Skill Creation in the Fantasy World

Felix finally stepped out from the stairs and adjusted to the bright light illuminating the whole stage.

His visions returned which made him able to see the situation on the stage.

There were two people standing on the white-colored floor. One was the referee in the middle who could be identified by the black suit uniform and the other man on the left side of the arena was his opponent in this match.

The man had brown short hair with a scarf covering the lower part of his face and wore commoner clothes inside the blue lightweight armor on his body. He gripped a mace-like weapon in his hand and stood straight.

When his opponent entered the stage, he was alert but when he glanced at the boy his stiff shoulders loosened.

"Cheh! So it's just a kid I'm fighting with.", the man spoke out arrogantly while smirking at the thought that he had already won the match.

Felix remained calm and observed his opponent, analyzing various factors that may affect the battle that was about to happen.

'Thank heavens he's not a Rank 1, that would've made my first battle tough. Plus, the way he's acting all nonchalant, he's definitely underestimating me which works in my favor.', he already started to think of various strategies to win.

Both of them then began to stretch on the stage.

Even though ten minutes had elapsed since Felix applied for the match, there was still some time allocated for the combatants to prepare before the fight.

*****

Outside the Arena 23.

Two muscular men arrived, having followed behind the boys sneakily after giving their jobs to other workers temporarily.

They glanced at the match that was about to start and hurriedly discussed.

"Do it according to the plan, alright?"

"Don't worry, today we'll surely teach that arrogant kid a lesson."

Both of them grinned maliciously and parted in different directions, heading toward the various Arenas in the vicinity.

They carefully chose from their memories and approached some shady-looking people who were roaming about the place and whispered something in their ears.

Upon hearing the words of the man who appeared to be an arena guard, their eyes lit up with a greedy gleam.

If anyone else had said this, they'd have dismissed it as a scam or fraud. But coming from an arena worker, it carried some trust.

So these people who thought it was a great chance left the arena they were spectating, altogether moving toward Arena 23.

Gradually in a few minutes, the spectator seats started to fill in making the two men smile evilly but they did not stop and brought more people to the place where the boy would fight.

And these people happily moved there thinking it was a rare chance for them to finally get some good deal.

*****

Back on the stage.

Felix did not notice the growing crowd and only focused on his body to be in the perfect state.

Sometime later, the referee walked toward the middle of the stage and told both the fighters.

"Time to start the battle."

He took out a small orb from his pocket before announcing loudly in it making his voice reach the corners of this particular arena.

"On the left side, we have the mace user Demiro who had won about 3 matches consecutively.", he spoke out enthusiastically.

"While on the right side, we have a complete beginner who uses a short sword and goes by the name....", confused he tried to pronounce the name properly.

"umm..as.....Phantom!"

Felis grinned slightly when the referee announced his name but a commotion outside the stage disturbed him.

"Go fight go!"

"Demiro and who was it? Phantom?"

"Huh? That's an unusual name."

"Demiro! Beat up that kid who came up with such a stupid name!"

The crowd below shouted and cheered in exhilaration and confusion for the first time together making their presence known in the arena.

People who were already there from the beginning appeared surprised at the big crowd while Felix, Demiro, Steve, and the referee raised their eyebrows at the unusual situation.

Looking at the large crowd, Steve muttered to himself.

"What the fuck...even I didn't get such a big crowd in my earlier matches. Is it because of that name? Phantom something?"

Even the referee who was familiar with such things got confused but shook his head getting no answers as to why a crowd had gathered at some newbies' fight.

He looked at both the fighters and asked.

"Are the both of you ready?"

Felix and Demiro broke out from their surprise and nodded at the referee before taking a stance.

Demiro had a grin on his lips thinking he was going to win in front of a big crowd and get popular among the people while Felix took a deep breath and made sure to not let the commotion disturb his mind again.

Without wasting any more time, the referee raised his green flag and swung it down starting the match.

"And the fight begins!"

The moment the match started, Felix took off forward and unsheathed his short sword while activating the skill 'Ratio Technique'.

Several lines appeared on Demiro who was standing around casually waiting for the boy to get near.

When the boy was a bit away, he gripped his mace hard and brought it above his head before swinging it downwards with a lot of force.

The mace moved against the wind and targeted Felix's head but he quickly dodged to the side instinctively and approached to the right side of the man.

Felix had his eyes focused on the conspicuous red segment of the line and slashed his sword directly at it.

Demiro felt his mace passing through the air and not hitting anything which made him widen his eyes and panickly step backwards.

The sword finally made contact with the body and grazed the man making a long wound appear with blood escaping out without stopping.

"Aaah!", the man screamed at the unexpected pain.

His eyes bloodshot, the man became angry when a small kid could injure him.

In anger, he started swinging his mace around to hit the boy.

Felix hurriedly retreated a few steps back and watched the man getting calm.

The crowd had turned silent when they saw how the boy attacked the man who was much bigger than him.

They had already thought that this match would be a quick one and they would get some good returns from this battle.

But glancing now, they were not sure whether their decision was right or not.

Steve smiled when he saw that Felix was not the first one to get injured because getting wounds in a fight would make a person weak in due time.

Demiro looked at his long wound and realized that he had underestimated the boy.

"Y-You punk, I'll be using my full power against you now!", he said hatefully and gripped his mace tightly while taking a serious stance.

On the corner of the Arena, two buff guys looked on at the battle that was about to get serious with both sides being equal in power.

"Bloody hell! Didn't you say that boy would be dead in the first strike? What the heck is going on then?", one of two shouted at his partner in anger.

The other man who had devised the plan panicked and answered.

"T-This...I'm sure the kid got lucky. There won't be other chances for him now and he'll surely get defeated soon."

He clenched his hands in fury seeing that the boy was starting to clash with his opponent without any fear.

'Phantom or whoever! Don't think you'll be able to get off this stage that easily."

The man thought as he decided to start the next part of his devious plan.