For the national tournament people called the early confrontation between the future elite masters of the kingdom, the drawing ceremony and the main tournament both took place in the "Arena of Fire and Blood."
The "Arena of Fire and Blood" was located at the highest reaches of Eichemalar, in Everlasting Square.
At the very end of the War of the Dragons, in the final decisive battle around the Everlasting City, there had been countless fallen castles, and also countless fallen dragons and arcane masters.
By chance, one dragon just happened to fall on Everlasting Square. It caused an elemental tide when it died, wrecking a huge crater in the middle of Everlasting Square.
Men who came after that built the crater into a fighting arena that could accommodate more than two hundred thousand people inside. They called it the Arena of Fire and Blood.
Outside this arena stood a blood-red dragon crystal monument.
These words were carved on the monument: "This is the land where countless dragons and brave warriors fell, a place worthy of being engraved in the everlasting memory of men. Countless braves used their lives and their blood to forever remind us: to have the courage to fight against enemies stronger than oneself, only this is genuine courage."
…
"Woah, that guy is really cool!"
"I think he’s probably a celebrity-level contestant in some powerful team."
Walking on Everlasting Square, team Holy Dawn and team Agate Lake were about to go into the Arena of Fire and Blood and participate in the drawing ceremony. Stingham walked by himself at the very front, now and then displaying a handsome posture. On the way, when he heard some girls whispering among themselves as they talked about him, his heart would immediately blossom like a happy flower.
"So many people! There’s actually such a crowd."
Ayrin’s eyes were bulging a little. The scope of this tournament far surpassed his imagination. Apart from groups wearing the same school uniforms that were clearly teachers leading their school teams, there were also countless student organizations, many groups of supporters shouting their slogans, and there were also many small groups that were doing who knew what, going back and forth in front of these teams.
During the tournament in St. Lauren, there had also been many people, but the crowd had been divided very clearly. For example, during the match between their Holy Dawn Academy and Iron Forest Academy, the gathered crowd were Holy Dawn supporters or Iron Forest supporters. As to the rest, they were from other schools, and merely came to spectate.
But in the present square, there were actually countless factions. It was especially diverse. The clamor was utterly chaotic, to the point he felt very unaccustomed, felt like he had a headache.
"This is only the drawing ceremony. Wait until the official start of the tournament tomorrow. The crowd will be twice bigger than today," Sophia told Ayrin. "The tournament has already settled deep into the people’s consciousness in the kingdom. It’s not that extreme in our southern part, but it’s especially true in the west and in the north. The tournament is engraved even more deeply in the mores of the people there, because they have some teams that can often achieve good performances. For many Awakened young people over there, striving to join their academy’s team is even their one and only goal.
"Battles of life and death between some powerful arcane masters are surely crueler and more intense than the tournament, but in a peaceful era like ours, most people in the kingdom can’t see them. For the vast majority of them, the already extremely high-level tournament is the most spectacular, highest-level war between arcane masters that they get to see. That’s why, every year when the time comes around, there is an untold amount of people who rush their way here from every corner of the kingdom to watch. Arcane masters who can stand out from the crowd in the national tournament, those who can leave the deepest impression, they’re the real celebrity masters."
Just while Sophia and Ayrin talked to each other, all the members of a school team wearing silver arcane robes seemed to be laughing mischievously.
Moss couldn’t stop himself from pulling Ayrin’s clothes and say, "Ayrin, I think there’s something wrong."
It wasn’t only that team wearing silver robes. It seemed there were many teams in their vicinity that looked at them with strange eyes.
Among them, some teams looked at them with meaningful smiles.
"It seems there’s really something out of place." Even Stingham noticed something abnormal. "All these teams seem to be looking at us somewhat weird. Don’t tell me it’s because I’m too handsome?"
"That was team Silver Trout right now. Does your team Holy Dawn have some contradiction with them?" Sophia asked in a soft, curious voice, looking at the team wearing silver in front of them.
"Team Silver Trout?" Ayrin shook his head. He never even heard of them.
"It’s the team ranked seventh last year, they’re very strong," Sophia explained with a solemn air. "The five main members of the team are all celebrity-level contestants."
"So this is team Silver Trout?" Moss’ suddenly paled.
Because this Silver Trout Academy was again related to the nine great clans of the kingdom. Among the nine clans in Eiche who possessed dragons, people from House Tully would all go to school in Silver Trout Academy after they Awaken. And those people from a super clan were all abnormal figures at the same level as Rinsyi.
"There’s no other reason, it must be because I’m too handsome, that’s why they’re jealous of me!" Stingham said, very firm.
