Chapter 51: First Win

"I had a very early start on things."

"Even an early start wouldn't account for your level of growth, you're a prodigy"

I frown. As usual, everyone jumps to the same conclusion.

"It was a product of hard work and opportunity, talent had nothing to do with it" I grumpily say

"In any case, our time should almost be up and we've drifted off-topic. I look forward to our next meeting"

"Goodbye, Kayafe"

I end the connection seeing only six thousand mana left in my Kyhosa reserves.

As I walk back down the Temple I look at my stats.

Unused stat points: 1059Mana: 200 [2200] (+1188)Mana Generation (/hour): 200 [2200] (+5368)Vitality: 100 [1100]Strength: 9 [19.8] (-3.96)Agility: 12 [20.4] (-2.04)Endurance: 10 [20] Intelligence: 32 [41.6] (+18.72)Wisdom: 24 [40.8] (+18.36)Charisma: 18 [39.6] (+7.92)

For now, I think putting an even one hundred stats total into all my stats for a good base will be a good idea, that's a total of nine hundred points spent, including the points I had spent previously. That leaves me with four sixty-five points left. Putting an additional one hundred into mana reserves and generation than another one hundred each into intelligence and wisdom will bring my power way up.

If what Kayafe said was true then pretty much the only skills that will be affected to a noticeable degree will be my active class skills, and those can be used against higher-level opponents for achievements. Skills like [Graceful Movements] are more about the fine-tuned details of movements even dodging is more about dodging efficiently and not wasting energy, that isn't affected by stats. [Acting] is more about assuming a role rather than captivating an audience.

Even my active skills, now that I think about it aren't about doing damage but rather improving my ability and mastery of the skill. And lastly, stats can't make it so difficult that I can no longer level the skill because if it's based on how hard it is for me to do then the fact that there is something hard for me to accomplish would mean that I can improve.

Now feeling more confident I spent my points.

Unused stat points: 65Mana: 200 [4200] (+3108)Mana Generation (/hour): 200 [4200] (+10248)Vitality: 100 [1100]Strength: 9 [99] (-19)Agility: 12 [132] (-13)Endurance: 10 [110] Intelligence: 32 [672] (+298)Wisdom: 24 [504] (+221)Charisma: 18 [198] (+35)

I immediately feel the difference in my body and soul. The amount of ectoplasm increased as my soul began to produce a lot more, the amount of mana I produce doubled. My body feels much lighter and nimble and my mind feels sharper and more receptive. It was strange yet felt fantastic! Like I could do anything I want.

I made my way back to the docks in a good mood where more people from the other islands are showing up. The elation from stating up so much has died down a lot by the time I arrive. People are staring at the large airship in wonder and the elders are already giving a tour.

I quickly found my parents who are talking with a group of people, by the looks of it they are Kheshamo fighters.

"With the rise of stronger monsters and the recent Chayaotmos defense against them and proper weapons to put them down for the safety of your village is paramount! At my shop, 'Swords, Shields, and Trinkets', It is a one-stop-shop for both weapons and armor as well as normal jewelry!"

Although Dad no longer complains about me enchanting she also never advertises it nor does she encourage me doing so.

Occasionally we'd get an order by shipment. Someone would deliver us a letter detailing what they want and we'd make it and put it on the next shipment to that village if no boats are going that direction in a reasonable time we'd pay for someone to ship the products; to reduce on costs we'd ask if anyone else has shipments to the same village or wanted to visit. Normally it isn't a problem, Village Hall has a board with shipment details that anyone can add to, it's more like a pseudo mailing system.

Tusile is giving a speech on the airships, talking about their uses and potential. Good thing for her that for now only I can make the batteries but hopefully that will change soon.

I am forced to greet people as the inventor of the spell crystals and airships. Many people may not know me but most have heard of me by now. A two-tailed blind girl who taught the storm wardens and spread the knowledge of [Sense Mana] and how to better enchant items to resist the weathering. It doesn't help that with my nexus gems that I wear, My Kyhosa, I stick out like a sore thumb.

"You continue to bring new things to our people and lands, I look forward to the next thing you come up with!"

Uuhg, I was only doing what was needed, why are the expectations that everyone has of me raising?

We continue showing off the airship and took several loops around Temple Island, each time with new people. Just endless greetings, answering the same questions going through all the same things over and over again, by the end of it all I had mentally checked out. "Alysara, we need to apply for placements," Chyzu says, rescuing me from the endless tours.

"Be right there!" I say, jumping at the chance to escape this political boredom.

I quickly made my escape and follow Chyzu. She took me to a large stone building next to the coliseums. In the building is a giant hall filled with hundreds of people, all competitors.

At the end of the hall are several large illusory displays the light mana being projected in the air. I couldn't see what it is showing so I ask Chyzu.

