Chapter 8: Soaring Arena

After buying the two spiritual assimilation elixirs, Sorin was very poor. He only had 1 astral token left.

In this academy, if your strength was good, you can try fighting in the Soaring Arena. Sorin was currently heading there to fight a couple matches to get some astral tokens. With the astral tokens, he was planning on taking the examination to becoming a runemaster.

His talent as a runemaster was average in his past life, but he had spent a few decades learning it so his experience was enough for him to be labelled as a genius. Being a runemaster was an extremely intricate and precise occupation where even a single deviance would lead to failure. However, it was extremely lucrative. People who are talented in alchemy or runes are generally very wealthy in the world of Spirit Masters.

After an hour of walking, Sorin could see a giant arena in the distance.

At this moment, countless disciples were currently crowding outside the arena, all wanting to get inside.

Seeing such a commotion, Sorin asked someone who was running towards the arena.

"Excuse me senior brother, its my first time at Soaring Arena. Why are there so many people here right now?"

The man stopped and turned before hastily replying, "Oh, junior brother. Hehe, you really don't want to miss this. Right now, Ashel Vaketh and Suho Rezer are going to be fighting each other! These two are both geniuses who've reached the Spiritual Condensation realm. They both also have extremely high ranks, both being in the top 500! The top 500s are extremely important in the Soaring Arena thus these fights are very popular!"

After saying that, the disciple ran to the arena.

"Ashel Vaketh, huh?" Sorin mumbled before walking and waiting in the massive line.

After around 20 minutes, Sorin had finally entered the arena.

Entering the arena, Sorin quickly found a seat to spectate the match. However, when Sorin briefly glanced at his surroundings, he noticed some people.

They were Stelle and another person who seemed to be trying to get close to her.

When Stelle had noticed Sorin, her eyes seemed to light up as she walked over to him and exclaimed, "Junior brother! You are also here to watch the match?"

Sorin smiled and responded with some enthusiasm, "Sister Stelle, I didn't think you'd also be here. I was curious as to why so many disciples were crowding around the arena and found out it was because some powerful senior disciples are fighting each other here."

Before Stelle could reply, the man next to her quickly spoke in a prideful tone.

"Of course so many people will be watching this fight. After all, my brother Ashel is being challenged in a rankings match. If he loses, his rank as 237 would be swapped with Suho who is ranked at 324!"

"Really? This will be a very fierce battle then!" Sorin spoke with an expression of excitement.

"Hmph, what do you know? This Suho guy is really presumptuous, thinking he can jump nearly 100 ranks and beat him! The fight won't even last 10 seconds. My brother will surely beat him in three moves or less!"

Stelle pouted as she couldn't explain the fight to Sorin before she continued.

"Junior brother, we should watch the fight together, it will definitely be interesting!"

Sorin nodded. "Sure!"

Seeing the exchange between the two, the man next to Stelle frowned and said.

"Sister, who is this junior brother?" He was very infatuated with Stelle. So seeing someone gaining so much of her interests displeased him greatly.

Stelle showed an innocent expression as she replied, "Hehe, this is my junior brother Sorin I met at the Heavenly Library. I wanted to help him since he seemed a little confused but he didn't need my assistance."

"Is that so? Well, haha, I hope this match can broaden your horizons. This fight will definitely be worthwhile." His voice held a hint of hostility towards Sorin.

Sorin inwardly snorted seeing how this person was so hostile towards him despite having just met. He was so infatuated with Stelle that any male that was near her would cause him displeasure. He was like a little bug, lured and ensnared in a spider's web. It was truly pitiful. How this person was related to Ashel amazed Sorin. After all, their talents were like comparing mud to diamond.

Stelle had this person completely within the palm of her hands. If she asked for something, this person would likely try his best to achieve it.

He was named Verin Vaketh, the person that had truly annoyed him the most in his past life at this academy.

After their introductions, Sorin waited for the arena match to start and asked, "Sister Stelle, why is the top 500s so important in the Soaring Arena?" Although he knew that the higher the rank you were the better the benefits, these were memories from more than a century ago so it was somewhat foggy.

Stelle smiled as she said.

"Hehe, in the Soaring Arena, there are over a million disciples that frequently fight to try and get a higher ranking. This arena is split into three sections being the outer disciple arena for outer disciples, the inner arena for inner disciples and the core arena for core disciples. In the outer disciple arena, there are over 900 thousand disciples that fight each other."

She paused briefly and continued.

"There are a few methods to becoming an inner disciple. If you reach the ranking of 1 thousand or lower in the outer arena, you automatically become an inner disciple. Another way to become an inner disciple was to reach the second level of Outer Assimilation in half a year or for an elder to take a liking to you, making you their personal disciple."

Sorin's eyes flashed with understanding as she continued explaining.

"It is not the top 500s that are important but Ashel's ranking that is below 250. As inner disciples, the 250s promotes you to core disciples. Ashel is currently a core disciple whereas Suho was still an inner disciple that is in the top 500s. The top 500s have the privilege to challenge core disciples from 250 to 1 and they cannot be rejected."

Sorin asked.

"Then would it be possible for an outer disciple to challenge a core disciple?"

Stelle chuckled melodiously, making Verin frown as she said.

"Junior brother, all though it is possible, why would they accept? They'd likely just ignore you. Until you reach the necessary rankings where you can issue forceful challenges, no one would waste their time accepting as they really won't be getting anything out of it and instead be labelled as a senior disciple that bullies younger disciples."

"Oh, haha. I see." Sorin chuckled.

As the two were exchanging words with one another, sudden reactions from the crowd resounded.

Turning his attention to the centre of the arena, Sorin saw two young males that had stepped up onto the arena, facing off against eachother.

"It's Ashel and Suho!"

The crowd exclaimed, all their attention placed onto the centre of the arena.