Expert-rank.
"So, this is what an Elven Town looks like?" Phina said as she fanned herself with a fan she bought. "I didn't think an Elven Town would be this hot."
"A lot of people that don't travel around tend to forget that Arenas are actually prisons." Pida said as he lifted his mask slightly to let in some air. "Elves hate the heat the most, that's why it's so hot here."
"That doesn't make sense, why don't they just move?" Phina said as she internally debated taking her mask off.
"The heat follows them. If more than 20 Elves are in a certain distance of each other, the entire area around them gets bombarded with this heat." Pida explained.
"Why would your grandpa come here?" Phina groaned.
"He wouldn't. We're just stopping by to rest before we go to a city." Pida sighed. "We're more likely to find him there."
"What does he even look like?" Phina realized that she doesn't even know the man's name.
"My grandpa has short blonde hair, blue eyes and very very pale skin. He's decently built for an old man. He's an Apex-ranker with a lot of fighting experience." Pida described his grandpa. "He said he was going to go help out Humans, Elves and Angels before he left. I still don't understand why. He never cared about any of the war stuff before."
"Why even is there a war? I never really understood it." Phina tried to insinuate that she was originally born here.
"It's because of racism. That's literally it." Pida scoffed with disgust. "Demibeasts think they're better than Humans, so they want to enslave them. Angels think that Demons are sinful creatures, so they want them dead. Orcs are highly attracted to Elves, so they want them as sex slaves."
"That's just stupid. Why would anyone rally behind such a cause?" Phina's face contorted in disgust behind her mask.
"Well...it started as that. It started with that, then someone died, so it became a revenge thing. Revenge caused more revenge, which then caused a war and dug hatred deep into the hearts of everyone." Pida sighed. "Of course, there are some that realize how stupid it sounds like me and, I'm guessing, you. Sadly, there aren't enough to make an actual change."
"So, what's the plan for finding your grandpa?" Phina asked as she entered an inn with Pida.
"Well, I was hoping to get to the closest city and ask around." Pida said as he approached the front desk. "One room, please."
"One?" Phina raised an eyebrow.
"If you're not satisfied with this, you can pay for another room." Pida rolled his eyes. "It's a room, not a bed."
"I-If you want, we have rooms with two separate beds." the receptionist suggested awkwardly. "This room will cost around 20 Beast Repellants."
"This is daylight robbery." Pida muttered as he took out 10 Beast Repellants.
"Is it normally this expensive to rent a room?" Phina began to worry as she took out 10 Beast Repellants.
"No, it usually costs 4 for a room." Pida said with a slightly aggressive tone.
"We apologize, but you'd find our prizes quite low when compared with other inns in the Elven Hellzone." the receptionist said with an apologetic tone. "It is because of the cooling function in the rooms."
"Yeah sur-" Pida paused in realization, then he slammed the Beast Repellants on the counter and grabbed the key from the receptionist's hand. He looked at the room number from the token attached to the key and rushed to the room. Phina quickly followed behind him.
Click.
They quickly opened the door just for a refreshing breeze to slam their faces. Phina took no time to immediately take off all her armor and leave nothing on her body but her underwear and mask. Pida didn't even bother to look as he did the same, he even took his mask off.
"Oh, that's the stuff." Pida groaned as he felt the cool air hit his entire body. He then turned to Phina who was laying next to him on the ground. "You're not taking off your mask? I bet it's pretty sweaty under."
"You know what? Fuck this." Phina got up and went to the bathroom. In the bathroom, she took a towel that was there and wiped her face as she took off the mask. After wiping, she returned to Pida with her mask back on. "I'm using this, so this is my new face."
Her mask began merging with her face. Her face then transformed into a thinner face with a little lighter skin tone and sharper eyes. Her hair also started turning black as it grew in length. She had no one in particular that she thought of, but it was a combination of a bunch of features she found quite pretty.
"..." Phina looked at Pida with expectation. "Aren't you gonna be shocked?"
"Why would I? Grandpa used to change how he looks like every month or so." Pida stopped paying Phina any attention as he laid back on the ground and enjoyed the breeze coming from the ceiling.
