And the third day arrived. The day where the South spine would be completed by Beathoven which would be the most important spine in order to attract tourists as well as make people want to stay in Carnival for extended periods of time. I wonder what he was going to call the place as he had the power to name and design everything from scratch.

It was morning and I walked down the castle to the dining hall where everyone agreed to meet for breakfast.

“Good morning!”

Slick, M1 & 2 and FuzzyWuzzy were all there. The rest of the BOTs, Hermes and Xantos weren't.

“Wait where do your minions live anyway?” I asked.

It turned out the snakes and wolves were still living in the forest and were available to answer to every beck and call of their respective masters whereas M1 and M2 knew abit of necromastery, just a tiny bit to raise a small bunch of minions to do work for them in the mines. If we took them out and level them their skills would no doubt increase even more and I wonder if there was a bigger reason for putting them here than just to assist us. Loki was too unpredictable.

And as if to answer to my thoughts the only person who could rival Loki in how predictable he or she was burst into the dining hall. He was however extremely different. It was a centaur (Half human half horse) that came into the room bearing Breadtalk's upper body.

“Look I can shapeshift certain parts of my body at will! CHECK OUT MY PENIS! Wait let me see if I can change the position of the penis.”

Apparently the skill was extremely useful in changing appearances but it needed alot of mastery and control. Changing specific body parts into other animals or creatures now seemed to be of no trouble to Breadtalk but positioning looks like quite a hard thing to change because I'm pretty sure even if it was Breadtalk, he had no intention of replacing his nose with something slightly more bulky and droopy. The nose took up the original position of the penis and trust me it wasn't the gigantic horse penis that we saw earlier as well so...

“Hey dude how does your ass smell?”

“Lol. He's literally dumbo now if only his dick was a little bigger. Maybe his ears too” M1 said.

“At least its cleanly shaven. The head looks abit weird though.” M2 replied.

FuzzyWuzzy was too busy slapping and pulling on the newly positioned organ to come up with a witty remark.

Slick just said “Don't suck or lick it. Don't Slick it. I know its tempting but please don't,”

Breadtalk was too busy laughing at his own fail and screaming in pain whenever FuzzyWuzzy swiped the dangling “nose” to even comment and he tried to reposition the organ. Lets just say his mastery and control over the spell was definitely not anywhere near satisfactory as organs were just swapping all over the place. It was not a pretty sight but I'd be damned if i said it wasnt entertaining. In the end he just had to cancel the spell and give up trying and by then all of us were already present for Breakfast.

I cooked breakfast for them using the vast amounts of ingredients the gorillas gave us as a parting gift after our little adventure and my cooking skill had already almost reached intermediate level 9. I was quite excited to see what would lie after that. All the food I cook already start giving bonus stats to I was even contemplating getting a new lifeskill that I could imbude art into like sewing or sculpting or anything that could make use of my new art stat.

After breakfast, we all went about our seperate ways to continue our training and I knew I needed to move on to the next level of training. My mana manipulation was now intermediate level 8 because of the hard training Jörmungandr gave me. My ouroboros seal was also at Beginner level 6 nearing to 7 already because I had to keep using it whenever I had the time. However because I concentrated too much on levelling up the magical part of my character, my katana mastery has been rather stagnant. It would be troublesome if I just became a mage and lost my abilities to fight at the front line due to poor mastery levels. I decided to split my training more evenly. I asked help from FuzzyWuzzy to spar with me.

FuzzyWuzzy was just going to ask his wolves to hunt further out of the forbidden forest to level his minions up abit so he didn't mind that he would have something to do as well. We went into the mines to fight as we didn't want to attract attention fighting out in the open even if it was just a forest.

FuzzyWuzzy was a level 200 alpha wolf which usually doesn't exist in these areas so he was already a mob of the highest class I could possibly find. He wasn't a boss mob though. He was just a boss mob only when the quest was active because of the buffs he received from the children of Loki. Now he wouldn't have the godly regen or the blood rage that Hel could cast on monsters to give them insane amounts of attack power. However he was still a blessed child of Fenrir and he still retained his movement speed, attack speed, vitality and strength.

I was a level 110 elemental swordsman but since I had inflated stats due to my level 1 training as well as the first reward for Loki's quest, my actual level should be around 170-ish. However, everyone knows mages are disadvantageous in close range combat. FuzzyWuzzy would be locked in close combat with me every single second during our spar and that was why he was the perfect sparring partner for me. I would only have split seconds to decide my spells, my footwork and my sword against him at all times and this would train my ability to cast spells instantly as well as my proficiency in close quarters.

