He had seen the ability to use the String component before—back when Silas used it in the fight against Jerek in the arena. Back then, he had been impressed by how Silas wielded the threads to perform almost impossible maneuvers or bind his opponent.
But now, he too would have that ability. In fact, it suited him even more with his own calculating ability.
No sooner said than done, Dante searched market for information about these threads through the Spellnet. And when he saw the price, he was shocked—3-390 Arcane dollars?!
'What… what is this, 4000 AD?? What the hell?!'Dante was bewildered by value of another thing of the same type. Refusing to believe his eyes, he tried to scroll through and dig deeper. The more he searched, the colder his heart became. It turned out that the first item, Thread of Dread Maw, priced at 390 AD, was actually the cheapest—yet it would cost him nearly all of his current wealth.
Dante gritted his teeth and decided to invest in this piece of equipment despite the cost draining almost all his assets. Thread of Dread Maw might be the cheapest option, but it was still top-tier and favored among Artificers at Framework level and below.
Another reason behind this decision was that if he won first place in the tournament, he would earn a 5000 AD scholarship and several other prizes—far exceeding what he had to spend. Even if he didn't win first place, the second prize would still be decent.
Since he was already in the top 7, he was very close to that goal. He could afford to bet on himself a little.
'Yeah… that's it. There you go.'
After a few hours waiting in his room, Dante received a package delivered swiftly by a courier—probably because the seller was also located in Tessarune. When he opened the box, inside lay a spool of thread with a handle adorned with intricate patterns—he had chosen it specifically to suit his tastes. The threads, when pulled out, were so fine as to be nearly invisible to the naked eye. Though they looked fragile, they were as tough as steel wire, with incredible durability and flexibility.
Moreover, they were made from a type of magical beast, the Dread Maw worm. The threads were spun ultra-fine, perfectly straight and flawless, capable of channeling essence and combining with components for control.
The entire spool was narrow and long, with a handle that could be detached or kept on for use. It was designed so that the user could conceal it inside a sleeve or anywhere else. No one would know you were using thread—unless they tripped over it. This spool excelled in binding and movement support.
The user could use it to latch onto walls and hang midair or pull themselves forward for mobility.
The manual even gave a special warning not to use it as a cutting weapon like in the movies. Though it was incredibly durable and flexible, its thinness—while making it hard to detect—was also its weakness. A typical Roomborn could easily cut it. It was recommended to use it as a support weapon, not as a main offensive tool.
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Dante cherished it, feeling deeply satisfied with this new weapon. The reason he used a baseball bat was because it looked less violent and felt handy; the reason he chose thread as a weapon was the same—and because he had been so impressed by that first arena fight he'd witnessed. If possible, Dante wanted to win without causing too much harm to his opponents. After all, he came from Eden—a human paradise—and had never known war or violence. They're all just exist in movie.
Following the schedule, Dante observed the upcoming matches in the arena while training with his new component and weapon. Nothing remarkable happened today—Kaela easily crushed her opponent and advanced in the loser's bracket. Dante went home, and worked on expanding his foundation.
Though his foundation had surpassed 2GB, it still wasn't enough. Sometimes his component had to run at full capacity to calculate his opponent's attack patterns, but due to insufficient memory, it occasionally made errors or fell behind. What he needed now was to expand his foundation as soon as possible so that the Mindstep component could compute more possibilities at once and provide timely predictions. Moreover, this expansion would allow him to store more attack patterns.
The more battles he fought, the larger the recorded data would grow—and he had to be ready for that.
Today brought another match against an opponent in the top 6. This time his opponent wielded the power of wind. As he had learned before, the wind element was easy to use, immensely powerful, and had no real weaknesses. That's why it was one of the strongest and most popular elements. In the top 6, two fighters used wind, and this opponent was one of them.
There wasn't much to say about the match. Though this opponent was stronger than the first wind user he faced, Dante easily broke through his wall of wind and landed a single blow to his head with the bat, ending the fight in one strike. After this match, he gained a few more fans and was now considered a seed for the top 2—because there is Kaela who "almost" defeat him.
During his break, Dante stayed to watch Kaela's next match—this time against a girl who specialized in lightning.
'Lightning, huh… this should be interesting!'It was the first time Dante had seen the lightning element, and he was curious about how it would look. To his surprise, he ran into Solène—their mutual friend—also sitting in the stands, holding a bag of snacks, her eyes sparkling as if watching a fireworks display.
Solène was hard to miss. Her snow-white hair fell in soft waves to her shoulders, the pale strands seeming almost to glow under the arena lights. Her shimmering yellow eyes were wide with excitement, reflecting every flicker of lightning on the field like twin stars. She wore a loose white blouse with the sleeves casually rolled to her elbows, paired with dark fitted trousers that gave her a relaxed but ready-for-anything look. A brown leather satchel rested at her side, its flap half open as if she'd hurried to grab her snacks when the match began. Her well-worn boots tapped against the floor, keeping time with the rhythm of her eager energy.
Solène waved excitedly when she saw Dante, then plopped down in the seat next to him.
"Dante!" she cheered, her gaze fixed on the arena. "Kaela's about to fight the lightning girl, right? Lightning! Ooooh, sounds so cool! I hope there are lots of boom-boom sounds to enjoy!"
Dante let out a small laugh. "Oh, Solène, where have you been all this time? I, ummm…"Dante wanted to say he had kind of missed her mischievous antics—but then thought better of it; we're not that close yet.
Solène grinned widely at him and said,
"You know, I'm the type of girl who's always cheerful! People say I'm… kinda dumb, but I think that's the cute part of me!"She raised her hand in a V sign. "The world needs more positive energy, right?"
Before Dante could reply, she continued, her eyes shining as she gazed at the arena:
"But hey… do you think lightning bolts can whisper to each other? Like, 'Hey, get ready to strike!' or 'Your turn now!'"She giggled. "If they could, that'd be hilarious, huh?"
"Haha."Dante was a little surprised by Solène's silly jokes—so much so that he wondered to himself, 'How does she do that? Her brain structure must be really special to pull that off.'