Thok visibly flinched the moment I called his name.

The idiot had apparently been trying to avoid my attention by standing behind the troll as if that would somehow make him invisible to me, but there was no way he could escape my senses.

And there was definitely no way I was forgetting his nonsense that easily.

"So," I said while leaning back slightly, "my goblin Thok would like to challenge you, Veyra."

Veyra turned her head toward him calmly.

Meanwhile, Thok looked like he’d just been sentenced to death.

He swallowed hard before slowly nodding, clearly not daring to reject me in front of everyone.

"Alright, Thok," I said with a grin. "Make me proud."

He did not, in fact, make me proud.

The fight ended so quickly that it barely even felt like a fight.

The moment it started, Thok rushed forward, trying to overwhelm Veyra immediately, but she sidestepped him with almost insulting ease before striking him once in the stomach hard enough to fold his body forward.

Before he could recover, she swept his legs out from under him and slammed him onto the arena floor.

Less than five seconds.

That was all it took.

The entire arena went quiet for a second before several goblins burst into laughter.

Thok groaned from the ground in humiliation while Veyra simply stepped back calmly as if nothing noteworthy had happened.

I stared at him for a moment before slowly shaking my head in disappointment.

Instead of focusing on getting stronger, the idiot had spent most of his time building himself a harem.

Absolutely shameless.

Surprisingly, the next goblin to step into the arena was Doro.

He looked far calmer than the others had during their matches, simply standing in the center of the arena before asking if anyone else wanted a fight.

Dribb immediately opened his mouth to accept, of course.

At this point, I was convinced he would challenge a mountain if it looked at him the wrong way.

But since he had already fought earlier, I stopped him and let Gobbo take the match instead.

The moment both of them faced each other properly, I noticed something interesting.

They both possessed earth-type abilities.

Still, despite the similarity in affinity, the difference in combat style between them became obvious almost immediately after the fight began.

Doro’s ability was far more suited for mid to long-range combat.

Gobbo’s wasn’t.

The moment the match started, chunks of stone began rising around Doro before launching toward Gobbo one after another with enough force to crack the arena floor whenever they missed.

Gobbo activated [Stone Plate] almost instantly, thick layers of stone wrapping around his body like armor while he pushed forward through the attacks.

But that was the problem.

Both [Stone Plate] and his second skill line, [Bone Forge], were heavily defense-oriented abilities.

They made him tougher. Heavier.

Harder to bring down.

But not faster.

And against someone like Doro, who clearly understood spacing and kept creating distance every time Gobbo tried getting close, that weakness became painfully obvious.

Gobbo simply wasn’t fast enough to close the gap properly.

Which meant there was almost no realistic way for him to win unless Doro made a mistake first.

Watching the fight made the flaw in his build painfully obvious to me.

If he couldn’t move fast enough to reach his opponent, then all that durability would eventually become meaningless against certain types of enemies.

Especially ranged fighters.

Against a mage-type opponent capable of constantly creating distance and attacking from afar, Gobbo would struggle badly because he lacked the mobility needed to pressure them properly. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

A close-combat fighter, on the other hand, would have an absolutely miserable time trying to bring him down.

Gobbo was practically a walking fortress once he fully armored himself.

But a fortress was still useless if nobody entered its range.

I was definitely going to need to give him something mobility-related later. Not necessarily raw speed, but at least a skill that helped him close distances more effectively.

And apparently, Gobbo had already come to the same realization himself.

After another failed attempt to corner Doro, he eventually stopped and waved a hand dismissively.

"This fight is boring," he grumbled before giving up the match entirely.

The crowd laughed lightly at that while Doro stepped back calmly.

Not long after, Zonk entered the arena and challenged Doro next.

The moment he activated his skill, however, the atmosphere shifted slightly.

A blood-red aura spread around his arm, thick and familiar.

And instantly, the reactions from Caius’ followers changed.

Several of the newcomers widened their eyes in visible shock because they recognized it immediately.

It was the same blood-type skill line Kharos had used earlier.

Murmurs immediately began spreading through their group afterward as more of them stared toward me now instead of the arena.

That alone pretty much confirmed it for them.

That I could really transfer skill lines.

I did not doubt that realization filled many of them with anticipation at the possibility that, someday in the future, I might consider giving them new skills as well.

Of course, they’d have to earn it first.

I wasn’t about to start handing out skill lines for free.

Still, noticing the occasional glances being thrown my way made it difficult not to feel a little proud of myself.

Caius seemed to notice it too because after observing the atmosphere around the arena for a moment, he turned toward me and said,

"I have to admit, having a tournament was a great idea. Everyone’s far less tense now."

"It’s all thanks to the hot-headed goblin over there," I replied while gesturing toward Dribb.

At that moment, Dribb was loudly cheering from the sidelines like an absolute lunatic as Zonk fought inside the arena.

Zonk’s battle against Doro was already far more interesting than Gobbo’s had been.

Unlike Gobbo, who relied heavily on defense and direct confrontation, Zonk fought more like a ranger, constantly moving, changing angles, and refusing to stay in one place long enough for Doro to properly lock onto him.

And his blood ability complemented that style perfectly.

The blood surrounding Zonk’s arms shifted...