Sinatro
patreon
Chapter 146. Busted Titles
🕑 Added 2025-08-28 19:14:08 +0000 UTCThere were two opponents in the arena this time. Fortunately they were both male.
The announcer didn't say it, but everyone likely knew that the reason for such a change in rules was because Rafe had to die.
“This is a three way battle. The last man standing wins!” the announcer bellowed.
Soon after the crowd joined in thunderous approval.
Rafe only scoffed internally. This last week was a trying one, but luckily, that whole torture thing should be over and done with.
And in more lucky news, both his opponents were male. Rafe smirked as the fight was announced. It was time to vent some of his frustrations.
The moment the match started, Rafe launched forward in an overbearing manner.
He watched in slow motion, both his movement technique and Dash skill applied to the fullest. He saw the opponent whose neck his hand was reaching for flinch, the man's eyes bulging.
This man was a green haired pure mage, from what Rafe could tell.
With his neck in Rafe's hands, he was dragged around like a chicken. Rafe didn't stop running, dragging the physically weak mage by his neck. He took two laps around the pit in less than thirty seconds, and by the time he stopped the second man was dead.
‘Ding’: You have killed user ‘Zachary Pinch, Elemenoid, Green whisperer’ Lvl 75.
And immediately after that.
‘Ding’: Your class warrior has grown to level 15.
Your pseudo-class skill mimic has grown to level 15.
Rafe smirked. He needed to distribute his stats, but he supposed he'd have to do that a bit later. He was still supposed to be in the middle of a fight after all.
His second opponent was bare chested and huge, and he wasn't even an Elemenoid. He was a demon. A pure physical fighter this time. The demon was now staring at where Rafe stood over his fallen comrade with a stupefied expression.
The announcer might have been evasive, saying all three of them were supposed to fight individually, but Rafe knew these guys were probably supposed to team up against him. Now that threat was non-existent. And now there was only one opponent left.
Rafe attacked. This was a demon with one of those traits he'd seen back in the Skyholm training tower. This one seemed to be geared toward helping the demon in physical combat.
Rafe remembered the demon Raedis with whom he'd fought in order to start the development of his own technique. If it was about ranking, then Raedis had a first class combat related trait, and this demon had only a fourth class one.
Still, with his physical prowess, it took Rafe more than ten moves and thirty seconds to end him.
The stadium was very silent after the fight.
Rafe looked up at the crowd expressionlessly, for almost five seconds, then he took a long, savouring breath.
There might have been some ruckus during his exit from the arena, but Rafe couldn't be assed to care. He was in a good mood during the journey back.
The first thing he did was check on his progress toward the next level. And sure enough, killing that demon had been like pouring drops in a bucket. If he was going to reach that level in about six weeks, he needed thousands of such battles.
Was Rafe willing to kill a thousand people?
Even though he was becoming desensitized to it, killing thousands of people still seemed a bit much. Worse, these people he was fighting with in the pits didn't have a choice except to fight him in order to survive. Rafe liked to think that if he had the choice, killing would never be his first option. But it was an option.
Rafe distributed all his free stats. A mental stat into wisdom, a free racial stat into coordination, and the rest into agility.
The promotion event was getting close, and Rafe needed to try and be in the best form he could.
With that finished, Rafe once again tried to work on his Essence control. It was mechanical work which would only improve after repetition. There was going to be no sudden insight that could improve the speed of his work.
‘Ding’: You have learned the skill, Essence manipulation (Uncommon, lvl.1) You are now able to easily manipulate ambient and soul Essence. This is the most difficult form of energy control skill. Increase in skill level will result in increase to Essence sensitivity and energy control.
Error! Skills currently unable to be applied.
Error! Error! Essence circulation not currently affected. Skill will work at less than fifty percent efficacy.
Rafe was stupefied by the message for a long time. He had almost forgotten he had the system in his pocket. The system didn't even forget to inform him this was the most difficult kind of energy control skill to master. And yet Rafe got the skill after only a week at most. Obviously the system cheated for him on this occasion.
He tried it out immediately. It was still hard to manipulate the Essence, but it was infinitely easier than ever it had been before. He estimated that even with the usual interruptions, he would be done with it before his daily sleeping time.
And the next time it would only take maybe three days to fill it at this rate. Rafe was very excited, very happy. At least he was until his aura senses informed him of something.
He frowned in the direction Filoria and her partner always entered this dungeon. That was curious. Wasn't the torturing supposed to last only a week? Then again, it could be considered that this was the last day of the week.
“Little boy!” the old torturer said as he violently shook the wooden door to the cell. “I thought you were soulless, but what a fight. What a fight! What a fighter you are! I can't wait to break you all over, to tear your soul into pieces. Guard! Open this cell!”
Rafe was ready to soul jump at the onset of trouble. But then he was surprised by the ensuing drama.
