A few days had passed, it was the next weekend, and we were just a couple of days away from the Brawl of Glory Tournament registration to open.

  But that wasn't the only thing on my mind. No, I still couldn't fully process what I'd learnt last Monday. That day, I spoke to Rai in private after classes were over. First, I let him know that I did know what Japanese was, and yes, I used the Japanese word for black, Kuro, as my first name.

  He then started freaking out excitedly, which got really annoying really fast. Once he calmed down, I asked him to compare history notes of his old world with mine, to make sure he was from the same world.

  At first, everything matched, but we soon ran into a few minor differences here and there. We then assumed that we were probably from two near identical worlds, but not the exact same one. We had both died around the same time period, his knowledge of technology and entertainment was similar to mine.

  His life had been a lot different to mine though. He had been born with a disease and spent most of his life indoors with anime, movies and games, and then succumbed to his illness in his late teens. He then said……

  "That's why I'm so full of life and energy in this world! I had none in my old world, so I decided to enjoy every second of this life to the fullest!"

  Whatever, it's not like a reason like that would make me more tolerant of his annoying personality. Well……maybe just a little. He then asked me about my old life.

  I briefly went over my childhood of being human trafficked across the globe, until ending up with an assassin who decided to make me his apprentice, and then my time as a professional assassin, till I got captured and then tortured for the last three years of my life until I eventually died.

  "Oh yeah, so I might have told Persia that last part, about my torture. Of course, I tweaked a few details so that it would sound like it happened in this world, and that I don't remember much of anything from before three years ago. She came to the conclusion that I had been captured by a group known as Magic Research something."

  "Hmm, it was probably the right call to keep the reincarnation part to yourself. Having multiple backstories could end up being pretty messy though, you should be careful. Also, I've heard rumors about the organizationthat call themselves Magic Research Group. The name sounds pretty innocuous, but according to the rumors they're a messed up, independent cult-like organization with enough influence to keep all five countries from directly interfering with them."

  After that, we began talking about our reincarnations.

  "When I died and then was suddenly in front of God, all shining and stuff, I was speechless!"

  "Didn't the glowy dude tell you he wasn't God, though? I just refer to him as not-God."

  "Well, he did say that he wasn't……but he was probably just being modest or something!"

  Like me, he too ended up requesting to keep his old memories. But the rest of his customization was a lot different. Unlike me, he started off reincarnating as a baby, born to a family called the Rumels.

  "Being a baby felt super weird, though it was kinda nice to have everything done for me. But mostly it was weird, especially when it came to breastfeeding."

  "TMI! I do not need that mental image, thank you very much!"

  "What about you, how long have you been in this world for?"

  "About……three and a half months, I guess? I didn't grow up here, I was reincarnated as a sixteen year old and dropped outside the walls of the Rustlands. If anyone asks, my backstory is that I grew up here as a homeless orphan, with no memory of any family."

  "Huh, well that explains the whole thing with your last name."

  "Mhm. Actually, until a couple of days ago I didn't even have an Identification Card, I was completely unaware of that system. All's well now though."

  "Oh, wow. That could have ended really badly. But, you know what? For someone who's only been here for a little over three months, your magic skills are pretty amazing, especially when you consider that everyone else has probably been practicing their magic for years."

  "Uh……thanks, I guess?"

  And as for his powers……

  "For both my Elemental Magic and my Anima, I just said I'm fine with anything, so long as I was strong!"

  "Huh, how carefree. I went into a lot of detail with my powers. Though in hindsight, not as much as I would have liked."

  "Yeah I figured as much, I mean your Anima is super specific! I had no idea that there was a type of jellyfish that could regenerate like that. Were you super into animals or something?"

  "No, not really. I just happened to watch a video about the Immortal Jellyfish on YouTube when I couldn't fall asleep at night. And there's no species that can heal itself the way my healing factor can. I just asked not-God for immortality, but when he refused, I compromised by getting a Healing Factor instead. He agreed, in exchange for any potential effects of my Anima."

  "Huh……maybe I should have been a bit more assertive with my reincarnation requests."

  Our conversation ended soon after that, and the main thought that ran through my mind was, 'of all the people to have something in common with, it had to be this guy'. Still, it was quite the coincidence. We were both from different yet similar previous worlds, and we had both chosen to retain our old memories.

  Our old lives were drastically different to each other, but we still had similar hobbies. I wondered if there were any others who had reincarnated here from my old world or a similar world. Well, if there were, I could probably identify them by seeing how they react to my name.

  Anyway……what should I do right now?

