Hello, folks.
​
I'm interested in the Kobo Libra Colour, but I'm HEAVILY invested in Amazon/Kindle books.
​
From what I've gathered I should be able to download various tools to strip the DRM and convert the books to something like EPUB format that the Libra can read.
​
For those who have made the switch... is this a big hassle/PITA?
​
I'm also looking at the BOOX Tab Mini C... which, essentially being an e-Ink Android tablet... will allow me to download ANY application from the PlayStore, including the Kindle app, and VOILA... no fuss, no muss, I can read my Kindle books/comics.
​
Actually that leads me to another question... can I read my Amazon purchased COMICS on the Libra... or like regular novels, would I need to strip/convert them?
​
Anyway the Tab Mini C is more expensive at $400, (I can afford this, but do I want to?).
​
The Kobo Libra Colour is $220 + $30'ish for a DRM Strip/Convert software tool.
​
So, for an extra $150... no fuss, no muss, and I can, if I want to, download various Android apps <-- though I have 2x flagship tablets and a phone, so I'd probably never do this to be honest.
​
So, then... it's $150 no fuss, no muss vs the fuss/muss/effort/PITA'ness of converting my Amazon books to something Kobo can read.
​
If I can convert, say 10 books at a time, in just a few minutes or so... I may prefer to save the money.
​
​

Howdy folks!
I'm working on my Bachelor's thesis, where I am trying to recreate an experimental measurement in CFD. The experimental measurement was measuring the lift curve of the LS-0413 [GA(W)-1] airfoil with a chord of 0.5842m in the Langley low turbulence pressure tunnel at various Reynolds numbers. The measurement I'm attempting to recreate was specifically done at an airspeed of 0.15M, with a Re of 1.9e6.
Now, if you calculate the Re for an airfoil with a cord of 0.5842 at 0.15M, you'll find that it comes-up to an Re of 2e6. The wind tunnel is described as being able to change the stagnation pressure from 1 to 10 bar, so I suspect that's what they must've done to get the Re to a desirable value. My issue is, given that the airspeed is given in Mach (or speed of sound), and the speed of sound changes depending on atmospheric conditions (such as a change in pressure), I'm not actually sure what airspeed (in m/s) the test was performed at.
So I've been trying to calculate the air density and velocity to meet the criteria (and I'm confident it should be possible to do given the available info), but I'm getting kinda lost in the equations and have gotten a different result every time. At the same time, I'm wondering if I might be overthinking it, and the speed of sound is just assumed to be a constant at room conditions (so around 330-343m/s) and I should just do 343m/s * 0.15 to get the airspeed, instead?
I'm leaning towards the option that the airspeed changes with pressure, but I'm also running into the issue that I'm getting the Re of 2e6 at 1 bar, and Re will only increase with an increase in pressure, therefore I'd need the pressure in the tunnel to drop below atmospheric level, which is something it supposedly cannot do! In short, I am lost as to *how* they got the Re of 1.9e6, totally confused and totally don't know what it is I should do aboot it.
(Also if anyone has a suggestion as what sort of turbulence intensity to use, I'd be glad to hear it. I keep going back and forth between 0.5 and 1%.)
The experimental measurement in question can be found under the title "Low-speed aerodynamic characteristics of a 17-percent thick airfoil section designed for general aviation applications" by Robert McGhee, available here . The lift curve I'm trying to recreate is shown in figure 10.
Cheers!

I love dc comics and I want to inquire how in the world are you all using this app? I’ve never subscribed until now and omg it’s terrible. Everything loads slow, everything download slow, half the time if you stream the book it Alfred’s or never loads. I went into the settings and turned off caching, turned download quality to SD etc. It still barely functions. I thought maybe it’s better on iOS…. Nope just as bad. How are you all dealing? I’m not against downloading an older package of that will solve the issues. Let me know thanks! Marvels app is a wonderland compared to this.

Professional conduct regulation cases do not support the constitutionality of this rulemaking

The existing broker disclosure obligations as applied to customer agents and principals, though never explicitly validated in the courts, may alternatively be found constitutional as a reasonable regulation of professional conduct that incidentally burdens some speech activities of the persons engaged in that regulated conduct. In that interpretation, the conduct being regulated is that of entering into an agency relationship with a customer or else acting as the principal in a sale to the customer. While a written contract is speech, the assumption of a legal relationship that it embodies is doubtlessly conduct and can be the subject of regulation.
As the Court held in United States v. O’Brien, laws affecting speech that are aimed at the regulation of non-expressive conduct are still analyzed under First Amendment jurisprudence, but face a lower level of constitutional scrutiny than laws aimed directly at the regulation of expressive conduct or at speech activities themselves: “a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the nonspeech element [of the regulated conduct] can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment freedoms.”⁴⁷ The compulsion to merely report privately to the IRS and to the taxpayer certain “purely factual and uncontroversial information” about the regulated non-expressive conduct may rightly be framed as an “incidental” limitation on traditional brokers’ otherwise unabridged First Amendment rights.
The O’Brien standard, however, is only applicable if the rule is targeted at regulating non-expressive conduct. Things become more complicated when the rule is targeted at regulating expressive conduct or at speech itself. There is a long though underappreciated line of cases stemming from O’Brien that points toward a reasonably straightforward series of tests for when regulation of professional conduct that burdens speech activities is constitutional. That line has been best illuminated by attorney Robert Kry in his article, “The ‘Watchman for Truth’: Professional Licensing and the First Amendment.”⁴⁸ Kry, summarizing and synthesizing many cases, finds that

