Blue flames surround the young girl, not as an attack but in an effort to create an area around her that’s as hot as possible.

I can see Isabella staring at Tacita, seemingly in an attempt to read her emotions, something I don't think she’ll be able to do given the effects of Tacita’s field. But Tacita seems to appreciate the effort and smiles at the girl.

Isabella moves her hand and a dozen thin threads of fire lash out around her, like whips extending to assault Tacita.

The mute girl just takes a nimble step and dodges the first, tilting her head to avoid another, and leaping playfully over another. Her movements are smooth and playful while the environment around her burns and cuts to pieces. Thin blue threads of fire cut through stone, trees, and the ground leaving deep gouges in their wake.

The fire intensifies, and with it, so too does the heat around Isabella. The air flickers and the surface of the stones start to glow an angry orange color with the heat.

Even so, it's not enough. Tacita disappears, her immense speed removing her from sight, and when she appears again, she is standing in a different spot, dagger in hand, its blade covered in blood.

Slowly, Isabella reaches towards her neck finding a long scratch, a whisper of blood flowing from the wound.

Tacita waits until Isabella looks at her and gestures at her, the meaning clear, Forfeit.

Instead of that, Isabella wipes the blood into her clothes, rolls her sleeves up, and slaps her palms together. The veins in her arms become visible through her skin. Glowing with a blue luminescence that seeps through the muscles and skin. The effect slowly traveling up the length of her arms, past her elbows.

In response, the heat radiating from Isabella increases several times over. The blue flames crash into each other, violently lashing at the air as if they were caught in the winds of a storm.

The ground continues to absorb the heat until the girl finds herself standing in a pool of magma and fire, her shoes dissolving in the heat and the edges of her clothes beginning to catch fire. Yet the flames leave not a single burn on her body, not a single hair left out of place by that heat.

Dozens of threads of fire, like burning ropes, spin, burn, and thrash around as she faces off against Tacita.

And in that moment, the smile fades from the mute girl's face, replaced by a look of simple acknowledgment. The dagger in her hand visibly vibrates, falling under the effect of her skill.

Once again, Tacita disappears, and when she comes back into view, she finds herself having to dust off her clothes and put out the fire on her sleeve, and glancing down at the burn left on her forearm.

The dagger is gone, stabbed through Isabella’s eye who a split second later turns into shiny particles.

“I’m fine, Soph,” Isabella says the moment she appears outside. Even so, she lifts her arm and carefully touches her eye. Her hand is shaking and so is her voice. It’s obvious she felt a bit of pain before the system bailed her out.

Curious, I look over to Sophie who stays quiet, moving to be closer to her sister. Her expression right now tells me that things are going to be interesting if she ever gets to face off against Tacita.

Out of everyone from Hell difficulty who isn’t already in Beyond, Sophie is the one I think would be the best fit for the other weirdos in its ranks. The only thing holding her back is her little sister.

“Izzy, were those blue veins of yours a trait?” I ask her.

“Yes, it’s called Burning Blood.”

“Damn, sounds cool. Is it a boost to your fire-related abilities? Does it buff your heat generation? Or is it your storage capacity?” I try to guess.

“All of the above!”

“That’s even cooler than I thought. Give me.”

“No! But it’s still cool, right? Though I still want to have floating blue hair like Seneca’s.”

“Was that a trait your disciple had?”

She shakes her head and I notice she is getting calmer, “It was more like Vega’s horns.”

“Maybe you can work something out with Lily, she likes to play around with that kind of stuff.”

“Only for training,” Lily corrects.

Isabella says something to Lily and they start a conversation, no doubt hashing out details and I turn back to the screen. Though before doing so, I glance over at Sophie who still wears an expression of cold rage, even stronger now that Izzy’s been distracted.

On the screen, Savant faces Pumpkin, a melee attacker from WhiteWing.

The fight opens with Savant using his domain and the time starts ticking down. Without a good defense, Pumpkin will quickly find himself poisoned by mana radiation and I'm sure Savant is concentrating on making it worse for him.

As the gentle orange light shimmers around them, the two men rush together in combat, Savant showing himself to be surprisingly at home with melee combat.

Though as watch, I figure that it’s probably a mix of things he saw back on Earth and the lessons he received on the 2nd and 4th floors. Even so, Savant combines these moves together really well and if he makes a mistake, he quickly realizes it and doesn’t repeat it a second time.

