The Mage Emperor

The Competition

--- Felice’s pov ---

The first thing I noticed was that my senses were suppressed, which my father ‘forgot’ to mention. Well, knowing him, it was most likely intentional, and there were even more ‘rules’ we had to recognize.

Most of the trees were about ten meters tall, and many of them went even beyond, creating a tall canopy with very little light at ground-level. Clenching my fists, I used half of my strength to punch the tree to see how sturdy it was, but seeing that it didn’t even budge, I knew it was mana-enhanced, so destroying it with my bare fists was impossible.

Although I was familiar with many parts of the Great Forest before this competition, Father rebuilt it, so I knew nothing about the place, just like the others.

Now that I think about it, the Great Forest had many monsters, so could it be that this is one of those hidden rules? I bet there are monsters. He just didn’t tell us. In any case, staying on the ground doesn’t seem to be a good idea, so let’s climb!

It was impossible to destroy the trees without using magic, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be able to climb it. Thanks to the deep grooves in its trunk, I didn’t even have to hug the tree like a monkey, and I could simply jump to the tree-top in a few steps. The lowest branch was about ten meters away from the ground and had a diameter of at least one meter, making it easy to stand on it.

Is that a lake to my left? I squinted my eyes as I looked around and noticed a bright area in the distance.

I wasn’t allowed to use magic, and the participants had the same physical strength, which meant that getting a weapon was of top priority. My body was considerably smaller than many of the adult participants, which was a disadvantage in combat and something I had to consider before I attacked somebody.

Rushing to the end of the branch, I picked off a leaf and used my full strength to tear it into thin slices, which turned out to be quite tiring. The trees were enhanced, so it wasn’t just their trunk that was hard and durable; even tearing the leaves was challenging. After making multiple long stripes, I entwined them to make a thin and durable rope.

Now I just need a stick and a rock, and then I can craft a primitive weapon to get a little advantage. I wonder if Brother is doing the same.

Shaking my head, I stopped thinking about my brother and tried to break off a thin branch. I knew the tree was durable and that it contained a part of my father’s mana, but I didn’t think that my strength wouldn’t be enough to break off even a thin branch.

You didn’t make things easier for me, did you, Dad? I cursed inwardly, though I found the challenge even more fun this way.

Noticing that my hands turned green after I touched the leaves and they rubbed against my palm as I entwined them, I realized I could use them as a way to hide my blonde hair. It was just too eye-catching in this dark forest.

Tearing off another leaf, I tore it into two halves and started rubbing it against my hair. Seeing the locks turning green, I couldn’t help but feel like crying, My dear hair. My dear, silky hair, I’m sorry! I’ll go and visit a spa after this contest. No, I’ll have Dad compensate me for making me do this; it’s all his fault.

I was quite fond of my hair, and I hated that I had to mess it up.

*Crack*

“???”

Ducking down on the branch, I turned towards the sound and found a red-skinned teenage guy carefully moving around on the ground. He was about two meters tall by the looks of it, and I had no idea about his combat capabilities, which made it harder to decide whether I should attack him or not. There was a possibility that I could beat him head-on and earn a point, but I felt that being a bit more patient and finishing my weapon was a better choice.

Once he left, I waited a few more minutes and then stood up once again to think. My father never believed firmly in the law and regulations, so I found it unreasonable that I couldn’t even break off a single branch.

Could it be that he- 

As I had a sudden realization, I tried to break off the same branch as earlier and pulled on it with all my strength until I felt I couldn’t move it any further. Thanks to the one-second and five-percent rules that Father mentioned, I strengthened my body-enhancement by another five percent to become stronger. Hearing the branch snapping, I fell on my ass with a bright smile on my face as I canceled the increase, knowing that I need only one part after this.

After looking around carefully, I got off the tree and moved towards the lake I saw in the distance. It was pretty much natural to have some sharp rocks around water bodies, so I believed it was my best chance to find a good piece for my weapon. I came across two more contestants on the way, but thanks to my green hair, they didn’t notice me once I hid in a bush and managed to get past them.

Bless my parents for my good eyes, I thought, seeing that what I saw from afar was indeed water, though it wasn’t a lake. It was a small creek, making it even better. It took only a few seconds to find a fist-sized rock that had a very flat side, almost having an edge. I wanted to sharpen it with another stone, but sensing my father’s mana in it, I knew it was impossible, even if I increased my strength for a moment. It was hard enough to break off a branch that had my father’s mana, much less sharpen an enhanced rock with the same properties.

After fastening the stone to my branch with my self-made ropes, I flung it a few times to test it and was pleased to see that it didn’t fall apart. It was time to earn some points!

Moving towards the place where I spotted the last contestant, I found his tracks on the ground and started following them while paying attention to my surroundings as well. Leviathan was my dad’s domain, which meant that he could be everywhere and change anything he wanted, including how far our mana could spread. That was also the reason I couldn’t sense anything that was one meter away from me, and that kind of distance was pretty much useless if somebody managed to attack me from behind.

