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Either way, it didn’t matter. Jake was still confident they would meet sooner or later.

“So, any information on this mystery opponent?” Jake asked.

“Yeah… she may be the toughest fighter you have faced yet. You need to understand not a single opponent has even managed to land a single scratch on her clothes so far,” he said, shaking his head.

Jake found his interest peaked. “Sounds strong. Do you have any tips or tricks? Maybe just some basic information on her?”

“I can’t tell you much, but I can say she is one of the most feared types of mages in the world: an illusionist. The world itself is altered in her presence, and in her own promotion match to Paragon, she won within a minute by simply walking up to her opponent and cutting his throat… You may actually consider skipping this one,” the Battlemaster said with some genuine concern. “But if you do plan on fighting, you better fucking plan for it properly, even if you only have a day.”

“Sign me up for it,” Jake just grinned. An illusionist, eh? Poor gal to meet someone like Jake.

“Are you sure? She is also known to be very ruthless and kills most of her opponents,” the Battlemaster asked clarifyingly.

“I’m sure,” Jake smiled.

“Alright then.”

Bonus Objective gained.

Your rapid ascension through the ranks of the Colosseum of Mortals couldn’t have been swifter. If you wish to keep this streak going, you will have to defeat an opponent with power out of the ordinary for this ranking.

Failing this bonus objective will lock out many similar future bonus objectives.

Bonus Objective: Defeat the Living Nightmare

The Living Nightmare, huh? Sounded scary, but Jake didn’t feel the slightest sense of fear.

Due to his Bloodline, Jake had automatically not taken her seriously. Over the last thirty years, Jake had encountered many who used illusion magic, not to talk about those he faced before Nevermore. Due to how Bloodlines worked, Jake’s Sphere of Perception entirely ignored all illusions, and his own intuition filtered out all the false information automatically, making Jake arguably the biggest counter to illusion magic in the entire multiverse.

He still went and checked her out, with Polly also gathering some sparse information. Apparently, she was some odd fairy-like humanoid Jake didn’t remember ever encountering before, and he was honestly surprised that if creatures like them existed, they were born in F-grade.

[Fae]

What Jake did learn was that fae or fairies, or whatever one wanted to call them, were very magically inclined creatures with downright horrible physical stats by default. Based on what Polly said, they also varied widely in size and appearance, with some the size of a finger and others several meters tall.

It was a weird race, that one. The one Jake was fighting was at least human-sized. If not, the battle would have been incredibly awkward. Oh, and as Jake also saw she had small transparent wings, he also made sure to check if she could fly. She couldn’t, so that was good to know.

The match itself turned out to be… kind of interesting? The fae was about one and a half meters tall and wore a robe covering nearly her entire body, with the only thing he could see being two eyes without any pupils. As he stood behind the bars of the arena and made eye contact with her, he felt the mental magic already at work as some odd instinctual fear began to well up in his chest.

Yep, she was definitely priming him for what was about to come.

When the bars lowered, and the battle began, Jake instantly noticed all that was wrong. The entire arena was darker than before, and it almost looked like the sand was moving on its own. The fae also slowly walked out of her entrance area to the arena, stopping after only a few steps.

Jake looked at her, still maintaining eye contact. The entire arena around him had dimmed in color as if someone had turned down the contrast, and out of the corner of his eye, he felt like he constantly saw movement in the shadows. The pillars spread throughout the arena had also all turned red, with lines of blood running down their stone.

“You battle me in my world… do you truly think you can be victorious?” the voice of the fae echoed, seemingly from all directions.

Still looking at her, Jake shrugged. “We will have to find out now, won’t we? I am pretty confident I can handle your magic.”

“It’s almost cute how you put on a brave face. Do you think you are safe just because you keep your eyes on me? That the darkness cannot claim you? That the nightmare isn’t omnipresent, ready to devour you whole at any moment?”

“I’ll take my chances with the darkness; I get the feeling you are the real threat here,” Jake smiled.

“Believe what you may… but if I am the true threat, should you not aim to strike me down? Or are you satisfied, standing there, quivering in fear?” she continued, flashing a sinister grin.