Even so, Pumpkin is faster and very flexible, he’s dual wielding daggers, each moving like it has its own mind. His skin is coated in something like scales that seem to add to his defense without restricting his movement. For a while, he even manages to push Savant back and gradually uses more of his mana as his movements become more and more aggressive.

He is clearly dominating the extremely talented and less experienced man.

Savant's eyes bear a curious expression, but they are otherwise not very lively. It’s like he is dealing with an annoying child and soon he reaches the point where he’s seen everything he needs. Seemingly oblivious to Savant’s tricks, Pumpkin uses his trump card. Two more arms grow from his back and extend to grab Savant.

The limbs are very thin, and longer than normal arms, moving at a speed he thought his opponent wouldn’t be able to dodge. Or, and I think this is the more likely option, he knew Savant was playing with him. He must have seen the guy's performance during the previous events just like I did. So he’s decided to give it his best shot.

In reaction, Savant’s domain shrinks back in the blink of an eye and from that energy, he creates a sword with a thin blade.

That makes me focus on him with much more interest. Using a domain that way is not something I’ve seen before.

The broken Sword of Aeons in his left hand and the newly created sword in his right. He moves more of his mana to enhance his strength and movement speed increasing them exponentially. At the same time, the sword created from his domain seems to cause Pumpkin visible discomfort. He has trouble breathing and even moving as burn-like wounds blossom across his skin, caused by the concentrated radiation pouring off the orange sword.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Four scaly arms are sent flying before the sword made of orange light pierces through Pumpkin´s chest, his movements bearing a clear similarity to Pumpkin’s own.

Then in a shower of particles, his opponent disappears and Savant with him.

There is an excited conversation going down in the common area as people rush to place bets. Group 4 also starts commenting on that, but I filter it out while I replay what I just saw over and over again in my head.

As I do so, the duels continue and some of them are interesting enough for me to watch. It’s interesting to see the kinds of abilities people have developed during their time in the tutorial.

Maya wins her fight against her opponent, a man with a weird combination of body armor and mental attacks who chooses to fight her at melee range. His mental attacks do not seem to work all that well against Maya whose [Focus] and [Armament] is on a much higher level than his. She quickly shifts between spear, sword, and dagger, and even shoots a bow a few times. Her ability to create mana-based weapons is exceptionally fast.

Then there is Biscuit who made the top 8 of his group.

Obviously.

He faces the lightning mage from WhiteWing, someone called Ghast. Unlike people before, Ghast attacks Biscuit without any hesitation, ignoring his cute appearance. The lightning the man creates crashes against purple tentacles extending from Biscuit’s back, while the tentacles either disrupt or absorb it.

I almost start smiling when Biscuit starts running while barking at the man. He doesn’t float, no, he just runs on his short legs, jumping over the debris on the ground. The purple tentacles elongate and swirl around his petite form, defending him while two purple orbs float at his side.

The man has no shame or concern for his image and tries to run away and reposition when that cute dog rushes him. But before he can do so, the ground under him cracks and a single purple tentacle grabs his ankle.

Ghast creates a lightning bolt, which he attempts to send through the tentacle, either to destroy it or to reach its creator, but to no avail. Biscuit’s creations are shockingly dense and the tentacle holds the man solidly in place.

Looking up, Ghast sees one orb turned projectile shoot at him, elongated into the shape of a spear.

Ghast crosses his arms, and an image of a shield made of lightning forms in front of him blocking the blow. He then extends one of his arms releasing a rain of small lightning bolts, which roar through the air like a minigun emptying its magazine in a fraction of a second.

The ground around Biscuit explodes, dust and earth flying into the air under the weight of his barrage.

When it dissipates, Biscuit is still there, undamaged.

A mental attack hits Ghast and with it, a purple orb turns bright white which explodes soon after defeating the man, Ghast having found himself trapped in the grasp of the purple tentacle which held him in place.

Indeed he is a merciful future Absolute. Even letting a lowly human show some portion of his skill before showing him his place.

I pet Biscuit who appears back on my lap, “Good job.”

(Food!)

“Yes.”

(Food.)

“We will see.”

(Food food.)

“It’s possible.” I boop his nose and turn back to the screen where two lucky members of Hard difficulty merrily beat the shit out of each other. Lucky because they got so far without facing anyone from Hell difficulty.

