Griff and Stephanie described their tests, or rather the preliminaries for their two tournaments. Griff's preliminary was similar to the team tournaments in that it was combat related. He had to fight against someone in a one-on-one match three times. Each time he had to win in order to be eligible to participate in the actual tournament. His first opponent had been a woman who used an odd style of martial arts, at least according to him.

The woman attacked aggressively, trying to stay close and primarily struck with her knees and elbows in what Gaia could only compare to what she'd heard about Muay Thai. This was apparently very odd to Griff and not something he'd ever seen before. This fight didn't last too long since they both had offensive styles.

His second opponent was a man that also used a style that was odd to him. Instead of the aggressive style his first opponent had, this one's style was neither defensive or aggressive. It was weird, in that all of the movements flowed together deliberately and made it difficult to land a strike. They could flow from a block into a strike using his momentum against him. This had caused the fight to last longer than he'd expected. He felt he barely pulled out the win against this opponent.

His final opponent had been someone who once again used a weird style, according to him. It was a mixture of what he could only describe as martial arts and dancing. They had been extremely hard to fight as their attacks were hard to predict and block. They were very acrobatic and launched strikes from odd angles. Gaia nearly spit out her drink when she heard this. That sounded like capoeira, which is a very specific kind of martial arts. She hadn't expected to hear about it here, but here it was.

She listened intently to the rest of his retelling, but there wasn't anything else he described that caught her attention as much as that. Stephanie was the next to speak, she'd participated in the swordsmanship preliminaries. Hers was similar to Griff's in that it was combat, but everyone had to use a sword. She had asked if her multi weapon was allowed but had been denied. She had to fight with a blunted sword and, according to her, had barely been able to eke out her wins. Each opponent had different styles; one had been defensive while another had been aggressive. The last had been different since he had been the only opponent she'd had that wielded a great sword.

Fergus and Gaia told the other two about their experiences as well, before they discussed the plans for the next day. Stephanie was going to participate in the blacksmith competition when it happened, so she was going to the preliminaries tomorrow to register. Everyone agreed to walk her to the venue tomorrow and cheer her on, otherwise they would all be free for the day. They planned to just relax but decided to explore the capital some more. They'd been here for months but hadn't explored most of it, so they wanted to rectify that.

With this decided they all went to bed. Gaia stole Fergus' bed again while Stephanie and Griff left. The next morning once again began early; they all arose and left to walk Stephanie to the preliminary's venue. It was closer to the forging quarter since that was where most blacksmiths lived. They found a line waiting for them when they arrived. The preliminary for this tournament was to present an item they'd crafted for inspection, then to craft a simple dagger in front of the judges. This lets the craftsmen show their best work and then demonstrate their skill and knowledge. It also kept people from trying to enter an item made by another.

Stephanie debated for a long time on what item she wanted to present but decided on her Multi-weapon. It was the only thing she had, aside from her armor and rifle, that she'd personally made by herself. Her rifle was a no go for multiple reasons, and she was wearing her armor so it would be difficult to remove. She reached the front after a few minutes and presented her Multi-weapon. She saw the judges look at it weirdly, as they took it. She showed them a demonstration as they inspected it. They were very impressed but that was mainly because of the enchantment. They admired the craftsmanship as well, but the weirdness of the weapon's structure made it less important.

They handed her weapon back and was led away towards where Gaia heard the sounds of fire and metal being hammered. They waited for about an hour before she returned to them with good news. She'd passed and would be in the tournament. No one had doubt this result so they all went to celebrate. They went to a restaurant and ate before returning to the mansion. The night passed quickly and the next morning started early.

It was the day of the one-on-one tournament's preliminaries. They all went together and waited in line to register. The line traveled agonizingly slowly as each person needed to register individually and even with two registrars there were hundreds of participants. They'd arrived early hoping to be close to the front but were still far back in the line. The line behind them stretched well passed the range of Gaia's aura. They waited and stepped forwards whenever someone finished registration. Nearly an hour later Gaia finally registered and was told there were no restrictions for her bonds.

