SS Awakening: My Monster Merging System!

The changes to the arena stage were completed very quickly.

The originally flat stone slabs split apart, dark soil rose from the cracks, and grass spread along the seams. In just a few breaths, the entire arena had turned into a half stone, half earth battlefield. The audience’s murmurs immediately grew louder, because everyone could see that this terrain was far too favorable to Mira.

"A grassland field?"

"Wait, terrain changes are supposed to be selected from over fifty environments."

"What are the odds of a perfect farming field appearing right when Mira fights?"

"Isn’t this biased toward Mira?"

"Farmer class meets soil and grass—aren’t they basically handing her weapons?"

"But this also shows Zich’s adaptability, right? Didn’t he get an adaptability S in the last match?"

All kinds of voices kept rising from the audience.

Zich stood on one side of the arena, looking at the slowly softening ground beneath his feet, his expression obviously not good. He certainly did not believe this was entirely random, not to the point of accepting it unconditionally, at least.

Mira on the other side was also looking at the ground.

Her expression remained calm, as if the soil and grass had not given her any special advantage at all. But Zich was not stupid; for someone who could manipulate plants and roots, the value of this environment was far too obvious.

Mira lifted her head and looked at him.

"This terrain wasn’t chosen by me."

Zich glanced at her. "I know."

Mira nodded lightly. "But since it’s here, I’ll use it."

"Refusing a free advantage would be stupid," Zich said. "So I’m not blaming you."

Mira paused, as if she found that answer reasonable.

"That’s good."

The host stood outside the arena and, after confirming that both of them were ready, spoke up.

"Second stage candidate evaluation battle: Zich Grave versus Mira Vale. Both sides, please register the abilities and summons to be used in this match."

Zich raised his hand. A faint glow flashed, and Slimy appeared beside him once again.

The blue slime landed on the half stone, half earth ground, its round eyes looking around at the grass before turning toward Mira. Its body puffed up slightly, as if trying very hard to look reliable.

The audience immediately grew lively again.

"Still the slime?"

"Is he really going to keep using this slime?"

"He won last match because his opponent was stupid. Mira isn’t the type to charge straight in."

"But that slime really isn’t normal."

Unlike the others, Mira didn’t underestimate the slime. She looked down at Slimy, her gaze much more serious than before.

"You trust it a lot, it seems."

"Yes, plus it’s cheap to use," Zich said.

Slimy froze for a moment.

Mira seemed not to expect that answer. After a brief silence, she said, "That doesn’t sound like praise."

"But it knows I’m praising it."

Slimy immediately brightened up again.

The host raised a hand.

"Begin!"

The instant the voice fell, Mira did not rush forward.

She only stepped back half a pace, her heel lightly pressing into the soil. A few tiny seeds slipped from her shoe into the ground. Almost no one saw the movement clearly.

But Zich did.

"Slimy, the ground."

Slimy immediately opened its mouth.

PSHHH!

Green poison shot straight toward the soil ahead. After landing, the poison gave off a faint white smoke and quickly corroded a patch of dirt into a wet, dark green mass.

The next moment, several thin roots had barely begun to rise from the area before the poison curled them up and stopped their growth.

Mira’s eyes shifted slightly.

Zich had not ordered Slimy to attack her.

He was attacking her terrain.

The audience’s voices gradually quieted.

"He’s sealing off her roots from the start?"

"He knows Mira wants to set up the field first."

"These two aren’t in a hurry to hit each other—they’re fighting over the ground."

The atmosphere on the arena floor turned a little strange.

Mira began to move. Her steps were not fast, but they were steady. Every time she stepped down, the nearby grass blades trembled slightly, and something seemed to be quietly spreading through the soil beneath them.

Slimy also moved along with her. It kept spitting small amounts of poison, not covering large areas, but precisely interrupting a few root paths as they formed.

For a moment, there was no fierce collision on the arena.

Only roots that emerged from the dirt, then were corroded by poison.

Mira wanted to expand her control range.

Zich wanted to cut off her connections.

The process did not look flashy, but the people who understood the fight slowly straightened in their seats.

On the judges’ platform, Cole frowned as he watched the field.

"This kid’s first reaction was to destroy the root paths."

Arnold nodded. "He knows he can’t let her turn the whole arena into farmland."

Elsewhere, Helen watched the exchange between Zich and Mira with clear interest in her eyes.

Mira quickly changed her rhythm.

She gave the long handled sickle in her hand a light turn, and the grass suddenly grew denser. A few blades clung close to the ground like ordinary weeds, but the moment Zich stepped closer, thin roots suddenly shot up from beneath the surface, trying to wrap around his ankles.

Zich did not retreat.

He used Blink directly.

FWOOSH!

His figure vanished, and the next moment he appeared on a stone slab two meters away.

But the instant he reappeared, roots also sprang up from the cracks in the stone beneath his feet.

Mira had already judged his most likely landing point.

Zich raised an eyebrow slightly and shifted his body to the side. He lightly tapped the edge of a root with his toe, narrowly avoiding being bound. A few blades of grass brushed against the hem of his clothes. If he had been even half a second slower, his leg would have been locked down.

A burst of gasps rose from the audience.

"She predicted his skill?"

"Not completely—she predicted his safest landing point."

"That’s even more troublesome."

Zich looked at Mira.

Mira remained calm, as if nothing had happened.

That raised his evaluation of her a little more.

This farmer wasn’t just blindly spreading the field with her skills. She was reading the battlefield, reading the routes, reading her opponent’s habits. In a sense, she was doing the same thing Zich did, only using terrain instead of his own methods.

"Interesting," Zich said quietly. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Mira heard him.

"Thank you."

"That wasn’t a compliment."

"I’ll take it as one."

Zich couldn’t be bothered to correct her.

Mira dashed forward again.

And this time she did not hurry to close in on Zich. Instead, she turned her target to Slimy. Suddenly, dozens of thin roots sprang from the grass like a net, pressing down toward Slimy.