41 First Match
Andrew noticed that the majority placed fictional names into their nicknames rather than exposing the real ones.
He pressed on the name of someone who was ranked first and the following information appeared:
Name: Shadow King
Existence: Advanced Archmage
Faction: unknown
Age: unknown
Demonic Abode Ranking: #1
Won: 6969
Win Streak: 197
Lost: 341
Death Matches: 6307
Non-Death Matches: 1003
Personal Quote: Power is the King.
Andrew was amazed by the number of wins and death matches fought.
'So I can become anonymous too' Andrew thought as he looked at the rest of top 3.
Name: Void Blade
Existence: Advanced Archmage
Faction: unknown
Age: unknown
Demonic Abode Ranking: #2
Won: 6951
Win Streak: 211
Lost: 312
Death Matches: 6021
Non-Death Matches: 1242
Personal Quote: Watch your back.
___
Name: Last Frame
Existence: Advanced Archmage
Faction: unknown
Age: unknown
Demonic Abode Ranking: #3
Won: 6949
Win Streak: 173
Lost: 317
Death Matches: 5999
Non-Death Matches: 1261
Personal Quote: I'm the last thing you see.
'The amount of Death Matches won and realm should decide the ranking' Andrew guessed after thinking about the ranking system for a while.
'First, I should fight the mages of the same phase as me in order to get a real fighting experience' he concluded as he pressed on profile and selected the *Battle*.
Next, he chose *Non-Death Match* since he needed to get experience first. He selected a 1v1 match at his phase as the following text appeared.
*Once your challenge is accepted you will be notified and warped to the battle arena*
Andrew nodded with satisfaction as he exited the facility and headed towards the dormitory.
He passed through the tunnel as he needed to get the backpack that had his monthly rations in.
He unlocked the door by placing the token into the slit in the wall.
He headed towards the men's dormitory as he had to unlock it once again.
Then he got the spare robes from the backpack and changed into them.
He went out of the dormitory and saw familiar faces.
3 male demons with ragged clothes appeared in his view. None of them dared to look into his eyes as they passed by him.
Andrew simply ignored them as he headed to get a private cave or something similar, he didn't know what exactly he would move in.
He went to the same old man that always meditatively sat at the entrance of one of the facilities.
Sethel opened his eyes the moment Andrew was close enough.
'So I became a bit more important' he thought in his head as he was amused by Sethel's quick response.
"What do you want?" Sethel indifferently asked.
"I want to move out since I heard that mages get their own private housing" Andrew stated.
Sethel furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Didn't anybody tell you that the private area is in the same cave as the dormitory?" Sethel asked.
"No one told me" Andrew replied.
"Anyways, how do I get into one?" he asked.
"It's simple, just send your mana sense into your token and trigger the function that connects it to your private area. Make sure to be in front of your private cave since it will not open if you are out of range" Sethel explained.
Andrew just bowed and left since he inquired about everything he wanted to.
Once he got back into the cave. He did as he was told and a 3-meter tall hole appeared in the far corner of the cave.
Andrew entered it as he looked around. The place was fairly large as there was a stone bed in the corner.
The next moment, a vibration spread in Andrew's pocket. He pulled out the token as he saw an icon saying *The battle is ready. Would you like to fight now? Yes/No*.
Before pressing *Yes*, Andrew exited the cave and locked it.
With his mana sense, he pressed the *Yes* option and the scenery shifted in front of his eyes.
He appeared in a large clearing as his surroundings were darker than night. He looked around wondering how the space was created since he could clearly understand that it was artificial.
The sky was pitch black and looked like an empty space without any features. The ground was extremely smooth, lacking any bumps or hills. It was painted white so participants could clearly see their blood or the blood of their opponent dripping down.
Andrew looked in front of him as he spotted a figure draped in black robes.
He wanted to take a step forward but he found himself completely frozen in place!
The next moment, a transparent icon appeared in front of him saying:
*Do you want to fight? Yes/No*
Andrew was perplexed why would they even confirm it for the second time.
