“Hey, just so you know, I can help you learn the Rubik's cube if you want” Abby told me.

 

Now very confused by what I could have possibly done to alter her fate, I take a second before I respond. “Um, you don’t need to. I have a book that describes how to do it, and i only got through the basic part so far”

 

“Well it gets more complicated going forward, so if you ever need help, please come ask me” she says in response.

 

“Aren’t you going to be traveling with the hero going forward? You guys leave this country in a few days, so how am I supposed to ask you for help?”

 

She looks at me with an emotion I can’t place for a little before saying “you’ll understand in a few days”

 

What does that mean?

 

After a short little talk, I went back to practicing. By the time other people got to the box, I had gotten pretty good at the cube. I had already memorized the basic way of solving it, and could now do it in less than 3 minutes. The book suggests that I get that down to about 1 before learning the more advanced stuff.

 

Eventually everyone else got to the box.

 

“Oh, you're already here Abby, your sister is watching this round with the hero again, this time with Lily as well” Chloe said when she got to the box.

 

“And Uriel went to go see Tess as well. What was going on with her, None?” Amelia said.

 

“I can tell you later, '' I said. This wasn’t something I wanted to tell everyone, so I was keeping it quiet for now.

 

Eventually, the king and queen came back with Chloe’s oldest sister and her husband. They had gone to see some of the festival stuff for today.

 

They were chatting about what was going on, very excited about everything. The more I am around him, the more the king seems like a very nice man.

 

Before the announcer comes out, there is a knock on the door of the box.

 

“Come in” the king says at the knocking.

 

Being let in by one of the king's attendants was a very gaudy looking man, with a few women following behind him.

 

“Oh, Duke Hopeledge, what are you doing here?” the king says to him.

 

When the man enters the room, Amelia seems to get quite annoyed.

 

“Oh, I heard that my sister was watching the tournament here, and I wished to say hello.” The man says.

 

Now understanding that this is Amelia’s brother, via process of elimination, I lean over to Amelia. “You never said that you had a brother” I whispered to her

 

“Oh, yes. I don’t really talk to my family.” She says, not bothering to whisper.

 

“Oh dear sister, you don’t even tell your friends about us. Well, allow me to introduce myself, I am Duke Cedric Hopeledge. Amelia is my younger sister.”

 

“Duke? Does that mean that Amelia is nobility?!” I say slightly freaking out.

 

“None, you do know that Chloe is a princess. Why is a basic novel freaking you out?” Amelia asked.

 

“If you're a noble, and Chloe is royalty. And Tess is the next elf queen’s sister, not to mention Uriel.” I start to ramble. The idea that all of my friends are very important people keeps freaking me out more and more.

 

“Ok, so we can ignore him for a second.” Amelia says while rubbing my back, trying to calm me down. “So you said hi Cedric, so how about you and your harem go to your own box.”

 

This last comment had some venom behind it.

 

“Alright, but please sister, do remember your family going forward.” Cedric said. When he goes to leave, he looks over to Amelia and me, and under his breath he says, “Filthy commoner” and he and his group of women leave.

 

“He seems weird,” I say as he leaves.

 

Amelia, who has gone back to look annoyed about her brother, tells me to ignore him.

 

Soon after, the announcer comes out to tell us the semi-final match ups.

 

Trumhere vs Tess

Obsidian vs Arthur

 

Tess is going to be fighting in the first match right now. She was going against a defensive wall, but with her speed, the fight on paper seemed fair.

 

“Excuse me, sir king, your royal highness” I say to the king before the match starts.

 

“Oh, None, you don’t need to say that much. What is it, my boy?”

 

“Can you tell me what level Sir Trumhere is?”

 

“Oh, yes. I don’t know the specifics, but he has a number of achievements that would raise his natural level limit, and last time he told me, he was around level 200.”

 

“Oh thank you” I said back to him.

 

I had seen Tess’s status during the break, so I knew that in pure stats she had a massive advantage. I was still working to figure out the average level for people, but being around some of the most powerful people was messing with my perspective.

 

But I was pretty sure that this fight was going to be the same as her last two, a very one sided victory.

 

(Tess POV)

 

I don’t know why, but after talking with None, I felt better about my status. He told me it looked normal, and all of the strange feelings I had about it went away.

 

This was the semi final match. I was going against a pretty impressive person, but I knew I could win. He couldn’t keep up with the last match, and I have yet to go all out.

 

We made our way to the battlefield when we were called by the announcer.

 

When we make it to the center of the field, we bow and the match begins.

 

Right away Trumhere calls out a skill, “Guardian Stance”. In front of him energy seems to create a barrier. When I get close and try to hit it, my sword doesn’t make contact against it, being pushed back by the barrier.

 

“Ha, this is the ultimate defensive skill. It creates a barrier that stops frontal attacks. Nothing can break through. In exchange it makes my back very vulnerable.” He says to me.

 

I stop for a second when he says this, “why would you tell me the weakness for your own skill?”

 

“Well there is no way that you can get behind me without me being able to turn.”

 

“Trumhere, you couldn’t keep up with my last fight at all, why do you think that”

 

Sudden realization comes to his face. But not fast enough.

