22 Hey, look it's Rudy.

In a private booth within the stands. During the midst of Linley and Eris's sword fight.

"This tournament is so boring. There's nothing exciting happening. All we mostly see are people getting knock out in one move. Isn't this purpose to be a tournament of geniuses set once in a century. Where are they? Are they hiding under a rock in the middle of nowhere?" Alicia started a rant.

"Calm down. You'll need to know that this tournament is a bit special, but nothing too special." Roxy said.

"Eh? I don't get it. Isn't the purpose of a tournament meant to be a bunch of dumb and exciting fights?" Alicia spoke.

"Well, to participate in this tournament. A person require three certain advantages." Roxy held three fingers up. "First, you need to be young and have potential to grow. Second, you need to have sufficient talent. Lastly and most importantly, one needs to have sufficient background or at least a good enough backer."

"Still isn't there the famous words of the next generation will surpass the previous one. Shouldn't a genius produce even a greater genius." Alicia said naively and optimistically.

"Words are just words. A genius is rare, because their peers can't match them. Statistically speaking, if the overall population is weak, then a genius is nothing much. But the inverse can makes it terrifying. In the end, one shouldn't every generations of youth to be incredibly amazing. That would make no sense." Roxy explained.

"Like Roxy had said earlier, those three points are crucial for participants of this tournament. If you have youth and talent alone, then a powerful expert who could find you as a threat would snuff you out before you fully bloom and grow into a mighty foe. For those lacking youth, they would reach their limit to soon, so any investments in them is rather pointless for any big organization. For those lacking in talent, well any mediocre youth would be good then." Ark came by and entered this booth.

"Are there prodigies out there in the world as strong as you Ark?" Alicia asked out of curiosity. After all, to Alicia, Ark was essentially the most talented and strongest young man she knew.

"Indeed they are. They are much more stronger, talented, and even younger than I am. There are mountains behind mountains for a reason." Ark said. "Fame may attract some, but power attract most. The real powerful experts and organizations truly do not care about this mere tournament. There was meager rewards. And besides being unknown is one of the greatest type of security one can possess."

"I don't get the whole backer or background problem here. At this tournament, can't a powerful genius immediately join into Havian Academy?" Alicia asked.

"Havian Academy isn't infallible. There are limits that certain organizations can take. Sure some organizations would prefer to have a monopoly over many geniuses. But there's no actual point to do so. There are limit to resources that can be obtained which has to be distributed to these amount of geniuses. Of course one could solve this problem by pitting your own geniuses against each other. But a bigger problem is that a genius usually come with burdens whether it's family or their enemies. The organization must deal with this burden. If the burden is too big, then said genius is a lost cause. Now imagine having too many burdens." Ark explained in a simple and roundabout way.

"What is worth of a single great genius compared to a thousand normal genius? The answer was very simple, a single great genius when fully developed would naturally surpass the thousand normal genius, but the main problem is cost and efficiency. There's also the multitudes of problems that may follow. Nurturing a single powerful genius is akin to placing all eggs into one single basket." Roxy explained in her own way.

"Oh I get it now. It's cheaper to have an army of elite holy knights than it is to have an Ark." Alicia explained in a simple analogy. "So really powerful geniuses are actually rare because they're so expensive that no one wants to buy them to begin with."

"Technically speaking, whether is something rare or expensive means essentially both in the end. What is rare can be considered expensive, but what is expensive can be considered as rare." Roxy spoke her simple logic.

Meanwhile...

Linley with his sword of Kusanagi was clashing against Eris, the literally fiery redhead. Eris was a master-level warrior. So she too could form Elemental Battle-Qi. The color of her Battle-Qi Aura was red and blazing fire soared around her.

Eris too possess a sword. It was a bastard sword. Fitting for her wild nature. Flames were concentrated into her sword. With each swing, she could at least smash a crater into the arena itself.

"Does everyone like swords?" Linley asked while in the midst of getting swung at. Linley was curious, everyone seems to be carrying swords. There seems to be a lack of diversity in terms of weapons here.

