Translator: Cryus　Editor: Weasalopes

It"s another nice day out when I login.
Even the GMs wouldn"t let it rain today.

I stretch myself on the bed, trying to get the feeling in my body.
The Battle Tournament starts today.

I adjust my equipment and pick up the things I prepared last night, then head out of Master"s house.
It"s 6 am right now.
I"ll go to Legias and sell the item drops I got yesterday, then get some breakfast.

I summon Zangetsu, Helix, and Obsidian to maximize my mobility.
I should head out now.

Things look clearly different in Legias today.
There are less than half the usual players here.
The tournament is a fearsome foe.

「Good morning.」

「「「Morning!」」」

Most of the usual gang is here at Fiona"s stall today.
Even Rick and Len-Len are here at the back of the stall doing maintenance.

「Oh? You"re in the preliminaries today, aren"t you Keith?」

「That"s right. I was about to head to Remut after breakfast.」

Fiona is bringing breakfast from Mio on my behalf.
I feel very obliged.
It"s horse meat for breakfast.
It"s obviously a heavy one.

【Food】Spiced Horse Meat Sandwich　Satiety +35　Grade C+　Rarity 2　Weight 0+
Sliced Horse Meat dipped in fish sauce and vinegar, and sandwiched with bread.
Extremely satisfying.

I remember eating this before, but it looks like it"s been upgraded.
Combined with vegetable soup, the total Satiety is over 40%.

《【Appraise】Level Up!》

Nice.
Not only do I get to enjoy delicious food, but my Appraise has leveled up too.
It"s doubly delicious.

I finish my food and begin arranging the item drops on the desk.
I have a lot of logs and mushrooms.
I have a small number of limestones too.

「We plan on taking turns on going into the depths of the forest starting from today. Saki is going to be holed up in the workshop though.」

Fiona is talking to me while doing the calculations.

「You"re finally going there?」

「Yes. We have all the hints to the riddle, but we need to level up for a bit.」

「Against mushrooms and Branch Golems?」

「That"s right. It"s going to be a series of battles followed by a boss battle, right? We have a long way ahead of us.」

「Go for it.」

「We will. By the way, you can get these limestones once you make it past the forest, right?」

「Yeah.」

「Summoners really are strong.」

To be precise, it"s the Monster Summons that are strong.
Even now, it"s a tough battle for me over there if I don"t summon Jericho.

I"m not getting a lot of money from the sales.
Well, I can"t blame them. All I had were logs and mushrooms.
I should be glad that I have a load off again.

「I"ll head to the tournament then.」

「Good luck.」

「I may cheer for you if you make it to the finals!」

Mio is saying that with a wry smile.
I need to win 5 times in a row in order to make it to the finals.
I wonder what my chances of winning really are.

I say goodbye to them and leave.

It"s just a little before 8 am when I arrive at Remut.
It"s really crowded at the parade square.
I can"t even see the entrance for spectators.
There are too many NPCs.
I didn"t expect to see so many people here.

I"m making my way to the entrance for partic.i.p.ants while referring to the map provided in the GM notice. There are small crowds here.
Everyone here looks like they"re evaluating each other.
The mood here feels nostalgic somehow.

「You must be Keith. There"s still some time before your match starts. You may leave at your own liberty, but please be in the waiting room before the match begins.」

A random employee from the Adventurer"s Guild used【Identify】on me, and gave me a word of caution.
I guess I got here a little too early after all.

「Is it okay if I take a seat among the spectators if I wish to watch the preliminaries?」

「Partic.i.p.ants are free to enter and leave the grounds as they please. There should be no problem if you wish to watch from the sides.」

「Thank you very much.」

Another employee is taking me to the waiting room.
This room feels familiar. It"s the archery range.
It"s where I"ve been busy making chairs just recently.
For some reason, I feel a little relieved here.
It"s probably just because it"s a place I"m familiar with.

