Chapter 212 The Arena
Wain was finally ready to fight and shed rivers of blood. Dozens of arenas hovered around him, and any of them Wain could enter.
Many went to the Arenas to obtain souls and other various materials to improve skills or equipment.
However, for others, resources were not as important. The most significant thing for them was the opportunity to fight with strong opponents. They felt that a near-death experience was a much better way to progress than medications or crystals.
In part, they were right, as they gained invaluable experience and improved their fighting abilities during the death battles. This could not be learned by using a few souls to improve skills.
"So... Where do I go first?" Wain muttered and opened the skill list.
After looking at the required souls and Essence, Wain decided first to improve the Chronicle of his additional soul. He had gotten Black Thunder's Renegade quite some time ago, and that soul was still useful and strong.
However, the conditions for improving this soul were quite difficult. He needed ten First Chronicle Rare Rating souls with the lightning attribute and ten similar souls with the darkness attribute.
That meant he needed to kill twenty pretty strong First Chronicle monsters. Not even Wain could do that right after the evolution.
"Hmm, I need darkness and lightning. Well, there's probably an arena with those elements." Thought Wain and walked over to one shining dot of blue.
[Fallen Forest.
Chronicle: First
Rank: B
Elements: Lightning, Darkness, Earth, Wood, Stone
Warriors: 10,000+]
'That's not bad, there are a lot of enemies in this arena, and also, it has a pretty high rank. Most likely, strong creatures are fighting there. That's what it is.'
He nodded, and a white mask appeared in his hands. Wain put it on and smiled contentedly.
He made up his mind and touched a structure that looked like an ancient ruin. Ink appeared around him, which gradually engulfed him and transported him to another space.
Whoooooosh.
Wain appeared in the middle of the forest, and a massive black pillar of light burst from his body.
It was powerful and reached the sky in a second, piercing the clouds. Wain was surprised, he didn't understand what had happened.
'What is it?' Wain wondered, but the next moment, he saw a thin white pillar in the distance.
Then Wain realized that it was happening to everyone who had just appeared in the arena, but he didn't know that the pillars had another, more important meaning.
Powerful fighters, soul hunters, alchemists, blacksmiths, and other interesting personalities came to the arena.
However, besides them, members of powerful families, clans, and guilds also came to the arenas. Obviously, not everyone in the arena was equally powerful.
The arena functioned as a mechanism that let others know if an exciting opponent or an underdog had entered the arena. The pillar of light was a kind of indicator of the strength or uniqueness of the person.
The white light was the most common and weakest usually. It appeared when an ordinary member of a clan or some organization entered the arena.
Then came green and blue. It could be a medium strength loner or a might member of an organization.
Above the blue were pink, red, and orange. Given their Chronicle, pink and red denoted unique fighters with strong skills and a meaningful position in the World of Darkness.
Orange appeared over people who held leadership positions in clans and organizations, as well as had extensive experience in battles.
The last was black, the most impressive color. It did not show the level of strength, the position of a person, or the power of the skills he possessed.
Such a pillar showed that the arena, for whatever reason, could not recognize the power of this fighter. Simply put, it was a dark horse.
The black pillar appeared even rarer than the orange one, so several fighters immediately headed to him when Wain appeared. They wanted to know what had happened there and who had come into the arena.
Determining that Wain was a human was impossible. Thanks to the Faceless Aristocrat Mask, no one could view information about him, even with special methods.
He also wore a long cloak that concealed the distinctive markings of certain races.
His black hair was thick and completely covered his ears. Wain had green eyes, and that color could be found in most existing races, including monsters.
Simply put, to others, Wain could be like an Inerian, Elf, Vampire, Demon, and a few other races, maybe even a monster.
When Wain appeared in the Arena, he looked around. Around him was the usual forest, with tall trees, and behind him was a massive stone cliff.
The Ring of Damned shone brightly, and a platinum sword appeared in Wain's hand. He decided to go deep into the woods and search for enemies.
Wain wanted to engage in a large-scale battle similar to war and use the fifth form there. However, he did not know that his first enemy was already close.
Whoooooosh.
Suddenly something glittered in the crown of a tree. Wain reacted quickly and bounced to the side. A dark, short blade flew into the spot where he had just stood.
Then someone jumped down from the tree, pulled the blade from the ground, and prepared to fight.
"Well, hello there, Mr. Incognito." The tall man said, smiling.
He had pale skin, dark eyes, long black hair, and two horns protruding from his forehead. The man's torso was bare.
He was muscular and strong. His weapons were two identical, short blades with dark blades and square guards.
Wain had never met a person like this man before, but he had no trouble guessing it was a demon.
'This is interesting. Not a minute after I got here, and I've already met a member of a new race and an opponent.'
"Shall we begin?" Said the demon and slammed his blades into each other several times, creating sparks.
Wain answered nothing. He looked up his opponent's information.
[Orin
Chronicle: First
Voids: 1]
'Hmm? Just Orin? Is that a pseudonym, or did he choose to write his name that way?' Wain pondered.