“Where is the young lady?” the guard asked. “She is supposed to be with you when you train the boy.”
The man made a sarcastic noise. “Train? Fine, whatever. The girl's education ended yesterday. Today I just want to have a little fun with my friend over there.”
“Hahaha. I see,” said the guard. “In that case, please fuck off.”
“What?!”
Even Rafe couldn't believe what he was hearing, though that voice sounded familiar now that he thought about it. It was just that Rafe had a bone deep hatred for the Ma’la now. He didn't even look at his guards faces whenever they came to take him to the pits.
“You heard what I said,” the guard said to the disbelieving torturer.
“What the hell are you saying? Are you saying you won't let me minister to this prisoner?”
“That is exactly what I'm saying.”
Rafe felt someone else enter the range of his aura senses.
“But the Chosen —”
“Didn't say you could come and go here as you please. If I remember correctly, you were given one week, right?”
“But surely you can make an exception?!”
“I refuse!”
“You…but this criminal killed a royal. And I…oh, dear miss Filoria, help! This villain won't let me into the cell!”
Filoria paused just out of Rafe's visual range. She didn't say anything for a while. Rafe was afraid she had acquired a taste for torturing him.
“You were not supposed to come here today,” Filoria said slowly.
Rafe couldn't see the man's face, but he could feel his wrath even from where he was seated.
“What do you mean by this, girl?!” the torturer spat.
“I mean that you should get out,” she said. “Get out now, lest you force me to resort to violent means.”
“I'm warning you, girl! I can—”
“Get him out,” she instructed.
Rafe didn't leave immediately when Filoria entered the cell and looked down at him. He met eyes with her.
Filoria had a complicated expression as she stared down at him. She was holding a healing potion in one hand and a nourishing potion in the other, but clearly Rafe was in no need for a healing potion. She wordlessly gave him the nourishing potion.
He made sure his hateful stare never left her eyes. The moment she started anything, he would be out of there.
But something like hurt flashed across her face, though it was quickly replaced by anger.
“How dare he?! How dare they?! You are mine and yet he thinks he can now just come here whenever he pleases!”
Rafe had long known the girl was crazy, so her words barely phased him. Her shifting mood was of even less concern. If she was really going crazy or something of the sort, then Rafe might even celebrate.
After that, Filoria left without doing anything further.
Today's world quest reward was information on the title system. When Rafe reached the cell, he found a different god this time, someone wind aspected, but there was someone else as well. Goleon, who had been absent the previous week.
Looking at him, Goleon was still as resplendent as ever. He had not lost any of his power in the guise of helping Rafael like many of the other gods had.
“How long can you last under the array?” Goleon asked.
“Forty minutes yesterday,” Rafe said.
Goleon nodded. “That's not too bad. Of course it's not splendid either. I'd say you are in mediocre territory. You need to step it up. We don't have a lot of time. Once you can last a whole hour in the array, we'll begin the last step of your training.”
“And what is this last step?” Rafe asked.
“None of your business right now. Right now you have to focus on extending your time.”
Rafe only blinked at the god. Then he shrugged his shoulders and gestured for Goleon to get down to the day's business.
“Right, when we tried to interact with your status before, we realized we cannot give you titles. We can only give you quests.
“It's strange you know. Having access to a quest system at the F grade. Of course we didn't know this then. We didn't know you were the first person to reach such a vaunted height in the multiverse,” Goleon said.
“How do you know I'm the first in the entire multiverse?”
"We gods have our ways of getting information,” Goleon said mysteriously. “Although you are entitled to learn these kinds of things now, aren't you? Fine, I'll tell you. We planetary deities are actually allowed to leave the tutorial sector. The system organised a…uhm, vacation spot in the multiverse for us. We —”
“I'm not interested in this side story,” Rafe interrupted.
“Rude,” the Champion complained. “But yeah, I get it. Anyway, it is common for maybe one of these things to be missing. Especially the achievement system, because it mostly gives stat points as a reward. Such things would soon become useless to someone staying in an Essence desert for example, because their stats are capped at a certain point due to their weak souls.”
“But the title system is almost universal. It should be the most important function of the system. Even comparable to the quest system. In my opinion, the quest system only has an advantage in terms of getting more credits in an easy manner. Other than that, the title system is on par with it.”
“I doubt that somehow,” Rafe said.
“And you're free to do so as well. Of course, everyone in the world has the title system. But not everyone can be special, right. But for example, completely broken titles like the Chosen title should prove my point. And that title is only given to first generation inductees, and only one person on a planet can hold it.
“Chosen is just one of many busted titles given by the most basic title system. Now, what happens when the title system is upgraded?”
Goleon paused for dramatic effect, or so Rafe thought. It turned out he really expected an answer from Rafe.
“What happens?”
Goleon scoffed. “Remember that thing about there being multiple routes to divinity? Well, the title system is the most commonly used route for ascending to godhood.”
