Okay… I take that back. Maybe handicapping myself like that wasn’t the peak of genius. The massive ape-thing in front of me was bleeding heavily down its sides, sure, but the wounds were already stitching themselves shut like it was nothing.

  I snapped my fingers, and a thin blade of lightning drilled straight through the half-healed gash, splitting it open again. A wash of green mana flickered over it, then shifted into a deep, ugly purple, good, that meant his Nature magic was doing its job and choking the healing. At least the wolfkin was pulling his weight.

  But he’d have been done for without me. Nature magic against a brute with regeneration that strong? Yeah, no. Not ideal.

  Not that I cared. I would’ve happily kicked him out just like I kicked out that faerin girl earlier, but—

  “AWROO!”

  That. That made me pause. The fluffy white wolf let out its awoo and blasted off the ground like a gust given legs, smashing into the ape’s face hard enough to stagger it. It recovered almost instantly and swung its still-working arm at the floof.

  I answered with a piercing bolt of lightning. Nu-uh. Nobody was laying a finger on the not-yet-mine floof.

  Anyway, the wolf belonged to that same guy, and if he got himself disqualified here, the floof would be tossed out too. I didn’t like that. Familiars were tied to their masters, master out, familiar out. And… how about no?

  Besides, maybe I could show the fluffy wolf how impressive I was and tempt it away from its flimsy master. Hueheue. Ahem. Point is, if I was stuck here for a while, I might as well enjoy some floofy company.

  Alder and Belle weren’t around, so the fluffy wolf was the chosen one! …against his consent.

  “Would you please stop staring at him like that? You’re scaring him!” The voice snapped me back, and I found the waryn guy glaring at me. I closed my eyes and gave my head a small shake. Damn floof was scrambling my thoughts.

  But the real issue remained. I was certain I could kill the ape easily with a barrage of Quantum Strikes. And if I used ThunderClap mixed with quantum mana and runes? That combination was… unpleasant. I’d tested it on a tree. The results were not pretty.

  But I was handicapped. And the ape was covered head to toe in giant crystal-like armor. Whatever spots weren’t armored, I’d already sliced up, but the thing was still ridiculously durable. We could run, sure, but monsters here gave extra points. Which…

  Hold up.

  Who was even counting the points? The colosseum itself was judging us, not some panel of bored officials. A sudden thought hit me. I frowned and yanked open my stat screen.

  And just like I suspected… there were a few notifications I’d completely missed.

  Immediately pulling it up, I finally caught what had been tapping at the back of my skull this whole time but refusing to step forward. This entire setup felt exactly like the Quest system’s style, with goal, target, reward, tasks, the whole package.

  And right on cue, the missing notification bloomed into existence.

  I snapped my fingers and loosed a dozen lightning bolts in a neat rhythm, each one jabbing into the ape’s unarmored joints to keep it down while I read. I didn’t need the extra time, my INT made short work of multitasking, but I enjoyed pretending I did.

  ------------------------------------------------

  [Caution: You have entered an area controlled by an entity outside of System’s domain. Proceed with caution.]

  Welcome to the Colosseum, O Brave Champion.

  Phase 1 of the Spirit Hunt has begun.

  ------------------------------------------------

  You have received the Blessing of the Colosseum (I)

  [Caution: This blessing is issued by an entity outside of System’s domain. Proceed with caution.]

  Effect:

  ? Until Spirit Hunt ends, you are immune to all damage outside the Colosseum’s trials.

  ? Within trials, any life-threatening blow will invoke the Colosseum’s protection and eject you from the trial.

  ? Ejection = elimination.

  Duration Remaining: 8 Days, 23 Hours, 18 Minutes, 15 Seconds

  ------------------------------------------------

  [Caution: This mission is issued by an entity outside of System’s domain. Proceed with caution.]

  MISSION: SPIRIT HUNT — PHASE 1

  OBJECTIVE:

  ? Compete within the Colosseum’s forest trial and secure a position among the Top Eight contenders.

  TASKS:

  ? Defeat other contestants.

  → Base Points per contestant defeated: 10

  ? Hunt Colosseum-blessed monsters.

  → Base Points per Red-Core monster: 3

  → Additional points granted based on blessing intensity.

  ? Maintain your points.