"Wait. Doesn't that mean that your grandpa probably changed how he looked? How are we gonna find him?!" Phina asked in a panic.
"He changed how he looked before he left." Pida said with confidence. "We have at least half a month before he changes again."
"If you say so..." Phina sighed as she laid beside him to enjoy the breeze too. "How does this thing even work?"
"I'm guessing it's a combination of the Element of Wind and the Element of Water's subsidiary, the Element of Ice." Pida theorized.
"Whatever, man." Phina felt everything that the mask felt. It was as if she wasn't wearing a mask at all. "This is actually amazing. I missed not having to wear a mask."
"Hey, Shira." Pida turned his head to look at Phina beside him.
"What?" Phina looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Do you ever wonder what the outside world is like?" the man sighed. "I heard it was huge. How many people do you think can fit in it? We're one of the oldest Arenas at the Exodia, and we're facing a problem of overpopulation. Do you think someone will kill Seraphina Ender and rid us of this suffering?"
Pida paid close attention to Phina's response. "I...guess so, but isn't it unfair? She's done nothing wrong to us, yet everyone wants to kill her."
"Sacrifices must be made." Pida coldly muttered.
"..."
"..."
The two laid in silence. Phina sighed as she grabbed some shorts and a thin shirt and left the room. "I'll go for a walk."
"Don't take too long." Pida looked at the ceiling in a daze. He then muttered to himself. "I haven't read her mind since we fought that hawk Lord...should I just kill her and get this over with? I'm pretty sure I can take her by surprise."
"Whatever." Pida shrugged as he got into his bed.
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Phina yawned as she walked down the street. It wasn't as hot during the night, but it was very humid. "What am I gonna do? I still don't know how to progress with Bow before the Lord."
After she turned a corner, she found herself in a deserted alley. As she tried to turn around she saw a golden figure behind her. "I didn't think you'd have someone beside you all this time. Now that you're alone, we can have a chat."
"It's you! From the Tekker's shop!" Phina smiled as she entered the alleyway.
"I was trying to give you your reward, but you were with that blonde guy for an entire week." the man chuckled.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." Phina finally realized.
"Seraphina, I kn-"
"How do you know my name?!?" Phina tried to unsheathe her dagger, yet she had left it at the inn.
"Calm down, I even called you by your name back then. You were just too distraught to notice." the man shining with a golden light laughed. "Anyway, I know your problem and I want to help. If you reach the Apex-rank, all your problems will disappear."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Phina asked cautiously.
"With all due respect, you have nothing I could ever want." the man said in all seriousness.
"Then, what do you want? Why are you helping me?" Phina couldn't get her head around it.
"If you reach the Core and become the World Lord, I'll tell you everything. Deal?" Phina could hear the excitement in his voice.
"Alright. Thanks for the advice, I guess." Phina sighed.
"It's my pleasure." the figure then disappeared.
"..." Phina grit her teeth before sighing. "I guess I need to rank up. I can skip the Peak stage of the Advanced-rank. I can also skip the Early, Middle and High stages of the Founder-rank. The Exodia will be mad at me for essentially destroying my foundations, but I need to get the hell out of here quickly."
Phina walked back to the inn with a plan in mind.
"I'm back." Phina said as she entered the room. She quickly noticed Pida sleeping peacefully on one of the beds. "How can he sleep with his door open?"
She quickly locked the door of the room and sat on her bed cross-legged. She tried to grasp the Elements in the room. It didn't take her long to sense the Element of Ice around her. "Well, that was easy...too easy...what the hell?"
"I guess I'm an Early stage Expert-rank now?" Phina felt that something was wrong, yet she had become an Expert-ranker. "Alright, then. Let's move on to the Middle stage."
Phina reached out with her mind to the Element of Ice, trying to move it as if it was World Energy. The Element of Ice moved slightly, but in no way was it enough to be used in combat.
"There we go." Phina smiled. "I just gotta practice and this'll be easy."
She yawned once more. "Oh, yeah. I haven't slept in a week. This heat also sapped my usable Life Energy. I should sleep."
