I realized upon seeing Master Jiah Pei’s performance that I wasn’t just lucky to get the default victory, what was really lucky was the fact that I hadn’t been paired off against him.

  The matches did go on late into the evening and even into the night, but I went home by then as I figured getting a good night’s rest would do me more good than watching a few more duels.

  One thing that did make me feel better was that there had been no threats of, or actual violence in these matches, despite what I had witnessed two days ago - meaning that it really had been just a one off thing that didn’t happen very often.

  Also, since there was more scrutiny on people’s behavior given how there were spectators, such incidents were less likely.

  That, and the people who had advanced this far weren’t just hobbyists and were probably more professional.

  I walked in the next day a bit nervous as to who I would be paired up with. This time, there would be no ‘victory by default’ to save me.

  I took a look at what was written on the slip of paper I had drawn, only to sheepishly realize that I couldn’t read the name that was written on it - it was written in both the scripts of the lizardmen and humans, neither of which I could make heads or tails of.

  I had to ask one of the organizers to read it out for me.

  It turns out that I was paired up with the lizardman who I had seen in the first match. We shook hands, no one batted an eyelid at me using a fountain pen, and we began.

  Despite myself, I could feel the sweat on my forehead. There were quite a number of spectators this time around as there were fewer matches going on simultaneously, and even the sight of Granny Qi in the front row did little to ease the anxiety I felt under so many foreign gazes. There was a world of difference between sitting there on the bleachers, and being here in the hot seat.

  I barely registered as the word was read out loud, “Sunlight.”

  Before it felt like my mind had even fully processed the word, my pen began moving seemingly on its own. There were a number of ways I could’ve handled it - the importance of sunlight, poems on the beauty of sunlight over the seas of grass that coated the hills, but I decided on something different.

  A memory struck me at that moment. Something one of my professors had said - it had been a long conversation on how long it took for light to come from the sun and get to Earth. A photon would be trapped within the sun for countless years before covering the distance between it and the Earth within minutes.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  It was quite detailed for something so simple, which is why it had stuck in my mind for so long.

  If there was one regret I had had while being in this world, it was that I had not paid more attention during school. It wasn’t like I had slept through my classes, but a lot of the time I had only done the bare minimum.

  If I had put in some more effort, I likely would’ve remembered more. And that would’ve made making grimoires going forward easier.

  After all, my education had been leagues more informative than anything this world could currently offer - because things like the Internet and widespread access to education in a post-Industrial society made it so much easier to get access to information.

  Still, that wouldn’t matter at all if I didn’t remember most of it!

  That was why I really wanted a way to recharge my smartphone. But I had been completely unsuccessful in that endeavor. It might have only a fraction of a percent of the information that humanity had managed to accumulate back on Earth, but that would still be extremely helpful.

  I finished the grimoire, and I was thankfully successful yet again.

  I hadn’t run into any failures during the tournament until now. Part of that was because I had gotten somewhat better at making grimoires, and part of it was that I just hadn’t made all that many attempts as of yet.

  My opponent conceded and it was time for the second round.

  The word was, “Silver.”

  My mind kind of blanked out at that moment regarding what I should write. The word had kind of come out of left field, and I wasn’t sure how to approach it.

  My opponent began writing a minute before I did - but I didn’t panic. One thing that I had learned from my own duels and watching other people’s was that just because your opponent started first; didn’t necessarily mean you were going to lose. But if you started to freak out and just started writing whatever without thinking of it in advance, in that case you were definitely going to lose.

  I started a minute after him, but there were still things working in my favor. For one, with a fountain pen, which I was more used to, I could write faster than most people. Two, because I had thought through what I was doing beforehand, so I didn’t really need to pause while writing like I had seen him do sometimes.

  I also thought my grimoire was shorter than his, but given the different way the scripts were made, I couldn’t entirely be sure if that was true or not.

  As I wrote, I could feel the sweat dripping down from my forehead, threatening to rain down on my grimoire and ruin it if I didn’t take a moment to wipe it off. The room wasn’t too hot - it was just that the stress was, despite my best efforts, beginning to get to me in a way. Just one win - if I did this right, I would be guaranteed that which I had entered the tournament in the first place for!

  Ultimately, I did finish before he did, my writing finally turning a soft green. He finished thirty seconds later, but the round, and the duel, was concluded.

  “Thank you for the duel,” I said to him as I shook his scaly hand. Lizardmen skin was not slimy like I had first thought when I came to this world - it was cold and smooth mostly like leather. At least, their hands were, a place where their scales were thinner - their scales were quite thick or rough in other areas as they acted as makeshift armor for them.

  I didn’t feel a trace of sweat on his palms though - either he wasn’t as nervous as I was or the lizardmen couldn’t sweat. I had never wondered about that before, and I wasn’t going to start asking that question now.

  “Congratulations,” Granny Qi said.

  “Yeah, thank you” I said. Fourth place was guaranteed now!

  “So now do you finally realize you should’ve been aiming for the top from the start?”

  “Uh…” I was really only still thinking of fourth place, even now.