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The inside of the arena was divided into three areas.

The first one was the safest. There you fought with nothing more than a wooden sword, and you had to wear a guard. If you struck what would be a fatal blow, that would count as a win.

You wore guards in the second arena as well, but there you used an actual sword.

And the third one…

“You have to go to the third arena, Young Master.”

“…Are you being serious?”

"I am.”

There was no protective equipment, freedom to choose any arms or magic, and only low-level potions were administered to the critically wounded. The rest of the treatment was left to the fighters.

“Everything is possible in the third arena except for killing. Ah. If you kill your opponent, your allowance will be confiscated as a fine, so please be careful.”

“…”

"Now, let's go. I stopped by in the morning and applied in advance.”

I sent a look at Vera, asking for help.

Vera smiled as she spoke.

“Just so you know, I bet on the Young Master. I put in quite a lot of money, so please win.”

There was no one on my side here.

<The King of Heroes says that life is all about being alone.>

<The King of Heroes tells you to fight because you can make friends here, then brings a camera to record this moment.>

***

The Duchy of Widia's arena was run 'legally’ to help keep the streets clean.

Many people of low status would come to the arena to make their fortune, but most of the people fighting were criminals who were willing to do anything to reduce their sentences, mercenaries aiming to get rich quick, or failed knights or nobles of low status.

Thus, if someone wanted to prove their talent, they could do it there by claiming their victories.

'That's interesting.'

I put on the white mask Colorance gave me.

Unlike the first and second arenas, every fighter had to wear a mask marked with a number in the third arena.

Number 17 was written on mine; that was my current name.

"Oh, Young Master. I have something to tell you before we go.”

“…”

Colorance grabbed me by the shoulders as I was about to go in.

'Is he about to tell me the secret to winning?'

Contrary to the worries of the people around me, I felt unexpectedly calm.

I'd been fighting monsters for ten years, so why would I be scared of humans?

Since I wanted to do things properly while I was here, I thought I should dissuade him from offering help.

"I don’t…”

“You will start with the lower ranking fighters, but as you defeat your opponents, they will only continue to come for you, growing in both number and rankings the more you win. Thus, you could be in big trouble if you're not careful.”

“This fucking…”

"I’m sorry? I think I heard you wrong, but you're not swearing, are you?”

“…I wanted to say you did well.”

“Hehehehe. I'm quick-witted, so I'm really good at this. Anyway, good luck, Young Master.”

"Pop!"

Colorance cheered as he pushed me into the arena.

‘Sand?'

Iron walls surrounded me on all sides, and the ground was packed with sand.

There were several splotches of redder, darker grains gently mixed in with the pale sand.

I paused.

However, that feeling of hesitation soon disappeared.

-Booooooooooo!!!

I felt the crowd’s booing like a physical attack.

“Get lost, kid!”

“Come back after having more of your mother’s milk! Boooooooo!”

“Would you like my milk? You don't want it because it's uncle's milk? Fuhehe!”

"What is this!? Why did they bring out a little boy who can't even move?!”

-Boooooooooooo!!!

The spectators sitting in the stands were booing at me, each of them holding a wooden plaque aloft.

<The King of Heroes tells you to show them.>

“…Sure."

At the same time, I moved my feet and twisted my body slightly.

-Fu-wook!

A small wooden shaft pierced the sand beside my foot.

“...Is it a crossbow?”

I followed its trajectory to a black-masked man with a small crossbow attached to his arm.

He grinned back at me.

“…I see. I think I got the rules now.”

For a crossbow to exert its true power, it had to be bigger than that.

A crossbow smaller than a man’s forearm couldn’t throw its bolts far or inflict fatal wounds.

At most, it would slightly stick in the flesh it struck.

The situation would be different if it were an enchanted artifact, but there was no way anybody who came to the arena in search of money would be carrying an expensive artifact.

'Can we use poison too?'

The best way to utilize a small crossbow like that was poison.

Even if it were lightly embedded in the skin, the poison would spread when it struck, wearing down the archer’s prey.

Those who wanted to win these duels must use such a tactic.

-Swoosh.

I raised the sword I received from Colorance.

A shortsword suited me well since I was still short, but it was a little longer than I was comfortable with.

Piyung!

[<Super Intuition> is activated.]

The world stopped for a moment, and I saw the bolt approach me at an absurdly slow pace.

'This is the first time this has happened.'

I was accustomed to the ability [Super Intuition] being maintained typically, but this was the first time I’d received a message that the ability had been activated.

The world slowed to a near halt.

-Tup!

My body couldn’t accelerate to its usual speed.

However, even though I was slow, I could perceive what was happening one step faster than my opponent, so I grabbed the slow-approaching bolt.

[<One Shot, Sure to Hit> is activated.]

At the same time this other ability changed, the world returned to its normal speed.