  It was currently early afternoon time, but the bakery where I worked part-time was closed today so I had a day off. Which was a relief because it was crazy humid out today. But I had absolutely nothing to do. It's at times like these where I really miss the countless entertainment options of my old world. I really miss anime, movies, games, and whatnot.

  I guess I wouldn't mind training, but I didn't have a place to do so inside the walls. I had a sparring session with Persia tonight, but that was a good ten plus hours away.

  "I'm so bored," I muttered to myself, rolling around on the bed listlessly.

  With no digital entertainment, what was I supposed to do for fun? I was never much into reading books, and didn't feel like starting now. Let's see, I watched a lot of fantasy anime back in my old world, what did characters generally do in between the action-packed storylines?

  Oh yeah, generally it'd be generic beach episodes with tons of fanservice. But the main characters in those usually had a large, cheesy group of friends. First of all, the beaches in this world were miles away from the Rustlands, so that was out.

  Although it definitely sounded appealing in this current heat and humidity. And as for friends……well, I suppose I do consider the members of Group D to be my friends, but I don't think we're close enough for me to invite them all to hang out somewhere. Besides, we weren't allowed to leave the country right now, not until after we pass our mid-year exams.

  Wait, hold on a sec……did I just admit something really major to myself?

  Huh……I hadn't really thought about it……but I guess I do consider those guys my friends. Back in my old life, the only people around me were people related to my assassination job; clients, targets and the occasional fellow assassin. And there wasn't a single person among them that I enjoyed spending time with.

  Whenever I had to interact with them, I'd impatiently want to get it over with as soon as possible so that I could get back to being alone, that's why I was always so blunt and just freely said whatever was on my mind, without a second thought regarding the consequences. I had no intention of forming a relationship or whatever with any of them, so I had nothing to lose.

  After all, all the people that surrounded me back then were scum. Well, to be fair, I suppose I was scum too. I did kill a lot of people after all. I may have rejected missions where my targets were completely innocent people, but there were still plenty among my victims that probably didn't deserve to die.

  But when I came here, things were different. I suddenly found myself surrounded by normal people, well……relatively normal anyway, who were also my age.

  Oh, right……technically I have nineteen years worth of memories despite this sixteen year old body, so I guess they're younger than me. Wait, by that logic, Rai was mentally thirty-plus……and I'm getting off topic. It doesn't really matter.

  I suppose what I'm getting at is this, back then I had nothing to lose nor anything to gain, but now, well I still have nothing to lose I guess, but the difference is……I also feel like I had something to gain, surrounded by people who, when I interacted with them, I never felt impatient or like I wanted to get back to being alone. I even found hanging out with them……fun.

  Okay, that's enough of my cheesy inner monologue……how much time did that kill?

  It had only been five minutes……man, fuck this.

  It felt like it was just getting hotter and more humid with every second. I'll just go to sleep till nightfall, there were way too many hours to get through while staying awake. I really should find a hobby in this world……

  I woke up a few hours later. Based on the light outside, the sun was beginning to set. It was considerably cooler now, as I sat up and yawned, stretching out my arms. I hadn't been able to properly fall asleep earlier, so I had to force myself unconscious by holding my breath till I blacked out.

  All things considered, that was a pretty decent nap. I felt quite refreshed……and a bit hungry.

  I still had a few hours before I could sneak out of the walls, so I decided to head out somewhere to eat and then walk around to pass the time.

  After grabbing a quick bite with a couple of sandwiches at a cheap restaurant, I began walking around aimlessly, sort of got lost a couple of times in the process, managing to find my way by jumping across the rooftops till I spotted the Adventurer Academy building, which was taller than most of the surrounding structures. It was one of the very few noticeable landmarks in this country, a lot of areas looked exactly the same.

  So much so that even a former professional assassin had gotten lost multiple times despite living here for over three months.

  Speaking of my old job, now that I think about it……I was yet to kill someone since coming to this world. I mean, there was Tahn Ragiu, but I couldn't count that since I wasn't the one who delivered the final blow.

  I had come pretty close to killing Arg during the mock tournament, getting interrupted like that was a first for me, and that dissatisfaction surfaced through my emotions whenever I thought about it. I felt so……blueballed.

  Anyway, it was time to sneak out.

  I made my way to the wall, where Persia was already waiting. We scaled to the top of the wall and then climbed down until we reached the ground outside.

  "Hey, how about we race to the Goblin caves? The loser has to obey one command from the winner," Suggested Persia.

