Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell watched the battles with interest and was surprised by the contender's strength. Due to his perception, these battles had a much more significant value for him. In his eyes, he could see how energy behaved, and could see that the woman with the abilities related to blood actually used occultism to control her abilities.

From what he could see, she didn't use blood mana, and her mental energy just interacted with blood in her veins. It was apparent that her circulation system was altered, as there were no ways for it to hold so much blood normally, but that was hardly something unbelievable at this point.

The other guy, on the other hand, was even more strange. Maxwell could see that he had some mana, but the man didn't use even a smidgen of it throughout the fight. Whatever he did, it was done by pure technology.

Everything natural had mana, so Maxwell could feel the electricity flowing inside the man's gadgets, but still, there was no trace of magic in the way the man fought. As the fight continued, Maxwell could also see that his arm was slowly repairing itself. With a little amplification of his senses, he could see small sparks inside the man's body.

Something like nanites? Like anyone, Maxwell too was exposed to science fiction, so he could roughly guess what the man was using. Also, nanites had been in circulation for some time in Zephyr when everything was slowly going to shit. Without them, they couldn't fight the tier 3 creatures even with Etherium.

The first battle was enlightening in the way that it clearly showcased what the two neglected knowledge skills Maxwell could do with the right hand. It was apparent that occult classes didn't have to be as incomprehensible and abstract as Audra's was. If Maxwell couldn't see as clearly as he did, he would also think that woman simply used blood magic.

The next battle, though, was something beyond. The system seemed to block observation attempts for now, but Maxwell could clearly sense that the man with the scabbard was strange in more ways than one. In the man's body, apart from the mana infused into his body itself, no trace of mana existed. Even a level 1 warrior would probably have more mana than the man had.

His opponent, on the other hand, wasn't particularly special. Maxwell could see that he was an assassin who focused on bodily attributes, as his mind didn't feel very strong in his senses. His mana, too, was lacking at best. The man was probably really talented when it came to martial arts; otherwise, he wouldn't be here.

His eyes twitched when he saw the following events. The man took out his little knife from the needlessly big scabbard, but Maxwell wasn't fooled. He could see that the knife wasn't the real treasure, but the scabbard and the handle were.

He watched as the man simply put his knife back into the scabbard. And he wasn't surprised when the enemy's head simply separated from his body. Maxwell stared at the casual man, trying to understand how the man could manage what he did.

Even Maxwell couldn't detect anything when the man attacked. His opponent's neck was separated in an instant, and his senses simply told him that fact. There was no cause, no cut made by anything sharp, nor any trace of mana or energy.

I should probably observe that scabbard when we match, he thought. The man was proof that Maxwell still ought to be careful when facing unknown opponents. He wasn't sure if he could die from his head getting separated, considering that he could turn it to mana, but he had a feeling that the man's skill was pretty special.

He was surprised to feel his platform moving, and he was soon in the arena under the curious glances of the anomalies and the president himself. Isn't he an anomaly, too? Maxwell thought as he gazed at his opponent.

Funnily enough, his opponent was the cyborg he had first seen when he teleported into this dimension. Immediately, he observed the man.

Oscar - Cyborg - Level-50(49)

Is he level 50 due to his enhancements? That made little sense from the standpoint of his own power system, but it was quite obvious at this point that he was hardly the only one.

As he dissected the man with his senses, Oscar was busy trying to get as much information as he could from Maxwell, but he was unsurprisingly stumped. Due to etherium, Maxwell was a black box to anyone but the system. Even the system itself had some problems accessing his soul, considering its roundabout approach when it came to him. Someone like Oscar obviously couldn't glimpse much from him.

Oscar was a much better fusion than the other people he had seen so far, Maxwell felt. He had a decent amount of mana inside his body, and his technological parts definitely used that mana to power themselves. Mana-based technology was something Maxwell was interested in, so he would definitely test this guy a bit.

At this point, Oscar seemed to choose the best option he got, and under Maxwell's fascinated gaze, his hand morphed into something like a cannon, firing a giant bullet. Maxwell's world slowed down automatically, his mind redistributing resources to follow the threat, and Maxwell analyzed the bullet.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He simply tilted his head, and the bullet missed by a hair's breadth. Even now, he was quite jealous of people creating matter as casually as that, but he didn't distract himself with such thoughts. Oscar, though, just gazed at him like he was a monster. Dodging a bullet was something no one could possibly do before the system, and the situation was similar even now, considering that the speed of the projectiles was now faster due to mana also boosting them.

Oscar fired a few more shots, and Maxwell created a plate of metal with his delusion, infusing the metal with a soul with the idea of protecting him. The plate flew into the path of the first bullet, and a sound of metal hitting metal rang in the arena. The construct, though, was much more stable than the bullets Oscar was firing; without losing any time, it intercepted the other bullets, looking like it was teleporting.

