The Mysterious Black Magician

"No need for that, we came here for two reasons. First is to accompany Miss Ella and second is to announce that tomorrow there will be an open Clash of Strength at the main city, sponsored by the royal family. Everyone was allowed to join. The details regarding it..... you can read it in the reception area. It is already posted there," said the Knight-Captain Broge Bergal. This caused the surrounding people to fall silent while processing in their minds what the knight captain just said.

Then the knight captain faced Gilion, "If you wanted to have a duel with this man..... isn't it better if you do it on that stage tomorrow? In that place where more people would be watching. Not only that, but you can also fight and defeat him in a reasonable way," he said to Gilion and sent a glance to Yman before darting his eyes at the surrounding people.

Yman understood the knight captain's glance at him. This was to emphasize that his words were not only for Gilion but also for him and to everyone here.

Gilion's twisting face revealed a non-convinced expression. But he calmed down when the knight captain placed his hand on his shoulder again and whispered something on his ear.

Everybody broke into elations of whispers. Most of them had surfaced excited faces.

The Clash of Strength was where they could gain a sum of prizes and also test their strength in a more legal way. Even if they can't be the champion as long as they defeated an opponent, they could get a rich consolation prize, since it was always like that whenever the royal family was the one who sponsored it.

<Clash of Strength?> Sistela muttered while tilting her tiny head from left to right. Then pointed her little finger below her mouth.

"Must be a tournament of strength and power. It was a battle between knights," Yman replied.

"Tsk," Vince clicked his tongue when he noticed the Gustav kid calmed down. He stepped in front and personally proposed a duel to Yman in the guise of testing the newbie's capability.

Everyone knew it was absurd for the golden rank adventurers to propose a duel to a newbie with a bronze rank only, however, they didn't care for this newbie. They were too envious of him that they wanted to see his handsome face to be beaten by Vince. They were curious too by his ability to cancel a spell like what he did a moment ago.

Headmaster Laura agreed too. After all, it was also to assure if this newbie was really capable of the thing she wanted him to handle. 

Everyone was relocated to the underground chamber of the building. In this place, the adventurers normally did their daily training.

The Royal Knight-Captain Borge Belgar together with Gilion and the others also went to watch the duel. He also was curious about this young man.

Yman was astonished to see such a place underground the Adventurer's Guild building.

It has a total of 250 square meters and the height of the ceiling from the ground was about 25 meters. He noticed some rooms on the sides. Probably, weapon storage and dressing rooms were one of them. 

He also saw some training dummies and training platforms in rows on the other sides. At the center could be seen the wide empty space where the people could spar, it was illuminated by the light coming from the ceiling. The lamps were crystals known as Crystalights, some expensive crystals that were able to produce its own light mostly could be seen in some areas with a dense gathering of mana. It was similar to those crystals stuck in the underground channel in the West District of Human City.

"Before you proceed, you can choose whether you use weapons or not," said the knight captain.

"I don't need it," said Vince with a broad grin on his face.

Yman noticed that no one reacted to it. Looks like no one expected this guy to lose. After all, a golden rank adventurer was of another level.

Yman also noticed that even the knight captain was wary of this person known as Vince.

"How about you?" The knight captain asked him next.

Yman's mouth extended into one side, then it slowly opened and he replied saying, "Since he did not choose a weapon, for fairness sake, I will be fighting empty-handed too."

However, this decision of his caused some whispers from the audience.

Even the knight captain thought that this young man was acting arrogant. But he dismissed this thought when he remembered that this young man actually didn't know about Vince. He then glanced at the headmaster who was sitting on the empty table in one of the tables that could be seen around, beside her was Miss Ella and her friends.

"Eh? Isn't he a newbie only? He didn't choose a weapon also?" Ella asked, bemused.

"Blunder. Later, he would regret this arrogant decision of his. Tsk, it's a waste of effort to mind him," Gilion scoffed.

"But..... you came here to watch his duel right?" Ella tilted her head while asking Gilion Gustav.

Gilion was slightly blushed when her gaze was on him, "I-It's not because of that guy that I wanted to watch their duel. I was intrigued by that person named Vince that even the Royal Knight-Captain knew him," he replied.

The other guy with them held a chuckle. "Pft, for fairness's sake? Is this man out of his mind? He has the guts to evaluate himself highly in front of the gold rank," said the other young man beside Gilion.

"Isn't it good to play fair, Ellias?" Hannah asked the young man. Actually, even she would choose a fair fight. No matter if she loses.

"It is good if you're strong. But if you are weaker than your opponent, it is better to take advantage of the handicap that was given to you," said the person named Ellias.

But Hannah wasn't convinced by it. She had a strong attitude towards fairness. Maybe it was also the reason why she was elected as the Council President of Encantasia Academy.

Nonetheless,

It wasn't them only — who were wondering why that newbie did not take advantage of Vince handicap for not using a weapon. Some people around also did.

"What he meant for fairness sake?!" Someone asked. 'Is he an idiot?!' Everyone thought.

On the contrary,

Vince's friends were busy chatting with each other. They were not even focused on the coming duel. They tagged solely because of Vince. But they could somehow guess the outcome of the fight.