"It shows the tournament schedule. Since we aren't the representative we'll be in a side coliseum where our fights will be taking place. Although there will be a few fighters of your age since your score is a lot higher you won't be fighting them. You're in the three hundred placement which is that display over there" Chyzu points the display on the furthest right.

"We haven't registered yet so let me take you to the registry" Chyzu let me through the crowd and into a side room"

"We are registering for the fighting competitions," Chyzu says to the woman sitting at a desk, she looks a little overwhelmed at the moment with several scrolls of parchment and writing down in one in front of her.

"Names and score?" She says without looking up.

"Chyzu, three hundred fifty-six and Alysara three hundred thirty-two"

The woman wrote the rankings down and passed off the scroll to an assistant who left to update the displays. That's when the woman noticed me.

"Is she registering to?" She doesn't seem to know who I am, or maybe she is so overworked today she hasn't realized yet.

"Yup, just did!" I say.

"What's your name and score?" The woman asks.

"Alysara, three hundred thirty-two"

She was about to write that down too but stop as it clicked.

"Three hundred? But you're too young!"

"My Bond is in the mid two hundreds and I am almost level one hundred in my class"

"H-How?!"

I am starting to get annoyed.

"Hard work and dedication," I say, turning around to leave.

"I know you don't don't like to be called talented but you could have been more polite," Chyzu says with an amused smile. "Let's see who you are up against... ouch, your first battle will be against Uzu, as her name implies she uses dark element, worse she specializes in area attacks. She is as close as it can be as a direct counter against you."

"Can she still see if I blind her with a dark spell?" I ask "Does she have some way to see me?"

"I... don't know, if not then that will definitely equal out the fight." Chyzu leads me out of the hall, our purpose here done.

"One more thing, we simply can't use enchanted items right? What about normal mana silk?"

"Well, it's not armor nor is it enchanted... wait..." Realization dawns on Chyzu "You plan on using the MM force to make an armor of light!"

"Yup!" I grin. The silk is denser, meaning there's more mana so its repulsion will at least lower how much damage I take. This knowledge isn't known too widely so it's an oversight in the rules.

"As long as you make it in battle no one can complain. The rules strictly say you can't bring armor in battle, shields are fine, but nothing says you can't make armor while already in battle. However, I'd say it's against the rules to bring mana silk into battle in such a way that it'll act like armor so don't risk it you could be disqualified"

I sigh in resignation, it was too good to be true. Making the silk in battle would be too mana intensive, it'll be much easier to make a light barrier or earth barrier.

How am I going to beat a dark mage? I have limited mana and probably lower-level skills but I have a better race tier. It ultimately comes down to my [Mana Manipulation] but can't just use it to counter with light magic it won't be boosted by class and thus a lot weaker. My defensive strategy would be to use the sand on the arena floor to form a blockade against the attacks and use my fairies to attack from cover.

If I can divert her attention away long enough to use my clone to lead her attention elsewhere I can turn invisible and hide. Creating sandstone pillars could give me enough cover but fairies coming from one direction will be a dead giveaway. If however I summon the fairies and have them wait for some time before attacking or attacking once my opponent is in line of sight that may help.

Chyzu once said that some elements lack stopping power. Fire, light, dark, wind, and in some cases lightning elements all find it hard to break past a physical barrier. I can use this to my advantage, erecting defenses around the battlefield that I can use but due to the nature of my fairies, she can't take advantage of them.

I smile, my plan slowly forming in my minds. {Wait one minute, attack my opponent, avoid head, stop attacking when my opponent surrenders, is incapacitated, or I say so} I prepare my fairy orders.

It wasn't long before everyone gathered in the coliseums. My fight is the sixth so at least I can watch the fights to get a feel of what I can expect.

The first fight is an all-out brawl with two fist fighters. One had armored herself with her earth bond the other eroded the armor with water-clad fists. It was a very close fight but the earth brawler won in the end.

The second fight is a wind mage versus a fire warrior. The wind mage constantly sends the warrior flying back with powerful gusts of wind and whittled the warrior down with tiny wind blades, the mage won.

The third wasn't even a fight, a speed essence warrior has her blades at the other fighter's throat in a heartbeat.

The fourth was also unfair. A metal mage who created a whirlwind of tiny sharp blades. The warrior couldn't even get close.

Fifth was a close one. Two water mages fought but one was a caster the other was a non-caster. The non-caster won by her more powerful attacks.

And then I was called by the announcer. Murmurs could be heard even from where I walk. Opposite me walks a robed mage, she looked confused but quickly understood who I was. I felt nervous walking past the hundreds of people down to the arena below, where thousands will be watching me.

This is just like your [Acting] performances. I tell myself. Drums beat as we walk, a prelude to the battle to come.

"Didn't know the famous Alysara is a Kheshamo fighter. I heard your Bond was beauty essence, right? A bad matchup, but there's always next year" Uzu confidently says.

I'm not going down without a damn tough fight, I'll make you understand my hard work.