As shameful as it was for a mage at my level, once my ears picked up on some crackling sounds, I laid down on the ground and started crawling towards my target that I spotted a moment later.

“Who is there?” the red-skinned guy I had seen earlier asked as he turned a full circle. The only problem was that the tracks I followed didn’t match the foot-size of this guy, meaning that there was another person nearby. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but squint my eyes, noticing a blackened face in the bush that was straight across mine. If not for seeing her blinking, I surely wouldn’t have spotted her.

As the red-skinned guy turned towards me, the woman jumped out of the bush and rushed towards his back, starting the battle with a two-legged kick. The guy fell straight in front of me, his chin almost reaching my head, but luckily I crawled a few centimeters back in advance. Before he could stand up, the woman jumped on his back and wrapped her legs around his neck, grabbing his hands at the same time.

She was one of our residents, though I couldn’t recognize her with the mud covering her face.

*cough*

Seeing that the guy started choking, I jumped out of the bush and swung my axe towards the woman’s neck. Just as I was about to stop my stone axe, a portal appeared behind the woman’s back and dragged her into it. Moving on to my next target, I attempted to behead the guy on the ground, but the same thing happened once again, and he got taken away.

A small window made of a stone table appeared in front of my eyes, saying that I received two points for eliminating two contestants. There was another sentence, though.

### Eliminate three more for a minor reward. ###

Heh, I wonder what it’s going to be. This game is getting more interesting by the more I play. Dad should organize more of these in the future.

Although the Great Forest covered a large area, I had a feeling the participants got teleported quite close to each other. The fact that I’ve run into three people in about ten minutes also proved my theory to be true. Picking up a large rock from the ground, I once again got on a tree and then threw it on the ground to make some noise. Thanks to my lucky aim, I managed to hit a dried branch that wasn’t enhanced, so it broke into two halves, making it even louder than planned.

In less than a minute, I could see five people sneaking towards the branch under the tree from all kinds of directions, two of them even moving right next to each other. Watching them crawling on the ground was a funny sight to behold. One thing I noticed was that there were very few leaves on the ground, making it much easier to move around without others’ notice.

There were only two problems with all this. Eliminating so many people at once would be quite challenging, even if I had a weapon, but that wasn’t what I was worried about since I could just wait until they started fighting. The real problem was the jet black jaguar that was following one of them.

Since I wasn’t sure whether the beasts’ strength was also limited or if they were still as powerful as before, I laid down on the branch and hid among the leaves to see how things would go. In the best-case scenario, I would reap all the benefits and eliminate everyone personally. In the worst case, I would end up losing to the beast once it killed everyone, and that would be the end of my battle.

Although everyone was lying in wait around my tree, neither of them moved, even after a minute had passed. It was only the black jaguar that was breathing down on the guy’s neck, which the person in question realized a tad bit too late.

“Aaah! What the hell?” the red-skinned man’s translated voice resounded in the area as he turned around and found the jaguar standing over him.

The jaguar growled as it clawed at the man’s face, who swung his arm with full strength to slap its paw to the side. Kicking its belly, he rolled towards the guy on his right and started running for his life, only to end up falling as he kicked into his side. As he fell over the guy from Leviathan, both of them jumped up and tried to push one another towards the jaguar that was ready to pounce at them.

Thanks to the red-skinned guy’s self-defense, I knew that the jaguar wasn’t in its peak condition and most likely got weakened by my dad before the competition. While they were struggling to beat each other with their techniques, the jaguar was sizing them up carefully. It didn’t dare to attack them carelessly after getting kicked.

It was a bit risky, but everyone was thinking about what to do, which meant that it was the best moment to attack. Grasping my makeshift axe, I jumped towards the two men with all my strength and swung my axe at their neck. Just as my axe was about to connect, a portal appeared on their right and sucked them in. With my whole momentum transferred to the tip of my axe, I ended up rolling in the air with nothing to use to slow myself and fell face-first to the ground.

Hearing the jaguar pouncing at me from behind, I quickly rolled to the side and swung my axe upwards at the same time. Just as I was about to hit the jaguar’s neck, my axe stopped mid-air, and the beast disappeared without a trace.

### Condition cleared. 6/5 Say ‘claim’ to receive your reward. ###

Seeing the stone table appearing in front of me, I instantly understood that the jaguar was worth two points because it was a natural predator. If not for my axe, I would have no chance against it in combat either.

“Claim,” I grinned as I saw the bushes move while the other three started crawling backward.

Feeling the metal grip of the saber in my hand, I charged straight towards the nearest bush and thrust my weapon towards the woman’s back who could do nothing but raise her hand in defense. She was also one of the residents, just like the other two ahead. Friend or not, this was a competition with no allies, so I simply finished off the other two as well, pushing up my kill-count to nine.

### Three opponents eliminated. One more until the next reward. 9/10 ###

It wasn’t like I knew everyone in Leviathan, but I would certainly recognize those who visit the training grounds often. Since I didn’t know them, I believed they were newcomers without proper training, which would explain their lacking preparations and thought line.

