Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Chapter 59: A Dangerous Game with a New 'Friend'

In addition to the two of them, an Official, the referee of the match, walked onto the stage with the two outer disciples.

While the referee seemed to exchange a few words between the competitors, a member of the hall introduced the fighters of the match about to begin. The large matrices of the Arean showed the positions of each of the two.

'This looks like a show...' Liam watched the visual and audio information, feeling like he was back on Earth, in a multi-sports arena, about to host an important tournament match.

But this was the reality of Twin Land, the world of Spirit Masters, where there were almost no sports and the most acclaimed form of entertainment was Spirit Master competitions.

There were various kinds of Spirit Masters competitions. The Arena primarily emphasized traditional Spirit battles. However, Liam was already familiar with competitions that centered on comprehension, cultivation speed, magical resource consumption, elemental manipulation, artifact creation, artificial resource creation, conjuration, and many other.

In a world with access to something as fantastic as mana, things like ordinary sports hadn't been developed. But the ability to manipulate mana and use Spirits had led to many types of disputes.

Today was not the time for Liam to witness any of these special competitions.

After a quick introduction of the two fighters, they positioned themselves in different corners of the fighting platform—an area of about 300 square meters, in the shape of a square, surrounded by semi-transparent mana barriers.

The referee present was more of an official 'witness' than someone to prevent incidents. In the Arena, a fight wasn't over until one side gave up or lost consciousness. Until one of those two things happened, the referee's job was simply to observe the fight and announce the winner at the end of the match.

The two men of the same level, 6-Star of the second realm, began the fight by summoning their two Spirits, the common to happen. Unlike Liam, the two who were about to face each other had two Spirits to support them in battle.

Both knew each other well enough not to underestimate the other, and the challenged side was aware his opponent was close to surpassing him in magical power. To protect his position and add another victory to his record, the boy named Homer used all of his power at the very beginning of the battle.

With a demon-type Spirit and a cat-type Spirit, he attacked Azariah's two Spirits, looking for gaps to reach the Spirit Master.

'The basic strategy in a Spirit Masters' battle—get past the enemy Spirits and get to the weak point, the Spirit Master.'

Liam observed as he saw Azariah doing the same thing as Homer, but using subtly different methods.

The differences in their actions were not in their goals, but in how they tried to achieve their goals. Basically, each type of Spirit had different methods, some better than others.

It didn't just depend on the enemy, but on the type of Spirit a side had. For this reason, the choice of Spirit was critical in Spirit Masters' journey!

If you chose a bad Spirit, you could be completely passive against certain types of enemies!

Liam observed Azariah's fight with keen interest. He was intrigued to see that the overweight young man unexpectedly had the upper hand in the initial stages of the fight, despite competing against a disciple of a higher position.

'Azariah's Spirits seems especially stronger against the kind of Spirits Homer has.' Liam brought one of his hands to his chin, using the fight to learn.

'But the Spirits of these two are curious... Isn't Demon Gate famous for being a demonic sect? Why do these two only have one demon-type Spirit each?'

Liam frowned, the memory of Merlin's fight replaying in his mind. He couldn't recall seeing Merlin summon any demon-type Spirits that day.

'Merlin is a fourth realm Spirit Master, from what I've heard. He used two Spirits that day, so it's possible that he only has one demon-type Spirit... Why is that?'

He didn't have enough information to answer his questions, so he just kept it to himself for now, interested in researching.

The fight ended quickly, with one of Homer's two Spirits being wounded and then destroyed by Azariah's boar spirit, a scene similar to what Liam had seen in his second test of the Promotion Exam.

"The winner of this match is Azariah Crockett, aka Human Cork, aka White Pig!"

The voices of many spectators rose after they announced the winner, some commenting on Homer's skills and especially Azariah's.

Other Disciples, however, were already talking about the next fights, which could easily be seen at the entrances to the stands, where there was always a summary of the last five results and the next five fights.

Due to the high number of disciples and the significant importance of the Arena, fights would break out at all hours of the day. In order to secure a spot for a fight, individuals had to register a couple of days in advance.

Liam stayed in his seat to watch a few more fights, and Azariah quickly joined him.

"Congratulations on your victory. You used the opponent's weaknesses very well to make him surrender," Liam said with a smile on his face, recognizing Azariah's power.

Azariah sat down next to Liam, very pleased. With his victory today, he had moved up a few places in the rank, his principal goal for today's fight.

But he wasn't satisfied. His position in the Beasts Hall bothered him, and the man next to him was the quickest way for him to get out of his miserable situation in the coliseum.

"Now that you've seen a bit more of the arena, are you already thinking about your fights? After you sign up, I have some names for you." Azariah put.

"I don't know if it would be a good idea for me to fight opponents worthy of your eyes, Azariah." Liam looked away from his colleague, still unsure when to start.

"The bottom 600 of the rankings is almost entirely made up of Spirit Masters of a similar level to mine. But when you sign up for the Arena, you'll only be able to face opponents from the bottom 4,000.

There are only a few powerful Spirit Masters among your potential opponents," Azariah said calmly, not afraid of sounding pushy to Liam.

"Oh?" Liam hadn't connected the dots, even though he already knew the rules of the Arena.

"You can choose your own opponents. But there are three names I would like you to consider. Jabez Rouse, Amiel Sterrett, and Susanna Alexander.

All three are disciples you'll be able to challenge once you sign up for the Arena. The interesting thing about them is that they are of the same rank as you, only slightly weaker than you.

In other words, the chances of them not accepting your challenge are almost zero, and you can earn a good amount of points by defeating them.

At the same time, they're strong enough that you can use them to train against Spirit Masters."

Liam listened with interest and soon learned some basic information about these three disciples, people who had joined the sect recently, so they didn't have positions matching their powers yet.

As he talked to Liam about them, holding the black-haired young man's attention, White Pig couldn't help but look forward to seeing one of these three against this young man on his way to improving his position in the Beasts Hall.

'If one of them breaks your bones and keeps you from dealing with the beasts of the coliseum, it'll be my chance to leave the garbage ward!' Azariah thought as he smiled at Liam, seeing the interested look in his friend's black eyes.

Liam listened carefully to Azariah's recommendations, which he wouldn't follow blindly, but would take into consideration during his first moments in the Arena.

'I'll register in the arena as soon as I've stabilized in the sect. In the meantime, I need to investigate these names with my next cultivation partners.'

Having already completed his responsibilities for the week in the previous days, Liam planned to spend the next three days focusing on investigating these things. He would also cultivate with beautiful Mary, and continuing to study techniques and books from the Library.

'I'll receive Phila's things in a few days, and I'll be able to postpone my responsibilities in the arena for about eleven days. I'll use that time to advance to 6-Star!'