  → Upon your elimination, half of your accumulated points will transfer to the opponent who defeated you.

  ? Rankings are point-based.

  → Even if eliminated early, you may still qualify for Top Eight if your point total exceeds the current top placements.

  REWARD:

  ? Advancement to Phase 2: Spirit Hunt

  ? Colosseum’s Blessing of Champions

  → +100 to all stats

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  ? Additional rewards tailored to final placement and points accumulated.

  Current Points: 10

  Mission Status: Automatically Accepted.

  ------------------------------------------

  I scanned the text while keeping the ape pinned with another series of sharp finger snaps, each activating a set of runes I’d already weaved. Didn’t need the theatrics, but hey, they sounded cool.

  And yes, I’d been right. The whole thing triggered the moment I stepped into the Colosseum. Or maybe when I dropped my blood into the dragonfire. Not sure because the messages had no timestamps. But since I’d shoved all notifications into silent mode, it slipped past me until now.

  And the system explicitly warning me that the mission and notifications came from something outside its domain… that was interesting. Puzzling, sure, but interesting.

  Then again, the system was basically an archivist with a very dramatic hatred for humanoid races, one who tossed rewards at me whenever I danced to its tune. Whatever this “entity” was, it operated in a similar way, same structure, same reward logic.

  And… it felt like I wasn’t the only one getting these. If everyone else also received a mission without stat points in their lives, what would their version even look like?

  It was also weird that none of the records I read ever mentioned system-like messages popping up during Colosseum trials. Nobody talked about anything like this. I was probably jumping to conclusions, but I needed confirmation.

  I backstepped away from the ape and headed toward the wolf-kin.

  “How many points you got currently?” I asked, casual as anything. He stared at me like I’d just spoken another language.

  “You know what, I literally don’t have any. I was dumped right on this fat ape’s crystal arse when it started. So it’s not worth anything if you’re planning to eliminate me.”

  “You need to chill, dude,” I said, then remembered I was supposed to be an arrogant noble prick, so I added a sneer. Perfect delivery.

  “Anyway, it’s weird. When I checked first, I already had a few points without doing anything. Have you checked yours?”

  Another odd look. I just needed to confirm whether he also had a screen. Or rather, a “Colosseum message,” since the system practically disowned it.

  And the moment his eyes fixed on something invisible in front of him, that was all the confirmation I needed. Yep. They had access too.

  I slapped his back and burst out laughing. “Am just kidding. Why would the Colosseum hand out free points? I mean, I am handsome and interesting enough for it to take a liking to me, but it hasn’t yet.”

  The mood instantly grew awkward, mercifully interrupted by the ape unleashing a thunderous roar. A storm of crystal shards erupted outward in all directions.

  The Waryn reacted fast, raising a massive vine shield wrapped in green aura to cover us both.

  Wait.

  “What about the floof?” Horror clawed up my spine. I still sensed him outside the shield.

  “Floof? First off, his name is Nositel’ Moru! But he likes being called Moru. Second, his ability lets him turn into dense air. Geo attacks have trouble piercing him, so he’ll be fine.”

  Good. For a moment, I thought precious floof was about to be the first to fall.

  Well, whatever. I needed to finish this fight. Not just for the points, though now I had a shiny new reason to aim for first place.

  A hundred points in every stat was already massive. Even a rainbow evolution only gave me the equivalent in four levels, and this reward stack came with the possibility of mana points too. Add the tailored prizes based on rank and total points earned… yeah, first place was looking extremely lucrative.

  And once this phase ended, I’d be out of everyone’s scrutiny for a while. Perfect time to stock up on morphogen from all the monsters I’d killed, assuming the local wildlife didn’t try anything stupid. Some of these things were blessed by the Colosseum as well, so who’s to say they wouldn’t give extra morphogen? Only one way to find out: eat them. I’d at least get enough to push a few more organs up a couple tiers.

  I realized I was grinning. Oh, this was turning into more of a blessing by the second.

  For now, I locked onto the giant ape with my air sense.

  “I have an idea,” I told the waryn as his shield lowered. The entire area was shredded, crystal splinters everywhere like the forest had been put through a grinder.

  Its armor had already reformed. Its body looked untouched. That more or less confirmed it. This was a blessed monster. Extra points for me. I wondered whether point gains were shared between allies here.