In the case of a broker who is, in fact, an agent of a customer or a principal in a sale to a customer, the regulation is plausibly aimed at the non-expressive component of the professional’s activity. An agent under common law principles is acting on behalf of her customer. When a broker agrees to a sale, she binds the customer to that sale. The reporting requirement, therefore, is merely a requirement to disclose certain facts about one’s sales, i.e. one’s conduct as an agent. As a principal in a sale to a customer, the broker is, once again, engaged in conduct, a sale, and the reporting requirement merely discloses facts about that conduct. Additionally, brokers of this type are in most cases already subject to a licensing or registration requirement under other statutes.⁵⁰ Those forms of professional conduct are traditionally regulated and the tax laws merely provide for an additional recordkeeping and reporting requirement associated with that conduct. Altogether, the reporting requirement, though compelled speech, appears to be a regulation aimed at the non-expressive component of a professional’s activity. It is therefore likely constitutional.
As described earlier however, the Treasury Department’s proposed rule inappropriately departs from that customer agent or principal standard and seeks to compel speech from persons who are engaged in no such regulated conduct. A mere publisher or maintainer of software, websites, or smart contracts is not in an agency relationship with any customer, nor is she selling anything to any customer apart from, potentially, a license to use her tools or a fee charged for relaying or publishing the user’s data on a communications network or blockchain. Additionally, unlike typical brokerage, these activities do not trigger any licensing or registration requirements under other state or federal statutory schemes.
Indeed, even when such person is relaying actual cryptocurrency transaction messages that, once recorded in the blockchain, will effect a sale of some cryptocurrency, these entities typically have no actual ability to act on behalf of the user and no actual or apparent authority under agency law to act on their behalf. At most, they can choose whether or not to relay the signed transaction message (but so too can an internet service provider); they cannot alter the contents of that message such that the terms of the sale would change. They cannot and do not act as an agent of any customer nor are they a principal in a digital asset sale to any customer.⁵¹
These persons may be involved in conduct in other ways, such as paying for web hosting services, paying fees on cryptocurrency networks to record software or data in the blockchain, taking fees from users to relay their messages, or simply paying rent or otherwise maintaining facilities wherein they or their employees do the work of developing software or maintaining communications tools, but all of those activities are aimed at engaging in speech, the publication of software and data, and none of those activities give rise to the type of fiduciary or agency-like financial relationship, i.e. conduct, that justifies third-party tax reporting obligations.
Moreover, these persons have deliberately designed their software, websites, and smart contract tooling such that it can be useful to a trader and capable of facilitating their trades or other desires without the need for any agency relationship or for any legal or trust-based relationship with the publisher or any other party whatsoever. The user can and does do it all themselves. That is the point of cryptocurrency and “decentralized finance.” We can debate the merit of such a design goal,⁵² but what is not debatable is that this is how these tools are presently designed.⁵³ By demanding that these publishers rewrite their tools such that an agency relationship is established between the author of the tool and its user, such that the name, Social Security number, and other intimate details of the user are entrusted to the alleged “broker,” the regulation is squarely aimed at compelling not merely the disclosure of trading data and taxable gains, but also the compelled creation of significant expressive software and tooling to solicit and collect data in a manner that would otherwise be antithetical to the goals of the software developer. Such an order is so unprecedented that it is difficult to find appropriate metaphors or past examples. It is as if a state—frustrated that it cannot determine who is reading which books—ordered that novelists shall hold in-person book readings during which they must collect and report information about their audience.
Accordingly, when applied to mere publishers and maintainers of software, websites, and smart contracts, these regulations target the expressive activity of the alleged broker. That does not mean, however, that such rules will automatically be unconstitutional. The Court has dealt with several regulatory schemes aimed at expressive professional conduct, such as a lawyer giving legal advice to a client. Throughout these cases the Court has developed a robust series of standards for constitutionality that are focused primarily on “which kinds of advice are licensable based on how closely they resemble forms of communication associated with fiduciary relationships.”⁵⁴ This leads us to the second question in Kry’s analysis of the First Amendment limits to regulating professional conduct, what he calls the “value neutral test” because it applies irrespective of whether the speech affected is a matter of public concern and irrespective of the motives of the speaker:

Given the in-person and client-specific nature of legal services, there should be no surprise that under these cases the professional regulation of attorneys, including licensing, limits on solicitation and advertising, and—as in this rulemaking—compelled disclosures, typically withstands constitutional scrutiny. In the context of developers of cryptocurrency systems, however, the answer to Kry’s twin questions of characteristic-dependence and person-to-person context is an unqualified “no.” It is taken as written that software, websites, and smart contracts in the cryptocurrency space are built such that they are generic, serving the needs of whoever wants to use them irrespective of the characteristics of that user. It is also a given that these tools are shared widely over the internet and used freely by whoever happens to download them or (in some cases) whoever pays to license the software or pays to have their transactions relayed by the software. As such, they are never “delivered in the context of a person- to-person relationship.”⁵⁶ Accordingly, regulation of the speech activities of these developers, including compulsions to report and develop expressive software that enables that reporting, would face strict scrutiny by the Court and be found unconstitutional.
While these standards are general principles that are equally applicable to any kind of expressive conduct regulation, it is nonetheless worth noting that several of the cases that first articulated these standards dealt explicitly with speech, including software, that advised and facilitated sales of valuable assets. As such, the speech in question in these cases was very similar factually to the speech that would be burdened under the Treasury Department’s proposed rule. The value-neutral test was developed in Lowe v. SEC, a case involving the unconstitutional application of the Investment Advisers Act to a person merely publishing a public newsletter,⁵⁷ and it was further reinforced in Taucher v. Born⁵⁸ and two similar cases⁵⁹ dealing with the unconstitutional application of the Commodities Exchange Act to the developers of commodities trading software.⁶⁰

Professional conduct regulation cases do not support the constitutionality of this rulemaking

The existing broker disclosure obligations as applied to customer agents and principals, though never explicitly validated in the courts, may alternatively be found constitutional as a reasonable regulation of professional conduct that incidentally burdens some speech activities of the persons engaged in that regulated conduct. In that interpretation, the conduct being regulated is that of entering into an agency relationship with a customer or else acting as the principal in a sale to the customer. While a written contract is speech, the assumption of a legal relationship that it embodies is doubtlessly conduct and can be the subject of regulation.
As the Court held in United States v. O’Brien, laws affecting speech that are aimed at the regulation of non-expressive conduct are still analyzed under First Amendment jurisprudence, but face a lower level of constitutional scrutiny than laws aimed directly at the regulation of expressive conduct or at speech activities themselves: “a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the nonspeech element [of the regulated conduct] can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment freedoms.”⁴⁷ The compulsion to merely report privately to the IRS and to the taxpayer certain “purely factual and uncontroversial information” about the regulated non-expressive conduct may rightly be framed as an “incidental” limitation on traditional brokers’ otherwise unabridged First Amendment rights.
The O’Brien standard, however, is only applicable if the rule is targeted at regulating non-expressive conduct. Things become more complicated when the rule is targeted at regulating expressive conduct or at speech itself. There is a long though underappreciated line of cases stemming from O’Brien that points toward a reasonably straightforward series of tests for when regulation of professional conduct that burdens speech activities is constitutional. That line has been best illuminated by attorney Robert Kry in his article, “The ‘Watchman for Truth’: Professional Licensing and the First Amendment.”⁴⁸ Kry, summarizing and synthesizing many cases, finds that