Now that I had a weapon in hand, I was much less afraid of confronting others head-on. I spent many years training my body and learning martial arts besides magic, so there were few people I considered to be a deadly threat.

“Why sneak up on me when I can hear you?” I asked aloud as I turned around.

Faced with a three meters tall black tiger with bright green stripes on its sides, I couldn’t help but force a smile on my face.

“I’m sorry, could you ignore what I said, Miss Cat?” I asked as I raised my brand new saber to threaten it. Unfortunately, it didn’t feel threatened at all because it pounced at me like a hungry beast without a second thought.

Its green stripes meant that it was a Venomous Tiger, which was one of the most dangerous beasts on the planet. It had incredible strength, and a single scratch could kill a person, so I had no plans to fight it, even if it would earn me ten points. Although it was fast, my body was much smaller, which made changing directions easier.

Rolling backward, I managed to avoid its pounce, and then rushed into the thicker part of the forest where it would have to avoid the trees to catch me. Glancing behind, I could see it striking the tree to make it fall on me, only to pull back its claws without any result.

It roared in anger as it realized that I was already far ahead and started chasing me, but as it couldn’t knock over the enhanced trees, it had to dodge them with its massive body, making it fall behind even more. I could hear its roars for a few more minutes until it presumably gave up on me, but I didn’t stop running because I couldn’t be sure.

As I continued running, my eyes stopped on a white sleeve that was hanging out in the open, but just as I was about to slow down, I felt something hooking around my ankle before I got flipped and pulled into the air in the blink of an eye.

A red-skinned woman jumped out from behind one of the trees and rushed towards me right away, greedy to eliminate me before I could free my legs. Swinging the metal saber in my hand, I cut off the ‘rope’ made of leaves and ended up rolling in the air as I fell towards the ground. I was still in the middle of the air when she rammed into me, knocking me away and the stone axe out of my left hand.

Although the participants’ were limited to my natural physical strength with a ten percent increase, it was still enough to kill normal humans with a single slap, so her ramming hurt quite a bit. My only luck was that I was rolling in the air when she rammed into me, and I happened to ‘smash’ into the tree with my legs. If it had been my head, maybe I would have landed in a portal instead and got eliminated.

“Damn it!” the woman growled as she picked up my stone axe, seeing that I got out without getting hurt.

It’s all that stupid tiger’s fault. I wouldn’t have charged through the forest so recklessly if I didn’t have to run for my life. At least, my mana control is good enough, and I didn’t end up being eliminated by my incompetence.

Maybe hoping that I got staggered because of her ramming, she continued her charge with my axe raised high in her right hand and swung it towards my neck. Leaning slightly to the side, I avoided her attack with ease and then turned my saber towards her hips. Using the force of her swing, she ducked down and spun on the ground to kick my legs, but I jumped up and stomped on her chest instead, kicking the air out of her lungs.

Seeing that she wouldn’t be able to resist, I was about to cut her head into two halves when my body froze, and a portal pulled her out.

“Your face got dirty,” my father’s laughter echoed in my ears.

“Dad?” I looked around in confusion.

Since he didn’t respond, I couldn’t help but wonder whether I heard things or he talked to me for real. Regardless, the creek was nearby, so I left the thick part of the forest after picking up my stuff and looked at my reflection in the water, only to realize that his voice wasn’t just my hallucination. After washing my face, I stood up and said ‘claim’ to receive my reward for eliminating ten participants.

Instead of something falling into my hands, my body froze again, and an invisible force spread my arms and legs. I could feel a tingling sensation on my body as my clothes transformed into leather armor, but the real surprise was that it was enchanted, and to top it all off, it was dark brown, which made hiding even easier.

### Received Forest’s Armor. +5% to strength and allows walking on water. ###

### Next reward at 20 eliminations. 10/20 ###

Seeing its effects, I couldn’t help but smile. Now I had three advantages over the other participants. I had a proper weapon, I was slightly more powerful, and I had an armor to mitigate physical attacks. It was time to start hunting properly!

--- Seth’s pov ---

I was broadcasting the competition with the help of our nanobots that filled the forest, and I had to admit, I felt proud of my children seeing their performance. Reiner had seven points putting him in second place, while my daughter had nine points and was about to get the tenth.

When the competition started, there were only a few hundred people left outside, mostly non-combatant residents who didn’t know much about magic. Regardless, they seemed to enjoy the raw physical battles way more than a war of magic since some of them even started cheering for various participants in the background. At the same time, as more and more people got eliminated, I brought them back, and they also joined the growing camp to watch the rest of the competition.

Seeing my daughter flying towards a tree, I couldn’t help but lean forward and prepare to take her out before she got hurt when I noticed Lien’s toe pressing against my chin. Turning to look at her, I found her smiling at me as if she was saying, ‘calm down.’

“Woman, what are you doing?”

“Can’t you feel the speed of her rotation? She won’t hit her head, so why are you so stiff?” she asked, placing her foot back in my lap.

“I know, but she got hit!” I clenched my fists.