"I may be inexperienced but I don't plan on just giving up" Yes I am inexperienced, I want her to know that, I want her to be more confident, I need her to be careless.

I assumed my stance, hoping she'll think me more inexperienced than I really am. I have my core produce as much light element as it could to shroud me in a buffer of beauty and light essence.

"Let the fight begin!" A gong rang to signal the start.

I immediately sent a spell my second mind had prepared to the sands below to form a dome over me with a hole behind me for my fairies to attack from.

I send a fairy with fifteen mana to see how much Uzu could take as she blasts the area I am at with a wide dark mana laser. Instead of melting its way through my defenses, it erodes it, slowly. As my fairy hit, I had my minds erect pillars randomly around the field, just tall and wide enough for me to take advantage but the taller woman be unable to use effectively.

My fairy hit and the woman hisses in pain. Not too much damage to make her flinch. I ramp my next one up to twenty-five mana. Meanwhile, she is focusing her laser on my position to focus the damage. As she focuses it too much she left me with an opportunity to take cover in a new spot I ran out, using earth mana to make the sand unmoving as I step on them, invisible.

I got to my first pillar and started summoning as many fairies as I could and summon my clone here as well. I ran over to the next cover and did the same, a second clone sitting there patiently. By now Uzu had blast through the dome to find I was not there.

"Where did you run off to? Now's not a time for hide and seek" Uzu sweeps the battlefield with a wide-reaching dark laser like a flashlight.

"Over here?" She starts running toward a random pillar, still sweeping the area. As she got close to that pillar the fairies finish waiting and one by one flew toward to woman. The first hit her gut as she turned around, the added power had her flinch and reflexively cover her stomach.

I took this chance to run to the next pillar but skipped it in favor of the one ahead of it. I start making more fairies as Uzu focused her attack on the decoy pillar even as the fairies homed in on Uzu hitting her in several places. She launches out several balls of dark mana with highly unstable intensity. The balls explode with audible pops near the pillar.

Not too strong, or more likely, held back.

The pillar ran out of fairies just as Uzu got to get to the pillar, finding my clone.

"Here you are!" She blasts it gleefully but her grin fades just as my clone did. The distraction worked wonderfully as she didn't notice the stream of fairies targeting her back.

Uzu screams as a dozen fairies hits her. She looks around frantically to find my second clone running to the next pillar.

"Think you're clever?" Uzu growls, thinking that it was me she angrily marches over, unable to simply blast through the pillar, and was greeted with a dozen more fairies that hadn't waited long enough. "Shit!" Now in line of sight, they all rushed at her. Uzu tries blasting the fairies, succeeding in destroying half of them, countering each one with a concentrated beam or balls of unstable mana. The rest got to her and just before they hit Uzu send out a wave of dark mana pushing the fairies back enough that she manages to blast apart the rest.

"My magic beats yours! Don't think this will be too easy" Uzu ignores my second clone and looks to the other pillars.

I had been placing fairies behind many pillars and now most of my covers are weaponized. I hope this is enough to whittle Uzu away otherwise I'm not sure how long my mana will last.

Uzu began spraying out clouds of dark mana, I can only guess it's a means of fogging up the area to blind her opponent, but she might be using it to hinder my fairies.

Uzu became more frustrated and angry as fairies start attacking from all directions. She kept blasting them, dark lasers and exploding balls countered each fairy, as four fairies got dangerously close she let off a dark nova but is quickly overwhelmed by the hundreds of fairies. As she is pummeled by the fairies I watch her vitality dwindle, the beauty mana damaging and killing cells. Each fairy that delivered its deadly payload sent the mana deep to the bone. Nearby vitality rushes to the area via Ectoplasm but that only sped up her defeat.

Uzu falls to her knees as she no longer has any vitality animating them, nor any living nerves and muscles. As she falls face-first to the ground the announcer calls my victory. The fairies following their orders to stop attacking once Uzu is defeated stops in mid-air. I dismiss the fairies and reveal my location, running over to Uzu to heal her. Several other healers are rushing in to heal as well.

The crowd cheers and roars my victory, I may have been seen as the underdog in this fight.

"That was well fought, Alysara. I completely underestimated you. I thought my magic countered yours but in the end, you hard countered me"

"You came close, I may have run out of mana before you," I say with a smile. The fight was exhilarating.

"Unfortunately you're going to be even more powerful next year, I don't stand a chance" Uzu Chuckles. "At least I came close. Now go back to your friend she's jumping up and down to celebrate your victory, you deserve it"

I nod and left, thanking her. I left the arena and am immediately tackle-hugged by Chyzu.

"You did it! I don't know how but you beat someone who countered you!"

"Let... Me... Breath!" I tried to say from Chyzu's expansive bosom.

I felt Chyzu being yanked off of me and a smiling and proud Esfoy standing there.

"Goodjob, Alysara, on your first win!"