Chapter 3- Tournament Arc I

It was time to take the entrance exam. Usually you can only take 2 out of 3 exams, but since I was able to use both the blade and magic, I was given permission to take all three. In my case, I was pretty much guaranteed entry to the school even if I didn't take it, but that would just be boring. The format of the exams was the written exam, a blade exam, and a magic exam. The blade exam was a combat exam, and the magic exam tested your total amount of magic, and how many different types you could use.

I took the written exam. I don't want to talk about it much. There was only one perfect 100%, achieved by some girl named Maria. I, on the other hand, had the worst score. It's hard to take a test when, um..., when you can't read the language it is in. I should have predicted this because it happened in so many other isekais, but I was naive to think I would just be able to read. The worst part is they announced the grade to everyone who took the test. It was at that moment, I wanted to die.

I got over the written test quickly when the format for the blade exam was announced. It was my chance at a redemption tournament arc, yes that's right, the exam was a tournament. To gain acceptance to the school you had to win at least once. You could pick the blade you wanted to use, and the only rule was no killing your opponent. I was also glad to hear the prize for winning. The winner gained unlimited resources for practicing, a spot on the student council for underclassmen Bladesman representative, and you were one of two guests of honor, one being the best Bladesmen and the other being the best Mage, at a banquet held by the royal family. The banquet was the most important prize to me because it gave me a chance to talk with powerful nobles, and I could gain information to help me pick a side in the upcoming civil war. I knew I had to win, but luckily even if I lost the Bladesman tournament, I still had a chance at the Mage exam. That was when an interesting thought hit my mind, what would happen if I won both? I made up my mind. I would try to win both.

The first match was Hadrian vs. some scrub, the scrub lost instantly. I guess the education of one of the biggest families in Astia payed off. The matches that followed were not worth watching, I was then it was time for my match. I had to pick a blade. I picked 2 daggers. I was never really a power guy, I was always interested in speed. I was up against a kid from one of the big families, a kid named Daniel Randia. He was wielding a large shield in one hand and a large sword in the other. Kid was likely a tanker. Tanker's are not people I do best against. I knew the match was gonna take a while because of my low damage. The match started and I charged at the guy with my daggers immediately, he blocked them with his shield. He said "you think daggers will cause damage? Fool." I couldn't take an insult like that without saying anything back, my pride as a gamer wouldn't let me. I remembered the greatest comeback of all time, a comeback that would most likely roast him like the fires of hell, a comeback that should have immediately sent him to the grave, I said the ancient spell "shut up boomer." It had no effect on him because such destructive words did not have the same meaning in this world, and I feared that my power as a reddit incel had no power in this world. I was furious, so I decided to use all the blade and armor reinforcements I had at once, which were the reinforcement ones given at the start of the game. I used hardening 1, attack 1, and swiftness 1.

The spells definitely gave me an advantage. I was actually starting to do damage, the guy I was up against still wasn't taking a lot though. I'm not gonna lie, I became frustrated. I guess for some reason I channeled the art of gamer toxicity and I was just spurting insults like "fuck! Your dick is literally 2 inches." Not my best moment, but he still couldn't land a hit on me because of my speed. I was gonna lose my mp soon, but I totally forgot one thing, I could use more than just reinforcement spells. I dropped swiftness because I was already fast, and I dropped armor because he couldn't hit me. I kept attack 1. I wasn't paying attention while I was thinking, and he landed a critical hit on me. I could tell I was down to almost 0 hp. I used an ice spell to freeze him in place, but that ice spell only lasts for ten seconds, and I used a flame spell on my daggers. I knew at that moment I won. While he was frozen in place, I used the rest of my mp for a special blade skill for daggers called 100 slash, it slashes the opponent 100 times in 1 second. Daniel Randia was defeated. The custom in the Shadow Realm was to help up your opponent after they were defeated, but I'm not a sportsman, I'm a gamer. As I left the fighting ground, I softly let out a "gg."

