Arena 3

I walked down the ring, shaking some ash from my sleeve.

"What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, it looked like a conjurer's AoE spell, but he said it wasn't."

"He could be lying to confuse the opponent."

"But that spell originated from his body, not outside."

"Does that mean it was actually an augmentor AoE?"

"No, that's impossible, right?"

"Augmentor can only affect their bodies and what they are directly touching. They can't cast wide spells like that."

"Isn't that similar to what that Tennyson failure wants to do?"

'They picked that up fast; I underestimated them.'

I just left as fast as I could since my card had no new notification; I assumed Monroe was still fighting, so I headed to ring E2.

As I arrived, I found Monroe still on the platform, against a man around 20 wearing a bright orange shirt and dark green pants. Monroe was jumping side to side, dodging water bullets. After a few more shots, Kust stopped to take a breather as he was running low on mana.

Monroe took the opportunity to build his spell as his hand began to glow bright red, then orange, then yellow, until it finally reached white. Not waiting for his opponent to recover, he punched the floor, causing a ripple of flame to travel across the ring.

The power of the punch was immense as it began to melt the concrete floor as it rippled in waves across the ground. Unfortunately, The range was limited since the end of the wave reached just in front of Kust, who jumped back in surprise. In addition, the power loss was exponential the further the away the spell got from Monroe.

'He is losing too much power going for an AoE when instead he could have gone for a single target attack.'

The effect of the spell soon subsided while Monroe stayed kneeling on the semi-melted floor. Kust took the opportunity and blasted Monroe with a water bullet, knocking Monroe out of the ring.

'Monroe has all the makings of a conjurer; regrettably, he's a pure augmentor. He prefers to fight long-distance but has only a close-combat capable spell in his repertoire.

Once again, I walked over to where Monroe landed and stood over him.

'Deja Vu.'

"So, I made progress, right?" Monroe said as he looked up at me.

"Barely. Why did you go for a wide-area attack rather than a single target one?" I responded

"What do you mean? My spell is only for AoE," Monroe asked in confusion as he struggled to sit up.

"Have you ever heard of an augmentor that has a wide-area spell before?" I asked with a slightly condescending tone that I tried to hide.

"No, all augmentor spells are narrow-space spells," Monroe answered.

"So? What makes you think that as an augmenter with an augmentor spell that 'your' spell is AoE?" I asked, again trying and failing to hide my tone.

Monroe responded by tilting his head and crossing his legs. After half an hour of waiting, he stood up, motioned me to follow, walked over to the consoles on the wall, and logged in.

After he logged out, I did the same and logged in to my account, took my name out of the randomizer, and logged out. Monroe asked me to follow him again and lead me to a room at the other end of the floor.

This building was divided into seven floors, each floor specially designed for a specific class range. We were currently on the seventh floor, where all unclassed facilities are located; the first floor was for the sixth class.

The fifth class and above had their own separate building, commonly referred to as the Stadium, because every fight in there was televised or broadcasted; additionally, every stage had seating for audiences.

Monroe opened the door and led me inside. The room was a wide-open training room with simple square pillars throughout it.

Monroe moved over to an isolated area of the room and began to activate his spell. His left foot began to glow at the same intensity and rate as during his fight. Once his leg became white-hot, he stomped the ground, forcing the fire to flow straight forward, creating a crooked path of intense flames. The flame column continued for 10 meters; the intensity and heat were homogenous throughout all of it.

"I did it!? It's not perfect, but I did it!" Monroe exclaimed.

"It won't be perfect until you can alternate between narrow and wide areas, but congratulations nonetheless," I added.

'Monroe is the original inventor of this technique, but in the original timeline, he didn't complete it until he was 29. Although it's not fully finished, this is a significant achievement that formerly took him 3 more years to reach.'

"Single target and AoE will only be the beginning; imagine what an Augmentor will be capable of doing if they can cast mid to long-range attacks. What if, instead of relying on the floor, one can just fire it like a conjurer through the air?" Monroe physically shined in excitement as his body began to glow a dull red.

