Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 144 Premature Encounter

"Yeah, she's… something else. I heard from the guys that came after her that she took first place for the First Stage in the Warrior division as well! But… for some reason, no one mentioned her exact score." The man's friend responded. Looking over at Elizabeth's apparent unguarded and careless meditation, he let his eyes wandered over her body and after a couple seconds of prolonged ogling, the man felt a spark light up in his head.

Without turning to face his friend, the man said, "Mark..." He began to perspire lightly as every moment he stared at Elizabeth the connection he drew to her grew stronger.

"Huh? What's up?" Mark, the short tan man who couldn't have been older than twenty, had stopped looked over in Elizabeth's direction. Looking back at his friend who was still intent on overtly staring at Elizabeth, he joked, "What? Did little old you fall in love or something?"

"No..." The sweat on his face seemed to intensify as a dastardly image formed in his head and he responded, "D-doesn't she look like the white blur that saved us in the forest yesterday?"

"What are you talking about? If she's with us then she can't be a King Sta..." Before he could finish his thoughts, Mark drew the same connection his friend had. That combination of white, red, and black that made up her current outfit would be a perfect match for the white blur that had rescued them from a Beginner Phase King Stage Panther. Most notable of all would be her pure white hair which was practically the only thing they could remember in detail.

Thinking of how ridiculously powerful Elizabeth must be to instakill a King Stage panther without even needing to stop to correct her form, Mark also began to sweat.

"We give her our thanks. After all, who knows if we would still be around had it not been for her helping us during that crisis..." Hearing that, it became Mark's turn to sweat intensely as he nervously said, "Liam... I think it's best if we don't bother her while she meditates…"

Recalling what he had heard about the way she dealt with the last group of people to annoy her, Liam s.h.i.+vered before agreeing wholeheartedly with his friend's idea. Thus, the two friends nervously awaited for Elizabeth to open her eyes. Although Elizabeth only awoke at the sound of the announcer announcing that the Warrior Stage compet.i.tors would now finalize their rankings for their division, it wasn't a long wait for Mark and Liam.

So, when the moment of truth arrived, Liam boldly made his way over to confront Elizabeth. Bystanders quickly gave their approach away as more and more heads turned to see how the next idiot would fare after confronting a demon. Eventually, after coming to a distance of exactly one meter, the standing Liam looked down at Elizabeth who was still sitting and said, "M-Ms. Ultimatia… Thank you for saving our squad the other day."

Bowing his head, Liam couldn't see, but Elizabeth was slightly shaking as her balance had toppled. 'f.u.c.k! Now's not the time to talk to him...' She cursed in her own little world, before realizing that Liam still didn't know who she was. Struggling, Elizabeth tried to act casual by saying, "No need for thanks. It… It's no problem." If this was an audition for "bad actor," Elizabeth would be killing it right now.

Fortunately, both Liam and his buddy Mark, who hid to his side, didn't notice as they were too nervous to think properly. They were perhaps struggling even more so than her to act normal…

"Attention! The Division for Soldier Stage compet.i.tors has concluded. All those willing to challenge higher ranking compet.i.tors in the Warrior division prepare to leave the waiting area. Additionally, all other Warrior Stage pract.i.tioners are to stay in the waiting area until their final rankings are determined." The announcer's prompt caused the room of thousands of Warrior Stage pract.i.tioners to begin moving.

Naturally, as Elizabeth didn't feel content with just her current standing as Champion of the Warrior Stage compet.i.tors, she got up with the crowd and made her way over to the gra.s.sy area below the compet.i.tor's arena. Awkwardly, her brother Liam and his friend Mark were still by her side since they too felt they had a good chance to improve their approximated rankings.

The three uncomfortable pract.i.tioners sat down until the referee overlooking the battles began calling Warrior Stage compet.i.tors to fight one by one. Since they were all relatively high up in the rankings, to make small talk and smooth over the tense air between them, Liam asked, "Say… Aren't you already set up to be Champion of the Warrior division? Is there something new they've added to the Event that I haven't heard of, or could it be that you don't know people currently ranked first are suppose to wait in the waiting room to be challenged."

Asking out of the genuine curiosity, Liam never imaged Elizabeth would reveal a truth far more ridiculous than he could antic.i.p.ate. Since she was still tense, Elizabeth responded almost robotically, saying, "I'm going to challenge people outside of the Warrior division to get a better final ranking for my faction..."

'Is that even allowed?' Both Mark and Liam thought, as they had never heard of such a case developing. It was known as a universal truth for a pract.i.tioner to never be able to challenge someone a Stage higher than them. Sure, a Peak Phase Warrior Stage compet.i.tor may be able to reach the second or even third Phase of the King Stage test in the Testing Formation, but it was almost impossible for a Peak Phase Warrior to beat even a single Beginner Phase King Stage Martial Pract.i.tioner. After all, the difference between a real human martial pract.i.tioners with martial skills and Qi abilities and a Shadow from the Testing Formation could not compare at all.

"I see..." Not willing to extort any more information from Elizabeth as she sounded almost mockingly, the two parties kept to themselves until they were called on to the Stage.