  This was unexpected. She may be a bit faster than me, but……

  "Where'd this come from? I mean, I don't mind, but you'll probably lose. At full speed, it'll probably take us about five minutes to get there, but you can't hold your breath that long, so you'll have to slow down your full speed a couple of times to breathe."

  "You sound like you're just making excuses. What, are you afraid you'll lose?"

  She used the most childish, cliche and obvious phrase when trying to provoke someone into accepting a challenge. A tactic that was mostly used by little kids; the 'are you afraid' taunt.

  If she honestly believed that would work on me……well, she would be right.

  "Fine, you're on! I'll win this, no problem," I declared, as we got into position.

  Oh, well. It had been an exceptionally boring day, so I could use a bit of excitement.

  "Alright, on the count of three, whoever steps onto the rocky grounds outside the cave first will win. One, two……three!"

  Alright, time to activate Lightning Boost……x2!

  That's right……I could finally double my speed with full control!

  Persia blasted herself forward with Propulsion, the resulting shockwave briefly threw me off balance, giving her a slight headstart. I quickly regained my balance and charged forward as fast as I could, leaving sparks in my trail. She was slightly faster than I was, and thanks to her headstart, she kept slowly pulling ahead of my and widening the gap.

  No matter, I could maintain this speed for as long as my Mana and stamina hold out, while she would eventually have to ease up to breathe, that's when I'll get ahead and win.

  The areas right outside the walls were just sandy plains with patches of grass here and there, you had to go forward a few miles before you reached the Goblin caves or any of the other monster or resource filled areas.

  The finish line for this race was the point where the ground changed from sandy to rocky, whoever takes the first step past that transition wins.

  One way in which her Propulsion was superior to my Lightning Boost was that my technique consumed stamina proportional to the boost, in other words since I was doubling my original speed and my muscles were moving twice as fast as usual, I was also consuming twice as much stamina.

  Meanwhile, Propulsion is more like a jetpack, or rather, since she was blasting from her feet, more like rocket shoes. It uses up a bit of Mana, but her stamina is mostly intact. It's just that she moves so fast that it becomes impossible to breathe after a certain speed.

  I may be moving at a similar speed, but Lightning Boost enhances my senses in addition to my speed, which included my nose, meaning my breathing can keep up with my increase in speed.

  And in my case, since I had also spread the lightning streams inside me through my eyes and boosted my sense of perception, I could see everything almost as if they were in slow motion.

  According to Rai, from the few people who could use that particular extension of this technique, only a fraction of them included their eyes in the full body boost, since messing up would literally result in losing your eyeballs.

  Of course, I had my Healing Factor as a safety net and could boost my eyes without fear, so not only was my speed increased, but my perception and reaction time too. Persia had a great sense of natural perception and sight as well, and it was a huge reason why she was able to master Propulsion.

  Another reason Wind Magic users choose Flight over Propulsion is because the latter is too fast for them to see where they're going, but her eyes were affected by her Anima, giving her much sharper eyesight, reaction time and perception than an average person.

  Back to the race, we were almost at the finish line, but she hadn't slowed down at all yet. The gap between us was over two meters and increasing. Crap, if she could go this long without breathing now, I'd need a much longer racecourse to win this.

  As we neared the area outside the Goblin cave, with a straight dash to the finish line, I increased the boost to x2.5. I wasn't fully in control of it, but at the very least, I could still just about move in a straight line.

  With just a few meters left to go, as I blinked my vision had a slight tinge of red, and my eyes had begun to ache. Yeah, I was pretty sure blood was flowing down my face from my eyes. But I could see everything so clearly right now.

  Her neck muscles were straining like crazy, her face looked like it was about to burst……she was really pushing the limits of how long she could hold her breath.

  I was catching up to her, the gap was closing, with the finish line right in front of us. We were both neck and neck, as I was just a couple of steps away from crossing the finish line. I stepped past the finish line and slowed down, as she immediately stopped her Propulsion the instant she passed the finish line, collapsing onto all fours and taking a deep gasp of air before panting like crazy.

  The race……had ended in a tie.

  We had both crossed the finish line at the exact same time. She flopped down and rolled onto her back, her expression slightly dazed and light-headed as she struggled to catch her breath.

  "Who……won?"

  "Jeez, who pushes themselves this hard over an inconsequential race? You look like you could pass out at any second, cat girl," I remarked, walking over to her while healing my mildly burnt eyeballs and wiping away the blood that had streaked down.

  That's the great thing about black outfits, bloodstains don't show up.

  "Did I……lose?"

  "……nah, you won. Beat me by an inch, though I would have won if I'd increased my boost a bit earlier. I just can't believe you were able to hold your breath for that long."