"Well they're cool aren't they." Eris replied as she tried to chase and corner down Linley.

Linley could only deflect a bit and narrowly dodge. Not being able to bear any of her heavy strikes directly.

'This is nonsense. Her swings and even the heat around her was extremely heavy.' Linley thought.

Eris herself was merely a Rank 10 Warrior, someone who was considered to be an initial master-level expert. Yet the difference between her and Linley are quite far.

Linley has potential. Incredible amounts due to the System. But potential require time to grow and be polished.

Linley was over his head just by remaining in this tournament already.

Linley truly can't win this fight at all normally. There are limitations to everything. But who said that fights can only be won physically.

'System, what is the best and most efficient way to make my opponent quit this tournament?' Linley thought.

[Host, judging by a glance at her underpants. The System has determined this Eris lady you're facing is not a virgin. There is indeed of over 90% possibility that this Eris is from a noble background. There is a high possibility of winning this fight by publicly shaming her by calling her out as a young girl who has traded away her virginity not for integrity and nobility but rather for pleasure.]

"Hmm?! Wait you're not a virgin." Linley unintentionally spoke out of shock.

"You. you. How'd you even know that?!" Eris was completely annoyed and peeved by this person.

"Uh. I counted on my fingers." Linley quoted a character from a Xianxia.

"..." Eris was going to be enraged, instead felt so speechless. She doesn't even want to talk to this person anymore. She might get a headache instead.

"I forfeit." Eris raised her hand as she begin to leave the arena quietly with her sword in hand. She doesn't care about this tournament anymore.

There was dead awkward silence. Linley looked at himself. Linley felt bad for winning in such a cheap way. He could have at least have executed it much better.

Linley chased after Eris even to the point ignoring the announcement made by the announcer. Linley would at least apologize for such stupid actions.

Linley soon find himself in a vacant hallway. It was actually normal. The people who would normally crowd around in and out of the building were now gathering into the stands. After all, Round 3 is essentially the quarter-finals. Literally most people in their right mind would come to watch by now.

Linley somehow found Eris. She was kissing and was groping another guy. Her hand was squeezing the guy's butt. This guy looks to be 18-years old with blonde hair. He wore a dusty old robe.

"Rudy. Please. Let's do it right now." Eris said seductively to this man.

"Please. Eris. This is not the right time and place." The guy spoke reluctantly with a bit of sweat dripping from his face.

"No. Now strip down and let's go!" Eris whispered loudly into this guy's ear.

"Ahem!" Linley waved his hand as he coughed and interrupted these two. Linley was actually getting annoyed by the sight of this. He was originally worried, but instead came to the sight of this.

"Eris, there's somebody else here. We shouldn't do this now." The guy said immediately as he pushes Eris from him. He also gave a sigh of relief.

"Who? Oh. It's just this idiot. We can still do this anyway." Eris looked at Linley and then she went near and pulled down the other guy's pant to the ground.

The guy pulled back his pants and came towards Linley.

"Hello my name is Rudeus. This girl by my side here is Eris." Rudeus introduced himself and Eris.

"Rudy, there's no point in talking to an idiot. We should leave now.." Eris said while pulling Rudeus's robe.

'The name Rudy sounds familiar. Hey, look it's Rudy! I think I know who this guy might be.' Linley thought.

"My name's Linley. Hey Rudeus, this might sounds out of nowhere. But are you a Rank 8 Magician and were you born in a village?" Linley asked two questions he could remember at the top of his head.

"Yeah. Why would you need to ask that?" Rudeus felt this was quite out of the blue. Like why would his current rank and birthplace matter?

"I think we need to settle our disputes and future conflicts right here and now." Linley pulled out his sword and readied out his stance

Based on the novels Linley had read. In these type of settings, there was no such thing as a coincidence where there was different people with virtually the same name. After all, based on Linley's understanding of the whole situation.

Linley believed Rudy who Slyph had mentioned and this Rudeus he had just met are the same person. Ironically, if Slyph was here she would have easily believed that Rudeus to be some sort of older version of Rudy since they looked the same ignoring the age difference.

