Volume 2 Episode 18

Lin opened his eyes.

It has been almost two hours since he had been unconscious. He checked his body and found out that he had been back to his full health. His energy regenerating ability was impressive. It had completely regenerated all the magic that was exhausting by Lin during the fight in just two hours. Such a speedy recovery was practically unheard of, but of course Lin was an exception.

After examining his body to make sure he had been completely healed, Lin recalled his fight with Hugh. Even though he had defeated him, he did take a huge risk with it. It could've gone really wrong if Hugh had a really large supply of magic energy. He realized that he had to step up his game if he had to defeat stronger opponents. His powers simply weren't enough. 

'I probably have to use everything I can to fight against tougher opponents. I'm not even sure if I can get to the top looking at how strong some of these people participating actually are.'

Lin tried to think of ways to defeat his opponents with means other than his magic powers. He definitely had to find various other methods if he really wanted to win the tournament.

"... And with that match, we have concluded the preliminary rounds of the Evantel Tournament. The sixteen contestants who passed the preliminaries shall be facing each other tomorrow in 'The Battle Royale', a test focusing on eliminating eight of the participants that are remaining. The test shall consist of the sixteen remaining participants all tossed into a single area and trying to hunt or hide, until only eight of you remain."

Lin's thoughts were interrupted by the commentator's voice, who confirmed the conclusion of the first round of the tournament. As he looked at the large television in the waiting room, he saw the list of the participants that had successfully moved on to the next round.

'That's surprising, Luke actually made it past the first round. Good for him I guess, but what about the rest?'

Lin looked at the rest of the names on the list and noted them down in his memory.

'Jack Nam, Daniel Kang, April Yan, Sam Lee, Jessie Brenner, Lily Green, Andrea Perez, Jack Bartlett, Drew Gibson, Lewis Myers, Roger Rodriguez, Cody Carr, Luis Monterio and last but most definitely not least, Christian Ivan Andric. So these fourteen people, along with me and Luke, are the remaining contestants.'

Lin realized that most of the remaining people were all belonging to either second or third years, with only him, Luke and Drew Gibson who was in B - Class, were the only first years among them.

'I guess that's the difference in both power and experience showing with these rankings.'

Some of the students in A - Class actually had similar levels when compared to the Second year students, but they had little to no knowledge when it came to fighting. As such, most of them lost to second and third years even though some had literally the same level as their opponents.

He looked at the list for sometime, and went back to his assigned room. As they had all passed the preliminaries, the school had given them temporary rooms in the practical zone itself, so that it's easier for the participants as they have to travel less. Of course, such a privilege is lost once you've been disqualified from the tournament. Lin entered his room and locked the door. He then opened up the system.

"System, give me the information on all the remaining contestants."

[ Yes sir, but I do have to remind you, all of the information given to you is compiled from the public data available of the candidates. Are you sure you want to proceed? ]

"I am, show me the information that you've got", as soon as Lin completed talking, the system had already popped open multiple tabs in front of his face with information about his opponents. 

Looking at what seemed to be an infinitely large amount of information about all of his fifteen opponents, Lin took a deep breath, popped his knuckles and got ready.

"Looks like I'm going to be having a very long study session today."

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The next day.

Even though he had slept really late at night due to studying his opponents, Lin woke up really early. He jogged to the stadium, only to find someone blocking his way. When he saw who was the person who had the guts to stop him, he couldn't help but smile.

"Well this is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure, Rin?"

The person who had dared to stop Lin Hamill was in fact, Rin Emerson. She looked as if she hadn't slept in days. It really seemed like the loss at the preliminaries had taken a toll on her. She had lost to a third year, Lily Green, who was a grass type user.

The fight wasn't one sided or anything, and it was overall a fairly normal fight. But Rin probably didn't expect to lose so quickly, considering she had always believed herself to be special, to be different from others. She had projected a seemingly naive and positive minded image of a girl, but in reality that was all a mask to fool others and herself into believing that she wasn't the proud and arrogant person she really was. After losing to Lily and seeming Lin who seemingly had no talent before win against Hugh, her mask was finally falling off. 

With trembling eyes, she pointed her hands at Lin and screamed.

"HOW? How can you win move forward, while I, who was better than you ever were, lose at the preliminaries? It doesn't make any sense. You must've cheated didn't you? Just like you hid your powers from me, you're hiding something again aren't you? You didn't even tell me that you had any powers, even though I was your friend. What's up with that huh? How could you do that to me? You've betrayed me! Yeah, that's what….."

As Rin was having her rant/breakdown session, Lin viewed the whole thing with a smile. He was enjoying this very much. He was waiting for this to happen, but he definitely didn't expect it to be this soon. 

'The fucking audacity of this bitch!'

He listened to her rambling on and on, and realized she had been playing the victim even though there wasn't an incident large enough to there be a victim of. Finally, as he had enough of her ranting, he raised his hand, signalling that he wanted to respond, causing Rin to go quiet.

He thought about the things she said. She was right that he was hiding the fact that he had essentially gained his powers using a different method he figured out. She was also right that he was using a cheat system and a blessing from a third party to get over difficult situations. So he was, in her words, 'cheating'. But there was one thing she forgot that Lin wished to point out. So when she stopped her rant to listen to his response, he thought about his words for a second, and then he replied.

"Do I look like I give a f**k?"