The preliminary rounds of the Tournament

The following month passed quickly.

Lilia and Ilza are still wary about Drull, but trust my words enough, to live with him under the same roof.

But they don´t like him, might be because his humour is special. Once, he sneaked on Ilza and screamed "Boh" while changing his form into that of a demon.

His demon form is badass, red eyes, bat wings, black horns and a red mist starts to rise from his feet.

I also learned a few things, I asked Drull about magic Tiers and he seems to be able to cast them in darkness and fire up to the tenth Tier.

He taught me a few cool spells, his shadow puddle for example or a spell which allows me to block the sun from a large area. But the best spell I learned, was his tenth Tier and original spell [Shatten Doppelgänger]. It´s a better version of the Tier 9 spell [Klon]. Normal clones from [Klon] have to live off your mana. These ones have their own mana and are able to produce it on their own, so they are like a real clone.

They are almost like the kage buns hins from Naruto, but I think stronger than his. I´m connected with them and learn everything they´ve done when they die or dissolve. They have the ability to think for themselves and have half of my strength and skills with all my knowledge and they even think like me.

And I´m able to control a lot of them. [Mana Manipulation] is some sort of limiter if I want to control them, but I´m able to make as much as I want with enough mana, I´m just not able to completely control them without [Mana Manipulation] and the costs are high.

I´m able to control 60 at once.

Any more and I have to give them orders which they fulfil on their own judgement.

It feels funny when I control them at once, it´s as if I´m on 60 places at the same time, looking through 60 pairs of eyes.

But the link gets cut when they are too far away from me, more than 3 kilometres and they are independent.

They cost mana when I make them but then they live off their own.

And the craziest thing is, as I looked at their status, they have all my skills on LV 5, half of my stats and also half of my life. But mana was still 999.999.999. So I think that I have more mana than the status says but it doesn´t show it. My mana regeneration should also be higher. It might be that it simply doesn´t show it.

This would explain why it doesn´t get lower as I put mana into my dark armour.

They´re even able to cast [Schatten Doppelgänger], but are only able to control a mere 30 at once.

This skill is so broken, I have an army of Clairs and it solves a problem for the coming tournament.

That and I slept with myself. Sex with yourself is...okay, it gives masturbation a completely new meaning. And Lilia looked at me with strange eyes, as we were eating breakfast the next morning.

Drull said, that it´s not normal to cast more than 2 because they cost so much. I think I have to agree, one costs 500.000 but the second one already was at 2.500.000 and each new one then was 5.000.000.Okay, I only saw Drull with enough mana for more than 2, heck, he´s the only one I know who can cast at least one.

I tested my mana limit, but stopped after the hundredth clone, the training cellar was full.

Drull walked outside, shaking his head and mumbling something. I´ve found him with Lilia in the library. They are on better terms since that day.

Drull also explained to me how the regeneration works. Mana only starts to regenerate when all spells are finished and you have to be able to recover it, which means sleeping or resting.

Health is the same. Both are only estimations given by the gods, said Drull. So they are not true and can be influenced by a lot of things. Like old sicknesses or tiredness and so on.

Another new thing is that Ilza´s able to sleep on her own. She already reached the fifth LV of [Sensitivity] and can control her new stats. She learned the first three Tiers of magic, is on LV 2 in [Sword Mastery] and LV 3 in [Mana Manipulation]. Gerd is impressed by her quick learning and Lilia is envious.

She´s still not good with men and shivers lightly, whenever Gerd or Drull touches her. Which is a betterment? Gerd could, at first, only explain what he meant and could not correct her stances by touching. She would start to cry and shiver uncontrollably.

I also learned that I´m not good at starting a relationship, Lilia gets more and more "touching" when I´m in my Dex form and I think she wants something from me. I just don´t know how I should start it, I never was interested in a relationship.

Let's see what she does, until then I´ll sleep with myself. And boy I feel good, in both ways. They say that length is not all and I tried it out with a few different aged Dexes, and I have to say, it´s only half the truth. 17-19 cm, are the best with a good thickness of a few centimetres.