  Well, I’d know soon enough.

  I tossed the waryn a bottle filled with swirling violet liquid. “Give me that the moment I land on the other side. I’ll be momentarily weakened.”

  “What… exactly is this?”

  “A spirit healing tonic.”

  “A spirit—” His thoughts caught up. “You’re going to overcharge your spells? Are you insane?! One misstep and you’d cripple yourself for the entire hunt!”

  It wasn’t a big deal. I wouldn’t even need such a tonic. But people with spiritual mana veins did, and since I was pretending to be one of them, I had to play the part. I needed a neat excuse for the spectators and a believable fallback. I’d be fine. Hopefully without too much drama.

  “Immobilize the ape when I give the signal,” I said.

  He looked like he wanted to argue, or at least beg me to reconsider, but something about my confidence must’ve convinced him. He nodded, gave the floofy wolf a command to distract the ape, and raised his staff to start casting.

  Meanwhile, I overfed each rune in steady ratios. Two times. Three times. Four times. Lightning crackled around me in thick waves, the air burning with the smell of ozone. The surrounding trees trembled from the pressure alone. Even the ape noticed, but too late.

  “NOW!” I barked before the ape’s single brain cell got any clever ideas. Massive, bark-thick vines erupted from the ground and coiled around the screeching brute, not to harm it, just to hold the oversized tantrum machine still.

  I triggered the spell and shot forward at a speed that’d make blinking feel slow. One heartbeat later, the ape had a brand-new tunnel punched clean through its torso. I hovered mid-air on the other side, smiling as the familiar scent of my burning mana veins reached me. Ahh. Been a while since I sizzled myself like that.

  I let myself drop, doing my best impression of someone in dire need of medical attention, only to be caught by a drifting cloud of soft, anxious floof. Moru practically wrapped around me like living, worried cushioning. The waryn sprinted over and pressed the tonic vial to my lips. Just a strong healing potion, really; the moment the first drop slid down, the fake damage vanished.

  I coughed. For drama.

  “Well, someone told us you were an arsehole with your head wedged up your arse,” the waryn— clearly relieved— laughed. “But looking at all this, seems like someone’s spreading very creative rumours.”

  Honestly, I half-expected him to try to finish me off while I was ‘down’. But this outcome was much better, and infinitely floofier. Precious Moru whimpered around me, tail wagging in frantic arcs. I patted him. He leaned into it.

  Hehehe mission successful. Kinda.

  “Name’s Denis.” He offered his hand.

  I shrugged and shook it. “Toma?.”

  “I know.” He grinned. “Anyway… we Waryns tend to feel a bit weak when separated from our packs.”

  I had noticed that, especially since he came in with three more earlier. Plus, his Pathway screamed support-type.

  “So… seeing how you haven’t gone for my head, and even helped me… would you like to form a, uh, party? We’d split points, but also back each other up?” He looked like he wasn’t sure if I’d laugh in his face.

  Honestly, I’d have said yes for the floof alone. But even the practical side made sense, if I was acting like a pure lightning pathwalker, I needed a few believable weaknesses, and this guy filled those gaps nicely.

  “Well, I don’t even have a pack here,” I said with a laugh before dropping my voice. “They all hate me.”

  “So… sure. Let’s do it.”

  We shook again. Even the fluffy wolf plopped his paw in between ours, sealing the deal. I almost melted on the spot from the sheer adorableness.

  But that bliss lasted about a few minutes before a sudden mana surge rippled around us. A gigantic spell circle flared to life beneath our feet.

  Jade (the floof-addicted dragon):

  Currently ‘collapsed’ for dramatic effect. Actually milking the situation for maximum wolf cuddles.

  Denis (packless support waryn):

  Struggling to reconcile the rumours about Toma? with the polite, slightly unhinged man sitting beside him. (Hint: they are absolutely not the same person.)

  Moru (the Precious Floofy Wolf):

  Coiled around Jade like a living emotional support blanket made of anxious fluff.

  Whine–woof. Translation: “I like this one.”

  Crystal Ape (the unwilling contestant):

  Status: Thoroughly ventilated.

  Cause of death: High-velocity lightning-based disrespect.

  The Colosseum (???):

  Observing. Judging.

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