"Yeah, that was almost certainly a Skill."
"Hard to say it's unfair though... well, it's super unfair, but I guess this is her dungeon..."
People weren't really sure how to take that victory.
One moment, they were watching, feeling bad for the poor girl who'd won every fight by taking advantage of openings, only to have to contend with somebody that didn't have any.
And it felt like seeing a collision about to happen. Disaster about to strike.
Yet, it was the girl standing in the end, looking almost as surprised as everyone else, but there's no way her victory was a fluke.
It was just simpler to believe that she was, despite her youthful appearance, a bona fide dungeon boss.
An existence above ordinary humans.
"I guess we know who the winner will be."
***
The guild let everyone have a short ten minute break.
I didn't really need one, so I spent the entire time wondering why the heck I won like that.
It had been the perfect setup to just lose.
I cradled my head in my arms.
The trouble was that I'd chosen a sword, almost certainly.
It was a weapon I didn't fully remember mastering, although I think I'd started learning it even before I'd gotten myself cursed, so it had a special meaning to me.
Those memories had long dissolved into little more than a fairytale I told myself, but it felt right to think it was true.
In other words, it came naturally to me, and yet I hadn't had a chance to practice and review it since reincarnating in this world. Even I wasn't too sure what I could do with one.
That was where I'd made my mistake.
With a small sigh, I got up once the ten minutes were over.
"Are you sure you're ready for the next match, Kid?"
"Yeah..."
I felt a bit depressed though.
Even if I lost at this point, there'd be no real meaning in it.
I'd accidentally already shown my hand.
Surprisingly, my opponent was a girl named Miri. Most girls had been in my division, but apparently a couple weren't. I wasn't sure why.
It was additionally surprising because she had beaten a giant hulk of a man who fought with a sword and an axe, while she used knives.
***
Suon watched as Kid fought a girl with an eerily similar fighting style.
Although, this girl was actually an adult, perhaps in her early twenties.
Suon thought that Kid would surely win, but the woman opened by throwing one of her knives at the young dungeon boss.
Without armor or a shield, the best Kid could do was move and hope it glanced off, but it didn't. It sunk into her leg.
This was Kid's first injury, so most people were expecting some kind of reaction, but Suon knew better. This was a child who, as far as he knew, grew up relying on the dungeon's bestowed immortality.
Instead, she just stumbled forward, trying to close the gap and take advantage of her opponent's missing weapon.
But Miri just stepped back, drawing a second knife, waiting patiently for any kind of opening. Even if her first attack had missed, she had a wider stride, so there was no easy way for Kid to reach her.
The second thrown knife was impressively parried out of the sky, a feat that usually took a Skill to perform outside of highly controlled situations.
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But this just prolonged Kid's suffering.
It meant Miri couldn't aim for any vital spots and expect to hit.
The young woman had a surprising number of knives hidden on her person, and didn't seem to run out once during the whole fight.
After the second hit, the slow and wholly unfair fight ended anticlimactically.
"Yeah... I give up, you win."
***
If only a serious opponent showed up sooner, I wouldn't have had to go through all that.
Well, it was my own fault for taking out my first serious opponent, but still.
Suon and the other guild members rushed over to help me. I didn't really need their help walking to the portal, but they'd helped everyone who'd gotten injured, so I didn't try to refuse them.
I'd already stuck out far too much.
"We have to take them out on the other side," Suon said.
There was a brief moment where the medic tried to correct him, since going through the portal with weapons still embedded in you could have dangerous repercussions, possibly healing your body around them.
But since I heal on entering the Lost rather than leaving it, Suon was the correct one, so I slipped ahead through the portal while the medic was focused on him, and pulled them out myself before going back.
The medic was staring at me, so I just reminded him, "It's my dungeon, I guess."
Not that I was totally sure why it worked that way.
I returned the knives afterward.
They were clean once I'd gone back in.
***
RedOwl: Kid actually lost.
Hero194: Man, that was total bullshit.
Popcorn5: What happened???
OutsiderFan71: Someone threw knives at her, so she gave up.
Hero194: I bet she'd have won if they kept going.
Popcorn5: Huh, she would have?
RedOwl: Probably not.