Longer and it hurts, shorter and it feels like nothing. And I don´t have to explain that a young sporty woman feels good, do I?

Drull was able to get accustomed to the new era, he keeps nagging about the humans and still calls them apes, but he was able to not kill them. Which was only possible because he´s most of the time in the mansion and reads. But he still tries to convince me to eat the daughter of René. I said that he´s not allowed to kill and eat people without my consent and he agreed, alas grumbling.

A clone attends school in my place and there are more and more guys who want to go out with me.

And even a few girls. I turned them all down, which got me the nickname "Genius with the cold Heart", at least Kira says that. She says it´s because I turn them all down and doesn´t bat an eye when I do, even when they cry and beg.

Mr. Chubby tried to attack me with a spell, one of my fanboys? noticed it and they beat him up.

He´s now a real victim of mobbing. Poor Mr. Chubby, I think I´ll give him a beating in the school tournament.

I´ve also made a few new weapons and armours, like a full plate armour out off orichalcum.

I´m now also able to make katana and scythes. I had to make a few faulty ones but were able to finish two acceptable ones.

The katana is black and has a cutting edge and durability engraved on it.

While the scythe is black and green, it has the same runes as the katana.

And I have made mana guns, they work with runes, which absorb my mana and then fire it through a tube at a target.

The mana is changeable by infusing it with an affinity.

But I needed a few tries, I had to get the right power, thickness and precision of the mana shot.

Now it´s like a normal pistol that shoots bullets in different colours. Or a laser beam. The strength of both is adjustable by the amount of mana I infuse.

I also visited the dragon valley village, they´re doing fine. They also have created a stature of my Dex form and are worshipping me as an apostle of the one true god. Funny people. They had no visitors, but that´s understandable, the dragon valley was an avoided zone and proclaimed as dangerous.

They asked for a few male helpers, so I freed some in a nearby mine.

Most of these men are happy that I´ve freed them, some wanted to go back home and I let them. All of them, women and men, got a rune that hinders them from being aggressive to their fellow villagers.

Let's see how they´ll do.

That pretty much sums the last month up.

And now back to the present. We´re currently waiting in line for the entry test of the One on One section of the tournament. Drull and Reaper Dex are already signed in for the free for all and King of the Hill section.

Gerd, Ilza, Drull, I as Dex and Reaper Dex are going to participate. Lilia has to manage the tournament. Kira and Pia are also participating, Lina is with Clair.

Little Dex was able to sign in without problems, a few days prior. They warned him about the possibility of the death from Huru Three, but that´s it.

The whole tournament is like a festival for the city. Stalls present their goods and artists are performing their tricks. There also are a few cooking competitions and the students from the crafting classes are able to introduce their products. The town is flooded with adventurers, nobles and normal people, who all want to see the tournament and a few good things to buy.

And like every year, so said Lilia, are there too many participants. In the One on One section. So they´ll hold an additional preliminary round. Weapons are allowed, but killing is forbidden, you have to pay a fee of two gold if you kill your opponent. Any wounds will be healed by the school, even missing limbs.

Free for All and King of the Hill also have a limitation of participants but that only was a "first comes first gets it" system.

I also checked the surroundings for the bandits and 12 of them were at the Free for All section.

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Normal Dex POV

"You think there´ll be many good ones? " I asked Gerd, as Dex. I made a clone Clair, who went occupying our seating.

"I think so, I heard that a few good A and even S-Rank adventurers are participating," Gerd replied.

"These apes are no match for us, I think this one is the strongest." Drull said and pointed at Reaper Dex, he already knows my plan.

I want to fight him in the finals, but not as Dex but as Reaper Dex. I don´t want to get too much attention, at least not as Dex. And Drull also has a costume, I changed his hair colour and he changed his face with [Body Transformation], it seems like you´re able to change your look at will with this skill.

