The swimming competition was next. It was really simple. There were wooden buoys in the lagoon that the competitors had to fetch. They were quite far away for a little child to swim to, but it was assumed that everyone participating had a Skill. Of course I didn’t, but I had a plan.

The proctor spoke. “We will pick you from the water if you are unable to carry on. That will lead to disqualification. We suggest nobody below level five Swimming participates.”

I raised my hand. “The only rule is to get a buoy?” 

The proctor blinked at me. Everyone turned to look at me like I was an idiot.

“Yes? You are to go into the water and get one of them. You are not allowed to use tools or tonics.”

“Good enough for me,” I said. “Thank you.”

The proctor cleared his throat. “Very well. If the rules are clear. Get in the water. Yes, just like that. Hey! No cheating Jinok. On your marks… go!”

“Hey isn’t that the boy who won the spear throwing?”

“Why isn’t he in the water yet?”

“Maybe he is confused.”

I had to admit, I was being a little sneaky. 

While the proctor was speaking, I was already casting a spell. I was augmenting the soles of my feet, and using two Kinetic Push spells under my feet. I had learned to make them a continuous spell, and tested this at home in one of father’s barrels.

I approached the shore of the lagoon and took a tentative step forward. Heck, I was not beating the Little God allegations, but I didn’t want to get wet and tired.

So I had just decided to walk on water.

Well, I had to jog, because despite being toddlers, my competition was actually quite adept at swimming. Vorok was leading the pack, his dark and muscular back rippling with the strokes as he steamed ahead.

But after a few wobbly steps, I leaned into a sprint.

It was so much fun running on water. I was really happy the spell was steady, and I didn’t need to fiddle with the formula. It was a simple continuous spell that pushed kinetic energy directly downwards into the water. As long as I kept my center of balance in the middle, I could easily keep walking. I grinned to myself.

“What is he doing?”

“Is that.. allowed?”

“Can he do that?”

“Hey, that's cheating!” someone yelled angrily.

“It is not!” Mother called out fiercely. “Didn’t you hear? Luka asked specifically what the rules were!”

“Well who the hell would have thought to rule that out?” Someone from the other village shouted.

“That’s not his problem!” mother yelled back. 

“He is making a joke of this competition!” “someone said and threw his hat down.”

Even father joined in. “Winning is winning!”

A bit of a scuffle was brewing among the parents.

But that wasn’t the only scuffle going on.

After I picked up one of the buoys and started making my way back, I saw Vorok swim towards me. I dodged out of the way, but he swam straight at me and grabbed my leg. I fell into the water and lost concentration of my spells. He gripped my ankle, and tried to swim towards his buoy, pulling me away from the lagoon’s beach. He was stronger than I could have imagined. Clearly Vorok had been training hard, and whatever concoctions he had drunk to roid him up for the competition, were doing work. 

I wasn’t having any of that. If this kid was going to play dirty, I had no reason to show grace. So I Water Jetted his ass. Nothing deadly, but enough to send a message. It struck him under his armpit which threw him back. He grunted and let me go.

I redid the spells on the soles of my feet and scrambled back on top of the water’s surface and ran for the finish.

While my village cheered, the mood had clearly soured with the other villagers. There was clamor and arguments and I was called a cheater. My parents and Elder Piraka were advocating for me, but Marek looked at me like he wanted to kill me.

Vorok finished fourth and when he got on shore, he attacked me almost immediately. He rushed at me with real speed. However good he was at swimming and spear throwing, clearly paled under his raw physical prowess.

I started to prepare a spell, but my father yanked me up from the ground, leaving a growling Vorok to clench his fists.

“Let them fight,” Marek said in a low voice.

“I don’t think so,” father said.

Marek took a step forward. “Are you saying your kid is a coward?”

“I am saying we wait for the actual wrestling bout,” father said.

Marek took another step forward to loom over me and my father. The other people moved out of the way.

I extended my hand and started materializing a water bullet.

“Did you forget so quickly what I last told you?” I asked in a low voice.

He snarled and took another step forward. I blasted the water bullet at his feet.

It threw sand up in a tall pillar, and the impact threw the burly man back. 

Everyone stared at my display with wide eyes. Well, except for my little rival.

Vorok shouted with a child’s unadulterated rage. “Tricks! THIS IS ALL YOU KNOW! THIS IS NOT FISHING! FIGHT ME!”

“You grabbed my leg,” I simply said. “You don’t get to tell me I use tricks. And don’t even get me started on whatever you’ve been drinking lately.”

“What are you trying to say,” Marek asked and narrowed his eyes.

I just gave him a cheery smile. “Oh nothing.”

Father set me down, but that only made Vorok immediately rush towards me. Now several villagers got between us, and Marek had the sense to grab his son and leave.

“Come. You will beat him at wrestling,” Marek said loud enough for us to hear. “Tricks won’t help. Break him.”