"Calm down, will you? Before you burn through your clothes," I said monotonously.

"Oh right, haha, don't want to have to go home naked again," Monroe laughed out loud as he lowered his temperature.

"Well, if that's all you wanted to show me, it's time I go back home," I said, slightly stretching myself.

"Home, already? It's not even 3 yet," he said with a mild look of disappointment around his eyes.

"It's already 3," I said, looking at my watch. "I have other things to do. I'll come by once a day around noon. If I need to find you, I'll call you on the Arena card."

"Ah, man. Alright, I'll see you tomorrow; I practically live here, either way," Monroe mumbled out.

'Mhm? Why don't I know about this? I don't think he ever mentioned living in Athens in the original timeline. Ah, wait? Is it because of them?'

"Do you mean because of your older brother and sister?" I asked with some hesitation.

"Yeah, the golden siblings of the Tennyson Blood. They are here for a few upcoming fights, and they dragged me along. But never mind that, thanks for the help. I might even be able to win some matches now," Monroe said as he flashed his heated fist.

'If I remember correctly, he and his siblings aren't actually on bad terms; contrarily, they have a pretty good relationship. But always being compared to them does put him in a sour mood every once in a while.'

I finished my talk with Monroe and walked down to the first floor. I headed into the bathroom, took off my mask, and changed my clothes. I had brought a change of clothes with me and rented a locker on the first floor to put them in while I was fighting.

"I should probably get it out of the way now before I forget," I said out loud to myself.

'I this morning Rose and Angie made a comment about going to the store after school. Although Rose prevented Angie from saying what they were doing, I already know. I've lived this life before, after all.'

Next week we are going over to Percy Priest Lake, with Angie's boyfriend Josh driving us over. It is a fun summer vacation activity since there's nothing much we can do ourselves. They went to buy swimwear.

'I don't have any swimwear myself, so I should probably buy some today.'

I headed over across the street and walked over to the Arena-own Shopping center. This shopping center is the biggest in Athens and the most popular for people of all ages and statuses. Although it was formerly for Mark one's needs, it quickly grew, now anyone can go there and get anything they want.

I rented a bike from a corner stand and rode it to the shopping center's entrance. A few minutes later, I arrived. I secured the bike and walked inside.

'It's just as big as I remember. This is going to be a pain in the ass. Where the hell is the swimwear?'

Completely lost, I walked into the closest shop and asked for directions to the summer wear shops. The clerk in the electronic store happily directed me to the best shop, in her opinion.

It took me around 10 minutes to reach the shop. As I walked in, I was welcomed by a wide smile clerk, who asked if I needed any assistance.

I asked the direction of the swimwear, and she happily directed me over.

Walking over, I got lost in thought, dodging the teens and young adults packed into the store.

'I don't know why I even care about this. Before I just wore some gym shorts and a white t-shirt. But since I came back, I've done and cared about things I didn't used to. Is my mind being affected by my current age?'

While I have memories of my 69-year-old self, my brain and brain chemistry are currently only that of a 13-year-old. My mental age and physical age are in a battle, and it seems like my mental age is losing.

"Ah, J! What are you doing here?" a startled voice asked in a high-pitched tone.

I returned to consciousness, only to stare at Rose and Angela, each holding a pair of bikinis, while Josh was carrying 4 bags in each hand.

'He looks miserable.'

Rose immediately hid the bikini she was holding behind her back.

"Ah, well, I was passing by and remembered y'all said y'all were gonna go to the mall. That reminded me about the trip next week, so I came in to buy some swimwear," I said in complete truthfulness.

"Oh! Well, mmm..." Rose looked around nervously.

"The guy's clothes are over there," Angie came into the rescue as she pointed to the other end of the shop, behind them.

"Yeah, I was heading there. By the way, have y'all been here all this time? It's been over three hours since school ended," I asked, directing it at Josh.