We made just two rules. First person to get the other down to less than half health would win the round, we are allowed to use whatever means possible. FIGHTTTT!

As expected, the speed shown by FuzzyWuzzy during the boss fight was his own. He was about 10 meters in front of me and within 1 second he was barely 2 meters away from me. I did not have the chaotic melody buff Beathoven usually casted on us so this was my first 1v1 fight since i've sparred with the leader of the Warrior's guild, Xeron. I immediately used ice to cover the floor around me hoping FuzzyWuzzy would slip on it and I casted some earth spikes on my shoes to give me some solid grip on the ice. However it looks like FuzzyWuzzy has got some might claws and even though the ice slowed him down abit, he could clamp down on the ice with his claws and he was still faster than me.

He rained a flurry of blows towards me and I used my katana to parry his blows. However the result was obvious, a goliath of strength and speed against a semi-skillful katana with barely any strength behind it was hard to cope. Even with swift steps and electric impulse as my go to skills in close combat I was barely keeping up. However I was able to block every blow even if nicks and scratches got to me. If this continued, I had a good chance and I knew this better than anybody because for my job, the possibilities are endless.

I immediately started on my own offensive as I just wanted to have a feel of FuzzyWuzzy's close combat abilities and I knew my spells could easily make a difference. I used a torrent of water from below to push FuzzyWuzzy into the air but he was heavier than I thought. It was just like a shower to him so I used gravity magic on him instead. I wanted to make him lighter so he could be blown around a bit more, so I could start abusing my magic which required almost 0 cast time on him. However, making him lighter would also mean making him faster. He managed to get a clean hit on me and even though the blow was lighter, it still took a quarter of my health away because I had low health and he still had high strength. Bad idea. Making him heavier would make his blows stronger, also seemed like a bad idea. In the end I had to do what my training taught me.

I split my minds into two parts, one would be in charge of offense and the other would be defense, simultaneously. FuzzyWuzzy launched himself directly at me and I made him alot heavier instantly. He was still swiping at me but because he was so much slower, I could dodge more effectively but if i failed the dodge it would be instantly a KO for me so you know what they say, high risks high rewards. I then matched up a timing for the counterattack. In the middle of his attack I made him light while I used gravity crush at the same time and he did not have the time to dodge or parry so he took the full brunt of the hit and flew back into a wall and crashed into it. His health was visibly reduced by about one quarter as well and I was pleased. However wolves have high HP regeneration in their blood. It wasn't the crazy 1000 HP/second regeneration Jörmungandr gave him but it still amounted to quite a bit.

When I used the same pattern against him, FuzzyWuzzy learnt well. He kept his strikes small and compact which meant that even though he was slow, the strike was not too long and he even used a skill i suspected which made his slash even faster. Seeing that he has adapted to my plan, I tried out more scenarios but it was a standstill. I was already drawing on some reserves of the Ouroboros seal and FuzzyWuzzy's HP has recovered to only about an eight of his HP missing. I had to act fast. Long, drawn out battles it seemed wouldn't be advantageous for me. I steeled my resolve and trusted my instincts and went for it. I rushed in using my swordwork to hang in there but used a high level poison spell for the first time. I casted the spell onto the edge of my weapon and used earth and water magic simultaneously to make a swamp under FuzzyWuzzy's feet. I then made him heavy using my mana to hold him there for as long as I could and I just kept belting him blow after blow and the beauty about posion is even though he could parry my blows no problem, as long as he doesn't dodge them, he would be inflicted with poison.

I used one of the high level poison spells Jörmungandr taught me and his health was diminishing at a rate faster than it could heal. FuzzyWuzzy could sense that but he could do nothing while he was being weighed down by both a swamp and gravity magic while I was busy doing everything I can to make sure I could get as much poison into his system as possible. I used rooted on him from within the swamp and even went as far as to freeze the top part of the swamp to make sure it was a solid as it could be. However even the 16000 mana pool in my ouroboros seal was running out. He had about one eigth of his health left to go before it was reduced down to half so I used all my remaining mana to use a skill which has never failed me before.

