…

The Group Battle ended uneventfully. For Alfir, everything is going as they were meant to be.

“Fifteenth place, not bad.” The tallied points didn’t change much for the Group Battle, especially the top ten. In fact, the main casts’ ranks didn’t even change.

It’s all thanks to Lorie stumbling into Jana. They spent their remaining time in the Enclosed Forests fighting each other. Sheila who’s already at 1st place continued on her diligent hunting of monsters, which changed nothing. She’s in the first place already, to begin with.

Shortly, a day passed, giving everyone enough rest for the next event— the Combat Assessment, the tournament set up!!

The tournament will be divided into two categories— a tournament exclusive to Ability-grades and then the other for Talent-grades.

Alfir strolled in the tournament grounds with the hope of finding a good seed. The tournament for the Talent-grades will proceed earlier since they have more participants. Unlike the Ability-grades' tournament set up, the talent grades have a time limit of 5 minutes in their every battle. In the quarter-finals, there would be 30 minutes, and from the semi-finals onwards, there would be no time limit.

The tournament was set up according to potential levels.

The highest potential grade the Maker academy received was a 50% potential, a Magical-grade. That was a decade ago.

That same decade, Maker academy only received 98 Talent-grades and none of the Ability-grades.

Last year, the Maker academy received 221 Talent-grades and 6 Ability-grades.

Now, they are receiving 320 Talent-grades and 17 Ability-grades.

That's almost 3 times the amount of Ability-grades since last year!

Alfir narrowed his targets to twenty. They have interesting powers, a 'good' character, and possess relative strength. The preliminaries were boring mostly tussling and awkward wrestling. But that’s fine since it's the ‘potential’ that Alfir is aiming for. Who knows, he might discover someone here who’ll be a big shot in the future.

The higher-level fights won't be appearing soon, but the crowd is already heated with excitement. Even low-level fights can earn this kind of reaction from the masses. It’s understandable since these ‘masses’ are just meager ordinary humans. The display of Special Abilities is certainly entertaining.

With a roman colosseum set up, the tournament grounds were able to accommodate an enormous amount of people. Even delegates from important countries and organizations could be observed from a far distance.

*Grumble~ Suddenly, Alfir’s tummy made a noise.

"I am hungry... I want to eat some meat."

Alfir found a food stand by the corner. They were selling some meatballs on a stick. It looks interesting. Food stands like this inside the academy are plentiful. It's part of the business strategy of the academy.

"Boss, get me three. I want a veggie, a chicken and pork... Nice!"

Alfir dipped the meatballs into hot sauce. He ate with gusto with impressive speed. He ordered three more with the same veggie, chicken, and pork servings. This time, he dipped them into the sweet sauce. Each stick has three meatballs, but Alfir is eating two at a time. The veggie meatballs are crunchy with fresh carrots, cabbages, and mushrooms. The chicken meatballs’ texture is superb, covered with the oily chicken-skin layer. But personally, Alfir liked the pork best. That meaty sensation of ground pork you chew melts with the fats and sauces in your mouth, the burst and blend of flavor~ is tantalizing.

"Wow, how do you do that? I never knew ground pork can melt like that." Alfir praised.

"It uses unique spices processed from slimes... The owner uses a secret cooking method. I love the chicken by the way~ compliments to the chef."

Alfir was surprised by the person adjacent to him. Her voice alerted Alfir, he thought someone sneaked up on him.

'Since when were you here?' But he’s simply mistaken… He didn’t feel her presence but it looks like she has been for a long while.

Cold sweat fills Alfir's back. It was Jana. That blue braided hair is a sight not hard to notice. Because of his hunger, Alfir didn't notice her.

Jana daintily ate her meatballs with precise, consistent, and small bites.

'How are you making it disappear that fast? Your mouth is so small!'

Alfir knows that Jana likes eating meat, but he never knew that it is to this extent. She's like a vacuum. When it comes to meatballs, even a foodie like Sheila would admit defeat.

'I wrote something like, when she's eating meat, she becomes more talkative. Nay, it's like her personality changed.'

Jana looked like a kid eating her candy while boasting about how delicious it is.

