The real reason why the parallel world is famous among every ranker is because you can battle as much as you want here, not to mention there will be no real injuries, so battling to the death is more experience-providing than anything else.
The Wisdom Slate knows everyone's essence levels, so it matches you perfectly with someone of equal essence level and rank.
The only thing that really differs you from your opponent is your affinity; only those with higher affinities and better elements are able to climb the ladder by winning multiple battles.
There is a special list of the 1000 top rankers of each rank in the city, and everyone can check it.
Most rankers get their fame from here; it is one of the easy ways to earn money other than going into the wild outside the city and killing beasts for materials and beast cores.
As your fame rises, you get advertisement offers along with being called as a guest on some famous shows. And since the pay is nice, no one declines.
But he wasn't here for fame anyway; he was just here to battle to his heart's content. The experience he would gain from it would far outclass any sparring battles he had until now.
But before that, he should become fully accustomed to his strength.
There is an option to enter a private space where you can practice your techniques with no one looking at you. The first 30 minutes in that arena are free per day; afterward, you have to pay to have access to it.
He immediately chose to enter one; 30 minutes would be enough for him to become fully synchronized.
He appeared inside a small square arena; it was totally grey in color. There was an option to choose a color to your liking, but he left it as grey; it wasn't bad for his taste anyway.
He started moving in sprints; it was a basic way to get your body accustomed to your own strength. After going for 15 minutes, he finally felt that he was ready, so he left and arrived at the square again.
Now it was time for getting in the queue for his first battle.
The option for battling is the most highlighted section below his profile section. It was written as "Ranking Competition."
He doesn't have to do anything; arenas are assigned at random, and his rank is already known by the Wisdom Slate, so all he had to do was press "Start Queuing," and he did that.
And immediately, he got a ping saying:
Congratulations, your first battle has been found. You will be teleported to the arena in 10 seconds (8 secs left).
Nowadays, many people are getting awakened, mostly using the forced evolution method.
A medicine was given to every child who is 15 years of age to catch up with the lacking requirements, and when they turn 16, they can awaken normally.
But now that many people are already awakened, their children awaken normally, so it wasn't used much.
He was sure that his opponent would be someone who had awakened recently and also someone who would be 17 to 18 years of age.
He was just 14 years old, and his physique was not developed properly, so no doubt he would look like a kid in front of his opponent; it was a given fact.
He sighed before getting teleported; he appeared above an arena made above a water pond.
Although the background doesn't really affect the fight, it works as an attraction point for those who would join this arena to watch matches for fun.
Many choose an arena of their liking and come to watch the matches.
Even if this was a match between two recently awakened people, they would watch because most of these spectators are also recruiters; they will always try to recruit talented newbies for their organizations.
Hidden Lineages are not the only organizations that run in this world.
There are some private and government organizations too.
The business of obtaining beast parts and cores is the most lucrative in this world; all the Hidden Lineages earn most of their money from this too.
Beast parts are used for many things, and there is no need to mention the cores.
Their value is undeniable.
The scenery around the arena was beautiful, to say the least.
The water in the pond was completely still while reflecting the sky like a mirror.
There were floating seats around the area, which were occupied by the spectators; if more joined, more seats would be available for them.
He finally looked toward his opponent, and as expected, his opponent was bigger than him in height and obviously in physique too.
The way his opponent was looking at everything was enough to tell him that it might be his first battle too.
A timer appeared above their heads, showing a 1-minute countdown.
His opponent was also wearing a mask; maybe he too didn't want fame like him, or maybe there was another reason he didn't know.
As for his name and element, it was visible; it was on the screen below the countdown clock.
[Diehard (Rank 1), Element Fire, Affinity - 75%] vs [Ashenveil (Rank 1), Element Darkness, Affinity - Hidden]...
Yes, his own element was visible; it is a rule to let your opponent see your element.
But it was alright; he made his element private because he just didn't want to appear on the list of newly appeared Darkness users.
When the spectators saw someone with a darkness element, they got surprised; seeing anyone with supreme elements is a very rare case.
But they were just surprised initially because seeing the hidden option for affinity was enough for most of them to shake their heads; people only hide their affinities when they think they are bad.
They were more interested in Diehard; having an affinity of 75 percent puts anyone in the talented category.
Vaelen didn't know what others were thinking; even if he had known that, he wouldn't have cared.
Others' opinions don't matter to him; he wouldn't even care for his dad's opinion, much less theirs. The only person's opinion he takes seriously and follows perfectly is his mother's.
Even though his opponent was bigger and stronger than him in physique, he wasn't worried even the least bit.
There were two reasons for that: first, he had completed his training in two main lineages; second, with his 100 percent affinity, his lineage core was bigger than his opponent's.
And due to having a bigger lineage core, his initial amount of essence inside was also higher.
So, in a nutshell, he could enhance himself far more than his opponent, and normal physical strength could never match the strength of something enhanced by essence.
The time for preparation had almost ended, with only 2 seconds left.
His opponent seemed to be ready now; the spectators were also quite eager to watch the battle.
Right now, both Vaelen and his opponent were standing 10 meters away from each other.
Vaelen took a single breath, used essence to enhance himself while using a little more essence in his feet; he planned to end this fight quickly. He had planned to have as many battles as possible today.
[00:00]
Vaelen squinted his eyes and dashed immediately; his speed surprised Diehard, as he really wasn't expecting that.
Diehard punched directly at the incoming Vaelen, and to his surprise the punch landed , but it was short-lived, as the moment the fist touched Vaelen's clothes, he twisted his ankles and dodged so perfectly that it felt like a snake had climbed onto Diehard's hands.
Diehard was shocked, and before he could react, he felt intense pain in his neck, so intense that he wanted to scream but couldn't before dying miserably.
The pain in the parallel world is real; there is nothing like pain tolerance settings here.
So, from the pain to death, everything you feel is real.
This helps in getting real experience, which enhances the mental fortitude of everyone who feels this multiple times.
There was pin-drop silence in the stadium; everyone looked toward the small physique user who had ripped his opponent's vocal cords like it was nothing.
There were some who were most surprised by the dodge he had executed; moving at that speed and twisting your ankle is dangerous. You can easily break your ankles even if you have enhanced them with essence, so this was definitely a technique.
They didn't know which lineage it belonged to, but since the videos of every fight get recorded, they could use it to ask some expert analyzers.
Vaelen looked toward his hand, which was holding the torn piece of his opponent's neck, and sighed; it looked like he had made a mistake here. He should have held back; winning the fight so early had made him forget one crucial aspect.
Others might not be able to discern his fighting style, as he had developed it after mixing the two lineages and some if his personally thought moves. His mother had helped him in doing so, and he was able to complete it.
But his family definitely knew his style, and if by any chance the video of his fight got to them, then his identity would be discovered by them at least.
And if that happened... there was no need to mention it further.
Whatever, he would just block his brother completely.
The torn piece, along with Diehard, vanished after 2 seconds of his death; no blood was left.
He also vanished as the battle ended.