A couple dozen short fights later, Mark was called onto the stage to fight for the 33rd spot on the Warrior division rankings. He won the fight after a minute long brawl, but because the difference between him and his opponent in the original ranking were less than five positions from one another, Mark ended up beaten up to the point where he didn't feel confident in challenging even higher ranked compet.i.tors. Moreover, since he had ranked up after only a single fight, Mark was more concerned over recovering in case someone tried to take advantage of his weakened state since that was still a very real possibility. However, if he were challenged, it would only be once. Afterward, the rules of the compet.i.tion would secure his spot unless he challenged someone else. Unless for some reason he decided to voluntarily accept another challenge.

With Mark returning to his seat and focusing on recovering from his wounds, the rankings continued to stabilize until Liam's turn came as was challenged for his current ranking at fifth place. In total wonder of her brother's abilities as a Martial Pract.i.tioner, Elizabeth seriously looked over to see how he would fare and though she was rea.s.sured seeing him take fifth place right off the bat, she was curious about his techniques.

Alas, in the fight where he was challenged, he both faced someone lower ranking than himself as well as a person who had already been challenged. This led to a very uneventful fight that was ended before either party reached ten strikes. Unlike the terrible conditions with which Liam fought in the Eastern Forest, because he was even grounded against his opponent, his Spear Art could fully display its prowess. But, since this wasn't a battle to the death, after thoroughly disabling his opponent and holding him at spear point against the ground, he was judged to have defended his position.

Sadly for him, he only rested for a half a minute before the person ranked fourth secured their position. Being called to the stage once more, it was Liam's turn to fight an unfair battle; albeit barely unfair. After jumping onto the competing arena, Liam faced his opponent; a swarthy tall man.

Upon giving each other a courtesy bow, the supervising judge called for the match to begin and both Liam and his opponent charged each other with arms drawn. Both locked down as they had roughly equal strength, the swarthy pract.i.tioner exploded with a sky blue aura as the saber in his hand began to soften, slippery and wet.

His saber, slipping through the cracks of Liam's defense, aimed at his heart. It looked like the fight was over with right then and there, but before anyone — aside from Elizabeth and the various Spirit Realm elders watching on — could comprehend, Liam appeared behind his opponent with a thin line ending at the tip of his spear pressed against his opponent's neck, threatening to decapitate him should he attempt to make another move.

"Stop! The win goes to Liam 'K.'" Aside from the p.r.o.nunciation of Liam's last name as the letter "K," Elizabeth took note of her brother's very practical Spatial Martial Skill. She thought, 'Whoa… A False Teleportation Skill? That's pretty insane.' Seeing such a high-level skill be displayed in the midst of the ever-disappointing Wus.h.i.+ Tournament, Elizabeth couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Her brother's technique was beyond inefficient, costing him what looked to be half his reserves of energy just to "teleport" once, but that didn't demerit the fact that he possessed what had to be a supreme spatial method at the mere rank of Martial Warrior. Elizabeth's own [Spatial Contraction] technique would be a priceless secret ability most cultivator societies could only dream of possessing as it allowed a Mortal Realm pract.i.tioner to slightly manipulate the environment and contract s.p.a.ce. But believe it or not, Liam's False Teleportation was technically even more ridiculous as it didn't just "slightly manipulate" the environment. Instead, it could be compared to the methods of a Spirit Realm cultivator as the environment was entirely ignored; albeit for an abysmally short range.

With this single ability, Liam was all but invincible against his peers. At least, that was the case unless someone with both astonis.h.i.+ng defense and speed came to counter his only weakness. Looking on at the next fight where the woman ranked second for the Warrior division defended her current standing in the Second Stage, Elizabeth understood why her brother didn't press on and attempt to take second place.

With the woman's rare affinity for Metal and impressive agility — even by Elizabeth's standards — she could just barely sc.r.a.pe by the moment Liam teleported and aimed at one of her vitals by manifesting a golden Metal Qi and the finish him off when his energy was exhausted; going by his current state, Elizabeth judged he could at max teleport just three times.

However… as she now knew he possessed this ability she was confused. Waiting for him to return to rest by her side, she asked, "Say… Why didn't you use your teleportation skill to kill or at least heavily wound the King Stage Panther in the Eastern Forest?" Unless the skill possessed some other startling flaw, aside from its absurd energy expenditure requirements, Elizabeth couldn't see why Liam would forgo the chance to land a surprise hit on the unsuspecting panther.

Helplessly, Liam sighed as he said, "My technique hasn't been, uh… mastered. Spatial Qi is already pretty hard to understand and the techniques one can use with them are very 'demanding.' Needless to say, against a hidden enemy or a sneak attack, I can't just teleport out of the way..."

'Mhmm… Must be another con of being a Martial Pract.i.tioner...' Elizabeth didn't have this problem as all her abilities either came innately or could be called upon near instantaneously with the use of her spell seeds. Thinking for a second, she realized that she had both asked an inappropriate question and taken time out of Liam's resting period.

With only a shred of hesitation, she said, "Oi… come here." Materializing her acupoint needles, Elizabeth decided to quickly return him to his peak fighting state. He was still her brother after all, and it would be pretty shady of her to not help him after she eventually came out to him...