In the case of a broker who is, in fact, an agent of a customer or a principal in a sale to a customer, the regulation is plausibly aimed at the non-expressive component of the professional’s activity. An agent under common law principles is acting on behalf of her customer. When a broker agrees to a sale, she binds the customer to that sale. The reporting requirement, therefore, is merely a requirement to disclose certain facts about one’s sales, i.e. one’s conduct as an agent. As a principal in a sale to a customer, the broker is, once again, engaged in conduct, a sale, and the reporting requirement merely discloses facts about that conduct. Additionally, brokers of this type are in most cases already subject to a licensing or registration requirement under other statutes.⁵⁰ Those forms of professional conduct are traditionally regulated and the tax laws merely provide for an additional recordkeeping and reporting requirement associated with that conduct. Altogether, the reporting requirement, though compelled speech, appears to be a regulation aimed at the non-expressive component of a professional’s activity. It is therefore likely constitutional.
As described earlier however, the Treasury Department’s proposed rule inappropriately departs from that customer agent or principal standard and seeks to compel speech from persons who are engaged in no such regulated conduct. A mere publisher or maintainer of software, websites, or smart contracts is not in an agency relationship with any customer, nor is she selling anything to any customer apart from, potentially, a license to use her tools or a fee charged for relaying or publishing the user’s data on a communications network or blockchain. Additionally, unlike typical brokerage, these activities do not trigger any licensing or registration requirements under other state or federal statutory schemes.
Indeed, even when such person is relaying actual cryptocurrency transaction messages that, once recorded in the blockchain, will effect a sale of some cryptocurrency, these entities typically have no actual ability to act on behalf of the user and no actual or apparent authority under agency law to act on their behalf. At most, they can choose whether or not to relay the signed transaction message (but so too can an internet service provider); they cannot alter the contents of that message such that the terms of the sale would change. They cannot and do not act as an agent of any customer nor are they a principal in a digital asset sale to any customer.⁵¹
These persons may be involved in conduct in other ways, such as paying for web hosting services, paying fees on cryptocurrency networks to record software or data in the blockchain, taking fees from users to relay their messages, or simply paying rent or otherwise maintaining facilities wherein they or their employees do the work of developing software or maintaining communications tools, but all of those activities are aimed at engaging in speech, the publication of software and data, and none of those activities give rise to the type of fiduciary or agency-like financial relationship, i.e. conduct, that justifies third-party tax reporting obligations.
Moreover, these persons have deliberately designed their software, websites, and smart contract tooling such that it can be useful to a trader and capable of facilitating their trades or other desires without the need for any agency relationship or for any legal or trust-based relationship with the publisher or any other party whatsoever. The user can and does do it all themselves. That is the point of cryptocurrency and “decentralized finance.” We can debate the merit of such a design goal,⁵² but what is not debatable is that this is how these tools are presently designed.⁵³ By demanding that these publishers rewrite their tools such that an agency relationship is established between the author of the tool and its user, such that the name, Social Security number, and other intimate details of the user are entrusted to the alleged “broker,” the regulation is squarely aimed at compelling not merely the disclosure of trading data and taxable gains, but also the compelled creation of significant expressive software and tooling to solicit and collect data in a manner that would otherwise be antithetical to the goals of the software developer. Such an order is so unprecedented that it is difficult to find appropriate metaphors or past examples. It is as if a state—frustrated that it cannot determine who is reading which books—ordered that novelists shall hold in-person book readings during which they must collect and report information about their audience.
Accordingly, when applied to mere publishers and maintainers of software, websites, and smart contracts, these regulations target the expressive activity of the alleged broker. That does not mean, however, that such rules will automatically be unconstitutional. The Court has dealt with several regulatory schemes aimed at expressive professional conduct, such as a lawyer giving legal advice to a client. Throughout these cases the Court has developed a robust series of standards for constitutionality that are focused primarily on “which kinds of advice are licensable based on how closely they resemble forms of communication associated with fiduciary relationships.”⁵⁴ This leads us to the second question in Kry’s analysis of the First Amendment limits to regulating professional conduct, what he calls the “value neutral test” because it applies irrespective of whether the speech affected is a matter of public concern and irrespective of the motives of the speaker:

Given the in-person and client-specific nature of legal services, there should be no surprise that under these cases the professional regulation of attorneys, including licensing, limits on solicitation and advertising, and—as in this rulemaking—compelled disclosures, typically withstands constitutional scrutiny. In the context of developers of cryptocurrency systems, however, the answer to Kry’s twin questions of characteristic-dependence and person-to-person context is an unqualified “no.” It is taken as written that software, websites, and smart contracts in the cryptocurrency space are built such that they are generic, serving the needs of whoever wants to use them irrespective of the characteristics of that user. It is also a given that these tools are shared widely over the internet and used freely by whoever happens to download them or (in some cases) whoever pays to license the software or pays to have their transactions relayed by the software. As such, they are never “delivered in the context of a person- to-person relationship.”⁵⁶ Accordingly, regulation of the speech activities of these developers, including compulsions to report and develop expressive software that enables that reporting, would face strict scrutiny by the Court and be found unconstitutional.
While these standards are general principles that are equally applicable to any kind of expressive conduct regulation, it is nonetheless worth noting that several of the cases that first articulated these standards dealt explicitly with speech, including software, that advised and facilitated sales of valuable assets. As such, the speech in question in these cases was very similar factually to the speech that would be burdened under the Treasury Department’s proposed rule. The value-neutral test was developed in Lowe v. SEC, a case involving the unconstitutional application of the Investment Advisers Act to a person merely publishing a public newsletter,⁵⁷ and it was further reinforced in Taucher v. Born⁵⁸ and two similar cases⁵⁹ dealing with the unconstitutional application of the Commodities Exchange Act to the developers of commodities trading software.⁶⁰

i had a kindle past couple of days i used kindle comic converter to convert manga i download from hakuneko since it lets me convert the manga to mobi to read on my kindle and it also has choices to have as my screen size so it fits my ereader but its an app specifically made for kindles how do i get manga on my kobo now im in a whole new game now can i get some help pls there doesnt seem to be any vids about this also on yt thats why. Should i start by getting KOREADER ? What should i convert mangas in also to transfer to my kobo should i use mobi still or is epub now better since its a kobo as opposed to my kindle which is a pain to use epubs on and i was using mobi then to send through calibre to my kindle

Hello!
Yes, I know Cannes has already technically started, but none of the potential major players have premiered yet, so…
Anyway, as always, let me know what you guys think of my predictions.
I’m trying the ranked format again, by the way, I might keep flip-flopping between it and the list format, also let me know which one you prefer.
———————————————————————————
Best Picture:
1. A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures) (WINNER)

1. Sing Sing (A24)
   
2. Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros.)
   
