[Statistics: 2 mobs defeated]

[Received: 200 Merit Points]

[Merit Points: 4600]

I looked at Melissa who was enjoying her time watching the "Show." Shaking my head, the speakers started buzzing again.

"Bzzz! Well then, it looks like the team matches are over. Due to some morons thinking they could fight one-on-two and others using punches and kicks, we have exactly 16 people right now! Please head over to the middle of the stadium to draw lots again!" Crankenstein said in a rather excited voice.

We got off the stage and went back to the booth guy.

—30 minutes later—

I got the number 16 which was dead last while Melissa got 1 somehow. From the way things looked, we wouldn't be fighting each other until the finals.

I was going to fight number 15 which was on the far right side while number 1 went against number 2 on the far left.

They gave us half an hour to recuperate our mana so we could all fight in our peak condition to guarantee fairness.

"Everyone get to your stages! Remember the rules of no punching or kicking! Why punch and kick when you can let magic do the work for you! Without further adieu, let the preliminary matches, BEGIN! Crankenstein Junior here, out!" He announced.

Jumping up to my designated stage, there was another kid who looked fairly weak in terms of physique.

'Appraise.'

~~~~~~~~~~

Strength: 21

Agility: 24

Mana: 110/110

~~~~~~~~~~

He was also at the Beginner Magus realm. It looks like it would be an easy fight.

—Side Character A's PoV—

I cast the level 2 Zap spell straight off the bat but when it was about to hit him, he disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Wasn't that the level 2 Smoke Bomb spell? But how was he able to react in time? I was sure no one would be able to defeat me now that I had mastered the Zap spell.

He must have prepared in advance. After all, electricity was the fastest thing in the world! Nothing could evade it!

'But where exactly was he?' I thought as I looked around the stage.

The moment I turned my back, a hand covered my eyes blocking my vision. I cast Zap again in the direction I believed his arm to be at. I didn't know if it landed or not but for some reason, his hand seemed to still be on my face since I could only see darkness.

I moved my hands to touch my face but his hand wasn't there.

'What? How come I can't see anything if his hand isn't covering my eyes?'

As that thought went through my head, I could feel a scorching heat coming from the back inching closer and closer to my head.

'Noooo!!! Not my precious hair!!!!!!!'

—Daniel's PoV—

All it took was a Blinding Curse and a level 2 Flare spell...

'When did this become so easy?' I thought it was very anticlimactic.

Though I do commend the fact that he was able to master a spell at least. Sadly, it wasn't fast enough to hit me.

I felt pretty bad for bullying him as I watched him in the bubble getting healed. His shirt was tattered and the ends of his hair were burnt a bit. In a couple seconds, the bubble flashed brightly and vanished.

I looked around the stadium and a good amount were still engaged in fighting so I took a seat on the dusty stage and started circulating my mana.

...

"Is it ready?" A grumpy man said in the dark room.

"Yes sir, I have cleared the king's schedule so he can watch the tournament. The princess should be there as well." An old man said.

"So all three royals...will be there?" Another voice said slyly while smacking his lips loudly.

"Yes your greatness!" The old man said immediately in response to the voice.

"Good... Good... Mathew, I trust that you will take the position as the new 'King' I believe." The sly voice said.

"Of course your greatness! Anything you order, I will command!" The previous grumpiness of the man had disappeared. His only goal as of now was boot licking as hard as he could.

Said man was Mathew, the brother of the current king of the Kingdom of Wizardry.

...

—an hour later—

After the preliminaries, was the quarter finals. Like before, all it took was a Blinding Curse to disable their vision. I finished the pitiful guy off with a Fire Ball to at least show a bit of respect for him...not that he really deserved it. After the first experience, I was certain that defeating someone with a weak level 2 spell could possibly traumatize them and that made me feel guilty for the first guy I bullied.

Either way, the first day was over and we could head back to do whatever.

Taking the chance while Melissa was distracted and unable to locate me, I disappeared into the audience and went straight to the public bathroom from before to change.

Once that was over with, I trained my mana circulation a bit more before heading to the dining hall for dinner.