Helial was sitting on the bleachers of the Colosseum, his arms folded. Meanwhile, Frankenstein was knocking down yet another fighter from the Clan of the Heavenly Eagle. He had won again.

How could such weak Goblins rank first in the First Phase Dashboard?

Helial shortly shook his head.

Those posed no opponents to them.

As the group leader, Helial saw it fitting not to display their full potential from the beginning. That was why so far, only Frankenstein had taken the field against the Guild of Life and Death and the Clan of the Heavenly Eagle.

Unless some particularly gifted warrior, no practitioner under the Second Phase really posed a threat to Frankenstein. The Goblin from Helial’s group had indeed won the two matches with full points. As an overall, Helial’s group gained 65 points in the First Phase Dashboard. They had unseat the first two teams.

Frankenstein looked about himself. Then he opened up the window of his strongest Skill.

Skill Activated

Lvl: 17

Grade: Light-blue

Knowledge Grade: Physical Manifestation

Damage: 16000-19000

Effects:

It allows you to converge elemental energy in your Palms, whose pure energy contains the principles of the four elements.

Cost: 200 Mana/sec

Efficiency: 100%

Who wiel ds the power of handling the elements can choose whether to give birth or death.

Helial intently gazed at Frankenstein as he stepped out of the arena.

Since the Goblin began training with Iblis, his main Skill Elements Manipulation was drawing nearer to the Master Grade. At this pace, Frankenstein would become the first of them with a Master Grade Skill.

Frankenstein’s abnegation in perfecting his Skill’s attack and defence led him to improve it even farther. Besides generating energy palms, the skill would now let him to manipulate the wild unrelenting Mana of the four main elements – partly, at least.

Despite his control being far from perfect, he could now generate powerful shields almost as resistant as those of Lumia while boasting an outstanding offensive power. Frankenstein should now only work out a way to improve the Skill’s speed. After that, Elements Manipulation Knowledge Grade would improve even farther and leap to the Master Grade.

In cultivating a Skill, its level and Knowledge Grade are closely related. This is showed by the fact that before reaching the Master Grade, one could upgrade their Skill by mere practice. Once reached the Grade though, cultivators would need to first search for the principles lying at the basis of the Skill in order to reach ever greater peaks.

As Frankenstein walked outside the arena, the audience wildly cheered for the ridiculous outcome of the Tristia Team match.

Tristia Team.

This was the name Helial chose for his Colosseum party.

It didn’t really matter to Helial if the others understood the meaning behind that name or the reason why he had chosen it. Helial closed his eyes. He immediately cast his mind back to a wasted drunk man scribbling on wine-stained paper while loudly swearing.

He inhaled deeply and reopened his eyes.

Frankenstein walked towards Helial, Lumia, Lulu and Snowflake as the uproar of the crowd showed no signs of quieting down. With an insane expression twisting his face, he said: “Can I go first against those slobs from the Sect of the Worthy?”

Frankenstein’s eyes gleamed with disquieting light as if a demon had taken his body. The matches put him under such pressure that he received more than one Epiphany on his main Skill. Frankenstein was cultivating one single Skill indeed. He wanted to make an unparalleled strength of it.

Helial turned on the other side. To his surprise, his eyes fell on the figure of a young hood guy.

A voice blurted out from under the hood: “The Team of Knights an the Team of Executioners are as far from the Tramps Team as heaven and earth are. In a group competition, they could easily wipe you out. I saw them fight more than once. Their talent couldn’t be compared with yours, but you can’t allow yourself to underrate them nonetheless.2

Helial raised a eyebrow as he giggled: “What do you know about our talent? You never saw any of us fight but Frankenstein a few minutes ago.”

Caliban smacked his lips arrogantly. “It’s just logic. You only let Frankenstein take the field today. This means he’s the weakest of you guys. It’s but a way not to show the aces up your sleeve all at once. And if the weakest of you could put the squeeze on the third and second ranked teams, then your party has more to it than it meets the eyes for sure. You almost killed Medusa, didn’t you? After destroying half our Senate. You’re Caesar’s pupil as well, and rumor has it that your master even compared your talent to that of Pseudonym.” After falling silent for a few seconds, Caliban stirred up the corners of his lips in a know-it-all smile: “You’re not aiming at the First Phase Dashboard, are you? Your goal has nothing to do with that.”