'It's probably made for inattentive ones' he thought as he used his mana sense to select *Yes*.
Suddenly, a buzzing noise spread as a giant countdown appeared above the battle arena.
10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0!
Andrew bulleted himself towards his opponent the moment the countdown reached zero.
He activated a simple fire spell as his entire forearm was coated in flames and it once again burnt his sleeves to ashes.
Contrary to speeding Andrew, the second participant stood immobile. It was impossible to know what was on their mind since black robes covered their features.
When Andrew was about a meter away from the person, just about to plunge his blazing arm into his opponent's face...
A shockwave hit as it propelled him 10 meters away!
He flew like a sandbag for several seconds until he gracefully landed on the ground and took a battle stance, not intending to make any more moves as he decided to observe his opponent.
Thankfully, his physical powers were far greater than average, otherwise his organs would have turned into liquid from the sheer power that the shockwave carried.
The second participant stood at the same spot without moving an inch. Their posture was upright as they didn't even bother looking in Andrew's direction since their mana sense was firmly locked on him. They were quite amazed by the fact that Andrew could still stand after such blast.
'Why didn't they attack while I was mid-air?' Andrew deeply furrowed his brows in contemplation as he was utterly dumbfounded by the passiveness of his opponent.
He prepared to shoot towards his opponent the moment he found an opening, yet a full minute passed and the second participant didn't even seem to have any intentions of moving.
Another three minutes passed in complete stillness, no one had made a move yet. Andrew decided to take the reigns into his hands since his opponent looked like a defensive type.
The next moment, he unruffled his mana sense. After releasing his mana sense Andrew got a rough estimate of his opponent's mana sense size.
It was about 5 meters in radius, four times weaker than his!
This was a pleasant surprise for Andrew since he discovered that he had a second advantage.
He remembered a particular way of using mana sense.
The other participant couldn't sense Andrew's mana sense since theirs was too weak to detect it. Thus, they were unaware of the fact that Andrew unruffled his mana sense.
Meanwhile, Andrew prepared a mental attack while his opponent was oblivious of the upcoming disaster.
He concentrated his mana sense into an extremely thin thread. The sheer density of mental energies would make any mortal die from just being near it.
With a step, Andrew blurred from his previous spot as he appeared right behind his enemy.
The enemy simply readied themselves to send out another shockwave until an extreme sense of danger enveloped their entire being!
Their instincts were screaming for them to flee!
Yet, they were too late to react as an invisible mental thread shot right into their mind's eye.
The moment it hit their soul domain, indescribable levels of pain spread through their entire soul.
The shockwave which was about to be released was stopped. The moment the complex chain of spell casting was abruptly cut short, a tenth of the power of the shockwave ravaged the participant's body.
Their body was almost ripped apart as their veins started to pop and rupture after one another in a matter of milliseconds!
Meanwhile, Andrew drilled his way through the barrier of the soul domain. The speed was fairly slow as the defensive barrier slowly cracked, yet it happened in a matter of seconds!
The deeper Andrew went into the barrier, the pain became worse as the powerless opponent plunged onto the ground as their body wildly convulsed. They looked like a fish on land.
Eventually, Andrew broke through the barrier as he actually entered into the soul domain.
Yet, the next thing he experienced wasn't so pleasing...
A radiant black star at the center of the soul domain released energy rays in his direction!
Andrew failed to react quickly enough as a beam of dark light struck the mental thread. It slightly quivered as it sent waves of pain through his mind.
Andrew gritted his teeth as he evaded the upcoming energy waves.
The next moment, Andrew immediately pulled himself out of the soul domain as more and more energy beams were speeding towards the mental thread.
The moment he was out of the mind's eye, his physical body cast a fire spell as he fried the wildly thrashing body to the crisp!
He cooked up that person in 500 C⁰!
After confirming their death, he just sat on the ground as he regulated his breathing to lessen the ringing pain in his mind.
'I'm still too inexperienced in the way of magic' he thought, deciding to improve his mental attacks.