*Divine Judgement*

However FuzzyWuzzy has seen this before so when he felt and saw the mana above him, even though the drop was almost instant, he managed to dodge it a bit by moving his head and then cracked the ice using all his strength and jumped out of the swamp. His health was still not below half but he was ticking out from the poison. He knew that so he too changed his way of attacking. I no longer had any mana to cast more spells on him so I stuck to using electrical impulse and swift speed to try and match him, drag the time out until he ticks out from the poison. Alas the plan was too obvious. FuzzyWuzzy ran straight for me and instead of focusing on my sword now, he ran straight at me and clinched me. He just used pure, brute strength to give me a bear hug, crushing my bones and preventing me from doing much with my sword. My health went down by half immediately.

“STOP! Damn. Well played fuzzywuzzy.”

He bowed in agreement. It was still a pretty useful spar. Because his close quarter combat proficiency was so high, it dragged my katana mastery up quite high for a two whole levels and my mana manipulation and ouroboros seal spells also levelled up during the process. I then realised how much Soup was able to do holding off someone like FuzzyWuzzy who had been buffed up to such insane amounts.

I made an agreement to find FuzzyWuzzy to fight with him every time my ouroboros seal was maxed out and he agreed since it would help him gain experience and strength as well. At least it was better than using the mana for blasting Breadtalk into the sky.

So I went about doing my normal training, beginning to break my mind into three parts now, one step ahead of two but it felt like it was at least 3 times more difficult. Now it was like using both your hands and one bloody leg to write 3 languages and different words at the same time. Holy shit it could drive anyone crazy. However despite the tough trainings, like in real life, as long as you have a goal worth fighting for, at the end of the day you will still survive and push through. Like men in the military for their country, like a husband working for his family, like a mother protecting her child, we pull through. We always do.

My ouroboros seal could be filled about three times a day because of my passive mana regeneration which regen-ed 1% of my mana per minute so it took me 100 minutes to fill up 100% of my mana which was about 6000 by now. It needed me three full tanks of mana to fully fill up my ouroboros seal and another full tank before I was at full fighting capability so it amounted to 400 minutes which was about 7 hours. Thus I could fight fully for 3 times a day maximum. I could squeeze in four but that would leave me without time for sleep and I think that would be bad. Stamina was also important in these close quarter fights and every time I fought with FuzzyWuzzy it would bring my stamina down to extremely low levels. I heard when it reaches 0 you will die even though you have HP remaining so that was another perk of sparring with him.

Finally, the sun set after our third spar which i lost as well (Haven't won against that ass yet) and it was the end of another day and i walked to the South spine together with FuzzyWuzzy to see what Beathoven has brought to this city. And even from far away we could see that he outdid himself. I expected something like a coliseum you know with a huge centre with stands around but I forgot that ultimately, Beathoven would still be Beathoven. A fucking badass concert hall would be the best way I could describe the main building to you. From the town square when you look south the building was so huge it could block your line of sight of the mountains far away.

It was made of a light bronze colour which would reflect alot of light off the exterior and make it extremely shiny i suppose. Even though it was dark now, the structure gave off a huge glow, reflecting the light off the surface with huge modern lampposts surrounding the complex. The shape of the building was perfectly circular with an open roof but the top of the building was tilted at an angle so it gave off an extremely modern look with a flat circle as the base and a tilted circle about 5 degrees at the top.

The lamp posts were huge and towering and they provided quite good lighting and they were placed surrounding the entire complex which should amount to i estimate about 36 lampposts? 36 high powered hugeass lamp posts. The exterior was laden with many small modern looking shops around it. It was a huge contrast from the West spine which had an old school barbaric look and I was loving it. It was something like your country's huge national stadium, something like the O2 in london, the Stade de France which obviously is in France etc. The shops all had clear windows and were all uniformly designed so it gave off a very neat feeling and they were well space out too.

However these stalls were only open from the upper half of the south spine which was the one closer to the town square. The bottom half of the south spine had buildings too but they were of a different nature and all of them were of a modern design as well. This time, extremely more colourful which was a strong contrast from the upper half. They were also not uniform, some were short and big, some tall and skinny. Some were even irregularly shaped. Then I realised the beauty of Beathoven's design. If you were coming from the town square or anywhere else up further north of town, you would have already seen how uniquely designed this place is so a modern, uniform image would be sharply contrasted and appreciated from all the various types of designs.