On the other hand, the Headmaster Laura Agila was also curious what the result would be. However, she could guess why this young man did not choose a weapon also. "Such a clever person, now let's see if he had the ability to stand for it," she whispered.

"Aunty..... who's clever?" Ella asked when she vaguely heard her Aunt's words.

She placed her hand on her head and patted her, then she said, "No, nothing. Look, the duel is about to start."

Ella was puzzled by it. She really heard her saying clever. But who was it that her aunt meant? From her perspective, both of the duelists acted unwisely. The first one did not use a weapon, maybe because of the reason that he was a high ranked adventurer. Might be pitying his opponent, however, it wasn't a good habit if they asked her. Even her personal trainer in the palace told her that she needed to grab the opportunity of taking advantage of the opponent.

Regardless,

The second one didn't take advantage of the handicap and probably chose his ego. 'Truly unwise of them,' she thought.

In any case, just like what her aunt said, the battle was about to start.

Everyone immediately focused their eyes in front, to where the two were facing each other at about 25-meter distance away from each other.

The knight captain as the mediator of the duel glanced at the two.

Yman noticed his enemy's mocking smile at him. But he disregards it and asks Sistela for resonance.

"It is so weird seeing a half-human using the toys from the weakling pure humans. Someone like you must be slapped to the butt by a senior like me!" Vince suddenly jibed.

"Slapped to the butt?" Someone among the audience repeated his words. Then it was followed by,

"Puwahahaha!"

"Right! Slapped his butt so hard, Viiince!"

"Damn, we will be going to see Vince's slapping-butt technique!"

"Shall we record it?!"

"Yeah! It probably become a hit on YT!"

Yman didn't know whether to laugh or cry. These people hated the System Deities but they were one of the craziest users of YT, facepalm, and any other sites made by humans. On top of that, almost all of them had the new version of MTMD's.

After shaking his head, he then shouted 'resonance!'.

From what he learned from the grimoire, he could safely initiate any spell he had without the help of resonance. But it depends on his mastery level and his channeling talent.

He also learned a very shocking truth about this talent. It wasn't a simple talent, and there were several abilities branches under it. Regardless, this wasn't the right time for this talk.

After Yman shouted his resonance, the person in front of him took something from out of nowhere. It probably comes from the spatial ring that he was wearing at the moment. Actually, the demi-human used this to store their items in a dimensional space like the Cyber Storage. 

The thing he took was a necklace with a ruby-colored pendant.

The people around once again broke into a beez-like murmur after seeing it.

"Damn it, Vince was pitying the newbie on a whole different level!" Someone shouted.

"Hahaha, a rank 1 necklace artefact, made from a rank 1 Ruby-Eyed Venomous Mouse!"

Yman was puzzled by what they were talking about. Maybe they meant Rank D+ Noble Rat, the evolved version of Evil Rats. It seemed like the natives here had a different sense of naming the monsters.

A moment later, "Grace!" Yman heard his enemy shouted. Then the necklace in his hand glowed until the glow covered all over his body. The next second, the glow was absorbed into his body. And on his forehead appeared a ruby diamond.

"I'm ready. Mwahaha!" Vince declared.

The people around got excited. They were even cheering his name. Even Though most of them know that Vince losing against the newbie was almost zero percent.

The Knight-Captain Borge Bergal showed a lazy smile, before he shouted, "Start!"

Vince immediately accumulated electrifying ruby energy on his right hand.

"Thunderous-Spirit  Venomous Mouse!"

Yman noticed his enemy summoned electrifying energy with the form identical to the Noble Rat.

"Hehe!" Vince grinned.

"Woah look at that! Even Though it was only a rank 1 spirit beast! But it so domineering!" Exclaimed one of the audience.

"As expected, Vince's ability to increase the power of a low ranking spirit is still the best of the best," Borge Bergal muttered.

"Tsk, so he wasn't even serious awhile ago when he slapped my Lightning Emerald Dragon," Gilion also muttered in disgust.

On the other hand, the headmaster was looking at the fight without averting her eyes.

Ella stared at Laura, "Aunt, looks like, that golden rank adventurer of yours, wanted to end the fight so soon," Ella said.

Laura smiled and said, "Mhm..... but I wonder if it is going as he planned....."

"??!" Ella couldn't read what her aunt wanted to say.

A moment later, the people around shouted in excitement.

Ella immediately returned his eyes to the front. She saw the spirit beast dashed towards that handsome young man who was standing still like a steady rock. Or maybe he was nervous? She thought.

Then she saw his shoulder made a heave. Ella was wondering if that guy wanted to give up. She sighed and thought, 'He should have taken a weapon. What a bummer.'

Vince smirked. That rank 1 spirit beast was enough to defeat that young man.

A second before the razor-sharp claws reached him. They noticed the newbie lifted his hand to the front.

Just right when the spirit beast brandished its razor-sharp claws at him, they saw the newbie's hand exuded crimson energies.

Then everyone fell silent.

Because the spirit beast suddenly disappeared like glowing dusts.

"Eh—" Ella felt like she just ate her words. This was the same thing that happened to that Lightning Emerald Dragon!

"....."

Everyone gasped in surprise.

"What the heck was happening!"