By the time my duel with Eugus was nearing, Dorora the Harpy came up and directed me to the arena at the very back of the guild’s property. I made it there first with my MIB in hand and Kenaka still on my back before the others came in after that. I took a moment to relish my surroundings that look like I was put in the Roman Coliseum.

The arena. From what Dorora explained to me, every city in Padimon that has an adventurer’s guild comes with this coliseum-like space. In the arena, there are no rules, no limitations, those who fight in it will do so until there’s only one standing while the rest lie dead. Like if you’re committing murder outside of any town without getting caught, even if the entire population saw it, no matter how many people you killed, you can walk away scot-free, with only the consequence of your reputation being affected.

Even if you don’t get punished, the guild in charge of the arena is required to make a report on the events that took place and spread the news throughout the other guilds in Padimon. This is so that 1: the laws in each of the three territories will be aware of the circumstances and not make a move should a relative or acquaintance of the victim accuses the killer for murder, and 2: the other adventurers who are in the guilds during the time of the newsbreak are aware of what the named killer is capable of so that they can either stay away from that killer, find them to see if they can kill them instead, or even crazier, try to recruit them in their party to become even stronger and more well-known among adventurers. Anything in between those three after an arena battle can be possible.

Whether you’re a citizen, an adventurer, a noble, even one of the royal family, when you step onto the arena, whatever title you carry and where you stand in society won’t matter in the slightest. You’d be in ‘No Man’s Land,’ where the law couldn’t even touch you.

Perhaps it’s because of a silent agreement that’s shared amongst everyone within the city that hardly anyone would dare step into the arena’s boundaries unless they have some sort of death wish. If one is found being dragged to the arena against their will in order to kill without consequence, that is where the adventurer’s guild and the law would step in and stop it. That is why the parties involved must give consent and verify it to the towns’ guardsmen and/or guild so there’d be no interferences. The Immortals’ magical influence of not letting people die even if their HP reaches 0 is still in effect in the arena, maybe as a way for two or more parties to change their minds at the last minute when they realized they’ve gone too far; however, it also plays a critical part of letting the ‘winner’ decide the ‘loser’s’ fate. This kind of thing only exists in towns with guilds because it’s the very people who run them that sponsor it.

Of course, that isn’t what’s taking place here as Dorora explained when Eugus sent her to get me. He figured this duel of ours, being a private personal matter only by the two of us and associated parties, it would be a hassle to make such a big event out of it for others to witness and there aren’t a lot of places for us to duel in secret. The arena seems to be the only place where we could have our duel in peace with doors locking people out from the outside. This way, aside from my party sitting in the audience, we wouldn’t have any onlookers making such a big influence in this match.

At least, that’s how things were supposed to go.

“Good luck out there, Jinma~! I’ll be rooting for you~!”

“Don’t get killed too quickly, now! I want to challenge you, next!”

“Brother, please, you’re embarrassing me …”

In the audience along with my party, Lili and her mother Ms. Raize, there’s also Dondegarm’s lord that governs this city, Ms. Tephalia, Winny, and her older twin brother Kenny. Looking further up, you could not only see Dorora also watching in from the top of the coliseum's walls, but other Harpies, Imps, and Arch Imps who caught interest in the event taking place as they were flying by. They all look like birds standing on power lines back home when you see them together like this.

How this came to be, well, it seems Ms. Tephalia was visiting the guild to see me at first and approached the girls. She got filled in on the situation and pretty much abused her authority as the city’s lord to keep the coliseum locked out of any intruders. It doesn’t do much to stop the races that could fly, of course, but when I check my ‘Insightful Map’ with ‘Detect’ applied to it, one could see many dots bunched together and huddling around the coliseum. Even without that, one can tell how crowded it is outside of these walls just listening to the noise. I guess not only having Eugus, a guild master, participating in some sort of battle is a sight to see but having the lord of the city nearby to spectate that same battle would also attract many curious people.

