"Manifest Soul Weapon: Air Cannon!" He exclaimed, as a large, wide gun formed in his hands. It kinda looks like a bazooka. Let’s see what it does, shall we? I then picked up a small stone and tossed it across as hard as I could while staying silent, the stone hitting a rock formation several meters away. "There you are!" He yelled out triumphantly, as he turned in that direction and took aim with his weapon. A loud suction sound echoed out, similar to how a vacuum cleaner sounds, before he pulled the trigger and fired out a pressurized air projectile, which hit the rocks with a strong impact, cracks spreading out. Ah, I see, the back of his weapon sucks in air, and the front shoots it out at a high pressure. The suction sound echoed out again, before he fired another blast of pressurized wind. Just as I thought, it can’t be fired in quick succession. It takes about a second and a half to gather up air, and then another half a second to fire, so the whole process is about two seconds long. That...kinda sucks, pun intended. Maybe my caution was unnecessary, after all. I mean, this guy’s Soul Weapon really isn’t anything special, and earlier, when I killed his clone, he didn’t even see my whip before I retracted it. Yeah, I’m over this. Enough testing the waters, time to go on the offensive for real. Now, Initiate Skill: Magic Eater. My range with this Skill is twenty meters...more than enough, he’s well within that range. As the dark red smoke-like form manifested with wide jaws, I sent it zipping out towards my opponent as he turned his back to the spot I was hiding behind. The end of the smoke that forms Magic Eater is connected to my palm, following the smoke will give away my location, but...I don’t think that matters against an opponent like this. "Huh!? What the hell...!?" He yelled in alarm, as the jaws of my Magic Eater widened and engulfed him, draining his Mana rapidly. Hm, his Mana capacity feels really low...I suppose that means he can’t use much of any Magic at all. Speaking of which, I wonder how much my capacity is right now? It’s not like I have a way to measure it, after all. I know, I should ask the receptionist if there’s a way to do so after I’m done with this exam. Hm? Oh, my opponent managed to slip away before I could fully drain him of his Mana. But based on his expression, that really wore him out, he looks dazed and weak. Mana doesn’t work like stamina does, but draining a huge amount of Mana abruptly can still affect the victim in the same way that a loss of stamina does. And if you fully drain someone of their Mana, they’ll pass out for quite a while. While I didn’t fully drain this guy, the abrupt loss of such a huge chunk of his Mana has clearly knocked him for a loop. Yup, from the look of it, I must definitely have drained the majority of his Mana with my attack. Skills don’t use any Mana at all, and Soul Weapons consume stamina instead. It doesn’t quite make sense to me since activating them forms Magic Circles just like casting Spells do, but it is what it is, I suppose. That said, some Skills do have limited use times and cooldown periods, so not all Skills can be used indefinitely. Well, anyway, I should end this fight now, no need to humiliate the guy too much. Really wish I could use my Magic, that self-restraint is robbing me of, like, ninety percent of my options. Oh, well, if I do change my mind, I suppose I should at least do so against a stronger opponent. "It’s over now," I sighed, as I sent my Magic Eater shooting towards him again. As he leapt out of the way to evade it and began to take aim at it with his Soul Weapon, a futile effort since physical attacks don’t affect my Magic Eater, I swung my whip across towards him from the other side. He didn’t even see it coming, as it closed in on the back of his neck. Right before it could hit, a barrier wall appeared between my whip and the back of his head...before my whip easily sliced right through it. Uh-oh. I quickly blunted the whip as fast as possible while I simultaneously yanked my arm back and retracted the blade, but the tip still struck the back of his neck on the full, knocking him out instantly with a loud smack. Woah, that was close, I think I almost broke his neck just now. I managed to make the whip blunt in time, but I was a bit slow in pulling it back. That could’ve gone a bit better. I’m not used to fighting with the intent NOT to kill. "Woah-...uh, congratulations, you’ve qualified for a Bronze rank as an Adventurer. Would you like to continue against a higher ranked opponent?" Inquired the receptionist, as she suddenly appeared behind me. What the-...!? "Where’d you come from!? No, more importantly, how did you find me?" I frowned warily. I almost attacked her on impulse just now. But something tells me