My headache refused to disappear. If anything, it got worse. Out of sheer desperation for a distraction, I pulled up my status.

  That was a new ailment. When I pulled it up, I found the reason for the damned headache. Apparently, my strength was now less than seventy percent of my highest stat, wisdom. Going off what I had learned in one of the forum post theories, the wisdom stat controlled how fast my body absorbed mana. Which made it like a muscle, sort of. All of my muscles were also influenced by my strength stat. So the ‘muscle’ that pulled mana into my body was being pushed to its limit. Or at least that was what I thought was happening. The status pages never directly spelled that out.

  Though, that begged the question of how my wisdom had gone up? It took me a minute of searching to find the problem. It turns out my skills had been increasing this whole time. I hadn't even noticed them doing this. Most of these increases were for skills related to mana and magic. Given the amount of testing I’d been doing with my magic, and the limitations I had pushed against, it made sense.

  That was especially true in the last fight. I had pushed myself hard when I had held so many different spells at the same time. It was enough to push my Multitasking skill to the next level. Add to that my need to manipulate multiple elements into working with each other, and it was easy to see where all the extra points had come from. Too bad it came at such a bad time.

  Curious to see if any other options had shown up in my class list, I switched tabs. Sure as shit, another class had popped up.

  Sure, at first glance the class was weak, but the more I lay there looking at it, the more I liked it. I didn’t know what Elemental Learning would do, but Spell Stability seemed like something I would have to start worrying about soon enough, especially as my spells got more and more complex. Who knows what would have happened if I had fucked up the spell during that last round. If the description of the class was to be believed, I might have blown up. The only question I had left was whether I should wait to take this class and ask Barti about it, or take it now.

  If I took it now, I would get access to the two skills it provided. From what I could tell, the earlier you got a skill and started to use it, the better off you were. Then again, what if the class wasn’t really all that good but there was one that I was on the cusp of getting because I had four elements unlocked? If only there was a way to ask Barti or either of the girls. The only person who likely had the information I needed, and whom I could ask, was Xander. Too bad we had ended our last conversation as we did.

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  Who am I kidding? I was the one that threw a fit at the end. I wouldn’t have been as pissed if the guy didn’t practically throw his growth in my face. I mean, he wasn’t wrong about me being slow. But there was nothing wrong with being slower than everyone else. I had a great foundation, and my stats weren’t too skewed. I even had some decent equipment.

  All of that should have been enough for me to not feel so inferior to his speed of growth, yet I did. I was having issues saying the words that would lead to the answers I needed. Mentally I kept beating myself up until I finally ground out the words. “AI, call Xander.”

  “Calling,” my AI said. A moment later the noise of the room dimmed in one ear as it was replaced by the sound of a ringing phone. As it rang, I sat up. Eventually, though, the noise stopped only for my AI to say. “Call failed. Try again?”

  My voice sounded dejected as I said, “Sure.”

  “Calling,” my AI repeated. The ringing cut off near-instantly which told me everything I needed to know. Still, the AI spoke the words. “Call declined. Would you like to send Xander a message?”

  “No,” I barely got the word out as my head came to rest in my hands. Maybe I had upset him by cutting our call short earlier. Or maybe it had been something else. I had no clue, nor did it matter. The only thing I did know was that I was on my own.

  “Kyren, you’re up,” the worker spoke up from where she sat. For some reason, I had no will to fight. The only thing that forced me up was my need to finish what I started. I needed to go out and face my opponent, even if I let them skewer me. My feet slid across the ground as I made my way to the arena. As soon as my eyes adjusted I found myself facing off with a familiar opponent. One that would have stood no chance against me but would win this time.

  “There you are,” Jeremiah called out. “We were wondering who in the group would get to face off against you first. Personally, I hoped it would be me, but I bet the rest of the group that Michael would take you down.”

  “Just take me out in a single hit,” I said in a tone that he likely had to strain to hear. I didn’t hesitate as I stepped into my designated starting position.

  His smile vanished as he took in my expression and words. “What happened?” Of course, he would think that this was someone else's fault. He probably also thought that he could send Michael after them to solve the problem. Too bad it was something neither could do anything about.

  I shook my head, “Nothing you need to worry about.”

  “Nope,” his voice was firm as he continued. “I will not take a single shot at you until you either tell me or fight me for real.”

  “Round three,” the announcer's voice boomed out. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the attack that took me out in case I reacted on instinct. “Kyren Vulpier versus Jeremiah Tempest. READY! FIGHT!” Like before, there was little warning between “Ready” and “Fight”. Not that it mattered in this fight. While I stood my ground, my sword stayed in my inventory as I waited for the round end. Yet nothing happened.

  When I opened my eyes, I found Jeremiah still inside his circle. The guy hadn't even bothered to move. His eyebrows raised as if he was daring me to do something about his refusal. As I grumbled I debated giving him the fight he wanted. “So, what are we going to do? A magic fight? Weapons? Boxing? A mix? Or maybe something different? We could play tic-tac-toe. Best two out of three, of course.”

  I couldn’t help myself. I burst into laughter at his options. When I could finally take a deep breath, I spoke up. “I think I needed that. Just so you know, most of my mana is gone. Used it up in the last round.”

  “Yeah.” He grinned. “That was one hell of a fight. Just how many elements did you use in that spell? I got the Fire and Earth, but a spell using just those two elements wouldn’t have dealt that much damage.”

