Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Denzel's result was just like a bomb exploding in the eyes and hearts of all the participants, causing them to be completely stunned. His level and potential was something they could never begin to comprehend.

To them, it felt like they were suddenly doused in a bucket of cold water and they felt all the hair on their body stand on end. It was not only for the participants, even the guild master of various guilds and faction, felt the same.

They couldn't understand how the boy was trained to be able to reach such a high realm at the tender age of just 17 years. The name the boy carried, Sanguine was finally carved onto the hearts of each and every member of the crowd.

Why the Sanguine Empire was a mid-tier nation was displayed in front of all the eyes. To be able to raise such a monster, no wonder they were much more stronger than their kingdom of Ellesmere.

Level 420, wasn't something that one could underestimate. In their kingdom of Ellesemere, there were countless people above level 300; However, those who actually breached level 400, did not even make a hundredth of that number. In their kingdom, one could be considered a true elite if they breached level 400.

From this, one could see how difficult it was to reach such a level not to mention at such a young age. This made one wonder how high the boy would reach in the future if he continued to put effort like that.

Perhaps, the only one to not be surprised amongst the crowd would be Simon who had already met the boy before and knew how powerful he was. Seeing his results, Simon couldn't help but flash a wicked smile.

His suspicions were correct; the boy was indeed above level 400 and possessed a rare class and talent. However, even he didn't know that the boy was a foreign delegate from the Sanguine Empire who came to participate in this tournament.

"It is boring if victory is already guaranteed to you, a true victory only tastes better when there is a true challenge in front of you. Who can be a better opponent for you on your path to victory than that prince? Ain't I right son?" Brutus said as he patte the shoulder of his son.

Amongst the few participants who weren't daunted by Denzel's result, Marcus was one of them. He gave a wild smile and nodded at the words of his father.

In contrast to the astonishment of the crowd, the surprise in the eyes of the top five guild leaders only lasted for a few moments before they calmed down. To them, this result was not completely unacceptable, there was no particular reason for that, it was just because he was from Sanguine Empire.

"Erwin, the look on your face seems to say that you have already accepted your defeat. While it is true that levels matter a lot, in a battle it is not the only thing that can solely determine an outcome. If you believe you have lost even before the battle began, you wouldn't be able to win against him later on".

Erwin who was lost in his thoughts while looking down at the ground, opened his eyes wide at those words of his father.

"You are the greatest genius of our family, have faith in yourself some more".

After the shock from Denzel's result subside a little, a new wildfire begin to rise within the crowd as they eagerly waited for the first round of group battles to begin.

"With every participant taking their lots, we will now move onto the first round of the tournament, the 'Battle Royale'. The format of the round is extremely simple, you just have to defeat five enemies from your group to advance to the next stage".

"If you push them out of bounds, it will be considered your victory. Of course, killing someone or dealing a death blow is not allowed. Any person that is found violating this rule would be eliminated immediately and dealt accordingly".

"Within a group, an average of sixty participants would be competing for the spots to the next stage. There are a total of 85 groups who will be competing in the thirty-six secondary stages in turns. The winners from each group will then be competing in the next stage of the tournament. That's is all, let us begin this competition".

With Cyrus's loud declaration, the 'first stage of the 'battle of the finest' tournament finally began. The first thirty-six groups of participants jumped down onto the secondary stages and the battle Royale finally commenced.

All you needed to do was defeat five opponents, the instructions sounded fairly simple however, one needed to also keep in mind the diverse strength of the crowd. There were people above level 300 while there were also people below level 300, that is to say, it would be an easy victory if they just went after the weaker ones.

Similarly, they were bound to be defeated if a strong opponent set their sights on them. The strong ones would prevail and the weak would be trampled upon, there was all there is to it.

As the audience watched on, it didn't take long for those participants with levels below three hundred to be targeted and be the stepping stones for those above level three hundred.

"WHOAA.. look at the twenty-third stage, that guy who is sweeping the stage is from the Thunder fortress guild". Someone from the crowd bellowed.

Simon looked in the direction the person was pointing at and noticed a man who had defeated a total of twenty participants with just a single skill of his. This was one of the things about Battle Royale, although Cyrus mentioned that all you needed to do was defeat five opponents to move to the next round, there was no such mention about defeating more than five.

That is to say, some participants are bound to display their might and sweep the floor with the other participants. There was no way that every stage would have the set number of winners.

While Simon was thinking all that, his eyes suddenly went to a stage where he saw a familiar figure. Lucas was standing still on the stage with battles occurring all around him. A few meters area around him was empty indicating that all the participants who had seen his results, were wary of him and did not dare to step near lest they lost their chance to move onto the next stage.

Level 400, he was on a realm completely different from them.

"Haha, Lucas Blackwood it seems we are in the same group. I'm Lark Sea from Absolute Sea Guild, let me test my strength on you".

Of course, there were bound to be some opponents with overinflated egos who tried to bite more than they can chew.

"Oi, Oi… isn't that guy from the Sea Absolute guild, one of the top tier guilds from the south-western region?"

"I think his level was around 380 with a rare class. He has already defeated more than seven participants so why is he throwing his chance to move onto the next stage by challenging someone higher level than him?".

"You idiot, this is a battle royale where you have to fight in a confined space and a warrior holds absolute superiority in this kind of stage. No matter how you look at it, the other guy clearly seems to be a mage".

Simon inwardly snorted, while what they said might be true in most cases, there were clearly some exceptions and as far as he knew, Lucas was one of them.

The guy named Lark Sea smiled widely, brandishing his spear he charged at the latter without giving him any time to chant or conjure any magic. Just when he was a meter away from him, he dished out a routine of quick slashes and thrusts.

However, before the attack could even reach Lucas, a wall of fire, surrounded him like a protective wall and blocked all of the attacks.

<strong>BANG...BANG..BANG… </strong>

"What?" before Lark could even stabilise his stance, the wall of fire suddenly started rotating and picking up speed. In the blink of an eye, it became a huge fiery whirlwind that covered half of the stage.

"Flame Magic Mastery [Flame Strom]" Lucas nonchalantly mumbled the name of his attacks.

The flame storm raged and engulfed half of the participants on the stage. It only died down after seconds, the thirty or so participants who were unlucky enough to get sucked into the storm appeared extremely miserable with most of their skin burned and thrown out of the stage.

Nevertheless, the most miserable one out of them was Lark Sea who was the target of the magic. His clothes and hair was burned and his appearance evoked pity from the spectators.

Lucas after destroying half of the participants from his group, silently walked down from the stage. No one dared to stop nor call out to him.

"Was he venting his anger from that attack?" Simon mused, he clearly felt the emotions of anger coming out of his magic.

"He is clearly more worked up for his own good," Cyrus said looking at Lucas.

The battles on the other stages were boring with little to no unexpected events occurring. The participants from the top five guilds swiftly took down their targets and walked out off the stage gallantly.

With that, the first thirty-six group battles was concluded with only 200 or so people moving up to the next stage.

The number was far too low when one considers that there were 60 participants in each group. The groups who would battle in the thirty six stages next, came down and the audience immediately boiled with excitement.