OutsiderFan71: I felt so bad for her, but... honestly, she looks happier now than she did when she was winning.
Popcorn5: Do I need to call the police...
OutsiderFan71: What the heck, I'm just saying!
***
After that, Miri had to fight Landle.
Unfortunately, while her knives were quite effective at hitting the massive man, he took a page out of Suamley's book, doing the best he could to cover his vitals.
The sudden sharp pain hurt, but fortunately, it had hit his off-hand arm, and he was able to get enough leverage out of the wounded arm to slash at her regardless, cutting her down in a swing that was, for once, more brute force than deadly precision.
Unfortunately, her hit-and-run tactics were unusable since he had the much wider stride between the two, and her clever dual wielding was meaningless against his sword's superior reach.
Once he got fixed up by the portal, it was time for the swordsman to challenge this tournament's secret boss.
Suamley, the country's newest Skilled. Well... the city's, at least.
It wasn't a Skill that made the flail user fight any differently, so he figured he had a decent chance.
Except that it was such a Skill.
There was no increased precision or speed in his movements, and yet his body was now fuelled by mana.
Suamley was able to overtake the relative giant, blocking the first attack with the handle of his flail, a maneuver that ought to have been at the cost of any chance for offense. Instead, with both weapons momentarily pushed aside, he dropped his flail and rushed in close to land a punch at the other man's face, and then a second at his side.
Despite attacking with imprecise punches, neither a martial artist nor even a boxer, he hit hard, fast, and most importantly, without the least bit of relent.
It showed the vast difference between an ordinary person and someone who possessed a Skill.
He could keep fighting for as long as he had mana, whereas Landle was quickly beaten down into submission. Grabbing the nearest weapon, ironically Landle's own sword, he held it to his opponent's neck to confirm his victory.
As the guild stepped in to get the two fighters all fixed up, Jadr took a moment to commentate on the match.
"Yes, I think you can all appreciate why we pulled Suamley out of the official bracket, and perhaps appreciate what you're all working so hard toward. Even a common and relatively low rank Skill makes that much of a difference. Still, it was a promising showing from everyone here, so keep at it!"
***
After that sudden tournament I got dragged into, I went back home to check up on my experiments.
The Lost-only compost seemed pretty flat and lifeless, but the mix was definitely alive. Of course, that was expected, it had actual fertilizer in there. The real question was whether it stayed alive after multiple cycles of reuse, or eventually starved.
But I could probably start using it to plant more radishes in the coming weeks.
I hadn't exactly stopped gardening, by the way. I was testing the limits of the soil I'd gotten the first time by planting a second round of radishes, but they were already looking a bit less healthy.
I also decided to start making clay bricks.
My initial efforts were just experiments to see what worked best.
My savings dwindled further the next day when I bought a small pickaxe from a hardware store, but it was worth it, because I felt there were some useful minerals near my cave that could potentially strengthen the bricks.
***
RedOwl: She has a pickaxe. I repeat, she has a pickaxe.
Hero194: Do you live there or something?
Indigo997: Who does?
Hero194: Who else would we be talking about here...?
***
I made all sorts of bricks. A whole variety, which I carefully noted down in my phone.
Some were sun baked, others were heated in a fire.
Some used Red Forest earth, others used local clay.
I tried all sorts of reagents in them, broadly testing each combination I could think of.
The ones that survived baking received other tests, as I banged them against rocks, and even tried smashing them with my new pickaxe.
This whole process took a couple weeks. I continued hunting in between too, not just because I needed money for food, but also to bring back plenty of Red earth for more bricks.
It would probably be cheaper to just buy bricks from Terra, but I certainly didn't want to carry them all the way here, and I also didn't want to become overly reliant.
My long term goals included a proper oven, a kiln, perhaps a composting bin if those experiments proved successful, and maybe even a house someday, or at least something like it.
Though if I started building permanent structures, I considered moving deeper into the mountains to avoid being seen.
Following the stream up a bit, I eventually found a spot that seemed good for future developments. There was no easy way to spot it from the forest, and yet it wasn't too much further. So I mentally marked the location.
It wasn't exactly hidden. The guild would be able to find me there.
But stray passerbys would likely never notice me.