Chapter 9

Book1 - Chapter 9: We did it? What the hell did just happened?!

The Devil Bear moved its countless legs quickly, his movements fast enough to produce powerful winds that swept the crowd. Such strength was definitely unnatural for it, and would probably leave it in a dangerous state.

But the Bear couldn't care less, the moment it was captured, it had already given up on its life, every human it killed after that was simply to enact its revenge and diminish its regret after dying.

"Hm? Only ten minutes? What a pity, this won't make a lot of profit." The Arena's headmaster seating on his throne on top of the tower shook his head with a sigh. His eyes looking yearningly at the crowd that cheered for blood... the crowd that from time to time bought snacks and drinks being sold by the Arena's market associates.

"Leylin!" George cried in despair as he quickly ran towards the arena, but it would be too late by the time he arrived.

Strangely, the closer to death he was, the more calm Leylin became, the world before him had seemingly slowed down enough so that he could even think slowly about the future.

This isn't how my life will end. He thought with confidence.

Six years, for all this time he had trained. In this period he surpassed George who started two years earlier and stood so high as a squire that knights had a lot of trouble to win against him.

His cultivation was slow but steady, when he couldn't progress ahead due to his age and having started cultivation almost 9 years before the correct age of 15, the accumulated energy slowly refined him, making qualitative changes to his body, changes that would surely benefit him in more ways than he could imagine in the future, an accidental but welcome discovery.

Sooner that day he was finally able to cast his sight on the realm that existed beyond what the eyes could see, laying out earlier the foundation to cultivate and grow his spiritual root thanks to the Spiritually Enlightened Tree, and was finally able to peer into his energy pathway system. Although just barely, he learned that energy wasn't simply inside him and that would definitely be a worthy topic to research later on!

No matter what, dying here wouldn't just be bad, it would be shameful! Unworthy of him! Especially after so many lucky discoveries in such a small time frame.

I can't and I won't die here!

The thought of his goals, of the dreams that he could finally realize after reincarnating, the things that he wanted to experience, and of the future were burning in his mind.

His body finally broke through the shackles of mortal limitations, the threat of death was like the cement missing to complete the construction of the building, the foundation prepared over the years plus the rush of chemical reactions in his body gave birth to a new power.

His blood was boiling at that moment to the point of making his face flushed red, a second before the Bear could slam his sturdy head at him, he pushed himself from the wall using all his strength leaving a trail of blood behind, and jumped on the back of the Devil Bear's head.

Caught unprepared the Devil Bear hit the wall and became dizzy as blood dropped from its mouth - which was injured after hitting the spike on the wall - and injured eye.

Without a sword, Leylin could only use his hands in a desperate last effort, or so he thought, but it was then that he noticed George's cross blade still logged into the Bear's eye.

This!!!

Using this moment of weakness from the Bear, he quickly climbed towards the sword and with a kick using the back of his feet, he managed to force the sword deep into the creature's head, piercing its brain.

"What!" The crowd stood up stupefied, some even pitched their arms to make sure they weren't dreaming.

The Bear fell lifelessly on the ground and for a time, it was the only sound ringing in everyone's ears, that is, until the heartfelt laugh of George reverberated. "Fuck yeah! We did it!"

"What have I just seen?"

"Are my eyes playing tricks on me?!"

"Fuck, I lost a thousand gold coins in this bet!"

cheers erupted together with the sound of clapping, some were high-spirited, others were depressive, it all depended on whom they had bet yesterday.

The headmaster of the arena was the most surprised one, on the last day of the first stage of the competition, two random kids actually managed to win the challenge!

While one had clearly just advanced to a Knight, there was no doubt that two squires alone managed to fight against and kill a monster that was capable of killing an entire squad alone.

It was still fresh in his mind how a knight had only been able to kill one of those alone by sheer luck after discovering its weakness, but those two had even better luck and did it without finding it.

* * *

In a castle at the outskirts of Valois.

A maid opened the door and stepped aside. "Please come in, lady Catherine is ready to see you."

Leylin and George walked inside with their backs straight and sweat pouring down their faces. This place had a really heavy atmosphere, to the point of making them slightly stunned. They walked through the hall of the library with heavy steps, the countless bookshelves were like towers of knowledge, and every book stored inside the black wood shelves was like a luxurious apartment in the tower, there wasn't a single one of them without golden solid frames, they were probably unique editions the princess or her family had ordered.

When they stopped at the main section of the library, the two of them were surprised to see the presence of another person.

It was a man standing a few meters away from her, he wore full body armor but the symbols encrusted in the pieces of armor weren't anything they had seen or heard of before.

"... Maybe... yeah, that must be the case... Like the Hitman Guild I showed you before, this guy must also be from the main continent," George whispered so that only he and Leylin could hear it.

Leylin nodded but didn't say anything else, instead of making wild guesses he preferred to simply think of the person as a stranger that could pose a threat to him, he had a very hostile aura after all.

Seeing that they've arrived, Catherine put down her cup of tea and looked to an empty spot to the side.

"Start the second challenge."

As soon as she said that, a flash of light surged and caught the three unprepared, by the time the light had disappeared, Leylin and George were stunned to see that the man that had been there just a few moments ago had become ashes, and only his expensive set of armor remained behind.

"W-what did just happen?" Leylin muttered as his senses constantly warned him of danger, and not like the Devil Bear. This time he felt that if a single muscle of his were to move, he would lose his life right there.

George couldn't even speak, after the flash of light died down he directly fell on the ground and panted heavily, before he could catch his breath though all the food he had eaten today poured out from his mouth, dirtying the carpet of the library.

Catherine frowned at the sight and looked again towards the same spot, and, for a moment, Leylin could swear that he heard a sigh.

As if the void answered her call, the rest of whatever Goerge had eaten earlier was instantly washed away by a flash of water that their eyes could barely follow, and smoke suddenly appeared from that spot, slowly drying it.

This time, Leylin also felt very sick, as if he had just ingested rotten food. He fell on his knee and panted while trying hard to stop himself from puking.

Catherine slightly nodded at that and a smile bloomed on her face as her eyes locked on the two of them. "Congratulations! My faithful servant determined that two of you have no connection to the whore, so you passed the second challenge!"

"W-what?!" George asked incredulously, what was she talking about?

"Don't worry, I had to know if the people that succeded at the challenge were associated with my enemies. In the end, you weren't, so nothing to worry about." She left her chair and directly helped the two to stand up. "Be happy! Not only did you survive, but you are also going to be heavily rewarded! After I test both of you to know your talent for magic, even if you have no chance of becoming magi in your state at that moment, I still have my means to make you both magi. Now come I shall show you the place."

"But... what about the other challengers, we heard that even sons of dukes had participated!"

"Oh, that garbage? They all died in the challenge. Do you think anyone can, let's say, survive a beast capable of defeating a group of knights as you did? And that's just surviving, killing it is another matter altogether, they aren't like you two, I can say for certain that you're destined for great things, only those with great destiny can enact miracles like that. Now, enough of that, I don't want to hear about the trash of this island, just don't mistake my words, you have lost that shameful status, in my eyes, you're worth even more than the emperor."

Leylin couldn't help but gulp at her smiling face. For the first time in his life, he felt scared of a girl, especially after what she said about destiny... why did it felt like she was talking about a fact instead of a concept?