“Did you just see what that woman did, Kerensa?” Alexander asked while his eyes sparkled in astonishment. “In the last few seconds of the match, she shot that rampaging witch with an arrow. And her arrow didn’t get affected by the vortex at all! I saw it—how her aura gathered to fill spiritual energy in that arrow, and how it pierced the wind like swoosh! And that’s not all. The fact that she aimed to simply graze the witch’s hand and not harm her—such skill and precision! She’s supposed to be a magic user, right? How can she be skilled with the bow, sword, and fish rod? Yeah, I remember she used those as well. Ha-ha-ha! How amazing!”

On and on, he went saying great things about Asha. In contrast to Alexander’s childlike expression, Kerensa pondered carefully at her skills. What shocked her the most wasn’t the things that Alexander just mentioned.

“Those are all good observations, Alex,” Kerensa nodded, “but did you see how she had not one, but three elemental spirits?”

“Huh? She did?” Alex’s brows furrowed. “Well, I probably missed that part.”

“Yes! I’m sure I saw her talking to three of them earlier. The water and wind spirit combined their powers to create that never-ending mist, and the earth spirit guarded her by creating a shield. How in the world was she able to control all three of them at the same time, and provide all the spiritual energy they needed? Actually, no—just having three elemental spirits is already very shocking news! Where has she been all our lives? Why am I only knowing this now that such a person exists?!”

“Woah, woah, relax, Kerensa. Y-Your eyes are scaring me.”

“That’s not all—she can even use levitation with her wind spirit!” Kerensa continued, not paying attention to what Alex said. “Just imagine how great that is! If she joins our team, she can easily scout hundreds or thousands of paces ahead of us to see which route we can take best, or if there are monsters on the way, and so much more!” Her eyes burned with great determination. “She must win this competition! Actually, no—even if she doesn’t win, I will definitely scout her! Yes, definitely!”

Thus, Kerensa decided to take Asha in their team—the hero’s party—no matter what. Her resolve burned too much that Alexander had to move his chair away from her lest she ended up nagging him or beating the heck out of him out of great fervor. His one thousand days of adventuring with Kerensa were enough experience and training for him.

Meanwhile, this same Asha that they were passionately talking about, was nonchalantly walking the halls inside the coliseum toward the female contestant’s quarters. Curious gazes followed her but none of them dared approach her. Perhaps it was because they witnessed how scary she could be when she reprimanded the young witch earlier. Or it could also be the fact that she had become a “once-in-a-century genius” in their eyes, given how she could control three elemental spirits. How much more if they knew she had three more?

Nonetheless, Asha did not care about their opinion. What she cared about though, was this particular “shadow man” she accidentally crossed paths with—again. While she was walking toward their quarters after eating lunch, they happened to pass by each other.

“Wait a minute,” Asha murmured to herself when a tall man passed by her. Catching him by the sleeve of his arm, she pulled him close and asked, “It was you, wasn’t it? The shadow man!”

The tall man’s silver eyes widened. Even his long, obsidian hair seemed to twitch in surprise at what she suddenly asked him. To think that out of nowhere, a stranger just grabbed his clothes and asked such a ridiculous question.

“Huh?! What are you saying, missy?” the man asked, perplexed about everything. His striking visage furrowed and his lips curved down in dismay. “Is this a new way of flirting with someone? I know I am quite handsome but unfortunately, you are not my type.”

Asha laughed at the ridiculousness of his words. Dropping her formal speech, she decided to talk rather casually with this rude fellow.

“The feeling is mutual,” Asha replied. “I am not fond of tall, dark, and handsome men, just so you know. But anyway, you can’t deceive me. You’re the one who stole all of my nine ribbons in the first round earlier, aren’t you?”

Hearing this, the tall man raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t know what you mean, missy. How can you be so sure it was me?”