It was like her companions had thought. She'd be fighting with all of her bonds, at least in the beginning. She actually felt sorry for her first opponent. She couldn't use her aura for obvious reasons but her bonds were all strong and all four would make the match a cake walk.

She went in with her companions and they waited. This one was different because they would all be called by name through magic. They would then head to the arena they were told. Whoever came to the same arena was their opponent. It made it easier for solo tournaments, allowing them to go through many matches quickly and not needing to call groups. The first of their party called down was Fergus.

Gaia shaped her aura and watched his match which ended nearly instantly. As soon as the match was started he dashed forwards and put the arrow dagger to his opponents throat. Next was Stephanie who dropped her opponent with a couple bullets to the legs. Griff's ended a bit later as he shoulder tackled the person and threw them out of the ring.

The last was Gaia who went up on Malachite. Her opponent stepped up and she heard a familiar snobbish voice. Someone from Noblesse.

*It's the monster lover. It must be my lucky day. The last match was obviously a fluke.* She started and Gaia tuned it out.

She waited for the match to begin and her bonds all fired their ranged attack at the woman. Shadow ran and slammed her weight into the woman. All of which struck her center mass. She crumpled like a wet bag and the match was called as a healer ran towards the fallen hunter. She was the winner.

There was no change to the rules after that match. After her next match that ended similarly, she was restricted to only three bonds. She acquiesced and the next match only saw Liv, Antonio and Shadow. Malachite was in his tattoo for this match. It ended just as quickly with Shadow ramming the person after Liv bound them with a trapped web. Antonio's phantasmal spike didn't even hit before they dropped.

Thus, she was restricted to two bonds. She watched her friends other matches by shaping her aura and they also went similarly to their first ones. They were just overly experienced in needing to get the first strike. With people their rank and around their strength or weaker, that meant a near immediate loss. They'd grown accustomed to monsters and enemies much stronger than themselves, so this was almost child's play.

The individual matches continued and eventually the preliminaries ended with all four of them going to the tournament. She still had access to two bonds per match and could swap them out between matches, but she had a feeling that wasn't going to continue after the first true tournament match.

They all walked back to the mansion tired from the past few days. They'd been getting up even earlier than usual while stressing over the matches. Luckily for them the only tournaments they had left to register for were the monster hunting and dungeon crawl tournaments. The Treasure hunting one was included with the dungeon crawl registration since they were both happening at once. These were also tournaments that didn't have preliminaries allowing everyone to participate since there wasn't a real chance of death or serious injury in them.

The monster hunting tournament was just to see how many monsters a party could hunt during the time limit in a stampede scenario, while the dungeon they'd be entering had a rule that deaths couldn't occur. If fatal damage was incurred the person would be teleported out of the dungeon and healed.

Everyone was excited for the upcoming tournaments and there were only three more days before the start of them. Tomorrow was registration for the monster hunting one and the day after was for the dungeon crawl. All they needed to do was show up and register for each. Otherwise, they had the rest of the day to relax. Then there was one day with nothing going on. No preliminaries, no registration, nothing. It was a day to rest for the participants, since many were in multiple tournaments. It helped ensure they'd be in the best shape possible for the actual events.

Everyone sat and relaxed for the rest of the day, they had no other plans since they'd not been sure how long the preliminaries for the individual matches would take before they were done. They talked and found out Flora would be in one of the tournaments for bronze rankers. They'd decided to just do the party tournament and watch Fauna do the others. They'd already done the tournaments once so it wasn't as exciting for them this year. They just wanted to see how well their "apprentice party" as they jokingly called Fauna, would do.

They retreated to their rooms after that and went to sleep. They awoke early the next morning and went to register for the monster hunting tournament. This registration went much faster than the others as there were multiple lines to get in and register. It was the same the next day with the dungeon crawl tournament. This registration also included the treasure hunting competition. Once they finished registering, they all slumped down on Malachite as he walked them towards a park.

