More Filler

Outside of the room, as they had thought, was similar to Ventus's Teleportation Line. The sky here, however, was a light brown color and the building style was a mix of many different kinds. In general, the feeling the buildings and sky gave off was that of sturdy. The feeling was strong enough to give people the impression that even if the skies themselves fell, it would still be standing strong.

The atmosphere of the people, in contrast to the environment, was more jovial. The people here certainly weren't as friendly as those in Ventus, but they were still approachable. That only held true for those of the same race or of a friendly race, though.

Some people of different races would send disdaining, oragant, or even murderous gazes at other races. Their gazes held little effect on those they were cast towards, but it still caused the atmosphere to have a contradictory feeling to it.

On one side, it was friendly, but on the other tension filled the air. What would normally be impossible, happened here. People had fun in ignorance, while others planned for dominance. The strange atmosphere wasn't obvious, and it would appear to be happy when one looked from the outside, but anyone with a lick of social intelligence could tell that the brightness was only a facade.

Of course, Mark didn't even have the lick of social intelligence needed to figure all of that out. Only after Amelia pointed it out and explained it, did he notice. Learning of it didn't change his attitude at all, though. He had been shaped not to care what others were doing and to focus on himself. That had changed a little with him now interacting with Amelia, but he still couldn't find it in him to care about the atmosphere.

"You should care," Amelia told him when she noticed his uncaring attitude.

"Why should I? They have nothing to do with me," he answered.

"That's where you're wrong," she said. "What they are doing may not directly affect you, but it can certainly indirectly affect you. Sometimes what they are doing will even directly affect you, you should be more aware of your surroundings," she reprimanded with a teacher-like aura.

"How, I don't understand," Mark asked.

'He's finally asking me for help,' Amelia thought with a mental smile. "There are lot of reasons why it is important to understand what people around you are doing. It can help you gather information, which you are pretty bad at, understand the situation of the city, and many other things. In a broad term, it just helps you collect information," her teacher aura grew, and Mark could even see that her aura grew a brighter color.

His Light Marking had reached the peak of its rank, and by now it enhanced his vision even when it wasn't active, allowing him to judge a person's aura without using the ability.

"*hmm hmm*," he nodded his head to her explanation, but then shook his head. "I understand why I should understand my surrounding, but… I don't need to."

"And why would that be?" Amelia tilted her head as she asked him.

Mark extended his arm out and pointed to her, "You." She looked at him with the same look she gave him many times along their journey, which indicated that he should explain more, though she had the general idea of what he meant.

"Well, with you here, there's no need for me to do that. You can do it for the both of us," he smiled brightly at her as he finished speaking.

"*Sigh*, you're just lazy," Amelia said, silently glad that she was able to help him. After he healed her legs, it felt like she didn't sacrifice anything to help him, but instead him sacrificing to help her. Even if she knows that he doesn't care, it felt like there was an invisible burden pressuring her to help him. She was stuck in between having fun with being with him and trying to repay his help. He was even helping her now, since she wanted him to stay with her.

"Let's gather information then, shall we ma'am," said Mark playfully.

"You mean me," corrected Amelia.

...

As per usual, Amelia gathered information while Mark followed her around. Mark occasion picked up bits of information when Amelia encouraged him to, but for most of the time it was just Amelia.

"Okay, listen well this time, Mark," spoke Amelia after she was done formulating a plan of action to get her pendant back. They had, as it was required, gotten an apartment to temporarily stay at, which is were Amelia was currently talking to Mark.

"The prince is definitely too powerful for us to defeat," she explained, "so we have to get my mother's pendant without directly fighting him. The Tournament of Races leans in our favor of getting the pendant because its a group free-for-all. Meaning that the group of people from each race will duke it out with each other all at the same time. This leaves us with the choice of sneak attacking him or ganging up on him during the tournament, or we can try and get the pendant before the tournament," Amelia finished off all the possible choices she knew of to get the pendant back.

"How are you so sure that he's stronger than us?" Asked Mark in doubt.

"Why? Because he's already at the peak of the fourth rank. Just based on his Mana reserve alone, he would be able to crush us, who are only at the third rank," said Amelia. She was a little sad that all of their training didn't increase their strength enough, but there was nothing she could do.

'Hmm, that's strange. Hey Pass, show me my data,' thought Mark.

[Okay]

Name: Mark

Profession: Limitless Survivalist

Health-500

Mana-430

Constitution-50

Strength-25

Speed-36

Intelligence-43

Will-675

Abilities:

Active, Passive- Regeneration(Rank 3, Level 3 73%)

Active, Passive- Meditation(Rank 3, Level 4 20%)

Active, Passive- Light Marking(Rank 1, Level 9 99%)

Passive- Unlimited Potential

Passive- Whip Mastery(Beginner 60%)- The use of all stats when using a whip is increased by 16%

Passive- Water Manipulation(Level 19 50%)

Passive- Water Affinity(Perfect)

Spells:

Water Ball(Rank 2 15%)

Water Arrow(Rank 2 10%)

Water Whip(Rank 3 MAX)

Water Healing(Rank 1 50%)

"How strong was the man who destroyed your legs?" Mark asked.

With anger shown on her face she said, "He was a Rank 3, but the inscription he used at the end should have either been a very strong Rank 4 spell or a Rank 5 spell."

"If that's the case, then I don't think it's impossible for us to beat the prince," Mark said without having to contemplate his answer.

"Why's that?" She asked.

"And you tell me to pay more attention. You were only a weak Rank 2 at the time and me a Rank 1, yet we still almost defeated him, didn't we? The only reason he even got away was because of the inscription," explained Mark.

Amelia thought for a moment, but her face didn't brighten like Mark thought it would. "That may be the case, but what's to say that the prince doesn't have an inscription as well, but this time one that's even more powerful? We still only have the same options as before, because even if we're stronger than him, he will have resources that he can use to defeat us," replied Amelia.

"If that's the case, then let me add another piece of bad news," said Mark. "From the conversations that I had heard, we won't be able to sneak up on the prince before the tournament. He should be in an apartment similar to ours but more luxurious. That isn't the problem though. The problem is that his apartment is heavily surrounded."

Amelia pouted at their poor circumstances. "*Ugh*, fine then. Then we will have to attack him during the tournament," she voiced out her only solution.

"In the end, it still led to us going to the tournament," said Mark, "It must've been meant to be."

They both sighed to themselves. The tournament was the last option that they wanted to choose. They were just too weak compared to most of the people who would participate. The tournament would start tomorrow, so they both mentally prepared themselves for a storm of trouble.