Why couldn’t he get it?

  It was frustrating, but he had been throwing both light and air bolts at a four-legged, curved claws and tentacle face monster classified as Nimbus Clapperclaw for the last five minutes or so, but still no sound variant. The monster was fast and deadly with its pounce and swipe, giving Zalanir several cuts on his flank and butt, but the new hauberk was absolutely amazing. It was in a league of its own at blocking cut or swipe attacks, putting all the decorative, created-in-bulk leather shirts provided by the barracks to shame. Except for the three wounds on his arms and thighs, his body was as good as when he started the battle.

  The monster’s mobility had been crippled to that of a pig because he had been bombarding its front limbs and body with an unending stream of bolts.

  Another one. Another one. This would be it.

  Zalanir kept telling himself to try again and again, but then a notification brought him back to reality. The clapperclaw wasn’t a target dummy for him to mess around with until he ran out of mana.

  You have slain [Nimbus Clapperclaw — Level 14]

  Level advances to 13

  Amid the cheers from the crowd, he looked up at the sky and sighed. Now he needed to wait for at least two more days until he could stand here and try again.

  ***

  Zalanir sprinted to the right as fast as he could. Not yet. Not yet.

  Boom! A force slammed on his back, pushing his body into the air until collapsing onto the bronze mesh separating the arena and the audience stands. If this were Earth, he could’ve had several ribs and bones broken already. Fortunately, his body was perhaps three times stronger compared to what he got back there. If only he had had this body when playing tennis, he could rip a forehand winner with ease.

  Wiping the blood off his mouth and slowly pushing up, he cursed the stupid fire lizard for preparing this suicide attack. How was it possible for a lizard to blow up itself like that?

  You have slain [Conbustilion Gecko — Level 16]

  Screw you. It didn’t even last against eight bolts. This must’ve been a plot to take him out, because what kind of battle was this? If he had reacted just a moment later …

  ***

  His left arm went numb after repeatedly angling the shield to take on the pea bullets from the overgrown red flower monster. This was the first time he had faced off against a monster using range attacks as its main, so he played along and turned this battle into an artillery display.

  The difference, and at this point the factor determining the winner of this battle, came from his bronze shield and the amazing hauberk that he was now so in love with. While he could block and even take on some attacks without much damage, the enemy could only stop half of them. It brushed off the light bolts as if they were nothing, but got hammered by the air variant.

  However, despite the fact that it was only a matter of time before he took this win, Zalanir wasn’t happy at all. He was close to being able to make the sound bolt, but for some reason, despite already peeling off the air and light from a target area, he just couldn’t grab it. Clearly he was missing something, but it didn’t seem like he could cross the line in this attempt either. The battle concluded five minutes later.

  You have slain [Sunset Peashooter — Level 17]

  Level advances to 14

  ***

  “This is getting nowhere.” Zalanir took out his frustration with a kick on the leaves in front. They scattered in the air, dawdling and gliding in various directions.

  “Maybe we should return to the original plan. Even though it lacks flexibility, waiting for him like this doesn’t seem to cut it, either.” Shinnya whispered to Kael. Both of them were leaning against the wall, watching Zalanir practicing the first phase of his skill.

  “Yeah, even though I am sure he can figure it out in the end, someone else might stumble upon the anthill and take everything for themselves.” Kael took a couple of seconds. “Maybe we’ll go at noon in three days. Later than that, we might risk losing the hill.”

  “Okay. I will go back and tell—”

  “Your method and approach are correct, but you have to feel it. Don’t just try to isolate the affinity you want only.” Shinnya paused after hearing a fresh, honeyed voice.

  Without her noticing, Djaxinz came into the yard from another gate and was talking to Zalanir. She turned to Kael and then hurried over.

  ***

  “As I am sure you already know, sound is something we recognize instantly; otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to hold this conversation. Yet, it was one of the harder abstruse affinities to grasp. Despite being everywhere, you just can’t grab it for your skill. Adaptability Bolt, right? It was rare to see this skill being offered to a beginner like you. Nice skill. People value raw power for some of the initial skills, and that makes sense, but I would grab that skill just for its flexibility alone. We can always make up for the low damage later. There is also the issue of defense that—”

  “Ehem. Maybe you should try to focus on the important point first.” Shinnya injected herself into the conversation, or rather, Djaxinz’s monologue.

  “—you should care … Okay. The point is, what makes sound different from the other affinities that you have no issue grabbing?”

  “It has no shape. I can form a zone surrounding fire, ground, light, or even air, though for the latter, the zone shape needs to be quite big. However, despite being everywhere, I can’t exactly draw a frame to encompass the sound affinity in particular,” Zalanir explained his frustration with the skill. Even though he had no idea why this man showed up here, it seemed like he didn’t come with bad intent.

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  “Close. But you are overlooking a fundamental feature. Aside from shape, what’s the other difference for all of these affinities to you?” Djaxinz smiled. His hand was playing with the feathers on top of his head.

  This was the annoying point that Zalanir had been trying to figure out for days. He knew that he was on the verge of a breakthrough. Aside from shape? So, had he been focusing on the wrong aspect?

  Zalanir wound back in his head every piece of information and experience he had with the skill.

  Targeting an arena. Checked.

  Isolating the desired affinity (if needed). Checked.

  Grabbing said affinity. Checked.

  Decimating the enemy with the new cool bolt. Bravo.