They'd been participating in matches or tests since the beginning of the week or registering. It was stressful since they never knew how long it would take or how hard the matches would be. They'd been stressed out the entire week because of it. Now they were done registering and tomorrow would be a rest day before the tournaments. They would relax for the rest of the day and tomorrow before the actual tournaments began.

Gaia was tired from being around so many people. Her aura usually didn't cause her to get tired, but she'd been around so many people that the information caused her to overload since she could sense every single person moving around whether she liked it or not. The only alternative was to not use it which would just make her completely blind, no way of telling what was going on around her outside of sound, which she wasn't the best at.

She was just happy they didn't have to wait in line for hours on end. They could relax for longer than an afternoon. Gaia could only compare it to the difference of getting off work for the day to having a day off. This was something she didn't usually think about since she'd not been as stressed since the commission and the ruins.

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They rested for the day. Gaia played with her bonds in the park while the others did what they wanted. Fergus drew Gaia as she played while Griff enjoyed the park as he went on a walk with Stephanie. They all enjoyed their time in the park before it got dark. They also heard and saw children playing which brought smiles to their faces. Gaia was especially happy since it brought back some good memories from Earth.

She remembered going to visit her sister and seeing her children. Her niece and nephew made her week when she saw them. They weren't very old when she'd been ripped from her world and dropped here, but she hoped they were doing better than she'd been, in the beginning. She remembered them playing in the park they went to and the children she currently heard brought them to mind.

She smiled softly at the memories that resurfaced but started crying before she'd even realized. This made Fergus stop when he noticed.

"Gaia? What's wrong?" He asked worriedly.

"Nothing. Just remembered my family back on earth. The children I can hear made me think of my niece and nephew. I miss them, and they probably don't even know what happened to me. They probably think I'm dead, as does the rest of my family. And even if I can go back, does it matter? They won't be able to tell I'm me. I know it's something I've worried about before but thinking of my niece and nephew made me realize it again. They were both so young when I was dropped into this world." She explained.

"How old were they?" He asked.

"One was about three and the other was seven. I've been here around if not longer than my niece had been alive before I left, and my nephew is young enough that I don't think he'd remember me after three years. And that's assuming I return now. Which doesn't seem likely." She stated.

Fergus just hugged her while she cried a bit longer. She didn't know what it was about this situation that made her think about them, but she hadn't done so before now. She was simultaneously thankful and depressed because of it. She stayed in Fergus' arms until she stopped, and they sat for a while enjoying the moment together. It helped her calm back down.

"You'll see them again." Fergus said.

"Thanks. I think you'll like them. If we're able to reach my original world." She replied.

The rest of their time went quickly as Griff and Stephanie returned. They hopped on Malachite and returned to the mansion. They went to their rooms and slept after dinner. Gaia staying in Fergus' room again. The next day started late for them. They all slept in since they had nothing planned. They awoke and went down to a late breakfast where everyone was excited to see them.

"I'm looking forward to next week." The Baron stated.

"Same I'm ready to see how these guys do in their tournaments." Titania added.

"Don't disappoint me you guys." Said John.

"You guys better win." Francois added.

"Make it entertaining." Jess finished.

"I'm looking forward to it." Freya added.

"I know how strong you guys are. Show everyone else." Delilah finished.

Everyone was supportive and excited to watch the tournaments that started the following day. After breakfast they all decided to split up and do what they wanted to relax and destress. Gaia had Titania show her to a spa. She'd never been to one before even on earth, so she was excited. Titania was going to stay with her since she wanted a spa day herself, and Gaia didn't want to go alone. She went with Titania to a spa called the Capital Spa.

"That's a very creative name. I'd feel ashamed for coming up with it, myself." Gaia stated.

"Yeah, it's almost like the owner just gave up on trying to come up with a name. It could have been the Flarebrand Spa, or something. I don't know, it's not my job to come up with names." Titania replied.

"Me either. Luckily for us." She replied.

They entered and Gaia could only sense the one person sitting ahead of them. Based on their position they appeared to be sitting at a desk. They walked up and Titania spoke.

