There was still some time left before the tournament for each rank would start.

Hence, Shane didn't bother to rush towards the colosseum but took his time to reach the elevator.

Since Shane was already close to his final destination, he took only five minutes to enter the colosseum, before he quickly glanced at the floor number where he was supposed to go to fight against fellow Mortal states.

In the end, he was completely aware that the mortal stage was only a handful of all students. It would already be a wonder if there were more than 500 mortal states for the next combat ranking.

According to the provided information, the majority of students were at the Expert stage, roughly 130,000, while more than a quarter of all first-year students of the Shirai academy were at the Apprentice stage with a total of 55,000 students.

The remaining 5,000 students were at the mortal stage, and only consisted of the students that were either extremely poor and had spent merely two months within the Primordial Dimension or someone like him, who had entered the Primordial Dimension barely a month ago.

He would also break into the Apprentice stage soon enough, and his first combat ranking in the mortal stage would be his last, which was nothing to be sad about.

There would only be a single winner, and the first place's rewards were only several hours inside the Dimension-sphere, while the rewards for the Apprentice and Expert combat rankings were much higher.

However, it was fair, because the number of competitors at the Mortal stage was much smaller compared to the other two rankings, which was the reason for the large difference in rewards.

Shane was confident in his own strength and he doubted that anyone else at the Mortal stage had the same level of combat experience which he possessed.

As such, he was extremely relaxed when he entered the floor he was supposed to reach, with hundreds of students waiting for everybody else to arrive.

The seemingly quiet combat floor went haywire when the other students saw him walk in through the entrance. Most of the students started gossiping amongst each other, with a large number of students glaring at him with anger. The sudden change in the students' behavior caused Shane to feel awkward for a moment.

'Am I famous or what?' He started to wonder, when he thought about his achievements in the last two exams, that made him nod his head in understanding

'Well, if they already hate me because of the first two rankings, what will they think of me, upon seeing the [Wealth] rank, once I reveal my fortune?' With that thought in mind, Shane chuckled lightly/ This only added fuel to the flame making most of the students glare at him with a mix of jealousy and hatred. They imagined that he was laughing at them.

However, in the end, Shane didn't mind them glaring at him, because he would fight them either way.

If they were stronger than him, they could beat him up, while vice versa was also equally true..

Shane was more interested in seeing their skills rather than the empty threats received through their unwelcome body language, angry glares hardly affected him.

Meanwhile, students continued to enter the floor and the whole colosseum floor was filled with 5,000 students in no time. While most of the students sat down on the bench, a few notorious ones decided to stand up as if they were some glorified heroes, looking down on everybody else with contempt

Shane decided to sit down, but the other students avoided him. He found this to be extremely childish, as everyone was seated close to each other, except himself.

'I'm already an outsider, huh?' He asked himself, smiling, as if it didn't have something to do with him. His train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of some teachers he wasn't acquainted with.

After introducing themselves and declaring the rules, the teachers retreated back to the benches, causing Shane to lose interest in them, as thoughts about the rules took priority in his mind.

According to the rules, the first round consisted of 10 fights. Every student who won 5 rounds was eligible to enter the K.O rounds. After the K.O rounds, there were the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. Shane began to wonder about the time until the whole tournament would be finally over.

Counting the combat arenas, Shane suddenly frowned deeply. He thought to himself,

'There are only 50 small arenas..If everyone fights one single time, It will take 50 turns until a single round is over….'

Sighing deeply, he mumbled

"Will this take the whole day or what?"

His brain furiously calculated the time required yet again. Even if each fight only took two minutes, the first round alone would take 500 turns, or otherwise calculated, roughly 17 hours….

Shane's mood was about to turn gloomy when he received the notification about his scheduled fights.

Jumping up, he suddenly shouted out loud "YES!!", which enraged most of the students who noticed that they had to fight against Shane.

Somehow, Shane shouting out felt like an insult to them, because it seemed as if he was overjoyed to have met less competent opponents.

The students' anger flared up when they misinterpreted Shane's joyous shout

However, Shane was thrilled due to a single reason.

His first six fights were relatively close to each other, without much of a time gap, while the remaining four were distributed all over the day, which didn't bother him in the slightest.

'I'll simply not attend these fights...In the end I'm still eligible to enter the second round with five wins!!'

Deciding to participate in the six fights that were closely timed, Shane's mood brightened, and even more so, after he noticed that he would have time to further refine his physique, three hours later.

Shane was turning impatient with every passing minute. He wanted to waste no more time in achieving a perfect physique. It was a feat which not many humans had accomplished yet.

'Was there even a single person from the human race, who had completed the [Mortal-(Mythic)] mission?' He suddenly asked himself, because he had never heard anyone brag about this accomplishment.

'Maybe nobody bothered about a perfect mortal physique? It's only a small boost after all and costs a fortune for everyone at the mortal stage...Furthermore, it was extremely difficult, and I was only lucky at that time…'

Shane tried really hard to think of the right answer but it was in vain. There was a possibility that someone had solved a [Mortal (Mythic)]without achieving a perfect mortal physique

In the end, it wouldn't matter, and he decided to focus on his main task instead, which was to win the next five fights, with one additional as a small reward.

Shane released his fighting spirit unknowingly, which was felt by the students in his vicinity, causing them to eye him weirdly.

When it was finally his turn, Shane entered the combat arena calmly, where he saw a feeble youth with a shortsword in his hand.

Smiling lightly, Shane took out his Tier-2 dagger set, which he enveloped with a thin mana membrane in order to dull them, as he instantly changed in his fighting stance.

His opponent was careful, and went into a defensive stance, after noticing that Shane used two daggers, while he couldn't help but smile, which may have seemed arrogant from others' perspective.

Hearing the starting signal, Shane immediately circulated his mana into his lower body, in order to amplify his speed, before he pushed himself from the ground, with his body leaning forward.

His speed astonished the shortsword wielder, and he needed a moment to gather his wits before he carefully observed Shane's movement and behavior.

Seeing his smile widen was unpleasant for the youth, but even more so was the fact that Shane charged straight towards him, seemingly unbothered to play any tricks.

When they were only three meters apart from each other, Shane suddenly stopped midway for a millisecond, changing his direction slightly to the right before he continued to charge again.

Noticing this minute detail, the youth holding the shortsword was alarmed but managed to maintain his calm, as Shane slashed out with his curved dagger, which was deflected by the youth.

However, the impact caused by the small dagger forced the shortsword wielder to take a step back , which made him reach the peak of the Mortal stage because his physique was already at the 10th Mortal stage.

His eyes widened, and Shane felt sure that the youth was thinking of 'Apprentice physique'.

However, that was not the case, otherwise he wouldn't be able to apply for the Mortal ranking causing his already broad smile to widen as he used a trick he learned from Uncle Cheng who trained him in all types of weapons and techniques.

Creating a minute illusion, by distracting the short sword wielder from his main action, Shane was able to thrust his straight dagger into the unguarded youth, 'killing' him.

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