Rei stepped into the Battle Arena.
The arena wasn't just a place where combat classes fought against one another—it was also a form of entertainment for ordinary people who came to watch the battles.
Most of the people inside were adults. Even when children appeared, they were usually accompanied by parents or guardians who had brought them to watch.
Someone like Rei, who had come alone, was the only one of his kind.
"Little brother? Is something wrong?"
The receptionist leaned slightly over the counter to look at Rei, who was only just tall enough to reach the edge of it.
"Miss, I'd like to register as a competitor."
"Huh? Little brother, you want to become a competitor?"
"Did you… perhaps come to the wrong place?"
"You need to be a Classed professional to register here."
Rei took out his Adventurer's Badge.
"I saw that you can register conveniently using an adventurer identity here. That should work, right?"
The receptionist accepted the badge.
When she looked closely at it, she saw the outer ring glowing in a spectrum of colors.
A Legendary Adventuring Party?
The inner ring was gold, indicating that Rei himself was a Gold-Rank Adventurer.
How could a Gold-rank adventurer belong to a Legendary adventuring party?
Wait…
How could this child possibly be a Gold-rank adventurer?
"Please wait a moment… little brother."
"I need to verify this."
Although doubts filled her mind, she placed the badge onto a precise magical verification array embedded in the counter.
A soft glow appeared.
Rei's identity information materialized in the air like a holographic projection.
[Kanzaki Rei]
[Class: Level 2 Mage]
[Adventurer Rank: Gold]
[Age: 8]
[Note: Direct disciple of Iz Palruth. May be granted discretionary permission to accept commissions above his adventurer rank.]
[Note 2: Early Class Advancement candidate overseen by Lumironi.]
There was even a portrait image of Rei above the text.
The receptionist compared the projection with the boy standing in front of her.
Exactly the same.
The very same person.
An Early Class Advancement candidate personally overseen by Lumironi?
This was the first time she had ever seen one.
He was so small.
Lumironi rarely conducted early class advancement ceremonies.
After all, she herself spent most of her time traveling the world on adventures.
Those who advanced early would still have to wait until the age of sixteen before they could continue their progression without Lumironi's assistance.
That long waiting period could be extremely painful.
As they aged, their spiritual sensitivity would gradually decline.
Eventually…
They might become completely ordinary.
The process of falling from genius to mediocrity was a deeply painful one.
Some even resorted to illegal class advancement methods in order to preserve their spiritual potential.
Because of this, unless the circumstances were extremely special…
Lumironi almost never hosted early advancement ceremonies.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you were an early advancement candidate."
"Here is your competitor badge."
It was a small round emblem engraved with the name:
Kanzaki Rei
When Rei injected a small amount of mana into it, glowing text appeared:
0 Wins — 0 Losses
In addition, he received a competition schedule sheet and a consecutive win reward chart.
"Oh? There are rewards too."
Rei looked down the list.
"Level 2 — Mage Class… 50 consecutive wins reward: Mana Expansion Crystal?"
"Oh, that thing that expands a mage's maximum mana capacity."
Iz had mentioned it before.
Most mages dreamed of obtaining one, but for Rei…
It didn't really have much value.
"100 consecutive wins reward: Notes from an Ancient Origin Mage."
"I wonder what the actual value of that is…"
"200 consecutive wins reward: Star Mage Robe. Sounds like a pretty decent piece of equipment."
"300 consecutive wins reward: Tier-2 Origin Spring?"
"What's that supposed to be?"
Rei shrugged slightly.
"I'll just ask Iz about it later."
After the 300 consecutive win reward, the next milestone was 500 wins.
And the listed reward was simply:
Mysterious Grand Prize
A vein bulged slightly on Rei's forehead.
Who cared about something "mysterious"?
Just say what it is already.
Aside from the matchmaking win streak rewards, there were also many other tournaments listed.
The rewards for those were also quite generous.
Hmm?
Rei's gaze paused as he noticed a Level 4 tournament.
The championship reward was…
"Seer — Class Scroll!?"
Wasn't that the legendary unique class?
Why would something like that be used as a tournament prize?
Wasn't the value way too high?
Rei glanced at the rewards for the other Level 4 competitions.
Most of them offered prizes worth around 50,000 gold coins.
But this Seer Class Scroll clearly wasn't in the same league as those.
"Miss, is the reward for this Level 4 tournament… written incorrectly?"
Rei held up the schedule booklet and asked the receptionist.
"Oh, that one?"
"That's the War God Cup."
"Every year, the War God personally designates a special tournament, and the prize is always something incredibly valuable."
"Last year's reward was Thread of Absolute Non-Attachment, which was even more precious than Void Spirit Starwood."
So that kind of thing existed too.
It seemed the gods of this world were far from passive observers.
Their existence truly intervened in the world at all times.
Thinking about it that way…
The so-called Month of Death and Destruction suddenly felt even heavier.
"Can I register for this tournament?" Rei asked.
"Eh? Register for the Level 4 event?"
"But you're only Level 2 right now."
"You can register… but the War God Cup attracts many geniuses. It won't be easy."
Rei grinned brightly, showing his teeth.
"Hehe. Participation is what matters."
The receptionist thought about it for a moment.
"Well… that's true."
After all, nobody would die in the arena.
Participating wasn't a problem.
But as for Rei actually achieving anything…
She honestly didn't expect much.
Between Level 3 and Level 4, there existed a major threshold.
Level 3 professionals could only influence small, unorganized group battles.
But Level 4 professionals were powerful enough to influence the outcome of small-scale wars.
Even an ordinary Level 4 adventurer could comfortably defeat a Tier-3 King-class monster.
A stronger Level 4 adventurer could even solo kill such a monster with enough time and effort.
And that wasn't even mentioning…
The geniuses among Level 4 adventurers.
Especially Luluvie, the archer who had already achieved 5,000 consecutive victories.
She was widely considered the most outstanding archer of this generation.
If she had been born just two years earlier, she might already have been traveling the world alongside figures like Iz Palruth.
Most likely, she intended to finish competing in this War God Cup before advancing to Level 5 Archer.
After all, she had already won last year's War God Cup championship.
With her participating…
The champion this year was probably already decided.
"But little brother… the War God Cup has a registration requirement."
"You must be within the top 100 of your level bracket rankings."
"Your current ranking hasn't reached the qualification threshold yet."
So he needed to climb the rankings first.
"Thank you, Miss."
"Oh, right. This is for you."
Rei gave a sweet smile as a small bottle appeared in his hand.
Inside it was a glowing object.
"A gift I made myself—a slime specimen lamp."
"Huh? This is…?"
"I made it personally. A little decorative lamp made from a slime specimen."
"Uh… thank you?"
What a strange gift.
Although she had no idea why Rei was giving her a lamp made from a slime, she accepted it anyway.
After giving the gift, Rei turned toward the massive gates nearby.
The Battle Arena had two entrances.
The Spectator Gate
and
The Combatant Gate
Through the Combatant Gate, competitors could create their own arena battle rooms, waiting for opponents to join.
They could also enter rooms created by others.
Of course, they could also choose to directly match with opponents through the system.
Generally speaking, only matchmaking battles counted toward official records.
Custom rooms made it far too easy to manipulate wins and losses.
The arena provided many conveniences for combat.
But the greatest convenience of all was this:
You couldn't die.
Fighters could battle freely—
without any fear of death.