But if you were coming from the south into the city for the first time, you would be able to see many colourful buildings, each differently designed but still of a modern nature with the huge stadium as a backdrop, foreshadowing the crazily designed town awaiting the individual. It screamed Carnival but in a modern sense. A fun filled, brightly lit modern area for fun. Looks like Beathoven really had a flair for art after all. This was a careful, modern piece of engineering instead of whimsical art.

I walked towards the stadium. Beathoven already took the liberty of naming the stadium which was obvious as two words were floating at the top of the stadium, slowly spinning from left to right reading “The Ascension”.

I could only admire the apt name. The floating letters seemed to further symbolise and emphasize the grandeur and impact of the name. The interior of the stadium was breathtaking as well. It was exactly like a concert hall. Except it was a blend of concert hall and a stadium. The circular stadium was huge and the seats were extremely comfortable. They were the sort of red cushiony seats you could find in a concert hall or cinema. Each had a cup holder and mini table you could stow away as well.

There were huge tv screens hanging in mid air at the centre of the stadium which you could clearly see without a doubt from wherever you were seated. I could also see that the seats were categorized. The red seats were closest to the centre of the stadium where the action would take place and then followed by yellow seats which were middle tier and green seats which were the furthest. Looks like Beathoven really thought it through, giving the seats good colour contrast among the glossy black floor as well.

The whole stadium was a splendid mix of modernisation and fun. One could easily admire how modern it is and the colours used just brought out the inner child in you.

Of course the most important part was the centre of the stadium which was blocked off by a huge glass wall. Two huge doors also made of glass could be seen on both ends of the glass circle. I assume thats where the players would enter the arena. There were the balloon castles already set up and they were not small. They were about the size of the mage guild in Junad.

Where does Hermes get materials to construct a balloon castle?! What an amazing architect.

It was estimated to be three floors high so I would without a doubt place the flag at the highest level of the castle of course. There were also three lanes spread out from each castle leading to each other just as I had instructed. However there were no obstacles put inside it yet and I assume it was up to me to design the obstacles as I see fit. It was just sand everywhere with three clear lane markings.

Also, there was a podium also made entirely out of glass from the side. I could see a long table with microphones sticking out of them and two rows of seats behind the tables. I assume thats where commentary could be made and it would double as a VIP viewing lounge. Beathoven really knew how to make it big. If a stadium of this grandeur were to exist in real life, it would be able to host any event.

The stadium I estimated could sit a crowd of about 8000 strong and it was no small number. There was also a gigantic screen facing the town centre from the stadium so people could watch what was going on. When I say gigantic I meant gigantic. It was so huge that people from the town square could easily see the highlights of what was going to be shown on the screen when the castle wars start.

Beathoven definitely did the better job compared to Soup and I. I was already quite happy with the fountain I made which exuded natural brilliance but this was incomparable. Carnival wars in The Ascension. I had no speck of doubt in me when I tried to forsee the future of this town. It was going to be crowded. And loud. VERY loud.

I started to head back with FuzzyWuzzy who was equally impressed and we started discussing about the design and ideas for Carnival Wars on the journey back to the castle. I had to prepare dinner again and my cooking level was already about to reach advanced from cooking so much for them. However, there was one person who was absent. Breadtalk.

“Hey where is Breadtalk?”

“He said he is in his room and he would not be eating today. He is too busy concentrating on how he plans to design the East spine.”

Somehow I am even more worried that he's so into this.

“Alright anyone wanna bet how the East spine would turn out?” I asked.

“YES! ME! I'm sure that there would be sexual innuendo somewhere.” Soup blurted out immediately.

“It's going to be so fucking ridiculous.” Beathoven chipped in.

“Beat you might as well have said nothing there is no doubt that would happen. I think he is going to make a joke out of all of us in the area.” Slick chipped in.

“I think he will stick to a theme so ridiculous that nothing remotely even close to anything that currently exists in your world will be made.” FuzzyWuzzy contributed.

“I think its going to be so screwed up that Carnival will be famous for the East spine. In a good way though. Breadtalk may be retarded but he's the best sort of retarded I've seen!” M1 and 2 exclaimed.

“Well, I think all of you made reasonable bets. Lets see who is correct tomorrow. Now, we anticipate and wait.”

-Next day evening.-

“Well, looks like everyone won their bets...” I managed to stutter.

It takes a lot for me to stutter by the way.

End of Chapter 18