The Mysterious Black Magician

The next morning, Yman went to the Training Pavilion. He directly went to the second floor of it.

Yesterday, he talked with Rea, and she agreed to his pleas. 

He asked Rea to be the one to buy the ingredients they needed. Rea agreed to help him and told him that he needed to pay with Department points. Yman then nodded. He could not ask Cinde to do it using her other department as she wasn't a high-status member of that department.

On the second floor of the Training Pavilion, could be found the facility known as Citadel.

Inside the Citadel, people or Demihumans were usually visiting this place to contest their strength from other experts, especially the rankers.

When he entered the room, he noticed that there were many people inside.. Some of them glanced at him in wonder and curiosity. 

Seeing such a new face just pique their interests.

"Wait, isn't that the newbie ranker?"

"New ranker? Oh, so, he is the new ranker."

"Mhm!"

When one of them was able to recognize him, the others started to whisper at each other. After knowing his identity, they started to look at him differently. 

They were probably sizing him.

Although many people inside were looking at him, most were not minding him.

On the first floor no doubt that many people would recognize him on the spot, but on the second floor, it was different. He was more than a normal person on this floor. 

Most rankers are frequent in this room. After all, this room is the room for all rankers. Only rankers are qualified to enter this room. So seeing a newbie ranker wasn't unexpected at all. They even show a mocking smile at him.

Yman proceeded to the counter and disregarded their mockery. He came for an important reason, and he only has little time for it. So, he could not be bothered by them.

In the first place, he didn't even care about being a ranker nor being popular.

The room inside was quite spacious, which he believed could accommodate about 250 people or more. 

He saw some big screens around, and some people were busy gazing at them, unbothered by their surroundings. The others were noisy yelling-- probably cheering to the two people fighting inside the monitor, which Yman believed as rankers who were dueling.

Yman gasped in admiration at the place, much modernized compared to the HCZ7. Fufu, a mocking chuckle escaped from his mouth. It was a chuckle of mockery towards that place-- the HCZ7.

Well, he wasn't mocking it because he disliked it. It was just funny to think that the city of the people from a modern society was more backwater compared to this Academy.

When Yman arrived at the counter, he was required to present his student ID together with contracts with the Training Pavilion.

"Oh, newbie?" Asked the counter girl. Yman nodded his head as a reply.

Then the counter girl gave him some documents that he needed to sign.

Yman noticed the counter girl wrinkled his forehead upon her eyes landed on the department he belonged.

After signing all the documents, the counter girl presented him with a level 1 membership card together with a triangular device that looks like MTMD.

This device was known as 5D-Seer. Just like the MTMD's, a holographic screen would appear once you activate it. You could toggle it to search for an available ranker to be the opponent.

There was also the ranking list of the rankers. The winning rate was the basis for the ranking. 

Even his status as a ranker was also there. Yman proceeded to check the ranker in the ranking list.

But their status and winning rate that displayed in it were so overwhelming. 

Yman went to read the FAQ. He learned that, through this device, anyone who received a challenge would get a pop-up notification, asking you if to accept the challenge or not.

Through this device, their soul would enter the 5th dimension while their body went into a state of hibernation.

It was highly recommended that whenever one accepts the challenge-- one must be in a safe place.

Since he was already an official member of the ranker people, Yman decided to leave for now. But he stopped when he noticed the approaching person.

"Yo' Crimson!"

Yman squinted his eyes. It was Prince Damian. Yman nodded with a smile.

"Fancy meeting you here. Did you come to finalize your membership?" Prince Damian asked.

"Yeah!"

"Fufu, that's good. Why don't you try it?"

Prince Damian said as he pointed to the monitor where two rankers were dueling.

"....."

Yman stared at the monitor. He noticed that each of the rankers was wearing overwhelming armor.

The other one was wearing deep blue color armor with a pair of spiky shoulder pads.

The second one was wearing dark red with dragon-like scales on the chest.

Each of them was holding a sword as a weapon.

The guy in deep blue armor summoned a blue aura and enveloped his sword. At the same time, the ranker in dark red armor also summoned a fire element and covered his weapon with fire. 

The ranker in deep blue armor took the initiative to attack. He waved his sword down. It was followed by a wave of magical energy-- shot towards his opponent. 

After seeing the incoming attack, the ranker in dark red rushed forward in a zig-zag.

The crescent-moon-shaped magical energy passed at a hairsbreadth distance from the ranker in dark red armor.

He then sprinted ahead as the dust was hovering behind him.

He lifted his sword to stab the opponent with his fire sword.

The ranker in deep blue armor jumped in the air while flipping. Before he landed, he condensed magical energy on his hand and fired it at his opponent.

Electrifying energy in the form of a palm was crashing from above towards the ranker in dark red armor. 

The ranker in red armor was able to dodge at the last second by rolling on the ground.

At the same time, the ranker in deep blue armor landed on the ground, the ranker in dark red armor also regained his ground. Then a wave of flaming burst from the sword towards the ranker in deep blue armor.

From his left hand, a shield in bluish color materialized.

It then blocked the fire. However, the shield was shaking terribly.z

Yman could feel the pressure from that flame attack.

After a flame wave, it was followed by fireballs. Consecutive fireballs were fired and collided to shield with loud bangs.

The ranker in dark blue armor was hiding like a turtle in his shield.

When he noticed the fireballs had stopped, he peeked and saw the charging opponent.

"Overdrive!" 

After shouting the word, from the feet of the ranker in deep blue armor, a massive amount of magical energy burst out. Then his feet were covered by bluish magical energy. With a single kick on the ground, his figure shot like a comet to the approaching enemy.

"Ultimate Discharge!" He shouted once again.

WAAAAM!

The ranker in dark red armor collided with his shield, and the impact caused a loud bang.

Th ranked in red armor was sent flying and rolled like a ragged-doll on the ground.

Without wasting time, he jumped in the air while raising his sword overhead.

The ranker in dark red armor pushed his body. But he was hurt from that attack. He coughed several times.

However, when he noticed the opponent in the air, he pierced the tip of his sword in the ground. 

Hum! Hum! Hum! Vibrating sounds reach their ears.

Another electrifying magical energy came slamming on the ground to where the ranker in dark red armor was half-kneeling.

WAAAAAAAAM!!! A stronger impact had generated a louder noise. After a loud impact, an explosion followed immediately.

Yman slightly focused his eyes. The fight between the two rankers was truly impressive. Each of them was powerful.

After the explosion, a cloud of smoke covered the surrounding. But soon after the smoke cleared, everyone who was watching at the moment was gaping.

The huge Palm Strike was successfully blocked by the ranker in dark red.

Then the two of them once again engaged with each other. Sparks were flying everywhere every time their swords met.

Yman decided to leave, not because he was bored at their duel, but because he needed to start dueling as well.

One of the reasons he left, he didn't like talking longer with Prince Damian. Whenever that person talked, it seemed like he had a hidden agenda.

Upon leaving, he also noticed some familiar faces. One of them was Gilion Gustav. He wanted to say 'hi', but decided not as it would be troublesome if he kept pestering him to duel with him. It wasn't like he was afraid of him. It just, that guy was so hard-headed. Defeating him would not bring good. 

After leaving the Training Pavilion, he transmitted to the scouts. He needed to check Ria's safety.

After confirming her whereabouts and that she was fine, he went back to his inn.