At the same time, a notification rings about three more items that have been sold, bringing me all the closer to having two hundred thousand shards. It looks like my rank as 1st crafter has been cemented just like that. What remains is to find out if the reward is worth it. Even if it’s not, I don’t think I will complain that much, just having the shards is nice enough.

It takes a bit longer but the fight finally ends, the woman who won standing there, bloodied and tired, screaming at the sky from sheer exhilaration.

“Sometimes I think it’s more fun watching people from lower difficulties fight,” Maya notes, “There is something eye-catching about seeing them give their best.”

“I agree,” Tess chimes in.

Finally, it’s Min-Jae’s turn to be summoned inside, and he finds himself facing off against someone from Hard difficulty. The huge muscular man with a hammer that is probably heavier than Min-Jae. Surprisingly, the man is calm after finding out who he’s been pitted against.

Unlike him, Min-Jae smiles brightly. He is looking around as if trying to find the “camera” that shows it all in the common area. Then he offers the man the first attack, promising to only defend once.

“That dumbass…” Maya sighs.

And as expected, the man seizes the opportunity. He lowers his stance and over one minute his body shines slightly, muscles not bulging quite as much, and an interesting amount of mana surrounds the hammer.

Even so, Min-Jae doesn’t seem to be worried and his left yellow eye shines.

The man from Hard difficulty attacks and at that moment the field around Min-Jae activates an immense pull of gravity slowing the man to a crawl after a few quick steps. But that doesn’t seem to be his intention and instead of just blindly charging, he throws his hammer.

Min-Jae reaches his hand in its direction, mana swirling around him as he uses either [Gravity Well] or [Telekinesis]. He doesn’t even put that much effort into it, not expecting much from someone from Hard difficulty.

But surprisingly, just once, the hammer flashes, disrupting for a second Min-Jae's grab and emptying the mana collected inside of it in the process.

Unable to react in time, the hammer smashes into Min-Jae's left side, breaking his bones and throwing him rolling on the ground.

From there, the boy lifts his head, groaning in pain, and the skills he was using deactivate. His eyes open up in panic as he sees how close his opponent is, just two steps away.

Min-Jae clenches his teeth and his left eye glows, the man’s chest caving in, compressed by immense gravity and turning him into shiny particles.

When our teammate reappears outside, no one says anything but I look at him with interest, curious to see what reaction Min-Jae will have.

He catches my gaze and turns away. Was that shame I saw in his expression? Anger? Annoyance?

A few more groups fight and I finally get summoned back inside. Only 4 members remain in each group. After this fight, it will be the group finals. My opponent this time is a guy from Hard difficulty.

“Fuck man, I thought I would climb higher,” he sighs. One of Samuel’s cronies. I think he’s an ex-marine or something like that.

I find it interesting. Wouldn’t people with that much experience, real combat experience be more fitting for Hell difficulty?

“Are you going to forfeit?” I ask.

“I mean, probably.”

“Would you mind if I try something?”

“Your special attack or what? Will it hurt?”

“I don’t know, but if you agree I will have a bit better opinion of you. I will also remember you agreeing to this.”

“What’s my name?”

“...”

“Yeah, I thought so. I’m Matthew, remember it. And go ahead. If it’s some kind of torture or other bullshit I will forfeit.”

“I might forget your name so talk to the Channeler or Sset. They are good at peopley stuff.”

“Man… okay, damn it, just do it.”

I nod and my [Mana Crown] forms over my head. My [Mana Domain] expands and I use black mana to strengthen my body, something I’m starting to grow quite proficient at, I can even manage to keep it going for up to ten seconds with barely any aftereffects.

Then, having my body strengthened with black mana to endure the strain, I start releasing my mana and filling my domain with it. Like a broken dam, it floods into it, filling the area with more and more of my mana. It floods from my reservoir and my body mana. There is no skill here, just me emptying my reserves.

I barely get started when the man stumbles, his face pale.

A few seconds later, he falls to his knees, seeming to be having trouble breathing.

“So that’s why they call you a goddamn mana maniac.” Even as he says so he clenches his teeth, trying to endure as much as possible.

I barely start releasing mana from my Mana Reservoir and even that seems to be too much and the man faints, soon turning into shiny particles.

Congratulations, you have won your 7th duel!