Trainings without any progress. The beginning of the tournament.

The next day, in the evening, Michael met Julius in a clearing not far from the village, deep in the forest. Julius had been training Michael the way he thought best. But now, a whole week had passed, and Michael hadn't progressed.

"Why? Why haven't I made any progress yet?" Michael asked himself in frustration.

"Because you just haven't been focused on your progress!" Julius said sternly. "How many times have I told you that?"

"Sorry… but what exactly should I be focusing on?" Michael asked.

"I told you already. You need to stay focused on your results," Julius replied.

"I thought I was trying to do that, wasn't I?" Michael wondered.

"Whatever. Just go sign up for the tournament already. Maybe, you'll have some progress due fight there," Julius sighed.

"Thank you, Mister Julius. I'm on my way now," Michael said with a smile.

"Eh… Good luck, Michael!" Julius called after him.

Michael ran toward the arena where the tournament was going to take place. Most of the participants had already came. Just as he barely made it there, the same old man — the village elder — began his speech in the same style as before, except this time it was under the open sky.

"My friends," the the old man said, "I'm glad that all of you here today have chosen to challenge yourselves by entering this tournament. However, I must disappoint some of you — out of the thousand gathered here, only 32 will make it past the 1st stage. And by the way, the lower your number is, the greater your chances of winning."

"This is going to be hard!" Michael thought.

"However…" the old man continued, "I'd also like to inform you that after discussing the matter of those people with the fourth level of magical power with my colleagues, we've concluded that they're simply too powerful."

"Too powerful?" Michael thought.

"And so," the old man said loudly, "Michael Blazehart, participant number 2 — you will advance directly to the 2nd stage!"

Everyone around was shocked to hear such an announcement.

"What?! I go straight to the 2nd stage?" Michael said, stunned.

"Perfect! I'm even more fired up to fight you now!" thought Guy 4 with a burning excitement.

However, not everyone supported this decision, and many tried to argue that even those with fourth-level magic should be required to go through the first stage. Still, the elder wasn't interested in hearing it.

"First match!" the old man declared, ignoring the crowd.

Naturally, with this unexpected opportunity, Michael went straight to Julius.

"Hello again, Mister Julius," Michael said, a bit, smiling.

"Hey, Michael! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be there?" Julius asked.

Michael then explained everything that had happened — including how he was allowed to skip to the second round.

"Wait… what did you just say?" Julius asked.

"I was allowed to the 2nd stage," Michael repeated.

"You're really lucky if things turned out that way!" Julius said.

"Why did you say that like that, Mister Julius?" Michael asked.

"Because, honestly, you would've lost in the first match," Julius said bluntly but truthfully.

"Am I really weak?" Michael wondered silently.

"Yes, you're weak!" Julius said. "But thankfully, we still have a whole month until the second round. We can use it for more training."

"Then… will you keep training me?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, I'll keep training you," Julius replied.

"Thank you, Mister Julius!" said Michael.

For the next three weeks, Michael trained with Julius — and, as always, saw no results.

One day, during a training session, Michael needed to go to pee, so he went into the forest. After he finished, he heard rustling in the bushes. Probably just a small animal, he thought and decided to take a look. As he stepped beyond the bushes, he saw something ahead of him.

"Huh!? What is that?!" Michael exclaimed.