As for Winny and Kenny being here, I guess the latter was looking to have a spar with me after his humiliating loss with Ume yesterday and pressed the former into telling him where I went. With that, the two of them flew here and spotted me in the coliseum with the others from above and just barged right in, but I’m not worried about that.

What I’m most worried about is the fact that I almost forgot to report to Ms. Tephalia about my plans, as well as the fact that she doesn’t know I married Ume just this morning. Thinking about it now, isn’t telling one girl to hold off on marrying at the last minute and then doing just that with another one a complete dick move? Forget about losing my chance with Ms. Tephalia, I wonder how possible it would be for Ume to change her mind about our relationship.

I’m panicking about the prospect so much that my thoughts are running even faster than what my ‘Hyper Thought Processing’ could keep up with if that’s even possible.

<“Dude, chill, you can settle your lover’s quarrel with the reptiles later. Right now, you got a duel to focus on,”> Nyra says.

With that, I take a moment to just focus on my breathing and slow my thoughts down a tad. She’s right. Let’s just take this one step at a time. I’ll have a moment with Ume and Ms. Tephalia after this.

Good thing my ‘Hyper Thought Processing’ allowed me to go through all of that within a few seconds or I don’t even know how long that would’ve taken.

Going back to the duel, the first thing that was thrust toward us when the others arrived was a sort of ‘contract’ arranged by Lili, detailing the terms of our earlier agreement as discussed. She wanted to assure both of us would follow through on our promises by the end of the duel as stated on a written agreement instead of a vocal one. I guess that’s to be expected of Lili, being a merchant.

She pointed out one additional detail in the contract that’s new from what Eugus and I agreed on. It was something that Eugus would have to give up in addition to granting Kalline freedom as the weight of the stakes I put on the deal was way too heavy and made the scales unbalanced.

Considering how much money I have left from what Ume gave me, what I got from the raid, what I gathered from the scouts, and the Toxic Troll’s hoard, I have to admit that I was worried I’d end up making Eugus go broke if I won by the end of this. I wasn’t planning on showing how much I have on hand anytime soon, of course.

So, in accordance to what’s written in the contract, with me putting all the money I have and my current rank on the line, Eugus, along with granting Kalline freedom, had to ‘pay for nightgowns, lingerie, and underwear provided by Lili the Arachne’s tailoring services for each of Jinma Kotori’s harem members, including Kalline Gallofree, amounting to the same price as the total money in Jinma Kotori’s adventurer account.’

Anyone can see Lili was totally taking advantage of the situation in favor of her business but I was planning on getting some more underwear for Ren and Erizora, anyway. This would be a good opportunity to get them something stylish and attractive for their features. Not sure if they’ll even wear them by the end of the night but having nightgowns and lingerie would be a nice bonus, doubly so since Lili will be tailoring it all.

Surprisingly, despite how disgruntled Eugus was, he agreed to the changed conditions to make things fair between both parties. I wonder if he was confident enough in his skills and stats to make a win off me under his own conditions to his duel.

With the help of Lili showing me how my name is written in Padimonian, Eugus and I wrote our signatures on the contract. Ms. Tephalia, being a governmental figure that she is, used a stamped seal that she had on her to make our contract official while serving as a last-minute witness to the events.

“Now then, I will now explain the conditions on our duel,” Eugus starts as he takes a stone slab he carried with him and writes some things down with magic writing as if he’s fiddling with a tablet one would use on Earth.

<“Hmm~? How interesting~.”>

What is it, Nyra?

<“That slab he’s writing on. It has the same magical properties as the Immortals’ Monument at the church and your IEB. Wonder if that slab is also some sort of Immortal-blessed item?”>

“Considering your high defenses and endurance,” Eugus continues, “I would rather not draw this out for very long as we need to discuss the details of thy quest afterward. So, I would like to settle this in a sort of match with a point system. The main objective is to make the first strike and earn one point. The strikes have to be effective enough that would deal considerable damage to a normal being. The first to earn three points within 2 minutes will be declared the victor.”

