Qualifying Round

"Now, I will state the format for the tournament."

Fogre walked up to the podium after the king had descended.

There were close to nine hundred students gathered for this tournament. Three hundred and eighty-two from the First Dawn Academy with five hundred and seventeen from the Second Dawn Academy.

The reason for the students from the Second Dawn Academy being larger was that, unlike the First Dawn Academy, the former didn't have such a high rate of expulsion for students. There was also the fact that the influx of expelled students from the First Dawn Academy usually ended up in the Second Dawn Academy. Hence the reason why the latter had more students than the former.

"To eliminate the excess participants, all students will partake in a qualification round. The format of the qualification round is a time-based battle. Each one of you would have to battle four opponents at the mid-rank of the second stage of the Guardian realm in a confined space within thirty minutes."

The students were shocked by the statement made by Fogre.

It should be recalled that the current average strength of all the third-year students was precisely at the mid-rank of the second stage. Having them face four opponents at the same stage as themselves was a tough challenge. When you add in the fact that it was in a confined space and there was a time limit, things became a lot harder.

Unless one was one of the reputable mages in their division, it looked hard to achieve this goal.

"Of course, these opponents are all basic ranks and not geniuses like yourselves. They were made from a template of an average mage of the same level in a typical provincial military corp. This shouldn't be a challenge for students such as yourselves." Fogre added.

Although the students were still a bit nervous about this, they were more relaxed than before. Since their opponents were based on "basic" mages at the level and not geniuses, and the dean had said that it shouldn't be a problem for them, the students felt a bit better.

'Provincial level military corps.' Asher thought.

In truth, Asher thought the same as the dean; this wasn't a challenge for most. Being the son of a duke, Asher knew the level of strength a typical provincial military guard possessed at that stage. All of the students participating in this tournament were geniuses gathered from all over the kingdom, exposed to high-quality training and resources. Excluding the fact that they had yet to take a human life, all of them were capable of rivaling guards at that rank. If they had more human battle exposure, it would be possible for them to easily defeat such a mage.

'But human battle experience is precisely what they lack, and the enemy has the number's advantage. Finally, not everyone is at the mid-rank. Quite a lot of students would fail here.' Asher glanced around.

"For this round, we invited an elder from the Purple Sun Sacred land skilled at making fighter puppets. Please welcome, Elder Grandor."

Fogre introduced a mage who looked in his early sixties and was sitting at the reserved area with the king and the great dukes and their representatives.

The black-haired mage kept a lofty appearance as he gazed at the crowd below him like an emperor looking at his subjects.

'Strong.'

The sensitive mages and students who studied the mage, Elder Grandor, all thought at the same time. They could feel his imposing aura as well as the astonishing amount of mana that glowed through his body. It seemed like Elder Grandor had no intention of hiding it, but for the respect of the king, he didn't let it all out forcefully either.

'Ninth-stage of the Guardian realm.' Asher raised an eyebrow.

'Just an elder from the sacred land possesses this much strength already. No wonder the kingdom is wary of the sacred land. This is interesting.'

"The qualification would take place at the South View mountain, but would be broadcasted via magical displays at the arena here so the audience need not worry. Also, only one hundred students can participate at the same time after which there would be a twenty minutes break before the next set. So in total, there would be a fifty minutes gap between each set meaning that all battles would be concluded at roughly seven and a half hours, or approximately eight hours."

After Fogre's announcement, the crowd was pleased and cheered in support. It would have been a waste for those who paid for a single-day ticket to end up just sitting in their seats without witnessing any events on the day.

"Now, will the students kindly proceed towards South View mountain? The first set of students to make it to the mountain would be part of the first round."

The students began their way towards the location, including the Second Dawn Academy students who have been earlier briefed on it. However, none of them moved at their full speed or went ahead of the others. It seemed as if they weren't inclined to begin first and wanted to test the waters using themselves.

However, this didn't apply to all the students.

"Move." A cold voice interrupted a student as a figure charged past him.

Phew.

Silhouettes ran past the horde toward the front and were widening the gap even more as they headed for South View mountain.

While some students were using a more cautious approach and intended on joining the latter groups, the more confident ones wanted to be done with the qualifying round

They hoped to use the period after the first round to recuperate and take note of possible opponents that would be difficult to face.

Under this group were the top geniuses of the two academies as well as some of the stronger students who had faith in their skills. Aurora, Lyn, Emma, and some others from the Second Dawn Academy were present.

"And so it begins." Asher muttered.