Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 20

Dante sat in the stands of the largest arena, playing around with his manipulation orb. He was only ‘playing around’ with it because no matter what he did, he couldn’t get it to fill with any world essence. It didn’t matter how forcefully he tried, it diffused immediately.

“You’re doing it wrong.” Mia was sitting next to him in the arena, they were both waiting for the fight to start, but were still thirty minutes early. They had gotten good seats though. As soon as he showed the attendant outside of the arena his identification card for entry and she saw that he was from Housing District 1, she brought him directly to the front row.

“What am I doing wrong?” Dante had no misgivings about taking hints from Mia, Archie didn’t seem like he was going to be a big help when it came to voluntarily handing out advice.

“You can’t just feed world essence into it, you need to force it into the core. Any world essence that is touching the outside of the orb will immediately dissipate instead of slowly seeping out.”

After hearing Mia’s advice, he refocused on the orb with new determination. Instead of simply feeding the world essence inside he tried to shoot it into the center. It took a few minutes, and left him pale with beads of sweat dripping from his face, but he thought he saw a thin blue wisp of world essence in the orb.

It only appeared for a moment, then disappeared, which left him feeling quite downcast. Mia saw his expression and let out a soft laugh. “Most people would take half a month to get any world essence to become visible in a manipulation orb, yet you’re upset after getting it in the first day.”

“If it takes them half a month to get any world essence to appear, then how are they supposed to get it to condense in a month?”

Mia looked at him with a confused expression. “A month? You would be far enough ahead of the other students if you were able to get it to condense it in your first semester. Most have to take the world essence manipulation class two or three times before moving on to the advanced class.”

That was something he had never heard of. “What’s the advanced class?”

“The advanced class actually teaches students how to manipulate world essence within weapons in order to increase their combat capabilities. The basic world essence manipulation class is only supposed to teach weapon forms, and how to maintain world essence within a weapon safely.” She paused for a moment, as if pondering something. “If Archie wants his students to be able to condense the world essence in the first month… well, that would explain a lot of things. Everyone always wonders how Archie’s students rise to platinum rank so quickly.”

What she said actually left him somewhat relieved. If it took other students several quarters to learn Swordsmanship, it meant he wouldn’t need to deal with anyone who used edge control in the arena for a while. Just thinking of Archie cutting a trench into the dirt with a single swipe caused him to break out in a cold sweat.

“How long does it take magic Classifications to learn mana manipulation?” If mana manipulation was as useful as world essence manipulation, he would be at a significant disadvantage if it was easier to learn.

“Most have some ability with it by their second quarter, but it wouldn’t be very useful. Mana manipulation is more challenging to become efficient with than world essence manipulation, despite being easier to initially learn. Most magic Classification in the silver rank of the arena can use it, but it’s hardly an advantage. It’s not until gold rank that Swordsmanship and Mana Manipulation actually come into play.”

If the fights were going to be the basic type of fighting that he was used to, without world essence or mana manipulation, it might be worth it for him to start fighting in the arena immediately and earn credits. Mia had told him that he needed to win thirteen fights to afford even the cheapest class in the next quarter, but if he could, he would rather take more than one. There was still too much he had to learn, and he wasn’t sure how long he wanted to stay at the academy.

One thing that was strange though, was Mia’s extensive knowledge on using the manipulation orb. A servant generally shouldn’t have a combat Classification. Her knowing about world essence and mana manipulation itself wasn’t strange since she worked at the academy, but she shouldn’t have known how to force world essence into the orb… unless that was also general knowledge.

He debated asking her how she knew so much about it, but decided against it. He already assumed that she was directly reporting everything he did to someone, likely Alexander or Layla, so voicing any suspicions he might have would only cause her to needlessly distance herself from him.

Just as he was going to refocus on his manipulation orb, the arena exploded with noise. Everyone who was sitting in the seats around him began to yell and chant at the top of their lungs. For a moment, he couldn’t understand why, but then two figures came out of side doors that connected to the arena’s pit and walked to the center. They stood about 30 feet apart from each other on separate sides of the large arena. The arena itself was a massive circle, at least 100 feet in diameter, only ending abruptly when it reached a wall that cut it off from the stands where the audience sat.

Neither of them seemed to be using a sword, which disappointed him. He had wanted to see swordsmanship in action from a student, and not an instructor who had already specialized their Classification.

