"We look pretty high up in the air." I looked over the edge, not even able to see the ground anymore.
"You did well, you weren't scared at all. You were ready to use the spell without hesitation."
"Of course. If I was to die of something this early, I would look like an idiot."
"So does that mean you're ready to kill with this magic."
"I'm ready to burn whatever is in my way to win this tournament."
"Good, well then I'm confident to say that I back you as the new beholder to the grimoire of the Grand Flames. I pass on all of my spells to you."
"Are you leaving?"
"Yes, my work is done, this was the only challenge I was told to give you. Since I approve of you as the grimoire sole owner I will leave. I can pass on, knowing that my spell is in good hands."
"So you are dead… I hope you have a peaceful rest in the heavens you love."
"I fear that is too good for me. Listen." Her tone was much more serious, prompting me to listen. "You have the power of the primordial flame. Everything in terms of the flames is your power, you simply must keep your resolve and make sure nothing can bring you down for these flames are inextinguishable." Her body faded away as those words left her lips.
"Do not worry, I cannot afford to lose this tournament. I will not let anything get in my way."
Although she was fading away, she had a peaceful look on her face. Sage Dehlyora was dying but she wasn't afraid or sad, she was content. "Goodbye Airon before I go, listen to these words I lay unto you. Expand your mana for you are the grimoire." She was able to get out her last words before her entire body faded away.
"I am the grimoire?" I said to myself.
*grr* One of the monsters was still alive after my attack but it was barely breathing. I walked towards it, as it could not move anymore. Its legs were burned to the point where its flesh was cooked.
"My mana is connected to my soul, in other words it's the veins of my soul. I connected my mana to the grimoire, now it feels as if it's a part of my body… I understand now." I stood over the wolf monster and opened my grimoire.
"Expand my mana to learn the spells of my grimoire, the spells are already left behind by the Sage. Spells are concentrated bursts of magicules, however you need an incantation to activate it." I held my left hand up to the monster. "I can shorten the incantation to get the same effect."
"It is my grimoire now so that means I can use it the way I want to." "Burn" Flames shot out of my hands and enveloped the monster.
The Wizard said every contestant will have the same start, no one will have a head start. So the other contestants are probably as well off as I am.
"If that's the case I can use this forest as a means to get more used to using magic and hopefully I can get stronger with it as well. First, I need to learn how to sense the mana from monsters."
At the moment, this place seems safe so I'll stay here for now but sooner or later I'll have to get moving for some food. However in the meantime I'll just focus on sensing where the other monsters are
As Airon spent his time learning how to sense the monsters, the other contestants were transported to different parts of the world in AinVeil.
[Red team contestant #12; Erik Jones. The Western Alps of Leighnburgh.]
"I didn't expect it to be this easy, I don't even need to make any incantations. It's really all up to my mind and imagination or is it talent?" Erik said as he picked up a green monster from the ground.
The monster had a small stature with pointy ears and dark green skin. "It's a goblin, I've seen things like this in books and movies but this is the real deal!" Erik said as a bubble of water wrapped around the goblins head.
The goblin's movement became sporadic as it tried to muster the strength to take Erik's hand off and escape the bubble, however all of its squirming only led to the goblin tiring itself out and drowning.
Feeling its pulse disappear, Erik dropped the goblin. "Ugh, I need to find the rest of my teammates." He looked at his mark which was a yellow lily that spread along his right arm. "Maybe I should try going down these mountains, I might run into more monsters to kill."
[Southern arctic plains of Swavora, Contestant #5; Seline Arnseca.]
"Oh my god. What the fuck are these things?" Seline said in an exasperated tone as four large bear-like monsters were laid out in front of her.
The bear-like monsters were snow white with a jagged red stripe running down from their head to their lower back, they also had four fangs protruding out of its mouth. Each of them had a large stone with a pointy end going through their chest.
"Are these monsters?" Seline said as she inspected the bodies. "I didn't do so bad without the earth sage's help." She said as she felt the monster's fur, her hand showing the mark of a red daffodil that covered her left arm. "I hope you can rest in peace." She said with her eyes closed.
[North lands of the great sea, Contestant #20; Lorenzo Frost.]
"This is unbearable. That damned Sage didn't know a thing, I'm just running into to hordes of these shitty monsters." Lorenzo said to himself as stood in front of 6 Lion-like monsters.
