I stayed laying down and watched them. It looked like Melissa was going to handle them since they pissed her off somehow. I didn't know why she was so attached to me but it is what it is. I'm not a lady's man so it's impossible for me to read females. If Rachel or Melissa were maybe in their 20s or 30s, I would have seriously fallen for them like all the other guys.

Alas, the pains of being older than you look. If I combine my age from my past life, my mental age should be somewhere around the late 20s. It's literally impossible for a guy like me to be turned on by girls who haven't even started developing. Besides, I'm not into children nor am I a lolicon. Only sick bastards would take advantage of my situation to seduce young kids.

"Oy'. Can'tcha hear? Or are ya' deaf?" The small kid tried to provoke me but I honestly could not give a d*mn.

As I laid there looking at the beautiful blue sky that never seemed to change in any world, I sensed a disturbance in the force*cough*—I meant a disturbance in the surrounding magic particles. It looks like a spell was being cast. I looked over at the six mob characters and determined it wasn't them.

Bzzz!

A stray horizontal bolt of lightning came from beside me and hit all six of the side characters.

They fell down one after the other with their hair flaring upwards. I had to admit, the new hairstyle looked much better. What I just saw was the level 2 Lightning spell, Zap in action.

I looked at Melissa and she seemed unfazed. Since we were at the very corner of the stadium arena, none of the audience seemed to have noticed us. It was already obvious that it was Melissa who had done it since no one else was here but her.

The six fools on the ground started to levitate and a white bubble wrapped them up. It shined extremely bright then vanished into thin air as if it were never there.

"Alright! Everyone stop what you are doing. The Elimination is now over. Those that are still on the field, return back to the Waiting Room and wait for us to set up the stages." Crankenstein announced.

Everyone ceased their fights and went back through the giant hallway. I too followed suit with Melissa in tail.

When I entered the room, I tried going back to my previous spot to avoid needless attention but Melissa kept stalking me so I couldn't go.

"Why do you follow me?" I asked.

"I'm curious. You can stop my magic with ease and you hide under a hood I can't see through." She said in reply.

It looked like there was no getting rid of her when she had such a determined attitude. I took a seat in the far corner of the Waiting Room and Melissa sat across from me watching my every movement. I do admit, that gaze of hers was as sharp as an eagle looking down on their prey. She was thoroughly examining my behaviors.

"I want to fight you." She said trying to break the awkward silence.

I didn't respond to that and decided to pass the time by circulating my mana manually. It was an arduous task to circulate it manually since God knows how many circulations it took to level up once. Although circulating it manually was about five times faster than letting it circulate by itself, repeating it over and over again and again was bound to drive any patient man insane.

—30 minutes later—

[Due to the growth boost, you level up techniques faster]

[Mana Circulation(Rare) has reached level 6]

[Received: 100 Merit Points]

It was about time.

Two weeks had already passed since my previous level up. As I thought about how hard it was to level up my Mana Circulation, I opened my eyes to look around. Melissa was still watching me as if she would never get tired of looking at me. The longer I stared into those blue and green pupils, the more goosebumps I got. I had the gut feeling that she would grow up to be an excellent assassin one day; after all, her stare of death could frighten any grown man.

I looked at the time on my watch.

'3:35.'

"Did you enjoy your na―" She was interrupted by a loud buzz.

"Bzz. Come out to the stadium everyone. The stages are prepared." Crankenstein said from the speaker box in the middle.

Like before, I waited for everyone to vacate the room before heading out. Melissa was still acting like a prick and stuck with me.

As I walked down the giant hallway, Crankenstein started announcing the rules.

"Since we have 50 participants, let's start off with a team match to cut the numbers! Now isn't this exciting! Get into groups of two, or if you are confident, why not solo? Once your groups are established, come to the middle of the stadium to draw lots. Once your number is matched, get up onto one of the mini stages and fight! You can also choose to surrender, but that won't be fun will it? Remember, only magic is allowed! Best of luck! Your host, Crankenstein Junior, out!"

In the stadium arena, square stages were set up everywhere. The stadium itself was double the size of the baseball stadiums back on Earth so there was still plenty of space. The stages were really simple, 20 meters horizontal and vertical, forming a perfect square that is elevated off the stadium floor with slabs. It looked exactly like the cell games arena from Dragon Ball Z.

I intended to move alone since it was better to not have dead weight but a bug kept annoying me.

"Hey, why don't we team up."

"Hello??? Are you there?"

"Come to think of it, you never told me your name." She kept rambling on.

If this continued, it would ruin my mysterious yet profound appearance. Can't you see that I wear a hoodie for a reason? It's not just to act cool, but also to conceal...

Now that I thought about it, my intentions of wearing a hoodie had turned from moving incognito to looking cool. It looked like my childish reasoning has started to affect me since my physical age was also that of a child.

"Call me Hiro." I said.

"Hero?" She questioned.

"It's Hiro." I tried to teach the uncultured swine about the magnificence behind the Japanese name I thought of but it didn't seem like she would understand.

"Okay Heero."

I decided to let it be since a resident of this world would not understand the culture of my world.

I went up to draw a lot since she was really annoying when she insisted on wanting to form a team with me. It was to the point in which I would pity her future husband.

I went up to the same guy who helped me register and he brought a box out with a hole small enough for a single hand to fit through.

"When you are ready, put your hand in and grab a piece of paper." Saying that, he observed us like a spectator.

When I was just about to stick my hand in, Melissa slapped my hand away and stuck her hand in.

'How childish...'

She pulled out and opened the mini envelope.

"Oooo, I drew a 1! See how amazing I am Heero!" She said to me excitedly.

My expectations of her being a mature child had already collapsed. Although she acted like a young master in school, she was showing a completely different attitude to me.

"Your opponent will be on stage 1." The registration guy said to us with a grin as if laughing at my plight of having to deal with an annoying girl.

We walked around until we found stage 1 near the north side of the stadium.

On the stage were two figures. A bald kid with a grey beard and mustache along with a small silver haired loli holding a cute magical girl wand.

'What the h*ll is this pair? A kid dressed like a monk with grey facial hair and a little girl cosplaying as a magical girl? Since when were there magical girls in this world?'