"You think so? His mask looks creepy," Gerd comments, who only knows this Drull as a friend from Dex. The other Drull is officially Clairs bodyguard. And a clone of him plays his role at this moment. He´s the only one who knows of my plan.

This spell is just too broken. There currently are 3 beings with stats in their 75.000 and all of them are me. But I´m not controlling them as of now, the information input would be too much, I can´t concentrate on 3 different conversations at the same time.

"I like his mask, it looks cool," I said. Why does everyone think that this mask is creepy?

We had to wait a few more minutes and finally were at the registration.

"Hello," A stressed and tired woman greeted us. She must have been sitting here since morning.

"Hi, we four want to register as participants," Gerd said.

"Yes, please state your name and age," She said and smiled at me.

"My name is Dex, I´m 23, " I said.

"Bose, I´m 15," Ilza says.

"My name is Gerd, 27." Gerd

"Norm, 3040 years old," Drull

"Please, what?" The woman asked, thinking she misheard him.

"He said 34 years old, " I said and she nodded.

"Thanks, you will be in different groups, it´s a precaution against teams," She said and each of us got a number with a letter behind.

Drull is in B1, Gerd B2, I´m B3 and Ilza B4, so we separated and agreed to meet again when we finished our first round.

Real Tournament

Containment Round

B1 \ B2 \ B3 \ B4

It seems like there are truly too many participants, so I was informed, that there´ll be an additional round, where we´ll fight in a free for all until only 20 are left. The winner of this round will fight against the winner of the other groups and the best 24 of them will be in the real tournament.

We´re all in the underground waiting hall, of the school arenas, the arena has four of this large halls and they are normally used as a changing room.

"So folks, please go inside, the referee will announce the start and you´ll have 30 minutes to shrink to a reasonable size, namely 20 people. Killing is forbidden." A burly looking guy said I think he´s one of the warrior teachers, and we were led through the gate into the arena.

I and around 100 other guys, men and women alike, were now inside the arena, everyone is wary of the person next to them.

People are watching us from the rows.

"Okay folks, here is our B4 group. The best twenty of them will move up to the real preliminaries and get the chance to play in this tournament. And for those who have forgotten the winner will get the whopping price money of 100 gold coins. " The announcer screamed and the audience cheered delighted.

"Ready...set...go!" The announcer screamed and the people around me jumped into action.

Fireballs were chanted and arrows flew by. Some people even formed temporary groups and began to attack lone people.

And I was one of these lone people, three guys charged at me, while two other began to chant a Tier 4 spell and another two shot arrows at me.

"How bothersome," I mumbled and dodged the arrows.

"For the sake of our advancement, loose!" a guy screamed and tried to slice me down with his sword, but their teamwork was so bad that they hindered each other. He had to stop because the other two jumped between us. One of them tried to impale me with his spear and the other one brought his war hammer down.

I pushed the spear guy under the hammer and his shoulder broke. He began to scream.

The mages finished their chant and wind blades and a fireball flew in my direction, I kicked the screaming one out of the arena and broke a few ribs but saved his life.

I then pulled the hammer guy in front of me and used his body as a shield for the wind blades, his body was cut. Five deep marks were now visible on his armour. I threw his body at the archers, who tried to fire another volley at me, the hammer guy, as nice as he is, took them for me. I won´t forget his sacrifice.

The moment I thought that I realized, that I´m not able to dodge the fireball, hence I made a water wall which blocked it.

The guy with the sword looked at me with an open mouth and began to back away, so I conjured a stone slap and hit his head with it, knocking him unconscious.

The archers still were blocked from the hammer guy and the mages began to chant another spell.

I rushed at them and kicked both with a flying scissor kick. They made this shocked puking face and both flew out of the ring, coughing up a little blood.

The archers were able to free themselves from the hammer guy but ran away. I let them get away, the public Dex is not a brutal, none forgiving monster, that role is for Reaper Dex.