“Don’t try to lie. I finally understand how you managed to go past me earlier. I initially thought you were an alchemist but seeing you now, and feeling your spiritual energy, you are not an alchemist after all. Instead—” leaning forward to his ears in a whisper, she continued, “You’re an elemental spirit!”

At those words, the tall man’s complexion turned pale.

“W-What are you saying? Do you even hear yourself, missy? M-Me? An… ugh. No, I am not! Just because I managed to steal your ribbons and you can’t explain how I did it, means you can accuse me of anything! I don’t understand where you’re getting at but please, leave me alone!”

The tall man hurriedly walked away from Asha only to be followed and pestered shortly after.

“You know, the rules of this tournament strictly say that only magic users can join,” Asha said in a teasing manner. “And you, tall sir, do not belong to that group. Elemental spirits are born from the concentration of elements in nature therefore, they’re not considered a specific race, but an elemental life form. Controlling nature is like breathing to you and not a skill or magic that is learned like how all kinds of magic users do it. You can cultivate it to grow stronger yes, but in principle, it is still vastly different than what humans and other races do.”

“I don’t care whatever you’re saying.”

“What I meant to say is—if anyone knows that you’re an elemental spirit, you will eventually be disqualified in this competition. And worse, other elementalist out there or hunters might take interest in you and hunt you down. You do know that is very dangerous, right, tall sir?”

Alas, the tall man fumed in anger.

“What is it that you want, huh?! I know you’re saying all those things because you want something—exactly like those hunters and other elementalist you’re warning me about! Hmf!”

“Relax, I don’t need much,” Asha smiled reassuringly at him. “I just want to know why you joined this tournament, and how you managed to get past me earlier. If you teach me that skill, I’ll let you go.”

“Tsk! I knew it. Humans really are greedy. You’re basically blackmailing me to get what you want.”

“You’re the one who easily admitted to my speculations. Besides, you keep calling me missy so it’s not hard to catch.”

“What the—Well, you seem to be so confident about it, and I can’t possibly risk my identity! Besides, I joined this competition to enjoy myself. Why is it that only humans get to enjoy such marvelous entertainment, huh?” Sighing, he added, “How did you even find out that I’m an elemental spirit, anyway? Or were you just probing with me?”

“No, it’s not because of that,” Asha chuckled. “It’s because of those strings—green strings of light coming from your core.” She then pointed at his well-built abdomen as if she was seeing something there that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. “I couldn’t see it earlier when you were in your shadow form, but now that you’re pretending to be human, I can see it clearly.”

“Strings of light?” the tall man was confused all the more.

“Yes,” Asha nodded and then quoted:

“Red is the strings of the different creatures in Terra.

“Blue is for the humans that governed the lands.

“Green for the nature that sustains the planet.

“Gold is for the Celestials that guarded life.

“And white is for the chosen envoys of the Most High.”

Continuing, she said, “You have a green string of light—meaning you are nature itself, and truly you are since elemental spirits are concentrated forms of nature, given consciousness.”

“I’m familiar with that. It’s from the Tales of Old, right? I didn’t know that was true. I’ve always thought it was just a legend, created by the imagination of old humans who had nothing better to do with their lives. To think that it’s actually true. How can you even see that? Is that a special skill humans can do?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure. I’ve always been able to do it. That’s how I became sensitive with the spirits and chose to be an elementalist.”

“I see. But anyway, back to the topic at hand, you just want to learn my stealth skills, right?”

Asha’s eyes glimmered in excitement, “Yes, that’s right!”

“Ugh, seriously,” the tall man rolled his eyes. “Too bad for you, it’s not a skill humans can use. Well, unless you fuse with me, that is.”

“Oh, so it’s a special skill only a shadow elemental spirit can do, huh?”

“Exactly!” he replied, so proud of himself. “Now that you understand, you better give up and just go along, and don’t mind my business.”

“Aww, that’s too bad,” Asha sighed deeply in great disappointment.

But then, as if a brilliant idea struck her head, her lit eyes lit up.

“In that case… why don’t you become one of my elemental spirits?”