Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"Finally, I was kind of getting bored from all the wait" Oman turned towards the person behind him and said, "Go on, it's your turn. Show them what you have gone through all these years".

The person beside him was donned in a black robe from head to toe, nodded his head and walked towards the main stage.

<strong>Name-</strong> Graydon Brown, <strong>Age-</strong> 35,<strong> Class-</strong> Tainted Knight, <strong>Level-</strong> 401, <strong>Potential-</strong> Medium.

The audience gasped, this time the reaction they had was different than all the other times. Instead of getting surprised by the result, they were more surprised by the fact that the kingdom of Blackthorn decided to send a single person with medium potential to participate in the tournament.

While it is true that his level was high, that was all there is to it. Cyrus glanced at the person once before shifting his gaze, there was no way of telling what the other nation was thinking hence it was useless to mull over it.

Taking a deep breath, Cyrus next gazed at the stands where the delegates from the Sanguine Empire were seated. He was just about to call their participants on the stage when he saw Vouves, the Royal Court Magician, stand up and cup his hands.

"This old man is extremely regretful to ask such a bizarre favour, but would it be alright for the participants from the royal family to go first since one of our participants is running late. It seems that this old man has failed to properly educate that child, I request his majesty to overlook it this once".

The King of the Kingdom of Ellesmere, Henry Alaric Ellesmere was silent for some time before nodding his head. He could see that one of their participants was indeed missing plus, he cannot not give face to a Ranker whose power and authority, probably even surpassed him as a king of a low tier country.

With the approval of the king, Cyrus moved on to the participants of the royal family from their very own Kingdom.

"Four participants from the side of the royal family, please come down to the stage".

"Father, I'm going" a young man wearing white clothes embroidered with red lining, said.

The king nodded before reminding in a subtle tone "Remember, do what you can, no need to push yourself too hard".

Cynthia wished him luck while Alstin patted his back. The young man nodded and headed down towards the stage along with three other participants. As he stepped down the stairs and reached the stage, all eyes were focused on him.

The entire coliseum was so silent that it felt like the crowd was waiting for this very moment. If Hallie May and Marcus Sarge represented the top five guilds of their kingdom, then the young man on the stage currently represented the kingdom and the royal family that ruled it.

There was no way they wouldn't be excited to know the results of the person the royal family regarded as their greatest genius. The various guild master had their eyes on him too, whether the royal family could achieve victory in this tournament or not, depended on the shoulder of this very person.

TAK...TAK...TAK…

A boy hurriedly ran up the stairs, his mouth was continuously mumbling and huffing "This bad… this is bad, I'm late".

He wore black clothes that looked like a uniform, a navy hat on his head and carried a rapier strapped to his waist. At this moment his clothes were messy and his hair dishevelled.

"Haa… haa… I can't believe I got lost again".

The person was none other than Denzel who got teleported along with Simon and Lucine to the forbidden trial grounds. Currently, he was running up a flight of stairs in a hurry.

After following the direction the soldier had told him, he finally reached the VIP rows and came out just in time to see the gallery erupting in a huge clamour that overwhelmed every other sound in the coliseum.

Denzel was stunned, he wondered what was going on when, a voice mixed with concern and fury, rang beside him.

"You Brat… you are finally here. Do you know how much inconvenience you have caused me? Look how I complain to Cedrick after we go back" Vouves got up from his seat and approached him.

Having nothing to say in return, Denzel could only helplessly scratch his hair. After he was pulled along to his seat, he looked at the odd expression of the crowd before asking a question.

"What happened here, they all look like they have seen a ghost?".

Vouves smiled and pointed his finger at the main stage, more specifically at the young man standing gallantly on the stage.

"Hoho, what a surprise. It seems the Royal family of Ellesmere spared no efforts nurturing this child" he caressed his beard and light-heartedly commented.

The girl seated beside him, Alice also nodded. Seeing his sister agree too, he observed the young man and his gaze finally landed on the perusal mirror on the stage.

