Logan's eyes widened in amazement when he saw a bright golden-tinted white light come from inside Lana and envelop her. The Holy Energy made her sit in a lotus position and then made her float a few feet from the ground.

She was leveling up!

He considered the pros and cons of protecting her and concluded the goddess might show him some favor if he did. So, he hit his shield on the ground and used a skill.

"The Light shines on Its children," he shouted, "protecting them from the Darkness of their enemies' hearts. Goddess of Light, shelter and protect us from the evils of the world. Second Grade Holy Skill: Impregnable Tower of Light!"

Holy Energy left his body and erected a tower of golden-tinted white light around him and Lana, making it impossible for anyone to see or feel what was happening inside.

That was the most powerful skill of a Two Star Paladin and demanded everything from his body and soul. He would barely be able to fight for a week, but the moment someone leveled up was when they were most vulnerable. The process could take days or even weeks, and until it ended, the one who was leveling up couldn't protect themselves.

Devouts had an advantage in this regard. Their gods themselves leveled them up, and it lasted no more than a few hours. Still, Logan couldn't use the Impregnable Tower of Light for more than an hour. He hoped Alys would leave the black dome soon to protect Lana in his stead. The black dome she had created prevented him from even talking to her and ask for help!

Logan hated everything that was happening.

First, Alys had prostrated herself before the Rogue, then the Rogue had created a huge energy disturbance in the area, and now Lana was leveling up. If he weren't under disguise...

He sighed.

At least if the goddess rewarded him with an attribute increase because of his sacrifice, he would have something to show for all his stress. And who knows? Maybe the goddess would even ask Lana to kill the Rogue.

Now that would make his day.

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Aaron felt his body reach the limits of how much Qi and how many particles of the Laws of Earth it could absorb and ended the process.

He was now a Three Star Qi Manipulator, someone of considerable power in the Illyria Kingdom!

If he faced the tiger again, he was confident that he could at least fight the carnifex on equal footing, though beating it likely wouldn't be possible. Using his new power, he could only win against a Five Star Beast with some luck and would still be inevitably defeated by Champions in a straight fight.

The bigger the power discrepancy between him and an enemy, the less his superior skills made up for it!

He opened his eyes and read the Heavenly Messages in front of him.

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[Attribute Increased]

Body: 2 → 3

» Strength: 2 → 3 | Speed: 2 → 3 | Stamina: 2 → 3

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He was at least thirty times stronger than before, but numerically, his body attribute had only increased by a single point.

A mere extra level was like the difference between earth and heaven!

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[Attribute Increased]

Energy: 6

» Type: Qi | Quantity: 2 → 3 | Control: 10

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The system always rounded the average of the sub-attributes down. Therefore, even if the quantity sub-attribute had increased, the energy attribute remained the same.

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[Level Up]

New level: 3 - Three Star

You're able to destroy a house of nine average-sized rooms with raw power, using no skills.

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From a small room to a house of nine average-sized rooms, the difference in power between the Two and Three Star levels was greater than those words suggested. When force was applied to something, it dissipated. Much more power was required to destroy an entire house in a few quick hits than to destroy each room one by one.

As soon as he closed the Heavenly Messages with a thought, he saw Alys sigh in relief. It was clear that she had suffered to protect herself from the incoming Qi, which was strange. He had analyzed her ability to manipulate Space Energy in the past few days and knew she could easily have protected herself. His acute energy sensibility quickly gave him the answer: she had used only Qi to protect herself.

While he wanted to think she had been training her Qi to increase her proficiency with it despite how little energy she had, the desperation he saw in her eyes before the relief told him a different tale. She had been fighting with all she had, had thought she would fail, and that made her desolate.

He would deal with that — whatever that was — later. While he couldn't see outside the dome, his energy sensibility told him something more urgent was going on with Lana and Logan.

Just like the last time he cultivated, he was covered with a layer of dark fat, impurities that had been expelled from his body. He got up and ordered, "Clean us."

Alys complied, and a spell made of Space Energy removed all the dirt and sweat from both.

"Take the dome down."

"Yes, Patriarch," she replied, and when she did as told, her eyes widened. Virtually everyone in the Arena was present in a circle around them, looking at Aaron and her.