“I guess I shou-“

Without any warning, Jake tilted his head to the side and swung his right hand upward as he felt it meet resistance. The image all around him faded as the figure of the fae at the other end of the arena dispersed, revealing her true form, now impaled with a katar through her heart. A dagger fell to the ground, a small cut appearing on Jake’s neck that would have been fatal if he hadn’t moved his head away.

“How… your eyes never... moved…”

“I told you I was confident in handling your magic,” Jake said as he pulled out his katar.

The fae stumbled back before falling onto her back, breathing her last breath.

It was her own damn fault that she died. If she hadn’t gone for a killing blow on Jake, he would have been nice and only kicked her in the head. But if she wanted to kill him, she should have expected to be killed in return.

Jake also just didn’t like that she killed everyone even when she didn’t have to.

After walking out of the arena and back to the Battlemaster to report, Jake read through his new system message.

Congratulations! You are now a Paragon of the Colosseum of Mortals, standing so close to the apex you can almost feel it. Only ten more victories remain before you claim the title of Champion of the Colosseum of Mortals, an honor few have experienced.

As a Paragon, you are still limited to one fight every week against other Paragons.

All crafters will sell you the best equipment the Colosseum of Mortals has on offer.

Show Match reward options have been maxed out. You are now limited to one Show Match for every win as a Paragon.

For reaching the Paragon rank without losing a single time or losing any lives, you are rewarded an extra 50,000 Colosseum Points.

For defeating the Living Nightmare, you are rewarded an extra 150,000 Colosseum Points.

Go forth and claim your rightful title as Champion.

A lot had changed. Annoyingly so. Fewer Show Matches sucked, but at least he was getting close to reaching the Champion rank. As for the points… getting 150,000 for a single stab with a katar felt like overkill, but then again, her illusions had been damn strong. Jake’s senses were totally thrown for a loop, and without his sphere, he could have seen himself in real trouble.

Either way, another rank passed, another influx of Colosseum Points.

Current objective: Be promoted from Paragon to Champion.

Current rank: Paragon (0/10)

Colosseum Points: 710,210

Lives remaining: 10

In Warlord rank, it had worked much like in the Master Gladiator rank when it came to points increasing over time. The first win had given 4200, the next 4400, with the final one giving 6000. The same was true for Show Matches, where the first four weeks of matches had given 3000, and after he got five wins as a Warlord, it jumped to 4500. The difficulty had naturally also jumped, but far from to a level where Jake couldn’t handle it.

Jake, seeing no reason to delay and fail to keep his streak going, naturally asked the Battlemaster about scheduling his first Paragon fight, and…

”Remember that Benevolent Monk guy?” the Battlemaster asked.

”Sure do,” Jake nodded as he tried to hide a smile. Here we go.

”Well, I don’t know if this is good or bad news for you, but your first match as a Paragon will be his promotion match. I will admit I found it a bit odd that they chose to make his promotion match against the only person he has ever lost to in the Colosseum, but after looking into it, I found the reason… this match will have a referee,” the Battlemaster sighed.

”And what exactly does that mean?” Jake questioned.

”That the usual rules are out the window.”

“Explain,” Jake frowned.

“Being demanding now suddenly, huh? Anyway, it means that the referee will decide the rules, which means that should the monk try to make any house rules again, they will be denied. Additionally, the referee will be the one to decide the means of victory, and chances are they will make it a fight either to the death or until one party is unable to fight anymore. Based on what I heard, people loved the fight versus the dwarf and want a repeat of something like that,” the Battlemaster said with a sigh.

Jake frowned even more. He didn’t like the feeling of being forced by the Colosseum into a death match like this, but he also knew that was likely what their fight would have turned into anyway.

“So, is the match tomorrow?” Jake asked.

“No, no, it will not be,” the Battlemaster shook his head. “It will be in a week. The organizers were fine with having it the next day in prior ranks to ride some of the hype from you just winning ten fights. That isn’t the case for Paragons anymore. Paragons are all rare and powerful and bring in a huge crowd no matter what, as everyone is excited to see who may become the next Champion. Ah, and it’s the same for those Show Matches. Can’t do one before after your first victory in the arena either, so for the next seven days, you are free to do whatever you want. I would recommend that you spend that time preparing for your fight to not end up like that dwarf.”

One would think that Jake got disappointed or annoyed at being told he couldn’t fight right away… but it was actually the opposite. Jake welcomed this downtime, especially knowing who he would fight.