"So that’s team Holy Dawn?"
"Correct, look at their blue uniform…"
"Hehe… A weeds-level team, they indeed look really rustic… They even say they’re going after the cup, that they’ll be champions for sure. Did they come to fight or did they come to put on a comedy show?"
At that time, some bits and pieces of voices from groups passing by drifted to the ears of everyone in team Holy Dawn and team Agate Lake.
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"Weeds-level team? What’s this about?"
Rinloran and Ayrin exchanged a confused look. They thought, almost at the same time, "Is it about the matter of Breith Trading Company from yesterday?"
"Single-mindedly devoted to bringing you news for thirty years!"
"The greatest, the most authoritative!"
"Breith Magazine will tell you about the sixty-four formidable teams in the national tournament."
"If you’re watching the national tournament, how can you miss Breith Magazine?"
"Breith Magazine, entirely colored in mineral oil paint, the sales are the biggest! When you walk by, don’t miss it by!"
As soon as they remembered the word "Breith," Ayrin and the others immediately discerned the hawking voices of the Breith Trading Company amidst the clamor.
Every two to three hundred meters, there were quite a few people peddling books and magazines. It seemed like Breith Magazine really sold the best. Almost all the peddlers selling these types of things mainly recommended and shouted loudly about Breith Magazine.
"Give me one." Moss immediately ran in front of the closest peddler and pointed at the illustrated magazines.
"Ok, half a silver coin." The peddler casually handed Moss a copy.
"It costs that much?" Moss couldn’t resist shouting. "Back in St. Lauren, you can buy more than ten magazines with that!"
"Give it back if you’re not going to buy. They’re all going to sell in a moment anyway, then you won’t be able to find one even if you want to buy one," the peddler very casually said.
"They’re really people who haven’t seen the world… Hehe, he even said things like he could buy ten copies and the like…" Voices like these very quickly rose around Moss.
"I never said I don’t want it. I prefer costly things!" Moss flew into an immediate anger. He fished out a silver coin and stuck it forward. "I don’t want it if it’s not at least one silver coin a copy!"
"Is that a moron?"
However, voices immediately rose again from the surrounding crowd: "It’s indeed a team that’s both dumb and unsophisticated. That said, only a team like this could say something like that probably."
"…" Moss almost sprayed out blood on the spot.
"What!"
He opened the magazine, and as soon as Ayrin and the others crowded around, they immediately started shouting gloomily.
In this rich analysis combining pictures with words, they drew the school uniforms of the sixty-four teams, and they also wrote a simple introduction for the sixty-four schools. The main focus was that it separated the teams participating in the tournament in five ranks, according to their previous fighting history and their results in the current tournament, together with the strength of star contestants: monster-, outstanding-, strong-, ordinary-, and weeds-level.
Against expectations, team Holy Dawn was classified as weeds.
On top of that, in the whole sixty-four teams, including Holy Dawn Academy, there were only three teams classified as weeds-level.
"Not even ordinary-level? They say we’re weeds-level?"
"Look! It’s also written in this magazine, weeds-level means that the teams are weeds that will perish on their own without anyone caring about them. Basically, no matter the outcome of the draw, they’ll be more or less uprooted against any team in the first round."
"That’s going too far! They’re even mocking, of course it’s not absolute, but the only possibility of a weeds-level team winning a match and making it into the top thirty-two is if two of the weeds-level teams were to be drawn together."
Moss and the others all swore nonstop.
The girls from Agate Lake Academy also all felt indignant. "This Breith Magazine is really going too far. You guys only advanced after beating Iron forest Academy and Divine Shield academy. Team Iron Forest has an even better record than us. At least they put us down as ordinary-level. Also, there are forty-nine teams they wrote as ordinary or strong. It’s really looking down too much on you guys."
"The most excessive is still behind."
Chris flipped the magazine to the last page in front of everyone else.
"Isn’t this Breith Trading Company really too good at making up stories? At most, we just said we’ll be champions for sure, can’t we even have some slogan? They even say we have the absolute confidence of beating anyone we come across, no matter who, that we only care about being champions, that we have no interest in being second or third or whatever." The group was suddenly in an uproar.
On the magazine that Chris had flipped open, the eye-grabbing title was, Weeds-Level Team Holy Dawn Declare They’re Certain To Be Champions. There were at least ten made up sentences below, adding fuel to fire, making it look as if Holy Dawn Academy had some funny delusions of grandeur.
It said team Holy Dawn was definitely a team that never saw the world, and ignorantly thought any powerful team below their notice.