Earlier she said that she wanted to lie down, so I made a sofa for us. I didn’t think that she would kick off her shoes and use me as a leg rest while enjoying the show with a bowl of grapes in hand. I also didn’t think that the other residents would follow suit after seeing her behavior and lay down on rugs, though I had to admit, it made the mood much more lively.

“She might as well leave now. It’s a physical and mental battle with equal chances, were you expecting that she could get out without getting hit?” She rolled her eyes.

“I should have thought of another competition,” I grumbled.

“Is that so? Look at her face. I don’t think she would agree with you,” she replied, pointing at the screen. “By the way, what is the reward for reaching ten points?”

Glancing at the shady area under her skirt, I couldn’t help but consider reaching into it as I replied, “It’s an armor that slightly increases the participants’ strength and allows them to walk on water. It will be necessary for the later stages of the competition.”

“Your eyes are going to burst if you stare so hard,” she chuckled as she shut her legs.

“Then don’t show me your thighs, and pull down your skirt properly,” I rolled my eyes.

“Ok, Daddy~,” she mused.

Massaging my temple, I pulled out the red-skinned woman before my daughter cleaved her head into two halves and tried to ignore my unruly wife. Seeing Felice’s dirty face in her glorious moment, I couldn’t help but warn her with some wind magic.

As the woman slowly realized that she got eliminated, she stood up and looked around with a frown on the stage. Once she spotted me, she stormed off in my direction and stopped in front of us, her hands on her hips.

“Can I help you with anything?” I raised a brow, seeing that she was about to explode.

“What the hell is this? You are cheating! Why did she attack me with a weapon?” She yelled at me, waving her finger in dissatisfaction.

Furrowing my brows, I couldn’t help but glance at Lien to see her reaction, only to see her staring back at me with her eyes opened wide, equally surprised. Ever since I’ve created Leviathan, I’ve gathered thousands of like-minded people, and I have never once heard them accuse others of cheating because they lost. This sort of reminded me that even if these people from Yenasari were hard-working and could work as a team even without a life-threatening event, it didn’t mean they were better than the people on my home planet.

Looking at the woman, I asked, “Would you mind telling me why would I of all people cheat in this game?”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Is she stupid?”

“I guess she can’t think straight,” the other eliminated participants and the residents murmured behind my back.

“Why is it that your daughter has a weapon while others don’t? Why do you even organize this competition if you just want to reward your children?” She glared at me as she explained herself, most-likely feeling even angrier after hearing the others’ remarks.

Knowing that my daughter was about to receive her next reward, I said, “Can you turn around and look at that screen?”

Following my finger, she could see the stone table appearing in front of Felice and her clothes turning into armor. “It says, the reward for ten eliminations. Every participant can get the same rewards for reaching a specific score, so you can rest assured because nobody is cheating. There will be even more surprises that none of you know, but you will see them as the competition progresses. I understand that it’s hard to accept your loss, but believe me that if I want to reward my children, I will do so, and it won’t be some shitty axe and armor.”

“You will still get the pill reward for taking part, so don’t be saddened, and there will be even more competitions where you may reach a better ranking and get another reward. Are we clear now?” I asked with a smile, trying my best to ignore her childish behavior.

Glancing at me, and then at the hundreds of people behind me, she cast her gaze towards the ground in shame. It wasn’t like I wanted to shame her and do this in public, but considering that she accused me of cheating so loudly, I had no other choice.

“This is fucking bullshit,” she cursed in her language, though I could understand her anyway.

“Well, now, I guess not everyone will be happy after this competition is over,” I rolled my eyes.

“Let’s just ignore her and tell me what your so-called surprise is. You’re starting to make me curious,” Lien sat up and grabbed my arm.

Shit. My wife’s fragrance is so intoxicating, just what kind of concoction did she make?

Seeing that I didn’t respond, she snapped her fingers in front of my eyes, “Dear?”

“Ah, sorry, I just spaced out for a moment,” I shook my head.

“Is that why you are sniffing me?”

“What is this fragrance? Did you develop some kind of aphrodisiac?” I asked with a frown.

“Why would I need that with a hungry beast like you? I made this perfume from the essence of a herb that my clone found on Yenasari,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders.

“Did you check its chemical composition?”

Seeing her looking sideways, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

“Are you crazy? You knew that it would stimulate my senses, and you still turned it into your perfume and sprayed it all over yourself at such a time?”

“Well, I did?” She chuckled as she admitted to it. “I can see that it’s really- effective,” she added, staring at my crotch.

“I’ll just clear this out of my system and change my body to resist it, lest you end up poisoning me again,” I shook my head. Once I felt myself calming down, I added, “I won’t tell you what the next stages are as punishment, so you will have to watch to find out. The only thing I’m going to tell you is that it will start when a thousand participants reach ten points.”

“Oh, Lord! What a hardcore punishment, I don’t think I can survive it,” she gasped, making fun of me for the thousandth time.

“Well, you can’t expect me to be angry with you for something like this, can you? I mean, I would be angry if I couldn’t fix it with a thought, but like this, it’s no more than a light prank," I replied.