 

In all honesty, I had a way through his skill even without going around him so fast he couldn’t keep up.

 

My skill, flash step.

 

It works in some weird ways, but it moves you a set amount in front of you, which is based on the skill level. You could use it to get around people, but not solid walls or doors. His barrier wasn’t solid so I could use it to get past him easily.

 

I ran towards him. Right before I hit his barrier, I activate flash step and move 3 meters in front of me. I quickly turn around, and with one divisive hit, knock him out.

 

The fight is easily called for me, and I shouldn’t have used a high enough speed to where people could keep up.

 

(None POV)

 

“Hey, we could actually follow that match” The king said in amazement. “But, I didn’t really expect him to lose”

 

“Really, that was the only outcome I saw coming” Chloe told her father. “Tess is probably the strongest active adventurer in the country, if not the world”

 

When she says this, the king gives her an odd look.

 

“I mean, with the obvious answer being excluded of course.” Chloe said when she saw the look her father gave her.

 

“Who's the obvious answer?” I ask.

 

When I ask, Amelia leans into my ear and says “she means you”

 

“Oh, never mind” I say to the group. I was kind of embarrassed that I didn't realize she meant me, but in all honesty I never really considered myself the strongest.

 

We had some casual conversation before the next match started.

 

Soon the announcer called forward the hero and Obsidian. This was an interesting match, being magic vs sword.

 

(Hero POV)

 

This was going to be fun. While I walked onto the field, I could hear the cheers for me. After the first round, my popularity increased a little, but not that much. But the second round gave me a huge boost. It seems that people like me to show off more of my skills, but this round is more of a test for me.

 

My new skill, perfect reflection, I could bounce back anything he threw at me. I wanted to know if there was a limit. I don’t think there is, but you never know.

 

We get to the center, and like last time my opponent asks me to fight him only using magic. But this time I declined. Magic is a strange thing here. Because of how spells work, two people using the same spell create the same effect, so the better magic user is always the one with more experience.

 

“Very well,” he says and gets into position. I quickly set up my barrier and get into mine. The announcer starts the match.

 

My opponent quickly starts the fight with a massive strike of magic. But I am completely unaffected. This continues for some time. In that time he attacked with every element of magic he had. But it never made a scratch on me, and my barrier.

 

Eventually I got an idea.

 

“Wow, you're getting kind of annoyed with this aren’t you.” I yell at him to goad him into using more powerful attacks.

 

It works. He starts using higher and higher levels of magic.

 

Lastly, I try to get him to use his most powerful attack.

 

“Man, I can’t believe this. You know, after this morning, I think your magic is just worthless. Yeah you won your fight earlier, but I saw you in the castle. You couldn’t even do damage to that worthless kid there, now could you!”

 

(None POV)

 

“Did he just insult me?” I ask while watching the fight. It seemed to be pretty one sided, with the hero now starting to goad the knight captain into using more powerful attacks.

 

That was when he mentioned this morning. I didn’t know if there was another person that Obsidian fought this morning, but I think his comment about not doing any damage was about me.

 

After I asked my question I looked over at my friends to see them all whispering to each other. I couldn’t hear everything over the crowd cheering for the hero. Suddenly Chloe turned to me and asked, “None, have you ever talked with the hero?”

 

“I did once, yesterday when I was watching the match with Tess” I responded. 

 

“Did anything happen?” Abby asked.

 

“I don’t think so. He seemed like he was bragging, and I kind of questioned it. Maybe he is mad?” I respond, trying to think of anything that would cause him to be mean to me.

 

When I make my comment, Chloe and Amelia look towards Abby, like they expect her to have an answer.

 

“I wouldn’t really worry about it. I mean, you aren’t going to be spending that much time with him, right?” Abby said.

 

“I could still join his party.” I say. That was something I hadn’t really been thinking about. I had basically decided from the beginning that I wasn’t going to join, but I still had to tell them that.

 

“What? Why would you join the hero’s party?” Abby asked.

 

“The archpriest here in the capital asked me to. I'm supposed to meet with the party the day after tomorrow.”

 

After telling her this, Abby got really silent, and seemed to go deep into thought.

 

While we were talking, the duel continued. Well, more like Obsidian kept throwing magic at the hero, and none of it did anything.

 

“He’s using some kind of barrier to block the attacks.” I say, trying to make sense of the fight.

 

“How can you tell?” the king asks, now sitting at the edge of his seat.

 

“My magic detection. I can see mana forming around him. And every time he gets hit, it gets more and more developed.”

 

“Interesting, you can see magic energy to that level. And that barrier, how does that work?”

 

“No clue. I’m guessing that it absorbs energy for something, but I have no idea what.”

 

The fight continues and the taunts from the hero get more and more extreme. And so do the insults that could be directed at me.

 

Eventually, Obsidian gets exhausted, and stops shooting magic.

 

“Look at that, all out of power. I’m guessing that if I even slightly hit you, I could win.” The hero starts, “But I have a better idea. Heroic Magic, Perfect Reflection.”

 

And with this magic activation, a massive explosion rings through the whole coliseum.