Aaron had expected his level up to cause a commotion, he even planned on capitalizing on it if everything went his way, so he just ignored them and walked back to the Fire Wolves. Alys quickly recovered and followed but stopped shortly after seeing the white light tower in the middle of the sleeping bags!

"Logan!" she exclaimed and ran the short walk to the tower.

When she approached, the tower gradually became transparent until it dissipated completely. Logan still had more than half an hour of skill usage left, but letting Alys take care of Lana would be much better. As strong as the Impenetrable Tower of Light was, a Four Star Sorceress could offer much more protection than he did. He had already shown his resolve to the goddess anyway.

"Please, take care of her," said Logan and passed out.

Even though he used just under half the skill's length, it was more than enough to leave him drained and unable to fight for at least three days.

Despite her tiredness, Alys immediately started creating a space barrier around Lana, but Aaron's hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"You'll fight tomorrow, you must rest now," he said. "Let me take care of the Priestess for you. Use a sleep spell to ensure you'll be able to sleep."

Concern was evident on her face, but he was her clan's Patriarch and had just become a Three Star Qi Manipulator, a level considerably high for Illyria.

She nodded and lay down to sleep.

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Aaron watched Lana with interest.

People became Devouts by receiving Holy Energy from some powerful otherworldly entity, the so-called gods. In terms of complexity and usefulness, Holy Energy was between Qi and Arcane Energy.

In return, the entities absorbed a tiny part of the Devouts' vitality, giving said entities eternal life without having to cultivate until they become proper Immortals. Aaron could feel the exchange as clearly as the day. Even though the amount of vitality leaving Lana and Logan was small, the flow was constant and the more Devouts an entity had, the more vitality it received.

Entities limited how many people they provided with level-ups in Holy cultivation, which required their direct intervention to happen. Only those who proved their loyalty to the entity time and time again were rewarded, while the infidels lost their power. Since the entities had a limit on how much Holy Energy they could produce, they had to choose well which Devouts to reward.

Therefore, leveling up as a Devout was often more difficult than in other energies, but to counter-balance that, the entity passed high-level techniques to their Devouts along with the level up. This often made them more powerful than others of the same level right after they leveled up.

Aaron found that system interesting and focused on feeling the Holy Energy changing Lana's soul. She was unconscious, but the energy ran through her spiritual channels perfectly, which showed that the entity the girl was connected to was controlling the energy for her.

As he watched, a change took place in the spectators. A row opened up and a group of people came towards the Fire Wolves.

There were twenty of them and they had the insignia of a sword and shield on their chest, the symbol of one of the Big Five. Ten of them wore metallic armor, four carried long-range crossbows or bows, and the other six were unarmed, likely spell casters. There was also an invisible man among the others, but Aaron had already felt the energy inside him before he even turned to watch the commotion.

Two of those present, the invisible man and one who wore blue armor with a red cloak, were at Three Star level. All the others were Two Star Cultivators.

As soon as they showed up, people started whispering among themselves. Aaron heard they were from the Guardian Sword clan, one of the three ducal clans present.

The newcomers made a circle around the Fire Wolves, and the man in the blue armor pointed a finger at Aaron. "You! Come with me! Now!"

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Someone forgot to say please."

The man snorted and smiled arrogantly. "I was not asking. You will come with me. Giving you an order instead of capturing you is the only politeness you'll get from me."

While the man in armor spoke, the invisible one had moved behind Aaron, but was still standing close to the circle of onlookers surrounding Aaron to avoid his detection — or so the man believed.

Aaron shook his head. "What right do you have to give me orders?"

"The Guardian Sword needs to investigate the energy disturbance you caused to ensure peace and order in the kingdom!"

"Oh, but isn't protecting the order and peace of the kingdom the responsibility of the king's troops?"

The man gave an ironic smile. "I'm not here to discuss politics. Surrender immediately!"

Aaron put his hands on the handles of his sword and daggers. "You can't boss me around. And even if I had the slightest desire to waste my time with you, which I don't, I can't obey right now." He tilted his head towards Lana." As you can see, the Priestess is leveling up and until the process is over, she can't be moved."

If Lana was moved, the level up would be interrupted and she would suffer serious injuries to her body, spirit, and soul.

"She's also coming with us," said the man.

Aaron returned the ironic smile he had received before. "Did you hear anything I said?"