  Putting aside step four, his issues could lie in any of the first three. After some thoughts, he discarded the second step as well. He was confident in his isolation skills. During the last three fights in the pit, he had failed to grab the sound affinity, so perhaps he needed to change to method to get it. Sucking? Guiding? Or hearing and then forming? No, he needed a shape to do that, and Djaxinz suggested that the shape wasn’t the problem. What are the differences between sound and the rest? All of them are ther—

  Wait! Hearing? His mind wound back several seconds earlier when he thought about a different method to grab the affinity. Visuality. That’s right. I can grab fire, ground, light, even air, because I can visualize them. Forming a shape around them is doable. But I can’t do that to sound. Even if I target a person’s mouth right at the moment they speak, I can’t restrict them to a zone, because the sound is already in my ears or someone else’s. This might be it. For the sound, I need to target it with my ears, not my eyes. They are everywhere, but if I can isolate the exact moment I hear them …

  “Sorry, Kael, but can you scream aloud?”

  “What? Are you cra—”

  Djaxinz held his right hand upward in front while smiling. Then, to Shinnya and Kael’s confusion, he screamed like a kid seeing an airplane for the first time.

  “Aaaaaaaaaa …”

  Zalanir closed his eyes. He needed to focus. Djaxinz’s voice was overflowing into his ears. After listening intensively, Zalanir imagined that they were standing in a karaoke room, with four speakers in each direction. Then, he projected that image onto his right hand, trying to turn the whole room into a bolt.

  Four seconds later, something touched his fingers, then fell into his palm. Holding back his excitement, he released it onto the wall behind. No physical contact was made, but he could definitely hear a bang reflecting back into his ears.

  Laughing out loud, he turned toward Djaxinz and bowed his head slightly.

  “Thank you!”

  “Well, problems solved, then.” Djaxinz clapped his hands.

  “Woh, how can you do that? You just flicked your hand, and then the wall just shouted back.” Kael’s eyes opened widely.

  “Well. It happened. I still need to try a few more times, but I think we can start what you suggested.” Zalanir still felt a bit guilty for taking the man’s hauberk, but now, now he could breathe out.

  “Today will be a stretch, so let’s meet here at noon tomorrow.”

  ***

  Ulken had been giving him weird looks and occasional smirks because he had been going in and out of the fighting pit acting like Shinnya’s servant. The man had even congratulated and said that he hadn’t expected Zalanir to learn the game so soon, which was a confusing as hell thing to hear.

  And not only Ulken. Because he had been like a shadow following Shinnya around, other fighters had also been giving him glares and, in some extreme cases, swearing.

  It would be justified if Shinnya was a babe. He would gladly be the world’s enemy if he could tease and provoke them like that. But Shinnya’s most noticeable feature was the medium-length red hair that she, for most of the time, didn’t even let loose but wrapped up into a bun. It was a shame. He believed that if she let it float naturally, it would suit her better. Coupled with her normal oval face and slightly overweight body, Zalanir honestly didn’t get the fuss coming from some of the fighters.

  But whatever. Didn’t the pit want story and tension? With his current streak against monsters, he wouldn’t be surprised if they started to match him up against another fighter soon.

  Three fighters around level 20 were hanging out near the main gate. Two of them belonged to Shinnya’s simp group, aka those who wanted him dead. Zalanir smirked. A bit of a tease wouldn’t hurt.

  After they spotted him, Zalanir moved in closer to Shinnya and asked her to confirm some of his worries about the incoming raid on the anthill. He tried to be as secretive as possible and even cracked a joke that made Shinnya burst into laughter.

  Obviously the action didn’t go unnoticed. Those fighters threw some angry remarks at him, but like he cared. Even though he didn’t know how the pit chose who to pair against whom in the direct battle, he wouldn’t mind offering some suggestions. Going up against a random level 20 opponent was certainly better than some freaks or prodigies, right?

  After several times coming to the mansion — or, to be specific, the backyard of the mansion — Zalanir was sure that Kael had more to him than what was shown. The red gate, white walls and tons of decoration hanging around the mansion were obviously the designs of the inner ring of the settlement, which he had learned belonged to the powerful and wealthy community.

  As if it wasn’t obvious enough, Kael today rocked a fancy full set of orange armor and carried on his right shoulder a white-red great sword that looked like it had been taken straight out of the forge. Quite an investment for this raid, huh?

  Looking back at himself through the virtual avatar, Zalanir couldn’t help but let out a long internal sigh. His most valuable and only piece of equipment that provided any stats was the hauberk he got from … Kael himself. The rest was still free stuff he got from the pit’s barracks. Heck, he still had no accessories, which meant 2 empty slots.

  A mental note to himself—this task was of the highest priority: get rich.

  He also took a look at his stats, which had grown quite a bit since the last time he checked. As for the free points, seeing as he had no problem with endurance and mana during the last two levels, he put one each into Intelligence and Mystique, as they scaled his Adaptability Bolt.

  Name: Zalanir Forthern

  Level: 14

  Race: [D] Human - Origin: ?

  Health Points (HP): 405/405

  Mana Points (MP): 490/490

  Stamina: 195/195

  Strength: 7

  Dexterity: 9

  Endurance: 16

  Constitution: 18

  Intelligence: 38

  Mystique: 40

  Awareness: 19

  Spirit: 30

  Free Points: 0

  At least Djaxinz didn’t show up dressed like Kael, so Zalanir didn’t feel too bad about his poverty. The handsome dude still had the 3 yellow feathers planted on top of his green hat, together with the barracks shirt and pants.

  Now that all of them were present, it was time to terrorize some ants.