-Piyung!

“W-What!”

My foe was clearly taken aback when I returned the bolt to him.

-Fu-wook!

“…Ugh!”

As I’d thrown it by hand, it had almost no power, but it was enough to break his crudely made mask.

The arrow stuck in the forehead of the mask, and gradually the cracks spread out, revealing the face underneath.

-Ooooohhhh!!!

It wasn't long before the booing from the crowd turned into cheers.

It was recognized as defeat if someone revealed their face in this arena.

However, rather than the joy of winning, the new fact I discovered made me tremble for a different reason.

‘The condition for activating hero abilities is… real battle, isn't it?'

<The King of Heroes nods with a dignified expression.>

Additional abilities were always triggered in battle.

The abilities were usually maintained at a base level; however, the real thing, when the window would appear in front of me, had only been activated a few times.

All I remembered was it happened when I fought Hals and solved those math problems.

What those two situations had in common was that they were both real battles.

And now, the killing aura from the man in front of me triggered the hero's abilities again.

<The King of Heroes opens their eyes and says it's not over yet.>

'I know.'

[<Super Intuition> is activated.]

A weapon came rushing at my head.

-Swoosh!

I ducked the moment I heard the wind parting.

As the club brushed through my hair, I stepped forward.

[<Wind Step> is activated.]

With my waist bent forward, I managed a reverse spin using Wind Step and stretched a foot upward.

[<Taekwondo Kick> is activated.]

Withstanding the discomfort of twisting my back, I slammed the heel of my foot into my opponent’s chin.

-Pow!

His jaw didn't seem to break since I hadn’t used the Golden Power.

'Is it impossible at this point?'

“Ahhhh! My face…!”

While my opponent reeled back, grabbing at his face, I stood up and swung my sword this time.

-Slash!

“…Damn."

His mask split in two, and a sound of lamentation came from the man's mouth, but the test wasn’t over yet.

If one person was knocked out, the next ranked person attacked immediately.

Unfortunately, this provision was set by Colorance.

-Spark!

'Magic?'

I hurriedly turned my head toward the sound of electricity.

There was no way an expensive artifact or an even more valuable wizard would be here.

As expected, he was holding a disposable magic scroll.

[<Super Intuition> is activated.]

[<Living Knowledge> is activated.]

“…!”

At that moment, the lightning jetting forward began to slow down, and a red dot appeared at the front of the stream.

I was caught in a moment of panic and did not think to dodge it.

When I came to my senses, the magic was close enough I could touch it, and I instinctively swung my sword.

Coincidentally, the tip of the blade touched the red dot marked in the magic.

-Spark...

The magic just vanished.

“He destroys… magic?”

At this moment, the cheers and boos that filled the arena stopped.

To them, this was a display of ‘magical destruction’ that no one had attempted before.

But I thought differently.

'No, this isn’t magic destruction.'

The mana used by knights and wizards looked the same, but their inner workings weren’t.

Each knight faction had different breathing and mana-changing techniques, but they all had one thing in common: the knight's mana was stored inside the heart.

On the other hand, a wizard's mana was stored outside of the heart.

Therefore, while knights referred to their growth rate of mana by Expert, mages called it Circles because they used magic by activating the 'line' surrounding the outside of the heart.

To go more in-depth from there, the knights' Training Method used the blood inside their veins to carry the energy.

Because it came from inside the heart, loading mana into the blood was easy.

However, the wizards' Training Method was a little different.

It took the form of releasing the mana inside the body by spinning the energy accumulated inside the heart in a circle.

The discharged mana was then funneled into formulas and laws to contain the power of nature.

In other words, magic was a 'perfect state' that combined advanced arithmetic and the power of nature.

Even the magic that compressed the wind into a ball involved a complicated formula.

In other words, like mathematical formulas, magic was solved with a fixed number. Only the correct answer could activate the spell.

‘What I broke wasn’t magic, but the scroll.'

A scroll was composed of a magic circle with the formula with the correct answer drawn on it; paper and cheap magic stone powder to provide mana.

These disposable magic scrolls, which could be obtained relatively cheaply, were one of the results of Halidenson’s work.

With Halidenson's memories, I could break the magic scrolls created from his knowledge.

“Unbelievable..."

With the magic he relied on destroyed, the man wearing a wooden mask with the number 91 written on it stood there, unable to act.

-Pow!

“Ahhh!”

I didn't even need to use my abilities; I just ran up and hit him in the face with the flat of my blade.

“Sigh…”

When I sighed and looked around, only silence lingered in the arena.

'This is… crazy.'

<The King of Heroes says they could have bought a castle if they had put in just one gold coin.>

<The King of Heroes mumbles that this is amazing.>

As the King of Heroes said, if someone in the crowd bet on me initially, it was clear they would make a reasonably large sum.