As we gathered at our designated arena, I looked over the other finalists. Freya had made it, and gave me a little wave. There were five others I didn't know, a few who I recognised from around the guild but hadn't really spoken to, and the other two I'd never seen before, presumably visitors here for the tournament. The final competitor made my jaw drop open in disbelief. She wasn't even armoured, wearing normal cloth clothing. Well, there goes my theory that she was lost in the institute.

Kari, Human, Life Mage (19/59)

I had so many questions... "Why are you here?" I asked her. Her name must have been on the roster, but no doubt I unconsciously skipped over it because she wasn't a delver and I hadn't entertained the thought that it could possibly be the same person.

"You realise how hypocritical that is coming from an eight-year-old, right?"

"Nine-year-old," I corrected. "It was my birthday a few weeks back."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. That makes all the difference," she said sarcastically. "Anyway, why not? We had the theory that mana control skills would be useful in this sort of competition, and I decided to test the theory. That's all."

"From the way you made it to the finals, theory confirmed, I guess... Although maybe that's just your level."

"Yeah, and if fighting you doesn't push me over the edge, I'm gonna be disappointed."

At that point, our conversation was brought to a close when Kari was called up to fight one of the visitors, a [Body Mage] in the low fifties, higher than anyone in my original group, but only middling among the finalists. The referee called the match start, and the arena was almost instantly blanketed in flame. I could see what Kari was up to with [Mana Perception], and it was insane; she'd done something similar to the mana whirlwind I produced when using active mana perception, but had then shifted the entire thing to fire affinity.

The mage jumped backwards, but there was nothing he could do. Flame had encompassed the entire arena, so he couldn't get out of range without disqualification, and he didn't seem to have any skills that could block or negate it. The fire wasn't hot enough to burn, but it was enough that the referee immediately called the match.

"Sorry," said Kari to her stunned opponent, despite sounding completely unapologetic, "but I wanted to show off for Peter, so I went all out from the start."

My fight was against the other visitor, a [Ranger] in the low forties. To keep things interesting, I refrained from using [Distortion], dodging his rapid fire arrows with [Far Step], [Minor Speed] and [Minor Slow] instead, with a side helping of [Minor Wisdom] and [Minor Dexterity] to boost my reactions. Looking at his status, I guessed he was using a combination of the rank two [Multi Shot] and the [Mana Arrow] skill that seemed to be the thing for shooting bolts of black energy.

He was fast, blasting out sets of three arrows faster than once a second, but it was draining his stamina and mana fast enough that I barely had to dodge for a minute before he was spent, letting me move in and take the win.

ding

Skill [Minor Speed] advanced to level 15

Skill [Minor Wisdom] advanced to level 12

Skill [Minor Slow] advanced to level 15

Watching the other fights was far more interesting than the rank one battles, or even my rank two qualifier group. Some competitors had obviously made it to the final purely on the weight of stats, but there were some more interesting fighters here too, such as a [Spellsword] that I guessed was one of the outcomes from taking both apprentice classes.

The following day I was matched against Kari, but I had a hard counter for her; my level in [Greater Mana Control] exceeded her own. The start of our match must have been boring for anyone without any skills to perceive mana. Kari tried to grasp the mana near me, and I didn't let her. I attempted to close the distance with [Far Step], and she disrupted the spell. She attempted to cast [Stalagmite] beneath me, and I disrupted it in turn. I swung my staff with [Far Reach], and she displaced the exit point so that I struck only thin air.

By that point, it was obvious one of us was going to have to actually move. I tried to charge her, but she built walls of earth and flame, too close to herself for my superior mana control to disrupt, forcing me back. In turn, she built up fireballs close to herself before launching them at me. Rather than deflecting or dissipating them as they entered my domain of control, I reinforced them instead, then reversed their direction with [Distortion]. I continued my efforts to maintain them as they got closer to Kari, and she was unable to pull them apart in time, forced to dodge instead.

Her concentration disrupted, I caught her with [Far Reach], bowling her over and scoring me the match.

ding

Skill [Far Reach] advanced to level 15

Alas, my mana control and perception skills were already maxed out, or that battle would have been certain to win me some levels. I noted that Kari hadn't changed level either, despite her hopes, but there were still five days to go. Besides, I didn't know what level she was a week ago; she certainly hadn't been at nineteen when I last saw her.

"Bah, your [Distortion] works on magical attacks too? And what level is your [Greater Mana Control] for goodness' sake? Trying to manipulate mana near you was like clawing at a stone wall!"

"Fifteen," I answered, honestly.

"You are a blatant cheat, and you have been since the day you were born," she complained. "Well, whatever, I'll have the third rank version soon enough."

While I couldn't completely deny it, most of what I could do was available to anyone, with my intelligence and [Determined Progressor] only serving to expedite matters. It was the same with [Skilled 2]; my increased skill levelling speed and soul point bounty meant that I tended to max out skills before my class, but anyone could delay picking a new class in order to earn it. It hadn't been extra soul points from [Researcher] that had got me [Flexible Combatant] or [Versatile Crafter] either.