"Hey, would you stop ignoring me? That's pretty hurtful."
"I don't mind fighting you, but I have one question for you."
"I'm listening to you carefully." Orin replied with a sly smile.
"What is your attribute?"
"Why do you need to know that? Ah... You must have come here to hunt for souls. It doesn't matter, though. My attribute is metal."
"Metal... I'm sorry, but in that case, we have no reason to fight, goodbye."
"Huh, do you really think you can get away from me?"
A large amount of energy appeared around Orin's feet, and the next moment he was tearing toward Wain.
The ground beneath his feet cracked and shattered. Orin was like an unstoppable projectile hurtling toward its target.
Wain didn't use any skill or run away. He continued to stand until the very last moment. When Orin approached him and was ready to strike, Wain jumped up short so that his foot touched Orin's left shoulder.
He then bounced off Orin and made his way to the nearest tree. Orin did not expect Wain to do anything like that. Moreover, he lost his balance and fell to the ground as if someone had pressed him down.
"You!" Orin said furiously and turned around, but he saw Wain nowhere else. It was as if he had evaporated.
"Damn! I knew I should have prepared myself before attacking the black pillar fighter. Who is he?!"
...
Wain jumped through the trees and rocks his way out of the forest. He wasn't interested in one-on-one battles, especially those who didn't have the attributes he needed. It would be a waste of time.
'Hmm, I need Rare Rating Souls to improve Black Thunder's Renegade, no point in being distracted by those whose souls are stronger or weaker. I need monsters. Nest or Dungeon would be ideal.' Wain thought.
Crackle.
Suddenly, a crackling sound of a branch breaking and a blue flash appeared in front of Wain. He reacted instantly and blocked the blow. However, his opponent had no intention of continuing, he immediately retreated.
But, suddenly Wain was attacked from the other side. The number of enemies gradually increased until the number reached five. Wain struggled to block their attacks and dodged by jumping from tree to tree.
'Damn, their combined attacks are quite problematic, as well they are fast and strong, but it seems they each have the lightning attribute. It looks like I found my first victims.'
Wain moved his sword into the ring, and dark electrical discharges appeared on his hands. Then he pressed his palms together, and thunderclouds appeared over the forest.
His enemies tried to retreat, but it was too late. A dark beam of thunder came down like a heavenly punishment, and the lightning eye exploded. Part of the forest was destroyed, and an electric shockwave hit each attacker.
Tree trunks were blown to splinters, leaves were torn into tiny pieces, and plants and shrubs were wiped out and turned to dust.
Step. Step. Step.
Wain walked slowly across the scorched earth due to the force of the lightning. His dark blue cloak fluttered in the wind, and an unwavering aura emanated from him.
With this attack, he killed two of the five attackers. They were closest to the epicenter of the blast.
They were demons, just like Orin, but their appearance was strikingly different. Their skin was pale blue, and they had only one short horn each.
Wain didn't know if this mattered in demons, so he couldn't assess whether his enemies were more dangerous than Orin.
The remaining three demons managed to survive but were seriously wounded. They surrounded Wain and prepared for battle but were in no hurry to attack.
"Hey, motherfucker, who are you?" Said one of them.
"Я? Given the circumstances, I'm nobody." Wain said calmly and waved his hand. Two blue souls flew into his body.
[Soul of Thunder Swallow (Destroyed)
Chronicle: First
Rating: Rare]
'Thunder Swallow? That must have been the demon's alias. Okay, now I have two souls with the lightning attribute. Eight more to go, these demons came along just in time.''
The demons were surprised by Wain's strength, but they didn't run away because they thought he had no more powers left.
They couldn't know that The Fall of Thunder Eye wasn't Wain's most powerful attack, and he had only spent some of his energy on it.
One of the demons knew and attacked Wain sharply. His weapon was a massive iron mace with spikes. The other two demons decided to attack from behind.
Wain did nothing. He realized that the demons were weaker than he was. All he had to do was counterattack in time to inflict mortal wounds on them.
Whooooosh.
The demon with the mace unleashed a powerful blow on him, and his weapon was covered in electrical discharges. Wain blocked that blow with a platinum sword.
"Huh, idiot." Said the demon rather happily, looking at his mates who were already ready to attack.
Wain smirked, and a dark sword appeared in his other hand. Then he turned sharply and, with a swift swing of the sword, cut off the head of one of the demons.
The third demon didn't expect Wain to attack from this position, but he pulled himself together and tried to pierce Wain with a spear.
Wain turned his body to the left and pressed the spear to the ground with his foot. He pressed hard and broke the weapon. Then Wain released the dark sword, and it flew and pierced the third demon's heart.
"What the..." Muttered the demon with the mace.
Wain snapped his finger, and the dark sword headed toward the demon. He tried to block this attack, but the next second, his head fell to the ground, and Wain swung his platinum sword, knocking away the clinging blood.
"Okay, five out of ten lightning showers I have."