Chapter 751 - Open Challenge Circuit begins

One of the first people to return from the event is Tess, who cleared her dungeon with Maya. Coming to the area, she halts in her steps, seeing us resting there against Wolfy's slowly moving belly as he breathes. Her disciple is sleeping, and her tiny arms are put over my chest in what almost looks like she is hugging something in her sleep.

I would throw millions of people off the balcony for her.

"Tess, if you wake her up, I promise I will become your worst enemy," I say softly before she can say anything.

As softly, she answers, "I'm not giving her to you."

"Too late, she likes me more than you. She is my disciple now."

"I will tell Vega."

"Minions, under the current laws, possess no rights except those expressly granted to them by their designated masters. She can't do anything about it, even if you tell her. But please don't tell her."

It causes her to laugh softly. "Are you doing better?"

"Like 20% better," I answer.

"So the slightest miscalculation would still tear you apart?"

"You know the saying: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger?"

"I don't think this is what it was meant to say."

"Too bad. It literally fits my situation. Also, please talk with Lily, if she doesn't join the last event, I don't know what I will do. I might tell Biscuit to attack her or something."

(Food?)

"Yes, Biscuit. Lily is food."

(Not a Friend?)

"Yup. Annoying, stubborn, food."

(Asshole!)

"Surely you didn't mean me. Tell that to her," I react.

The blonde turns to our healer. "Lily?"

"Maybe I will participate, maybe I won't," Lily answers.

Tess turns back to me. "I did what I could."

"That was a pathetic attempt, Tess, even from my socially inept point of view."

"Too bad, right?" she smiles. "Want me to bring anyone here to talk to? I know you had plans before."

"I mean... I don't know how useful it would be. I'm dealing with my body and working on preparations. Soon, I will make some Manabloc weapons and Manatex clothes so we can send them to Channeler through some Normal difficulty guy. Other things like mana stones with training regimes, information, materials for a scientist to experiment on before we return, and all that crap, you likely don't need me to help with that."

"I don't, I already dealt with most of it."

"So reliable."

Our conversation then gets interrupted by Samuel, who walks into the area, followed by a few of his gang from Hard difficulty.

"Sset, that guy is gone..." The words get stuck in his throat as the view opens for him when he walks around Wolfy and sees me and the bunch of kids resting against me with some of them sleeping.

I lift a finger to my lips and whisper, "Shush. If you wake up anyone, I will throw you off the floating island. I'm not joking, ever since we appeared here I was curious to see what would happen."

I let my hand rest back on the back of Tess's disciple's head and use the opportunity that she is sleeping to caress it. Like a tiny animal, she shifts and pushes against the palm of my hand before breathing out softly.

I would throw billions of people off the balcony for her.

Samuel continues to stare as if the view is something he cannot comprehend, and opens his mouth and closes it a few times.

It gets Deva annoyed as she mutters in a whispering voice, "What are you staring at, old man? Just get moving, you are creepy, and annoying."

Hearing that, I reach out and tap her shoulder. Looking to her left, Deva catches my gaze.

I nod. She nods after a short moment, and I lift my hand again to close it into a fist that I reach toward her. After a bit of hesitation, she fist bumps me with one of her six hands and smirks. Not knowing how it works, she then fist bumps my fist with the remaining two of her left hands.

Tess uses the opportunity to reach Samuel and gesture for him to follow her as she starts explaining some stuff. Maya stays behind and watches them for a moment.

As she turns to me, she giggles. "Poor guy, it almost blew his head off."

Waving her hand, she then pulls her disciple Enan away, who just waves towards us and leaves with her, likely for more training.

***

Adrian completes his dungeon fairly soon after. As expected, his is likely one of the most dangerous, though I'm not sure if the most. Maybe it's the toughest he can clear currently, maybe he just does the bare minimum. It's hard to say what exactly his goal is.

For a while, I’ve been considering whether he is already at the level of an Absolute, but more and more I'm inclined to think that he is not. According to him, Ruby will be able to tell me more, but I'm not dumb enough to not know he does that in hopes of me coming into conflict with her because of the other information he shared.

It is likely him thinking I trust her more than him and wants to show me that in the end she is the same as him, so I need to trust him in a similar manner or something dumb like that. Who the hell would know how alien jerks think?

All these people, scheming, preparing, twisting their words, and playing mind games. Yet in the end, it's all simple. The one with a bigger stick wins. Metaphorically. Just what are all these games good for against someone with overwhelming power?

It might be a simple and almost childish view I have, but that's just how I think.

At some point, the body upgrade alleviates even more, and as I watch the minion tournament, I have enough freedom to start making Manabloc weapons for lower difficulties to deliver to Channeler. I'm a very humble man, as shown during the Humility event, but damn, I'm sure some of them are as durable and sharp as any low arcane item, though without any fancy effects. Just extremely densely woven and knitted, manifested mana, made to last and endure.