Sadly there were no more, who tried to attack me and I had to wait for 25 minutes until it ended.

It´s funny that most of the remaining participants are women, and it´s not because I snipped every man with stone slabs, which popped out of nowhere. That´s not the reason.

They announced our win and said we have to fight again in two hours, another free for all round, the 24 of this group will be the real participants. So I walked to Clair.

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Clairs POV

Lina, Drull and I were able to get a few good seats in the arena and were chatting about this and that during the fight of Norm(Drull) and Gerd. They both came in the next round, Kira and Pia were in Drulls group and also got blown away, they still are out from the crash into the wall. Norm(Drull) kicked all of them out with a gust of wind and Gerd was avoided because he´s an S-Rank adventure.

"But I never imagined that Norm is so...," Lina said as the participants of B3 were led in.

"Look there´s your brother, he really is handsome," Lina says, not finishing her first sentence.

"You think so?" I asked.

"Yes, he has the same hair colour as you and looks strong but not overly bulky, jet not scrawny. The perfect body." She said, a little red.

"True his body does look good," I said.

It´s only natural that he looks good, he´s made by me and they're no natural flaws on me, both as male and female form.

"You both are so pretty," Lina says a little envious.

The round began and we saw as Dex beat a few guy, Lina cheered for him and was impressed by his strength. The round finished and the wounded were healed, it was time for the last round, B4.

Reaper Dex and Ilza were in that group.

Ilza doesn´t know that Reaper Dex participates and she has not seen the mask as I freed her.

So he´ll be just another enemy.

"Look there´s Ilza," Lina said and pointed in her direction.

"Yeah, hope she´ll win," I said, knowing what Reaper Dex will do.

Lina began to cheer for Ilza and the announcer declared the start. And we saw them falling, 98 people were falling down, all of them unconscious. Only Ilza and Reaper Dex are left standing.

Ilza frantically looks around, not understanding what happened and the announcer stood there with an open mouth.

"W..what happened?" Lina asked.

"The guy with the cool looking mask applied a mana suppressing field." Drull explained, he´s tasked to say that the mask looks cool. Sadly not even he was able to recognise the awesomeness of my mask.

"And why is Ilza still standing?" Lina asks.

"Either because he wants her to move to the next round or she withstood the pressure," He explained. Both is the case, that only were 30.000 mana and she already has 100.000 from the runes and her own mana also rose.

Lina sighed in relieve and said, " I think his mask looks creepy."

The still slightly stunned announcer announced Ilzas and Reapers, that´s Reaper Dexs name, win and selected 18 other unconscious people for the next round.

Ilza, Gerd, Dex and Norm(Drull) came back.

"Have you seen the guy with the creepy mask?" Gerd asks us.

"I don´t think his mask is creepy, " Dex and I said at the same time. A flaw in the spell, we often say the same, because we think the same.

"Yeah, he has beaten all of them at the same time, Ilza how do you feel?" Lina asks.

"I feel fine, there´s nothing wrong, his pressure was a little surprising, but I was able to hold it," She explains.

"That guy is a monster and you too Ilza, there were a few A-Rank adventurers in your group. Even one S-Rank warrior." Gerd

"So that would mean that Ilza is technically stronger than an S-Rank adventurer?" Lina asked amazed.

"Let's say that she´s better at withstanding mana than the S-Rank warrior. Warriors don't have as much mana as magicians. Wisdom and mana are your best forte against mana pressure." Gerd

"But wouldn´t that mean that mana suppression is the worst enemy of every warrior?" I asked.

"Not necessary, we can enhance us with body enhancement, it´s harder for the mage to overcome our mana field if we´re enhanced. But this guy did it so fast and with so much mana that they weren´t able to enhance themselves." Gerd

"It was only around 30.000," I said.

"Yeah, but 30.000 directly applied at an not trained person is enough for most of the warriors and normal mages. They simply don´t have enough mana to withstand it directly." Gerd finished his explanation.