It seemed not, because the man pointed his finger again. "This is your last chance! Give in or face the fury of the Guardian Sword!"

Aaron's patience was running out, but he always gave people chances unless they attacked directly.

"You understand that one of us is a Four Star Sorceress, don't you?" he said. "Even if, in your disillusionment, you believe that you or the idiot behind me can subdue me, you must know she can kill all of you in the blink of an eye."

The man laughed, a laugh full of poison. "Killing members of the Guardian Sword?" He laughed even harder. "No one who reaches the Four Star level is so suicidal. If any of you touch a hair of ours, our clan will take this place over in less than five minutes. They will capture and torture you, then exterminate your families and friends from the face of the Liech!" It was the first time Aaron heard that name, which he guessed was the planet's name. "This is your last chance, surrender!"

Aaron sighed. "First, you already gave me a last chance before. People won't respect you if you don't honor your threats. Second, don't you have any laws or rules against attacking other clans inside the Arena?" He asked without hope.

The man smirked. "That's not for you to worry about. I gave you several chances, remember that." He raised a hand and lowered it, saying. "Capture them!"

Everyone took weapons out of their sheaths and stepped forward...

...and Aaron moved so fast he disappeared.

When he appeared again, he was in front of the group's spokesman, and a dagger was stuck in the man's neck. Still, Aaron only appeared for an instant before disappearing again.

What followed was a massacre.

He moved too fast for them to see, and when he appeared near his targets, they were already dead. Everyone was soon using their defensive skills, but Aaron destroyed all the energy bubbles that came out in one attack, hitting the weak points of all of them just before killing the ones who erected them.

As soon as the invisible man saw something was very wrong, he tried to run, but Aaron acted immediately. Aaron could feel the energy all over the man's body and, sensing where his head was, he separated it from his body with a sword stroke. Whatever skill made the man invisible was disabled with his death. Head and body appeared to everyone as they fell to the ground.

A mage desperately used a skill that created a ring of fire that expanded sideways around him, attacking both Aaron and the members of the Guardian Sword clan. Seeing this, the others did the same, hoping their area of effect skills would hit Aaron.

He laughed and cut off all skills with his sword or daggers. So many flaws! So many weak points! He could destroy all those skills with his eyes closed!

Screams and blood, panic, and death filled the place. Aaron reaped the life of everyone who dared to raise arms against him.

Less than thirty seconds after killing the spokesman, it was over. Around him, twenty-one bodies lay on the ground, one of them beheaded. Without even blinking, he started plundering them.

Absolute silence reigned among everyone who had witnessed it. No one could believe or even understand what in the seven hells had happened. Wasn't he just a Three Star Qi Manipulator? Even if it gave him some status in Illyria, no Qi Manipulator should be able to do that!

As Aaron removed the blue armor from the corpse of the spokesman, he made an announcement.

"Go to the Guardian Sword clan and tell them I want five thousand gold coins in compensation for giving me offense, and they should deliver it before my Priestess finishes leveling up. If they don't obey, I'll exterminate every single of them in the Clans Arena, and an irreconcilable enmity will arise between us. The day I leave the Red Forest will be the day the Guardian Sword will cease to exist!"

"Y- You! You piece of shit! How dare you speak—"

A spectator wearing a garment bearing the insignia of the Guardian Sword tried to speak, but before he could finish, Aaron removed a metal dart from his spatial ring and launched it, hitting the woman in the eye. She died instantly.

In silence, Aaron went to her, looted her body, and wiped the bloody dart on her robes.

"I tried dialoguing with the first idiot," he said, pointing at the dead man, "but the Guardian Sword didn't listen to me. Now, the time for dialogue has passed. And because this second idiot offended me further," he pointed at the dead woman, "the compensation amount has just gone up. Ten thousand gold coins or the end of the clan."

Putting the dart away, he turned back to plundering the corpses.

No one present knew how to react and they became even more lost when, after finishing plundering everyone, Aaron went to the side of the Priestess who was leveling up, sat cross-legged beside her, put his elbow on one leg, supported his head in his hand, and looked around with a bored face.

He had killed men from one of the Big Five, sent an ultimatum to the clan, and then sat bored to wait for the clan to do something!

Madness!

Suicide!

They all trembled and waited for the execution of that man, which would undoubtedly happen very soon.