Zalanir was having a headache again. He just somehow got his filter up about an hour ago, so obviously it wasn’t going to be foolproof. Leakage was expected to happen sometimes down the line, and this situation was one of those.

  Whispers, grouches, and even insults bombarded his mind from the confusing audience. He supposed that because he was equally perplexed by what was transpiring down there, his mind just turned off the filter to seek an explanation.

  On one hand, one of the four mercenary leaders — cause they were hanging out with Vitius, so they should be the leaders, right? — called for the gorgeous chef who had just shown off the best attack of the day. With what had happened to Yar-Pattler, it wasn’t that hard to guess what was the purpose behind the call. Mercenaries searched for strong fighters, and a ridiculously strong fighter, with such a beautiful flavor on top of that, was standing right there.

  On the other hand, the appearance of Djaxinz was completely out of whack. His fight was already over, so why did he challenge Schallin again? Wasn’t this whole parade about cross-fight between them fighters and the mercenaries? Why was there a need for an internal battle?

  But a part of Zalanir was excited at the prospect of a fight between these two. Not only did they dominate their respective opponents so thoroughly, but they were also two of the strongest fighters in the fighting pit, according to Lithma. A fight of this level could help Zalanir see the gap between him and them. A notion that might seem irrelevant at the moment, but would help him tremendously in the future.

  He still remembered being a bit cocky before entering the pro-tour, only to get mopped by the veterans. Those humble experiences helped him understand that there was always a bigger fish out there, so unless he reached the zenith, he had no right to be conceited. Though he wasn’t slacking off at this moment by any means, he still trained hard and tried to understand the System day after day, but this fight would still be of great benefit.

  “I can’t believe what I am seeing. Is this going to happen? Please make it happen. Schallin, Djaxinz, Schallin, Djaxinz …” The announcer seemed to be as eager about it as he was. The man even clapped his hands into whatever device he used to magnify his voice, an action that Zalanir had never seen the man done before.

  Gradually, the audience also started chanting their names. The atmosphere wasn’t that wild as before and after every fight, but the anticipation was off the chart. As for the main characters, both Schallin and Djaxinz just stood there, locking eyes with each other. Would they do it? Everyone was having this question at the moment.

  ***

  She didn’t expect this to happen. If her memory was still good — of course it was good, no reason not to be — the guy just showed up around two months ago and created quite a fuss by challenging five fighters at the same time and actually winning in a dominating fashion. A good-looking man, but the green hat with those feathers was dumb.

  His level was the same with her, and given his talent displayed in the previous fight, he must also be aiming at a Self-Fulfillment path for the evolution. How long had he been staying at this level? Which condition was he aiming for? What progress had he been making toward it?

  She had her path sorted out already — well, 99%, but she was sure that would count — but crossing the last step took time. Ever since the anthill in the north was destroyed, and the ants moved further to the north, finding the woodpeckers had taken too much time. She had tried other ingredients, but the woodpeckers’ plumage was still top-notch in supplying the fish with that extra sourness power. If she found enough of them to test out the correct mixture, she was sure the dish would be sufficient to please the System.

  But what if there was other ways? Another condition that needn’t involve her to advance her Specialization? If that man could tell her his path, then maybe she wouldn’t need to join the mercenary guild? The name Zerkshi alone was enough to ensure that she would find references for the evolution among their members.

  No, she would still join them. The benefit of having access to all the works was too good to ignore. There were many paths for a D-grade to pursue, and even though she would love to do it in her own way, if it takes too much time, she wouldn’t mind trying out others. Having the man tell her his would perhaps speed up her evolution a little bit.

  “What’s in it for me?” She decided to poke a bit.

  “Fame, perhaps? Just a spur-of-the-moment request from your secret admirer. I hope you could grant it.”

  The man still looked straight at her with a light smile on his lips. One of those again. She hid a sigh behind a soft cough.

  “Tell me. What have you got for evolution?”

  “Oh, I’m done with it already. Just waiting for my mentor to come, then I will move up to C-grade.”

  “System Quests or Self-Fulfillment?”

  “Self-Fulfillment by getting a pretty damn good skill, if that’s what you are trying to probe.”

  Maybe that sudden mention of the evolution had given her intention away, but he had also been rather generous on the disclosure. Though that path of getting a good skill, this was her first time meeting someone who had done it. There were tales of someone advanced that way, but a tale was just that. Too much bragging and flowering to believe 100%.

  But wasn’t the last skill given away in D-grade at level 45? How is this possible? Don’t tell me … he acquired a skill in this grade without the help of the System? There’s no way he would have enough realization and control at this stage to pull that off. Aw, what’s this? Can’t use this for anything.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Last question. What exactly are you waiting for for that mentor of yours? Is there any benefit in not evolving right away after already passing the requirement?

  “I hope you would reward me at the end of this. Giving you all of this secret information without receiving a good fight in the end would leave my heart broken. But anyway, let’s say in case you want to target or raise the chance of getting a preferable mastery, then postponing for a short time wouldn’t really matter. You can make up for the experiences lost just by trying a little bit harder,” the man was still smiling and keeping his calm voice.

  “I … see. Guess we are equal now. Let me catch my breath first. But be prepared; I will go in twenty.”

  Schallin looked at the orb through her virtual avatar inside the General tab. That was a solid ten minutes spent with valuable information on top of it. The item didn’t need all the time she proposed to recharge, but what was to be complained about if she told the guy to wait an extra five minutes? He came begging for the fight anyway.