3. Joker: Folie à Deux (Warner Bros.)
   
4. Blitz (Apple Original Films)
   
5. Parthenope (A24)
   
6. Queer (TBD)
   
7. Conclave (Focus Features)
   
8. Nickel Boys (Amazon MGM Studios)
   
9. The Room Next Door (Sony Pictures Classics)
   

Next in Line: Here (Sony Pictures), Bird (TBD), Gladiator 2 (Paramount Pictures), The Apprentice (TBD), Nightbitch (Searchlight Pictures)
———————————————————————————
Best Director:
1. Denis Villeneuve - Dune: Part Two - WINNER

1. Steve McQueen - Blitz
   
2. Paolo Sorrentino - Parthenope
   
3. Todd Phillips - Joker: Folie à Deux
   
4. Jesse Eisenberg - A Real Pain
   

Next in Line: Pedro Almodóvar - The Room Next Door
———————————————————————————
Best Actor:
1. Colman Domingo - Sing Sing (WINNER)

1. Daniel Craig - Queer
   
2. Jesse Eisenberg - A Real Pain
   
3. Ralph Fiennes - Conclave
   
4. Barry Keoghan - Bird
   

Next in Line: Tom Hanks - Here
———————————————————————————
Best Actress:
1. Lady Gaga - Joker: Folie à Deux (WINNER)

1. Saoirse Ronan - Blitz
   
2. Angelina Jolie - Maria
   
3. Amy Adams - Nightbitch
   
4. Tilda Swinton - The Room Next Door
   

Next in Line: Celeste Dalla Porta - Parthenope
———————————————————————————
Best Supporting Actor:
1. Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain (WINNER)

1. Clarence Maclin - Sing Sing
   
2. Samuel L. Jackson - The Piano Lesson
   
3. John Lithgow - Conclave
   
4. Gary Oldman - Parthenope
   

Next in Line: Frank Rogowski - Bird
———————————————————————————
Best Supporting Actress:
1. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor - Nickel Boys (WINNER)

1. Danielle Deadwyler - The Piano Lesson
   
2. Julianne Moore - The Room Next Door
   
3. Isabella Rosselini - Conclave
   
4. Lesley Manville - Queer
   

Next in Line: Jennifer Grey - A Real Pain
———————————————————————————
Best Original Screenplay:
1. A Real Pain - Written by Jesse Eisenberg (WINNER)

1. Parthenope - Written by Umberto Contarello and Paolo Sorrentino
   
2. Blitz - Written by Steve McQueen
   
3. The Room Next Door - Written by Pedro Almodóvar
   
4. Bird - Screenplay by Andrea Arnold
   

Next in Line: Anora - Written by Sean Baker
———————————————————————————
Best Adapted Screenplay:
1. Sing Sing - Screenplay by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, and John Whitfield (WINNER)

1. Nickel Boys - Screenplay by Joslyn Barnes and RaMell Ross
   
2. Queer - Screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes
   
3. Conclave - Screenplay by Peter Straughan
   
4. Dune: Part Two - Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve
   

Next in Line: Nightbitch - Screenplay by Marielle Heller
———————————————————————————
Best Production Design:
1. Joker: Folie à Deux (WINNER)

1. Dune: Part Two
   
2. Blitz
   
3. Gladiator II
   
4. Wicked
   

Next in Line: Here
———————————————————————————
Best Cinematography:
1. Dune: Part Two - Greig Fraser

1. Joker: Folie à Deux - Lawrence Sher
   
2. Blitz - Yorick Le Saux
   
3. Parthenope - Daria D’Antonio
   
4. Megalopolis - Mihai Mălaimare Jr.
   

Next in Line: The Girl with the Needle - Michal Dymek
———————————————————————————
Best Film Editing:
1. Dune: Part Two - Joe Walker (WINNER)

1. Blitz - Peter Sciberras
   
2. A Real Pain - Robert Nassau
   
3. Sing Sing - Parker Laramie
   
4. Joker: Folie à Deux - Jeff Groth
   

Next in Line: Queer - Marco Costa
———————————————————————————
Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
1. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (WINNER)

1. Dune: Part Two
   
2. Joker: Folie à Deux
   
3. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
   
4. Wicked
   

Next in Line: Nosferatu
———————————————————————————
Best Costume Design:
1. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (WINNER)

1. Joker: Folie à Deux
   
2. Dune: Part Two
   
3. Gladiator II
   
4. Wicked
   

Next in Line: Megalopolis
———————————————————————————
Best Sound:
1. Dune: Part Two (WINNER)

1. Joker: Folie à Deux
   
2. Blitz
   
3. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
   
4. Twisters
   

Next in Line: Gladiator II
———————————————————————————
Best Visual Effects:
1. Dune: Part Two (WINNER)

1. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
   
2. Gladiator II
   
3. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
   
4. Twisters
   

Next in Line: Here
———————————————————————————
Best Original Score:
1. Queer - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (WINNER)

1. Dune: Part Two - Hans Zimmer
   
2. Joker: Folie à Deux - Hildur Guðnadóttir
   
3. Sing Sing - Bryan Dessner
   
4. Blitz - TBA
   

Next in Line: Conclave - Volker Bertelmann
———————————————————————————
Best Animated Feature:
1. The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, DreamWorks Animation) (WINNER)

1. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Kenji Kamiyama, Warner Bros.)
   
2. Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann, Disney/Pixar)
   
3. The Most Precious of Cargoes (Michel Hazanavicius, TBD)
   
4. Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, TBD)
   

Next in Line: Ghost Cat Anzu (Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, GKIDS)
———————————————————————————
Best International Feature:
1. Parthenope (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy, A24) (WINNER)

1. All We Imagine As Light (Payal Kapadia, India, TBD)
   
2. Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes, Portugal, TBD)
   
3. Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard, Mexico, TBD)
   
4. The Most Precious of Cargoes (Michel Hazanavicius, France, TBD)
   

Next in Line: The Girl with the Needle (Magnus von Horn, Denmark, TBD)
———————————————————————————
Best Documentary Feature:
1. SupeMan: The Christopher Reeve Story (Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, Warner Bros.) (WINNER)

1. Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito, TBD)
   
2. Ibelin (Benjamin Ree, Netflix)
   
3. Porcelain War (Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, TBD)
   
4. No Other Land (Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamden Ballal, and Rachel Szor, TBD)
   

Next in Line: Sugarcane (Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, National Geographic Documentary Films)

I've been having several issues reading comics or manga on my Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 10th generation.
I'll go through them in chronological order. First, the USB mode doesn't work. I've tried different cables, different computers, restarted the Kindle, and even did a full factory reset, but the USB mode still won't work.
So, I decided to transfer the comics directly to my library using "Send to Kindle". I converted them to EPUB, and they were sent successfully. However, now the problem is that the download gets abruptly interrupted on its own. I tested with other EPUB files, and the same thing happens – it gets past 80%, or sometimes even before that, and then the download cancels.
I'm thinking about giving up on reading on this device or buying a newer Kindle, but I'm worried it might have the same issues. I'll leave a video on Google Drive as an example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y_X8srMehERI47VMLdZFormqUXqyzIrU/view?usp=sharing

Welcome all! This is the reading club for Cimmeria, and we're starting out by reading all of the Kull of Atlantis stories by Robert E. Howard in order of publication.
This month we read "The Altar and the Scorpion," which was unpublished during Howard's lifetime. It first saw print in King Kull from Lancer. The story was edited after Howard's death, so there are some small variations in the text, as u/GaryREHfan shows in his post on the story.
While definitely set during the Thurian Age, and mentioning Kull, this is very much a peripheral adjunct to the Kull series. I suspect that Howard was beginning to lose his feel for the character and straying from the original concept, much as he would do with Conan in "Wolves Beyond the Border."
Roy Thomas and John Buscema would adopt this story for Conan in Conan the Barbarian #52.
Tell us what you think about this story!
Do you have any questions?
Do you know any fun facts?
Favorite quotes?
Next month we read "The Black City" (AKA "The Black Abyss").
If you want a print or audio book to follow along, the best version is Kull: Exile of Atlantis.

I woke up to a call from dsl saying my parcel delivery was cancelled . This was an automated call. Then it said to press 1 to speak to a customer care executive. I talked to the guy and he said my parcel was cancelled due to illegal content(drug) and if I didn't do it then I have to lodge a complaint to Mumbai police and forwarded my call to another number. lol it even said Mumbai police while I was waiting.
Then this new guy asked me all the detail about where I live and where have I given my Adhar details etc. Before giving any personal information I thought this maybe some elaborate scam so I asked him if he was the police and he immediately interrupted me and started asking more questions. So i gave him all the answers. It seemed odd but i still thought this might be true. Then he told me I have to lodge an online complaint and to do that I have to download Skype and search Mumbaipolice663something on Skype and then send them my name and wait for a video call.
Then after like 10 min video call came from the Skype from them and asked me to open my camera and asked all the detail about my Adhar and all my address and I gave them to her. She even asked me to hold my Adhar in front of camera to 'verify', so I did. Then she said i am waiting from an update from headquarters regarding your Adhar detail please wait.
Now this girl was speaking in perfect English and said she was ips and every time she would speak she would unmute herself then mute again. This happened several times and it bugged me. Then she was talking about my family and suddenly said, "wait stop there is an update from headquarters" and then in the background this voice came from like a radio or something.
This time she didn't mute this time so that I can hear what the radio guy said. The radio guy said that I am a big and dangerous criminal and I have multiple cases of drug distribution and money laundering cases and that I should be arrested immediately. That moment right then I understood it was all fake. Then the girl from the call started her police talk iykyk. I tried to give some explanation but she was in her police mode and was very fake furious. When she wouldn't listen anything i started laughing almost like a villain lol. I told them, "You guys made me such a genius. I am a drug distributor as well as money launderer. I am like the one man army lol. Like some movie hero or something". Then the girl was so furious it was comical lmao she started saying this isn't a joke that I should live in fear and they contacted my local police Dept. To arrest me and my family members. At this point I had enough of it and I told her she needs more practice and find something else to do and disconnected the call. So my question to all of you guys is what can they do with my personal information??

I want to go with something comical this year, tossing a few ideas around but could use some more inspiration.
-Robert Baratheon: I definitely have the belly now, I could dress as him with a fake boar horn impaling my belly
-Pregnant Gandalf: less ren faire themed but I know cosplays usually do fine at these events. I have a full Gandalf the Grey cosplay.
Also thinking I could just go as a large gutted alcoholic dude dressed in ren faire garb with a bunch of beer dribbles going down my chest. This one seems less creative though.

I have once again tried to put together all issues released this week, that I knew would feature queer characters based on the regular cast or the solicits (This list is subject to change as the issues come out).
Marvel: * X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic Chapter #139 feat. Betsy Braddock ^bi, Rictor ^gay & Shatterstar ^bi/pan (by )
DC: * Outsiders #7 feat. Batwoman ^lesbian (by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly & Robert Carey) * Suicide Squad: Dream Team #3 feat. Harley Quinn ^bi & Dreamer ^transfem (by Nicole Maines & Eddy Barrows)
If you have another issue of a queer superhero comic from this week, that you want to talk about, just write a comment below and I will add it to the list.
Have fun!