Linley would be equivalent of the standard young master villain. While Rudeus or Rudy would be the standard main character who would later beat him up. Linley's dad had already kidnapped his childhood beloved thus causing him to go a journey to get stronger. He had probably met and seduce this Eris girl with ease and now he had arrived at this academy where he's probably going to enter as a student and become even more stronger.

Of course a potential problem with this was that Rudy is a 10 year old. But Linley believed that people at this age developed very early. In Linley's experience, take for Linley and Melarue for example, they're like 12 or 13 years old, but they look like they're 17 or 18 years old already.

'Coincidence, I think not.' Linley thought.

"Why?" Rudeus felt confused on why does this guy who suddenly pops up wants to fight him.

"It's simple, my dad had stolen your childhood beloved and made her into one of maid. Therefore, if you want her back you must then best me in battle." Linley explain extremely confidently.

"Huh? Who?" Rudeus felt even more confused. He took a look at Eris and back at Linley. Rudeus only has one childhood beloved and that was Eris. Rudeus felt like there was a misunderstanding here.

"That's preposterous. How dare you slander your own father, just so you can have a silly reason to beat up my love slave!" Eris yelled at Linley for his stupidity.

"Women don't seems to understand how fights among men work." Linley sighed as he stared towards Rudeus. "Rudy, perhaps you don't remember your childhood beloved. I understand that no one really cares about the childhood friend route. But still forgetting someone close to you is clearly unforgivable!"

"I don't understand you at all!" Rudeus spoke out his thoughts.

"Rudy, just say you surrender and let's go." Eris grabbed Rudeus's hand and begin dragging him away.

"Uh. I surrender. You win. Uh. Congratulations. Have a good day." Rudeus says his farewells towards Linley.

Eris and Rudeus left. Linley was the only one there. Linley sheathe his sword and then contemplate to himself.

"What is the point of this tournament arc anyways? Everyone keep surrendering to me. Where's the difficulty? The excitement? Or even the antagonists? There seems to be no threat at all. Even the main character doesn't want to fight me." Linley spoke to himself.

Linley felt a bit dejected. Ever since he reincarnated, he thought he would face troubles, opportunities, and other things. Just nothing really ever happens.

'What's the point of all of this? I don't seem to get it. Am I missing something here?' Linley thought to himself.

In Eris's room. On the bed, there was a naked Rudeus. He felt dry, empty, and was completely sweating.

Eris felt relieved of all of her stress as she cuddled to Rudeus.

Rudeus was tired and exhausted. After all doing this with a fierce warrior girl while being a frail male mage. Naturally, this would be too tiring to do this type of thing.

Rudeus stared at Eris with love and fear in his expression. To Rudeus, Eris was someone precious and tiresome to him.

When it comes to sex, Eris suck Rudeus like a succubus emptying him dry on multiple occasions. For every single day for like 10 years already. They've been doing every morning, afternoon, and evening.

It was not without benefits. Actually not really known benefits.

The truth was that Rudeus was a reincarnate. In his past life, he was virgin 30-year old otaku. He reincarnated into this world when Rudeus was 5 years old. At that point in time, he had never expected to become a "love" slave to a noble girl.

Rudeus was originally a village boy and now at that point turn into a sex slave for Eris. It was a weird circumstance. What makes this really weird was that Rudeus has a cheat ability too. It was called Dual Cultivation.

This cheat is for some reason, every time he has consensual intercourse. Rudeus received a boost in progression when it comes to his his profession into a higher rank. Essentially he gain experience every time he has consensual sex.

Rudeus only learn he gain experience from only consensual sex. Because when Eris sometimes force him to do it against his will. Rudeus would receives no experience. Rudeus just assumed it was the same thing if he does it forcefully as well.

Rudeus throughout his entire 13 years of being in this world. He had believed it was interesting and it was okay.

Rudeus had also met other reincarnates before. Most of them were actually nice and cool people. There were also those weird roleplaying people who speak nonsense about a meta narrative or something. Rudeus had simply assumed Linley was one of those people.