"Young lady, you keep on coming here. Here, take this." The stall owner called to Jana, handing her a paper bag, which Alfir assumes to be full of meatballs.

"Oh, thank you very much. This is delicious."

Jana received a paper bag filled with meatballs to the brim, Alfir could tell… It’s bulging with lots of ball shapes.

"What ya looking at?"

Jana stared at Alfir with hostile eyes. Her eyes are round like a cat's. She crouches like one too, as if she's ready to pounce at a moment's notice. But unlike a real nasty cat, Jana looked adorable.

"Pffft... Hahahahaha..."

Jana embraced her meatballs with protective care. 'As if I will steal it! Hahahaha... What the--- I don’t know what got into me to make a setting like this. Hahahaha. A girl that loves meatballs, somehow, that sounded way too pervier than I imagined. Hahahaha…'

"What is so funny?" Irritated by Alfir’s laughing, Jana glared threateningly. This time, Alfir actually felt danger.

"No... No... I am sorry. You looked so cute..."

"Huh?"

Alfir used his mutation to settle his emotions— Mind Over Body, he told himself— then he walked out. Jana was dumbfounded by the stranger.

"Did I just meet a creep?"

…

Alfir made his way to the tournament grounds for the Combat Assessment portion of the exams. This time, to a bigger arena specifically for Ability-grades. There are 8 smaller arenas inside, modified for the assessment's purpose. The arena as a whole is as big as a football field, so it's too big for Ability-grades. The battles will happen simultaneously in a one-on-one setup.

The arrangement of, who will fight who will be determined through draw lots.

Among the 17 participants, one participant will get a free win, all thanks to the overall Ability-grades being an odd number. As expected, Lorie got the lucky draw.

Alfir is planning to lose his fight to create a weak persona. But his first opponent is Zia...

Now, that's nasty.

Zia is a whip user that likes to fight psychological battles as she inflicts mental torture on her victims. Her score in the group battle is the result of her scheming, and she will continue to do so in this tournament.

Too bad, she pissed Jana quite badly. Well, as a result, Zia almost died.

That was in the original story though. It specifically happened in the preliminary rounds, the same round Alfir will be confronting her.

This is but, another butterfly effect, a change that Alfir did not expect. It is safe to assume that his existence alone is a ‘butterfly’ of its own in this world.

Zia has pink hair and rosy cheeks. Her figure is of a star model. She walked to the stage with seductive allure.

'If I remember correctly, she is a variant empath that can hear and interpret a person's negative emotions... I don't want to hear anything of that...'

Empaths are rarer than telepaths. Their mind-reading abilities surpass most telepaths in existence. Even a low percenter, an empath would garner respect among the masses. It is because no one can lie to an empath, they are what is called perfect lie detectors.

Alfir feared this confrontation. Zia smiled in his direction faintly sending shivers down his spine. This will be one hell of a ride.

The referee stood between the two of them, eyeing both participants.

"The rules are simple. You lose if you are pushed outside of bounds. Voluntarily moving out of the stage means forfeit. And a KO means victory. Don't be afraid of severe injuries. As long as you're breathing, we can heal you back to 100%. So give it your all."

This is the difference between the Talent-grades' and Ability-grades' tourney. The expectations from Ability-grades are far more stringent.

Alfir has it all in his mind, he will do a 360 degrees backflip outwards from the stage. He can make it more creative by having the opponent attack him and then exaggeratedly fly outwards...

If only there is a ‘forfeit’ by not attending the tournament grounds. ‘It’s because of that Jana!? The principal made sure to make a rule that if one were to forfeit their match, they should do it on the tournament grounds. Not attending the tournament warrants for immediate disqualification of the applicant— ugh, it’s so cruel.’

Ugh fuck… Recalling that it was him, Alfir, who was the author of the novel this world is based on, he is pretty much just blaming himself. He’s but a pot calling a kettle ‘black’…

‘I should just go with the flow… now, now, now… let me demonstrate a perfect surrender!!’

To forfeit like a coward would be a reasonable display. Alfir doesn't want the principal scrutinizing him, right?

"Are you ready?" The referee asked both participants.

With a nod from both contenders, the referee gave his signal—

"FIGHT!"

...