The first combatant, who was wearing a combat uniform that was almost identical to the one he currently had on, was completely unarmed. It was pretty obvious from his demeanor that he was a proud noble.

The other one had a much more rugged uniform on, it was worn and roughly patched up. It seemed like it offered far less protection than the one his opponent was wearing, and instead of black color, the uniform just seemed to be rough brown leather and white cotton.

He wouldn’t even have thought it was an academy uniform if it didn’t have the black deer sigil of House Calman on it. Given his poor attire, it was somewhat surprising that he was confidently carrying a large spear with one hand, resting it on his shoulder in a relaxed manner. His attitude was in stark contrast to the tense noble standing across from him in opposition.

After seeing the two walk out, Mia winced. “This is going to be ugly…”

He looked at her curiously. “Why?”

“From what I’ve heard, they have some history. Most of the servants were hoping that the two of them would make it to the final.” She pointed to the noble. “Bennett is from House Lakis in the Outer region. Generally, they have a strong magic Classification bloodline, but Bennett only received a Mage Classification and is something of a joke in his family. After all, house heirs are expected to have more than one Classification, or at the very least a single rare one.”

She pointed to the one holding the spear. “Aiden, on the other hand, joined the academy with his twin brother two years ago. Although they were both commoners, they rose in popularity rapidly due to having both the Warrior Classification and the far rarer Lancer Classification. Even several noble houses from the Outer region were competing to get closer to the two of them.”

“Unfortunately, their popularity didn’t last long, Aiden’s brother Lucas got matched up with Bennett in a bronze ranked arena match… Bennett seemed to hold something of a grudge against Lucas and Aiden.” She cleared her throat. “Bennett, coming from a noble family, had far more combat experience and a higher Classification level. As soon as the fight started, he burnt Lucas alive… slowly. After that Aiden left the academy.”

Mia glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then began to whisper. “Apparently, he’s spent the last two years in the Wastelands.”

That forced him to take a closer look at Aiden. Surviving two years in the Wastelands was no laughing matter.

Both the Outer and Outer Edge regions of Aleria are vast rings that surround the Chaos region, but the nobles only controlled a tiny sliver of the outer regions.

To the best of his knowledge, the Wastelands actually took up almost all of the Outer Edge and Outer regions of Aleria. When all of the nobles fled their territory during the last campaign, and moved together to try and survive, the abandoned territory had almost all of its population eradicated.

The only people to survive were the toughest combatants, giving way to vast wars to decide who would become the strongest warlord. Even though that was almost two hundred years ago, things had hardly died down in the Wastelands.

Since then, different noble houses had tried to reclaim their lands, but couldn’t compete with the savagery of the warlords within the Wastelands. Eventually, the hostilities increased, and the nobles erected a massive border on either side of their territory. The Wastelands had become something of a taboo subject in the noble’s territory, and anyone who tried to cross it, whether entering or leaving the wastelands, was killed.

Aiden crossing the border twice was hard to believe. But surviving for two years inside the Wastelands also? He was far more interested in seeing him fight now.

Mia spoke up next to him. “Bennett is really unlucky, he only stayed behind in the academy for the last year so that he could win a tournament and get a monster crystal.”

“What do you mean by stay behind?”

“Students are only allowed at the academy pre-specialization. After they specialize, they are either sent off to a position in a noble house or return to their houses if they are a noble. Like most of the Outer region nobles, Bennett has plenty of resources from his family to specialize. They only come to the academy to build relationships with other noble house heirs. Staying at the academy for an extra year for the opportunity to get a rare monster crystal will likely cost him his life.”

That explained why Bennett seemed so tense standing before Aiden. “What do you mean cost him his life? Would the instructors really allow Aiden to kill a noble from the Outer region?”

“They would. Aiden would only get the regular kill penalty of a three-day ban from the arena. Only an idiot would actually kill a noble though, there are plenty of ways to die silently, and many of them are painful.” She looked at Dante seriously. “A good rule of thumb is to not kill anyone from Housing District 1 or 2. You can tell someone’s Housing District by their uniform.”

There is only a three-day ban for murdering someone in the arena? And Mia is actually giving me tips on how to do it safely…?

Dante shifted his focus back to the arena, now very intent on the upcoming fight. The moderator was outlining the rules, and it seemed like it wouldn’t end until someone surrendered or could no longer continue. “Does Bennett even have a chance of winning?” From what Mia had told him, he definitely favored Aiden in the fight, but if it were too one-sided, he would be able to learn much from watching.