I see. This point system is similar to the rules of kendo back home. Still, even if there are 30 more seconds in a minute here, 2 minutes might not be as much time as I think. “Sounds simple enough. Do we need to use the same weapon? Would striking anywhere count as a point? What about the use of skills and magic?” I ask.

“Thou may use the weapon of thy choice but bladed weapons must be dulled. Striking anywhere above the legs will count as a point, and thou may use passive skills along with spells that are attack-based and support-based. All active skills, and all spells that afflict ailments and cause multiple hits are forbidden.”

If I remember right, that old drunkard from the raid had a skill called ‘Multi-Punch,’ right? One would certainly get three points instantly with that if each hit causes considerable damage. There must be other active skills and spells that hit targets many times with different weapons, as well as hitting multiple targets the same way. Ailment-afflicting spells would be like my ‘Baneful Poison’ and ‘Sluggish Speed,’ and since Eugus has an Equestrian Paladin class, if my experience with RPGs is anything to go by, then there are likely spells from Holy Magic that could buff up one’s stats for a short period of time. I can’t see any of his spells with ‘Size Up’ yet so I’ll have to assume he has a notch over me with that much …

Actually, I don’t even have spells like that yet. Could I take advantage of—no, I shouldn’t get too greedy and add more stuff to my artillery. The important thing right now is just trying to get points off of him as fast as I can while making sure the hits are decent enough, and if we’re talking speed here …

“I see. That sounds fair to me,” I answer to Eugus’ terms while immediately putting some more of my SP to use.

[You have spent 1825 SP. Total: 12,223 SP

[You have now reached ‘Water Blast’ LV 10!

[You have now reached ‘Water Magic’ LV 5!

[You have achieved the ‘Master of Downfall’ title!

[You have achieved the maximum level of ‘Water Blast’!

[You have now learned ‘Magic Cooldown Reduction’ LV 10!

[The skill, ‘Magic Cooldown Reduction,’ has reached the maximum level of mastery and will now evolve to ‘Hyper Magic Cooldown Reduction.’

[You have now reached ‘Hyper Magic Cooldown Reduction’ LV 10!

[You have reached the maximum level of the ‘Hyper Magic Cooldown Reduction’ skill!]

Since Kalline, Ren, and Erizora had to report to the guild about what happened at the raid the other night, that would mean Eugus is already somewhat aware of what I’m capable of. Just to make sure, I talked to those same girls ahead of time and see what they reported.

So far, the guild knows I’m able to use magic in the Fire, Storm, Water, and Cursed attributes if we’re going by what was witnessed at the raid. They may already be aware of me using the [Storage] Null Spell, too, but they likely don’t know about the other ones I can do as well as pretty much using all of them once I know their names and effects. Kalline mentioned Eugus had to speak with Ms. Tephalia at one point, so it’s likely they know about me using Holy Magic and the [Portal] Null Spell as well since she and many others were there in her bedchambers to witness me using them. Oh, and let’s not forget how I’m able to use ‘Devil Eyes’ (even though I don’t know how) and ‘Darkness Manipulation,’ too.

In Kalline’s opinion, for an adventurer who can use five of the six known magic attributes and be able to use [Portal] and [Storage], I’m not just one of the rarities, I’m some kind of magical powerhouse. Since Eugus knows that much, of course, he’ll be on his toes … er, hooves (?) on whatever I may pull. Even so, I’d rather not reveal too much, especially since there are many other spectators around us watching in.