There were indeed preparations to be made, and seeing as he had unlocked buying the best items the Colosseum had to offer, it was time to finally get a bow in case it was needed during the fight. Buying one would tip off the Benevolent Monk and any upcoming opponents, but he believed it wasn’t worth the risk to enter the arena against the monk without a good bow available. While he did have ten lives remaining, wasting one on gambling on not needing a bow seemed stupid.

Heading to the shopping district right away and checking out what was on offer, Jake saw that after reaching Paragon rank, he could even buy legendary items. The problem with those was the price. Every single weapon cost between 100,000 and more than 700,000 Colosseum Points, with the shop only showing items within Jake’s budget, meaning there were probably items available that were even more expensive.

While the refund policy was an option to get half back, Jake still ended up settling on an ancient rarity bow that he believed would suit his needs.

[Immutable Hunter’s Bow (Ancient)] – The best bow does not need to be complicated, but one made with the basics refined to perfection. This bow is made of a type of wood often compared to metal, making it effectively indestructible and with incredible mana conductivity. Each end of the bow is sharpened and allows the bow to be used as a melee weapon in an emergency. Enchantments: Insured.

Requirements: Soulbound. Warlord Colosseum Rank.

Cost: 26,000 Colossem Points.

Jake had purposefully gone for a weapon he believed would be able to handle his destructive arcane energies. While Jake didn’t have the Arcane Powershot skill, the dozens of broken bow fragments in his practice room were a good indication he could still use something incredibly similar.

This bow should be able to handle that. It was one that threw away all other enchantments just for increased durability, after all.

Having the ability to hit people with the bow was also a fun little option. Blocking with it, too. Jake did a few stress tests when he received the bow, and the durability truly did live up to the name. He seriously doubted any level 0 could break it.

Jake also already had a plan when it came to the arrows he would use.

The Earthborn Faithful had used a special technique to effectively infuse magic spells into gemstones that he could activate during combat for far faster casting speed and less mana expenditure. Seeing this had given Jake an idea, and after confirming with Owen, Jake got to work.

As for what he confirmed?

That one was allowed to bring their own weapons into the arena as long as they were self-made. This honestly didn’t affect a lot of people and was incredibly rare, but in retrospect, Jake had already seen it a few times. Jake seriously doubted some Quartermaster or blacksmith had given those weird hidden magical tattoos to the Benevolent Monk as an example.

What Jake wanted to do was a bit different, though. He wasn’t planning on crafting any weapons to use but instead to go a far simpler route: conjuration. When Jake had asked Owen and Polly if one was allowed to bring their own conjured items into the arena, both of them had looked at him as if he was an idiot. It was common knowledge that summoning anything drained energy as upkeep, so even if one did conjure weapons, it was usually done right before the fight started… but Jake was different.

He would make his own arrows. Doing this, he would even save points by not having to buy a quiver. The basic one the Quartermaster had given him the very first day he joined the Colosseum of Mortals was more than enough.

Due to the nature of Jake’s arcane affinity, if he made an arrow with purely stable arcane mana, it wouldn’t begin to dissipate at all by itself within any short period of time. To test, he had even made an arrow and left it sitting out for over a month before it slowly began to crack and break, simply due to the environmental mana slowly wearing it down.

So, for arrows, Jake would conjure them himself. He also prepared two other surprises, as he did have two more slots in his Ring of Deft Hands aside from his katars and bow. Because, yes, he could even store his stable arcane constructs within, the system recognized them as physical objects and not just normal conjured items that usually dissipated if deposited in a spatial ring. This was, for example, why the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter couldn’t be stored in his usual spatial necklace… though now he was interested to see if he could store the Protean Arrow. Probably not, and it didn’t really matter due to his quiver, but he still wanted to test it once outside.

But making his arrows was not the only thing Jake had worked on when it came to utilizing his arcane mana. No, he had a project he had been working on even before he began to conjure arrows.

Because while Jake had lost all his skills, that didn’t mean he couldn’t replicate at least some of them. And there was one thing he had wanted to do for a long time that he was now finally confident in succeeding in:

Transmutation.

That’s right, it was time to turn his katars far deadlier… and save tens of thousands of Colosseum Points by not having to buy replacements.