then which world are you from?”

“I from this world.”

“Yeah, I should have expected that. If you're from this-”

Mike paused mid-sentence and his eyes became unfocused. Zane didn’t lose focus, but he felt the system send a message from his ranking orb. The message said that he had fifteen minutes to begin the fight or it would be considered a loss for both of them. Zane mentally thanked the system, the Divine Spirits and anyone else who helped to make this function.

“Guess our conversation ends here.” Zane spoke while trying not to sound too excited.

“Sure, we can always talk later.” Mike drew his sword and looked ready to fight.

Zane was ready to fight a long time ago. He had decided to fight each person he challenged with a different weapon. The ten challenges he conducted today would be his final review of all his weapon skills before he fused them together. Once Mike drew his sword Zane took his whip out of his space bag.

Item Name: Black Whip

Item Type: Weapon

Tier: 0

Level: 36

Durability: 200/275

Grade: Common

Description: An ordinary whip made of leather.

Abilities: Damage 55-65, Dex +1

Requirements: Level 20

Skill: Basic Whip Mastery

Level: 50, MAX%

Tier: 0

Effect: Increase the users physical attack damage when wielding a whip. Damage 25 + Dex/3

Special Effect (1): More flexibility

Special effect (2): Heavy impact

Cost: None

The whip Zane wielded was made of black leather and was more than a few meters long. Looking at his weapon Zane felt that he was in need of an upgrade. When he chose this weapon Zane could have never predicted how fast he would gain levels. The weapons he purchased before coming to the starting village had a lower grade, dealt less damage and has weaker abilities due to the lowered requirements. If he knew he would level up so quickly Zane would have chosen weapons with higher requirements. That way the weapons he used would have kept their stronger qualities. Zane shook his head and decided to focus on finding new weapons later. Right now, he needed to focus on the opponent in front of him.

When Zane looked up from his weapon, he saw Mike crouched down with his shield in front of him and his sword held at the ready. Zane twirled his whip and sent the tip flying directly at Mike's head. Mike casually raised his shield to cover his head and took a step forward. Zane smiled when he saw Mike stumble and fall onto his back.

The second special effect of Zane’s skill added more force to each of his attacks. Before Zane unlocked the two special effects of his skill, he would focus only on increasing the speed of his attacks with his whip. The two skills didn’t directly increase the damage that his wiped dealt. However, the two special effects showed him how to use the whip in ways that would make it far more lethal.

As Mike tried to get back up Zane took a few steps back. The increase in distance would give him more time to attack and made sure each attack dealt the maximum amount of damage. The moment Mike stood his energy started to surge. Zane guessed what would happen next and attacked before Mike moved. Mike raised his shield to defend his head, but Zane didn’t care. He twisted his whip while it was in midair and wrapped it around Mike’s foot. Once Zane pulled Mike was sent crashing back to the ground and his surging energy dispersed.

What followed was a one-sided beating. Zane could tell that Mike wasn’t inexperienced based on the way he held himself and his weapons. However, Mike’s level of experience wasn’t enough for him to be a challenge to Zane. Zane easily kept his distance from Mike and continued to use his whip to injure or knock Mike down. The only thing Zane had to make sure he didn’t do was pass a glowing white line on the black sand. If Zane stepped out of the boundaries created for their battle he would automatically lose.

“I give up,” Mike said.

“Really?!” Zane shouted in surprise.

Zane received a message that said he won the challenge after he shouted. He couldn’t believe that Mike gave up. Due to the protection of the system none of Zane’s attacks actually injured Mike. At most he would feel a negligible amount of pain when Zane’s whip directly hit his skin. Otherwise, he would be fine and he would only receive a damage notification. Once he received more damage than he had health the system would declare Zane as the winner.

“Why not? I don’t feel like being your punching bag.”

“You still could have learned from the battle.” Zane had suffered beatings many times during his training, but he didn’t quit and focused on trying to improve.

“Yeah, and what exactly should I be trying to learn? How to be a better punching bag?” I should have known it would be useless to fight you. All the people born on this world are experts.”

Seeing Mike’s frustrated appearance made Zane feal a little bad. During the fight he was completely focused on understanding how to use the whip. He treated Mike like a training golem that he could practice his skills on.

“Well, since you called me an expert, I guess I can give you some advice. I noticed you were staring at your window to read the system messages. I can show you how to understand system messages without reading them through the system window.”

“Wait, there’s another way to receive messages? I thought everyone read their messages on their screen.”

“We grow up with the system and do not understand language at a young age. Only when we grow up and learn reading and writing do we start to read the system messages through our windows. So, do you want me to teach you?”