Noticing the weird looks he was getting Gerry had a slight smile on his face. But instead of starting to fly and climb up the mountain, the group saw him reaching out to, what looked like a normal rock resting on the ground in front of the mountain.

A few seconds after Gerry touched the rock, Villin could feel magic fluctuating around him. He was looking around trying to find out what was being influenced by this magic when he felt something. Using the ‘Mental Technique: Search’ he always had active, he felt a change in the ground below him. Or well, ten centimeters below his feet there no longer was any ground.

Villin tried to jump away before the ground caved in but he was too late. Together with his three companions that were standing close to him, they all fell through the ground.

They all screamed for a moment before they suddenly changed directions, being shot upward.

Rein almost had to puke as everyone realized they were in one of those hyperloops again, but this time it was a lot larger, being over ten meters in diameter.

Below them, Villin saw Gerry was following closely behind them, but before he could ask anything they were already at the exit of the hyperloop.

Above them, the group could see a light-green slime-like veil covering the exit. When they hit it at whatever the insane speed they were traveling at was, they suddenly slowed down before stopping mid-air. Even though stopping so quickly would usually cause someone to die, the group didn’t get hurt at all.

A second after they passed through the slime-like veil and stopped in mid-air they fell down again.

Villin was about to curse the magus that built this for his bad design when they fell on the green veil without passing through.

The group quickly got up properly and walked off of the slime before taking in their surroundings. They were in a small square room about five meters wide. The hyperloop seemed to have tightened near the end since the green veil was only about two meters in diameter.

Overall the room didn’t look all that impressive. The walls were rigid, almost causing the room to look like a cavern. The room was barely lit enough to see by a single ball of light floating above their heads.

When Villin looked at Gerry he saw the man was looking extremely sober. He was looking as if someone had died, it seemed that he didn’t exactly like this place.

“So, mister Alius, is the academy here, in the mountain?” the boy asked trying to get some information.

Even though the man had kindly helped them, Villin would much rather be under the protection of the academy, even after what had transpired a few months ago.

Gerry was pulled away from his thoughts by the question. “Yeah, The Academy is here, all of the ten best schools of the central continent are here. Let’s go, better get this over with quickly.”

He seemed to be talking more to himself than anyone else at the end but Villin did feel a bit stressed now as well. If all of the top ten schools were here, logically, Decorus would be here as well.

After a brief moment, Gerry began walking toward the sole exit of this room, an old wooden door.

The quartet followed closely not knowing what to expect, but whatever that was, it certainly wasn’t this.

When they stepped through the door an explosion of sound suddenly assaulted them. They suddenly found themselves in the stands of a ginormous coliseum. Villin felt someone bump into his back as someone else came out of the shabby door. It was an old kind-looking man with a hunched back “Best to move aside a bit kids, you’re standing in front of a door.”

After saying this the man passed them quickly moving deeper into the stands to the left of them, soon disappearing between the hundreds of magus that were standing there.

The Coliseum was over two kilometers in diameter and the stands went up extremely far. Villin estimated they were about a hundred meters above where any action would happen. The stands themselves were divided into thirteen sections. Thanks to Rein everyone soon knew how exactly this worked.

“I’ve been here a couple of times but never took the visitor’s entrance. The eleven sections in front of us are all schools of the central continent. The highest-ranked one, The Academy, is the one on the very left. Every spot further to the right we go down a rank. As for the boxes hiding part of each of these stands, those are reserved for the top brass of the schools.”

Villin squinted trying to find the boxes Rein mentioned but were unable to spot them due to the distance, or perhaps because he was looking in the wrong place.

Then Rein pointed at the eleventh section of the stands. Other than the top ten schools there is also always a challenger. This is a school that has done some sort of impressive deed in the previous four months. If the challenger beats one of the top ten schools overall they get invited a second time, if they beat them in three of these tournaments, they take the place of the school they have been defeating.” Rein squinted his eyes toward the stands “It seems to be Gualin this time around. They don’t really stand a chance in a tournament that is mostly about fighting but they are very skilled in various sports such as ‘Cut and Crease’ and ‘Mashry’. They are also quite skilled in magic arrays I heard and are very well respected by the top ten schools, having been commissioned by them multiple times.”

Hearing Rein’s explanations Villin felt a little odd. He couldn’t see the people standing there at all, the distance was just too vast, he could only faintly see the green robes they were wearing but this didn’t help much as three of the schools in the top ten also seemed to be mostly donning this color.

Then Rein pointed to the rightmost section of the stands “Then over there you have the government’s section. Generally, a few of the councilmembers watch the events but if the last four months have been eventful, as they have been, a high councilmember usually appears as well.” Rein then gestured wildly to the section they were sitting in that occupied half of the total space of the stands “And then there is the audience of course. Whether you are of noble blood or mortalborn is of no difference here.” Rein smiled wildly as he looked at the schools on the other side of the arena.

Villin felt a little odd. They had walked a few steps away from the doors and he could tell most of the people around him seemed to be extremely happy.

“Say, you know how Decorus has given a big blow to The Academy a few months back, you think they’re gonna win this time around? It’s been over a year since Decorus managed to win once.” A young female magus said to her friend in a half-whisper.

“I mean, I bet they’ll take down the first three grades like usually but you know how strong The Academy’s later grades have been lately. There is something else you have to think about though.” Another lady said trying to bait her friend into asking more.

“Something else? I mean there’s been the attacks but I’m not sure what else you mean.”

The second lady looked content her friend had taken the bait as she pointed at the eleventh section of the stand. “The challenger this year is Gualin. They might not be that good at other things but they are the best at sports.” She paused as she waited for her friend to connect the dots.

“Oh right, if The Academy wins the final three grades but doesn’t win in any of the sports, it’s going to be a lot closer.”

Her friend nodded as she finished it off “Yup, Magic Arrays and Enchanting should be in the hands of Magnicus or Graesa so we should have a really close match this year!”

As Villin overheard the conversation he got a better idea of what was going on. This seemed to be a lot like the Olympics in a way. Except, of course, that it was held every four months instead of every four years.

Just as Villin finished eavesdropping he heard Gerry’s voice to his right. “Once the cross-school tournament finishes find someone from The Academy and explain your situation. I have to take my leave now, I’m not welcome here. Try to have some fun”

Villin looked at Gerry’s grave face and could do nothing but nod. Then the man turned around and started walking back toward the door. Villin faintly heard Kayley whisper “Bye dad.” in a somewhat sad tone as she watched him walk away.