I"m checking my gear in the corner of the waiting room.
My main weapon will be the Kaya Wood Rod.
I"ll use the tonfas as my sub weapon.
I"m secretly carrying on my back both shields that Goki has been using.
I"m putting the push daggers in the accessory case on my belt.

The parade square is filled with people watching or partic.i.p.ating in the tournament.
The green markers indicating the players are buried in a sea of yellow NPC markers.
I think I"m seeing a halo in front of me.

Huh?
I saw a gray marker for a split second.
It"s among the crowd of spectators.
I tried to stare at it, but it"s too far away. All I can tell is that it"s a gray marker.
But even from a distance, it looks like it"s a disguise of some sort.

There are 4 NPC guards moving around the spectators" seats.
The gray marker is starting to move slowly.
The guards are closing in on it.
The gray marker was exactly where the guards closed in on.
But it"s already disappeared.
My line of sight was probably cut off.

It looks like the NPC guards have been patrolling around to crack down on suspicious people like the one who was using a disguise.
It"s a lot of work for them.
Oh, there"s another gray marker somewhere else.
This one looks like he or she has already noticed the guards, and quickly leaves the crowd.

I wonder what"s going on.
It"s interesting just to watch it happen.
I"m quietly rooting for the NPC guards.
The opening ceremony began before I knew it.
Even while the Guild Leader is making an announcement on the platform, the guards and grey markers are playing cat and mouse.
Why is it even more interesting than Lugran"s speech?

Oops.
The first match begins as soon as he finishes his announcement.
I want to watch the other players fight too.

The new parade square has 8 sides.
It"s pointless to watch all 8 matches at once, but this is an interesting opportunity.
I decided to watch 2 matches at once with my back against the wall.

One of the matches is a battle between 2 Fighters.
The other match is a fight between 2 magic users.
Practice through perception, as the saying goes.
You can learn useful techniques just by observing a fight.

Putting it bluntly, it also means stealing the technique of another.
There"s meaning to it when you learn from someone who possesses what you lack.
How would one fight against an imaginary opponent?
Imagination is important.

I"m really looking forward to how the matches will play out.

「Keith, I a.s.sume? The match is about to begin. Please wait over here.」

An employee is calling out to me and leading the way to my first match.
I wanted to watch this match until the end because it"s interesting, but I"ll follow him obediently.

There are a few commonalities in the preliminary matches.
They"re definitely throwing players with similar tendencies at each other on purpose.
I remember seeing such a line in the notice for the Battle Tournament. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching the matches so far.

They were competing against each other"s strong points.
It was a series of similar battles.
This was especially true for the close battle between two heavy fighters who used up the entire 10 minutes of the battle.
That"s only natural, since their strengths were similar.

I was able to observe a lot of things.
When there are two opponents of equal caliber, the one who makes a mistake will face certain defeat.
It"s almost impossible to avoid making mistakes.
So the one who makes the bigger mistake loses.
This seems to be the primary theme for the preliminaries.

My match is supposed to begin at 9:30, but it"s my turn even though it"s still 9:20.
I"m prompted to touch the crystal before starting the match.
I try using【Appraise】on the crystal, but I can"t see anything.
It"s probably a high-level magic item.
My MP recovers to full with a touch.
Whoa, this is really amazing.

Oops.
This isn"t the time to be surprised.
My opponent is standing diagonally opposite of me.
He"s dressed like a typical mage.
I thought so.
There were a few matches between magic users until just now.
I"m a Summoner.
It wasn"t difficult to imagine myself in the same category as magic users.

Still, all I know is that my opponent is a magic user.
There"s no way I can predict what element he specializes in.
I try using【Identify】on him.

???　Lv.7
Sorceror　Standby

It"s probably made so that I don"t know the name of the other player.
That"s fine.
It"s not a battle between names.
But Level 7 is pretty high.
I don"t know what kind of an opponent he is.
I don"t know what he"s going to use.
That"s what scares me.

But I could say the same for him.
There"s only one thing on my mind now.
How will I betray his expectations?
That"s all I"m thinking about.