"Good, the next round is in two hours, let's go eat something," Dex says and we all agree.

"I saw a chicken kebab shop, let's eat there," I say enthusiastically, Dex agrees and we both pushed them to the shop.

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Reaper Dex POV

I kicked most of the participants out with my mana pressure. Ilza was able to withstand it, which is good, her training shows its fruits.

The announcer asked me if they´re good and I reassured him by saying that they´re only out cold.

I saw a chicken kebab shop at the entrance and are now eating there a few kebabs. As I noticed that my real half(currently Dex) and the other clones are also heading here. They think the same, so it´s only natural that they´ll come.

"Hey that´s the guy with the creepy mask," Lina said, she´s a lot more direct since I´m with her.

"Lina that´s not polite, and his mask isn´t creepy." Clair rebuked her and she got red.

"Sorry," She said.

"No problem, and thanks, young miss. I also think this mask looks good. Do you want to eat with me? The chicken is excellent." I asked them and Clair and Dex agreed and we began to eat together.

"By the way my name is Reaper," I added and they introduced themselves.

"Ilza, am I right?," I asked and she nodded shyly," I´m impressed that you´ve withstood my pressure. You must have trained hard." I praised her.

She choke her head and said, "no, I´m still lacking in many things. I was only able to withstand it thanks to the help of Clair."

"But you also trained hard," Clair said.

Which is true, she trains from 8 am to 13 pm with Gerd, then eats something, rests until 15 pm and then trains again until 20 pm with Lilia. Then again rests and eating, sleeping until 7 am and the day begins again.

"You can be proud Ilza, "I say and clap her on the shoulder.

She looks at me puzzled. And the squints her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" I ask, but she denied.

We ate and then had to go back, the next round will start in a few minutes.

"Let's see each of us again in the real tournament," I say as we walk inside the arena.

The remaining people looked either strong or worried. All of them keep as much distance as possible from Norm(Drull) and me.

"The remaining 24 of you will move up to the real tournament, give your best, as you know the winner will get 100 gold. So now fight!" The announcer screams and the audience began to cheer.

No one walked up to me and Norm(Drull). So I looked around and saw that Ilza was attacked by two women but is able to hold her ground.

They tried to attack her with a pincer attack, but she blocked the first one and threw her at the second one. Her strength and agility runes are paying off.

Norm walked up to me and said, "you think we should make this quick? These apes are so weak. Only Ilza is able to do something, strength wise, but she´s too inexperienced."

"No, she has to gain real experience. Just play around with a few weaker ones." I said and began to identify the participants, and start to take the weaker ones out.

It wouldn´t be interesting if some weak people are able to move up.

I also keep an eye on Ilza, helping her if she´s in trouble.

"What´s with this one?" A beastkin woman screams as I walk to her, she keeps firing arrows at me, but all of them were destroyed by mana pressure. It looks awesome if the arrow breaks mid-air and then crashes down.

Another beastkin throws a water ball at me but I took the mana out of it and it fades away.

"This guy is a monster," She shouts as I keep walking to the archer beastkin.

"Keep away from Ria," a third beastkin woman screams and tries to hit me with her sword.

I catch it with two fingers and disarm her by pulling at it.

"Such strength," She mumbles while trying to hold her weapon.

"Roa!" the mage screams and tries it again with a water ball.

Why are there so many women?

I finally got the sword and kick the warrior beastkin out of the ring. Then threw the sword at the mage. The sword embeds itself in her shoulder and she´s pinned at the arena wall.

The last one lets go of her weapons and tries to run away, but I threw two arrows at her ankles and she´s crippled.

She began to cry and tries to crawl away from me but is not fast enough.

I walk up to her, rip the arrows out of her ankles and then threw her against the wall.

The remaining participants then began to run away from me, but most of them were stopped by Norm(Drull) who did more gruesome things to them.

The winner were Me, Dex, Norm(Drull), Gerd, Ilza and 19 other fairly strong people.

Tomorrow is the real tournament....