In my ever-growing Doctor Who video and audio collection, I've gathered over fifteen hundred individual stories, and I'm attempting to (briefly) review them all in the order in which they might have happened according to the Doctor's own personal timeline. We'll see how far I get.
Today's Story: The Scales of Injustice, written by Gary Russell
What is it?: This story was published as the twenty-fourth novel in the Missing Adventures series by Virgin Books. It is available as an unabridged audiobook under the alternate title “Scales of Injustice.”
Who's Who?: The story is narrated by Dan Starkey.
Doctor(s) and Companion(s): The Third Doctor, Liz Shaw
Recurring Characters: Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Mike Yates, John Benton, Major General Scobie, Tom Osgood, Carol Bell, Maisie Hawke, Jack Tracy, Steve Champion, Private Millar, Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Michael Wagstaffe, Tobias Vaughn, and various Silurians, including Icthar, all appear, as well as Robert Lines, Patsy Haggard, John Sudbury, the Pale Man, and the Irish twins, who recur in various spin-offs and prose fiction.
Running Time: 08:10:47
One Minute Review: When reports of a disturbed policewoman's prehistoric drawings alert the Doctor to the possible reappearance of the Silurians, he hurries off alone to look into it, concerned that involving UNIT might lead to another deadly confrontation. Investigating the site where the policewoman was found, he comes upon two of the reptilian humanoids and a terrified teenage boy, but before he can make his peaceful intentions clear, one of the creatures attacks him, rendering him helpless with its third eye…
This novel serves as a sequel to "Doctor Who and the Silurians" and a prequel to "Warriors of the Deep," with ties to "The Sea Devils," "Who Killed Kennedy," "The Invasion," and "Spearhead from Space," and references as many other stories as Gary Russell could squeeze into its 262 pages while also telling the stories of Liz's final departure from UNIT and the end of the Brigadier's first marriage. With all that going on, it's amazing that it holds together so well. The two plots running through the book can feel like they are competing at times, but I found both of them fairly compelling, and the character work with Liz and the Brigadier is very well handled, spread throughout the book without drawing focus from the main story.
The audiobook is read by Dan Starkey, who has become one of the most prolific narrators of Doctor Who audiobooks. People who only know him as Strax might be surprised to discover what a versatile voice actor he actually is, which serves him very well here, given this novel's expansive cast of characters, and he's backed up by a solid production with some great vintage effects.
Score: 4/5
Next Time: The Rings of Ikiria

George Washington (I) 1789 - 1797
Thomas Jefferson (DR) 1797 - 1805
James Madison (DR) 1805 - 1813
DeWitt Clinton (F) 1813 - 1817
James Monroe (DR) 1817 - 1825
Henry Clay (F) 1825 - 1829
Andrew Jackson (DR) 1829 - 1837
Henry Clay (W) 1837 - 1845
James K. Polk (D) 1845 - 1849
Martin Van Buren (D) 1849 - 1857
Franklin Pierce (D) 1857 - 1861
Abraham Lincoln (R) 1861 - 1869
Ulysses S. Grant (R) 1869 - 1877
Samuel J. Tilden (D) 1877 - 1881
Ulysses S. Grant (R) 1881 - 1885
Grover Cleveland (D) 1885 - 1893
James G. Blaine (R) 1893 - 1901
William McKinley (R) 1901 - 1909
William Jennings Bryan (D) 1909 - 1913
Theodore Roosevelt (R) 1913 - 1921
Charles Evans Hughes (R) 1921 - 1925
John W. Davis (D) 1925 - 1933
Herbert Hoover (R) 1933 - 1941
Charles L. McNary (R) 1941 - 1949
Dwight D. Eisenhower (D) 1949 - 1957
Adlai E. Stevenson (D) 1957 - 1961
Richard Nixon (R) 1961 - 1969
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (R) 1969 - 1973
Robert F. Kennedy (D) 1973 - 1981
Ronald Reagan (R) 1981 - 1989
Gary Hart (D) 1989 - 1997
Al Gore (D) 1997 - 2001
John McCain (R) 2001 - 2009
Barack Obama (D) 2009 - 2017
Mitt Romney (R) 2017 - Present

Coach Skinner: The (Unwitting) Namesake of Lynyrd Skynyrd
Leonard Skinner, a Florida gym teacher and basketball coach, may not have known it, but he played a pivotal role in rock music history. Skinner's strict enforcement of a school dress code against long hair in the 1960s directly inspired the now-iconic name of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Several members of the band, including Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, and Bob Burns, attended Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, where Skinner was a teacher. Facing disciplinary action for their nonconformist hairstyles, they decided to immortalize Skinner's name in their band, albeit with a playful misspelling to mock his authority.
While Skinner himself might not have intended to be a part of rock and roll lore, his name became synonymous with the band's rebellious spirit and Southern roots. Lynyrd Skynyrd, despite the initial friction, later acknowledged Skinner's influence and maintained a respectful relationship with him.