We"re facing each other.
We bow towards each other.

「Begin!」

The referee, who was standing in the middle, leaves after saying it.
My opponent immediately begins casting his first spells.

「Meditate!」「Bless!」
I activate both Staff Weapon Artes in succession with the a.s.sumption that I"m going to take ma.s.sive damage.
Since I don"t need to focus on casting spells, I can do something else at the same time.
I quickly select a spell and cast it.
I"m already dashing straight towards my opponent.

We started off in a 40 m square, diagonally opposite each other.
I"m fully prepared to take a hit no matter how fast I run.
My reasoning is perfectly logical.
My best magic skill is Summon Magic at level 7, but I"m not allowed to use it.
I have many elemental magic skills at my disposal, but the highest is at level 4.
I"m at a disadvantage if I exchange spells with him.
In that case, I just have to do something else.

「Mental Enchant: Light!」
『Fire Shot!』

My opponent has unleashed his spell.
I managed to raise my SPI before that.
The upper half of my body is engulfed in flames.
It"s hot!

How dare you.
Now you"ve done it.
I"m about to go berserk, but I somehow manage to calm myself.
It"s my next move.

『Huh?』

It seems that he didn"t expect me to close the distance at once.
He raises his staff and casts another spell, but I can see the panic in his eyes.
I hold my Kaya Wood Rod from the bottom and prepare to attack.
Am I going to make it?
I stick the front end of my rod and aim it straight at his throat.

He stops casting his spell.
I managed to interrupt him with my attack.

Now I"m making a horizontal strike using my rod, but he managed to block it with his staff.
At the same time, I"ve stopped his attack.
I follow up with my favorite kick.
It lands on him, causing him to lose his footing.
He looks astonished.
He"s staring off into s.p.a.ce.

Now"s my chance.
I let go of my rod and go around him.
I wrap my arms around his torso and throw him.
It"s a backwards throw.
I get on top of my opponent who stumbled, and start punching him with my fists.

I"m hitting him dispa.s.sionately.
I"m unleashing one punch after another on his face.
My opponent was disarmed, and is about to reach for a sub weapon.
But he can"t seem to stand my punches, and is now guarding his face with both hands.

Guarding?
I won"t let you.
If you"re going to guard your face, then I"ll just hit you behind your ears.
I could just hit you on the temples.

The moment I did that, he started guarding his head by holding the sides.
I see.
I"ll start hitting you on the nose without hesitation.

『Gah!』

I"m steadily punching his head.
I continue doing so until his face is overcome with despair.
Spells?
I"ll punch your chin every time you try to cast one.
Making him fumble his spellcasting is relatively easy.
No problem at all.

This magic user is pretty persistent.
I continued punching him until his HP dropped to 10%, which meant his defeat.
I hear the buzzer that indicates the end of the game, along with something like an info popup.

《The match is over! Please stop fighting now!》

I stand up and head back to my starting corner, and give my opponent a bow.
The magic user, who was my opponent until now, is walking back to the other corner on his own two feet.
He returns my bow.
Yup.
This is how it should be for a martial artist.

《You have advanced to the second round of the preliminaries! Your second round will begin in Area A of the new parade square, tomorrow at 10:30 am.》

Round 2 starts tomorrow.
It"s true that there are more partic.i.p.ants in the first round.
It"s going to be a while before my next match, but I can"t do anything about it.

An employee is taking me back to the waiting room. On the way back, there"s an interesting match going on.
There"s a Fighter.
He"s holding a weapon that clearly says that he"s a Fighter.

Before I knew it, I stopped to watch the fight.
His opponent is holding two short swords, one in each hand.
He"s a Dual Wielder.
Interesting.

「Apologies, but partic.i.p.ants must leave the venue once they have finished their matches.」

「Huh? Oh, sorry.」

Oops.
With the urging of the employee, I touch the crystal again, which fully recovers my HP and MP.
It"s really amazing!
I lost about 20% to 30% of my HP during the fight.

