It took well over one week, but Timothy was eventually able to find some time to head over to the coliseum after his final class for the day. He initially wanted to send a letter to the coliseum requesting to book an appointment since he was looking forward to competing and earning prizes as he became more accustomed to combat in his new body. The only problem was, he did not want to draw any additional attention to himself since he already had to decline polite invitations several days later and although not completely offended, said individuals who made the offers would back off from him.
His only choice was to wear some sort of disguise and even try to compete in a disguise as well. And so, reluctantly Timothy went to the marketplace in the downtown area of the city in order to purchase a mask that would not be burned off easily if one of his opponents were to be a fire element user like himself. There was no room for mistakes because if he were to win several competitions in a row or even a bigger competition where his opponents were top notch, he would receive an endless supply of inquiries which he was not looking forward to declining.
What mattered to Timothy and even his master the heaven defying artifact that attached itself directly to his soul, was that Timothy learned how to use his own strength to do things. Once he was able to achieve a high enough rank, he would be able to pick and choose exactly what path he wanted to take and if that path ended up being starting his own organization, at that point he could make connections with others more sincerely.
After buying a mask that made him appear to be more feminine while his normal face was extremely masculine and chiseled, it was time for Timothy to head towards the coliseum. The mask was weightless and very tight so to Timothy it did not even feel like he was wearing one to begin with. This made it easier for him mentally speaking because at certain times, wearing a mask could get in the way in battle compared to not wearing one.
Upon entering one of the four entrances since the coliseum was so massive, Timothy was greeted by an employee who had a big smile on her face. Having a coliseum present in a big city like Willow City in this empire was very common even though Willow City's coliseum was known to be slightly higher tier when it came to the items and gold they were willing to offer contestants in every tournament that was held.
The best part of this coliseum was it operated slightly differently from others as well and specialized in one on one matches as well. This meant that if one did not want to wait to enter into a tournament, they could compete against other cultivators of the same rank and once they achieved a specific amount of wins, they would be given a general prize. For the most part, the prize would be gold rather than items, but within the coliseum, there was a marketplace where instead of using the points earned from the wins for gold, they could be exchanged for items.
Being escorted to one of the desks in a small sign up area, Timothy thanked the employee and greeted the man who sat in front of him with a big booklet. "So I see that you are at the second rank as a mage and from what I could sense, your battle qi is enough to where you are close to breaking into the second rank as a warrior as well? That is very interesting and makes for being a great competitor here in our coliseum." the man started to speak to Timothy and mentioned some of the more basic details when it came to being a contestant among other key details to know.
After about twenty minutes, it was finally time for the man to showcase to Timothy what could be offered to him whether it was competing in one on one matches to rack up wins to exchange for items or wealth, or to enter into a tournament of his choosing. "So young man, I think that for now it is best for you to enter into one of our upcoming tournaments. There are very fierce competitors in the one on one matches and our coliseum reserves the right to match you up with who we see are equal in power to you."
"As far as tournaments are concerned, it is more of a free for all and we do enjoy having an endless amount of youths such as yourself taking the opportunity to compete here. The requirement for tournaments offered to rank two cultivators, is only that said competitor is only at the second rank as either a warrior or mage and not above it in any way. If that was not the case, you would be able to enter into a rank one tournament and sweep everyone away."
"You may have assumed so already, but those who enter into our tournaments are mostly those who have not pushed the boundary of ranking up and many who have just reached said rank. So as long as you have a bit of luck, I see you doing very well in a tournament setting and I would go as far as saying you may always be guaranteed a spot in the top sixteen given that you are both a warrior and a mage while for the most part, others are not."
"Over time, you will find that the higher the rank you become, the less being a dual expert and not being a dual expert will matter as a general rule. This is because once one reaches a high enough rank, things such as artifacts, quality of techniques, among other differences would be taken into account during battle. Sure, being a dual expert automatically gives you many advantages, but it will not mean that you will always be able to defeat an opponent who is not one!"
Timothy actually appreciated the man's brutal honesty towards him because the artifact had explained it in a similar but in a rougher way. Usually in other worlds that were much more advanced and had countless high class immortal beings, it was considered a custom for everyone to pursue the path of a dual expert but to eventually realize their specialty and focus majority of their time to continue evolving their strength. However, in this world, it seems like due to the lack of high class immortals or at least in the empire, it was considered more common for a cultivator to just pick and choose one path in the very beginning and almost completely ignore the other one.
Looking through the booklet of the different tournaments and prizes coming up soon for rank two cultivators, Timothy finally spotted a tournament that he absolutely wanted to compete in. The tournament was open to all competitors and had no maximum amount of entries. It would cost the competitor ten gold coins as an entry fee, but the grand prize was actually a longsword that had the soul of a demonic beast of the fire element embedded into it!
There was a clear difference between weapons, armors, and artifacts that had either a demonic beast core as the source of its power and those that had a demonic beast soul as the source of its power. Having an item in battle that had a demonic beast core was common for experts who were serious about cultivating and pursuing immortality and it would usually be able to raise an ordinary item's power by up to thirty percent depending on the cultivator's own characteristics with said element or ability.
However, a demonic beast soul was able to raise the power of an ordinary item upwards of sixty percent which was double the maximum of the demonic beast core! The only downside, was that depending on the rank of the demonic beast once killed, the amount of power could only cap out at sixty percent for experts who fit a similar rank. This was why it was sometimes much easier to rely on killing demonic beasts for their cores and selling a large amount rather than trying to get a demonic beasts soul sealed which only happened roughly one time out of one hundred kills.
