Jason ran as if his life depended on it. He sprinted in the direction of the Arena for his fight with Anthony. A couple of students were heading in the same direction looked at him briefly as he ran. Fifteen minutes before the schedule fight occurred a notification appeared on his watch but he paid little attention to it.
Eventually he made it to the arena when he met with a professor. He was tall for a blessed. He easily reached seven feet tall and was built like a tank. He wore the formal academy suit that giving him a noble and distinguished appearance. A frost white beard reached his chest. His sea blue eyes eyed Jason as he ran. Curiosity evident on his face. The professor stopped him. "Slow down. Why are you running?"
"I'm late to my match with Anthony." Jason said gasping for air. His heart racing from the strenuous workout. "I need to keep moving to make it before they cancel it."
The professors face changed from curiosity to confusion. "Your match was delayed for another thirty minutes though." He replied. "Weren't you informed?"
Jason's eyes widened before looking at his own watch. He read the notification and saw that the match was in fact delayed by the headmistress herself. Relief was evident on his face as he calmed his racing heart.
"This is your first duel correct?" The Professor looked at Jason. Jason nodded. "Then you can follow me. We will head to the combat preparation area."
Jason followed the professor down the hall and approached a door that had the words Single Combat Preparation on it.
The Professor opened the door and led Jason down the stairs. The underground pathway ended with another path that circled around the entire arena. There were two painted arrows that pointed in opposite directions. On the left arrow was the word Challenger and on the right arrow was the word Defender.
The professor led him down the defender path and eventually stopped at an ancient wooden door. The Professor opened the door and Jason walked in. It was a large room fifty squared feet in size and ten feet high. There was a concession stand filled with snacks and beverages on one wall. There was a private bathroom in one corner and furniture was scattered around the room. The walls were black giving off a dark and gloomy ambiance.
In the center of the room was a podium. Jason walked over to it and touched the flat surface. The podium glowed and a screen display popped up on top of the podium with a list of words on it. Words included Forest, swamp, ocean, stream, desert, etc. Jason realized it was displaying the different types of environment. He selected the hottest one, the volcano.
Immediately, the room changed. The black walls turned into a Rocky Mountain on all sides and floor turned into lava. The temperature started to heat up giving Jason a nice and cozy feeling in his chest. It felt like he was being welcomed home. He just wanted to relax and take a nap here, but he couldn't rest. He had a fight to prepare for and he knew the first thing he had to do before anything else. He needed to update his body as much as possible with help from the system. He sat down and opened the system interface.
NAME: JASON
CONTRACTED BEAST: PHOENIX
TITLES: NONE
AGE: ADOLESCENT
HEALTH: 22/22
MANA: 100/100
LEVEL: 10
EXP: 15/400
ATTRIBUTES
VITALITY: 22+3
STAMINA: 30+3
STRENGTH: 30+2
ENDURANCE: 22
WILL: 20+1
INTELLIGENCE: 10
SP: 20
ABILITIES: FIREBALL, FIRE MANIPULATION, PHOENIX TEARS, FIRE STEP, PHOENIX VISION
ARTIFACTS: PHOENIXS AMULET, TARDIGRADES SHELL
ACTIVE QUESTS: N/A
"Looks like just from the fight alone I grew quite a bit." Jason said with a grin. 'But it won't be enough. I need to grow more. And EXP is going to be tough getting that amount.' He then looked at his new ability, Phoenix Vision.
PHOENIX VISION -- ALLOWS THE HOST TO SEE DISTANT OBJECTS WITH PERFECT CLARITY UP TO ONE MILE, IDENTIFY WEAK POINTS IN SPECIFIC TARGETS AND CAN ALSO SEE HEAT SIGNATURES EVEN THROUGH WALLS. COST 1 MANA PER ACTIVATION. LASTS FOR FIVE SECONDS.
'Not bad of an ability but it could be better if there wasn't a limit on how long it was active.' Jason thought to himself. 'If it could remain active by draining mana it would be better but beggars can't be choosers.'
Jason then began distributing his stat points.
NAME: JASON
CONTRACTED BEAST: PHOENIX
TITLES: NONE
AGE: ADOLESCENT
HEALTH: 22/22
MANA: 150/150
LEVEL: 10
EXP: 15/400
ATTRIBUTES
VITALITY: 25
STAMINA: 33+2
STRENGTH: 32+3
ENDURANCE: 22+5
WILL: 21+5
INTELLIGENCE: 10+5
SP: 20
ABILITIES: FIREBALL, FIRE MANIPULATION, PHOENIX TEARS, FIRE STEP, PHOENIX VISION
ARTIFACTS: PHOENIXS AMULET, TARDIGRADES SHELL
ACTIVE QUESTS: N/A
Jason looked at his new stats and nodded. He put his points in intelligence to increase his mana capacity by fifty percent which would be a huge boon in this fight. He also increased his stamina and strength slightly. His endurance and will needed some work so he threw points in those categories too. Once he was done, he received another notification from the looks. Looks like the system wasn't done with him yet.
SCANNING…
CONDITIONS MET. HOST HAS REACHED LEVEL TEN. SYSTEM SHOP UNLOCKED. BEAST TRANSFORMATION UNLOCKED. LIBRARY UNLOCKED.
"Finally!" Jason exclaimed in delight. He could finally activate his blessing. And more than that, a question surfaced to his head. "The system had a library and a shop?" He asked in confusion.
LIBRARY CONTAINS INFORMATION OF ALL TYPES OF MYTHICAL CREATURES IN THE WORLD. AS LONG AS A GOD CREATED IT, THE SYSTEM HAS KNOWLEDGE OF IT. THE SHOP CONTAINS MANY ITEMS THAT MAY BE USEFUL FOR HOST.
"That will be incredibly helpful." Jason said pleased. He decided to look at the shop later. He leaned back on his chair and started looking through the library for anything that will give him an advantage.
—
Anthony was resting in a similar room that Jason was in. The difference was the environment was an ocean rather than a volcano so Anthony was resting in the air surrounded by water. His watch beeped signaling that he got a notification. He looked at it and frowned. The time of the fight was delayed by the headmistress. No matter. He could wait a little longer. The idea of pummeling Jason brought him great satisfaction. His face twisting into a menacing smile.
—
After receiving all the information from Sophie, the Headmistress left the forge and headed to the arena leaving Sophie to wait for Professor Ulfgar to finish with his project. Once it's done, Sophie would run as fast as she could to deliver the little bird his prize.
—
The student council and the disciplinary committee sat in the vip seats alongside some of the professors and the headmistress. Everyone was excited for the upcoming fight for their own reasons. The professors and the headmistress were curious about what a phoenix was capable of and the members of the student council and the disciplinary committee were given a break from their busy schedules. The headmistress probably wanted them to learn about this new blessed and what his capabilities were just in case if he were to break school rules so he could be dealt with. Yet, no one cared about that. They just wanted to enjoy the break and watch a good fight.
The stands in the arena started to fill with every second. Some were rushing in fearing they were late only to realize the fight hadn't started yet. But the time before the fight was ticking down. Finally after waiting for what appeared to be forever, the watches of both fighters beeped signaling that the fight was about to begin.