44 The Tournament Begins

After the Mysterious Expert left his office, Sainac went to Ange's celebration party and announced the news about the tournament. It was a good place as there were a lot of students in the same area.

"In two weeks, there will be a new tournament!"

His voice could be heard in the whole academy, being present in a place where a lot of people could see him was only his custom.

All the students present at the celebration party applauded Sainac.

"This time, the tournament will be for those students who are at the 3-star Mortal Rank or below."

Those who were still in the peak of the 3-star Mortal Rank became very happy and those who had just advanced depressed.

Because those at the peak of the limit level were always those with higher possibilities to win.

"The battles will be one versus one, without time limit. If a student is knocked out or fell from the stage will lose."

Those were the standard rules. Sainac liked to add a few changes like the best of three matches or the best performance in five minutes.

However, since the Mysterious Expert was who asked for that tournament, Sainac chose the most straightforward and classical rules.

"The reward this time will be for the best eight! And the prize will be announced once the tournament finished!"

Those words shocked everyone. Usually, the rewards were particular lessons or some items. That was the first time in the history that the prize was a mystery until the end of the tournament and also the first time that the best eight would obtain it.

Yale was also present in the celebration party accompanying his sister.

She had helped him a lot before and after coming to the academy, so although he was in a rush to train, he wouldn't neglect such an important occasion for her.

When Yale heard Sainac's announcement, he became happier than anyone else.

That was an opportunity to battle against the members of other groups of the same level. All of them had trained more time than Yale's class, so he hoped to find good opponents. Being always battling with the same people wasn't optimal to improve.

Furthermore, Yale could use Bloodline Force to double his Strength and Agility. Then, those stats would be the same as a peak 3-star mortal.

Thus, Yale really felt that he had chances to enter the top eight.

Of course, Yale would try to win, but since he didn't know who his opponents would be, he didn't want to be overconfident.

Especially those who were still at 3-star mortal after more than one year in the academy.

They were looked down upon by their own cohorts, but compared to Yale's group, who had only entered the academy the previous month, they had a lot of experience.

Although that group also had a lot of students who had lost hope in reaching Rank 1, those who were there due to being overfocused in other areas instead of increasing their level were still there and were fearsome against rivals of the same level.

Yale's blood was burning with the desire of battling, but the same could be said to the other outstanding kids who met the requirements to participate in the newly announced tournament.

Usually, the academy didn't let the five groups of beginner classes interact to avoid the older ones bullying the newcomers.

Thus, they couldn't battle among themselves unless a tournament like that was announced.

That rule was made to protect the average students, but to outstanding newcomers, that was only a limitation in finding good opponents.

When the celebration party finished, Yale went directly to train.

In the next two weeks, he skipped all the lessons except the sword ones with Swordmad and Aizu.

Yale knew that George would join such a tournament, and probably Zack would also join, so Yale wanted to distance a bit from them to prepare himself.

Aizu probably would also join. However, given that Yale was Aizu's master in the sword, that Yale's Water Battle Armor was the perfect counter to her Fire Ball, and that Yale also had Illusion Immunity, Aizu had no chances of winning against him. Moreover, helping her to train was also a way to try to reach the expert stage with the sword, so it was also important to Yale.

In those two weeks before the tournament, Yale managed to increase his Vitality and Dexterity, which were still his lowest stats, one more point.

Even with all the five groups participating, there were still only twenty-nine participants. Most of the students didn't dare to join if they didn't feel confident in reaching the top eight.

After all, not everyone loved to battle and wanted to fight strong opponents. For most of them, training was just a way to protect themselves and obtain a status that allowed them to live peacefully.

Twenty-five of the participants were at the 3-star Mortal Rank, the only four who were still in the 2-star Mortal Rank were the ones in Yale's class.

Those four were still the only ones who reached the 2-star Mortal Rank after a month and a half from the start of the classes. They were Yale, Aizu, George, and Zack.

Zack had managed to make a breakthrough in both paths two weeks after Yale.

Even Aizu managed to also reach the 2-star in the Warrior Path a week before the start of the tournament. Her swordsmanship was still weak compared to the swordsmanship of Yale and George, but she was already outstanding in her class.

Moreover, Yale started to have a feeling that he would reach the Sword Mastery expert stage soon, his vision about the sword expanded a lot since he began to teach Aizu.

Although the four of them were rivals in the tournament, considering that they were on the weaker side compared to the other groups, they were all sat together, and they were hoping to don't need to battle among themselves in the first rounds, although in that way winning would be easier.

Ange was also near them. Since the other three were all friends of Yale, if they got injured after losing a battle, she would heal them. As for Yale himself, Ange knew that he could recover himself perfectly, so she didn't need to worry.

Being healed between battles was forbidden unless the participant was able to recover himself without any external help.

That rule gave a significant advantage to Yale and Aizu because it was made to favor those who trained in healing magic.

Since the number of participants didn't reach thirty-two, there would be three lucky ones who skipped the first round and thus would only need one win to reach the top eight.

In the Nacesai Academy tournaments, those that skip battles would always be from the weakest group. In other words, of Yale's group of four, only one of them wouldn't get a free pass to the next round.

"My dear students, today, I have the honor to initiate a new tournament amongst our youngest students."

Sainac started with his speech at the top of the arena. There were a lot of spectators, as the tournaments were always a great event in the academy.

Sainac spoke without stopping for a whole thirty minutes about the past tournaments and the history of the academy.

When he finished everyone applauded, but not because he gave a good speech, it was because he finished speaking.

However, due to those applauses that he always heard after he finished the speeches, Sainac felt that everyone liked them and thus repeated a similar one each time he held a tournament.

After that speech, the teachers behind Sainac announced the matches.

The only one who wouldn't get a free pass turned to be Yale, but he was lucky that he wouldn't meet with his classmates before the semifinals, so it was possible that all of them obtained the reward.

Aizu, George, and Zack would only need one win to enter the top eight. However, all their opponents would be a stage higher than them, so it was still a challenging task.

The teachers separated them in purpose, making them battling with older students to avoid letting them pass too easy to the top eight by fighting among themselves.

Yale didn't feel bad to be the one who would battle the most as he liked fighting to strong opponents.

Furthermore, Yale was in the first match, so his battle would also be the aperture of the tournament.

Yale went into the arena and looked upon his opponent, who was a slim boy with a rod in his hands.

He had yet to battle against a talented rod user, so he was excited.

Yale thought about battling rod against rod because that would help him improve his own prowess with the rod, but he discarded the idea when he heard the notification in his mind.

[New Dynamic Quest: Win the tournament. Reward: For each round that the user wins, there will be an increase in stats or Origin Points.]

Yale was excited. After a long time, a new Dynamic Quest appeared.

He discarded all thoughts about using the battles to test his skills and decided to be serious about winning.

Losing an opportunity to increase his stats and Origin Points would be the same as putting more obstacles in his already difficult path.

Yale wielded his sword and faced his opponent, who did the same with his rod.

Then, the teacher who was acting as the referee shouted.

"The match starts!"