<strong>Name-</strong> Erwin Curtis Ellesmere, <strong>Age-</strong> 20, <strong>Class-</strong> Arcane Spellcaster, <strong>Level-</strong> 407, <strong>Potential-</strong> Very High.

There was no way he wouldn't know what the mirror was, thus he immediately knew what was going on.

"What do you think?" Vouves asked vaguely.

"I can't wait to battle him" the reply he got was more enthusiastic than he expected.

The audience was reeling in shock after the mind-boggling results from their third prince. They who thought that Marcus's result was already the greatest for this year's tournament were given a pleasant surprise.

'No wonder he was hailed as the greatest genius of the Ellesmere family, to achieve such a height in the mere age of twenty, his achievement might not be lower than Godwin' Benny Beckerman thought.

Cyrus who had personally mentored the young man, nodded his head at his achievement.

'Looks like training in the Chamber of Guidance for the past couple of weeks have benefitted you immensely. With your result I believe his majesty can put down some of his worries' he thought internally and glanced towards the king whose mood seemed to be much more relaxed now.

Why would he not? His son had achieved a result that outshined all the other geniuses of his age group, an accomplishment that was worthy of praise. The other participants from the royal family were equally matched with the rest of the geniuses of the top five guilds.

"It looks like the third prize would win this tournament, the first prize reward would be won by the royal family it seems" one of the spectators commented.

"That is not guaranteed, Marcus and Hallie May are also there. Although their levels are lower than the third prince, one must also look at their abilities, background and the experience they have gone through up until now. Nothing can be decided yet"

"You are right, it looks like these three would be the top contenders for the First, Second and Third prize for the Battle of the Finest' tournament this time… haha".

The audience discussed pleased with the result of the new generation of heroes. Now that all of the teams were done drawing lots, they could move on to the next stage, the battle royale or so they thought.

However, Cyrus reminded them that there was still one team that was yet to go down the stage and assess themselves.

'The greatest challenge for the third prince might very well be him' Cyrus glanced at the audience seat and saw that the delegates from the Sanguine Empire were all seated in their seats. His gaze especially focused on the young boy whose age seemed to be less than their prince Erwin.

Seeing that their participants were ready, he called them onto the stage.

"Sanguine Empire's two participants…".

A boy and a girl wearing a back uniform mixed with some red, walked down to the main stage and placed their hands on the mirror in front of the eager eyes of the audience who wished for the first round of the tournament to start.

<strong>Name-</strong> Alice Alma Sanguine, <strong>Age</strong>- 16, <strong>Class-</strong> Multicast Spellcaster, <strong>Level-</strong> 400, <strong>Potential-</strong> Very High.

At that moment, the eager crowd was stunned; a girl whose age was even younger than that lass from Magician's guild, attained a result that was no less than her.

However, before the shock from the result could register in their brains, another blow that shattered their previous preconception was shown to every eyes present in the coliseum.

While the crowd was befuddled as to how to react, Alice smiled brightly and congratulated Denzel.

"Congratulations big brother, you have become even more stronger. Uncle Cedrick will really be delighted".

"Haha" Denzel smiled bashfully, the next second though his face was clouded by some emotion she had never seen on him before.

After placing their hands on the mirror, the duo calmly drew their lots and walked back to their seats. Without any care for the audience whose faces were masked with utter disbelief, they returned to Vouves' side.

The royal court magician calmly welcomed them, his unfazed attitude seemed to say that this was all expected.

Back on the main stage, a few lines of words were written in the perusal mirror.

<strong>Name-</strong> Denzel Caius Sanguine, <strong>Age-</strong> 17, <strong>Class-</strong> Hellreaver, <strong>Level-</strong> 420, <strong>Potential-</strong> EX.

The first person with a potential that was measured as Exceptional (EX) even by the standards of the perusal mirror had appeared in the strength assessment stage.

Moreover, this was the second time in the history of the entire 'Battle of the Finest' tournament, that someone got assessed with an EX (Exceptional) potential, precedented only by Godwin. Other than his potential, his level was also the highest amongst all the participating members of this tournament making it clear cut who was the real genius.