In a giant colosseum, rivaling the size of the Roman Colosseum on Earth, thousands upon thousands of spectators chatted in their seats, a few thousand were still filing in, and a few hundred vendors walked up and down the steps laboriously to sell their wares and snacks.
Veronica and Victoria pushed through the immense crowd towards Jared and Jacob. The boys reserved front row seats, expecting it'd be somewhat crowded. The sheer amount of people here still astonished them.
The girls continued to push through the crowd until they finally emerged next to Jared and Jacob. They sat down and quickly checked their belongings in case any pickpocketers stole something.
"What took you guys so long?" Jared asked while eyeing a tasty looking snack vendor instead of the snacks. Veronica traced his line of sight and attempted to bonk him. Unfortunately since Victoria was in the middle and there were still people filling the seats in behind them, her hands were tied.
"Veronica had to wash up from her morning training and I was trying to figure out how we were going to break even this month since we had to spend most of our funds for Jacob's new armor." Victoria answers back, her brows wrinkling in slight confusion and frustration. Jacob's eyes bore a solemn gaze.
"Can't we just ask Cain for help on some good paying quests?" Jared asks while taking mental notes of some of the vendors' faces. Veronica grabs a broken arrow shaft she was planning to reuse later and whacks Jared with it. Jared immediately turns his head and snaps back at her "What was that for?!"
"Keep your eyes forward." Veronica snaps back while eyeing Victoria. "And we can't just ask Cain for help with every little problem we have. He said it himself after all, he's just going to stay with us for a while. We should use this chance to grow stronger safely since he'll be there." Veronica replies while dodging people's knees from behind, her eyes holding a somber look.
"Sure, sure training freak." Jared responds with a flat tone, ducking immediately when someone's sword sheath swung where his head was. "Hey man! What the hell?!" Jared snaps at him immediately, already frustrated from being hit and snapped at by Veronica for some unknown reason.
"Sorry, sorry. How can I make it up to you?" The owner of the sheath replied while slightly bowing his head to show his sincerity. "It's fine, at least I didn't get hit. Just tell me why it's so packed. I thought this was supposed to just be an ordinary ranking duel." Jared answers while eyeing the stranger's sheath.
"I heard from my friend who heard it from his cousin's sister's father's spouse's gossip group that the king came to watch the duel. Anywhere with our king in attendance must have something fun or important happening so everyone is trying to scramble inside." The stranger responds immediately, emphasizing his source. After replying, he scrambles back to his seat before it gets taken.
"...does the king not have anything better to do?" Victoria absentmindedly says out loud. "Guess not." A voice sounded from a portal that appeared sneakingly on Veronica's right. The party swiftly turned their heads to see Dresil slowly forming and taking a seat. Veronica quickly turns her head to the center to see Cain walking out of a portal that appeared, her face lit up slightly.
"When did you guys get here?" Victoria asks Dresil while two magic circles form on her lap. One created freshly popped popcorn, the other made a new bag. A mini Rex and Bob appeared on either side of her shoulders. Since Cain hadn't deployed the drones and set up the live streaming yet, this was the only way to see what was happening live.
Dresil points the unpopped bag at Rex with a slight smirk. "Just a minute or so ago. Do you guys know why the king is here?" Veronica's eyes catch the movement of Dresil's hand then fixates on the freshly popped bag. Dresil notices her gaze and offers some of the bag to her.
"Nwoh. I won't know anythhin" Veronica says while chewing a mouthful of popcorn. Victoria quickly nudges her elbow into Veronica's side; she hastily covers her mouth and finishes chewing, her ears and cheeks turning slightly red from embarrassment.
"I heard the dean of the guild and the king are friends. If the dean is here then the king might also be here." Victoria offers a suggestion while receiving a newly created bag of popcorn. She passes the bag to Jared and Jacob who finish it before the show even starts.
Dresil continues to create and pass out the bags of popcorn while updating Cain on the current situation. Cain looks over at Dresil and smiles slightly as a sign of gratitude. Veronica mistakenly thinks he's looking at her and blushes instantly, averting her gaze and speeding up the speed at which she was eating popcorn.
---Dms: Cain and Dresil--- (23ms)
Dresil: *sends image*
Cain: Is that Veronica? Ngl, that's kind of cute.
