First Round Final

five minutes had passed since I started fighting this guy. During that time, I heard the announcement that Solem had already passed this round and moved on to the next round. Meanwhile, I was still fighting defensively against the monsters with unlimited MP in front of me.

This guy had been attacking me ever since earlier, I couldn't counterattack at all. No, rather it was useless to counter since he had enough MP to withstand my magic attacks. If I use Magic now, he will block it while I will start to lack MP to withstand his attacks and will lose.

Now... how can I end this?

"Edji!!"

I ordered Edji to attack that person, but the golem controlled by that person was able to take Edji's blows. I had previously tried attacking him with Edji's flame burst, but it did no damage. Unlimited MP and unlimited HP ... is there a way to fight it?

[ FIFTEEN WINNERS HAVE BEEN DETERMINED, ONE WINNER LEFT ]

Suddenly it was announced that the other 15 servers were finished and only server K was left, only my server was left. I confirmed with Magic Eye: Clairvoyance and found no other players on this server apart from the two of us. In other words, the ticket to enter the next round is this battle between the two of us.

I looked at the person. That person was wearing a brown robe with a blue shirt under the robe that I could see. I took a closer look, and I discovered the robe's true nature. The cloak draws the MP that was used up during this battle to restore the user's MP. I'm sure this guy's MP regeneration is already high, plus this cloak's ability then he can get unlimited MP huh...

But since I understood the mechanics, I guess I know how to deal with this guy.

"Summon: Musician Demon!"

I summoned the Musician Demon that I got from the Demon of Howling Music dungeon. The Musician Demon has a unique ability that can help me deal with this situation.

"Musician Demon, Condemned Howling!"

Musician Demon's unique ability, Condemned Howling. It was his personal skill that gave a "fear" effect to those who heard it. Not even Solem who has high adverse status resistance can stop this effect, so I'm sure this ill effect will hit that person.

"Ugh..."

I see it works. The bad status "Fear" was pasted next to the player's name. He started showering me with hundreds more magic arrows. Yes, the status doesn't have any significant effect for now but it will be the key to win this battle.

"Summon: Swift Lizard!"

I summon another monster.

"Swift Lizard, Ambush Blade!"

I used the Swift Lizard to attack that guy suddenly from with the Ambush Blade. As I expected, Ambush Blade was only able to reduce its HP by 4% before being defeated in an instant. But what I need is the delay of this attack, even if it's only two seconds it's enough!

"Dragon General Unsummon! Summon: Darkshade Owl!! Darkshade Owl, Stealth Wing!"

I returned Edji and summoned Darkshade Owl then activated his special ability to disappear. Now the Darkshade Owl and I who rode it disappeared and were hard for these players to see. I immediately ran as fast as possible from that place to a cave near that place. It would take a few seconds for that player to notice me if he didn't have skills like detection or something so I guess I'd be safe staying here for a while.

To be honest, I could have just waited for my MP to recover to summon the Dragon King... but everything I needed to win this was already there. I can't wait until the fear status is gone. The next attack will be the final attack. Besides, if I pulled out an ace at the start Solem would definitely scold me because I should have kept it until the final.

I took out eight gemstones from the inventory. I stood up and held all the gemstones in front of me. The Mercury Procession class skill of the level 50 Magus class activated and turned the gemstone into liquid mercury that dripped onto the ground. After all the gemstones became liquid mercury, I drew a magic circle on the ground. My body moved on its own doing that because of the class skill Workshop Creation I got when I reached level 80.

"Preparations complete."

One of the summoner's skills is the summoning ritual. In contrast to contracts, summoning rituals are skills that allow us to summon monsters we don't contract with and form temporary contracts. The monsters to summon are usually random unless you have a specific catalyst for the summon.

I take out a demon statue from my inventory and place it in the center of the magic circle. It was one of the drops in the Demon of Howling Music dungeon. I've confirmed through the Demonology book in this game that this statue is the statue of one of the strongest demons who can kill immortals. Even though I don't know how it's applied, I'll try to bet on this match.

"Summoning Rituals!" I shouted activating the skill.

The magic circle I made gives off black light. The statue I placed in the center of the circle melted into black liquid and the black liquid spread to cover the magic circle. I checked my HP and MP and found that my MP had decreased by 50% while my HP had decreased by 75%. Since the power of a monster summoned via this method is determined by the amount of HP sacrificed, I'm pretty sure I managed to draw a lethal card here.