that, even if I had done so, she would’ve been able to avoid it. Seriously, how the hell did she get so close without me even noticing? She likely has a tracking Skill of some kind, I don’t see any cameras anywhere, so I can’t think of any other explanation as to how she found me. Let me emphasize just how vast this space is, so even if she knew where I was, getting here so quickly is really suspicious. Does she possess Teleportation like Prysm does, or some other type of quick transportation ability? I narrowed my eyes at her cautiously as I tried to figure out how she pulled it off. "Huh? Um, you don’t need to eye me so suspiciously, you know," She responded with a wry smile, averting her gaze...but somehow never taking her eyes off my grip on my whip. "Oh, right, sorry. You just caught me off-guard is all," I sighed, as I put away my Soul Weapon. "Anyway...would you like to continue with a higher ranked opponent or end the exam here?" She inquired, after clearing her throat. "Hm...you know, what, I think I’ll keep going. I’m curious to see just how far I can go," I replied, after mulling it over. "Got it. I’ll return shortly with your next opponent, though you can request upto an hour’s break before your next duel if you want," She informed me. "Nah, that’s fine, I barely broke a sweat. Oh, before you go, there’s something I wanted to ask about...I’d like to have my Mana capacity measured," I remarked, after a bit of hesitation. Making that request is basically the same as confessing that I can use Magic. But I’m too curious to pass it up. "Huh? Does that mean...? I mean, yes, that’s a simple matter, you can even buy devices that display your Mana capacity, though those can be a little expensive. Would you like to measure it now?" She inquired in response. Yeah, looks like she’s figured it out. Oh, well, too late to back out now. "Nah, I can wait till after the exam, I’m in no rush," I shook my head. "Understood. Then I’ll go fetch your next opponent right away." "Sure, thanks." As she left, I closed my eyes and focused on my active Attribute as I ran Mana into the back of my hand to bring up my Status Bar. Alright, good, it’s set to Dark Attribute. I already set it to that before I got to town, but no harm in double checking to make sure. Let’s see if I can win my next duel without the use of Magic either, though I doubt I’ll be able to beat Gold and above while holding back that much. I have to admit, now that failing the exam is no longer a possibility, I’m starting to feel pretty hyped up about this. I’ve been training nonstop while locked up for the past three years or so, this is a great opportunity to see the fruits of my efforts. After a little while longer, the receptionist returned, along with a woman who had long blue hair, a couple of shades lighter than my own hair color. Oh, right, my hair’s red right now, I almost forgot. "She’ll be your next opponent. Are you ready?" Inquired the receptionist. "Yeah, I am," I nodded in response. Hm, my opponent is staring at me pretty intently...I guess she must be a more cautious type that the last guy, not that that’s saying much. I’ll go with the same initial strategy, attacking from a distance works best for me. Once she took her position, I did the same, skulking behind the rocks and staying out of sight. And as the barrier activated around the area, I brought out my Soul Weapon and began locating her using Super Hearing-...huh? She’s heading right this way, and fast...tch, does she have some kind of tracking Skill too? What a pain. I backed up a bit and stayed on guard as she closed in, right before she came into sight as she sprang up above the rock I’d been hiding behind, narrowing her eyes at me. "A frontal attack, really?" I muttered to myself, as I cracked my whip towards her midsection. "Manifest Soul Weapon: Six-Pronged Sword!" She exclaimed, as a sword which branched out into six at the end appeared in her right hand. 1 She used it to block my whip before beginning to attempt to tangle it between the prongs of her sword, before I quickly contracted the whip to pull it back. The instant I did, she kicked off the rock behind her and shot towards me with her weapon raised. I stiffened my whip and used it to block the downward swing of her blade, grimacing as a couple of the prongs nicked my wrist and forearm. Tch, this weapon is gonna be a pain to deal with in close combat, I’m gonna need to get some distance... _____________________________________________ Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book. Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming Chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask me any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join: https://discord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP