Chapter 17
Everything I knew about fighting involved me running away. Given that that won’t be an option in the competition, everything I knew about fighting went out the window.
As far as I could tell, there were three big determinants of the style of fighting one would employ in a fight. [Agility], [Endurance] and [Strength]; four if I added Mana into the mix. I was in a Realm where the use of Mana was an everyday thing. But, as much as I had read on and practiced magic, it still wasn’t my best attribute. That would be [Endurance].
[Agility] to me looked like a hit-and-run kind of person. You get in, deal an attack and then get out before the opponent can lay a hand on you. [Endurance] fighting leaned more towards wearing your opponent down with consistent attacks in a prolonged period. [Strength] was the smash-it-all focus. It was about having enough power behind your attacks such that if you landed one hit perfectly, you could possibility end the fight then.
In reality, I knew that the Attributes couldn’t work independent of each other. They had to help each other out. The [Agility] fighter needed a little bit of [Endurance] to keep his [Agility] up. The [Endurance] fighter needed a little bit of power behind their attacks for the wear down to truly be effective. And the [Strength] fighter… I honestly couldn’t tell what else they needed. Maybe they could do without the help of the other Attributes.
Now came the pickle.
On paper, I was a straight up [Endurance] fighter. It was the highest Attribute I had, and [Strength] was right there behind it. Though, [Agility] wasn’t that far behind either. There was only one problem with that. They were just too low leveled. Boni had said that the average, or was it minimum, was Level 40. That made that their best Attributes would be in the high 40s, maybe even in the 50s if they favored a certain fighting style too much.
That would mean gaining more than twenty levels in [Strength]. Even keeping up with my other Attributes had been a pain for [Strength]. Unlike the other Attributes, I couldn’t just use my own body to train the [Strength] Attribute. I needed weights, loads that my muscles would struggle against. And as the Attribute leveled up, the loads required to attain the next level just got ever bigger and bigger. I didn’t know where I would get the necessary loads to train anymore. Maybe the harvests? Who am I kidding, Silas would have me flayed if he found me playing with his food.
The only option left was to train [Agility] and [Endurance], making me an [Agility] fighter. Or more appropriately, the squishy fighter. Even the name was not enticing at all. Who would want to go in a fight knowing that they are the squishiest one there? Not me, that’s for sure. But I didn’t have another option.
Unless, of course, I relied on magic to deal high damage for me. But that was a long stretch. For one, I was still a toddler where magic was concerned. It would take a little more than six weeks to make me a competent magic user. And that was with a dedicated Mana training regimen. With all the other forms of training I needed, it would not be possible. And there was the fact that Mana use also relied somewhat on [Endurance]. A little more than a pure physical damage attack would need. Making it a double edged sword. I would have the capability to deal considerable damage, but less time to do so compared to a more physically focused [Endurance] fighter.
The decision was made, I would be training [Agility], [Endurance] and magic. Which part of magic was the best one to train again?
‘Clare-san, a little help please?’
‘You do not appear to be in any form of danger.’
‘I am in danger of losing in my first bout. A little help would be appreciated.’
‘You will need to be more specific than that for me to be able help you.’
Now that I thought about it, Clare’s first response could be interpreted to mean that they could be called in to help when I found myself in a situation I couldn’t even dream to handle. What kind of help would that be exactly? Cool new Skills? Auto-pilot? You know what, let’s get back to the issue at hand. The idea of someone controlling my body wasn’t fun. And while on the subject, I never did learn what the other groups that practiced the fourth form of Mana manipulation were called. Or what they did exactly.
‘I am about to enter a fighting competition where I will have to fight for my life—’
‘It is not for your life.’
‘Wait… you know about the competition? Why did you not tell me?’
I felt betrayed. If I had known earlier, I could have started training for it. Maybe I would have made it past Level 30, Mesily, even Level 35.
‘Not until you learnt about it. Remember, everything you know, I know.’
‘Yeah. And then some more. Anyway, it might as well be. Have you seen the kind of life style I have been living?’
Clare didn’t respond to that, even after I gave them more than enough time to do so. So, I continued,
‘Which part of magic should I focus on? Which is more powerful? More deadly?’
‘Power and deadliness is determined not by which Attribute you focus on, but how well you utilize what you have. And to answer your first question, your Skills and aptitude tend to lean more towards the power behind each attack. My advice is for you to focus on having more powerful Skills.’
‘But that would mean I will not be able to throw magic all around non-stop. If you are in my head, then you must know that that is all I want.’
‘Yes. That has been made abundantly clear.’
And with that out of the way, I began my training.
Well, after I renewed my work tenure that is. And also made it abundantly clear that I would be joining The Grand Competition. I didn’t want them thinking that I had separation issues, that I didn’t have a planned future. I had plans, y’all. I did. But the looks I got when I gave that announcement had me wondering. Was it possible people did die in this competition? I mean, if the carriage driver who was a low 30s threw a rock that literally crushed a guy to death, then… Yeah…
‘Clare-san, is there life insurance in this Realm?’
‘No.’
Who would I have even left it for? Maybe I should start a family first? Eww! Me? Family? NO!