"You just love reasoning with me, don't you?" She chuckled as she kissed my face.

"Mm- I love you so much," she laughed as she hugged me, trying to squeeze everything out of my body.

"I love you too," I replied, quickly adding, “By the way, it seems we have uninvited guests.” 

There were four people outside of Leviathan, one of them matching Azael’s presence, and the other three were most likely the other overseers.

“Uh- and I was about to get comfy in your lap. How the hell did they get here anyway?” Lien grumbled as she fixed her dress and sat down properly.

“It’s because Azael cast tracking magic on the overseers’ bodies,” I replied as I drew a circle in the air and opened a portal in front of Azael.

Startled by the sudden appearance of the portal, I could see all four of them jumping back and staring at the hole with a frown, prepared to launch their attacks. Seeing me waving my hand on the other side, they lowered their hands and entered my domain.

The fact that even Azael crossed the portal without a second thought made it clear to me that she either had no idea that I could do anything to them in my soul domain, or they wholeheartedly trusted me, but the latter was unlikely.

"Greetings, fellow humans," Azael said with a smile as she stepped forward.

“You- how come you are also human?” I couldn’t help but frown, noticing her looks. She had long black hair, fair white skin, and a complete, human body. She had no tail, scales, four eyes, or anything of the sort.

"The Earth is my birthplace," she replied, stopping in front of me. Waving my hand, I closed the portal behind them and then created four comfy armchairs for them.

“Take a seat, please,” I pointed behind them, excited to hear more about her tale.

"My Goddess, should we bring Yehan here?" one of the overseers asked as he took his seat.

“I don’t think he has the time, am I right?” Azael replied, turning to look at me with a knowing smile.

“You seem to know everything about what’s happening,” I said with a frown.

“It’s because I spend most of my time in Elysium, but I cast a tracking spell on all the overseers, and I knew that he left the solar system. Once I went to Yenasari to question the remaining officials, I learned that he left for some competition that was organized by an invincible mage, or so they called you. That’s all I know about your competition,” she replied, crossing her legs.

Turning to look at Lien, she added, ”Let me introduce myself. My name is Azael Jasari, and they are the overseers of the other three planets,” she waved her hand, pointing at the bulky guys behind her. Once they also introduced themselves, it was our turn.

“My name is Seth Clearfall, the creator and owner of this place called Leviathan.”

“And she must be your wife,” she chimed in, glancing at Lien, who was silently observing everyone the whole time.

“It’s just as you said. You may call me Lien,” she replied.

“Please, be at ease,” Azael sprung up all of a sudden and waved her hand, trying to tell her people kneeling behind me to raise their heads.

“Long live goddess Azael!” they yelled in unison.

“I’m sorry, they are quite enthusiastic about me,” the ‘goddess’ smiled as she sat down awkwardly.

"I had the misfortune to experience this kind of treatment, but I managed to extinguish it before it could get out of hand," I couldn't help but sigh loudly just by remembering it.

"It's not that terrible once you get used to it," she replied, clearly having a different opinion about the matter.

Well, most people love being the center of attention, I guess. 

“It doesn’t matter, could you answer my question?” I urged her, starting to feel a little impatient.

"What was it again? Oh, I’m sorry, I remember now. You want to know why I’m human, right?”

"I'm all ears,” I nodded.

Clearing her throat, she started, "It all started two hundred years ago when the outbreak happened. I was an astronaut on the American Space Complex Alpha space station that launched a few years prior, in 2020. When the 'virus' called mana started spreading in 2027, NASA sent samples for us to study in our labs. We didn't expect that we would also end up being 'infected’ because that’s how they referred to it at the time.”

"I later realized that this so-called infection was a blessing in disguise because mana was the only light in the darkness we ended up in,” she shook her head.

“There were countless zoos and pets, but as mana spread and the animals turned wild, chaos erupted and turned even the largest cities into a land of death. Although the army killed thousands of beasts, it wasn’t enough. Many soldiers lost their lives, and things only got worse as more and more beasts evolved and turned immune to bullets and even rockets. They wielded mana as easily as if it was the most natural thing for them.” 

“For a while, NASA still communicated with us and waited for our test results, but it soon turned obvious that there was no ‘cure’ to mana. We just had to learn to control it, and as it turned out, that was what many people did. Countless people in the younger generation spent their free time playing games and reading fictional novels, which turned out to be more useful than human weapons. I’m not quite sure how things turned out afterward because we stopped receiving messages, and nobody responded to our calls either after a while.”

“We were left alone in space with no information, help, and most importantly, food. There was only one way to save ourselves, and that was to learn how to control mana. We knew that people who could control it were capable of unimaginable things that defied logic, including things like surviving without food and water. I’m sure that it’s no big deal to you, but for the humans at the time, it was unimaginable.”

“No, no, I can understand. Most of the people in the city I grew up in still require food and water. I was no different when I was a toddler,” I waved my hand, knowing well what she meant.