I just realized something frightening.
I received that much damage from that single spell.
If I hadn"t raised my SPI, I probably would have lost the match after about 3 spells.
No, maybe even 2 if I was unlucky.

That"s not good.
It feels like I"m about to break a sweat now.

There"s a small virtual window flashing in the corner of my vision.
I enlarge it, which turns out to be the battle log.
It"s unmistakably the Fire Shot spell that my opponent used.
It"s showing me that it took away 28% of my HP.
Mental Enchant: Light became active just before I got hit by Fire Shot.

What if I hadn"t increased my SPI resistance through Meditate?
What if I didn"t cast Magical Enchant: Light in time?

Oops. I"m overthinking again.
I"m giving my opponent too much credit.
It"s a bad habit of mine.

I head back to the waiting room and start to calm down. Before long, I try going back to watch the match again, but the employee stops me.

「Apologies, but you no longer have a match today. Please refrain from entering the venue.」

「Huh?」

「If you insist, you will have to take a seat among the spectators.」

Wait wait wait.
The spectator"s seats are definitely full.
Seriously, what should I do now?

I head outside the new parade square.
I took a shot at the spectator"s entrance, but there"s a long line of NPCs waiting.
There are a few players among them though.
The tournament is being held here in order to unveil the new parade square and its facilities, so it"s only natural that it"s so crowded.
Oh, speaking of which, there"s another venue for the tournament.
I"ll take a look at the old parade square.

I walk there with Zangetsu"s reins in my hand, and make my monster summons wait at the horse stop next to the old parade square.
The one at the new parade square was full, but there"s plenty of s.p.a.ce here.
Good.
It looks like there"s a lot of room for spectators here compared to the new parade square.
I"m even able to enter without waiting in line.

There are 4 sides, and it"s comparatively wide. That"s most likely why it"s not crowded here.
But there are no seats that provide an overhead view of the parade square.
I guess it can"t be helped.
I look around for a spot where I can watch 2 matches at once, and sit down.

All of the matches were interesting.
Very interesting.
Besides the one time I left my seat to get some lunch, I stayed there to watch the entire event.
I enjoyed myself after all.

Each of the fights had something worth watching.
Each match seemed dull but was actually profound. I can"t make light of any one of them.

In one of the matches, two heavies who were pitted against each other were fighting rather wisely.
They made use of the rule where you would lose if you stepped out of the match area 3 times.
Most likely they couldn"t deal much damage to each other due to their high defense, so the only way they could win was to force the opponent out of the match area.
The winner took more damage, but he still won because of the rules.
The spectators ended up laughing, but not to ridicule them.
If you compare the match area to the edge of the cliff, it would"ve been the end for the loser.

There was also a shootout between archers.
One of them was an Elf who summoned an earthen wall, and used it as a cover while shooting at the opponent.
It wasn"t underhanded of him. Rather, he used what he had at his disposal.
His opponent took damage from quite a few arrows before he managed to rush to the wall.
After that, they kept chasing each other with the wall between them.
Finally, they switched to their sub weapons. The Elf barely won.

When you compete against someone who has the same forte, you"d have to have something else at your disposal.
I think if the Elf had made better use of his spells, it would"ve been an easy win.

There were many similar tendencies in the other matches.
Even among those matches, the players had different dispositions from their opponents.

For example, there was a warrior who focused on punching and kicking.
His opponent was using a mace and shield. I ended up cheering for him, although he lost regrettably.
Halfway through the match, he managed to disarm his opponent by knocking away the mace. It was the perfect opportunity.

But that was when he regrettably showed a huge opening.
His opponent bashed his head with the shield, causing him to be on the verge of being Unconscious.
His opponent kept up with the shield bash, and the match ended just like that.
Overall, it wasn"t really a one-sided match though.

There was a Bard too.
I saw one in a match.
On top of that, the Bard was female.
Even other spectators watched in interest.
She was that beautiful.