From what I’ve experienced in the raid the other night, like active skills such as ‘Slash,’ spells also have cooldowns that need time after casting before it’s ready to use again, but spells have the flexibility to put as much MP as you can while active skills like ‘Slash’ only require a certain amount. Of course, skills like ‘Blowback Punch’ that uses HP also require cooldowns as well. How long spells need to cool down usually depends on their level of mastery that also affects how far you can make the spell appear away from you, the mana you put into it to increase power, distance, area of effect, and other things. The skill I just learned and maxed out, from ‘Magic Cooldown Reduction’ to ‘Hyper Magic Cooldown Reduction,’ as the name implies, reduces the cooldown time for spells way down to almost nonexistent. As I was going over my skills earlier, I learned I could spend SP on the former after my Mage class and Intelligence are at a certain level and rank, respectively. I held off on learning it until I confirmed what Eugus’ duel entails.

Of course, there’s also the regular ‘Cooldown Reduction’ skill that I could learn after getting one of my other novice fighter-based classes to a certain level and a Dexterity rank, but since I can’t use active skills for this duel, I’ll hold that off for another time.

‘Water Blast’ is the basic attack spell in Water Magic, and raising its levels will increase what I’m able to do with it, speed, control, power, and otherwise. ‘Flare Burst’ and ‘Wind Cutter’ are also the basics in their respective magics but I can’t help but feel they’re too dangerous. Of course, I don’t want anyone other than Ume, Ren, and Erizora know (at least until the rest of the party does later) how I’m able to use Terra Magic as well, even though I don’t know any of its spells yet. That leaves me with using ‘Water Blast’ and maxing that out. With my ‘Hyper Cooldown Reduction,’ I could get him in three-consecutive hits if I set them up correctly.

Still, there is one thing I’ve been wanting to try in terms of magic, and it’s the main reason why I acquired ‘Hyper Thought Processing’ to help me pull it off.

After I learned and leveled up my skills at shattering record speeds, Eugus finishes writing on the stone slate before tossing it in the air.

Before I could think of what he was trying to accomplish, the slate stops mid-air in an upright horizontal position while glowing in the same bright color as the Immortals’ Monument at the church, practically blinding me and the spectators for a moment. When it dies down, the slab hovers in the air while displaying a light blue window that’s similar to my status screen that shows a time stamp, Eugus and my own names, and large numbers underneath.

In short, we’re basically seeing a holographic-like scoreboard.

“What is that?” I ask Eugus.

“That is an Immortals’ Slate. The Immortals from above can receive messages by whatever is written there and/or what we say to it. If they approve of a request, they will lend their power for the task at hand in a short span of time. All guild masters in Padimon have one of these and they only work for us.”

It really is a freakin’ tablet! “Wow … that’s a device just begging to be abused,” I say monotonously.

“We swore to never misuse them while taking our positions as guild masters and the Immortals must give their approval on requests before anything can happen, so we should be fine.”

“So, what did you write to the Immortals? Something related to our duel?”

“I asked them to act as our judges for our duel so there would not be any unfair play, keeping score based on the conditions I told thee moments ago. Also, while this city is under the Immortals’ influence to protect us, I made sure we were extra protected and neither of us would earn EXP at the end of the duel.”

<“Well, shoot, guess you won’t get a ridiculous amount of EXP if you win this,”> Nyra comments.

“The EXP thing is fine and all, but ‘extra protection?’” I ask.

“But of course. For a matter such as this, we both must fight at our all. It would be burdensome if one or both of us are left with a serious injury, so within the next 2 minutes, while we will still experience pain as we would in battle, the Immortals will make sure that neither of us will be at risk of death.”

“Ah, that explains why you mentioned we’d only use weapons that are dulled. No holding back, huh? I like the sound of that.” I unsheathe Nyra and focus my ‘Darkness Manipulation’ to extend the handle and the blade to appropriate lengths for a katana, making sure the latter’s blunt and not sharp. I guess I actually made a bokken instead of an actual katana in this case. I lightly tap the ‘blade’ end on my palm and confirmed its dullness.

“A katana, hm? Interesting. Dost thou need any armor to protect thyself? What about sending thy familiars back to their respective realms to reserve MP?”

“Nah, I’m good. Neither of them has seen me fight before and I want to show them what I’m made of as their master.”