The master of ceremonies glanced at the paper in his hand, and a glimpse of confusion showed on his face.
Something was wrong.
“And the third and last team representing Farcrest. Lowell’s Orphanage!”
Elincia clung to my arm, fear and impotence reflected in her expression. We were supposed to be called Rosebud Fencing Academy during the tournament. I clenched my jaw and glanced across the pavilion, giving [Awareness] free rein. Lord Osgiria gave me a mocking look.
I cursed. Among the nobility, everything was appearances. The fact that Farcrest had to resort to a poor orphanage for representation spoke badly about the state of affairs in the territory. The nobles around us exchanged funny looks.
“Keep your heads up. That’s our call,” I said, loud enough for the whole pavilion to hear us. If nobles thought this would weigh upon our shoulders, they were wrong.
Ilya took position by my right as the team captain, and we entered the crescent-shaped arena. The cheering died. Our magnificent uniforms didn’t fool the crowd anymore. I reached the Marquis's side and saluted the VIP box. Only after Prince Adrien started applauding did the rest of the nobles acknowledge our presence.
The commoners in the stands hesitated to cheer for us. This wasn’t a gentle world. They didn’t care about the kid’s feelings. I glanced over my shoulder. Wolf was unfazed, and Zaon moved his lips, repeating, ‘Nervous is good’ repeatedly. Firana, on the other hand, was furious.
“Tough crowd, uh?” I muttered.
“It’s only expected. Orphans don’t get good classes. There is no reason to cheer for us,” Ilya replied with a grin. “Yet.”
Did she look so mature back at the carriage?
The crowd’s attention lingered on us for an instant before the next team entered the arena. To my surprise, a single team represented the royal family: a group of cadets from the Imperial Academy. Five young cadets dressed in plain black, guided by Holst, entered the arena. The crowd came back to life. Considering the opulence of the other teams, the uniforms of the Imperial Academy cadets were disappointing. Even my group was better suited to the occasion.
Holst stood by my left, saluting the stands with a dull gesture.
“Robert Clarke, good to see you still among the living,” he greeted me with a bored tone.
His words, however, sent a shiver down my spine. Did he know assassins had tried to kill me a few days before? Captain Kiln had sworn to keep it a secret. The coincidences piled up. Holst knew about the attack and asked Lyra Jorn’s help with the library when Luzian Abei had a small army of Scholars and Scribes at his disposal. I couldn’t help but think Holst was still in contact with the culprit.
“Preceptor Holst,” I coldly greeted, my brain too busy to formulate a more wordy sentence.
“I didn’t expect to meet my former students,” he added, looking past me at Ilya and the kids. “Certainly not in these circumstances.”
I swallowed my anger. This was a golden opportunity for the orphanage. Watching the skill of the imperial cadets could help me understand why Sir Janus had been the only commoner in Farcrest to assist the Imperial Academy. Even if we lost the tournament, we could improve our chances of getting them accepted into the Imperial Academy, putting them in the same echelon as nobles.
“Do you trust the ability of your current students to win the tournament?” I asked, examining the cadet’s faces. Three humans, a half-elf, and a harpy. They didn’t seem thrilled to be part of the tournament.
Holst laughed.
“These idiots aren’t my students. These five failed their first year. If they don’t win the tournament, they will be kicked out of the Academy,” he replied, shrugging. “For failures like them, I’d say they are the favorites to win the tournament.”
A glance at the Imperial Academy team revealed their strong shoulders and steady feet. Despite the lack of fashion, they looked like trained warriors instead of pampered noble kids. Their faces had lost the roundness of childhood, and their calm demeanor and sharp eyes revealed an intense training regime. I hoped not to bump into them until the later rounds of the tournament.
Our conversation was cut short because the Osgirian teams entered the arena. First, Lord Osgiria, then Lord Nara, and finally, a man dressed as a knight, followed by a group of kids in mismatched uniforms—each one with the colors of their respective houses. Lord Osgiria stood by Holst's side and greeted the VIP box.
If Captain Kiln were right, our team would fight Lord Nara in the first round. I expected the man to be a merchant with a comically large belly. Instead, he looked like a cunning gray fox. I had to remind myself that buying a way into nobility required a skillful negotiator.
“Three teams, Lord Osgiria? You don’t seem too confident in your chances,” Holst casually said.
The Imperial Academy had to be a powerhouse within the kingdom because Lord Osgiria swallowed any snarky remark.
Lord Herran, a tall and muscular redhead dressed in full warrior attire, entered next. I remembered him from the feast—boisterous, talkative, determined. The black mana-repelling axe hung from his belt, causing my stomach to feel sick if I looked for too long. House Herran only had two teams, one led by Lord Herran himself and the other by a man who could be his twin. Only half of the team members were human; the other half were different flavors of beast folk.
More than half of the kids had bright red hair like their lord. I wondered if red hair was a dominant gene in the Herran Dukedom because the kids looked healthy. There was not a trace of the infamous Habsburg chin. They were tall and robust like their lord.
I tried to glance at the axe’s runes, but Lord Herran was too far away.
“That’s lord Herran and his army of copperhead bastards,” Holst pointed out, laughing at his joke.
I doubted that having a dozen children the same age was normal, even more so for a noble, considering how difficult succession could be. Lord Herran must’ve loved to spread his genes.
“It’s okay for him to present his… illegitimate kids in an official event like this?” I asked.
“Do you like gossip, Robert Clarke?” Holst raised an eyebrow.
“I like to be informed,” I replied.
Holst seemed satisfied with my answer.
“Lord Herran is one of the few Combat Prestige Classes in the kingdom. He has the [Conqueror] Class,” Holst replied. “It’s only natural that he can do whatever he wants. Not even the king has enough power over Lord Herran to stop his… reproductive impulses.”
I nodded. The relationship between the royal house and the great three dukedoms was more complex than I initially thought. According to the stories, Combat Prestige Classes were, in essence, one-man armies that could create whole countries around their power. I wondered what kind of monsters the royal army found in the Deep Farlands to be obliged to retreat.
After Lord Herra, Lord Gairon entered the arena. The Gairon House was arguably the second most powerful family after the royal house, and their uniforms reflected their status. The blue was rich and deep, and the gold shone under the winter sun, seemingly casting the few clouds away. The crowd yelled and cheered. It wasn’t surprising. Lord Gairon was a tall, tanned man with hair the color of ripe wheat—the perfect poster boy and leader of the anti-war faction.
“He has to go down if we want the royal faction to have a chance,” Holst said.
It suddenly hit me. Holst and I technically supported the same faction.
“Lord Gairon is also a Prestige Class?” I asked.
“A [Sacred Knight], yes. Rumor says he reached the mythic level sixty,” Holst replied. “Let’s hope their teams are more… farming inclined.”
The crowd became more tame after the three big houses made their entrance. Lord Vedras received less than half of House Gairon’s support, probably because of the tax disputes between Farcrest and the Vedras dukedom. He had brought three teams.
Duke Jorn’s presence almost caused the arena to become completely silent—Holst told me he was also a high-level Prestige Class, a Shadow Stalker.
“That sounds dangerous,” I pointed out.
