Reincarnated With a SSS-Rank Hypnosis Skill in Another World-Chapter 45 - Fighting Against Alena

[Ragnor’s POV]

That dagger.

I just knew there was something strange about it. Even among my family, which was filled with renowned craftsmen, none of them ever came close to creating such a masterpiece.

For a weapon not to crumble under the amount of pressure Jake placed on this dagger, it had to be made by some of the very best craftsmen this world had ever seen... and for more than one thousand years. All of them had been dwarves.

But the trick here is that none of them ever made something remotely close to this.

I just had to figure out where it came from. I didn’t care about losing. I had only gotten here because of my equipment. But I wasn’t a great fighter, nor did I ever claim to be. It was obvious that I would lose to any talented fighter in this tournament.

But as I said before, I didn’t care.

So, as I was practically dying on the ground, feeling the pressure in my chest rising, followed by sharp pain, I ignored it, looking my opponent dead in the eyes.

"Please tell me where you found such a dagger."

I watched him freeze under my gaze before frowning.

"Just tell me. I need to know."

But I quickly realized that my strategy wasn’t working. After all, there was no incentive for him to even tell me about it, and there was even a chance that he ignored it. This piece of metal was so powerful and mysterious...

’I’ll have to ask my parents about it. They might know.’

I was about to give up and leave the stage when all I got in response was silence. But... that’s not exactly what happened.

"I got it from the Royal Vault."

An answer.

It wasn’t much.

And I couldn’t use it to my advantage since entering that place without the King’s approval was akin to killing yourself. But... it was better than nothing. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The fact that it was locked in such an important place means that it’s extremely powerful without a shadow of a doubt. It has to be extremely rare and powerful.

I looked at it and stared at it until its image was stuck inside my mind, unable to escape from it.

***

The tournament was progressing well. Matches were happening quickly and without much delay. Without much surprise, the final eight were revealed.

Among them were myself, Alena, Thomas, and the black-haired otherworlder.

With fewer and fewer participants, it was only a matter of time before I would be matched with one of them, something that I was strangely excited about. I wanted to see just how powerful I was compared to them, if I could actually rival any of them with the limited amount of training that I had.

I had learned Blink, Fireball; I had even obtained some skills with the help of the Gods. But even then, that wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things.

And then... the draw happened.

The first match.

I wasn’t in it.

Thomas was the only one chosen out of the four of us. He fought against another noble, who was quite powerful.

Then, the second match came, and a sigh of relief was exuded from both Alena and me.

She had been chosen, which meant we could still have some time to figure out how we would defeat her later on.

The third match was drawn.

Nothing. We weren’t chosen in it.

It could only mean one thing and one thing only.

We had been matched against one another. I would be fighting against Alena, and the one who won out of the two of us would proceed and advance to the next round, where we would most likely face either Thomas or the black-haired girl.

It was a decisive match, one that I couldn’t afford to lose. For my honor and also my future.

However, what I hadn’t revealed yet to anyone in this room was that for the past week, I had been trying my hardest to get closer to each one of them. It worked with some; it failed with others...

But it worked wonders with Alena. Over the past days, I had gotten closer to her; I had forced myself to be closer to her, to enjoy her company. So much so that her loyalty toward me had been steadily increasing over time.

[Alena’s Loyalty: 49]

It was right below the threshold required to hypnotize her, which would grant me a free victory. However, while it was below that threshold, it was above the one of my dagger, which would ignore her defense.

For this next fight, I would be starting with a big advantage, and she didn’t know it herself.

Fighting her on even ground would have been hard but feasible. But now that I had an advantage, the risks of me losing were extremely low, especially since I had been analyzing everything about her fights since the start of the tournament.

I hadn’t entered this whole thing just to meekly lose in the final eight.

I was going to win this whole thing.

And it seemed that the Gods who were watching also agreed, though silently, as they sent me a "quest." I would qualify it more as an objective, but I wasn’t the system. I couldn’t control its sayings.

[You have received a Quest.]

[Quest Name: Domination]

[Task: Win the tournament and instill fear in the eyes of your opponents. Slowly but surely show everyone that you will be the one dominating once inside the walls of the Academy.]

[Rewards: ???]

Perfect timing, as always.

I couldn’t wait to figure out what those rewards were because I had a very good feeling about them this time around. For the struggle and the time it had required me to reach there, it had to be something good.

And the fact that there was an ’s’ at the end of Reward made me think that there would be multiple of them, which was already a great sign.

But in the meantime, I’d have to deal with Alena... who was staring at me as if she wanted to eat me whole.