“It’s hard to say for sure, Bennett has the best mana manipulation in the academy by far… But I still think he won’t be a match for Aiden.”

The news was depressing, but the fight was about to start, so he didn’t have any more time to talk with Mia.

The moderator had just finished going over the rules. “Bennett Lakis, are you ready?” A nervous Bennett nodded back to him. “Aiden Clarke, are you ready?” Aiden maintained eye contact with Bennett, smiling while he nodded in confirmation. The moderator’s eyebrows narrowed in concentration, and an enchantment next to him glowed blue. A blue screen surrounded the entire fighting pit below, beginning to climb up and slowly envelope it.

Dante turned to ask Mia what it was, but she saw him look at her and answered before he could ask. “It’s a protection enchantment, some of the gold and platinum fights can be dangerous for the audience.”

When the enchantment finally finished, creating a large translucent bubble over the arena, the moderator yelled out. “Begin!”

Bennett wasted no time, hurling three fireballs at Aiden as soon as the fight started. One going toward him directly, and the other two going on either side to seal off any escape.

Aiden stepped to the left lazily, then turned sideways, putting him in between two of the fireballs. The fireballs whizzed past him, barely missing and leaving him completely uninjured. After they passed, he turned back to Bennett with a mocking smile, his spear still resting on his shoulder.

The fight progressed like that for a few minutes. Bennett would send fireballs at Aiden, Aiden would effortlessly dodge them, then Bennett would send more fireballs in an attempt to hit him. He didn’t see the logic of Bennett’s actions, it just seemed like he was wasting his mana while Aiden wasn’t flustered at all. Even though Bennett only had the Mage Classification, and therefore only one skill, he had still expected more from the use of mana manipulation, which he hadn’t seen thus far.

By the time Bennett finally stopped launching fireballs at Aiden, he was panting with sweat dripping down his face. His exhaustion and ugly expression was in stark contrast to Aiden, who was now slowly walking up to him, twirling his spear through the air menacingly.

As Aiden stepped forward, his spear began to glow blue, becoming more dense the closer he got to Bennett. It was amazing how effortless he made it seem, filling the spear with world essence as he twirled it through the air. When Aiden was halfway to Bennett, he stopped. Now holding the spear with two hands, the world essence around the spear began to distort. It started twisting and spinning at the tip of the spearhead, spinning faster and faster as if picking up momentum. The vortex moved down the shaft of the spear funneling out wider as it moved further from the tip.

As it picked up speed, the world essence at the tip of the spear became more and more narrow. It was amazing, no longer looking as though Aiden was holding a spear, but a cyclone that came to a point at the spearhead.

Even Archie, who was at least specialized, couldn’t compare to Aiden’s control of the world essence in his weapon. One thing became increasingly obvious to Dante as he watched the fight progress; Bennet was fucked.

Bennett seemed to know it as well. He threw out both of his hands and blue barriers appeared out of thin air in front of him, one directly in front of the other blocking Aiden’s path. They started out translucent, but became denser as Bennett fed them with power and tried to push them toward each other. “I surr-”

He was cut off by Aiden piercing him with his spear.

Piercing didn’t even seem like the right word, he destroyed Bennett.

Aiden moved faster than anyone he had ever seen in his life, even faster than Edward when he killed their group in the dungeon. Rushing into Bennett spear first, the shields shattered into pieces as soon as the spearhead touched them. Continuing on undeterred, as soon as the cyclone surrounding his spear touched Bennett, the noble was blasted apart. Chunks of flesh were launched from the spinning cyclone's energy, splattering across the protection enchantment that covered the arena pit. Everything that was left of Bennett - parts of his head, arms, and legs that didn’t get caught in the cyclone - hit the floor in a gory mess. The entire chest cavity, from his lower abdomen to his neck was completely gone.

Everyone in the crowd stared in stunned silence. He was no different, there was only one way to describe Aiden in the fight; domineering. Dante turned to Mia, who didn’t seem as startled as everyone else, or sickened by the gore. “How?”

She sat in silence for a moment, thinking about the fight. “I’m not sure. The Charge skill is a specialty of the Lancer Classification, but no one should have that much control of world essence in the Outer Edge region. Not only that but he only started to learn two years ago.” She started to whisper to him. “Something must have happened to him in the Wastelands.”