Suddenly, a terrifying and repulsive black hand shot out from the black liquid. The other hand came out and both hands grabbed the ground around the black liquid. Then as if someone had stepped out of a swimming pool, the devil's hand pulled his entire body out of the black liquid. A black figure that was burly yet had a thick sense of horror fully emerged from the black liquid.

"Defeat my enemy." I said giving orders.

"GRAAAAAHHHHHHH"

Instead of replying like a creature with reason, the demon just screamed and jumped as hard as it could through the ceiling of the cave and left a crater several meters in size where it jumped. I didn't know you would get something like this, but I can't comment since this is indeed my first time using a summoning ritual skill.

After grinding for almost two weeks, I managed to land a few aces when I was cornered and this was one of them. I still have a few other trump cards including Dragon King, but I guess it would bring about strange reactions from other players if I could summon a World Dungeon Boss class monster. Not to mention that it was also extremely unfair since it meant my opponent had to go one-on-one with the world dungeon boss if I summoned him.

I wanted to see what happened, so I quickly mounted the Darkshade Owl and flew out of the cave. What I saw when I came out of the cave was a very horrible sight.

That devil I summoned, Bloodlust Devil God, attacked blindly. He completely ignored the attacks from the magic arrows that were aimed at him, because the magic arrows' attacks just disappeared as soon as they touched his skin. Even if his attacks were successfully blocked by the magic shield, his MP would definitely decrease and the attacks would be repeated so there would definitely be a moment where he would turn off the magic shield and at that time...

"Maximize Boost Magic: Magic Lance..."

I prepare my magic skill to attack when that happens.

The status fear that I gave using condemned howling before was one that made the sufferer of that status feel a rush when they received damage. For example, when he takes damage from a monster I summon, he will feel like quickly using a skill to not take any more damage.

He started to chant another magic skill. From what I saw he was preparing a magic blast. After a while he was ready to fire a magic blast at the Bloodlust Devil God and deactivated his mana shield to fire it. He did that because he couldn't think of a strategy while he was under the influence of the bad status fear.

"Blasts!"

"Shots!"

I fired my magic lance at the same time he fired his magic blast. An explosion occurred due to the magic blast he fired. As the explosion occurred, the player's digital body fell from above the black golem he controlled and disappeared into polygon shards the moment his HP actually reached 0.

Running low on MP after using it to finish off the player, I dropped to the ground. It was then, two announcements on the transparent window right in front of me.

[ CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING ROUND 1!]

[ GROUP K HAS COMPLETED: DRAGWIZARD ADVANCES TO THE FINALS ]

Ah, the first round is really over huh...

While thinking that, I closed my eyes. I could feel my body being teleported and I ended up collapsing on the ground. When I opened my eyes, I saw the initial townscape right before my eyes. I've returned to the initial city with a fallen position.

"Yo."

In front of me, Solem immediately reached out his hand to help me up. I took the hand and with its help I stood up.

"That's close, huh? Up to ten minutes like that." Solem said.

"You are the one weird because can done in an instant." I replied.

"Just combine the skills and boom boom." explained Solem vaguely.

"Um, I'm sorry to ask you."

As we started casually chatting, a window showing the face of the game's mascot, a rabbit with a doll-like design appeared on top of a giant tree in the middle of the garden.

[ THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION TODAY.

SECOND HALF WILL BEGIN TOMORROW AFTERNOON AT 12.00.

PLAYERS WHO PASSED THE FIRST HALF ARE EXPECTED TO LOG IN AND COME HERE AT THAT TIME TO START THE SECOND HALF.

PLAYERS WHO DO NOT LOG IN ON THE DETERMINED DATE WILL BE DISQUALIFIED FROM THE TOURNAMENT.

UNTIL THE TIME, WE HOPE PLAYERS WILL MAKE THE BEST USE OF THIS BREAK TIME.]

After saying that, the giant window disappeared.

Solem and I exchanged glances. The last line uttered by the mascot, "make the best use of this downtime" could mean he's telling the players who passed to match their skills to their opponents after they did their research on their opponents. In other words...

'...the player who can organize skills to deal with the skills the opponent will use will win this tournament!!'