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"Why have you called for this meeting?" Karuk, the Orc Monarch, glared at Rain.
"Why don't we stop this war?" Rain's response however shocked all the twelve other Law-rankers present at the table.
"Is it because we killed one of your Law-rankers?" Jennifer, the Monarch of the Demibeasts, laughed as she sent mocking looks towards the Dual Monarchs, Faust and Denise, who were the cause of Ikor's death.
"You wanna go, asshole?!" Faust stood aggressively as unsheathed his sword.
"Calm down." Jefiri sighed. "If you try anything here, everyone in this room will strike you down in less than a second."
They were currently sitting in a room inside a fortress. This fortress was the foundation of Humanoids in the Killers' Arena. It could take on multiple Law-rankers from the outside, but if it got damaged from the inside and got destroyed, the Beasts' Law-rankers would overwhelm the Humanoids and kill everyone.
Faust grit his teeth as he sat back down. Neo, the Demon Monarch, asked. "What do you mean by stop the war? Are you surrendering, Angel Monarch?"
"No...we...well...we might have pissed off Mysie." Rain said nervously.
Everyone in the room felt a deep chill go down their backs.
"About a week ago, we realized that we were screwed. So, as a last resort, we decided to ask Mysie for help." Rain continued. "After we reached out to him, he said that he'll only help us by instructing us. We knew it wasn't enough, so we said that if he didn't help us, the balance would collapse and the Beasts will kill everything in the Arena, including his family. He...didn't take it well. He said he's going to give us three months to enjoy whatever is left of our lives, because he decided that the era of Law-rankers is no more."
"So? What's your plan?" an old man with wolf ears and a short yet well-kept beard spoke. This man wearing Beast furs was Colish, the Demibeasts' Elder.
"He said that this entire war started because we, as the leaders of the two factions, let our power get to our heads." Rain explained. "So, he plans to wipe us out and let the new generation take over. Due to the lack of Law-rankers, they'll have to cooperate. If they choose to continue the war after they stabilize their rule, he'll give up and wipe out everyone except for a small group of children from each race. He's willing to restart our civilization from zero, saying he'd protect them until they grew back up, with no past influence to continue this war."
"Our plan is to stop this war now and prove to him that he doesn't need to wipe us out." Jefiri continued. "If we can work together to find Seraphina Ender, then hand her over to him, he might let us go."
"I highly doubt it." the Human wearing a mask said as he stood and started walking to the door. "He'd probably say that after he dies, we'll just get back to fighting. I also don't support the idea of us working together to find Ender. There are only three pardons, whoever is in possession of her will hold the power of who lives and who dies."
"Why are you doing this?! You're Human, aren't you? If you had helped us, we could've wiped them out." Faust snapped at the man that was standing in front of the door.
The man chuckled. "Unlike all you geezers who are all over 70, I'm still in my 30s and I'm already a Law-ranker. I have the potential to be chosen by Leo and become a Lord-ranker. So, unlike all of you, I have a completely unbiased view. I'm an orphan. This Killers' Arena gave me no friends, no caretakers and no mercy. Honestly, if I could, I would absolutely kill Ender and use a pardon for me and destroy the other two. No one in this Arena deserves life. We are all byproducts of either rapists or illegal slave traders that were captured by the Exodia. We're all piles of shit...I just so happen to be a pile of shit that had some gold hidden in it."
He continued through the door and left.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Nightmare has finally shown his true colors..." Tear, the Demon Elder, sighed as she massaged her forehead. Her white robes beautifully contrasting her dark grey skin.
"I told you he was untrustworthy." Lurta, the Orc Elder, scoffed. He always hated the idea of a Human on their team.
"Great. Now we've lost another Law-ranker." Rain bit her lip.
"I personally agree to the idea of getting together to kill Seraphina Ender. As for the pardons, let's request the Exodia to hold a tournament between the Law-rankers. Each race will have one Law-ranker represent them. The Law-rankers will enter a free-for-all and the last three win the pardons for their race." Neo proposed with a sigh. "As much as I hate this idea, I have nothing better."
Everyone silently nodded as they slowly got up and walked towards the door.