Everyone gave me dirty looks because of my disrespect, but I don't see the reason to be nice to a loser weaker than myself. I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but I think it's more disrespectful to show sportsmanship to losers, congratulating them for losing makes no sense. I only show sportsmanship to people who could have beat me, and he never stood a chance. I met up with Hadrian, but as soon as I saw him he said "you should be on the lookout from now on. You not only denied a Randia son the right to attend this school, but you also completely disrespected him. Even if he was just the 4th son and weaker than the other sons, his family will not take to kindly to your actions." It made sense to me except that he was denied entry. "Can't his family just pull strings to get him in?" I asked. Hadrian said "no. This academy is under the authority of the royal family. " I just said "well, sucks to be him."

The next match was to determine who I fought next, and I was shocked. Both people were fighting were at a different level. A different level of absolute shit. They were so bad, they barely knew how to swing a sword. In the preceding matches, there was one girl who was exceptional at the sword. She used a rapier, and could stab as fast as I could swing my daggers. It was obvious that she had a master who must have been a musketeer. In BCO, the Bladesman class has sub-class type things which are dictated by the blade you main, a musketeer would be someone who main's a rapier. There are also sub-classes for mages, like healer or flame mage. Also, this is some helpful information I learned, kids study both blades and magic before they are even awakened so they can be prepared for either class they awaken with. Some people who awaken the Mage but are exceptional with a sword become what is known as an Imitator, some one who imitates the style of a Blademage. Now back on topic, this girl would end up fighting me in 2 matches. She won easily, and all the other matches then concluded. The second round was to begin soon.

Hadrian lead off the second round, winning easily, the other useless matches ended, and I was up. I won destroyed the noob, the girl with the rapier also won. When me and Hadrian met up again, I asked who the girl was. He said "thats René Randia. She's the second daughter of the family and a potential heir to the family. She's exceptionally skilled, I'd watch out." I said "so is she a prick like her brother." For some reason he went silent, and all he did was stare behind me. "What? Is there something behind me?" I inquired. I turned around, and behind me was, well, René and some boomer. It was very uncomfortable and I was regretting being alive. I tried to break the ice, so I asked her "who's the old man?" Hadrian started to look even more uncomfortable. She answered "this is Lord Granger Randia of Serena, current head of the Randia family." I felt more uncomfortable than if my dick was just punched 40 times. "Cool" I said. Granger whispered to René, but loudly on purpose so I could hear him,"make sure this fool does not dare to breath ever again." Granger left. René said "how about a wager. If I win you forfeit your life, and you can have anything if I win." Now, I didn't hear her say this because I was thinking to myself "it's whole family of pricks," and I said yes with out knowing what she said.

The 3rd round, the semi-finals, was about to begin it was Hadrian vs. another scrub, and I was up against René Randia. Hadrian won, and I was up. Thousands of people in the stadium, watching my match. I was not going to go easy on her, after my first match, I used a skill called mp boost. It costs all mp, but doubles your max mp for 1 day, it was a skill used to aid new players in BCO because as your max mp increases as you level up, it takes more time to gain all your mp. It was unlucky that she faced me at such a late stage because my mp just finished reaching its max amount while doubled. Right before the match started, I equipped al my reinforcement skills, I set the flame onto my daggers, and I used a skill I gained from my first match called evade 1. The match started, immediately she started stabbing at me. I tried to evade them, but she exceeded the skill, and she then said "I will avenge my brother." I said something back "wow, that's really cool, but you see that man over-there who asked, yeah I don't see him either." That really pissed her off, and that's why I knew I would win easily, as a gamer I know who hard it is to be successful when angry.