“Marek…” the elder said. “This is going too far. I think—”

“I do not care what you think,” Marek snarled. “I say what is too far in our village.”

“Tell me, Marek,” I said quietly, but his attention immediately fixed on me. “If you give permission for your son to break me. Does that mean I also have permission to break yours?”

I wasn’t going to go medieval on an ill-raised toddler, but Marek didn’t know that. What Vorok needed was a lesson, not annihilation. But Marek was a brute and he must have thought I was as cruel as he was. His angry face had a flash of doubt.

I stared him down. “You’re no longer the biggest and baddest bully in our village. You don’t get to say what is too far anymore.”

Marek grabbed Vorok and they pushed themselves through the crowd. It was time to prepare for the wrestling competition.

For a wrestling fight between little children, it was brutal. Everyone clearly had a lot of levels in this Skill, and it seemed to be the main event. These kids were throwing each other in a pit of soft sand, and let me tell you I wouldn’t have even participated if I didn’t have magic.

Fortunately, I had overwhelming power. Mana Augmentation Perk made the early fights one-sided. 

There were naturally no clear rules about blasting your opponents with magic. I decided to keep it low-key either way. I wasn’t interested in playing by the rules, but I didn’t want to be disqualified.

So I decided to be a little sneaky again!

Now, I could probably use subtle kinetic spells to throw my opponents off balance, but I wasn’t that proficient in the kinetic spells yet to be able to use them while someone was suplexing me.

I had to rely mostly on Mana Augmentation. Thankfully, my first opponents were easy. 

The rules were simple. There was a ring. You make the opponents back touch the sand or push them out of the ring and you get a point. First to two points wins.

I mostly opted to push people out of the ring. That was because such tactics only required limited wrestling. I simply augmented my body with mana and pushed my opponents. They attempted all kinds of drags and throws, but my legs were so strong and stable, that it was difficult for them to throw me off balance.

My fights were boring, but in this way I efficiently dealt with six opponents, advancing to the finals.

Vorok had climbed to the final bout in a much more flashy display of prowess.

He had moves. He was pushing, pivoting, throwing, dragging and slamming his opponents with such a repertoire of techniques people even wondered if he had acquired a Class. This was nonsense of course, but people with Classes had Abilities that they could combo together. I was eager to see that when I fought the older kids.

But first I had to face off against Vorok. This was the fight wherein the playing field was most fair.

I would actually have to wrestle. I had power, but Vorok had technique. And because of his doping, he was significantly stronger than the other kids.

Vorok stood before me, dark-skinned, muscular and angry. He really was a monster for a five year old. A primal part of me flinched, but then I remembered that I had faced the Silverback.

Still, in a contest of strength and technique, I wasn’t sure of my victory.

Whatever. I just needed to use tricks again.

I could only use this for the first round. The proctor was going over the rules, which meant I had time to prepare a spell. A simple kinetic push. I hadn’t used this in the bouts before to conceal the trick. 

As I expected, immediately after the proctor started the match, Vorok rushed me at full speed. I pivoted and blasted him point blank with a simple kinetic push. It might have looked like I actually shoved him, but of course I was using magic. Just subtly enough not to get called out. Vorok was immediately lifted off his feet.

To my credit, I really didn’t use much mana. I was planning to use like thirty particles for the spell’s force generating components. But then I remembered Vorok stomping down my sand castle just cause, and I added another ten…

He tumbled out of the sand ring a little harder than anticipated, but nothing more than coughing the air out of his lungs. 

“Point,” the proctor said. “To Luka.”

Vorok was quickly up and rushed at me again. This time I had no spell formula and I could only rely on my mana augmented body.

Thank the spirits, the rapids, and the golden dragon in the center of the universe that I had the Mana Augmentation Perk. Because otherwise Vorok would have thrown me around like a spear.

Deftly for his size, he sidestepped his own lunge, and I found myself in a crushing bearhug. My legs left the sand and he crashed us into the sand, where I was headed neck first. I augmented my arms with mana and braced against the ground. That drew a gasp from the crowd.

I was handstanding in the middle of the ring, while Vorok leaned against me. He let go and we both tumbled on the ground.

“Get up you two,” the proctor said. “Well done. Again.”

This time Vorok grabbed my neck and tried to pull me down. I followed my instincts and pushed myself against him so tightly that he no longer had leverage or room. Then I used mana augmentation on my core, legs and arms to create a stalemate. 

“You sneak,” Vorok snarled in my ear. “You have no levels in Wrestling. What is this? Cheating again?”

Meanwhile, I was using the deadlock to do what I did best. Cheating. I prepared another kinetic push.

“You’re right,” I said between breaths. “I am a sneak. But that’s all on you. We could have been friends, you know.”

Vorok tried to snap me down and go for my legs, but I already had the spell ready. I pressed my palm on his chest and he flew backwards out of the ring.

“Point, Luka,” the proctor shouted and came up to me to raise my hand. “Winner.”