Helial nodded in satisfaction. Caliban really did deserve to be called the true heir of the Merchant Guild. Despite his level being quite an ordinary one, he had an extremely smart brain. Also, he developed a sharp cautioness; he always collected as much information as possible on every person he met so as so be once step ahead of everyone.

The point he just made, however, wasn’t the key one.

Frankenstein didn’t take the field first merely because Helial wanted to hide their true potential. Rather, Helial just thought it to be a waste of energy to do otherwise. By fighting alone, the pressure and adrenaline Frankenstein experienced would let him develop new strengths and ideas. And as Caliban had just proved, this would also lead everyone to conclude that Frankenstein was the weakest member of Tristia Team. All in all, Helial really found a way to catch two birds with one stone.

Take the field himself against some First Phase brats?

Helial slowly stood up as he shook his head.

If he had to bother defeating those scraps, he would tarnish his master’s honor once and for all. He would get no benefit from fighting against them. He’d better leave that chance to those who could benefit from it.

Helial smiled slightly as his mind flew back to the two sisters from the Sect of the Worthy.

Medea and Medusa.

Medea… That little girl was a member of the Tramps Team. Rather, she was their leader. Rumor had it that in the First Phase, no one could boast a greater talent than Medea. She was currently in the Late stage – only one step away from the Second Phase. She would level up soon enough. However, as things stood, she was lingering in the First Phase as long as possible in order to collect the greatest amount of points in the Colosseum.

The prices offered to those who won in Colosseum were appealing even for such a rich member of the Sect indeed.

Being an independent institution, the Colosseum had nothing to do with the Clan-Sect-Guild Orman triad.

As well as the Merchant Guild, the Colosseum was a power of its own mostly build on money. They have always carefully stayed out of any political question.

If Pseudonym roamed free down the streets of Orma without needing any party to support it, it was thanks to his breath-taking strength as well as thanks to the income he earned by fighting in the Colosseum.

Pseudonym was the Colosseum paladin indeed. It was a long time now that making a bet on his defeat was wilder than making one on his victory! Pseudonym had often times defeated opponents who should have been stronger than him. Every time he would fight such opponents, a number of Goblins would bet all their money on his defeat, They all hoped the day would come for the legendary Pseudonym to be erased from history. But up to that very day, none had ever won.

On the contrary, the Colosseum Seniors would bet a dizzying amount of money on his victory. They would also provide the young hero with all the resources he needed to step forward on his Dao of Mana.

Most likely, only blessed children like Francesca, Comodus and Circe would get access to a richer amount of resources.

Caliban answered: “Medea, Silk and Kiné will make your next opponents. They’re nothing like Circe and Pseudonym. Their talent though is somewhere near that of Medusa,” then Caliban’s voice dropped by several tones, “the talent in the Sect’s Team could ripple through the heaven itself.” Then he turned towards Helial and went on to say: “Need a hand organizing your attack pattern or gathering information? Silk is a Ninja, Kiné is a Summoner…”

Helial interposed by raising a hand: “They dared stepped on the Clan of the Heavenly Eagle’s soil to stir up trouble inside the Royal Palace. They fell short of respecting the whole Clan. Tell them we challenge them in a death match.”

Caliban’s eyes shot open. All around them, the crow was leaving their seats and heading home. That was the last of today’s matches. Everyone was gradually leaving the arena.

“A death match? Even if the accepted, do you even realize what the consequences could be?” Caliban asked in an uncertain tone of voice.

All of sudden, Helial’s Aura changed drastically. It lighting-fast covered his friend. They were now floating in a bubble which made them feel far from the outside world. It felt as if Helial had just opened up a new minor dimension where he and Caliban glided through the vacuum of space.

Helial spoke: “They menace my family and me. Do I care about Medea? No. And nothing will save Comodus from this same fate. Tell the Sect about my proposal. I have no doubt they’ll say yes. Then, after I have erased every single trace of their descendants from this planet, I’ll deal with the higher powers.”

Then Helial’s tyrannical Aura extinguished just like it had appeared. The Human turned on his heels and walked away, leaving a death-pale Caliban gasping for air on the bleachers, completely alone.