If there was one clear 'cheat', it was that the rank two combat and crafting skills I'd needed for [Jack of All Trades 2] hadn't come from conventional sources. Pretty much the whole research institute had picked up [Engineering], but I hadn't seen anyone else with a rank two combat skill without a combat class. Although, even then, someone else could just take rank two jobs of varying types. It would take a while, but it was possible.

On day three, I was pitted against the [Spellsword], Tanya. As her class name suggested, she wielded a sword, held in one hand while her other was empty. I knew from the previous days' fights that it was the empty hand I needed to keep an eye on; unlike me, she needed no magical tool to strike down her foes with lightning. From previous experience fighting a [Lightning Mage], I knew [Greater Mana Control] would be an effective defence from a distance, so I thought it best to make this a long range battle.

Always willing to try something new, and with [Far Reach] maxed out already, I brought a bow into the arena. Between [Dexterity] and [Item Box], I could reload hilariously fast, albeit maybe not quite as fast as those with [Mana Arrow], and at a massive expense of mana. Firing rate wasn't everything though, and without any artes or rank two support skills, Tanya simply swatted my arrows from the air.

I attempted to use [Far Reach] to fire a shot at point blank range, but it was seen through and evaded. [Analysis] told me that she had [Mana Sense], which was more than enough to spot something like that. Once again, I was faced with the problem of an opponent I didn't want to get close to, with no effective ranged attacks available.

As I pondered, Tanya launched a few bolts of lightning, which I easily deflected. She tried to move in closer, but I was faster than her even without [Far Step], and didn't let her. Then she raised her sword, and that caught my attention, partially because it wasn't a move she'd made in the previous fights, but mostly because of the amount of earth mana I felt surging through it.

She swung her sword downwards, impacting the ground, and the mana shot through it faster than I could disrupt it, passing right below my feet. Moments later, stalagmites burst out along the path, but I was already in the process of dodging. Then she repeated, but with ice, sharply pointed icicles bursting from the ground along the path from her to me. Just how many elements was she attuned to? Thankfully, with the aid of [Mana Perception] I was able to get myself out of the danger zone of each swing. Nonetheless, these spells looked nasty. I really didn't want to be hit by them, and I was surprised she was using them in this competition.

I ripped out what little ice mana I could from her spell, and formed an icicle of my own, blasting it back at her along with an arrow, in the hopes she couldn't deal with both. She easily swatted the arrow and dodged the slower magical attack. It seemed there was nothing for it; if I was going to hit her, it would need to be close range.

I tossed the bow out of the arena and drew the backup dagger I'd brought. Last year I'd caught my [Lightning Mage] opponent with a couple of rapid [Far Steps] and a surprise throw of my staff, but there was no way that would work here; her physical stats were far higher, and she had melee experience. I'd need to start a second [Far Step] before the first had completed if I wanted to be fast enough to dodge her lightning in the same way.

That was actually something I could do; I'd already thought that trying to jog with [Weft Walk] was like trying to use [Far Step] twice at once. It wasn't a spell I'd ever tried in a combat situation before, but now was as good a time as any. I activated [Weft Walk], aimed one foot at my opponent, and the other past her.

Her eyes opened in shock as she back-stepped from my surprise attack, countering with a sword swing but hitting only air. Then I was behind her again, and again she dodged. This time she aimed a bolt of lightning at the point of my second step, but I simply took a third. Why had I never used this in combat before? The range of each step was far less than [Far Step], but I had no cool-down beyond the speed at which I could move my legs. And keep balance... Balance was hard, and after a brief stumble I added [Minor Wisdom] to my set of active buffs. I hadn't had a natural increase since getting that damn [Self-Destructive] title, and it was going to end up a real pain if I couldn't do anything about it.

Her reactions were good, evading and forcing me to retreat before I could land an attack each time I got in close, but her dodges were clumsy, rushed things, forced by my rapid attacks from all directions, and it was only a matter of time before I caught her off balance. After trying to engage three times in quick succession, she was forced to twist too far backwards to evade the last blow, stumbling, robbing her of her ability to dodge my next blow and scoring me the win.

ding

Skill [Minor Wisdom] advanced to level 13

Skill [Weft Walk] advanced to level 6

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 6

No gain for [Item Box], but then my usage of it, while looking cool, had turned out to be nothing more than a horrendous waste of mana. It was fortunate that I had so much of the stuff these days.

That day Kari fought Freya, who again had no defence against the entire arena being blanketed in fire. I already knew her [Fire Shield] offered no resistance to fire based attacks, but I didn't expect that throwing up an earth wall would do nothing to prevent Kari from manipulating mana behind it. Seeing her have no way of dealing with Kari at all was rather shocking. I doubted that I'd be able to deal with Freya quite so easily.

Three days in to the seven days of finals, I'd yet to suffer a loss, but I wasn't the only one; two other competitors had won all three of their battles. The first had maxed out his class in the first match of the finals, but presumably was waiting until the end before picking a new one.

Alun, Human, Warrior (20/60)

The second was far more interesting.

Rekklant, Beastkin, Scout (6/66)

The first person I'd ever seen who had apparently taken a third rank two class.