There are some rules that I can use to my advantage. The first of many is regarding equipment and consumables. Consumables that buff or contain skills or spells aren't allowed, but suspiciously there are no rules baring equipment brought from home, just school-sponsored ones

One of the first things I do is pull out my phone and call someone.

~

I called Rain to ask her about healing or mana potions, mostly mana potions since they would be the most helpful.

*ring ring* *ring ring* *ring ring* *click*

"Hey, Rain. I need potions. Mana and healing potions."

"Hello to you too. How's the arm?"

"It's working perfectly. I have a deal for you."

"Oh, I wonder what you need, Ellis. I'm kicking up my feet in anticipation. What deal are we going to make this time? Since you're in the capital and I'm over here, what can you offer?"

"Give me some connections to somebody I can make a deal with them, preferably with credits. I know you like testing prototypes on me, and the next time we meet, you can have my body for your tests just like last time.

"Hmm, but I don't want to."

"..."

"Give me a day, and I'll meet you. I have a shit ton of purposely expired potions that I want to see the effects of. You can keep the healing and mana ones."

"I'll need some normal ones too. They won't be for me."

"Alright, sure. Hey Ellis, I have an even bigger proposition for you."

I wasn't expecting this. I hope I don't have to sell my body any more than I did already,

"Your particular constitution, which makes my father so incredibly intrigued in you, intrigues me. My father, your master, is in the capital at the moment visiting his wife. He knows about your tournament, but since you didn't turn up for a few weeks, he got bored."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I'll tell him you're back. If you do something to impress him, he might treat you like an actual student. If you haven't noticed, he's been passive with you."

"Yeah... do you know why?"

Although I dislike the trials I had to go through to be his disciple, it's a fact that his martial arts have made my life easier. I wonder what secrets that old monster has hidden away.

"Yeah, I do, but it's not my place to talk about it. If my father wants to tell you, he will, and there's nothing you can do to stop him. I'll see you soon."

If master Wang gets his hands on me as an actual student, the Rain will have free rein to do whatever she wants to me with her concoctions. It should be a win-win, but I think she gets more satisfaction from it than I do.

Since I can't get the potions today, I'll do the unproblematic events.

The first series of events I want to do are academic-based ones. So naturally, I leave the campus. Surprisingly there aren't any rules against leaving the campus during the competition, just rules about conspiring secretly with outside groups.

Since the institute holds a massive amount of youth training their bodies and minds, some bookshops nearby should have used this opportunity to make easy money. Books are expensive and can be easily resold and bought cheaper as 'used.'

I look for a local bookshop, and it's not hard finding one, especially since it's right next to the institute. Duchess and Khan wait outside as I enter and ignore the shopkeeper's greeting. I look around and pick out anything that remotely looks full of information. Luckily, my [Lexicon] tells me if I can absorb it or if it's a duplicate. That'll save me some credits.

I only have so many arms, so I have Rob help me bring some books to the counter. Stack after stack of books later, I look at the shopkeeper, mostly obscured by the pile.

"Big reader, huh?"

"..."

"The total would be... Hey, I'll round the cost down to an even 40,000."

He's saving me less than 1000 credits, but I won't say no to a discount.

"Okay. Can you throw in a box?"

He looks at the hundreds of books and squeezes a stiff smile.

"I might have a crate or two in the back."

"You can just help me bring it out with a dolly."

I outstretch my hand, and he takes it. I transfer the credits over, and he immediately goes to the back to grab something. The temptation to absorb every book in this shop is high, but since that might be considered grand larceny, the churches might sell my information to the local enforcers and get me in trouble.

With the shopkeep gone and no cameras in sight, I absorbed all the books I bought and left the store before he came back. I stumble out with a headache and hitch a ride on Duchess back to the institute.

During the ride, I saw Rob pull a book out of his bag and rub his cheekbones on it. I pull it out of his hands and read the title.

[One Thousand and One Bones.]

I didn't buy this.

If Rob didn't hide the book, I would've bought it. If he wanted it, I still would have bought it for him. I hand it back. He excitedly opens the book and starts reading. He's sitting in front of me so I can see the contents. It's a book with many different creatures' skeletons and their characteristics.

Back at the institute, I went to events held inside a classroom. There is staff and student's already in the room. The way this event works is that they will hand me a one-hundred-question test and the highest score places the highest.

Since getting 100% shouldn't be uncommon among students, speed is also a factor. This event is unique since each student can only take it once, and the test questions will be random, so you can't cheat by having a team member go ahead of you and tell you the questions in advance.

There are many subjects that I can pick, and each one will give its own one-hundred-question test. I took everything available. They'll give them to me one at a time, so scores based on time won't be affected.

Math, physics, the many different sciences, history, geography, multiple languages, and a few more. The tests are tailored to be thorough but generalizes, so all classes should have to same chance to score high.