“A toddler? Is it bad that you couldn’t live without your basic needs as a toddler? I’m a bit interested to see how things turned out over the years, I may check things out later,” she said, raising her brows.

“That’s not what I mean, but whatever. I’ll explain once you finish your story,” I waved my hand. There were some records of the past that I have put together, but it wasn’t every day that I could hear the whole thing so coherently. It wasn’t like the past mattered to me, but I found her story quite intriguing anyway.

“Well, then let me continue. After I learned how to control my mana, my mind got flooded with another person’s memories, the Goddess of Luck, Fortuna.”

Then she should know about soul domains. Could it be that she just trusts me because of her commandment? Maybe she thinks or feels that I’m her lucky star.

“Certain people can-”

“I know about the god inheritance, just skip the explanation related to that,” I raised my hand, seeing that she wanted to elaborate on it.

“Ah, that would explain quite a lot of things for me as well,” she nodded.

“With my stored knowledge, I was something like a prodigy among the astronauts who tried to learn magic, and I was also the fastest to achieve the state where I no longer needed food. I trusted the others, so I taught them many things about magic and hoped that they could survive along with me, but I never imagined the horror that soon followed.”

“Those who couldn’t progress quickly understood that they needed more time if they wanted to survive, and the only way to achieve this was to reduce the headcount. We were still in space and had enough food for about a month, but instead of trying their best to learn, four people ganged up on those who were weaker and started a massacre while I was sleeping. Only six people remained after the battle took place, out of the thirty-six that lived in the space station.”

“After the four murderers died, the remaining six astronauts learned my methods in time and then continued training for about a year when we realized that there would be no help coming from NASA even if ten years passed. They completely abandoned us.”

“At that point, we were capable of surviving in space even without our spacesuit, so instead of trying to return to the earth to help those who abandoned us, we left for other planets that were supposedly habitable. Many of us have dreamed of discovering and exploring new planets, so once we had the power to do so, we chose to leave.”

“I don’t know how many years it took for me to reach my current home, but I’ve seen worlds and planets that I couldn’t even dream of seeing before. After reaching the four planets, I found sentient life and felt that it was time to stop my travels and help them out, but you should know what happened since you have been to Yenasari.”

“If you mean the formation around the sun, then I do,” I nodded.

“Yes. I’ve been living there ever since and spent most of my time training and helping my people. I plan to visit new planets in the future since it has become much simpler to travel with portals and teleportation, but I’m sure you are clear of the advantages.”

“And that’s my tale!” She clapped her hands, almost startling me with her sudden outburst.

"And why exactly did you come here?" Lien asked.

"First of all, I wanted to see who could incite one of my people to go to an unknown land. Secondly, I wanted to see where that place was, though I had no idea that you were from the Earth, my birth planet," Azael replied, raising her finger.

"This isn't the planet, though," I replied. “I also understand that you can do anything to me, and my people while we are in here as long as your soul is stronger than mine, but there is a good reason I’m not worried about that, and that’s also why I mainly came here.”

Was I right?

“You see, as the Goddess of Fortune, my commandment sort of notifies me when I should follow somebody or do something to have, what you would call, good luck,” she kept pausing, trying to tell me that luck was nothing but the skill to be in the right place at the right time. Even I knew that much, but you had to predict the future to some degree to do that.

Even after seeing thousands of commandments over the years, they still managed to amaze me from time to time with their various effects. Traits were few, and most of them were simply trash in my eyes, but commandments were a whole different thing.

For real? She thinks that I’m her lucky star. Well, now, that’s quite the thing.

“Thanks for answering,” Lien replied.

Turning to look behind her, Azael pointed at the screens and asked, “Are you broadcasting the competition? Oh, Yehan is there as well!”

“Indeed, would you care to watch the rest of it? I also have to pay attention to the participants so I can pull them out before they could get hurt,” I replied, hoping that I could focus more on watching my children. If we continued chatting, I would have created a clone to listen to her instead.

“Of course! I’ve never seen this kind of competition before, so I’m quite excited to see more of it,” she said with enthusiasm, quickly turning around her chair and moving it next to me, on the right side of the sofa.

“She’s ogling you,” Lien grumbled through Link, even though I completely ignored Azael’s sneaky glances.

“Is your husband too handsome?” I mused as I glanced at Lien, seeing that she was unhappy with Azael.

“You are. The next time you meet a woman, I’m going to put a paper bag on your head to cover your face, though she seems to be enjoying the sight of your body way more,” she replied, glaring at Azael who was still busily staring at my chest and arm.

She hadn’t seen a human man for hundreds of years, so I was quite sure that she was ogling me because of her sexual desires.

I guess now it’s time to try out Ma’at’s commandment.

I have learned that commandments could be created and copied by drawing various soul imprints on a person’s soul. One thing I was sure of, I couldn’t add soul imprints infinitely and inherit all commandments, but the more powerful your soul was, the more soul imprints it could withstand. It also depended on the quality and the complexity of the soul imprint.