“Very well, then. Equip: Paladin Set with Ristor,” Eugus says in a sort of command before the Armory Armlet glows and flashes.

In the next instant, he changed out of his leather armor and into a shiny metal one with gold trimmings. He also has a helmet to cover his head and face, a longsword in both hands, even his horse lower body is protected by a steel fish scale-like mail. He must have set up this equipment arrangement to pull up from his Armory Armlet at any time.

I check his stats again with ‘Size Up’ and I don’t see any changes. Thinking about it, when I was able to see stats like ATK and such from the humans I killed yesterday, I didn’t see anything that indicated whether their equipped armors and weapons would affect their stats. I make a mental note to ask Nyra if weapons and armor have their own stats or something since she was a talented blacksmith before getting trapped in the tanto.

Still, this is more or less what I imagined what a Centaur in a fantasy world would look like: a seasoned, noble knight figure clad in armor ready to engage in battle.

I had to control my breath and not let the excitement that’s leaking from my Dark Past overwhelm me. Before I realize it though, the audience goes wild at Eugus’ change of attire.

“Master Jinma! Be careful! Guild Master is getting really serious about this!” Kalline exclaims. Having been trained under him for so long, she must’ve experienced and witnessed countless battles and spars. Maybe she realizes how dire the situation is from the equipment her uncle is wearing.

<“Jinma, this guy’s equipment is no joke,”> Nyra says. <“His armor is made of Mithril that reduces the power of magic attacks to the point of them bouncing off if they’re weak enough. The dull longsword Ristor, made of the same metal, is enchanted to disperse those same attacks with a swing.”>

As expected of a master blacksmith to see all of that in a glance. Even though I may not have that capability, I’m glad I have someone on my side that does. Still, having armor that actually makes magic attacks ineffective if they’re not powerful enough certainly changes things in what I can do, more so since we’re practically invulnerable to real life-threatening damage.

I glance over to the audience and see my party’s expressions looking intense. Same goes for Winny, Lili, and Ms. Raize. Ms. Tephalia only looks calm but calculating. I guess this is to be expected, it’s a spar with the highest official of Dondegarm’s adventurer’s guild, likely the strongest in the city, and it’s a guy who saved said city [twice] starting out as a rookie that he’s facing. If there were spectators in my fight with the old drunkard at the raid the other night, they may be expecting to see something just as heated as that while watching from the audience.

I have a feeling Ms. Obina is also watching in through the slate if she’s taking part as a judge, but other than that, I can’t help but feel there’s someone else in the audience whose way of observing is different from everyone else’s. I can’t put my finger on what it is and I can’t tell where that one’s watching in from, but there’s an unusual pressure weighing on me from how they’re expecting this duel to turn out. Call it my own trained ‘intuition’ from all of the years being watched from Earth that I could somewhat tell that much.

“Art thou ready to start, Jinma Kotori?” Eugus asks.

I close my eyes, take a breath and ready myself in a stance while holding Nyra in bokken form. I’ve never participated in an official kendo match, but I’m getting nostalgia as I look back to the many times a certain person also readied herself like this while I helped honed her skills through spars. She loved samurais, their ideologies, and how they wield their trademarked weapons in some manga and anime enough to have her parents enroll her in a kendo school. She was the most diligent person I knew in her training and I was glad and proud as her friend to be able to help her get better. I could still recall the beaming smile she had as she won her first tournament while holding a trophy thanks to all of that hard work.

Hyo-chan … for the sake of a friend, lend me your strength for a little bit, please. “I’m ready,” I answer while opening my eyes after my inner prayer.

“Then, I beseech to thee, O Great Immortals, begin the countdown to start our duel!” Eugus preaches as he gets into his own stance.