  [Fiery Orb of Empowering] — Rare: Crafted with the power of light and fire by a skilled blacksmith, the orb is an excellent container to hold the power of ambient magic. Each matter is but a portion of what could be. Weapon damage has minuscule scaling with Strength and tiny scaling with Intelligence. Grants the [Fiery Empowering] skill.

  [Fiery Empowering] — Rare: Allows you to use the matter inside the Fiery Orb of Empowering to empower the next skill (medium scaling with Mystique). The matters can collide and charge themselves as long as you are engaged in combat, but will reset their state if inactive for a duration. Has a long cooldown (minor scaling with Level) after each use.

  Essence: 0

  Mana cost: High

  Ever since she got this weapon and had the root modification on Holy Fire, her attacking power had sky-rocketed. She believed that a full empowered Holy Fire could compete for the most devastating attack in D-grade, maybe even early C-grade. A rather difficult-to-use skill was now her main opening and finishing, all in one.

  The man standing in front of her had amazing speed and an overwhelming offensive melee style. Would be a hard fight. Needed to hold on.

  “Go!” she shouted and charged in. The man seemed calm and confident. No need to be polite.

  Her cleaver missed the target four times in a row, no surprise, but she had the initial tempo. The man hadn’t fought back yet. Was he going easy on her? If so, she would gladly play along.

  Fast. She had seen his previous match, but going after him in an actual battle was a different story. It wasn’t that the man read her attack well. It was just that his reaction speed was ridiculous. She was in constant awe when her supposed-to-hit attacks ended up missing the target completely no matter what angle she took.

  But this was fine. Connecting these attacks was a bonus to her, not a necessary.

  Then, Djaxinz started to fight back. With bare hands, the man came at her with flurries of punches, hooks and taps, aiming at unusual spots, such as her armpits, ankles, or the back of her neck. She wasn’t a slouch in speed either, so none of these attacks had landed yet.

  But this was annoying. These attacks forced her to take one extra step to ground her feet, and on some occasions pressured her to bend her back a bit more to evade. At this rate, it would just be a matter of time before this weird style got to her.

  She blocked a kick to the front, but had to take two steps back. She hurled the cleaver randomly to the front to prevent any follow-up, but it connected? The weapon dug into the man’s left flank, but she couldn’t be happy. He had taken that on purpose for sure. And when an opponent did that, it usually meant bad news.

  First, it was a punch to her left cheek, followed by two jabs to her ribs. She failed to block all three, since she was now in the perfect strike zone of the man.

  Right when she was still in agony, a kick flew at the floating orb on top of her shoulder. No, she had to protect that at all costs. Thrusting her shoulder up to take the attack instead, Schallin borrowed the force to jump back down. Even though she lost her grip on the cleaver, she protected the orb, as it was still floating on top of her shoulder. The matters were still seeking each other out, so everything was still good.

  Without letting the opponent take control of the battle, Schallin conjured a firewall in between to block him for a short duration, then she activated Fire Avatar. A bit earlier than she would like, but she needed to pay back for the smack on the face just now.

  A flimsy veil of fire covered her body. Five small embers swirled around in front of her chest, and then they merged into one and formed a flame bangle on her right wrist. Scorching currents bathed and washed over her muscles, raging for a target to unleash their might.

  Emerging from the firewall, Schallin landed a strike using the dominant right hand right onto Djaxinz’s chest, catching the man by surprise. Evading to the side to dodge a counter punch, she locked his left arm under hers, then leaned on to shoulder and threw him to the ground. This felt great.

  The man jolted back up, but she pressed on. Needed to cause as much damage as possible while she was still this pumped. Three punches, a jab, and a shoulder push later, she found her punch matched his mid-air. This was the first time since she activated Fire Avatar that he managed to catch one of her attacks. How fast and precise he was.

  Realizing that Djaxinz was now used to her new speed, Schallin was no longer able to put on the pressure. Neither did he. So, both of them entered a stalemate when each of them failed to break the other’s defense. Though after five minutes, knowing that the time was up, Schallin ignored blocking the enemy punch to hurl her own. Both attacks ran parallel and connected to their respective faces squarely. Schallin caught the bemusement in Djaxinz’s eyes a moment before her strike hit, and then the world spun around.

  After she stood up, the veil of fire and the mangle were gone. A quick peek at the floating orb showed her six stones jumping around in random directions, but not a single collision happened. Why did the System even bother making them like that? Why not just leave them immobilized if they weren’t going to clash without her being in combat anyway?

  In contrast with her being back to normal speed, Djaxinz kept his up and thus, had been knocking her around with his attacks. Couldn’t keep up, she decided to erect a firewall and danced around it. At least with her familiarity with fire affinity, touching it was still better than taking his strikes. This helped drag the fight on for another three minutes, but eventually, the opponent pushed her back out far enough from the firewall with his relentless assaults.

  Three matters. Schallin shook her head. It would have to do for now. This wasn’t a life-or-death battle, so she didn’t need to risk too hard. Losing wouldn’t change anything.

  “Be careful!” She gave a warning and then activated the orb and Holy Fire in quick succession immediately after.

  With flame swirling and emanating heat inside her body, she caught a moment of stillness. Even with how short it was, this was always her favorite part of the skill. The moment before the storm came.