"I have a reservation for Titania with Gaia as my second." She stated.

The receptionist looked up before pulling out a book and checking. "Very well, you're good to proceed. Your reservation is ready. Please go left." The receptionist stated.

Their spa day began and they relaxed, enjoying the different services they were offered.

Fergus spent his day at home relaxing with his father. He'd not had much time recently to spend with him so he was happy to have the day free to do so. He mainly talked with him and read as his father dealt with the few things he had to.

"How have you been Fergus?" The Baron asked.

"I've been alright. Not too bad, just busy. The tournaments preliminaries kept us busy for the last week. So many preliminaries for so many tournaments. You know how it is." Fergus replied.

"That I do. I hear you're all participating in multiple tournaments, is that right?"

"Yes. I'm in the Archery, Party, Solo, monster hunting and dungeon crawling tournaments. The others are also in the… "He goes on to tell who is in which tournament.

"Wonderful. I look forward to seeing them. Seeing how you all have grown since you first started." His father replied.

"We've grown a lot. So much that I think you'll be surprised." Fergus finished.

"I look forward to seeing it." The Baron finished as they continued to talk and catch up with one another. Finally, not having any obligations that forced them to do anything.

Griff spent his day in the library researching magic. He'd been researching in as much as he could when free, but Gaia's journal had kept him busy, then they'd all been injured so he hadn't had time to research for a long while. He excitedly soaked in the information he found and read through all the books he could find. He's been determined to create a new spell at first but instead he'd been focusing on understanding his current spells and skills.

During his research, he'd discovered that he could adjust his mana bolt skill to change the attribute of mana. He could change it to use an attribute he had bound with some effort or change it to an attribute plentiful in the environment. Such as if he was in a jungle, it could take on the growth attribute.

This information was valuable to him since he saw so many different applications in which it could be used to change the outcome of a battle. While he celebrated the discovery of the knowledge, he ran out to begin practicing and experimenting in order to do so.

Lastly was Stephanie. She just relaxed and tinkered with her rifle. She'd been studying it to adjust its power and try to miniaturize the mechanisms. She'd had great success modifying the musket into the rifle but was having issues creating a handgun instead. Every time she tried to fire it, the weapon would explode.

She'd been able to minimize the destruction, so she no longer got hurt in any way from it, but it was still ruining perfectly good metal and resources which is what really caused her to be angry as she continued experimenting. She wanted to make a revolver first, so she had another gun in case she needed it for any reason.

She just needed to figure out the best power for the explosion magic circle inside the barrel, to propel the bullet at a velocity fast enough to damage and kill. It also needed to be weak enough that the barrel didn't explode since it was supposed to be a multi use weapon and she hated wasting materials, so she was getting frustrated. She decided to create a thicker barrel for the next attempt to see if that changed much.

In these ways the party relaxed or did their own things for the final day before the tournaments. Tomorrow marked the beginning of the tournament week. It would be chaotic and stressful, but fun. They all knew it as they regrouped and told the others about how their day went. Gaia had enjoyed her spa day with Titania, her favorite part had been the massage, since it had been done by a golem that could actually massage an Earthbound.

Fergus enjoyed his day with his father talking and relaxing. They'd even gone shopping, and he'd gotten a new hat. It was a beret, a green one to match his bow when it was grown. It was soft to the touch, so Gaia liked it and based off an image from Malachite, it was flattering on him. It added to his charms and worked well with his face.

Griff had managed to figure out part of the spell to change the attribute of his mana bolt. He could, with great effort cause it to gain the miasmic attribute because he had it as a bound attribute. He hadn't been able to figure out the trick on how to change it based on the environment's mana, that seemed like it would take a lot longer to figure out.

Stephanie was excited because she'd been able to forge a revolver with a thicker barrel and fire it without it exploding on the first shot. It had done so after three shots so she felt a bit more confident that she could actually manage to create it. She just needed to tweak the magic circle some more to cause the explosion to be more directed since it was occurring in a smaller barrel. That just took a lot of trial and error.

