1370 One Day Before
"Hey, hey, look! He's that guy!"
"It's him!"
"Kyaa~"
Varian maintained the cold expresssion on his face as he reached for his next opponent.
The competition was going to begin tomorrow. So far, he defeated the 41st, 30th, 25th, 20th, 15th, 10th and 6th rankers.
Still, the people believing he could win against Prince Robert were a minority.
The top 5 were the untouchable were in another range of power compared to even the 6th ranker. It's a steep change.
These were the guys who already hit the limit of mid rank 7. They're dealing with the bottlenecks and as long as that's solved, they'd reach the next subrank.
By creating more hype around his natal treaure, Varian managed to raise not too many doubts when his strength stepped into the mid rank 7 and continued to rise.
Typically, it'd take a few months for the natal treaure's benefits to be fully absorbed. He's essentially compressing that long process into two weeks. So far, it seemed to be working.
Before the competition, he's going to defeat the 5th ranker: Yuor Quin.
Varian didn't have any doubt in defeating that man and setting new expectations for the public so that they wouldn't doubt him winning against Robert but—
"Hehehe! The number 4 is also joining the match." The woman who called herself Aurora locked her fingers behind her back and leaned toward him with a cheerful smile. "Come on! Show them what you got!"
Varian's chest heaved up and down for a few breaths before he looked away from her.
Given her track record, he long expected this. So, he sent a message beforehand to everyone already.
[1. I fight only one person a day
2. I do not represent the views of Miss Aurora and vice versa]
Given that this was an important message, Varian sent it only on the last day. So, Aurora, who was complacent with her continous successes in messing with his affairs, didn't know her plan was thwarted until they reached the arena grounds.
Unlike the closed door venue, this fight was on a floating floor that extended for a five thousand miles.
Because of the competition, some places were redeveloped. This flying-state arena was one of hte lucky ones.
The floor was a polished black material reflected off your image and had a very strong affinity with aura, reducing the intensity of the fights by making both parties weaker.
To be fair, calling it 'strong affinity with aura' wouldn't do it justice. The arena was made from the bones of a Devourer pathwalker. Though that beast died a long time ago, its characterestics of 'devouring' everything still remained strong.
As Varian looked at the floor, his own Assimilator power responded with a strong greed, asking him to devour the entire thing and immediately advance.
Even though he had been fighting opponents he could easily defeat at his full power, Varian went to great lengths to ensure he always fought them in a disadvantageous position.
He did this to learn more about their powers but more importantly, to put himself under pressure so that he could grow and break the bottlenecks.
Perhaps he was too fixated on that, the instincts of an 'Assimilator' which normally shouldn't have any effect on him caused some substantial change in his mood.
[Host, don't even think about it. This is the remains of a rank 9 beast. If you try to devour it with your rank 6 Assimilator path, one of two things will happen.
One, you'll explode from the invasion of an aura quality far higher than your own.
Two, you'll be infested by the instincts of 'Devourer' path, your 'Assimilator' path would breakthrough but it'll be fully corrupt and would take over your mind. To put it simply, you'll lose yourself and start devouring everything randomly.]
Hearing the System's stern warning, Varian grumbled. 'I can just take a few bites, right? It won't be harmful then.'
[…It's not about how much, it's what you take. Even a tiny bit will be very harmful to your self. You'll have to endure a great deal of hardship to overcome the issues caused by even a finger-sized chunk.]
'Tsk. I thought I could just devour high-rank beast corpses and grow stronger.'
[If it were that easy, everyone would pick the Devourer path. Why bother working hard with something else?]
'Even though your words are a bit irritating, you have a point.'
[Heh.]
'Don't Heh. If you were a bit more powerful, I wouldn't have to go through these issues. Heh, System, Heh Heh.'
[…Can you stop being so petty, Host?]
'I can't. I'm sincerely sorry.'
[What a weird man!]
Varian cracked his neck and stretched his arms, preparing himself for the battle on the vast but empty arena.
Contary to what one would expect from a flying arena, this place was essentially a land of vegetation.
There were special flowers that could extend mortal lifespans by a few centuries, grass that would make even normal rabbits into sovereigns and trees that even the ruling families of some provinces couldn't afford.
As the minutes began to pass, a woman soundlessly appeared on the huge stage.
Yuor Quin.
In a tight-fitting black latex dress, the woman was looking at her nails with a look of disinterest.
Varian narrowed his eyes.
Putting aside her weird dressing style, the woman's physical featuers stood out. She had a natural golden tiara and a halo on top of her. These were both inborn and specfic to her race 'Pietas'.
If his memory wasn't wrong, this race ruled over a prosperous and strong duchy.
They had humbe beginnings. The 'Pietas' race evolved from another race when they came across some incredible treasure by accident.
They were previously space pirates. But after the evolution, they ventured onto a planet, conquered the natives.
Because of their racial powers, they had a great edge in ruling others. Unlike a typical space pirate group, they chose not to massacre and instead ruled.
They quickly developed and turned into a province in a mere two-hundred years. In a thousand years after that, they overthrew their duchy and crowned themselves the rulers.
It's one of the few success cases where a province turned into a duchy. And that's precisely why they're so popular.