  “I used Earth and Water to create the spear,” I knew I should be giving out information on my spells to someone I was about to fight, but I found myself answering his question.

  “But the Water would have made the stone brittle,” he said, confused for a second before something dawned on him. “It wasn’t about the damage the spear could do directly. It was about the explosion. As soon as the spell hit something, the stone would shatter and the water would hit the fire. Instant steam explosion. Mix in the stone shards, and you have a lovely grenade.”

  I felt myself blush at his expression of surprise and awe. “True, but that flamethrower would have blown it up long before it reached its target. I had to add a shell of darkness to the spear itself.”

  “Yeah, the force of whatever liquid she was using would have broken the spear early. But are you telling me that you have four different elements? All of which you used on a single spell?” I nodded. “Why did you not use any of the three elements in our little mock fights? Hell, just using the Dark element one time would have made Patric’s day. He might have even tried to show you how to Shadow Jump.”

  “I only unlocked them after my first round,” I said without inflection, trying to make it seem like it wasn’t as big a deal as he was making it.

  “You unlocked three elements in the middle of a tournament and used them to kick your opponent's ass in the next round? Either you are a crazy idiot or a genius.” He shook his head. “Now, how are we going to duke this out?”

  Something about our conversation and the way he spoke had me relaxing. “I am fine with weapons. That is, if you have any.”

  His hand reached out and grabbed onto nothing but air. At first, nothing visible happened. A moment passed, then another. It took me a second before I noticed an odd ripple in the air near him. Slowly water condensed in front of him. The light glinted off and through the small streams as an object formed in his grip. Within a minute, his hand held a staff. It was a dark brown color that reminded me of an old staff most wizards in movies and games carried. The difference between those and this one had to do with the runes. This one was decorated with runes that were a deep, dark red. It was so dark that I nearly mistook it as black.

  “This is my soul-bound weapon.” He stated as he twirled it around. Though I didn’t know if he had any experience using such a weapon in real life, he made it look like he had been born with the damn thing. “While it is meant to help me with my spells, it should work as a weapon for our little fight.”

  I nodded as I retrieved my sword. The light coming off it was closer to an off-white than before. I had no clue what the colors signified but something told me that they meant something. Maybe the professor would know. It was something I would have to remember to ask him the next time I saw him. For now, I needed to focus on the fight.

  I took a second to center myself before I spoke loud enough for anyone listening to hear. “Ready?” His hands twirled the staff around into a ready position before he nodded. “Go.” The staff crossed the distance as he stabbed at my stomach. While I hadn't expected this specific attack, I had expected him to throw me an easy first strike. Something slow and easy to dodge. Something to see how serious I was.

  My options were to take the hit, to block the hit with my Chisa Katana, or to spin out of the way. As I didn’t care to take the hit, nor go on the defense from the start. I spun to my right while my sword flashed out. I turned the momentum of my dodge into an attack aimed at his hand. The tip of the blade managed to cut into the flesh between his thumb and forefinger before impacting against the staff.

  He hissed in pain as he tried to get out of reach. He was forced to switch grips due to how much damage his thumb took from my strike. Not that the hand was useless. Jeremiah quickly adapted to using his damaged hand to direct and control each strike. Still, I dodged each while I waited for him to leave me an opening I could exploit.

  Sure enough, his attack slowed as his hand slipped. The blood had made the staff slick and I didn’t hesitate. With a quick jump forward, I slashed three times. Once to cut his arms, once to slice his chest, and finally along the back of his legs to make sure that, even if he survived the other two wounds, he would not be able to come after me.

  “In a savage attack, Kyren Vulpier has won this match,” the announcer boomed. Instead of leaving the field, I returned my sword and turned to see what kind of damage Jeremiah might be dealing with. Other than his hand, everything looked fine. Even the hand wound looked to be visibly healing.

  “Either you have a great HP regeneration, or you are using a healing spell,” I stated.

  “Healing spell.” I narrowed my eyes. “You said weapons. I took that to mean no magic. Healing spells count.”

  “So you went easy on me?” I practically growled in frustration.

  “No.” He held up his hands. The staff had vanished when I wasn’t looking. “If you had been using your magic I would have lost just as easily.” He wasn’t wrong, but it still irked me. “Um, I know this is a bit odd to ask but do you perchance have a stat that is below…”

  “I do.” I interrupted him. “What about it.”

  “Is the higher stat a mental one?” I narrowed my eyes. “I will take that as a yes. I would recommend fixing that as fast as possible. Maybe between this round and the next. While it is not written anywhere in the game, I have read of people having issues with their emotions when a mental stat is too high.”

  That would explain these odd mood swings and sudden bout of depression. Even I was starting to notice them, and I typically don’t understand things like emotions. I mean, how would my hanging up piss my friend off? He may have been irked but the guy wasn’t like that. He probably didn’t pick up because he was likely just as busy as I was. “What about a physical stat? What should I watch for if one of them is higher than a mental stat?”

  He shuddered for a second before replying. “Roid Rage.” Those two words were all he said before he turned and left. I shook my head and followed him out of the arena. All the while, my mind tried to think about what kind of exercises I could do to work on my strength. I needed to figure out how I could get that stat up by two points in as short a time as possible.