"Yeah, you think choosing what to get is easy?" Angie answered while Josh audibly whimpered.

"I'll go with you," Josh said, seeing me nod to Angie in response, and walked away.

"Where do you think you're going? If you go, who's gonna carry all of this?" Angie said, raising around 6 different pairs of bikinis in one hand and holding Josh by the collar with the other.

Josh looked at me with eyes filled with despair. I could only mouth 'sorry' in apology as I walked away. He looked at me with an expression filled with betrayal.

'What can I do? They don't seem to want me with them; if I stood up for him, Angie would chew me out. He's a friend, but I live with her. I'd rather betray him than make her mad.'

I didn't stay long. I grabbed the first pair of properly fitting pair swim trunks and headed over to pay. I passed the girls who were surprised I was already leaving. Since they were still deciding, I paid for the tunks and headed back out.

----

"Can you just pay attention?" I said, my voice deeper and filled with fatigue.

"Haha, come on, Captain! Don't be such a tight ass," A 32-year-old man said. His wild brown-red hair waved through the air as his bronze-like scale armor glimmered in the orange rays of the setting sun.

"Captain, my ass! Just pay attention Monroe, this plan's chances depend on you!" I said, my voice gravelly.

"Relax! I'm the Flame Hero, Monroe The Infernal, Hahaha! Just leave it to me," Monroe laughed heartily.

"Shut it! You overgrown child!" a 35-year-old brunette said, smacking Monroe over the head.

"Shut it, you two! We have a mission, sorry about that, Captain. Please continue, ignore them," a man in full plate armor said.

"Thank you, Aaron. As I was saying, we are going to divide into two teams, Adventures and Soldiers. Monroe will draw the primary fire allowing two units to move to the sides; Rogan's party will back up Monroe. Aaron, your team, will advance as we discussed earlier." I explained.

"So a pincer?" a woman around 43 asked.

"That's the first step, Rogan. Our priority is not to push them back," I responded.

"Let them come! I'll hold them back for as long as we need," Monroe added.

After a few more minutes of discussion, the group moved to prepare for their attack.

I left my tent wearing a battered black combat uniform, with a grey gunmetal rifle hanging across my chest.

"Is that the so-called Spellgun you crest soldiers are so proud of?" Monroe's annoyingly chipper voice called from the side.

"It is. Got a problem with it?" I responded.

The Spellgun was similar to an old FN P90, except for its overall size being approximately 37 inches. It had a height of around 8.5 inches without a scope and a width of almost 2.5 inches. The design made it look like a block with an embedded grip, not the most fashionable, but it did the job.

"While we have to rely on our Marks and actually improve our magic, you soldiers just have to pull a trigger," Monroe scoffed.

I threw my gun at Monroe, who barely managed to catch it, and said, "If you think a soldier is only as good as his gun, try shooting me."

Without hesitation, Monroe aimed the gun at me and pulled the trigger. In a blink, I was out of the line of sight, holding a knife to Monroe's throat.

In a flash, Monroe's whole body ignited, drowning the surroundings in the blazing heat.

I pulled back, holding the Knife in my left hand. He converged the flame emanating from his body to his fist in microseconds and shot it out towards me. I reacted in time, dodging the raging fireball, but it still managed to singe the hairs on my face. Without waiting, I moved in covering, my body in frost, and landed a punch on Monroe's jaw, making him stumble back.

I then pulled a pistol from my side holster and pointed it directly between his eyes.

"I thought you weren't going to use your gun?" Monroe said, spitting some blood to the floor and melting the frost that had grown on his face.

"I never said I wasn't gonna use it; I'm a soldier after all. A gun is just a tool; it's useful, but a tool nonetheless. And I'm gonna use every tool at my disposal to win," I said, looking down between his legs.

Monroe followed my gaze only to find an icicle centimeters away from his groin originating from my foot.

"That's just playing dirty. I thought you soldiers had a code," Monroe said.

"Honor and fairness are only for the dead. I plan to stay alive," I said.