Start of the Competition

The place we arrived at was a mansion the same size as Harlan's.

Though compared to it which was too silent, this place was kind of rowdy. Surrounding it are two structures.

The one on its right is a private museum of Jayna's father, though I don't know which kind of museum was that, just from the architecture of their mansion, I would guess it's full of sculptures. As to who made them, of course, it's the owner. That's her father's hobby.

The one on its left is a coliseum-like building which will be used as the stage for the competition. Currently, there's a long line of Spirit Race who were hopeful participants waiting to be registered for the competition tomorrow.

Good thing I don't need to fall in line along with them. This is the privilege of knowing the organizer's daughter.

Since I was bad at making up names, Yumiko gave me a new one which will be my disguise. Ember. Because of the color of my disguised hair. I was thinking along the lines of Red or Aka but I guess Ember is better.

After disembarking from the carriage, I opted to separate from them for the time being, to take a tour in this city. Yumiko handed me some kind of currency for my use. We agreed to meet up tomorrow after the competition and I told her she could summon me if there's an emergency using that new skill from my System.

Because of my appearance, I still garnered attention mostly from young Spirit Race girls near my age. As it turns out, this disguise which Jayna put on me was really something popular among them.

The competition will just be a one-day event so I have to endure this kind of unnecessary popularity. Although this city had Yumiko's influence, the culture of the Spirit Race was still apparent. Apart from enjoying competitions, which explained why there's a coliseum next to a Noble Spirit's mansion, they also like recreational activities like gambling. Don't ask. For most gamblers, it's a recreational activity.

Just from my brief walk around the city, I already found at least 5 gambling houses that opened betting channels for tomorrow's competition. I'm kind of interested to see who's the favorites to win it but there's no point for me amassing this world's currency.

Ah. Wait. Yuko gifted me a new sword, maybe I should also get something for her as a souvenir from this world.

Now that my thoughts arrived here, I went in and bet on the option 'Unknown Natal Spirit' which is the category I certainly fall under. It also has the highest return since the chances of an unknown Natal Spirit winning the competition is close to zero. Compared to those famous Natal and Fused Spirits, someone unknown winning it will have a huge impact not only for the organizer, which is Jayna's father, but also for their whole race.

Although there's more than 20 Noble Spirits existing currently, none of them was a match against the Spirit King. Maybe Yumiko is but she doesn't want to waste her time on it.

With 1:500 as rate, I betted 5000 spirit coins which is half of how much Yumiko gave me. And I didn't stop at that, I also went to the other four gambling houses to bet 1000 spirit coins each, leaving me with 1000 coins to spend for myself.

This might be just overconfidence but I might become a rich man here after tomorrow's competition.

Buying Yuko's gift will be more than possible. And maybe for the other three as well.

Time passed and I spent the night at a somewhat expensive inn which used up almost all of my remaining coins. A private room where no noise or disturbance will enter it for a price of 800 coins a night. I then used 100 for dinner and I set aside the last 100 for tomorrow's breakfast.

Err. Somehow, I felt like I spent someone's hard-earned money in just a matter of hours. I'll apologize to Yumiko by doubling it by tomorrow.

Throughout the night, I focused on spamming Spirit Boost. Using it like that didn't alarm the World's Will which I became thankful for. From 80%, a night's progress raised it up to 85%. 3 more nights or will it get slower than that? I don't know, for now, I'll push it up until it levels up.

As soon as the sun lit up the sky, one would already notice the bustling activity of everyone. From houses to stalls and stores. Everyone was gearing up for the upcoming competition.

Me being a participant was allowed entry as soon as I showed my identity pass which Jayna provided for me.

Upon arriving at the waiting hall, there's already a number of participants with different states of tension waiting in there. Most of them were Fused Spirits while there was only a handful like me who's still a Natal Spirit.

Of course, since we're supposed to be weaker, the Fused Spirits didn't put us into their eyes as they were eyeing their fellow Fused Spirits.

That's to be expected so I just sat on one corner to wait for the start of the competition.

Because there were more than 200 participants, we were separated into 2 groups of more than 100. Only eight participants from each group will advance for Individual Match-ups.

I was put in the 2nd group so, during the 1st group's turn, I watched the competition to see if there would be an unexpected opponent for me.

However, like most of the audiences and gambling houses' expectation, only Fused Spirits managed to advance. Those names I saw in the top list of who will likely to win the competition.

When it's our turn, I walked among the other Natal Spirits who were already nervous about their chances. Walking along the path, I took in the details of this place.

With thick pillars as the foundation but on odd placements, the architecture of this world is still behind that of modern Earth, but yeah to build a dome like this, they're already getting there.

With a huge platform in the middle, fitting in more than 300 people was viable on it but with 100-odd participants for the 2nd group, we were in a considerable distance between each other.

This is a Battle Royale so everyone was wary of those close to them. I also acted nervous so as not to draw attention. I planned not to be overly eye-catching.

But the crowd of young girls sold me out. Pointing at me while going 'Kyaaa~', I already earned the animosity of not only those around me but also those who were envious that I got that kind of attention just because of my disguised appearance.

I looked around the audience seats and found those who I was looking for.

In the center was an elevated platform where there wete only a few seats with one throne-like seat in the middle. Sitting on it was a giant-like Spirit Race. There's really no need to guess who it is. Jayna's father.

On both of his sides were Jayna and a beautiful Spirit Race which resembled her, obviously her mother. That's probably how she will look in the future. Well, if she still has room to grow.

Next to Jayna was Yumiko, still in her shrine maiden outfit.

Yumiko and Jayna were looking at me with an amused expression on their faces.

They probably expected that reaction from the young girls who were still cheering for me.

After a while, the organizer, Jayna's father, raised his hand and uttered a word to start the 2nd round of the competition.

"Begin!"

With a thunderous voice that covered the whole coliseum, every Natal Spirits around me immediately willed their Spiritual Twin to materialize and attack me in concert.

What a way to start. I thought of pulling my punches back but these guys just had to focus on me all at once.

Materializing my Spiritual Twin, I used three Strands to use the exclusive skill of Natal Spirits, Potential Drawing, to give it 30% of my base stats.

It jumped out and threw a kick to blow away every Spiritual Twin lunging at me.

With that show of force, every Natal Spirit was dumbfounded as they thought I was already done in.

I looked around me and smiled. With just a thought, my Spiritual Twin moved and started eliminating all of those who attacked me. I didn't feel any tension from a battlefield, what can a little competition do? This Adaptability is really handy at this moment.

Kicking them out of the ring one by one, the other Natal Spirit opted to distance themselves from me while those Fused Spirit started to take notice.

Though they noticed me, they still thought they could eliminate me later on. They didn't know that my Spiritual Twin was just the appetizer, my main body was the main course.

Should I really show off? Is this fine?

Those 'Kyaa'-ing young girls even 'Kyaa'-ed louder after what I did. I guess being cheered on by someone was really energizing.

Since I'm in a disguise, let's go all out.

I'm going to do it for the sake of the 9000 coins I gambled!