She was holding an instrument that was smaller than a guitar, but much larger than a ukulele.
It took a while for me to remember the name of the instrument, but I"m pretty sure it was a lute.
Her opponent looked like a Treasure Hunter, who wielded a shortsword and a knife.
I wondered how she was going to fight with an instrument, when she started playing and singing.

When that happened, her opponent started acting weird.
He was charging straight at the Bard at first, and even landed a hit on her.
But his movements started getting duller, and he ended up pa.s.sing out right in the middle of the match area.
The victory was awarded to the Bard.

He was then carried out of the match area. He pa.s.sed by me later, and I found out that he had been put to sleep.
Yup.
He had been put out of commission.
There was no mistake in the Bard"s victory.

But the match that got me the most riled up was the spell shootout between two magic users.
It was really flashy so to speak. Even the other spectators liked it.
Overall, there were a few patterns among the magic users.
Some of them led the battle using raw firepower.
Others focused on inflicting abnormal status effects first, then waited for the opportunity to finish the match.
There were also others who went close range and used defensive spells to take control of the battle.

I think there"s good and bad to relying on raw firepower.
Fire Magic is the most effective in dealing damage.
But I"ve seen some of the Fire spells miss their targets.
In terms of hit rate and effective range, Water Magic and Wind Magic are better.
I"d say that Earth spells are moderate in both areas.

In any case, the ones who managed to hit their opponents with damage spells always caused a critical hit.
But many of them fumbled their spells too.
It"s difficult to say which elemental spell is the most effective overall.

Spells that caused status effects were mostly risky.
There"s the Light spell Confusion Blast.
And there"s the Dark spell, Darkness Stare.
If the status effect stuck, it was more or less a victory for the caster, but the opposite applied when the status effect was resisted.
Most likely, the Staff Weapon Artes, Meditate and Bless, have a notable effect.
It"s hard to say what methods would guarantee a victory.

Finally, the defensive spells.
I don"t have any of them at my disposal.
I looked it up on the forums, and each of the defensive spells were at level 6.
It"s only natural that I can"t use them.
Besides my best magic skill, which is Summon Magic, the highest I"ve got is at level 4.
The level 6 spells on the forums looked something like this.

Fire Wall
Fire Storm　　AOE version of Fire Shot
Wind Shield
Storm Wave　　AOE version of Wind Cutter
Stone Wall
Gravel Blast　　AOE version of Stone Bullet
Water Shield
Aqua Slash　　AOE version of Water Needle

Putting aside the AOE spells…
I can"t use any of the defensive spells, so I don"t know how I"d apply them in any situation.
But from what I"ve seen in the matches, I can at least imagine.
It"s something I should watch out for.

By the way, here are the level 6 Light and Dark spells.

Illusion　　Creates an illusion
Light Explosion　　AOE version of Confusion Blast
Dark Field　　Covers an area in darkness
Dark Explosion　　AOE version of Dark Stare

Putting aside the AOE attacks, Illusion and Dark Field seem troublesome to deal with.
I already know about the Illusion spell.
I heard from the Guild employee that Lugran used it to avoid his duties before.
Since it didn"t work on the Guild employee, it means that he must know a higher leveled spell.
I"ve been wondering what the Guild Leader was thinking.

Oops.
Illusion and Dark Field. These spells seem difficult to deal with.
Looking at these spells, I doubt I could score an easy win against any magic user.

But the one thing I should be thinking is the same.
I should prevent my opponents from playing to their strengths as much as possible.
But that"s easier said than done.

The first day of the tournament ended at 6 pm.
I see a few familiar faces among the employees who are cleaning up.
I see Granny Gelta too.
She seems to be giving instructions to the employees.
She"s scary as usual.

I step out into town. All of the shops are filled with people.
It can"t be helped.
The stalls are crowded too, but I somehow managed to get some food and eat up.
Even now, I"m occasionally noticing the gray markers I saw in the parade square just now.
I"m curious.
It looks like a troublesome crowd has gathered here.