Dresil: :nod:
Dresil: Will you be reading Diana's mind and attempting to fight while predicting her moves like that?
Dresil: :sparkling eyes:
Cain: Nah, I won't be using that power or spell until I absolutely need to or the situation affects more than just me.
Dresil: ...then why did you learn it?
Cain: For those moments and info gathering.
Cain: If I just rely on that technique or whatever you want to call it, then there'll come a time when I won't be able to read someone's mind. I'll basically be powerless, or at the very least, clueless, which will delay my reactions and present my opponent with opportunities they can exploit.
Dresil: ...I think you're just being too cautious, but ok.
Cain: :shrug:
Cain: Until I know about all of the hidden secrets, secluded masters, or unknown powers, being too cautious is preferably to being reckless and putting those around me in danger.
Dresil: ...you just want to avoid troublesome situations so you can stay lazy.
Cain: Let me sound cool for a second… :cry pain:
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Cain steps forward some and looks around the colosseum, gauging its size and audience capacity. 'Heck… there's too many eyes on me, I can't focus properly.' Dense vines sprout from the back of Cain's collar, layering the nape of his neck continuously then warming it slightly to provide a soothing effect. 'Thanks Dresil.' Cain smiled slightly while staring straight ahead.
The densely packed bandage on his nape dampened his instincts to a certain degree; allowing him to be out in public without sensing every move anything makes behind him. It was the only reason why he let his hair grow out to cover the nape of his neck, although it didn't provide as much of an effect as Dresil's method.
Unfortunately for Cain, Diana walked out of the opposing entrance and saw his smile. She interpreted it to be a mocking smirk, causing her frustration to rise on top of the added pressure from all of the spectators. It was no question she would lose, it was just a matter of how much her reputation would drop or embarrassment she had to suffer.
Diana carried two magic swords on either waist, one fire and one wind. Magic swords are very precious as they can only be found as artifacts in dungeons or ruins or crafted by dwarves and then inscribed with runes or magic circles by elves or other beings sensitive to mana. Any other being can make magic swords, even humans, it's just that these two are the best due to their biological advantages and thus have more individuals that can craft such objects.
Diana was known for having multiple magic swords acquired through raids or purchases. In fact, because of these swords, she was confident she could easily defeat Cain if he didn't use his spirits. In her eyes, Cain was just a mortal with no mana that got lucky and summoned two Spirit Kings. She knew how absurd this thought was, yet she still wanted to deny reality over the possibility that this newbie who doesn't have a trace of detectable mana had the capabilities to summon the spirit kings.
Cain looked at Diana's changing expressions and her right hand hovering over the sword of fire, as she was walking into the arena. Predicting what was coming next, he let out a small sigh and began to actually analyze the arena now that his instincts were somewhat calmed.
'...looks like I'll need to enlarge the mana zone. 20 meters is too small in an actual battle, especially if my opponent uses ranged attacks.' Cain pulses a wave of disguised mana to the very edges of the colosseum; performing a quick ping of the Dean's and Hunter's tag and tagging everyone in the audience. 'Sweet. Both of them are in the audience somewhere. Looks like I can use this chance to send a warning to those who try to cross me.'
Diana finally entered the arena and stood roughly 40 meters away from Cain; her stormy walk there calmed her mood somewhat. Maddison stood on the side of the arena in an outdented spot, slightly lower than the lowest seats for the audience.
She gathered some papers and held them on a piece of wood while she looked around at the audience, the contestants, then her watch. She grabs an item that resembles a microphone; instead of speakers however, there were magic circles inscribed on it to boost sound. "Now that both contestants are present and it is a little past noon, you may start the duel." She announced.
At the end of her announcement, a dome of magic circles enveloped the arena. The layered circles quickly disappeared from everyone's eyes seconds later, except for Cain's. 'Woah… these look interesting… Too bad I can't store this sight somewhere except for my memory.' Cain repeatedly spun his head around, attempting to catch every magic circle he saw into his sight to be studied later. His weird movements begot a smirk and a stifled laughter from Diana.
---Dms: Cain and Bob--- (4ms)
Cain: Open the dimensions you stored the rocks in, I want to try transmuting solid matter into different matter.
Bob: Understood.
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