Mine was one of the most complex ones, so drawing it on Lien’s soul would take some time, but I had started doing it a few weeks ago. She also started drawing her soul imprint on mine, and both of us copied Ma’at’s.

But- should I seriously spy on her thoughts? I have a feeling I might regret it.

After pondering about it for a moment, I made up my mind to do it so I could find out if she had some bad intentions. Since Lien also had the same imprint, I knew that she had been using it ever since Azael arrived, but she also noticed the moment I activated mine.

“No, don’t use it!” Lien cried out through Link, but she was too late to warn me.

“Uh- this guy is so handsome, he’s just my type. Just look at that six-pack, I can see it between the buttons on his shirt! It seems I still find my race much more attractive than these red and blue-skinned guys. I wonder if he has a big one, I’m itching to have some fun after so many years of being lonely. Should I scan his body? But he would notice it for sure.“

Turning silent for a few seconds, she turned to the side.

“I’ve got it! I will scan everyone so that he would think that I just want to see their strength, I suppose he won’t be angry because of that,” she cried out in her mind, and a moment later I felt her mana surrounding everyone who was nearby.

“Oh my god! Just what is this guy? I can’t believe Lien gets to hog this all for herself!”

“But wait- why is he hard? Could it be that he also likes my looks?” Seeing her looking at my face from the corner of my eye, I couldn’t help but want to hide my face.

“...”

“You were right,” I shook my head as I replied to Lien, and quickly deactivated Ma’at’s commandment before I could hear any more of Azael’s bullshit. It was no wonder Lien seemed to be unhappy with her since the very few seconds of our meeting.

“Well, now, she is getting worse and worse. I guess she is a bit too frustrated for her age and status,” Lien replied, her voice filled with sarcasm.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not siding with her on this, but aren’t you the same when you are horny? I might be even worse than her when I’m hungry for you, so as embarrassing this is to listen to, I can understand her side as well. I’m pretty sure she would be fine with any other ‘handsome’ guy right now.”

“I know, but it’s still annoying me because you are excited!” She replied.

“My love, I’ve been feeling excited ever since you flashed your panties to me. I can assure you that It has nothing to do with her. You should know that I’ve been staring at your majestic tits the whole time you laid in my lap. Do you think I would have no perverted thoughts after seeing all those?” I quickly explained myself, even though I was sure she didn’t mean what she said.

“Then why don’t you show her why you are excited~” she mused, making me realize that the only reason she ‘accused’ me was to make me do something to her in front of Azael.

“Aren’t you a devious little fox?” I couldn’t help but frown as I glanced at her.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” she chuckled as she took hold of my hand while strictly staring at the screens.

Rolling my eyes, I went along with her wishes and leaned over to kiss her red lips. Noticing that she started caressing my thigh, I couldn’t help but grit my teeth as I got more and more excited.

“Can we stop? I’m afraid I’ll end up fucking you here if we continue,” I warned her, feeling that she was about to stick her tongue into my mouth.

“Mh- but your lips feel so good,” she said as she shoved her tongue into my mouth anyway.

Opening my eyes, I forcefully pulled back as I said in a low voice, still loud enough for Azael to hear, “I can’t wait to see you in bed.”

“I’ll be sure to reward you for going along with my wish,” she chuckled as she leaned back and started humming.

“It grew even bigger! This guy is a monster. What a lucky woman. AAAH! I also want to find a man like him!” I quickly checked on Azael’s thoughts, but it seemed she was still going on about the same thing, so I turned it off once again.

Maybe it’s best if I never spy on her thoughts again.

I was about to focus back on the competition when the woman who accused me of cheating started screaming in pain. I was seriously considering creating a clone at this point because the outsiders just didn’t want to let me watch my children properly. Snapping my finger, I teleported the woman to my location to take a closer look at her.

About half of her right arm was missing, which happened because she tried to integrate my mana into her mana veins. The trees and rocks in the Great Forest all contained my mana at the moment, and since she got taken out with Felice’s handcrafted axe in hand, she took it with herself when she moved further away. Although the axe itself was utter trash, the mana residing in the stone and the stick was still my mana, which was a priceless treasure for most of the magicians who weren’t as reckless and stupid as this woman.

I didn’t mind that she took it with herself because I thought that she checked the magic power of my mana and knew that she had to weaken it to make it useful for herself. As it turned out, it was a bad idea to expect that much from an outsider without proper training because she tried to move my mana straight into her body.

There were two possible outcomes considering the difference in our magic power. If she had no mana in her arm, my mana would have burned it from the inside out the moment it entered her body, destroying the cells along the way. The other outcome was what happened. She had mana in her arm, and thanks to the difference in magic power, her mana was overwhelmed by the sudden burst of energy and exploded, destroying her arm along the way.

“MY ARM! AAAH- HELP!” She screamed in pain, further annoying me.

“Could you please stop screaming?” I shook my head as I put my finger on her forehead and knocked her out, healing her arm at the same time. After teleporting her back to where she was and explaining Azael what happened, I could finally focus on the competition again.

Anyway, it seems it’s finally time for stage two. I wonder what kind of face Felice and Reiner are going to make once they see the notification.