Oscar, seeing this, just shook his head in exasperation, and with a sudden blast coming out of his feet, he charged at Maxwell. Halfway along, his arm turned into a blade vibrating at supersonic speeds, making a whizzing sound.

Maxwell was curious who would win between the man and his makeshift construct, so he simply watched. To his surprise, his construct was clearly cut in half as the man swung his fiercely vibrating limb, and Maxwell got a feedback of pain from the infused construct as it dissolved.

Oscar, though, didn't simply stop. He took a step forward, moving with insane speed, and swung his arm at Maxwell's head.

In the next moment, his eyes wide as his arm stopped centimeters from Maxwell's neck, a great force pulling it back. This, though, wasn't the cause of his surprise. He glanced back hurriedly and saw the culprit.

A metal arrow with an insane current flowing through it formed behind him with an unreal speed, and its sheer magnetic force stopped his arm from moving forward. A flash suddenly consumed the arena, and Maxwell was back in his previous spot. The Last Flash truly deserved his name. Even he himself could only see the flash without seeing the end result.

Oscar stood with a dumbfounded look on his face on his platform and glanced at Maxwell. To his surprise, Maxwell could see fear in the man's eyes. "You probably shouldn't use magnetic material. Anyone who could control some sort of magnetism would instantly counter you," Maxwell sent to the man. He could feel that his telepathy was not blocked by this space.

Oscar was surprised for a moment, hearing a foreign voice in his head, but nodded to him respectfully, fear in his eyes getting replaced by something like respect.

Maxwell himself contemplated the battle. There were many ways that he could instantly beat people like this. One of them was telepathic attacks, but he knew that that would only stunt his growth. Similar to Oscar's dilemma, if he didn't develop his other aspects, he would be helpless against mindless creatures.

In the battle now, there was no need for him to use The Last Flash, as the skill had been a clear overkill, but Maxwell couldn't help but test the skill in battle. Like anyone, he too liked to test new toys. The version of the skill he used on the space mage was his original creation, so this was the first time he created it with records of curiosity.

He watched as two different platforms moved to the arena, a beautiful woman in an extravagant dress stepping onto the platform. While Maxwell and the man with the small knife were the only two with casual clothes, this woman was the only one who showed up ready for a ball.

Against her, a man with tight body armor stood. Maxwell was surprised to see that the man's armor was decorated with glowing runes. He could see the rune of amplification, and there was a glowing rune of reduction on his chest. There was also a different rune on his feet that Maxwell couldn't recognize, but he was delighted to see a different rune nonetheless. He quickly memorized the pattern to try some other time.

Two people stared at each other for a few seconds, and soon, it was apparent that something was wrong. The stare off continued for almost a minute, and it ended with something none probably expected. The man in armor took out a cylinder and positioned it under his throat before pushing a button on it.

Immediately, a beam of plasma shot out, impaling the man clearly through his head vertically before stabilizing into a sword of plasma. Immediately, they were back to their platforms, and the man started to look around, clearly bewildered. To his credit, he was much calmer than a person would be in his situation.

Maxwell, who watched the exchange from the side, shook his head. He didn't expect to see a targeted mental attack in this "tournament," as someone specializing in mental attacks would probably have a hard time leveling to level 50. At least that was what he believed until now, as this woman was clear proof that his theory was wrong. Still, it was a very risky path, as he could see from the mental waves that the woman targeted specific emotions.

In this case, the emotion was lust, and Maxwell was half-sure from the woman's dress that this was her choice when her enemy was a man. He was a bit curious what emotion she would use against a straight woman, though. Lust would be hardly effective against someone like that.

The next matches were not really interesting, as the other anomalies more or less had generic abilities. There were three mages with different elements, but Maxwell found them lacking, as they were clearly limited by their affinities. Their creativity with their element was pretty good, but since their levels were the same, elements countered each other pretty neatly, causing one match to be pretty one-sided.

Another mage, who faced a warrior, was demolished pretty easily, as he was clearly used to fighting from a distance. His element was wind, and he tried to create some distance, but a warrior was pretty much his counter in a closed space like this.

One of the fights was truly interesting to watch, as Maxwell observed two martial artists face each other. Their movement was simply graceful, and they apparently knew each other, as their clothes were similar.

Apart from their incredible skills, Maxwell was surprised to see once more that these guys had no trace of pure mana inside their bodies. Unlike the other man, though, these guys had a mana type with a single affinity inside their bodies. Maxwell could see that their mana was slightly different, but he guessed that it was simply two different types of a single element. Compendium's observation was blocked, too, so he couldn't see what exactly it was, but he memorized the mana type for future experiments.

Soon, his platform was once more moving, and there were only nine people left.