Shadowfall Kingdom

  Vincent

  Tournament Grounds

  Kaijuu Ryu

  I still hate crowds, but once I focus on the task at hand, everything else fades away.

  The cheering feels good too, I have to admit. Did I change a bit? I hope so.

  Being a general is going to be hard. The king sent me a book written by the greatest general this world has ever known—who later became a king himself.

  The Salt King, James Tailor.

  I tried acting like the ideal general he described. The basics: act confident, be decisive, give commands in a strong tone, never show weakness, speak slowly and clearly.

  I won my matches, and I’m not even tired yet.

  Thank you, training.

  Roka and I finished the gravity suit using a stretchy black fabric I had specially tailored.

  We stamped gravity seals along the interior and connected them. That alone took up about two-thirds of the suit. In the remaining spaces, we added anti-gravity seals. Connecting everything was a nightmare—we had to weave extra material through the lining just to link the circuits.

  For the anti-gravity power sources, we used standard magic cores.

  There are ten square-cut “batteries” set around my waist. We made them by soaking cores overnight in MP potions. When you take them out the next morning, you have to be careful—they have the consistency of tofu.

  We designed and built a large guillotine to cut the softened round cores into rectangles. Each core produced two batteries, each roughly the size of my fists pressed together.

  For the gravity-increase circuits, we needed something stronger.

  I had Sebastian order a dragon core.

  It took four nights to fully saturate the core with MP potion. The orb was about forty centimeters in diameter.

  We cut it into a square, then divided that square into four slabs. One slab went into the back of my suit. Another was split for the boots—one piece per ankle. The remaining two smaller pieces were fitted into my gauntlets, one per wrist.

  The other half of the dragon core was used for Felmina’s and Roka’s suits. Their back pieces were cut and fitted the same way.

  We left all the slabs out in direct sunlight until they hardened into something resembling crystal or glass. Padding was added before installation.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Then we started training.

  We slept with gravity increase active. We ran with it on.

  Roka developed adjustable sliders for the gravity settings. My gauntlets have controls like sound-studio sliders—left for anti-gravity, right for gravity increase.

  To calibrate everything, Sebastian acquired a livestock scale from the farmers’ market. It maxed out at around eight hundred kilograms.

  I collapsed onto the scale during the first test and shattered my knees.

  HP potions were administered, and Felmina put me to sleep.

  After I leveled up to 250, we recalibrated the maximum to 750 kilograms to keep things manageable

  This time, I sat on the scale.

  I could barely breathe.

  I had to use the G-force resistance technique pilots use to stay conscious.

  I started cautiously—half gravity increase—and channeled mana through my right gauntlet to activate it.

  Each battery lasts about seventy-two hours before needing a recharge. Recharging is simple: touch it and feed mana until it glows.

  We ordered another dragon core and produced spare batteries.

  As I adjusted to weighing five hundred kilograms, my appetite skyrocketed.

  My starting level was 320.

  When I reached level 450, I increased gravity to the full 750 kilograms.

  I ate enough for nine people.

  All of this training took about a month and a half.

  With full gravity active, I could run at roughly one-and-a-half times normal speed.

  We still had a month before the matches, so I began switching gravity off and calibrating anti-gravity. On full anti-gravity, I could reduce my weight to fifty kilograms.

  That didn’t work well.

  My legs slipped during takeoff. Sometimes I just launched straight into the air.

  Running at my normal weight—two hundred fifty kilograms—worked better.

  Progress.

  The trick was timing.

  I activate gravity increase at half, launch, then disable it as I accelerate. Immediately after, I switch on anti-gravity and reduce my weight to one hundred kilograms.

  That’s how I reach top speed without wiping out.

  Getting the timing right took another month.

  The first few times, I couldn’t stop and slammed straight into the wall.

  It hurt like hell.

  To stop, I had to kill anti-gravity and re-engage gravity increase.

  Eventually, the time for the matches arrived.

  I was satisfied with the results.

  I had the wooden sword enchanted to make it extremely heavy. The remaining dragon core fragments were strung together to form the blade’s internal core, linked to magic circles running its length.

  There’s a switch at the base of the hilt to activate it.

  Activated, the sword weighs one hundred kilograms.

  It has only one setting.

  The remaining core fragments were sent to the blacksmith to forge my greatsword’s core. The greatsword is taller than I am. Its hilt activates by sliding in like a magazine, bringing the weapon up to two hundred kilograms.

  About a week before the tournament, right after finishing the wooden sword, Felmina asked me what I was trying to accomplish.

  I explained, but she didn’t get it. She could see the results—just not the reason.

  So I had her wear full plate armor and stand in the middle of the field.

  I struck her with the unactivated wooden sword. It weighed about ten kilograms. She took one step back.

  Then I activated it and struck again.

  She landed on her ass.

  Then I explained.

  “Imagine if I increased my own weight too—and then hit you.”

  She shivered just thinking about it.

  At my normal weight, I have to grip the activated wooden sword halfway up the blade just to use it.

  But at seven hundred fifty kilograms?

  I can swing it like a normal heavy sword.

  They trained alongside me.

  Roka and Felmina were both level 90 when we started. Once their armor was completed, they leveled to 100 for easier calibration.

  They followed my example and used the scale instead of risking collapse.

  I taught them the G-force resistance technique.

  They started around level 150. Felmina adapted faster than Roka.

  By the end, Felmina mastered anti-gravity control and reached roughly level 300. Her suit’s maximum was four hundred kilograms, with a minimum weight of thirty-five kilograms.

  She was almost as fast as me.

  Roka focused on gravity-increase training instead. She reached around level 240.

  Before the matches, I swore them both to secrecy.

  This technology is too dangerous.

  In the wrong hands, the Shadowfall Kingdom could conquer the world.