…
The only time I could afford for training was after work and before nightfall, and on the rest day. And I decided to keep all my training outside the town walls. In the forest to be specific. The town did have training grounds and small fighting pits, which I somehow hadn’t known about until I asked, but they charged just to use them. I decided to go for a fight in the fighting pits when I hit Level 25.
I didn’t want to go far into the forest, nor did I want to be near the road. At the same time, I wanted to be near the river for water refreshment. In the end, I chose the last bent of the river before I saw the bridge as my area of training. The exact location was around hundred meters from the banks of the river, hidden within the trees. The spot was a rough circular clearing of around fifty meters in diameter with few trees in it.
The training involved a medium pace run to the clearing, training in the clearing and a high pace run back to town when the training was done. My [Endurance] was getting the maximum workout I could provide. After learning that Clare had a timing function, I used it to the fullest of my abilities. It helped me set and maintain a pace. And also determine how fast or slow each run took. I strived to have the paces getting progressively higher as the days wore on.
The meat of the training included days of sprints by the river. Working on my raw top speed. And then there was the magic and, armed and unarmed combat training in the clearing. I had gotten used to my staff, but Boni had reminded me that a proper fighting staff needed to be taller than I was, and well balanced. Apparently, what I had was something of a short staff mixed in with a long slim club. No wonder my [Bludgeons] Skill was seeing a work out.
The first thing I did was fashion a proper staff, about a hand length longer than I was tall. But it didn’t last long against my earthen dummies. Several more tries met the same fate, and I was forced to read on staffs, quarterstaffs it turned out, and how to make them. I still went through a few iterations before I could find one that lasted more than a day. And I gained two Skills for my efforts, [Woodworking] which had leveled up and changed to [Staff Making].
Due to my limited budget, the only physical fighting Skills I could train were [Daggers], [Staffs] and [Unarmed Combat]. I trained them as hard as I could, but my dummies offered little in terms of training exposure. A stationary opponent wasn’t the best kind when you wanted, needed, to learn new things.
But my location allowed me to go all out on my magic attacks. Which proved to be a bad idea fast enough. With my current Mana Pool and Regeneration rate, I could only go all out for a maximum of three minutes. Then I would be done magic wise. I had to teach myself how to control how much Mana I used on each Skill, when it was appropriate to use certain Skills, how often I used magic Skills, and so on. There had been no fight books in the library, and I didn’t know anyone in town who could teach me those things. Not that I was looking.
But by the end of the fourth week of training, I finally broke through to Level 25. It had been torturous. I guess that was what gamers called grinding. It didn’t look so to me though. Five Levels, I had only gained five Levels. The sixth day break was coming up in two days, and I had already visited the fighting pits. To scout the competition and also let them know I would be participating.
…
The fighting pits were located in the Shades, which I preferred to call the Leisure Sector or Pleasure Sector. Those were more fitting names to me. There were three fighting pits in total. They weren’t that different from each other as far as I had gathered. The only difference was that they were owned by different people. The rules were all the same, very similar to what little I had learnt of The Grand Competition rules. The fight isn’t over until there is a clear winner. Which meant that one party was rendered unconscious because either their SP dropped to Zero or their HP dropped to below 100. Even newborns weren’t born with HPs that low. Usually, someone would lose consciousness when they hit the low 400s. There was also the occasional lucky punch. But those were rare, people in the Realm of Mesily were more hardy than humans back on old earth.
I chose one that had fighters in the high twenties. Sadly for me, no one was really into the thirties. With the highest at Level 28. And I would be meeting him first. Just my luck. I had signed up for five bouts in total for the day. With potions, yes that was a thing, I could fight three more times in a day. But I decided to push it.
The safe amount of potions of one variety one could take was two per day, before they had to let their body naturally regenerate. Any more, and they lost their effectiveness and the body’s response got impaired for a while.
And there I was, in the middle of a fighting pit, about to engage in my very first fight. The pit itself was around thirty meters in diameter, with a loose sandy soil for ground and surrounded by a meter-high wall. I had learnt that it had protective spells that kept anything we threw within the pit. Around the pit, at raised terraces were the spectator seats. And it was filled to capacity. I couldn’t remember the number I had been told the pit could hold. Did I really know that?
My opponent, a lean dark-skinned man with a Mohawk hairdo, was calm and collected. Doing little stretches and slight swings of his longsword and kicks. He was clad in a black-brown leather armor, with a small circular shield on his left hand. Me on the other hand, I had no armor, my only weapon was a self-styled staff that looked nothing more than a stick compared to his sword. And I was visibly shaking. As he was introduced, he waved to the crowd and they roared. A favorite then. Could my luck get any worse?
I swirled my staff for two turns to calm my nerves. But I lost control by the end of the second turn, and I had to scrambled to retrieve it. I was just glad the fight hadn’t been called yet. When I got back on my feet, I found him staring at me with a curious look, sword slightly lowered. I checked his [Status] just to be sure of what I was dealing with.
‘[Human : Riuki][Level 28]
Status:
[HP: 5000/5021]
[MP: 2800/2800]
[SP: 4523/4581]’
Low on MP. He’s got magical protection, but relies on physical fighting to get the job done. Also, with that sword and my lack of armor, I should not let him land any hit. Not on me, or my staff. He looked light on his feet, jumping from foot to foot with grace. Could he be an agile fighter? But before I could think more about it, I heard,
“FIGHT!!!”