“Sellen Jorn is one of the most dangerous men in the kingdom. His mere existence was enough for the king to create a whole new duchy,” Holst said. “Take an Assassin and a Shadow Fencer, mix them, double their powers, and then double them again. That’s a Shadow Stalker in a nutshell.”
I tried to imagine it. The Assassin who attacked the orphanage would have had a hard time with any class without a skill like my mana blades. I had been lucky to have a favorable matchup against him; otherwise, I might have been dead. His capacity to disable my movement was scarily effective. A man with the skills of an Assassin and a Shadow Fencer had dangerous implications.
“Prince Adrien wanted Sellen Jorn as his Master of Assassins, but he didn’t want to leave his people in the north,” Holst said. “Walls, doors, bars, locks, nothing can stop a Shadow Stalker. Only the woven barrier of several high-level Fortifiers can stop him. Or so it’s said.”
Gears turned inside my skull. I wondered if Duke Jorn was involved in the disappearance of the evidence of Raudhan’s poisoning. He certainly had the skill to move unnoticed through the Great Hall. Stealing a box with shards of glass would be a walk in the park for him.
The rest of the teams passed in a blur as my mind reviewed the party's events. Sellen Jorn was undoubtedly suspicious. His lack of presence was as unnerving as it was useful for an infiltration mission. Could he be involved in Raudhan’s poisoning? Lord Vedras had denied the existence of any co-conspirators, and we were almost entirely sure that Raudhan hadn’t been poisoned by Ashroot.
Duke Jorn's political positioning was hard to determine. The northern dukedoms were poor, and just like Farcrest, they served as a bulwark against the Monster Surges. Four families controlled most of the kingdom’s economy and politics. House Gairon, House Herran, House Osgiria, and the Royal Family. The northern dukedoms didn’t benefit from the current trade routes and wouldn’t directly benefit from a new trade route into the Kingdom of Tagabiria.
However, they would benefit from a closer relationship with the royal family.
Duke Jorn had no reason to poison Captain Kiln.
Ilya tugged the sleeve of my jacket, bringing me back to the present. The master of ceremonies was finishing a long speech about the legacy of Stephaniss of Farcrest, the previous lord of the city and the Marquis's grandfather. Even the Marquis seemed bored.
“Prince Adrien will draw the matches for the first round!” The master of ceremonies announced.
Prince Adrien came forward, and an assistant brought a glass bowl filled with small wooden rods. He put his hand in the bowl, picked one randomly, and passed it to his companion. The woman dressed in purple read it out loud, her voice magically amplified. Her pleasant contralto voice made me think she was a singer.
“House Nara versus…” she received the second wooden rod. “Lowell’s Orphanage!”
Just like Captain Kiln had warned me.
I didn’t expect us to be the opening fight. The other teams returned to the pavilion, and a group of Scribes carried the System Shrine Shard embedded in its copper nest to the center of the arena. I assumed it was there to ensure all participants met the requirements for the tournament.
“Let’s go, team,” I said.
We formed next to the Shrine Shard and in front of Lord Nara’s team. The master of ceremonies activated the blue orb, and the kids' names, classes, and levels appeared before us. Luckily, Lord Nara and I were exempt from the crystal ability. Being outed as a Runeweaver wasn’t part of my plans.
Belya Nara, Geomancer Lv.3
Arel Nara, Warrior Lv.5
Lino, Soldier Lv.9
Jan, Archer Lv.3
Aiwin, Courier Lv.7
Firana Aias, Wind Fencer Lv.1
Ilya, Hunter Lv.2
Zaon, Classless Lv.1
Wolf, Classless Lv.1
The System prompts might have been big enough for the crowd to read because a murmur rose from the stands. I didn’t need [Awareness] to understand the commotion. Half of my team was classless in a world where Classes were everything. Lord Nara also seemed to notice the discrepancy between our teams.
“I’m feeling generous today, Mister Caretaker. I will gladly accept your surrender and spare you the embarrassment if you apologize for wasting our time,” Lord Nara said with a mellow, totally fake voice. “You can save the kids the shame of losing in front of their countrymen.”
The master of ceremonies looked at me.
“What do you think, Ilya?” I asked.
“The team is ready, Mister Clarke. We fight,” she replied without any hint of doubt.
Despite Lord Nara’s clever expression, he was underestimating us. I couldn’t blame him. He had lived all his life in a world where value was determined by class and level. Developing an eye for people wasn’t as helpful as on Earth, where it could mean the difference between life and death.
“We fight,” I said.
“Don’t say I didn’t extend the courtesy of an honorable withdrawal,” Lord Nara grinned, his fox-like eyes turned into thin lines.
The master of ceremonies nodded.
“The Rules are simple. The team that loses the coin toss has to choose its first fighter, and then the winning team chooses its opponent. Then, the roles change. Every team has two picks and two counter picks, for a total of four fighters,” the master of ceremonies explained, pulling a gold coin from the pocket.
I nodded. There was a level of strategy involved in the pairing phase. I could pair Firana against their weakest member to ensure a vast point difference. Or I could choose Zaon to keep things equalized. If I were Lord Nara, I would leave the Lv.7 Courier outside the selection. As fast as they were, they weren’t a combatant Class, but on the other hand, even non-combatants could develop useful masteries.
Zaon had a good matchup against the Soldier and the Warrior, as their combat skills were on the ‘basic’ side of the spectrum. However, the Archer, the Geomancer, and the Courier could present a problem to him. Wolf also had a bad matchup against the Archer and the Geomancer because he relied on solid and static positioning to use his muscles. Ilya and Firana had good matchups against the enemy team, but the enemy Geomancer worried me the most. She wasn’t just an Advanced Class, but a relative of Lord Nara.
“Here goes the coin,” the master of ceremonies said. He threw it high and caught it mid-flight.
Lord Nara kindly offered me the call.
“Heads,” I replied with a grin.
“Heads,” the master of ceremonies said, revealing the coin.
[Awareness] didn’t disappoint, but I made a mental note to keep it hidden from Ilya. She wouldn’t be on board with blatant cheating, even if we had the disadvantage. As cunning as Ilya was, strategy and cheats were completely different.
Lord Nara huffed. “Lino, you go first.”
The Soldier kid stepped forward. He was tall, probably a year older than my kids, but [Awareness] told me he was nervous. Soldier Class was painfully close to no class at all.
“Zaon, you go first. Is that okay with you?” I said, hoping the combination of Light-Footed and Lv.2 Longsword Mastery would match a Lv.9 Soldier with a couple of skills under his sleeve.
Zaon nodded.
It was my turn to choose and Lord Nara’s turn to counter-pick. “Ilya, you go second,” I said.
Ilya came forward, prompting a laugh from the rival Fighter.
“Do you want to fight the gnome, Arel?” Lord Nara asked.
“Yes, my lord. I’m confident I can get a ten-point lead over a Gnome Hunter,” Arel Nara replied.
A vein popped on Ilya’s forehead.
“Good. I chose my cousin Arel Nara for the second fight,” Lord Nara said.
Then, Lord Nara selected the Archer boy for the third fight, which put me in a tough spot. The Archer and the Geomancer were hard matchups for Wolf, and I lacked a fifth or sixth member to play around it. Nonetheless, the Archers weren’t known for their vast arsenal of skills.
“Wolf, you go against him,” I said.
Wolf nodded.
“Which leaves us with the last pair,” Lord Nara said with a mocking smile.
“Firana, you go last,” I said.
“Belya, my daughter, will be my last pick,” Lord Nara replied.
The dueling pairs were ready.
“So be it. The tournament's first match will be between Lino the Soldier and Zaon the Elf,” the master of ceremonies said, his voice suddenly amplified again as the Scribes took the System Shrine orb away. “Contestants, please go get your equipment. May the System bless you all.”
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