Tournament (4)

"The winner is Ivan Hope", the referee announced, as soon as the sign appeared that his opponent had lost.

After that the two of them did shake hands before they left the stage, so the next pair could fight.

Next up were Miss. Tang and a man who had shown a lot of skill in fire magic. Which would be a bad match for him. To Ivan's knowledge Miss. Tang was proficient in ice magic which was able to counter fire magic well. Of course it worked the other way around too, but since she was stronger it should be easy for her to win. He could only hope that her opponent would make it a good fight, so that he could gain some information about her fighting style.

After the announcement by the referee the both of them greeted each other before starting their fight.

Both of them pulled out their staffs and Ivan once again marveled at how great Miss. Tangs staff looked. Her opponent's staff on the other hand was much simpler.

While the spectators cheered the two of them started to cast their first skills. What surprised Ivan a bit was that neither of them called out their pets. He could kinda understand why Miss. Tang didn't call out her pet, since she had hidden it until now, but her opponent had already shown his before. So he couldn't understand his decision not to call it out now, since he was of the opinion that that guy would need any help he could get. And his pet which was a simple vampire bat should be able to at least disrupt his opponent.

Over Miss. Tangs head a large ice crystal formed, while above her opponents head a much smaller fireball congregated. Of course size wasn't the most important thing, since smaller fire balls with higher heat would work much better, than larger but colder ones.

After that both of them waved their staffs forward at the same time, which made their conjured skills fly towards the middle of the stage. There the two skills clashed in an explosion of steam and pressure.

This was the most primitive way of comparing the strength of ones magic skills, since there were no sophistication in it, but only pure strength counted.

Soon the steam vanished and one could see a much smaller ice crystal remaining floating in the air. From this it was clear who had won this contest. And indeed, as soon as the ice crystal appeared, the fire mage did forfeit.

*Damn, there wasn't really much to learn from this fight.*, Ivan was disappointed. After all this clash had brought him no new information.

After that the fights of the first round continued until only 10 people were left in the tournament.

"Alright now that we have determined the final ten of this newcomer tournament it is time to announce the prices for the winners.", the referee announced something unexpected. Ivan had already been wondering why there were no information on the prices for the winners of the tournament, but he had never expected that they would only be announced after the final ten had been determined. He had thought that there simple were none, besides the fame.

"For everyone that has entered the first 20 there is a one gold reward.", some of the ones that had made the top 20 cheered, while others barley reacted. For them one gold wasn't much, because their parents were rich and powerful.

"For the top ten we have an additional reward of five Evolution Pills. For those of you who aren't aware of the effects of the pills, I will shortly explain it. The Evolution Pill can be fed to your pet and there is then a chance that your pet will evolve. Since these are only D grade pills they can at most increase the grade of your pet to D grade."

This time the cheering was much louder, while the ones who failed to get into the top ten stared at the ones who did with eyes filled with envy. While gold wasn't much to many, these pills weren't easy to find. Only a few people knew how to refine them and it was nearly impossible to get them, except as rewards for missions issued by the Slavers Alliance. As such they were much more enticing than the reward before.

"For the top five we have one Rebirth Pill, which can be used to initiate a rebirth of your pet. For those of you that don't know what a rebirth of a pet means, I will shortly explain it.

A rebirth for a pet doesn't increase the grade of a pet, but it can purify the bloodline, which makes further evolution much easier."

When Ivan heard the word bloodline his interest was aroused. He had heard about it in the quest at the Herb Garden, but when he checked he hadn't found anything. Of course he had only looked for information concerning mankind and not pets, which now seemed like a mistake.

*If this pill can purify bloodlines, then I wonder if it can purify my bloodline too?*, he wondered. Sadly it didn't seem like he would be able to test it anytime soon, since he had no hope of winning his next fight and entering the top five.

Meanwhile the referee ignored the reactions of the crowd and continued on.

"The top three get the rights to use an F grade training room for two hours a day.", once again envious looks were cast, while others looked full of eagerness to earn the price.

To Ivan this reward seemed to be much worse than the one before. After all he had used a training room all the time. Now it seemed like his mentor had given him quite some favor, when he allowed him to use it whenever he wanted.

Of course for someone like Miss. Tang this reward too wouldn't be anything special.