The first tests I took were easy. History and geography are "copy and paste" tests since all the information is just in the books without thinking on my end. Some thinking is required for the language tests, but it's easy. Elvish, dwarvish, orcish, goblin, ancient elvish, and ancient dwarvish. These were the only tests I felt comfortable taking with the books I had.

Surprisingly, I found textbooks on ancient languages just because a student wanted some spare cash. I guess the information isn't protected. I wonder if I can dig around and find something to translate that mysterious journal rotting in my [Lexicon].

The other tests were a bore as well, and I ace them. I had to think about some of them, but I'm confident. My [Lexicon] is a cheat since I have a library at my fingertips. I can grab any information inside at just a thought.

I put my pencil down and got up from my seat. I looked at the staff member monitoring me and handed him the stack of tests before moving on. That should get a decent amount of points. Even if I didn't ace everything or wasn't the fastest, this should be a good start.

I ignored the whispers from other students who watched my performance and left the room.

~

I take on subsequent events I can bang out quickly. For example, an event that measures how much damage you can do with a single attack by using an automaton. I spent 99.9% of my health and used my [Donkey Punch] skill to do 6662 damage in a single strike. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow critical hits, or I would have gone to quintuple digits. I spend a few minutes regenerating my health before walking away light-headed.

There is a race track that I have Duchess competed in. She's not the fastest beast I have. That would be Rob. However, Duchess has a passive skill that allows her to fly twice as fast and last twice as long. I'll use [Master's Gift] and lend her my stats, so she can surpass every other creature here.

That's the great thing. I'm registered as a tamer, I can have my beasts take my spot, and I can still supervise and give buffs.

Might 200 > 5

Agility 200 > 5

Might 55 > 250

Agility 88 > 283

It's a sprint, so I don't have to worry about giving any vigor, but with her new stats and passive buff, she should be able to score high. The only downside is that I feel like shit being this slow and feeble.

[Ellis. Thisss one uses [Mind Magic] to create a telekinetic wedge in front of thisss one, cutting air resistance to almost nothing.]

Smart girl.

I also lead Duchess to some of the mage events, spell output, accuracy, consecutive casting speed, etc. I don't know if she can win them all, but I lend her my stats to give her an unfair advantage.

Mind: 201 > 5

Mind: 187 > 383

In the month I was gone, my beasts hadn't leveled. I'll ask Duchess about this after she demolishes the events.

I see her use new spells I haven't seen her use before, so at least she hasn't been slacking off. I actually check her magic spells since it's been a while. Her mind magic hasn't changed, but her radiant magic sure did.

Radiant Magic C Lv2 ⬆

-Light:

Create a light source.

Mana: 0.1 per second

-Ray:

Shoot a piercing ray of light that deals radiant damage.

Mana: 20 ⬆

Damage: Spirit +45% ⬆

-Flash

The user creates a sudden and blinding flash of light that may cause blindness and retinal damage.

Mana: 100

Damage: Spirit +80% ⬆

-Radiation (New)

The user emits toxic light particles in the form of ionizing radiation.

Mana: 50 per second

Damage: Spirit +50%

-Hard Light (New)

The user combines their knowledge of Radiant and Mind magic to create light with mass.

Mana: Depends on the intensity.

With the additional mana I gave her and her passive [Brilliant Feathers], she can microwave the testing automatons for over a minute, raking up massive damage. I would give her some of my spirit stat, but I need it to be higher than my tamed beasts. They might suddenly stop being tamed.

[Brilliant Feathers

The feathers of a [Amphitere] usually showcase their ability to fly, but the user's feathers are much more than that.

The feathers store mana passively, allowing for the cost of all magic to be halved. Some affinities may be granted.]

Radiation does a shit ton of damage over time, and by the time Duchess runs out of mana, she has done over twelve thousand damage! I go to praise her, but the haughty look on her face as the instructors are baffled by the automaton's readings makes me rethink. Speaking of quite scary that the machines can tank that much damage, and the institute is using them as punching bags.

Now it's time for me to act like a punching bag.

~

I stand [Enrooted] to the ground as an instructor looks on with worry as an automaton is beating the shit out of me with increasingly heavier attacks. For the first few minutes, it didn't even bypass my resistance. Then I [Bolstered Resistance] to make myself even tanker.

Eventually, the damage started pouring through, but with [Enroot]'s healing amplification, I could tank quite a few blows before tapping out. Then I'd do it again since my resistance would've grown from the horrific beating. I had Arlug come with me by the sidelines to waste his mana on healing me, but after realizing that it would be more efficient to take a five-minute break, I'd made him leave.

The automaton's weapon of choice is a pair of comically large boxing gloves, so my blunt resistance grew.

[Resistance: Blunt 600 > 699]

My resistance wasn't getting any higher with this training intensity, so I bailed after getting my final score. I hope I did well since I'm the only tank on campus that doesn't use a shield or armor.

I secretly hoped there were events to resist all different types of damage, but that wasn't the case.

[...]

Shut up, Duchess. Master Wang had a bad influence on me.