Immediately after settling Lars" registration for him, Head Administrator Natiro apologised profusely to Lars before heading off to oversee other preparations for the coming big day."Do not worry about the situation with Administrator Fei, I"ll make sure to settle things internally with him. It"s not the first time he"s been hara.s.sing potential talents or anyone that has dared to speak up against the Trenel family. As you can tell, they"re sort of like the local overlords since they are second only to the Duke"s family itself... Oh! You"d better hurry on, you"ll want to submit your scores and names for the preliminary rounds, right...? Hurry on! I"ll see you later!"
The young-looking elf spoke like an old man, befitting his actual advanced age of 136 years old. He finished his one-sided monologue like a bullet train, completely unlike his usual cool and collected way of speech, as he needed to rush off to handle other matters in the stadium.
He left quickly with a nod and wave to Lars, Charley and Wesley, urging the boys to get on with their preliminary scorings.
Lars quickly joined his two unlikely companions and they headed onwards into the depths of the stadium.
"Charley, do you know what the rules and arrangements are like for this tournament?"
"Yup!" He nodded, cheerful as always. "I can tell you all about it!"
"..." They continued walking in silence for a few seconds until Lars couldn"t stand it anymore.
"Well...? Aren"t you going to explain it to us?" He spoke with his usual raspy hiss, aggravated that the boy started the story but didn"t continue.
The boy turned around - his eyes reflected silver coins.
Lars groaned on the inside, before taking out a coin and pa.s.sing it to Charley. The chipper boy then laughed merrily and explained things to them.
"The selection actually is split into 2 sections, one for those under 17 years and 9 months old and another section for those older. Don"t ask me the reason! It"s not been disclosed! Okay, so after registration, there"s actually a preliminary round starting today at 11:15 AM - which is why that Administrator Fei had been so hurried to close off the registrations!" He shook his head in appreciation as he looked at Lars, "You, sir, are a truly lucky man! To garner favour from Head Administrator Natiro... Tut tut tut... Amazing!" He clicked his tongue in admiration as he spoke.
Their footsteps fell rapidly as they kept a quick pace through the pa.s.sageway towards the end where intense noise could be heard, a growling rumble of thousands of voices, while the bright light of day could be seen. The lightning storm clouds had since dispersed with the elf guild staff"s intervention. It was a good thing he had chosen that time to settle things too, he literally saved the parade from rain, as well as thunder and lightning!
Along the pa.s.sageway, they saw many people leaving dejectedly along with guards interspersed here and there every few metres. Before they reached their destination, Lars quickly asked how the preliminaries would be run.
"Oh... As I understand, they first conduct a general fitness exam. I believe they test strength, running speed, agility, reaction speed and combat skill. The first two should be tested on the track-and-field area, while the last three are done by illusion arrays to simulate a.s.sessment situations. At least, that"s what the last big tournament did 2 years ago."
"One last thing... Before we exit... Do you know how many people in total registered?"
"Hmm..." He rubbed his head with his right hand as he thought about it, before he answered, "For the senior section, not that many. Perhaps two to three hundred partic.i.p.ants? While for the junior section..."
He counted off on his fingers, then stopped when he ran out fingers to count on.
"I ran out of fingers to count on...? More than a thousand?
"I could see that already okay? That"s not helpful at all!" Lars wanted to shout at him, but held his temper in check and merely grunted in irritation. No matter what, that meant that there were at least a thousand candidates to compete with...!
He smiled in antic.i.p.ation, thrilled at the prospect of a good challenge for his sealed self.
* * * * *
When they emerged from the heavily-guarded pa.s.sageway exit, they saw an immense circular open area crowded with roughly two thousand or maybe two thousand five hundred people, a mixture of contestants for the selection and the tournament organisers. Numerous types of equipment were arranged neatly in the field, starting with a moving strike-strength meter for the strength tests, then further testing tools laid out in order of the subsequent tests, i.e. a 100 metre track for running speed, then illusion arrays set up for agility, reaction speed and combat skill.
At his two sides were staircases running up either side of the humongous arena. The staircases led up to two separate viewing areas. One staircase led to the public area which circled around the entire interior of the stadium. The other led to an even more heavily-guarded private enclosure that could house perhaps a thousand people. Right now, however, there were only 3 groups of people in the private area.
Lars couldn"t make out who or which families were up there as they were hidden behind curtains on either side to keep the heat and dust out while not obstructing their view. What he did know was that there were a number of Grandmaster powerhouses up there, but no World-cla.s.s or Legendary realm combatants except for the earlier Head Administrator...
Then based on what he had seen so far in this nation, his estimate was that the strongest pract.i.tioners were at most on par with Duke Silvan; at the Legendary stage and weaker than himself! Nonetheless, until he could get a first grasp of the power of their runes and artefacts, he would need to bide his time first before revealing all of his own trump cards!
He started to walk forward towards what looked to be the gathering area where a dozen or so event staff held clipboards and were taking down the contestants" details. Then he glanced up at the clock - 11:13 AM. 2 minutes to go until the start. He looked around as they walked toward an area where they could wait for the event to start.
"Looks like I"ll not be there on time before noon for the quest... Whatever, it"s just some measly gold coins! His mouth hung slightly open and the littlest hint of wetness could be seen on his lips as he thought about just how big of a grand prize the contest would be offering; he could just imagine the amount of money, swimming in gold coins and bathing in platinum by the bucket!
Then he heard the rude and sharp voice of a teenage girl shout in his direction.
"Well well well! Look what we have here!" The speaker sounded like she was coming closer as she raised her voice in disdain.
He turned his head and saw what looked like a beautiful, rich and popular girl surrounded by more than a dozen muscular and handsome boys, each vying for her attention and favour. There were also two similarly well-dressed and attractive girls on either side of her, clearly her wing-women.
"Charley Charlemagne! I thought I warned you not to EVER appear before my eyes again! Or I"ll tear off your manhood and make you wear it like a necklace around your neck! Hahahaha!" She was joined in laughter by her jeering and mocking posse of followers.
"Sigh... Trouble seems to look for me wherever I go, doesn"t it?" But he was smiling as he watched the scene before him unfold.
Time to smash some more arrogant p.r.i.c.ks faces into the dirt again.