They were all happy for each other. While some had made progress in projects they'd been working on or had to put on hold before for various reasons. Some had been able to relax and enjoy time with their other friends after a long period of recovery. It let them all feel good about how they'd spent their time and destress themselves in their own ways.

Gaia was happy because she'd been able to hang out with Titania who reminded her of her own older sister from Earth. She was always outgoing, happy, and reliable. She made Gaia feel like she understood and would listen no matter what was going on, and Gaia would do the same for her.

Fergus was extremely happy since he'd been able to spend time alone with his father for the first time in a long time. They were both always so busy that they hardly every saw each other for longer than a meal. That didn't let them talk or catch up on everything going on. He'd been feeling frustrated because of that but had finally been able to do so.

This marked the end of their free day, and they all went to bed early since tomorrow was the swordsmanship tournament. The big tournaments occurred later in the week with the first being the solo hunter or one-on-one tournament and ending with the dungeon crawl and treasure hunt. It looked like Stephanie was first in terms of tournament participation which she didn't mind. It let her get it over with so she didn't stress or worry about it longer. Gaia liked that way of thinking, but knew she'd worry no matter what. It was just the way she was, whether she liked it or not.

They quickly went to bed and arose early the next day to head to the colosseum. They traveled with everyone after an early breakfast, everyone eager to see Stephanie fight in the tournament bouts. Stephanie didn't seem nervous but wasn't completely unconcerned. She was ready for the tournament and didn't worry about the outcome, but still wanted to perform at her best. The colosseum would be packed with spectators from today onwards so she wasn't sure how she would do under that kind of pressure.

It was a pressure she'd never faced before. While the preliminaries had had hundreds of people watching, all of them had been participants not spectators. She didn't understand why that would make a difference, but she knew that it did for some reason. Spectators wanted a show while participants didn't care but would pay attention if you caught their eye. She wasn't sure if it was just the difference in expectations, but she felt slightly inadequate for a crowd of spectators who only wanted a show. Even if she knew it didn't matter.

She split off from everyone as they entered the colosseum. She needed to go down to the participant's area. She'd been led by a worker to a room that had a magical mirror that showed the arena. This let the participants see the fights, so they weren't bored in the small rooms. They were given food and water, so they never needed anything until it was their turn to fight in the arena, after two matches it was her turn.

She rose from her chair and walked out of the room towards the pit's entrance. As she walked out, she realized the arena was much larger than the ones they'd fought in during the preliminaries. It took up most of the pit, allowing for a much larger area to battle in. It also changed environments apparently. The first match had been the barren arena, the second a mostly barren area with boulders and rocks, while this time. This time it was a full-blown forest.

Or rather, maybe jungle was a better word for it. The trees were thick and dense with vines and underbrush rampant beneath the canopy. She wondered how the spectators would be able to see them but realized she was probably under a spell that would broadcast her surroundings to the audience somehow. It would likely do the same for her opponent while silencing the crowd for the fighters.

Stephanie approached the arena where a judge motioned her towards him. "I'm the judge for this fight. Only use your swordsmanship and skills. Any special equipment usage will result in an immediate disqualification. This includes any item not bound to you. Shields are allowed as they are part of certain types of sword techniques. Yours is allowed because of this and the fact it is a bound item. Do not aim to kill or gravely wound any attempt to do so on purpose will result in immediate disqualification and other possible actions. When I say begin the fight starts when I say stop do not continue attacking. Any attacks already in motion must be diverted to the best of your abilities. Do you understand these rules?" He asked.

"Yes. Then you may step on stage." He said.

Stephanie did so and prepared for the fight to start. She waited a couple minutes, her heart thundering in her ears as she looked up at the spectators. There were hundreds if not thousands there watching her fight. It was an unnerving thing. Her palms got sweaty, and she started wiping them on her shirt when the judge announced the beginning of the fight.

"Let the swordsmanship tournament quarterfinals match between Stephanie Irons and Deria Frosthand, begin!" He yelled.

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