--- Felice’s pov ---

“AAAAA,” the red-skinned guy screamed in terror as I swung my saber towards his face, most likely thinking that he would die, but just as usual, my father froze my body and pulled him out before I could hurt him. It was a huge help that I didn’t have to hold my punches and could go all-out.

### Eliminated: 17/20 ###

Cool, now I need only three more to get another reward, but this guy had a metal sword, so I’m afraid it will become harder and harder to earn points as more people reach five points.

Just as I was about to start moving, I felt a tremor run through the ground, followed by the appearance of a bunch of stone tablets.

### A thousand participants have reached ten points. ###
### The treasure tomb has been revealed. ###
### You have 30 minutes to prepare for the second stage. ###
### Complete the challenges of the tomb to earn other rewards. ###

Seeing those four stone tablets, I instantly understood what caused the tremor.

I bet everyone is going to rush to see the tomb and earn rewards, which means that there will be a huge battle among the contestants. I could wait and try to reap the benefits after they got tired, but I’m afraid the rewards would be taken by then. I’m probably better geared than most of them anyway.

After making up my mind, I climbed the nearest tree and jumped from branch to branch to reach my target. It took about five minutes to find a large clearing with nothing but a giant stone cube in the middle. One thing I noticed right away was that the clearing was surrounded by the participants from all directions, but nobody dared to be the first.

My father said it many times that people weren’t equal, but he strongly believed in fairness. I believed that if there were hidden traps on the clearing, that wouldn’t count as fair play for him since it would depend on one’s luck.

I’m sure the real challenge will start when I reach the cube, so I’ll put my faith in my dad and be the first!

Jumping over three participants who were busy glaring at each other and sneaking glances at the stone cube, I rushed through the field and reached my target in just a few seconds. Seeing that it didn’t react even when I stopped in front of it, I put my hand on its side, only to end up getting sucked into it. In my last moment, I could still see thousands of people charge towards the cube at the same time.

Falling face-first on the ground, I quickly jumped up to prepare for a possible attack, but nothing came my way. I was standing in a seemingly infinite pitch-black room.

What the heck?

Even after making a full circle, I still couldn’t see anything, but just as I was about to ask aloud what I was supposed to do, I heard footsteps in front of me.

“Who is there?” I squinted, still not seeing further than the tip of my nose.

“What kind of scenery do you want?” A familiar voice asked.

“Dad?”

“A stone stage in the middle of a sunny island,” I replied whimsically, realizing that he wouldn’t answer.

“That’s quite specific, I guess we could visit an island during our next holiday,” he replied, and a moment later, the darkness disappeared just like a filter.

The scenery was just as I imagined, but I wasn’t too happy about it because there were only two people on the stage, my father and me.

“Uh- what now?”

“We fight,” he said with a smile.

“Can I quit? I would rather rob those who get out,”  I replied, forcing a smile on my face. After losing against him hundreds, or maybe thousands of times over the years, I knew better than anyone else just how ridiculous what he said was. Maybe if I lived for another twenty years, I would try to fight him again, but I wasn’t in the mood to be beaten up without receiving any reward.

It was true that I’ve earned most of my battle experience by fighting him and my mother, but I didn’t come here to train.

“Hahaha, it’s not what you think.”

“This body is a clone with its physical strength limited to-”

“So did you take over the control of your clone just to make things harder for me?” I couldn’t help but interrupt him.

“No, I’m going to leave once I explained the rules to you. I just wanted to do it personally for you and Reiner,” he replied as he appeared in front of me and took hold of my hand.

Met with his caring eyes and gentle touch, I realized it was fine to ease up for a moment and listen to him, “Alright, so what are the rules?”

“This body has about half of your physical strength, which means that I’m fifty percent weaker than most of the participants. After each stage, you can receive a reward, but each stage is going to become harder and harder. Just like this competition, the battle will be physical and no external magic is allowed until you reach the third stage where I would become physically stronger than you. I’m sure you have guessed that the stages will become harder because I will become more and more powerful.”

“Mh, I’ve got it,” I nodded.

“Alright, I’m going now-”

“Wait. Can you change the looks of this clone?” I asked.

Seeing him raising his brows, I said, “I don’t want to hit my own father, even if it’s a clone.”

“Aww~ I’ll be sure to cuddle my big daughter once this ends,” he said cheerfully as his face transformed.

Seeing that his clone took a stance, I could imagine how it would throw around the participants who thought they could overwhelm him with their strength alone. This was a test of skill, and knowing my father, he could surely beat many people even if his physical strength was restricted.

Cracking my fingers, I also took a stance and looked at my opponent.

“Let’s begin.”

The moment I uttered those words, the clone charged at me with full speed.

I hope that I can finish at least three stages.

 

(AN: You ask why this is so late? Well... I got into reading Swallowed Star. I haven't read anything since I started writing, so I went a bit overboard with it... like, I start reading as soon as I get home from work, and I'm still not even halfway through, goddamnit. 1700+ chapters... XD)