There were 5 monsters behind him, similar to the ones standing but they were completely frozen. They became visibly aggressive, it was as if the sight of their kin brought out a certain anger that caused them to start transforming.
They had golden fur with full maines that covered their face and limbs that were as thick as cinder blocks with thick black claws that were protruding from their paws. Now that their anger was able to transform them to monsters which were as big as elephants with tanned fur flowing with magicules.
"Ohh♡" Lorenzo said , bursting with excitement as his grimoire floated in front of him.
The lions charged him, two of them curling around to surround him. One of the monsters leapt towards him, however just as it got within 3 feet of him, its entire body froze.
He dodged the frozen monster's body, letting it fly into one of the monsters behind him. Shattering both of the monsters to pieces as they were all already frozen.
"I hope there's monsters who can actually use magic or else it's just not fair. Learning new spells is easy, they are already written here for me. I just need to accumulate enough magicules into my mana core. The sage's info was easy to understand but there may be others who understand this more than me." Lorenzo said as he caressed the frozen monster's body.
Many of the contestants weren't able to completely understand the concept of magic as these fours did, some of them struggled to get the Sage's of their grimoires to even acknowledge them. There were only a handful of contestants who were able to be acknowledged by the sages and understand the concept of magic, however there were more who understood it than the ones who didn't.
As the tournament began, the clones who were created to replace the contestants were already settling into the respective life of the original host with all of the memories and emotions of the original. They were made to replicate everything even the way the original's talk and their minor movements. Their only goal is to live the contestants' life until they return.
Airon witnessed the way his clone behaved in his life before he was sent into the lands of AinVeil and is able to focus on the tournament, worrying only about winning the tournament.
[Atop the backs of the mountainous-monsters.]
"It wasn't as easy as making my core but I was able to add two more spells to my grimoire. I need to make the spell casting a part of my own movements while I'm attacking. Those monsters were easy but I doubt that's even a good matchup against magic. I need to fight a stronger beast before I go up against any contestant." I thought as I stood up.
While I hunted the monsters in the forest, I kept heading eastward to reach the city, Sage Dehlyora sensed earlier. I can sense it as well, I can also sense the density of the mana in the middle of the forest is greater than anywhere else on this monster's back.
"Hopefully I can find a monster there." Airon thought as he walked through the forest watching his step to not break any branches along the way.
As he walked he kept cycling mana out of his body, without realizing he was leaving a trace of his own mana in his trail. It was constantly being replaced with the magicules in the air.
Every now and then he would encounter a pack of monsters, they weren't the same as the ones he first met. The monsters he's encountering now are gradually getting stronger and tougher. They start to look less like mutated animals and more like monsters.
Speaking of said monsters, the third pack of monsters I encountered were large hairy humanoid creatures that were about 17 ft tall. There were three of these monsters.
"I knocked two down already." I thought as I hid behind a tree. "Shit, their skin is barely being burnt. I need to make my flames hotter-" Just as I thought of this, large hands were surrounding me as if they were going to grab me. The hands were large enough to hold half of my body, they were brownish blue as if they were dirtied by the dirt.
I tried to get away from the hands but they grabbed me before I could move and restrained my movements to restrict my access to my spells.
The monster even grabbed the tree along with me, pulling the tree out of the ground, causing the mountainous monster to roar again.
The tall monster held me above its head and threw me like I was just some ball. My body hit a branch that was half the size of its tree's trunk, it felt as if whatever was left of my breath was snatched away. Then I felt the pain from the impact like a lightning bolt. Before I could even register the pain, I hit a branch, maybe catching a splinter as I felt a tingle in my back.
After going through what felt like millions of branches I hit the ground.
Being able to survive something like this may be a blessing from God himself.
Or is this the very unfortunately path still… I can't feel my body, my vision is blurry and it is hard to breathe. I can feel the mountainous monsters rumbling but that isn't all, I can hear the footsteps.
The heavy footsteps that angrily approached me, as I laid on the ground, nearly lifeless, I could sense the man from this monster. I can tell, it's similar to the one I was fighting earlier.
I can't even lift my head. "Am I going to die? This can't be, I didn't even fight a contestant yet, much less competed in this tournament. I can't die yet, I can't… I have to get up-" The tall monster lifted me up by my head with two fingers.
This is the size of a behemoth, how the hell was I ever supposed to fight something like this.