I hadn't only learned evade from my first match, I learned a tanker skill called revenge. Revenge is activated when the player is hit with strikes 100 times, a critical hit that causes the loss of half of the opponents hp is automatic. I was trying to see if I could use it against her. I took one strike to see how much hp I would lose, there was no hp bar or anything, but I could feel how much hp I had and how much I lost from a hit. I had around a max 10,000 hp, and every stab did about 112 damage, but with armor 1 it was reduced to 99. I could take 100 hundred, but as op the damage in revenge strike is, one can still miss. I wouldn't be able to beat her without revenge because all I could do is slowly chip her health away because she was too fast for me to land 100 slash or even more than 3 hits at once. My strategy was to slowly chip at her health while getting hit, and then use revenge strike to end her. It was risky and I might miss, but it was all I got.

Everything was going fine, but my mp was running out. I had to give up my attack reinforcement and my flaming daggers. She still was visibly pissed the fuck off, which was good for me because she was still sloppy with her attacks. 23 more hits on me and I would be able to use revenge strike. I had to finish quickly before I lost the armor reinforcement, so I dropped everything except armor 1. It was time for a high IQ play. I stood in place doing nothing, she asked "giving up are you?" All I did was softly let out a chuckle. I just let her hit me. I knew that this plan was not only giving me the hits for revenge strike, but it was boosting her ego in a negative way. When she hit me the 23rd time, I was able to use revenge. I had less than ten hp left. I acted like I lost after the 23rd strike, but I acted in a way that would not signal the officials that I lost. She was at the height of her ego, and she still had only a little more than half hp left, but revenge always does exactly half hp and I still had some mp left to trigger damage reinforcements. She said at the peak of her ego "I will finish you with this." All I could do was laugh knowing how arrogant she was even though she lost. While she was loading her rapier, I triggered attack 1, and her loading back her rapier caused an opening big enough for me to make my final strike. I used revenge with one slash! She lost all her remaining hp in a matter of 1 second. I had won.

The crowd was silent out of confusion because they didn't know how a person on the brink of losing could win with one strike. All I could think about the crowd's reaction was "never underestimate a gamer." I had humbled two noble pricks, but as much as René was a prick, she was genuinely talented. I went to help her up. I put out my hand and said "gg," and as I was helping her up she asked "what does gg mean." I told her "you don't need to know." I felt a little bad about that because I only said it to make her mad. She said "what about the wager? What do you want?" I totally forgot about the wager, or rather, I never knew about it because I didn't hear it. I said "I want you to impale yourself in act of suicide right here." Now, I meant it as a joke, but she almost did it until I said "stop! I was just joking." I had to think about what I really wanted, but I couldn't think of anything at the moment. I just said "I'll get back to you on that." She just said ok.

My next opponent was Hadrian, and this fucking guy was up against the worst swordsman of all time, so he never showed off his real skill because he never went all out. It was ok though because our match wasn't until tomorrow so I had time to grind stats.

René's father, Lord Granger, came up to me and asked "why don't you be a guest at our banquet tonight. I had originally planned as a celebration for when René entered the finals, and well, you know what happened." I said "ok, but do you want anything else?" "Yes, just because the Meylor family sees a Blademage as a higher authority does not mean we do. I can sense that your scheming something, and we will not be pushed around by your status." "Cool" I said.

I attended a banquet in a grand ballroom. I could sense that everyone at the banquet was important. I had an ok time, this fancy stuff really isn't my shit, but to make connections. I decided to explore the Randia manor more, and I found their library. Grimoires upon grimoires of magic, and due to my circumstance, I could learn all the spells in them just by reading the grimoire. I learned skill multiplier, which is clutch because it starts at 2x, but every-time I level it up it goes up a multiplier. So level 1 is 2x, level 2 is 3x the stats on a skill, and level 3 is 4x, and etc. The only thing that makes it fair is that it can be used on one skill only, and it cost a shit load of mp to keep activated. It's great step to being able to use my Barxia's Dagger effectively. The other skill learned was spatial magic, and since I didn't start with an inventory function, I now had one. I left the banquet, and I went to sleep. The next day came, and I was ready for the final.