I also use the opportunity to examine [Current], which replaced my [Accumulation], to search for the differences. And as I thought, this one fits me much better. Where [Accumulation] allowed me to accumulate and hold mana, the new skill gathers it into currents that almost instinctively find a way into my body and get grabbed by Mana Cycling.

How would I explain it better? It just syncs smoother with Mana Cycling. They work much better together, and these currents are easier to grasp and channel. As the name suggests, they behave like a current, so they are smoother but not as forceful. But it's already something I took into consideration and made smaller modifications to Mana Cycling to keep the explosiveness of my mana movement.

Until then, I can make these currents wider or narrower as I wish, and I can modify them. I can even grab currents and change their frequency, and with my experience with splitting my mind, I can make a lot of them.

Of course, all of this applies to primordial energies as well, and I have ideas for future experimentation. In the end, it is a nice addition and feels much more dynamic than the previous skill.

To remind me not to slack off, another spike of the body upgrade washes over me, damaging my constructs and forcing me to heal. As I start putting more attention into handling them, I stop creating Manabloc items. Still, a small part of me watches a screen in front of me and the Minion Tournament on it.

Wolfy is participating as well.

That dumb, bus-sized black wolf just curb stomps everyone who gets to face him without any hesitation or shame in the world. After every win, he howls towards the sky, gifting this glorious victory against little kids to his predecessors or something.

Every time he appears outside of the arena in between his duels, he stands very proudly. I even have a feeling Biscuit is the smallest he has ever been, as if to hide so he doesn't get connected with this wolf.

Though there are a few minions that make Wolfy work a little. Some powerful red gorilla-like looking animal from people from another planet, a six-armed young thylarin with two primordial energies. Vic's disciple as well, fighting in a similar way she does, a demon without a demon heart, but instead blood-based powers and eyes that seem to be his inborn trait. One day, I will have to ask Vic what it is.

Lastly, tiny vyssari Rye offers a surprise too when she, in a duel against Wolfy, uses white lightning. It, for the first time, causes Wolfy to raise up his primordial energy to defend against it, though even then, he gets a scorched wound on his butt.

This time, Biscuit, watching it, lets out a noise that sounds almost like a snort of disappointment.

Wolfy nearly seems like he heard it as well and goes full ham, his figure turning pitch black with golden eyes glowing deep within. Each of his steps devours the area around him as he rushes the tiny vyssari.

Rye waits till the last possible moment and lifts her tiny arm, shooting white lightning she has been gathering into the shape of a javelin. That bright white then meets pitch black in a bright flash, and before the black wolf reaches her, she forfeits, appearing outside near Tess, who congratulates her.

I would throw a trillion guys off the balcony for her.

Meanwhile, Wolfy trashes inside like the spoiled kid he is, and when the all-devouring darkness around him disappears, there is a new wound on him, though not deep. A burned-off patch of fur above his heart.

As he appears outside, he angrily stands up to move towards Rye, but before he takes a step, he entirely halts his movement, and slowly his head turns with fear in his eyes towards Biscuit in my arms.

The puppy-form corgi lets out a quiet, deep growl, causing the black wolf to pull back his ears and lower himself to the ground with his tail tucked under him. Biscuit's primordial energy, the same as the wolf's, flickers weakly in the air, though even this shows much more pressure than Wolfy ever did. It feels all-reaching, hiding in the shadow of everyone here. Raw and predatory.

(Fight. Friend?) Biscuit sends a single message towards the black wolf.

That causes the black wolf to lower himself even further in shame.

Well, it is clear that Biscuit draws a clear line for fights during the event, and something done out of anger and outside is just not allowed.

"Call him a bitch," I whisper to the corgi.

To that, he just bites at my finger and gently keeps biting it between his sharp, needle-like teeth.

The rest of the minion event continues calmly, with Wolfy winning and soon after leaving together with all the other disciples who say goodbye to their masters. I pity that Vega isn't here, as unfortunate as it is, but to my surprise, tiny Rye gestures at me to lower myself in front of her before she leaves.

I do so while getting on my knee, and she gently pats my arm as high as she can reach up to. She doesn't say anything at all.

I would throw a quadrillion black wolves off the balcony for her.

***

The last event starts when 24 hours of the tournament remain, and it makes sense considering what that event is about. That time might be needed.

The event rules are simple.

The Open Challenge Circuit begins when the first participant enters the designated arena. The participant remains inside and receives continuous 1v1 challenges until their defeat. After a loss, the victorious challenger remains inside the arena and continues facing incoming opponents.

The system does not restore health, mana, energy, or any other resource between challenges. All participants must rely on their current capabilities.