  "Heh……totally worth it," She grinned weakly, raising her fist triumphantly.

  I sighed, and sat down next to her, as her breathing finally began to get more stable. At that moment, I just didn't have the heart to tell her that it was a tie.

  "Let's take a short break before we get into sparring."

  She nodded in reply, closing her eyes.

  Propulsion may not directly consume any stamina, but holding your breath for that long was bound to tire you out, at least temporarily.

  After a few minutes had passed, I stood up to begin stretching in preparation for the sparring session, but I suddenly sensed the presence of someone by the entrance of the cave. It wasn't long before I heard their footsteps, getting louder and louder, as the person's silhouette became visible at the entrance of the cave.

  I realized that we should have hidden as soon as I sensed someone, but it was too late now.

  "Well, isn't this a surprise. Aren't you first years still unauthorized to take on any Quests? You shouldn't be out here."

  That voice……no doubt about it.

  "Tch, it's you."

  Persia stood up as I replied. Break time was over.

  "Now, now. No need to sound so aggressive. You two snuck out through the walls, didn't you? You should know that's a big no-no, if anyone finds out you'll probably be thrown in jail," Smirked the figure.

  Of all the people we could have run into out here, it had to be Misen Ragiu.

  "What do you want?" Growled Persia.

  "Easy now. Don't worry, I won't report you two or anything. I mean, I snuck out here too, after all!" He laughed, "I was curious about the underground maze, but couldn't find any Quests for this area, so I had no choice but to sneak out."

  "In that case, why don't you get out of here and we'll all just pretend this never happened. You seemed like you were leaving anyway," I remarked, quietly getting ready to activate my Lightning Boost in a split second if necessary, keeping my guard up in case he tried something.

  "Yes I was, but that was before I ran into you two, I never expected anyone else to be out here at this time of night. Maybe I'll test out whether or not you've made any progress. If you're still as weak as the last time we met, then it'll be completely pointless to. "

  I didn't let him finish, as I doubled my speed and dashed towards him with my short-sword drawn, before zipping across to his left and slashing at the side of his neck. Before the blade could slice through, he blocked it with the back of his right hand, which had a metal plated glove on it, stopping my slash.

  Damn it, I could follow his movements a lot better now, but with his triple boost, he was still a lot faster than I was.

  In the instant that I swung my blade, Persia shot forward to his right and aimed a powerful and rapid wind-enhanced punch at the side of his face. He ducked out of the way at the last minute, as I let go of my blade and jumped back to avoid getting caught up in her follow-through. He had avoided any direct impact from the punch, but the force from the wind around her fist still managed to get him off-balance.

  An opening.

  I quickly drew my dagger and shot forward. Forget the tournament, I'll kill him right here and now!

  "I think I've seen enough," He suddenly smirked, firing powerful? lightning bolts from each hand, one aimed at each of us.

  We both managed to avoid the attacks, but he had halted our momentum and pushed us back quite a bit.

  "Heh……hehe……looks like I hit the jackpot with you guys! Just a month and a half ago you couldn't even react to my speed, and now……yes, now I'm definitely looking forward to the tournament! Of course, you're still a long way from being able to match me, so work hard over the remaining two weeks! Should I assume all five of you will be participating? Oh, and you can have this back," He grinned, tossing my sword towards me.

  "It'll be three of us, including him and myself. The other two won't register themselves for the tournament, but it was only the two of us that were directly involved in your brother's death."

  "Eh, good enough, I suppose. Just make sure to give me a good fight if we're matched up during the tournament. I know, it's pretty much impossible for you to actually beat me……Ah! This might make you feel better about your odds; earlier when you slashed at me, you managed to scratch the metal plate on the back of my glove. You should be proud of yourself!" He smirked smugly, showing me the back of his glove, which had a small scratch on it.

  "You condescending, patronizing son of a-!" I growled.

  "Well, I'll be taking my leave now! Later, first years."

  With that, he walked away, heading back in the direction of the walls. We watched him leave in silence, until Persia suddenly spoke up.

  "Hey, Kuro."

  "Yeah?"

  "That guy really pisses me off. I don't care how the tournament ends. I'll be satisfied just so long as I can crush him."

  "You took the words right out of my mouth. I'm going to fucking kill him."

  I knew that was easier said than done, though. He was definitely still a lot stronger than we were. I couldn't afford to waste any time, I needed to make full use of the remaining time we had before the start of the tournament. The Brawl of Glory.

  There were just two weeks left.

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.