'Even going so far as to let the princess marry a commoner...the situation in the royal palace is truly terrible' Cale thought after he finished reading the paper.

A few days ago, an unexpected announcement flooded the Cezar Kingdom. It was declared that Anne, the daughter of the current king, would marry the winner of the competition.

Although the contest was arduous, it still attracted nearly every warrior in the kingdom. Joining the royal palace and marrying such a beautiful girl as Anne? The real question is, who wouldn't want to participate?

"I need to win this so I can at least talk to someone from the palace," Cale said with determination, "It starts tomorrow, I need to prepare," he added after glancing at his pleat armor.

Unfortunately, the fight against that giant spider had not been without consequences. Before heading to the competition, Cale had to plan everything carefully.

Without doubting himself any further, Cale jumped off the bed and took one last look at the seated Leo, 'This little monster has been cultivating for so many days straight...' he thought.

Apparently, Leo not only had an incredible cultivation speed but also immense stamina. Only a few would be sane enough to sit in the same position for so many days and only concentrate on surging white energy into their bodies.

"Fenrir, you should also do something other than sleeping," Cale sighed before disappearing through the main door.

-

The subsequent evening, Cale has been doing nothing, but only searching for a suitable store. He entered many different buildings, yet still found nothing that piqued his interest.

All the good stuff was hidden deep under a price tag that Cale couldn't afford at the moment.

Cale was about to give up, but luckily the last store he visited managed to arouse his curiosity. The condition of the shop was disastrous, many weapons were scattered on the floor, and even dead rats were lying in the corners.

"What are you doing here? Can't you see I'm asleep?" The owner of the shop, who had been sitting lifelessly in the corner, muttered when he saw Cale enter the shop.

"I want to buy this armor and sword," Cale said calmly after looking around the shop for a few seconds. The purple armor with golden lines around it and a black blade were the only things that managed to intrigue him.

"This armor and blade are actually made of a rare material called Uralis, which marks by incredible toughness. I can't ask for less than three gold coins," The owner said with a grin. Judging by the state of Cale's worn armor, it was clear that he wouldn't have enough money to pay for anything in this store.

"Here" Cale promptly threw three Qi Stones at the old man, which, unfortunately, was the last currency he had.

"..."

The old man was quite startled by Cale's sudden action, but before he could say anything else, Cale and the things he had bought were gone.

-

When he came back into the room, Cale was already fully dressed in his new armor. Although the old man bragged so much about the quality of this material, it actually wasn't that tough.

'It's still better than the majority of equipment in this area,' Cale thought before sitting down on the mattress. Fenrir was still lounging lazily on the bed, while Leo didn't even flinch from the spot, still immersed in his own world.

Cale had nothing else to do but rest before the contest.

-

The next morning, Cale was already moving towards the place where the competition began. Fenrir and Leo decided to stay home, or rather, they didn't even care about all the commotion outside the room.

After he left the apartment, Cale immediately noticed numerous people moving towards the huge building with wide smirks.

The competition was taking place in an enormous, inaugurated building. It was already crowded with copious citizens who were cheering despite the competition not starting yet.

After getting closer to the commotion, Cale saw a huge arena in the middle of the coliseum, where a battle between two beasts was currently taking place.

"Are you here to participate in the contest?" Asked a woman with armor scattered around her body, and after noticing Cale's helmet nodding in response, she added, "Go into this entrance and wait for the announcement. Good luck!"

Cale nodded again and moved into the tunnel, which was plunged in darkness. This contest was prominent in every way, almost everyone in the kingdom, including various nobles, was present, meaning that the number of contestants wouldn't be exactly small either.

Even if none of them had a chance of winning, they still wanted to participate just for the sake of gaining any attention from thousands of people.

'What an intense atmosphere,' Cale thought as he finally reached the end of the tunnel. A large number of warriors appeared in front of him, each of them locking their attention to the new competitor.

Seeing so many people staring at him with killing intent, Cale only chuckled. While there were a few strong people in the crowd, but most of them posed no threat to Cale.

Since most powerful warriors were older people, who already had their respective wives and a certain status within the kingdom, almost everyone hither didn't exceed the age of thirty.

"Hey! Does anyone know the rules of the competition?! Those crappy organizers didn't tell us anything about it!" A burly man broke the silence with a loud shout.

'What a fool,' Cale thought before withdrawing his gaze from the man, no longer interested. Only dull people still didn't realize how the competition was going to work....it was simply going to be carnage.

"Everyone! Follow me!" The same woman Cale had met at the entrance suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, as she marched towards another gateway.

Some doubtful, some confident, but every warrior followed the woman from behind. After a few more seconds of walking through the spacious tunnel, the loud sound of cheers rang in Cale's heeds.

"Step forward, warriors!" A loud, somewhat hoarse voice filtered through to everyone, as the cheering died down. Cale, who was at the back of the crowd, finally stepped into the arena as the sunlight fell on his fine armor.

Looking up towards the source of the noise, everyone saw an old man sitting on a golden throne with three other elders beside him.

"Each of you has chosen to step into this arena to fight for my daughter's hand, so prepare yourselves for the upcoming danger!"

The lips of the king moved, everyone listened intently.

"Even though none of you are strong enough to even stand before the elders of our kingdom yet! I still expect great achievements from each one of you in this competition!"

Stopping for a moment to catch his breath, he continued.

"The rules of the competition are simple! All you have to do is...Survive! Ten different Qi Beasts will be let into the arena, and the ones still standing after fifteen minutes will be let into another stage!"

"Now, as the King of Cezar Kingdom, Darius! I declare the beginning of the competition!"