The audience settles down to dead silence and the scoreboard starts the countdown from 5 with sound effects while I quickly analyze the best course of action through ‘Hyper Thought Processing.’ Finding openings, how I can make openings, what attacks to make, where to attack from, how he’ll respond, once I took all of those considerations and then some into mind, I mentally prepare my first attack.

I calmly went through all of that in a span of 3 seconds, and so I tense my muscles to take my initiative.

The scoreboard rings with a loud ‘bong’ as it reaches 0, beginning the duel.

“Sanc—”

FWOOOOOM!

“What?!”

Zasha!

Zabush—clunk!

“Grk!”

Fwoosh!

Zasha!

Zabush—clunk!

“Dammit!”

Eugus looked to have started chanting his spell before getting overwhelmed by the barrage of magic attacks heading for him. A large ‘Pyreball’ as big as a Centaur came straight at him that he dissipated with a swing of his sword before a compressed, fast shot of ‘Water Blast’ hit his armor at an open side with a hard ‘clunk.’ Then, a soccer ball-sized ‘Flare Burst’ came straight at him that he dissipated with his next swing before another ‘Water Blast’ hit another opening with a ‘clunk.’

All of those spells that approached him in specific trajectories were cast by me without even saying them aloud. As soon as launching that ‘Pyreball’ was successful, I learned then that if I prepare a spell by mentally describing it in detail while imagining the visuals before chanting out its name in my mind, I can make a lot of things happen. My ‘Hyper Thought Processing’ helped me a great deal in getting all of that prepared in almost an instant.

From there, my ‘Hyper Foresight’ activated and I saw how he’d dissipate my spell with his sword swing in a specific direction, giving me an opening to send a ‘Water Blast’ at a specific trajectory, speed, and power with great succession. I did the same thing with the following ‘Flare Burst’ and second ‘Water Blast’ as my ‘Hyper Perception’ slowed my surroundings enough for me to act accordingly.

Finally, as he was distracted by my barrage of spells, I take advantage of my high AGI and rush at his side, activating my maxed-out Stealth to hide my presence that’s outside of his field of vision while I wind up my bokken like I would with a baseball bat.

Likely not even close to how a katana should be swung by professionals in sword arts, but it’s just right for me and my current ‘Slugger’ Brawler style.

By the time Eugus realizes I’m right next to him, it was too late.

“Doh.”

CLUNK!

“Grk!”

Like a kendo practitioner in a match, I let out the call of where my attack would strike as the bokken made contact with his side.

Thinking on it then, I haven’t even tested out my newly-gained powers from the class promotions and the blessings I received from forming a contract with Kenaka and Mametama yet. There was also my increased Strength from the ‘Ogre’s Muscles’ ability I got after having sex with Erizora to take into account as well. I made sure I had my bokken formed from ‘Darkness Manipulation’ dense enough that I could feel some weight before the match started. If my increased Strength and my ‘Weight Defiance’ skill played a part in how I hold my weapons, I didn’t know how heavy I made that bokken then.

That’s why I was surprised by how I literally sent Eugus flying and hurtling to the nearest wall as I followed through my swing.

KSHAAAAAAAAN!

Eugus’ body crashes into the wall below the audience’s seats, startling them from the sudden rumble as the cloud of dust and rubble appears from the impact. When it dissipates, a large crater where Eugus hit it is seen, and the Centaur himself lies on the ground as he groans in pain. One could see the large dent in his armor made from the strike of my bokken.

““…””

The audience, as well as myself, are trying to comprehend what the hell just happened. I check his HP to make sure, but there was no sign of any damage taken. Just as Eugus said, we were invincible, but from the sounds of his groans, we really could still experience pain depending on the differences in stats.

Da-da-da-daaaaaah!

The only thing that breaks the deafening silence of the coliseum is the victory tone the scoreboard makes.

I turn to it and see the score between me and Eugus is 3-0, the timer stopped 5 seconds after the match started. I think I hear Kenaka being the only one laughing his ass off, probably from after he viewed the scoreboard as the others did.

Um … I’ve won just as planned?