Points are assigned based on the number of opponents defeated, the ranking of those opponents, the final ranking achieved, and the overall strength level of the defeated opponents.

A participant remains within the arena until they are defeated. New challengers start without pause, with challengers selected from the active challenger pool.

This event includes participants from both Nythis and Earth.

When the system registers a participant as dead, that participant is immediately healed and relocated outside the event area.

I kind of expected someone to be an asshole, some guy from Hell difficulty to jump in and wipe out the floor with all the Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty guys challenging them. But it doesn't happen.

The first to appear inside is some Easy difficulty-looking thylarin, and then the Open Challenge Circuit starts.

After a long fight where they use simple skills and uncommon items, he defeats a human that also feels like Easy difficulty. While the winner barely rests, another challenger, an Easy difficulty thylarin, appears, and the fight starts again. The first guy wins again, but at this point, his wounds are gathering, and after two difficult fights, he seems to be getting tired.

Yet he wins even a third fight and lifts his four shaking arms high into the air while shouting primally.

Plenty of people outside shout as well in excitement. Many of them are drinking and sitting around, with many more grilling or eating all kinds of food. Some even bring furniture out of their residences and watch from nice spots under trees. I even notice groups sitting on the edges of the floating island with their legs dangling and watching screens there.

While I sit there outside of our residence and watch with the rest of Group 4, it goes on for hours.

There is a time when one asshole from Hard difficulty of Nythis enters, a cocky thylarin with six arms that, with a laugh, wipes out a poor Easy difficulty guy.

The challenges then pause as the others hesitate.

But only until a thylarin from Hell difficulty steps in. That guy grabs the Hard difficulty asshole by the throat, saying something to him, and then proceeds to break all his arms one after another before throwing him on the ground, where he stomps on both of his knees.

Likely because of what he said, the Hard difficulty guy doesn't forfeit and instead suffers there in pain, and a few minutes later, the Hell difficulty thylarin stomps on his head.

There is another pause in challenges before a thylarin from Easy difficulty enters, scared for his life. The guy from Hell difficulty just takes a few steps closer and smiles at the guy while putting a hand on his shoulder. Then he forfeits, and the challenges start anew with Easy difficulty guys and no other difficulties.

***

The last of the Hard difficulty fighters dies much later, and the first of the Hell difficulty fighters enters. That thylarin with six arms and a huge bow that he immediately lifts into the air in challenge. His body is covered in yellow tattoos marking his blue skin as his opponent appears as well.

Lily.

The second she appears, arrows reach her as she moves swiftly, avoiding both of them. The thylarin, meanwhile, puts a distance of two miles in between them, launching more arrows at her that she deflects with her axes and lowers her body. She bursts forth at incredible speed, moving unpredictably as she mimics kinetic movement through sheer body power and the regeneration she possesses.

It becomes obvious that the thylarin won't be able to continue to put distance between them because of her speed, so he throws the bow away, and the yellow tattoos become thicker, covering more than two-thirds of his skin. The pressure around him becomes stronger, and he feels even more dangerous than with the bow.

Lily doesn't let it stop her. She reaches him, ducks under his attack, blocks another fist, moves in a confusing manner, before bursting with speed and dancing around him and slamming a palm against his chest. All almost playfully, easily.

There is no burst of gray mana as she hits him, but she staggers back as one of his fists slams against her face. Her nose and cheekbone break with her face caving in, but a mere second later, both snap back in place and heal.

The thylarin, meanwhile, looks confused and, with a weird expression, puts his hands against his chest, surprised to see no wound, but panicking more and more. He opens his mouth to say something, but coughs up blood. He then moves to take a step ahead, but sways and almost falls.

His skin starts melting and falling off in long pieces, revealing his bare muscles that start breaking apart, disintegrating. He coughs again, covering his mouth. Flesh disintegrates off his blood-covered hand, and it falls off, and he coughs again.

He then proceeds to vomit out his insides and bones while his body is staggering around, breaking apart.

Finally, he falls down and, as he hits the ground, his body breaks apart into multiple pieces with a wet noise.

Lily remains standing and looking at that mess. There is no mantle, no visible gray mana around her.

She just calmly turns around and waits for her challenger.

***

Author note:

So, I thought about it a lot and went through, honestly, way more more feedback than expected. There were so many comments under the chapters and even more messages on Discord or chat here.

But, in the end, I decided to keep Current (by the way, I think of it more like a water current rather than an electric current).

What I also changed is that the skill was created by combining Accumulation and Mana Manipulation only. Redistribution isn’t part of the mix. I did this for several reasons, including that Redistribution feels a bit too powerful to be used in such a combination so early.

Anyway, I’ve already edited the previous chapter. Thank you all so much for all your feedback! I hope you had fun thinking about it, discussing it, and coming up with your ideas. I liked plenty of them, and trust me, I read most of what you all theorized.