Well then, what should I do now?
With my current skill pool, there"s not many new skills I can learn.
What should I do?
There"s no point in worrying too hard about it.
I"ll just take it easy as usual.

I exit Remut and ride towards Legias.
I have too much MP to spare today.
It"s starting to get dark, but each time I spot a Steppe Hawk, I make Helix hunt it down.
Obviously, I"m using my Enchant spells nonstop.
I"m hunting at a good pace on the way to the lookout tower.

Just before entering the forest, I recall Zangetsu and Helix, and summon Goki and Jean in their places.
I"m excited about a lot of things today.
I want to keep hunting.

I"m just doing the same thing though.
But surprisingly, there were many docile Hunter Bats until yesterday.
I"ll leave the counter ambush to Obsidian and Jean, and climbup the tree to get some Pheasant eggs.
I"m mostly trying to hunt the Wild Pheasants (F), but there are many males today.

I"m getting Goki to focus on using a bow and arrow.
Despite that, he doesn"t seem displeased today.
In fact, he seems encouraged by the fact that it"s a one-sided slaughter.

「Gehe!」

I don"t mind his noise as much since he"s defeated the monsters, but he"s really loud.
Why does he look scarier when he"s happy?

Now we"re hunting Evil Ants as usual.
Goki is swinging his sickle around in glee.
Now he"s spinning his shield around.
Well, I guess he could bash some monsters with his shield.

After hunting at a good pace for a while, an info popup appears.

《【Speedcasting】Level Up!》

I"ve been casting spells normally. I wonder if I"ve been casting them any faster at all.

I tried fighting another group of Evil Ants, but I still don"t know for sure.
I feel like it"s gotten a bit faster, but I also feel like it isn"t that much different.

By the time I realize it, it"s already 9 pm.
It"s been a while since I"ve gotten this many Bat Fangs.
I"ve also mined some Obsidian Stones, gathered some Healgra.s.s, and a very small amount of Paingra.s.s.

I should probably sleep early and prepare for tomorrow.
I head back to Master"s house and recall my monster summons, then organize some of me items.
I didn"t get to hunt monsters until the evening, so there"s not that many item drops today.
I crawl into the bed and logout.
I wonder what kind of match it"ll be tomorrow. I"m getting a mixed feeling of fear and excitement.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Race Lv7
Job　Summoner Lv6
Bonus Points Remaining 3

Skill Sets
Staff Lv6　Pucnh Lv4　Kick Lv4　Joint Lock Lv4　Throw Lv4
Evade Lv4　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv7
Light Magic Lv3　Wind Magic Lv4　Earth Magic Lv4　Water Magic Lv4
Fire Magic Lv3　Dark Magic Lv3　Ice Magic Lv1　Lightning Magic Lv1
Tree Magic Lv1
Alchemy Lv4　Pharmacy Lv3　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv3
Cooperation Lv6　Appraise Lv6（↑1）Identify Lv6　Discern Lv1　Cold Resistance Lv3
Grab Lv5　Horsemanship Lv5　Precise Manipulation Lv6　Jump Lv2
Heat Resistance Lv3　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv3　Spiritual Strengthening Lv2
Speedcasting Lv2（↑1）

Equipment　Kaya Wood Rod ×2　Kaya Wood Tonfas ×2　Snow Leopard Push Daggers ×3
Wild Rabbit Breastplate+ Series　Snow Ape Armguard　Wild Horse Boots+
Snow Ape Leather Helmet　Rucksack　Item Box ×2

Items　Survival Knife　Woodworking Tool Set

t.i.tles　Old Summoner"s Pupil, Guardian of the Forest, Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive

Monster Summons
Volff　Wolf Lv6　Resting
Zangetsu　Horse Lv4　Resting
Helix　Hawk Lv4　Resting
Obsidian　Owl Lv4
Jean　Bat Lv4
Jericho　Wood Golem Lv3　Resting
Goki　Demon Lv2